Thorne chuckled. "That''s right. I''m still very interested, even now."


    Vesta knew well that Thorne had always been a fan of PrimeStarCUAP, that particr programmingnguage. In fact, when she''d considered joining PrimeStarst year, Thorne was all for it. He believed she''d experience solid growth if she got in.


    Maybe it was this genuine interest in CUAP''s developers that kept Thorne so easygoing around Stewart Ferguson-despite the fact that Stewart, thanks to Charlene, had never exactly rolled out the red carpet for him. Stewart''s frosty attitude never seemed to faze Thorne; he always just smiled and shrugged it off.


    Now, Thorne said frankly, "But I''ve crossed Mr. Ferguson in the past. He doesn''t think much of me these days. If you want his cooperation and ask me to help, I''m afraid it''ll only backfire."


    Nicol looked surprised but didn''t press the issue. "Alright then, I''ll find someone else to help."


    Nicol came from a family deeply rooted in pharmaceutical research. Hispany''s Al models had been stuck at a teau for a while, unable to improve their sess rate in antibody tasks. They wanted to use a multimodal generative architecturebining atomic structure prediction and generation to design new antibody molecules, but they''d hit a stubborn bottleneck.


    For the past six months, Nicol had reached out to several potential partners, but none of the coborations had panned out. That was why he''d turned to PrimeStar.


    Nicol''s influence overseas wasn''t negligible. Partnering with him would be a win for PrimeStar too, especially since both Charlene and Stewart were quite interested in this new module. After talking it over, the two set up a meeting with Nicol for the following morning.


    Nicol arrived with two engineers from hispany in tow.


    Stewart''s reputation spoke for itself, and before returning to the country, Nicol had seen a couple of Charlene''s presentations online. She''d looked striking in the videos, but seeing her in person-she was even more stunning than the camera had captured.


    Time was tight, so after a brief greeting, Charlene and her team dove straight into the issues Nicol''spany was facing with their multimodal architecture.


    Charlene and Stewart, together with Nicol''s engineers, discussed


    everything from integration


    strategies to data alignment andmet


    ways to improveputational resources. They tackled each


    problem systematically, leaving no stone unturned.


    By the end of the meeting, Nicol was so impressed he immediately instructed his people to draft a contract. He was eager to seal the partnership with PrimeStar as quickly as possible.


    Once the meeting wrapped up, Charlene and Stewart headed out, with Nicol seeing them to their car-ever the gracious host.


    After they left, Nicol called Thorne. "You know, the problems that have stumped our engineers for ages? Mr. Ferguson and his team solved them no time. Stewart and his girlfriend are truly impressive. I think ourpany''s deadlock might


    finally be over."


    Thorneughed. "When you find the right partners, everything bes twice as efficient. Congrattions."


    Their conversation continued for a bit before Nicol blurted out, "Stewart''s girlfriend is absolutely


    stunning. And more importantly


    she''s incredibly capable. I thought Mr. Ferguson would take the dead in everything, but she was just as sharp-if not sharper. The two of them work together seamlessly, trading ideas back and forth."


    "I have to admit, I''m genuinely intrigued by Ms. Ross. If she weren''t already taken,


    I''d be trying my luck!"


    Thorne was still having lunch at the time. He raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? Is that so?"


    Vesta and Jasmine were in the private dining room as well. Since Thorne had answered Nicol''s call on speakerphone, they''d both heard every word loud and clear.