"I’m sorry," Vincent Grant said in a low voice.

Even when admitting his mistake, the man’s posture was impeccable.

The more he acted this way, the worse Old Master Sloan felt.

"What damn good is an apology? Can ’sorry’ erase the years of suffering my apprentice went through?"

"Even if you killed yourself, it wouldn’t make up for the damage done to my apprentice."

"Get out. Just get out!"

Vincent Grant didn’t move.

"Old Master Sloan, I know what’s done can’t be undone. But please, name your terms. I, Vincent Grant, am willing to accept any punishment for my transgressions."

Old Master Sloan: "..."

’Who wouldn’t love a man like this?’

’If I were a woman, I’d love him too!’

Suddenly, Old Master Sloan understood Sophia Shaw.

’What a heartbreaker. A truly disastrous man!’

"Forget it." He waved his hand dismissively. "This was Faye’s own choice back then. Why should I punish you?"

"Sigh..."

Old Master Sloan sighed, his shoulders slumping.

"That little girl... she was so small and skinny back then, just a tiny thing. I was giving a speech on stage, and she was in the audience, scribbling and calculating. I thought she was taking notes, but when the Q&A session started, she grabbed the microphone and started picking my arguments apart."

"Me, a renowned scientist, and she nearly questioned me into a corner I couldn’t get out of."

Recalling his first meeting with Sophia Shaw, Old Master Sloan couldn’t help but wipe the sweat from his brow.

"That was the first time I’d ever seen such a feisty girl. I remember thinking, ’It’s a good thing she’s not my daughter, or we’d be arguing every day. It would exhaust me.’"

Vincent Grant listened intently.

It was hard to imagine the gentle Sophia Shaw being the "feisty" girl his mentor was describing.

"Later, I went to visit their school library. All the other students stood up in unison to greet me, but she was buried in a pile of tall, thick books and didn’t even look up."

"I thought she was doing it on purpose, but the librarian hurried over to explain that’s just how she is. When she’s studying, she forgets everything. She’d even been forgotten and locked in the library a few times, and they’d only realize a child was missing when they came to work the next day."

"I saw that she was reading nothing but books on aerospace, so I asked her a few questions. Not only did she answer them brilliantly, but she also swiftly sketched out a diagram, wrote down a formula, and presented a feasible plan to improve our country’s rocket technology."

"I was both shocked and delighted. I sent her an invitation as soon as I got back."

"That little girl had so much backbone. She said, ’I will study hard under you, but I will not contribute to Mador. I have to return to my country and build Cathan’s best rockets, to surpass Mador! And by then, I might even surpass you. I hope you don’t have a problem with that.’"

"Her tone... it was infuriating!"

As Old Master Sloan spoke, his eyes began to redden.

"In all these years, she’s the only child I’ve ever met with such a brilliant spark. She was truly capable of shouldering the future of Cathan’s rocket program. Many of her insights were even more advanced than mine, and she had the guts to slam her hand on the table and challenge me."

"Her senior and junior classmates all told her to be more low-key. And you know what she said? ’I’m here to advance technology. Will being low-key make our technology more advanced? Wrong is wrong. I don’t care if it’s my mentor or God Almighty, if they’re wrong, they need to be called out!’"

"That little thing was prickly as a hedgehog most days, but when she cared about you, she really knew how to show it. Whenever she had free time, she’d help me by tutoring Seraphina, and she’d even cook for me... She never acted like an outsider, more like my own daughter."

Old Master Sloan’s words were like a key unlocking a Pandora’s box of memories, making Vincent Grant once again picture her, head bowed, absorbed in her aerospace books every day.

At the time, he thought she was just casually interested, but it turned out she had been deeply immersed in the field all along.

The Sophia Shaw of that time was silent, but when she was being bullied, the stubborn light in her eyes was like a real thorn, capable of piercing through anything.

Vincent Grant could no longer tell if what had attracted him was her stubbornness, or the captivated look on her face as she was lost in a book.

Or perhaps, it was both.

"And it’s all because of you!" Old Master Sloan grew agitated again, slamming his hand on the table. "I had a perfectly fine apprentice, and you turned her into a shadow of her former self! She almost died!"

"A murderer like you needs to stay far away from Sophia Shaw! Don’t let her see you for the rest of her life!"

Every time he thought about what Vincent Grant had done to his young apprentice, Old Master Sloan’s blood pressure shot through the roof.

Vincent Grant stood up. "Old Master Sloan, I swear to you, from now on I will only lift her up. I will never again do anything to hinder her."

"But I will not leave her."

Old Master Sloan: "..."

After speaking, Vincent Grant turned and walked out.

Leaving Old Master Sloan to sigh by himself.

’Damn his charisma. I think I’m actually starting to be persuaded.’

’No, absolutely not!’

Vincent Grant stood outside alone for a long time.

The wind lightly tousled his short hair, but it couldn’t conceal his aristocratic air.

But beneath his usually cold brow, a deep pain had settled in.

He closed his eyes, replaying Old Master Sloan’s words in his mind.

’So the lively, adorable, sharp-edged Sophia Shaw... I was the one who slowly wore down her edges and stripped her of her vitality.’

When he opened his eyes again, a determined glint flashed in them. He took out his phone and made a call...

* * *

"What did you say? Vincent Grant is spinning Zenith off from the Grant Group? He’s not going to manage Zenith anymore?"

The news hit Joanna Sherman like a blow to the head.

Her eyes were fixed on Joel Hale. "Impossible! There’s no way he’d abandon me! Are you making this up? Putting words in his mouth?"

Joel Hale gestured helplessly at his phone. "President Grant said it himself. Besides, this was decided a long time ago. If not for the delays in launching those few satellites, Zenith would have been spun off already."

"President Grant said he won’t touch any of Zenith’s current cash reserves. In fact, he’s going to transfer another hundred million to Zenith from the Grant Group."

"Frankly, he’s done more than enough."

Joanna Sherman’s body began to tremble.

’What good is "more than enough"?’

’How is Zenith supposed to operate without Vincent Grant?’

She had been counting on launching new projects and rebuilding her image after Vincent Grant’s return.

’But now he’s... abandoning me?’

Tears welled in Joanna Sherman’s eyes. Her fingers gripped the corner of the desk so tightly that her jawbone protruded from clenching her teeth.

"No, absolutely not!"

She stubbornly pulled out her phone, about to call Vincent Grant.

Joel Hale grabbed her hand to stop her. "Miss Sherman, instead of wasting your effort, you should be thinking about how to explain the divorce to President Grant!"

"Zenith won’t collapse overnight, but if this issue isn’t resolved, you and I will both be in a lot of trouble!"

"Resolve it? How am I supposed to resolve it!" Joanna Sherman threw off Joel Hale’s hand, on the verge of a breakdown. "How was I supposed to know he would have a change of heart? I thought... I thought I would win."

"I was in a position to win for sure. How did it end up like this?"

Joanna Sherman suddenly grabbed Joel Hale’s arm. "I’ll give you the hundred million from the Grant Group. Go kill Sophia Shaw for me! If she’s dead, all my problems will be solved!"

Joel Hale coldly shook her hand off. "Are you making some kind of sick joke, Miss Sherman? Do you have any idea how valuable Miss Shaw is? A rocket prodigy on par with Old Master Sloan. You want me to kill her? Setting aside what Cathan’s top brass would do to me, President Grant alone would have my head."

"What’s the point of me having a hundred million then?"

"If you had half her ability, you wouldn’t need to spend a hundred million to hire a killer. Defeating her fair and square is more effective than any underhanded tactic!"

Joel Hale was utterly disgusted with Joanna Sherman now.

’If Joanna Sherman hadn’t pulled her tricks back then, I wouldn’t have made such a huge mistake!’

The words "a rocket prodigy on par with Old Master Sloan" stabbed into Joanna Sherman’s chest like a knife.

Even her own mentor was no match for Old Master Sloan’s abilities. How could she possibly compete?

’How did Sophia Shaw get so formidable?’

’She was bullied to the brink of death back then.’

’Why didn’t she just die?’

’It would have been so much better if she had died!’

Joanna Sherman covered her face. "Joel Hale, what should I do?"

Joel Hale’s mind was also a tangled mess.