Joanna Sherman felt a growing sense of unease, her grip tightening on the steering wheel.
Struggling to remain calm, she ended the call and said, "Since your dad is busy, let’s just head back on our own."
On the way back, Cedric Grant grew more and more silent.
No matter what the caregiver said to him, he didn’t respond.
Even when Joanna Sherman spoke to him, his replies were perfunctory.
"Oh, by the way, your school has an event in a few days. Auntie Joanna can make ti to go with you." Joanna had already found out the date of the new school’s event and made the offer.
Cedric Grant froze.
After a mont, he said, "That’s okay, Auntie Joanna."
’He wanted to ask his mom to go that day.’
Joanna Sherman’s expression twisted. It took her a long mont to force out a difficult "Mm," struggling to maintain a cool facade as if she didn’t care.
But her grip on the steering wheel only tightened further!
「It was the middle of the night when Vincent Grant arrived at the base.」
Only after arriving did he realize that Sophia Shaw would have left work long ago.
Unless there were special circumstances, she never encouraged her employees to work overti.
The entire base was shrouded in darkness.
The vast, endless curtain of black seed to press down on his chest, layer by layer.
Vincent Grant clutched his chest, a bad feeling washing over him.
He called Sophia Shaw.
She didn’t answer.
Vincent Grant then tried calling Levin Sawyer.
"President Grant, calling so late. Is there sothing you need?" Levin Sawyer’s voice was cold, his dislike for Vincent clear from his first words.
Vincent Grant was in no mood to dwell on it. He took a deep breath and said, "President Sawyer, I wanted to ask you sothing. Did anything major happen to Faye about seven or eight months ago?"
"Like, was she sick?"
Levin Sawyer scoffed. "President Grant, seven or eight months ago, Faye was your wife. How can you, her husband, be asking an outsider like ?"
The words stung more than a slap to the face.
Vincent Grant had known he would be ridiculed by Levin Sawyer for asking, but he pleaded in a low voice, "Please, just tell ."
"And what if I refuse to tell you?" Levin Sawyer deliberately antagonized him.
"You can figure it out yourself, President Grant!"
CLICK. The line went dead.
It wasn’t that Levin Sawyer didn’t want to speak to him properly; it was just that the thought of what Sophia Shaw had been through made his chest tighten with anger.
Even after the call ended, he couldn’t swallow the rage swelling in his chest.
He threw his phone onto the sofa and scoffed, "Where does he get the nerve to ask!"
Since Levin Sawyer wouldn’t give him an answer, Vincent Grant could only walk slowly back out.
He looked up at the sky for a mont, then took out his phone and dialed Timothy Morgan’s number. "Around the ti before the Lunar New Year last year, did Sophia Shaw ever take sick leave?"
"No," Timothy Morgan said. "She did take a month of annual leave, though. It was vacation ti she’d accumulated over five years."
Timothy Morgan thought for a mont, then added, "But President Grant, have you forgotten? On Sophia Shaw’s first day of work, you had Jack Holloway relay a ssage forbidding her from taking any personal or sick leave!"
"For five years, she never dared to take a single day of sick or personal leave. Even when she was seriously ill, she forced herself to co to work."
Vincent Grant was speechless.
’He had indeed told Jack Holloway to remind Sophia Shaw that since she was joining the company, she needed to be strict with herself and not take sick or personal days for every little thing. But coming from Jack Holloway’s mouth, it had beco an absolute prohibition...’
’If it wasn’t a severe flu, then what could it be?’
Vincent Grant tried his best to rember, but his mory of Sophia Shaw was always a blur.
Beyond her face, he had no concept of her height or build!
Vincent Grant couldn’t stop another fit of coughing, and a twisting pain wracked his still-unhealed chest.
The pain was so intense he collapsed to the ground. Clutching his chest, he opened Sophia Shaw’s livestream.
It was Friday night, a day Sophia Shaw usually stread.
Her stream was as lively as ever.
Sophia Shaw was explaining the operating principles of the Five Pearls consecutive launch.
A faint smile graced her lips, and the beauty mark beneath her eye seed to dance gently as she spoke, exuding both grace and confidence.
Even without the glow of a beauty filter light, she was still radiant and lovely.
She explained complex concepts in simple terms, speaking with an easy eloquence.
The comnt section was flooded with countless praises.
Tonight, Bun was nestled obediently in her arms. She wasn’t making any mischief, just curled up like an adorable kitten.
Even without her usual antics, she was incredibly endearing.
Viewers would occasionally send huge virtual gifts—spaceships, space carriers, and carnivals—for her to watch.
A ssage of thanks from a charity appeared in the comnts: "Thank you, Miss Shaw and Bun. Miss Shaw is not only a rocket genius but also a great philanthropist. She has donated all the gifts from every stream to our organization to improve educational conditions in impoverished mountainous regions."
"We’ve already used her donations to build multi-functional rooms for several Hope Primary Schools. We hope this will allow the children to see a wider world, just like kids in the city, and grow up to beco pillars of society."
Sophia Shaw hugged Bun closer in her arms, and, as if worried people might object, she explained, "I don’t want to use Bun as a tool to make money. I also wanted to make the gifts everyone sends her more aningful, which is why I decided to donate them to charity."
"Although the money is donated through , I’ve recorded everyone’s user IDs, and the charity has kept a copy."
Sure enough, a staff mber from the charity posted a digital donation receipt, which detailed the amount donated by each user ID.
Many viewers, who had originally tuned in just to watch an educational program and have so fun, were surprised and touched to find they had beco philanthropists who had contributed to society.
"Strears who aren’t in it for the money are so rare these days."
"Our strear is amazing! A salute to you!"
"I just saw my ID on the donation list and suddenly feel so happy. So that thing about doing good deeds making you feel happier isn’t a lie, it’s real."
"I also just realized I’m actually useful for sothing. It makes feel more confident in myself."
"Many a little makes a mickle. Every small stream flows into a great sea. If everyone contributes a little bit of love, the children in those poor mountain areas can take a huge step forward."
"..."
’So, this is why Sophia Shaw is so well-loved.’
Vincent Grant gently caressed her face on the screen, a bitter smile touching his lips.
Soone asked Sophia Shaw about her future plans.
"I hope to design a rocket that can retrieve satellites," Sophia Shaw said with sincerity. "The satellites we currently launch have a lifespan of less than ten years. If we can’t retrieve them in ti, the space around Earth will beco a giant junkyard in the future. The consequences would be unimaginable!"
"Launching satellites is ant to benefit all of humanity, but we absolutely cannot destroy the space environnt in the process."
Sophia Shaw then presented a set of data.
"Heh, bringing an adopted daughter on stream to rake in cash and fa, using charity as a cover for self-promotion, and you still have the gall to talk about benefiting humanity? How shaless!"
Just then, a comnt popped up.
The tone was extrely malicious!
The user seed determined to oppose her, spamming the ssage relentlessly.
The entire screen was flooded with the sa sentence.
Many people were upset and began to clap back collectively.
"She’s been streaming for so long and has never once promoted herself. Why don’t you wipe your eyes and take a better look?"
"What do you an, ’rake in cash and fa’? We watch the stream voluntarily, and we donate voluntarily. She has never even hinted at asking for anything."
"If you’ve got the guts, you go start a stream. You go do charity. If you can promote yourself that way, I guarantee no one will say a thing!"
Sophia Shaw hadn’t intended to respond, but seeing that everyone was about to start a full-blown argunt, she had to speak up. "To this viewer, if you believe I am raking in cash and fa or promoting myself, you can find your evidence and report it to the platform."
"But there is one thing I must clarify: I do not have an adopted daughter. Bun is my biological daughter."
Vincent Grant had just been about to have soone investigate the account targeting Sophia Shaw when he heard her words. He froze instantly!
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