My Laravel app started lagging right after the last round of application-code updates, and I’ve traced the slowdown to the database layer. API endpoints that used to respond instantly now hang for several seconds, suggesting something in the new code is triggering inefficient queries or locking issues. Here’s what I need from you: dive into the current codebase, reproduce the slowdown, pinpoint the offending queries or mis-configured relationships, and deliver a clean, well-commented fix. You’re free to tweak Eloquent relationships, query builders, or even suggest indexing changes—whatever it takes to get those endpoints snappy again. Deliverable: a pull-request (or patch) that eliminates the performance bottleneck, with a concise explanation of what went wrong and how you fixed it. I’ll consider the job done when round-trip times on the affected endpoints are back to their previous speed and all unit tests pass. If you’re comfortable profiling Laravel apps and optimizing MySQL/PostgreSQL queries, you’ll feel right at home here. Let’s get this back to full speed.