Time flew by, and a week had passed.
Although Lance provided food regularly, Deanna lost a noticeable amount of weight due to her early departures and late returns every day.
Lance noticed and felt a pang of heartache.
He repeatedly reminded Deanna not to overwork herself.
Deanna would agree in front of him, but then forget as soon as she turned away.
That night, Deanna stayed at the research institute until midnight before coming home.
She thought Lance would be asleep by then, so she carefully pushed open the door to their room.
To her surprise, the moment she stepped inside, the dark room lit up as bright as day.
Lance, whom she thought was asleep, was sitting at the bedside, looking at her with a serious expression.
"Ha, you're still up this late?" Deanna greeted Lance sheepishly.
Lance stared at her without any expression, his deep, dark eyes making her uneasy.
The most unsettling part was that Lance said nothing; he just quietly watched her, making Deanna even more anxious.
As if remembering something, she quickly walked over to Lance and sincerely began to apologize.
"Don't look at me like that; it scares me. I know I was wrong. I'll come back earlier from now on. I swear."
She even made a swearing gesture after speaking.
Lance raised an eyebrow and finally spoke, his voice somewhat cold. "Oh? And what do you mean by 'earlier'? After all, ten o'clock is early, eleven o'clock is early, and even twelve o'clock isn't too late for you."
Deanna felt embarrassed because these were all times Lance had previously set for her to come home, but she had exceeded them all.
Seeing Lance's increasingly displeased face, Deanna quickly tried to appease him. "I promise I'll be back by ten... or maybe twelve..."
She couldn't guarantee being home by ten because sometimes experiments took several hours.
But as soon as she finished speaking, she saw Lance's face darken.
"Twelve?"
Lance's eyes turned even more unfriendly as he stared at Deanna.
Deanna shivered in fear and quickly corrected herself. "Then ten o'clock it is. Ten o'clock. No later. Otherwise, I can't keep up with the project schedule."
Even so, Lance still didn't believe her.
"Can you keep your word?"
"I definitely can!"
Deanna said with certainty.
Lance looked at her intently for a few seconds and then snorted lightly. "I'll trust you one more time. If you don't stick to the time again, I'll have Shannon cut off the power to your research institute every day at the set time."
Hearing his somewhat childish threat, Deanna couldn't help but laugh and also felt relieved.
Even so, she still couldn't stay idle every day.
Though she came home earlier, she would dive into the study to learn professional knowledge right after returning.
Lance was helpless about this.
Deanna knew that during this period, her mind was entirely on the research institute, neglecting her family and the two little ones. But her master had entrusted her with such a significant responsibility and paved a path for her growth; she couldn't let her master down.
Once the project was completed, she would have time to spend with her family and the two children.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as Deanna hoped; unexpected events always cropped up.
Another week passed in the blink of an eye.
That day, she finally finished work early and planned to go home to spend time with the two children.
But when she got home, she found it eerily quiet; even her grandmother wasn't there, which struck her as odd.
She called Sam over to ask, "Did my grandmother take Gregory and Chloe out?"
"Well..." Sam hesitated, seemingly finding it hard to answer.
Seeing this, Deanna realized something was being kept from her and became serious. "What's going on? Is my question that difficult to answer?"
"Missus, you've misunderstood. It's just that Master Gregory ordered us not to say anything to avoid distracting you from your research."
Sam sighed and revealed the orders he had received.
Hearing this, Deanna sensed something was wrong and immediately pressed for details. "What exactly happened?"
Under her questioning, Sam finally dared not hide anything and told the truth.
"Master Gregory fell ill."
"Gregory is sick? When did this happen? What kind of illness? Is it serious?"
Upon hearing that her child was sick, Deanna became anxious and asked a series of questions.
Seeing his worried mistress, Sam quickly reassured her. "Master Gregory's illness isn't serious; he just caught a cold and has a bit of a fever. Fortunately, it was discovered in time. Master sent him to the hospital immediately. He has taken medicine and should be fine now."
Even so, Deanna was still worried.
She asked, "Which hospital is Gregory in? Please arrange a car to take me there."
She wouldn't feel at ease until she saw for herself that Gregory was okay.
Sam understood this and followed her instructions, arranging a driver to take her to the hospital.