Chapter 3The Genius Slacker

I slept until noon the next day, opening my eyes in a completely unfamiliar room.

Not a hint of panic.

When I was little, I once followed my dad to butcher a pig in the middle of the night. On the way back in the early hours, I was so sleepy.

I saw a haystack on the side of the road, fell into it, and went to sleep.

My dad, walking ahead, suddenly looked back and found his big daughter missing. He broke out in a cold sweat.

My mom nagged him about it for over a month, and young Leo gained a new task because of it.

—Keep an eye on me, don't let me fall asleep randomly anywhere.

When I went downstairs, Arthur and Grace were already sitting at the dining table.

Arthur looked up, saw me, and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

He'd never seen anyone sleep like a corpse on a bed, impossible to wake up.

If I hadn't still been warm to the touch, he really would have taken me to the hospital.

After I sat down, Arthur asked a couple of concerned questions and told me to make a list if I needed anything, and he'd have his assistant buy it.

Opposite me, Grace bit her lip, looking like she wanted to say something but was holding back.

Naturally, I wouldn't initiate a conversation.

Whoever can make me say an extra word is a true master.

Leo had knelt and begged me to talk to him countless times.

When all the dishes were brought out, I slowly picked at the one dish right in front of me.

Arthur looked at me once, then again, and finally couldn't hold back:

"There are so many dishes, why are you only eating that one?"

He paused, his tone softening a bit.

"This is your home. Don't be formal. Eat whatever you want."

Grace seemed to be waiting for this exact opportunity. Hearing this, she immediately put food in my bowl.

"Sister, you haven't eaten these before. Try them all. I know your family were butchers..."

She gasped, covering her mouth with an "Ah," and looked at me, blinking her eyes.

"Sister, I didn't mean it, and I don't look down on butchers. It's just that living in a place like that, you must have suffered a lot. Now that you're back in the Sterling family, it's different.

"Sister, tell me whatever you want to eat, and I'll definitely have Maria make it for you."

After speaking, she stared at me, waiting for my reaction. I gave a flat "Oh."

"Thanks."

She waited a bit, the smile on her face stiffening.

I paused, turned to look at Arthur: "It's too far. Raising my hand is tiring."

Arthur froze for a second before realizing this was the answer to his question from just now.

He was caught between laughter and tears.

"Just raising your hand..."

My phone dinged constantly. Someone was continuously sending messages. Seeing me completely ignore it, Arthur reminded me.

"Aren't you going to look?"

"No need." I didn't even lift my head, continuing to bury myself in my food.

Grace's eyes flickered. She suddenly reached out and picked up my phone, looking as if she were considering things for me.

"What if it's an emergency? Even though sister is back in the Sterling family, you can't just cut off ties with the people you knew before."

Saying this, she casually tapped on the phone, and instantly, a series of wails pierced our ears through the screen.

"Sis, help me, my sis!

"This woman is a demon! Staying up all night writing a pig farming business plan! Just the postpartum care regulations for sows has a hundred rules! A hundred!

"She also said she wants to expand the scale of our family's pork stall, aiming to open a factory in half a year and go public in three years.

"She dragged me out of bed at six in the morning to do health assessments on each pig, and then led all the pigs in aerobic exercises!

"I don't want to be tied to pigs for the rest of my life.

"And I definitely don't want to be the young master of a slaughterhouse, not even a publicly traded one!"