The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 134: Stirring the Muddy Waters
Julian Sterling lay flattened against the mattress, his body devoid of strength. He held the phone pressed tightly against his ear, listening to the tone of voice on the other end of the line. Lucas Hill’s voice was beginning to fray with a distinct edge of grumpiness and dwindling patience, a sound so characteristic of his friend that Julian couldn’t help but let out a soft, amused chuckle.
"Alright, alright, I get it. I know." Julian said, his voice still raspy and thick with sleep: "I was just teasing you."
Every time he laughed, his chest vibrated, sending a dull, aching soreness radiating through his lower back, a lingering reminder of the previous night’s intensity. Yet, despite the physical discomfort, his eyes gleamed in the dim light of the room, sparking with a mischievous, almost devilish light.
"I think I know who the person who received your contract is." Julian added, his tone playful.
On the other end of the line, Lucas let out a loud, dramatic snort that crackled through the speaker, his voice dripping with disdain for his friend’s feigned ignorance.
"Oh, give it a rest, you mastermind. Stop acting innocent for my sake." Lucas retorted sharpishly: "You were the one who planned this whole thing. You were the one who set the trap so that I could deliver that contract to them. Without you pulling the strings, guiding every single step and calculating every move, how could someone like me, a complete nobody with absolutely no reputation in this cutthroat high society, possibly manage to slip something into their hands so smoothly? If you say you don’t know, then who on earth would?"
Julian’s lips curled into a faint, satisfied smirk. His fingers moved unconsciously, tracing aimless, invisible circles on the cold bedsheet beside him. It was the empty space where Ethan Caldwell had lain not long ago. The fabric was cool to the touch now, but the memory of the man’s warmth still lingered in Julian’s mind.
He thought to himself that while Lucas certainly loved to grumble and complain, the man possessed a mind that was surprisingly flexible and sharp when it mattered. Lucas understood the game, even if he pretended to hate playing it.
"And yet." Julian murmured, his voice low: "You actually told me that you thought it wasn’t Cedric Harrington."
"Well, I was just joking around." Lucas admitted, his tone shifting as he continued to ramble: "I honestly thought you were going to make me seek out Cedric directly. But the person I met... God, that guy was stupid. Beyond stupid. He was so dense that I kept doubting myself the whole time we were talking."
Lucas paused, his voice taking on a shade of lingering anxiety, the stress of the encounter clearly not yet fully dissipated: "Earlier, I was genuinely terrified. I was sitting there sweating, worried that I had somehow messed up and approached the wrong person."
"How could it possibly be Cedric?" Julian mumbled, his voice dropping to a whisper as if he were speaking more to himself than to the person on the phone, though it was loud enough for Lucas to catch.
"If that contract had fallen into Cedric’s hands." Julian continued, analyzing the scenario with cold precision: "With that gravel-filled head of his, that sly old fox,he would have spotted the problem in a heartbeat. Knowing him, he wouldn’t have just exposed us. He probably would have edited it into a flawless, legitimate contract, turning our own trap into a stepping stone for his success." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Julian was, after all, trying to cause chaos for Cedric Harrington. How could he possibly be foolish enough to hand the weapon directly to the enemy? That would be tantamount to standing up in a hiding spot and screaming, "I’m right here!" It would be nothing short of offering his own neck to the executioner and gifting his carefully crafted strategy to his adversary.
A heavy sigh escaped Julian’s lips, the sound ragged in the quiet room. A sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over him, making his eyelids feel as heavy as lead. He let his eyes close, allowing his weary body to sink deeper into the plush embrace of the mattress. However, while his body surrendered to the comfort, his mind refused to rest. It began to rewind, replaying the intricate web of calculations and schemes he had so painstakingly arranged.
In truth, at the very beginning, when Julian had first found himself transmigrated into this strange world, he hadn’t paid much attention to Cedric Harrington or the messy, complicated drama of the Harrington family. Back then, he had viewed himself merely as a wandering soul trapped in an unfamiliar shell. He had lived by the simple, non-confrontational motto: "The river water does not violate the well water."
His intentions had been modest. If people didn’t provoke him, he certainly wasn’t bored enough to go around kicking over other people’s rice bowls. All he had wanted was to earn enough money to secure a comfortable future, to live a peaceful, leisurely life far removed from the dog-blood drama of the original plot. He wanted to enjoy the kind of relaxed existence that he had been denied in his previous life.
But, as the old saying went: The tree desires stillness, but the wind will not cease.
Julian had never anticipated the depth of the darkness that lay behind Aaron Sterling. He hadn’t realized that lurking in the shadows of Aaron’s aggressive arrogance and petty, despicable schemes was the towering, formidable figure of Cedric Harrington. The collusion between them was like a nest of snakes and rats, a vile alliance that was as dangerous as it was disgusting.
One was the darling of the heavens, the protagonist whose halo shone with a blinding, unreasonable brightness. The other was the ruthless heir of a massive, powerful dynasty. Of course, at this moment, Julian had no concrete evidence to prove their connection. There was no smoking gun. But a few scattered clues had surfaced, and for someone with Julian’s instincts, those clues were a blaring siren, a clear and present warning of impending danger.
Based on his analysis of the chaotic relationships within the Harrington family, relations as tangled and messy as a ball of yarn played with by a cat, and piecing together the fragmented details he struggled to recall from the original novel, Julian knew one thing for certain: he could not coexist peacefully with these men.
They were predators. They were the kind of people who viewed human lives as nothing more than grass and weeds to be trampled upon if they dared to obstruct their path.
The beloved protagonist of this world, Aaron Sterling, had already made it clear that he wanted Julian dead. Aaron was consumed by a jealous hatred for Julian’s very existence. If the protagonist felt that way, was there any hope that the powerful men backing him, men like Cedric Harrington, would spare Julian?
It was a laughable notion.
For a single frown from Aaron, these men would not hesitate to crush Julian beneath the heels of their expensive leather shoes. They would grind him into dust, turning him into nothing more than a paving stone on the road to their "great and noble" love story.
To save himself, to avoid becoming the tragic cannon fodder destined to meet a miserable end in this twisted narrative, Julian had made a decision. He would strike first. He who strikes first gains the upper hand.
He had to cause trouble for them before they could focus on him. He had to throw a massive boulder into the calm surface of the lake, churning up the mud and clouding the water so thoroughly that they would be too busy dealing with the chaos to aim their sights at him.
After all, the situation had already escalated. Ethan Caldwell had, inadvertently or not, purchased the very piece of land that the Harrington faction had set their sights on.
Although Julian knew perfectly well that the initial reason for the purchase had not originated from him, he was willing to bet everything he owned that the group of people on the other side believed otherwise. He was certain they thought this was all his doing.
