When fate plays its hand

Chapter 0807

Miranda turned to look behind her.

She wasn’t sure when Paul had arrived or how long he had been standing there, but his eyes were filled with amusement. His gaze fell to the pile of crumbled snowballs at her feet, and his smile deepened.

“Playing in the snow again?” he asked.

Miranda replied with a casual, “Yeah.”

“Trying to roll a snowball?”

“I’ve failed.”

“I’ll show you how,” Paul said as he rolled up his sleeves.

Miranda’s eyes lit up. “You can do it?”

“If you understand the physics behind it, it’s not that hard.”

“There’s physics involved?” Miranda’s curiosity was piqued. “What kind of physics?”

Paul picked up a handful of snow, pressing it into a small ball.

“You start with a small core like this. In the beginning, you need to apply some force to roll it. As the snowball gets bigger, the pressure lowers the melting point of the snow at the contact surface with the ground, causing it to partially liquefy.

“The water acts as an adhesive between the snowball and the ground. When the contact area rotates off the ground, the pressure decreases, the water refreezes, and more snow

sticks to the ball.

“With this process repeating over and over, the snowball naturally grows larger.”

Miranda blinked, processing the explanation. “What kind of look is that?” Paul asked.

“Dr. Jefferson, I think just explaining it won’t convince me,” she replied with mock

seriousness.

“And what will?”

“Roll one yourself. Then I’ll believe you actually know what you’re talking about.”

Paul smiled confidently. “No problem. Watch me.‘

Five minutes later, Miranda bit her lip, struggling to hold back laughter. Suppressing it was proving to be very, very difficult.

Paul stood there, staring at the pile of crumbled snow in his hands, looking utterly baffled.

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+25 BOHUS

Chapter 0807

“I don’t get it… It worked last time. Why isn’t it working now?”

Miranda blinked innocently. “Last time? When was that?”

Paul paused, thinking back. “Uh… I think when I was ten? Maybe 11.‘

Miranda’s lips twitched. Sometimes, it’s impossible not to laugh!

“Pfft… Hahaha!” She couldn’t hold it anymore and burst into laughter.

Paul stood there in silence, his dignity crumbling faster than the snowball. He wanted to impress her, and yet this was the result.

After spending over 40 minutes downstairs–and to save Paul from further embarrassment -Miranda pretended to check her watch and announced that she had to leave. Before he could respond, she dashed off, leaving him standing there.

Paul’s mood didn’t improve even after he returned to the lab and sat on the lab bench. Two sets of data later, the “snowball” incident still haunted him.

He sat up from the lab bench, went to the break room for a cup of hot tea, and passed by Silas’s workstation on his way back. He had almost walked past when he stopped, turned around, and stood beside Silas.

Focused on his experiment, Silas didn’t notice him at first. Then, catching Paul’s presence out of the corner of his eye, he jumped in shock.

“Whoa! Why are you standing there so quietly? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Paul cleared his throat in a deliberate, tactical cough.

“What’s up?” Silas asked, removing his safety goggles and pausing his work.

Paul hesitated for a second before asking, “Do you know how to roll a snowball?”

“What?” Silas stared at him, baffled.

Was this some new physics challenge? Spherical equations? Applications of sphere mechanics? Snowball dynamics…

In the span of two seconds, Silas’s brain ran through countless possibilities–enough to make Newton nervous.

Paul repeated the question, this time adding a gestural demonstration. “You know, rolling a snowball. Do you know how?”

Finally, it dawned on Silas what Paul was actually asking. He wasn’t talking about theoretical physics; he literally meant rolling a snowball.