Andrew had just finished washing up and lay down on the bed, but before he could settle in, he was interrupted by a voice call from Ethan.
"Are you crazy? It's almost one in the morning, and you're still not asleep?"
"Sleep my foot. They want to review the footage to see whose fault it was for losing so many rounds today."
"Fine, let's watch."
Ethan shared his screen, playing the recording of the games they played during the day so they could watch together and start grilling each other.
The moment they started, it was Ethan's own 'brilliant' moves that came up first.
"Damn it, you can miss a shot even when you're camping behind cover?"
"An accident, just an accident."
"Wow! A poet! Can't even hit a single shot, truly not a poet!"
Andrew accompanied Ethan and the others in reviewing the footage for over an hour. The conclusion was that everyone except him and Stark was not human.
"I'm done watching. Watching your awful plays is making me hungry."
After hanging up, Andrew lay on the bed wanting to sleep, but after the usual time for sleep passed, he tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. So, he picked up his phone again to scroll through videos.
Finally, it was past five in the morning, and the sky was starting to lighten, when Andrew felt sleepy and dozed off on the bed.
As for the alarm he had set for eight o'clock, it had long become useless, let alone replying to Scarlett's messages.
In the evening, Scarlett pushed the door open and walked into the room. Seeing no sign of activity, she naturally assumed Andrew had gone out to play.
So, she sent him a message asking when he would be back. But after changing her shoes and sitting on the sofa for a while, she still hadn't received a reply.
Counting the messages from last night, Andrew hadn't contacted her for almost an entire day, which made Scarlett a bit worried.
"Where did this Little Fellow run off to? Why isn't he even replying to messages? Could something have happened to him?"
The more Scarlett thought, the more worried she became. All sorts of strange possibilities appeared in her mind.
Could he have been in a car accident on the road?
Or perhaps he was tricked by someone, knocked out, and taken to a desolate place to have his kidney harvested?
Or maybe this Little Fellow was targeted by some bad woman and locked up in a dark room?
Scarlett grew more and more anxious. After pacing back and forth for a while, she couldn't stand it anymore.
"No, I have to go look for him. Something absolutely cannot have happened."
Just as Scarlett was about to change her shoes to go out, a 'thud' suddenly came from inside the room.
Scarlett followed the sound and saw Andrew sprawled out on the bed, fast asleep. The sound she just heard was his phone falling onto the floor
Seeing Andrew at home, Scarlett's first reaction was relief; at least nothing bad had happened.
Then she became puzzled, "Why is he sleeping until now in the afternoon?"
While murmuring, Scarlett picked up Andrew's phone and happened to see an unread message from her just sent, along with several other miscellaneous notifications.
At first, Scarlett didn't think much of it, but then an idea flashed through her mind.
"That's not right!"
Scarlett took another look at Andrew's phone lock screen. The earliest notification on it started from nine in the morning.
If he had opened his phone, all these notifications would have definitely disappeared.
Thinking this, Andrew had been sleeping from at least nine in the morning until now.
"Could it be that he didn't sleep at all last night?"
Realizing this, Scarlett couldn't help but frown.
She didn't wake Andrew up. Instead, she sat beside him, wanting to see how late he would sleep.
Time passed second by second. By the time it was completely dark, Scarlett was getting sleepy herself, but Andrew hadn't woken up.
Scarlett nodded off so hard she almost fell onto Andrew's bed.
She quickly shook her head to clear her head, then checked the time and realized it was already seven in the evening.
She finally couldn't hold back, reached out, grabbed Andrew's arm directly, and pulled him up, "Wake up, stop sleeping."
"Huh???"
Andrew groggily opened his eyes, saw that it was still dark outside, and immediately flopped back down, "It's not light yet, let me sleep a little longer."
Scarlett looked at this scene and let out a small laugh.
She was laughing out of anger.
"Stop sleeping! Get up!"
Scarlett pulled him up with one hand and patted Andrew's face a few times with the other. The force was just right, not painful, but enough to wake him up.
After being slapped a few times like that, Andrew finally woke up. He managed to open his eyes slightly and looked at Scarlett in the dimly lit room. He hadn't realized anything yet and mumbled drowsily,
"Teacher, why are you back so early? It's not even light outside yet."
"That's because the sun just set."
Scarlett bit her lip, doing her best to suppress her anger.
At that moment, she thought that if Andrew were her son, he would definitely be getting a beating right now. But she forgot that she wanted to produce his son.
"Ah?"
"Snap out of it and sit up straight."
At Scarlett's sharp rebuke, Andrew sobered up considerably.
Scarlett stood up and turned on the bedroom light. The sudden brightness made Andrew squint to adjust, and he happened to see his phone on the nightstand, displaying the time.
[September 21st, Sunday, 19:08]
What the hell? It's already evening? I slept for a whole day?
Only then did Andrew realize he had slept for an entire day.
Before he could start making excuses, Scarlett spoke first in a cold voice.
"I'm asking you! What time did you go to sleep last night?"
"Well..."
"Think carefully before you answer!"
Scarlett added coldly, glaring at Andrew, which scared away all the excuses he had prepared.
"Okay... I think I fell asleep around the time the sky was about to get light."
"What did you promise me yesterday during the day?" Scarlett asked.
"I promised to sleep early."
"And you?"
"Mmm..."
Seeing Scarlett's angry expression, Andrew hesitated for a moment before putting on a playful grin, trying to placate her, "Hehe, I slept in the morning, so that counts as sleeping early too, right?"
However, there wasn't a hint of a smile on Scarlett's face. Her expression was so cold that Andrew quickly dropped his playful demeanor.
At this point, Scarlett's fury was on the verge of exploding. She had returned home terrified, worrying about Andrew, only to find out he had stayed up all night, slept all day, and was now still acting playfully with her.
If it were anyone else who angered Scarlett this much, they would probably be ready for a corpse collection right now.
Hold back. Can't get too angry. It's normal for a child to make a mistake once, but this time he definitely needs to be taught a proper lesson so he knows he was wrong.
"Should I tell your mother that you stayed up all night?" Scarlett said coldly.
"Don't! Teacher! Please don't tell my mom! If you do, I'll be eating dust next month!"
Andrew naturally wasn't afraid of being scolded or beaten; he was afraid of losing his living expenses. His iron-willed mother always kept her word.
Although he still owed Scarlett a lot of money she lent him, that was for building his AI Assistant and starting his business, so it couldn't be used for other purposes, not to mention he had to pay it back later.
Seeing Andrew's pleading look, Scarlett put down her phone, "Then be serious."
"Okay."