Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

"Alright, you're busier than a headmaster these days..."

Owen said, "Guess I'll head out then."

"Hey, almost forgot to ask, what did you come back for?" Stoddard shouted after him.

"Too many questions, buddy."

After Owen left, Roseanne decided to grab a few more Z's. She couldn't help it; skipping a nap would mean dragging herself through the afternoon.

By 2 PM, Roseanne was up, freshened up a bit, and back in the lab.

Jen and the others gradually wrapped up their lunch breaks and returned to their stations.

"Anne, why's your face all flushed? Too warm for you?"

Huh?

Roseanne touched her cheeks. "Flushed, really? Must be, yeah..."

Stoddard said, "Didn't we have the AC on in there? How can you still be so hot?"

"Forgot to turn it on today..."

"Oh, I see. Looks like you and Owen both can't stand the heat. Saw him outside the break room earlier, red as a lobster."

Jen couldn't help but laugh. "Is it that bad? Red as a lobster... Hey, Anne, your face seems even redder now. Sammy, turn the AC down a bit..." Roseanne was speechless.

Flushed? Not really!

Another busy day wrapped up, no overtime needed, Roseanne left the lab on time.

On her way home, she stopped by the supermarket since the local market would be out of fresh produce by then.

After picking out some ingredients, she headed home and whipped up a couple of dishes and a soup in about half an hour.

Roseanne set up her phone for a video call while eating dinner-

"Dad, what are you doing messing around with those plants so late? Mom doesn't mind?"

"She's busy typing away, no time to bother with me."

"She's on a roll with ideas?" Roseanne raised an eyebrow.

"As long as she's not bickering with her editor, she's in a good mood; good mood means lots of inspiration."

Norris paused, then added,

"Speaking of her editor, what's her

name... Willow something? Haven't

seen her call recently. You asked me

빙 10%

to keep an eye out, and I was

wondering why it's been so quiet

lately. Used to be small fights every

three days, big ones every five."

"And guess what?"

Roseanne showed her curiosity: "What happened?"

"The other day, I saw your mom's phone, and boy, she had blocked all of the editor's contacts! Can you believe it?"

With their recent move, even if the other party wanted to reach out, they'd have no way to.

Roseanne couldn't help but laugh: "Sounds just like something Mom would do."

Don't let Madge's nearly fifty years fool you; being pampered by Norris and living the full-time writer life meant she retained a naivety not

in her peers.

Like that time she got criticized by readers and just declared she'd quit the internet altogether - how is that different from a child's tantrum?

"Dad," Roseanne suddenly became serious, "keep an eye on Mom for me, try to keep her away from Nadine."

The editor York Gibson had referred reached out, and after reviewing Madge's work, called right away.

It was 3 AM, and Roseanne was deep asleep.

After two calls, she groggily picked up.Content provided by NôvelDrama.Org.

The man introduced himself as Stoner; Roseanne did some digging online later.

A "golden editor" in the publishing world, every mystery novel he touched turned to gold, each quickly securing movie or TV rights, often turning into hits.

He didn't sign authors, only high-quality works.

After getting a rough idea of Madge's situation from Roseanne, he said just one thing...