William Carter’s lips curled up slightly.

“What do you mean, a dog that’s afraid of water? It goes to bed at exactly two every night, more punctual than you, and if I don’t take it out for a day, I feel uneasy.”

“……”

The other person was quite a talker, chattering on for a long while, seemingly trying to persuade James Bennett to attend a banquet or something else. But William Carter couldn’t hear the rest, because James Bennett had already walked back to his own desk.

After that, no matter what the other person said, he would simply end the topic with just a word or two—

“No.”

“No time.”

“In court.”

William Carter savored it for a moment and still felt the other person’s voice sounded a bit familiar.

But before he could recall who it was, James Bennett had already cut off the call and looked over. “Finished reading the manual? Anything you want to ask?”

William Carter shook his head, then seemed to remember something and paused halfway: “Oh, wait a moment.”

After speaking, he tapped his smart ring, pulled up the asset card interface, glanced at the balance, and instantly felt suffocated. After a round at the black market, he did a quick calculation—he didn’t have enough money left to last a week.

So he looked up and smiled at James Bennett, “I have a question.”

James Bennett lifted his chin, signaling him to go on.

“Can the salary be paid in advance?”

“……”

James Bennett looked at him, expressionless and silent for a moment, then said, “You spent all that time and came up with just this one question?”

“Uh…” Even the thick-skinned Professor Carter felt his face was about to give out.

Two seconds later, James Bennett calmly dialed an internal call and said, “Fitz, help me transfer three months’ salary to this intern, then ask him to go straight home.”

William Carter: “……”

He must have eaten some spoiled leftovers last night to think he might get along well with Bennett.

Chapter 4 Intern (Part Four)

Where on earth did this habit of sending people home at the drop of a hat come from???

It certainly wasn’t something I taught. William Carter thought to himself.

He would never “invite someone to go home” with a face full of forbearance when angry—he always told people to get lost with a smile.

But right now, he couldn’t leave; he hadn’t even seen a single punctuation mark of the explosion case file.

William Carter glanced at the still-open holographic screen… 10:15. From the moment he was assigned to James Bennett until now, it had been 1 hour and 11 minutes in total. This was probably a new record at Southern Cross Law Firm—

Getting ruthlessly dismissed just one hour after reporting in—unheard of.

Maybe it was because things had turned so quickly and completely out of expectation that William Carter didn’t feel angry at all. In fact, he wanted to laugh…

He was actually a rather uninhibited person—he did whatever he wanted, so he really did let his lips curl up.

So, just as James Bennett turned around after ending the call, he saw the intern who was about to be sent home smiling, with a faint, pleasant smile at the corners of his eyes and mouth.

James Bennett: “……”

Not good.

William Carter instantly wiped the smile off his face, his gaze dropping to his fingertips. He used his fingers to push aside the semi-transparent holographic screen in front of him, then looked up at James Bennett again. “I’m very sorry…”

Sorry, my ass!

William Carter felt that those cold features were clearly saying that, but James Bennett only pressed his thin lips together, frowned at him, then simply turned his eyes away without saying a word, as if even one more glance would shorten his life.

The lawyer’s desk computer chimed several times in a row, then started spitting out holographic pages, piling up in front of James Bennett without stopping. He really did look busy.

Fitz rushed upstairs amid the barrage of notification sounds.

The sharp, hurried sound of high heels was like going into battle, only fading when she stepped onto the gray plush carpet of James Bennett’s office, coming to an abrupt halt.

“Bennett? I was a bit confused just now. I was halfway through the paperwork when I suddenly realized. What’s up with this intern? You’re sending him home after just one hour?”

James Bennett tossed the file in his hand aside, and the holographic pages automatically returned to their original place.

“I told you I’m not suited to mentoring interns.”

Huh?

William Carter was stunned.

He thought James Bennett would just throw out his recent behavior as the reason. But thinking back, James Bennett had always been like this—never explaining much about anything, rarely telling a third party who did what and why, so whatever he did… even if the reason was perfectly justified.

This was almost the opposite of what mattered in court. Maybe it was some kind of occupational quirk. Some lawyers get more argumentative in private life, always laying out facts and evidence. But he was the complete opposite.

When James Bennett spoke, he didn’t even glance at William Carter, as if that one frown earlier had been more than enough.

But Fitz wasn’t convinced: “But Adams already persuaded you an hour ago, didn’t he? You read the intern’s file and agreed. He said that even though you were reluctant and gave him a hard time, you still agreed in the end. His exact words—I didn’t change a thing.”

William Carter was even more surprised.