The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 260: The Snake Reveals Itself

It was not until the glaring flash on the back of the phone blinked several times in a row, announcing an incoming call that shattered the tranquility, that Julian Sterling was startled into withdrawing his gaze from the design drafts and finally took notice of it.

The screen displayed that it was an incoming call through the application of a popular social networking site. The name appearing on it was clearly a nickname rather than a real name, but deep down, Julian Sterling still felt that this name possessed something rather familiar. Having to furrow his brows in thought for a few seconds, rummaging through his memories, he then realized that the true owner of this social media account was none other than Gabriel Cole.

Here it comes, the target had finally deigned to make an appearance. The cunning old fisherman, who had taken the immense trouble to cast out such a massive and cumbersome net over this entire past period, finally felt that the time was ripe and began the action of pulling in the net.

A flash of cold indifference swept across Julian Sterling’s eyes as he slightly curled his lips into a mocking smile. He was in no rush to answer, deliberately letting the phone ring for several more long chimes, testing the patience of the other party before slowly reaching out a hand to pick up the call.

"Hello?" Julian Sterling’s voice transmitting through the microphone did not sound the least bit enthusiastic or joyful. On the contrary, his tone was lowered, sounding exactly like someone who was being severely overworked and feeling incredibly exhausted and sluggish.

"Greetings to you, Jules, good morning. Calling so unexpectedly this noon, I wonder if I am disturbing your working time?" A male voice, deliberately feigning politeness, came through from the other end of the line.

Speaking truthfully from the very bottom of his heart, Julian Sterling harbored an extreme disgust toward Gabriel Cole taking the liberty to address him by such a sickly sweet nickname as Jules. What sort of intimate relationship did the two of them even possess for that man to dare to have the thick skin to call him by an affectionate name? However, considering that the situation at this moment was still utterly ambiguous, making it entirely inconvenient to bluntly tear off the mask and outright state his displeasure, Julian Sterling ultimately had to silently grit his teeth and endure it, maintaining the bare minimum of politeness as he indifferently replied: "It is fine, I am also taking a short break right now. What is the matter for you to suddenly seek me out?"

"Ever since the previous event where we met and conversed, up until now, I still have not had any opportunity to see you again. I am currently near your company’s area; I wonder if you are free this noon? If possible, let us go out together to have lunch."

Julian Sterling raised his head to take a brief look, there was still about an hour left until the lunch break. He casually picked up a pen on Ethan Caldwell’s desk, twirling it around in his hand, deliberately not answering right away but acting as if he was deep in thought.

"Last time, I still did not get to talk to you much. Regardless, we could be considered acquaintances from before. If you do not remember clearly, there is no harm in us getting to know each other all over again from the beginning."

This time around, Gabriel Cole seemed to have grown wiser; he absolutely did not mention the people of the Sterling family anymore, much less use a sighing tone to play too many emotional cards related to them as he did before. It appeared he had realized that that bunch of rhetoric was utterly useless against him. After a few back-and-forth conversational pushes of a probing nature, Julian Sterling finally apathetically agreed to go out for lunch with Gabriel Cole this noon. He also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to see exactly what kind of net the other party was casting out.

Gabriel Cole’s voice at the other end of the line clearly revealed a sense of joy: "Do you have any place you want to go to? A Western restaurant or traditional cuisine?"

"I am not very familiar with the restaurants around here, you can choose for yourself. It just needs to be a bit close to the Caldwell Empire headquarters building. My afternoon schedule is quite busy." Julian Sterling indifferently rejected the other party’s excessive enthusiasm, establishing an incredibly clear boundary regarding time and location.

"Alright, no problem, I will choose a truly excellent restaurant and send the address via text message to you right away."

Waiting for Gabriel Cole to finish speaking his polite pleasantries, Julian Sterling coldly gave a single sound of acknowledgment before decisively hanging up the phone.

Having finished dealing with the troublesome call bearing the name Gabriel Cole, only then did he cast his eyes back, noticing that quite a few unread message notifications had appeared on the phone screen. There was a work progress report from Lucas Hill , there was a summary of concepts from Seraphina Cole , and naturally, there were also personal messages from Ethan Caldwell.

Even though according to the chronological order displayed, Ethan Caldwell’s messages were located way down below those two pieces of work report messages, following an instinctual habit, Julian Sterling still prioritized tapping into that man’s chat box first.

Ethan Caldwell: [I just finished meeting with the partners, everything is still proceeding well, the exchange process was quite smooth, and they were not overly unpleasant or making unreasonable demands as initially predicted.]

Ethan Caldwell: [I might be able to wrap up the work and fly back earlier than expected.]

Ethan Caldwell: [Remember to be a little careful at home, our person just messaged back that the other side has already begun making moves.] 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Julian Sterling narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing that line of message. "Our person" that Ethan Caldwell mentioned must surely be Daisy Thorne. Because the current method of communication was text messaging via a telecommunications network, the risk of information leakage was always latently present, so for certain sensitive matters, both of them tacitly understood each other’s intentions and absolutely would not state the name outright. If the other side alluded to Gabriel Cole’s faction beginning to stir into action, then the only person capable of being planted to monitor the situation and send a timely reminder message with the highest degree of accuracy could only be Daisy Thorne. The moment he hung up the phone with Gabriel Cole, a warning message arrived immediately.

Julian Sterling lightly tapped the tip of the pen against the wooden surface of the desk in a slow manner, relying on each rhythmic tap to ponder and re-evaluate the entire situation, while simultaneously swiping his finger to continue reading the man’s next messages.