Chapter 257 Taking the Child to Work

Chapter 258 Astonishing Talent for Business

When Sophia was five, something happened that surprised everyone.

After work that day, Ethan took her home and stopped by the supermarket on the way.

Sophia sat in the shopping cart, holding the shopping list in her little hands. After studying it carefully for a moment, she looked up and said, "Dad, the total on this list is seven point five percent more expensive than last time we bought these things."

Ethan froze. "How did you figure that out?"

Sophia tilted her head, blinking. "Just add them up and divide. It's easy."

When Ethan got home, he told Anna about it.

Anna thought he was exaggerating at first, but the next day she deliberately pulled out the household bills and asked Sophia to help organize them. She discovered that not only could the kid calculate, but she was fast, and her logic was crystal clear.

Two days later, Ethan brought her to the office. Sophia sat in her dad's office chair, flipped through a quarterly report from the finance department, circled a few spots with a colored pencil, and said, "Dad, this number doesn't match the one before it. It's wrong."

Ethan took a look, and sure enough, the finance department had made an error in the data. The difference was tiny, but Sophia had spotted it right away.

Word spread around the company, and everyone looked at Sophia with a mix of envy and amazement.

Anna and Ethan didn't deliberately cultivate anything—they just followed her interests.

Sophia loved numbers, so they bought her all kinds of math picture books and logic game books. While other kids had fairy tales for bedtime stories, hers were math problems, and she absolutely loved it, always wanting one more after finishing one.

When she reached kindergarten age, Sophia's teacher had a talk with Anna.

The teacher carefully chose her words for a long time before finally saying, "Your daughter... might need more challenging content."

Translation: she was too smart, the kindergarten material was too easy for her, and she spent every day spacing out in class.

It got even more extreme in elementary school. By third grade, Sophia was already reading middle school textbooks, and by fifth grade, she'd finished all the high school math.

She never skipped a grade—not because she couldn't, but because Ethan didn't want her to. He hoped his daughter could have a complete childhood without carrying too much too early.

But some things can't be held back.

When Sophia was ten, one day she was in Ethan's office flipping through a budget proposal for a new project. After reading it carefully from start to finish, she said in a casual tone, "Dad, I think this project's costs could be cut by another ten percent."

Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"The supplier's quote is inflated. The same materials from a different vendor would be twelve percent cheaper." She put the proposal on the desk, her expression serious. "And the shipping route could be optimized too. The current plan takes a huge detour—change it and you could save three days."

Ethan looked at the points she'd circled and said nothing. He picked up the desk phone, called the project team, and told them to recalculate based on what Sophia said.

When the project team finished recalculating, they'd saved twelve point seven percent.

Ethan hung up the phone and looked at Sophia, who was still eating strawberries with her head down. He was silent for a long while.

That evening, he had a talk with Hopie.

"Dad wants to ask you something." Ethan sat down, his tone formal. "What do you think about the company's future?"

Hopie didn't even hesitate before laughing. "Give it to Sophia. I can't do it—looking at those numbers gives me a headache."

Ethan paused. "You don't want to run it?"

"No." Hopie shook her head, her tone certain. "Besides, Sophia was born to do this."

Ethan fell silent.

Hopie smiled and stood up, patting his shoulder. "Dad, I think you should go ask my sister if she agrees first."

The next day at breakfast, Ethan asked Sophia.

Sophia was poking at a half-cooked fried egg on her plate with her fork. When she heard the question, she looked up, her eyes lighting up.

"Really?"

Looking at her bright eyes, Ethan felt all his previous worries were unnecessary.

"Yes, but you need to finish your egg first."

Sophia picked up her plate and stuffed the fried egg into her mouth in two or three bites, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster. After chewing for a while, she finally swallowed. "Can I sit in on the weekly meeting at the office today?"

Ethan glanced at Anna.

Anna held her coffee cup in front of her shocked expression.

She and Ethan were smart too, but not this ridiculously smart.

When Sophia was in high school, she officially started participating in some of the company's decisions.

She didn't hold any title—she just went to the office with Ethan on weekends, sat in on meetings, reviewed reports, and occasionally offered suggestions.

Every suggestion she made was scarily accurate, as if she could see through the numbers to what lay behind them. The executives were completely convinced by this teenage girl—no one treated her like a kid.

Hopie chose art as her college major. After graduation, she didn't join Gray Corporation but instead took over Anna's design studio.

She grew the brand her mom had built from scratch even bigger, opening two branch companies. The style built on Anna's original foundation while adding her own new ideas, and the market response was surprisingly good.

After Anna completely handed the studio over to Hopie, Ethan gradually transferred company matters to Sophia.

The transition went more smoothly than anyone expected.

Sophia seemed born to sit in that position. The first thing she did was reorganize the company's supply chain system, cutting costs by another twelve points.

The second thing was developing a completely new business division that turned profitable within six months.

When Ethan sat in the back of the conference room watching her run executive meetings, he felt a strong sense of unfamiliarity—was this person in a suit sitting in the head seat and talking confidently really the same little bundle who used to play with blocks on his office carpet?

But he was also very relieved—he could finally take Anna and have some time just for the two of them.

After completely handing the company over to Sophia, he bought a yacht. It wasn't huge, but big enough for him and Anna.

The yacht had a kitchen, a study, a small screening room, and two lounge chairs on the deck. He named the yacht "Anna."

Their first stop was Northern Europe. They rode rubber boats on Iceland's glacial lakes, drank under the Northern Lights in Norway wrapped in the same blanket, and lay side by side counting stars in a glass igloo in Finland.

Anna's hair was blown messy by the wind, and Ethan reached out to tuck the stray strands behind her ear.

In the evening, they anchored the yacht in the middle of some unknown waters, turned off the engine, and let the waves gently rock the boat.

There was nothing around them—just sea and sky. The sunset burned the sky a brilliant orange-red, dyeing the sea surface a sheet of flowing gold.

Anna sat at the bow, barefoot, her ankles submerged in the cool seawater.

The wind blew her hair around. She tucked the scattered strands behind her ear. Ethan came out of the cabin holding two glasses of red wine, handed one to her, and sat down beside her.

His shoulder touched hers as they watched the sun slowly sink into the horizon.

"Where else do you want to go?" Ethan asked.

Anna leaned on his shoulder, thought for a moment, and said, "Everywhere."

"Then let's keep going." Ethan turned his head and kissed her forehead. "We've got plenty of time anyway. Wherever you want to go, I'll go with you."

The sea breeze swept across the deck, and the boat swayed gently.

The sunset finally sank completely, the sky changing from orange-red to deep purple, slowly revealing the first star.

Their journey continued.