"Mm."

Sophia Shaw offered no further explanation, her reply calm.

Mr. Owen’s eyes widened. "I thought it was just a rumor, but it’s... it’s actually true!"

"Miss Shaw, you’ve got some nerve! Daring to play us for fools!"

"I am the one fully in charge, but I am not playing you for fools," Sophia Shaw stated, enunciating each word clearly. She was neither nervous nor anxious, but perfectly calm and composed.

Jacobs quickly interjected, "Mr. Owen, Ms. Shaw has always been the one in charge of this project. President Sawyer was just a figurehead. In fact, our Ms. Shaw has a wealth of experience. She was even the one who originally proposed and led this project."

"Bullshit!" Mr. Owen interrupted rudely.

"If she really had the skills, she would’ve made a name for herself in the industry long ago. I’ve been in this field for decades and have never even heard her name!"

"’Led it?’ More like Levin Sawyer did all the work and just slapped her name on it!"

"Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on! She’s just living off Levin Sawyer! If he wasn’t spoiling her, she’d be less than nothing!"

Mr. Owen’s insults were incredibly harsh.

Jacobs’s face flushed red with anger. "Mr. Owen, you’ve gone too far!"

’If Ms. Shaw were really that kind of person, then he’d have no response to Mr. Owen’s accusations.’

’But the truth is, Ms. Shaw is the most valuable person in the company!’

"I say a few harsh words and *I’ve* gone too far? What about what you two have done? Isn’t that going too far?" Mr. Owen’s anger showed no signs of subsiding.

Sophia Shaw said coolly, "Mr. Owen, this project was voluntary from the very beginning. No one forced you. You’re the one who signed the contract!"

"Why do you think I signed? It was because of Lead Aerospace’s golden reputation!"

"I thought no matter how much Levin Sawyer messed around, he’d have you as a figurehead while he managed things from behind the scenes."

"I never expected you people to do business like this!"

The other men were also extremely disgruntled.

"Mr. Owen has every right to be angry. When it comes to Lead Aerospace, we only recognize Levin Sawyer. If Levin Sawyer isn’t managing this rideshare project, then we won’t launch!"

"Fine, don’t launch! As if anyone is begging you to!"

Jacobs was furious.

’This project is a massive success overseas. Ms. Shaw wanted to bring it back to Cathan, but the leaders of several countries were begging her to keep the project in their nations.’

’They offered several times the price of a domestic launch.’

’Ms. Shaw said we can’t let other countries’ satellite launch volumes surpass Cathan’s, or Cathan will be led around by the nose in the future.’

’But what are these people doing?’

’Questioning her, accusing her, again and again.’

’Did a donkey kick them all in the head?’

’Even if President Sawyer likes to mess around, he wouldn’t be crazy enough to entrust such a huge project to someone unreliable!’

"How dare you say something like that!" Mr. Owen pointed at Jacobs, his finger trembling.

"Insolent! Utterly insolent!"

"This is all Levin Sawyer’s fault for spoiling them! He’s spoiled this woman so much that even her little assistant dares to walk all over us, the heads of major companies!"

Sophia Shaw watched Mr. Owen quietly.

’She despised his theory that a woman could only get things done if a man was spoiling her.’

’But Interlink controlled thirty percent of the domestic communications market, making them a major client for satellite launches.’

’In Mador, the satellite launch volume for a communications company with a similar market share was several times that of Cathan’s. It was crucial to push the big Cathanese companies to catch up.’

Sophia Shaw suppressed her temper and said, "Mr. Owen, and everyone else, why don’t we go back to the company now and have a proper discussion about my qualifications? That way..."

"What’s there to discuss!" Mr. Owen cut her off.

President Morgan, who was standing beside Mr. Owen, scoffed. "If she had any qualifications, she would’ve shown them long ago. Why hide them for so long? It doesn’t make sense!"

"Exactly! In this day and age, who’s afraid of being famous? The only thing to be afraid of is *not* being famous!"

"I bet even if she did produce something, it would be fake. With over a month, it’s easy enough to forge some documents! As long as Levin Sawyer is willing, he could probably make her a ’founder’ without any trouble."

"He could even claim she was the first person in Cathan to build a low-cost rocket and send it into space!"

Jacobs started, "But she is—"

Sophia Shaw shook her head slightly.

’They were already prejudiced. No matter what she presented now, they would just claim it was fake.’

’Sophia had hidden her identity when she launched that rocket for various reasons. Besides, she loved the process of building and launching rockets, not becoming famous.’

"If you all trust me, we’ll launch on schedule. If you don’t, you can postpone to a later batch. You can wait until President Sawyer returns to launch."

It was because companies like Interlink were so large that she had specifically scheduled them for the first batch.

Sophia Shaw was proactively offering a concession.

"How long would we have to wait? What a waste of time!" President Morgan was the first to object. "It’s not like we own our companies outright! We can’t just call the shots however we please!"

"This is just absurd, isn’t it?"

"What awful luck! If I had known, I never would have signed the contract in the first place!"

"I don’t care! In any case, Levin Sawyer must be present, or you’ll compensate us for our losses!" Mr. Owen said belligerently.

’Aren’t they trying to back her into an impossible corner?’

Jacobs, both angry and worried for Sophia Shaw, looked toward her.

He was so anxious he was on the verge of tears.

Sophia Shaw reminded them gently, "Gentlemen, perhaps you should review the contract. It doesn’t stipulate that Levin Sawyer must be present."

Everyone: "..."

They’d been had.

They’d been had.

The men slapped their foreheads, full of regret.

Just then, a white car pulled up beside them.

Joanna Sherman stepped out of the car.

She wore a black dress with a shallow V-neck and a form-fitting design that elegantly hugged her exquisite figure.

A pair of snow-white legs peeked out from beneath the hem of her skirt, and her high heels made sharp, cool clicks on the stone pavement.

Beneath a black, wide-brimmed French hat, her long, wavy hair cascaded down. A black net veil covered one side of her face.

She was holding a bouquet of flowers, clearly here to pay respects at the cemetery.

Walking up to the group, she deliberately paused. "Why has everyone come all the way out here?"

"Miss Sherman..." Mr. Owen looked as though he had a grievance he couldn’t voice.

The others looked at her, also rendered speechless.

Joanna Sherman elegantly flicked her long hair. "Since everyone is here, I might as well share some good news. Zenith will also be starting its own rideshare service soon. When Vincent Grant’s family heard about it, they immediately arranged for two of their satellites to join our inaugural rideshare."

With that, Joanna Sherman turned and walked away without so much as a single glance at Sophia Shaw, who was standing in the crowd.

The eyes of the men standing there instantly lit up, and they exchanged glances.

"I remember President Grant is here."

"Let’s go ask him!"

The group of men quickly ran toward Vincent Grant, surrounding him completely.

Sophia Shaw glanced at Joanna Sherman walking toward Skye Sutton’s gravestone, then at Vincent Grant, who was now encircled by the crowd.

’He knew today was the final day of the memorial for Skye Sutton, an occasion for close family only. Yet, Vincent Grant had allowed Nora Sherman to come and pay her respects, which made it clear he already considered her immediate family.’

’The thing was, Skye Sutton had despised his ’white moonlight’ her entire life. Yet here he was, brazenly letting that ’white moonlight’ stand before her grave. She wondered what Skye Sutton would think if she knew what was happening in the afterlife.’

’Would she be angry enough to jump right out of her grave?’

Sophia Shaw was still in the car when news that Zenith’s Joanna Sherman was starting a rideshare satellite launch service had already spread like wildfire.

"Has this Joanna Sherman lost her mind? The last time she launched a satellite, it was our Lead Aerospace that helped her! And now she dares to start a rideshare service?"

"And she scheduled the launch for the same day as ours!"

Jacobs was so shocked his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

If Joanna Sherman wasn’t crazy, there was truly no other explanation.