Sophia Shaw smiled faintly. "I never planned for him to buy the stocks you recommended."

"I just wanted to reignite his interest in stock trading."

Chad Jennings had been trading stocks for a long time; Sophia Shaw had always known this.

"No wonder..." Mrs. Sawyer murmured, the pieces clicking into place.

She had thought Sophia Shaw had a sudden change of heart, recommending such a high-performing stock to Chad Jennings.

"How did you know he definitely wouldn’t pick these blue-chip stocks?" Mrs. Sawyer was suddenly very curious.

Sophia Shaw chuckled. "Chad Jennings loves to show off. He’ll definitely go to Joanna Sherman or Yvonne Sherman to brag about the great stock he bought. And those two despise me, so as soon as they know the tip came from me, they’re bound to object."

Mrs. Sawyer: "..."

’This girl is incredibly smart.’

’When Chad Jennings looks back one day and realizes he missed out on all those blue-chip stocks, how deep will his regret be?’

’You don’t need a knife to break someone’s spirit. Just take what they care about most and twist it viciously!’

’If Sophia Shaw applied this kind of scheming to business, what chance would I even have?’

’Who wouldn’t like such a smart girl? No wonder my son has been waiting six or seven years for her.’

’I just don’t know if the little fledgling will fly into the Sawyer Family’s nest this time.’

Mrs. Sawyer began to worry for her son again.

After she hung up, Mrs. Sawyer’s assistant pushed the door open and walked in.

"We just got news. Chad Jennings is buying up a large amount of the Grant Group’s stock."

The Grant Group had developed very well in recent years, but the shares available for sale were limited.

It was hard to find anyone willing to sell their shares now.

Mrs. Sawyer’s long fingers tapped on the desk, making a crisp TAP, TAP sound.

The next moment, she pushed her chair back with one hand. "Raise the price of the Grant Group’s stock by ten percent and sell it all!"

The assistant: "..."

’A ten percent price hike... The boss is really driving a hard bargain. How ruthless.’

"President Sawyer, will... will anyone really buy it?"

The Grant Group’s stock price was already high. Raising it another ten percent was just insane!

Mrs. Sawyer smiled faintly. "Don’t worry."

"Also, buy up a large volume of Lead Aerospace stock for me!"

The assistant: "..."

Although Lead Aerospace was incredible at building rockets, it hadn’t made much of a splash on the stock market in recent years.

The main reason was that they did absolutely no promotion when the company went public, giving off the impression that they didn’t need to raise capital through stock prices.

Not many people bought it in the first place. With the recent change in leadership, rumors were spreading that Sophia Shaw was incompetent, and the price had dropped quite a bit.

The assistant reported Lead Aerospace’s situation truthfully.

"The general consensus is pessimistic about Lead Aerospace’s upcoming rocket launch. We probably shouldn’t buy."

Just then, the assistant’s phone chimed with a DING.

It was an alert that usually only sounded for important news.

The assistant looked down, and their face turned grim. "They’re insane! Lead Aerospace is completely insane!"

"President Sawyer, look! With Sophia Shaw pulling a stunt like this, she’s definitely going to drag Lead Aerospace down with her!"

"We absolutely can’t buy it."

’Thank goodness the news came in time, before we started buying.’

’If we’d actually bought Lead Aerospace stock, we’d probably have lost our shirts.’

’President Sawyer’s lifelong reputation would be ruined.’

Mrs. Sawyer took the phone, glanced at it quickly, and the corners of her mouth lifted. "Not bad. She has a bit of my crazy streak!"

"Buy. And bid up the price!"

The assistant: "..."

After Sophia Shaw finished her call with Mrs. Sawyer, she got a call from Jacobs. "President Shaw, our plan was leaked somehow. It’s all over the internet now. You should take a look."

Sophia Shaw opened her phone and quickly found the news that had just shot to the top of the headlines.

The article was hyped with three consecutive "EXPLOSIVE!" tags. The headline read:

"Lead Aerospace’s New Chief Plans to Launch Five Pearls at Once—Has She Gone Mad?"

Jacobs’s voice kept coming from the other end. "President Shaw, we just finished verifying the Five Pearls simultaneous launch. We haven’t even announced it publicly. How on earth did these people find out?"

"And they’re being so nasty about it! We did so much work, how can they call it madness?"

The entire article criticized Sophia Shaw for being rash and reckless, trying to launch five satellites into space at once.

The writer had collected global data and concluded that no company had ever set a precedent for launching five satellites at once.

Even Lead Aerospace’s own record was a maximum of three at a time.

Lead Aerospace would have had to announce the Five Pearls launch sooner or later, but announcing it themselves versus having it leaked by someone else were two completely different scenarios.

Now that it had been suddenly revealed with no groundwork laid, the entire internet was in an uproar.

People were piling on to condemn Sophia Shaw, saying she was trying too hard to one-up Joanna Sherman and was just going crazy with other people’s money.

Her ambition outstripped her ability.

Lead Aerospace would surely be dragged into bankruptcy by her this time, and years of accumulated success would be destroyed in an instant.

Some were even calling for people not to buy Lead Aerospace stock.

Lead Aerospace’s stock price was already mediocre, and with this commotion, it plummeted to rock bottom!

Jacobs was extremely worried, afraid that Sophia Shaw wouldn’t be able to handle the shock. She kept saying, "President Shaw, where are you? Should I come over and stay with you right now?"

’I have to keep an eye on President Shaw twenty-four hours a day. I can’t let her out of my sight for a second.’

Sophia Shaw was nowhere near as nervous as Jacobs. She swiped her finger across the screen, finished reading the article, and then skimmed some of the comments.

She spoke up, "Don’t worry. I’m not so fragile that I can’t handle something like this. Carry on as usual."

"But..." Jacobs was still worried.

"I’m really fine."

When Sophia Shaw was just a teenager, she had experienced the tragedy of her own mother dying right before her eyes. Afterward, Yvonne Sherman and Chad Jennings had conspired to tarnish her mother’s name and frame her. The streets were filled with curses aimed at her mother, and everyone pointed at her, calling her a bastard.

She was filled with hatred and rage.

She wanted to shut their mouths, to scream out in her mother’s defense, to kill the people who had caused her mother’s death!

But she could do nothing.

With no one to turn to for help, she could only struggle like a caged beast, trapped in her own world.

The pain from that time was indescribable, but it had later forged her incredible resilience to pressure.

Sophia Shaw said calmly, "Lead Aerospace launching a rocket is Lead Aerospace’s own business. As long as the clients agree, we don’t need to explain ourselves to anyone else."

The clients had been informed of this long ago.

All parties involved had held dozens of meetings and run dozens of calculations and simulations.

The clients had already given their approval.

"Oh, right." Jacobs finally understood.

She’d been so panicked that she’d forgotten such a simple principle.

Before Sophia Shaw could hang up, the phone was snatched from her hand.

"What is wrong with you? Do you have any manners at all? You knew I was meeting you here, and you’re still on the phone endlessly?"

It was Young Master Croft.

He SLAMMED Sophia Shaw’s phone onto the booth table and sat back down on the sofa.

He crossed his arms, his gaze toward Sophia Shaw dripping with disgust.

Sophia Shaw looked around. "Where is Mr. Croft?"

The other party had used Caleb Croft’s name to arrange the meeting; that was the only reason she had come.

Young Master Croft said impatiently, "He can’t make it tonight. If you have something to say, you can say it over the phone!"

Young Master Croft took out his own phone and started dialing. "Listen, tell my dad you don’t like me and you don’t want to date me!"

His tone was arrogant and punchable.

As the dial tone rang on the other end, he didn’t forget to threaten her viciously, "If you dare refuse, or if you say the wrong thing, don’t blame me for telling everyone how you crawled into Vincent Grant’s bed to force him to marry you!"

His old man was always forcing him to pursue Sophia Shaw, and he was sick to death of it.

He couldn’t stand up to Caleb Croft, so he took it out on the easier target.