Tony's Move

While Sherlock was taking action against Obadiah, Tony had not been idle either. Though he was angry that Sherlock had ignored his advice and ideas, Tony was no fool.

Once Tony calmed down and thought it over carefully, Sherlock's suspicions were not without basis. After all, after Sherlock's parents died, Obadiah had undoubtedly been the one who benefited the most.

More than that, if Tony had truly died in the Middle East, then Obadiah would still have been the one who stood to gain the most from all of Stark Industries!

At that thought, Tony found himself agreeing more with Sherlock's speculation. He even felt as though he had wronged Sherlock.

However, as an engineer, even though Tony had begun to suspect his dear uncle, he did not immediately show any hostility. Instead, he had JARVIS begin infiltrating Stark Industries' servers and scanning for anything unusual.

With JARVIS's capabilities, it did not take long for it to report the anomalies it had found to Tony.

"Sir, according to my scan, some blueprints from the weapons manufacturing department were printed and downloaded in violation of regulations. I cannot find any destruction reports in the system."

Hearing JARVIS's words, Tony, being a businessman himself, almost immediately understood what had happened. His brows furrowed slightly as he continued giving JARVIS orders.

"JARVIS, can you trace the source?"

"I'm sorry, sir. The source cannot be traced. All downloads currently originated from the computers of different employees within the company. According to the system, there is no need for further tracking."

JARVIS answered quickly, but after saying that, it paused before offering Tony another suggestion.

"Sir, I can infiltrate the computers and search their logs to identify the source. Do you authorize the intrusion?"

Upon hearing JARVIS's words, the conflicted look on Tony's face was impossible to hide. After a long while, he finally sighed and said to JARVIS,

"Cancel the intrusion. JARVIS, contact Pepper for me. Tell Pepper to prepare a press conference. I'm shutting down Stark Industries' weapons division."

Hearing Tony's words, JARVIS immediately objected.

"I do not recommend handling it this way, sir. According to my calculations, if you announce this decision, Stark Industries' stock price will fall by 53%."

But clearly, Tony did not want to heed JARVIS's advice at that moment. His brows drew together even more deeply, his expression darkened, and he said coldly to JARVIS,

"Execute the order, JARVIS!"

"As you wish, sir."

After acknowledging the order, JARVIS said nothing more. Tony, meanwhile, stared with furrowed brows at the Mark II Armor before him, which was nearly eighty percent complete. Only after a long time did he let out a helpless sigh.

"Uncle Obadiah, I hope you won't disappoint me."

After murmuring those words as if speaking to himself, Tony turned and threw himself back into building the armor.

That was right. Tony had softened. When facing Obadiah, the man who had played the role of an elder ever since both his parents and Sherlock's parents had passed away, Tony had still softened.

Shutting down the weapons division was merely a way to give Obadiah an out over the weapons smuggling.

As long as he shut down the weapons division and stopped Stark Industries from developing any more weapons, he could indirectly prevent weapons smuggling. As far as Tony was concerned, as long as Obadiah was willing to turn back and cut his losses in time—

Even if Obadiah truly had been the mastermind behind Tony's kidnapping in the Middle East, Tony could tolerate it. He would even allow Obadiah to remain in his position as a senior executive at Stark Industries.

What Tony did not know was that Obadiah's ambitions went far beyond merely being a senior executive at Stark Industries. In the end, Tony's mercy could only be wasted on someone who did not appreciate it.

After Pepper received Tony's message, although she had no idea why Tony would make such a decision at this time, as Tony's secretary, she carried out his orders perfectly.

At that moment, neither Sherlock standing at his front door nor Obadiah on his way home knew that a storm was brewing.

Only after Pepper brought doro to Tony's mansion after work and saw Tony's expression did she vaguely guess that something was wrong.

However, Pepper did not question Tony. She simply took care of doro and prepared dinner.

But when Pepper saw that Tony, whose frown was deep enough to crush flies, remained silent even after dinner, she spoke to doro out of concern.

doro, who had always followed Sherlock's instructions to stay away from Tony, scrunched up her little face and thought for a long time after hearing Pepper's request. In the end, she still yielded to the grand promises Pepper had painted for her. Looking back every few steps, she walked over to Tony and said awkwardly,

"Human, Sister asked doro to hug you. doro agreed to Sister's request, so now doro is here to hug you. Human, don't be troubled anymore."

As doro spoke, she stretched out her chubby little hands toward Tony. The sight instantly smoothed out Tony's clouded brow. He immediately reached out and pulled doro into his arms.

When doro's jelly-like body was held in Tony's embrace, an inexplicable sense of happiness instantly filled his heart. Smelling the milky scent mixed with orange on doro's body, Tony suddenly felt wronged, and his eyes reddened unconsciously.

Though doro was not very intelligent, she was highly sensitive to emotions. She immediately reached out with her chubby little hands, rubbed Tony's face, and tugged at the corners of his mouth before saying,

"Human, Sherlock told doro that as long as you smile more, unhappiness can fly away! Human, you can try smiling more."

After saying that with heartfelt emotion, she wrapped her arms around Tony's neck. Tony could feel doro's soft little hands patting his neck again and again.

Tony immediately put on an expression as though he were laughing through tears. Holding doro, he said irritably,

"That bastard Sherlock, with all his twisted sense of humor, really doesn't deserve a little sweetheart like you! Damn it, how am I supposed to snatch this little sweetheart away from that bastard Sherlock?"

Hearing Tony's complaint, doro did not look up. She merely spoke softly against Tony's shoulder.

"Human, you can't do that. doro is Sherlock's family, and also Sister's family."

Those words made Tony's expression even more complicated, and his eyes grew redder still. Just then, Pepper came up behind Tony and gently hugged him as well, whispering in his ear,

"Tony, no matter what happens, we will always stand by your side."