The whole room exploded. For a second, no one could believe what they’d just heard.
Did Lydia really say that? Did she actually just suggest the loser would have to leave the medical program?
Everyone knew what that meant. If you transferred out of med school, your entire future in medicine was over. You’d have to switch majors, start over, lose everything you’d worked for.
Daisy came from a family of doctors; she’d grown up surrounded by medicine. People always called her a prodigy. If she was forced to give that up, to study something else, it would be torture. Worse than anything.
Wasn’t that way too much?
But Lydia was different. She was new to medicine, a top student who could probably excel at any subject she wanted. If she lost, changing majors might sting, but it wouldn’t destroy her.
In that moment, almost everyone thought Lydia was being way too ruthless.
Daisy just laughed, like she’d heard the best joke ever. “Lydia, you haven’t changed at all. Still as cocky as ever. Do you really think you can do whatever you want just because you’ve got the Capital Med School backing you up?”
Lydia didn’t flinch. “So, are you in or not?”
Daisy’s glare could have cut glass. She clenched her jaw. “Fine. Let’s bet. I’m not scared of you. But if you cheat, you leave the Capital. For good. You’ll never set foot here again.”
Another wave of shock rippled through the crowd. Daisy wasn’t holding back either.
If Lydia really got kicked out of the Capital, everything she’d done up to now would be wasted. All those years of hard work, all her top scores—gone.
Were these two for real? Wasn’t this going way too far?
The first was Desmond, an academician from the National Medical Research Institute. He was famous for judging these contests. When he heard about Lydia and Daisy’s bet, he just shook his head and smiled. Some people, he thought, just loved to throw themselves into trouble. What could you do?
The second was Dr. Donley, a senior physician from the Capital Mercy Hospital. He’d been the attending doctor when Lydia and Garrett did that surgery for Violette a while back. Dr. Donley hadn’t seen Lydia yet, but when he heard someone had dared to bet against Daisy, he let out a weary sigh. “Daisy can already perform surgery on her own. Whoever challenged her must be out of their mind.”
The other three judges were two professors from Capital College’s medical department, and Professor Dominick from Capital Med School.
Dominick had heard about Lydia before. He knew she’d placed first in the training, but after that, she barely showed up to class. She’d even skipped his lab sessions. In his eyes, Lydia was just a proud, stubborn kid who didn’t take medicine seriously. How could someone with that attitude ever become a real doctor?
Now, hearing Lydia was betting everything against Daisy, he was convinced she was just playing around, completely clueless about her own limits.
When Dr. Donley finished speaking, Dominick couldn’t hold back. “Daisy was one of our new students before she transferred to Capital College. With her skills, taking first place will be easy. Honestly, Capital Med School is about to be embarrassed.”

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