“Stop your nonsense. Fabricating baseless claims will not dissuade me from checking these materials. As Professor Lawson’s student, I am obliged to safeguard our archival resources,” Natalie proclaimed in a loud and righteous tone, as if worried that others couldn’t hear her.

“Josie, stop trying to intimidate Natalie. You think you can frighten us just because your gang outnumber us? As long as I’m here, I won’t allow you to bully her.”

“I’m warning you upfront. If you think you can get away with such an obvious lie, you are incredibly stupid! Are you so desperate for our resources that you’ve lost your mind?” Jaden had a triumphant expression on his face, as if he had already caught Josie red-handed in some crime.

Josie and her team looked bewildered.

“Hmph! Josie, your former teammate doesn’t seem too bright. How on earth did he end up on the same team as you?” Colby’s voice was practically dripping with contempt.

Thus, the reason Colby insisted on coming here to help Josie retrieve the materials became clear. It seemed that he was here to avenge his Aunt Lindsey. He still remembered the incident where Jaden angered her so much that she smashed a coffee mug.

Naturally, Josie was happy to play along with Colby. “Well, wasn’t I kicked out of his team because I was too bright?”

Colby feigned enlightenment. “Oh, right! That was what happened. Congratulations then, Josie!”

Aiden glared at Colby with clenched fists. “Enough! Since you guys are here to collect the materials, please do so promptly and leave. There is no need to mock others. It serves no purpose.”

Josie spoke up again in an icy voice, “Finally, someone is making sense. Did you two hear that, Jaden and Natalie? Stop sprouting nonsense unless you have irrefutable proof. I’m not a troublemaker, but I’m not afraid of those who like to stir up insinuations about me. If you have the evidence, show all of us. Otherwise, shut up!”

Natalie was so angry that she almost exploded. Josie really had some nerve. She was still so defiant at this juncture. Natalie was determined to dig out the evidence today and make that bitch cower and admit her wrongdoing.

“You want evidence? Fine, I will produce it.” Natalie rushed up and swept all the folders with red labels from the shelving racks onto the floor.

She then went through folder after folder in a mad frenzy. Soon, the entire floor of the archive room was piled high with red-labeled folders.

The folder contents were displayed clearly before everyone, written in the same neat handwriting.

“Has she lost her mind? How can she treat your folders like this?” Zoey Harding stepped forward with a frown, intending to pick up the scattered folders.

However, Josie stopped her and said, “Don’t touch anything, all of you. Since she wants to throw things, let her throw as much as she likes. Later, I will have her pick them up in exactly the same sequence she threw them.”

“Of course I’ll pick them up, since these are our materials. If I mess them up, I will tidy them up. What right does an outsider like you have to interfere?” Natalie retorted defiantly.

She picked up a folder from the floor and opened it. “Josie Pearson, do not assume that simply affixing a red label to the materials makes them yours. Everyone, watch closely!”

She then opened up one folder under everyone’s watchful gaze with a smug look. “See? These are merely reference materials. What evidence does Josie have to prove that she was the one who gathered these data?”

Whether Natalie was simply unlucky or genuinely thought she was being clever was uncertain. What was certain was that she had opened the folder to the front page.

In the lower right corner was a neatly stamped and signed inscription, “X month, X year, data gathered and collated by student Josie Pearson.” Everyone on Josie’s team burst into mocking laughter at this point.

This was downright hilarious!

Was this what Natalie wanted everyone to see?

Was she trying to disprove, or more accurately, in this case, prove Josie’s ownership of those folders?