When fate plays its hand

Chapter 0784

Madison stared blankly at her laptop. “How could this happen?”

Sebastian also searched the list several times, his brows furrowing slightly. “Don’t panic. Check the first, second, and third prize lists as well.”

“Alright.”

Ten minutes later, Madison looked even more bewildered. “I’ve gone through the entire list five times, and our names aren’t on it.”

This meant not only had they missed the grand prize, but they hadn’t received first, second, or third prize either. Sebastian remained silent, but his tightly knitted brow betrayed his unease.

Suddenly, Madison shot up from her chair. “This can’t be right! There must’ve been a mistake!”

Sebastian calmly analyzed, “I get that competitions involve an element of luck, and no one can guarantee a win, but… this is way off.”

Even if they hadn’t won the grand prize, shouldn’t they at least have received an honorable mention or participation award? How could their names not even appear on the list?

“Miranda, what do you think?”

Both of them turned to Miranda. Since Madison had opened the results, Miranda hadn’t said a word.

“It does seem unusual.”

Madison slapped the table, her confidence now renewed. “See? Even Miranda thinks so! But now that the list is published, what can we do? We can’t exactly go to the organizers and say, ‘Hey, I don’t agree with your results,‘ can we?”

She said it offhandedly, knowing full well how absurd that would sound. If every team that didn’t win started causing a fuss, the entire system would collapse.

Miranda suggested, “Here’s what we can do for now. I’ll contact the faculty and try to retrieve our submitted project report. We should review it ourselves first to see if there were any major issues, like data falsification or significant deviation from the topic.” According to the competition rules, certain infractions could result in an automatic disqualification with a zero score. If that were the case, it would explain why they didn’t place.

break the administrative office of the faculty still had staff on

Chapter 0784

duty.

+25 BONUS

After listening to Miranda’s request, the staff member responded bluntly, “That’s correct. As per protocol, the project reports were submitted to the faculty, but we don’t have the authority to process them.

“In simpler terms, the faculty collected your reports and forwarded them to the competition committee without altering them in any way.”

The emphasis on “without altering them” was deliberate.

Miranda asked, “Can we request the return of the report?”

“I’m not sure about that, but if you want the report back, you’ll need to contact the organizers. That’ll make things difficult for the faculty.”

Making things difficult for the faculty? The choice of words wasn’t subtle, and it wasn’t polite.

Miranda smiled. “First of all, I asked if it’s possible to request the report back, not for the faculty to hand it over. Second, the reason I came to the faculty is because we submitted the report here initially. Doesn’t it make sense to inquire through the faculty as the intermediary?

“Given these factors, I think it’s fair to ask this question. Am I wrong? How does that qualify as me ‘making things difficult‘ for the faculty? Is it unreasonable to ask about the process?

“The faculty collected and submitted the reports. Now, if we want to retrieve the report, shouldn’t the faculty be involved in that process as well?

“Even when buying something, there’s a standard of pre–sale and after–sale service. Is it the faculty’s approach to start something but leave it unfinished? Isn’t that a bit irresponsible?”

Nonetheless, Miranda realized she wouldn’t get anywhere with this conversation. Before the staff could respond, she concluded coolly, “I won’t disturb your binge–watching session any longer. Goodbye.”