Chapter 664
Charlotte glanced around the room. Most of the teams had already found the organs
in the mouse’s abdomen and were onto the last step, checking the heart. If Kingswood University hesitated any longer, they’d be dead last for sure.
“I… I can’t do it.”
The more Molly panicked, the more she froze up. She just stood there, hands shaking, unable to move.
Without a word, Charlotte slipped on a mask, took the scalpel from Molly, and tipped her chin. “Stand next to me.”
“Huh?”
Still stunned, Molly shuffled over. As soon as she realized Charlotte was about to make an incision, her eyes widened in horror.
“What are you doing?”
“Surgery,” Charlotte replied, not even looking at her. She ignored the wave of gasps from the audience.
First, she injected a sedative into the mouse. Then, with steady hands, she made a clean cut across its belly.
“Is Charlotte out of her mind? She’s never done this. How can she be so reckless?”
“She’s way too bold. Professor Glenn, you have to stop her before she embarrasses the school.”
Losing was one thing. Becoming a joke that ruined Kingswood’s reputation was another.
Letty and Olivia watched Charlotte. They exchanged a glance and smirked.
Was this her desperate last move? Even grad students had to be super careful with dissections. Charlotte was a freshman. She’d never even held a scalpel before. What could she possibly know? Maybe they wouldn’t even need to compete. Charlotte would ruin herself.
But Glenn didn’t look away. He watched Charlotte’s hands, his expression growing serious. The way she’d given that injection, it was smooth and practiced, like
she’d spent years in medicine.
“Don’t say anything. Let her try.”
He clenched his fists, trusting his gut. Just picking up the scalpel was already a big deal for Charlotte.
The students from Cabinda Medical Branch leaned forward, their curiosity obvious as Charlotte made a perfect incision. They looked surprised. All the assistants were freshmen. They were only supposed to watch, maybe help a little, but never do the real work themselves.
But Charlotte…
People in the room whispered, some annoyed, others just waiting for her to fail. Charlotte carefully opened the mouse’s abdomen, found the heart in seconds, and took a quick look. Then she grabbed a pen andjotted down her notes.
“Suture,” she said, putting the pen down and holding out her hand to a shell- shocked Molly.
“What?” Molly could barely process what was happening. From start to finish, Charlotte’s whole procedure had taken less than two minutes. Every step was spot on While the others were still trying to find the heart, she was already closing up.
“Needle.”
the
Charlotte repeated herself, and this time Molly scrambled to hand her the suture needle.
Two voices rang out at once. Letty and Charlotte had both finished the observation and suturing at almost the same time.
“No way!”
A Kingswood student jumped up, staring at the results on the big screen. “Their findings are basically identical, and the sutures are flawless. Charlotte and Letty are tied for first!”
“Letty’s team started several minutes earlier. Charlotte did it all in two minutes.”
He made sure to say it loud enough for the Cabinda students nearby. “If Charlotte had started earlier, Kingswood would have taken the win, no question.”
A freshman from Kingswood had matched Cabinda University’s star grad student, who was also in the Medical Branch. That was something worth bragging about for years.
Letty saw the results and went pale, shock written all over her face. How could Charlotte finish at the same time? How did she even know how to do a dissection?
Students from the other schools finished up, their eyes locked on Charlotte. Was she really a first-year?
When the results showed up, the Cabinda Medical Branch students shot out of their seats, staring at Charlotte like she was some kind of miracle. Someone who could te with Letty was rare to find. That person being a freshman was basically unheard of.
While everyone whispered and stared, Charlotte stayed focused. She gently cleaned the mouse’s wound and gave it another injection. What was she up to now?
Letty clenched her fists, glaring daggers at Charlotte, desperate to find a mistake. She couldn’t lose first place, not like this.
All of a sudden, a ripple of shock passed through the crowd. Students and professors stood up, staring in disbelief at the mouse on Charlotte’s table.
No way…
The mouse Charlotte had operated on actually twitched, its little paws moving. Letty’s mouse, in comparison, didn’t budge. It was clearly gone.