Chapter 1235

"A young degenerate?" Alexander was surprised.

Lily poured out her frustrations. "The research institute sent a young man today. He seemed refined until he spoke. He claimed to support stopping the project, arguing women should stay home with children. He even implied my involvement was solely due to your money and connections!"

"That man was something else!" Alexander exclaimed.

"Didn't you intend to stop the project?" he asked.

"It's different!" Lily shook her head. "I wanted to stop it because the research was misguided, and they hid too much from me. I doubted their purpose. But this man supports my decision because I'm a woman! Isn't that outrageous?!"

"What century are we living in? Such blatant sexism is unbelievable!" Alexander responded. Even Nathaniel Hall, despicable as he was, never obstructed Lily simply because she was a woman; his attacks were solely aimed at her work. This man, an intellectual from a research institute, held such profound prejudice?

"It is outrageous. What will you do next? Are you stopping the research?" Alexander inquired.

"Nope," Lily replied, shaking her head.

"Is it because of that man? Are you trying to prove yourself to him?"

Lily snorted, shooting him a look of disdain. "No way! Who does he think he is? Why would I prove myself to him? Besides, his prejudice runs deep; no amount of evidence will change his mind.

"I realized that even if I withdrew from the Blossom project, they'd find a replacement. Since something feels wrong, I need to get to the bottom of it. Otherwise, I won't have peace of mind."

This thought plagued her for over half a month. The research institute initially approached her to collaborate on a product combining medicinal herbs and scents for daily use. They wanted to leverage her expertise in scent refinement and extraction to retain the herbs' medicinal benefits while integrating various fragrances. Essentially, they aimed to create perfumes, essential oils, and body mists with therapeutic properties.

While initially seeming far-fetched, the idea wasn't entirely unfeasible. Lily enjoyed a challenge, and success would be significant for both the herbal medicine and perfumery industries. Failure, however, would simply be another experiment.

After careful consideration and discussion with Dominic, she agreed to try. However, her experiments proved unsuccessful. The herbs' potency was difficult to refine and purify; a lingering scent remained. Lily didn't mind the herbal aroma, as the products weren't marketed as pure perfumes. But the institute wanted to eliminate any trace of medicinal herbs.