But Felicity wasn’t done. She cornered me in the lab, her face hard with accusation. “Why did you plagiarize my work? We agreed to a fair competition!” she shouted, as if she were the victim.
A group of classmates accompanied her, their anger palpable. They taunted and insulted me.
“Is it that hard to admit you’re not good enough? You had to steal someone else’s work!”
“She’s a disgrace to the PhD program. The school needs to investigate this.”
“She should lose her degree. A plagiarist shouldn’t be allowed to stay in academia.”
Their words cut deep, and the worst part was that I had no way to defend myself. I made my experimental process and data public, trying to clear my name. But somehow, Felicity’s results were identical to mine—every step, every detail. And the timestamp on her experimental equipment was two hours ahead of mine, making it look like I had copied her.
To uncover the truth behind the plagiarism allegations, the college convened an investigation committee. The dean led the team, and faculty members meticulously examined the experimental processes of both me and Felicity.
However, their findings revealed that my experimental process was considerably less rigorous than hers, lacking any substantial basis. This led them to conclude that I was the one who had plagiarized, absolving Felicity of any wrongdoing.
I felt a surge of frustration and disbelief. Determined to prove my innocence, I proposed bringing in a third-party reviewer from another institution to conduct a comparison. But before I could act, rumors began to circulate about my family background.
Whispers online labeled me a “rich girl” trying to manipulate the system, claiming I was colluding with a third-party organization to undermine Felicity, a struggling student from a small town. My family's company faced a backlash from netizens who accused my parents of buying my way into a doctoral program.
The tutor held a press conference to publicly apologize, expressing his shame for having taught someone he labeled a habitual plagiarist. He took it upon himself to apply for the cancellation of my graduate degree and even urged me to consider dropping out of school entirely.