I dropped by to help my younger sister revise her thesis, and while I was at it, I joined her research group for dinner.

The moment I walked into the private dining room, a few girls blushed and called out to me.

“Hey, handsome, are you single? Give us a shot!”

My sister’s boyfriend, Eric Pensworth, looked at me with a faint smile.

“Man, you look kind of familiar. You remind me of that pretty boy everyone’s been talking about on the forum.

“They say you slept with Professor Alva Jackson and stole my direct-entry PhD spot.”

I froze.

The Alva Jackson he was talking about was the newly hired professor at Adams University, fresh back from overseas.

Just as I was about to explain, he cut me off with an innocent look.

“Maybe I got the wrong guy. You look way too respectable to be the kind of guy who lives off women.

“But Professor Jackson’s nearly fifty. How could you even do it with her?”

I stared at him, completely dumbfounded.

Since when had I become a fifty-year-old woman?

Was there another Alva Jackson at Adams University besides me?

The atmosphere instantly turned tense.

The girls who had been asking for my number froze mid-gesture, their hands still hanging in the air as their expressions shifted.

My face darkened.

I had heard about this guy, Eric Pensworth. My sister Lucy had mentioned him before. She said he was the most popular guy in their department. Handsome, but with a bit of a temper.

Now it was obvious that “a bit of a temper” was putting it lightly. The guy clearly had no sense.

When Eric saw that I wasn’t responding, he feigned surprise.

“Hey, did I make you mad? Sorry, sorry. Maybe I really got the wrong guy.”

He said the words, but the provocation in his eyes was obvious.

“It’s just that you look exactly like that pretty boy everyone’s been talking about on the forum.

“I heard he got all those first-author papers in top journals by sleeping with Professor Jackson.

“So tell me, man. You wouldn’t happen to know Professor Jackson too, right?”

I looked at him calmly. “I do know Alva Jackson.”

A flicker of satisfaction crossed Eric’s eyes. He stood up and walked over, looking me up and down.

“That watch on your wrist must be worth over a hundred grand, right?

“So selling your looks didn’t just get you academic resources. It got you luxury goods too.

“Your life must be pretty easy. You skipped twenty years of hard work.”

I frowned. Was it really so hard to believe that I might simply have my own money?

I met his gaze and said clearly, word by word, “You’re mistaken. The Alva Jackson you’re talking about is me.”

I thought that made things perfectly clear.

Instead, Eric burst out laughing.

“Man, Alva Jackson is the name of that old woman. How could it possibly be you?

“Since you’re this shameless, I guess I might as well say it out loud.

“First you seduced Professor Jackson. Now you’re setting your sights on my girlfriend, Lucy.”

I was speechless.

Did Lucy pick her boyfriend based on how dumb he was?

I looked at him, annoyed. “You’re saying I’m seducing Lucy?”

“Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?”

Eric pulled out his phone and opened a photo.

“The night before last, in the corner of the library. I saw you and Lucy sitting with your heads close together. You looked pretty intimate.

“And Lucy was typing on her laptop while you stood there telling her what to do.

“What else would you call that if not having her ghostwrite your paper?”

The photo had clearly been taken from a distance.

Lucy’s thesis had been a mess, so I had been pointing at the screen and scolding her for her terrible logic while she quietly fixed it.

There had been nothing remotely intimate about it.

But college students loved jumping to conclusions. The whispers around the room grew louder.

“Oh, so that’s what was going on. No wonder Lucy’s been disappearing lately.”

“He’s that good-looking and still chooses to do something this shameless?”

I took a deep breath and spoke slowly. “I was reviewing her thesis. Nothing like what you’re implying.”

Eric let out a mocking laugh.

“Lucy’s not even here, so of course you can say whatever you want.

“Lucy is ranked first in our Life Sciences department. Why would she need you to explain her thesis to her?”

I almost laughed out of anger.

Where on earth had Lucy found a guy like this?

I looked at Eric coldly.

“You said I stole your direct-entry PhD spot. But as far as I know, Adams University decides those based on GPA and research output. You don’t even have a decent SCI paper. Who exactly could steal that spot from you?”

Eric’s face turned pale, and his neck flushed red.

“I know you look down on me. Fine. I’m not as good as you at working connections or flattering female professors.

“I’m just an honest student doing real academic work. How could I possibly compete with someone like you, who sleeps with a professor to get ahead?”

He put on a wounded expression, as if he had been deeply wronged, and the room immediately turned against me.

“He looks decent enough. How can he be so vicious?”

“I hate guys like that. Pretty boys who turn academia into a mess. I feel bad for Eric.”

“So disgusting. People like him are ruining Adams University’s reputation!”

Seeing that public opinion had swung his way, Eric pressed on.

He pulled up another photo.

“Don’t blame him, everyone. Maybe I misunderstood.”

“But look at this. Someone took this picture of Professor Jackson’s car parked outside a hotel. And that silhouette really looks like him.”

I took a closer look.

The figure standing next to the car was wearing a dark gray suit.

What a coincidence.

The car was mine.

And the silhouette was me.

But I had gone to that hotel to attend an international academic conference.

“This car…”

I had barely started speaking when Eric cut me off.

“That car belongs to Professor Jackson, right? I heard she may be older, but she’s very rich.

“So that night, were you in that car servicing her?”

I smiled. “That silhouette in the photo was me. And I was the one driving the car.”

The room instantly erupted.

“Oh my god! He admitted it!”

“How shameless. He’s openly admitting he’s being kept by someone?”

The smug look in Eric’s eyes deepened as he stared at me arrogantly.

“If you ask me, Professor Jackson was probably just temporarily fooled by you. There’s no way she’d actually fall for someone like you.

“I heard Professor Jackson will be arriving soon. If you don’t leave now, things are going to get very awkward.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You keep saying I have an improper relationship with Alva Jackson. Have you ever even met Professor Jackson?”

Eric’s eyes flickered for a moment, but he quickly straightened his back.

“Maybe we haven’t met in person yet, but I’ve already been emailing with Professor Jackson again.

“She’s very impressed with my resume. She’s practically decided that I’ll be her first graduate student.”

He crossed his arms and sneered at me.

“All that stuff you’ve been doing is pointless. You think sleeping your way up will get you academic resources? Research is a serious field.”

I had indeed received an email from someone named Eric Pensworth.

It was full of formatting mistakes, and the resume attached to it wasn’t even properly aligned. I deleted it without a second thought.

“Alright.”

I slowly took a seat.

“Since Professor Jackson is coming, I’ll just wait here.”

“I’d like to see how exactly she plans to accept you as her first graduate student.”

When Eric saw that I had no intention of leaving, he started to panic.

“How can someone be this shameless?”

“This is a group dinner, and everyone’s splitting the bill! Did you even pay before sitting down?”

“I’ll pay for him!”

A hurried female voice suddenly came from the doorway.

Lucy finally showed up.

She came in drenched in sweat, clutching a thick stack of freshly printed documents.

“Sorry! Sorry! There were way too many people at the print shop!”

I sat in the corner, glaring at my clueless little sister, my irritation rising by the second.

I had only asked her to print a few documents for me, and she had taken this long.

In that short time, I had already been turned into the villain of the story. The professor’s boy toy. A homewrecker. Public enemy number one.

The moment Lucy noticed the tension in the room, she froze.

“W... what’s going on?”

The second Eric saw her, his whole expression changed.

He frowned, strode over, and demanded, “Lucy, what took you so long?”

Startled, Lucy hurried to explain. “Eric, there were a lot of materials, and...”

Eric let out a cold laugh and pointed straight at me.

“Stop making excuses. Was it because of this guy who keeps harassing you?”

“He refused to leave, and I knew it. He clearly hasn’t given up. He wants to flirt with you right in front of everyone.”

“And Professor Jackson will be here any minute. Just having him sitting here is already making our whole group look bad.”

Lucy followed his finger and looked at me. Her face instantly went blank.

“No... Eric, I think you’ve got it wrong. He’s actually...”

She was just about to say “my brother” when I shot her a look.

Years of sibling intimidation worked instantly. She clamped her mouth shut.

I signaled with my eyes: Be quiet. Let’s watch this play out.

Lucy might be a little slow sometimes, but she knew how to read the room.

She swallowed hard, then stiffly turned back to Eric. “Um... Eric, it’s fine. He’s a guest. Adding one more chair won’t hurt.”

Eric stared at her in disbelief.

“I knew it. You’ve been completely taken in by him!”

“First you help him write his paper, and now you’re taking his side too! Don’t let him fool you. He’s ruining your future!”

“Do you even realize that if Professor Jackson finds out, you could get expelled?”

Lucy looked utterly confused. “Write his paper? Who? Me?”

She glanced down at the documents in her arms.

They were the extended analysis from the top journal paper I had just published. Every formula in it was enough to make her, as a grad student, want to kneel in worship.

Her expression turned strange. “I’m not even qualified...”

“See? You admitted it yourself!”

Eric didn’t listen at all. He took her reaction as guilt.

Then he turned and glared at me viciously. “You’re pretty good at this, I’ll give you that.

“But let me tell you something. In this field, real ability is what matters.

“When Professor Jackson gets here, I’m going to expose you for who you really are.”

“Enough!”

Lucy finally couldn’t take it anymore.

She jumped to her feet and stepped in front of me, shame written all over her face.

“Eric, he’s my brother. My actual brother!”