The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 135: The Art of Manipulation

In the original story, that specific plot of land was a piece of fat meat that Cedric Harrington had salivated over. It was intended to be a crucial stepping stone, a vital asset that would have allowed him to consolidate his precarious position within the family and expand his power base. The fact that Ethan Caldwell had snatched it away, whether it was a calculated business move or simply a whim to please his partner, had created a massive fissure in Cedric’s grand plan.

Julian didn’t know the deep, underlying reason why Cedric valued that land so obsessively. He didn’t know if it hid some earth-shattering secret, whether it was slated for some covert urban development, if it sat atop a rare mineral deposit, or if it simply possessed exceptionally auspicious feng shui.

Honestly, Julian didn’t care about the secret. He didn’t care about the "why." All that mattered was the leverage it provided and the chaos it caused. By disrupting their plans, he bought himself time, and in this dangerous game of survival, time was the most valuable currency of all.

Julian Sterling lay in the quiet darkness of the room, his mind far more active than his exhausted body. He had no interest in the trivial details of how the events had unfolded, nor did he care about the specific logistics of the transaction. His focus was entirely fixated on the consequences, the inevitable ripple effects that would tear through the fabric of the elite society he was navigating. The fact that the coveted piece of land had slipped through their fingers was not merely a missed business opportunity. It was a catalyst. It was a catastrophe that would undoubtedly drive a sharp, rusted wedge between the Harrington family and the Sterling family.

Aaron Sterling had positioned himself as the bridge, the vital link connecting these two powerful dynasties. He had strutted before Cedric Harrington with the arrogance of a man who believed the world owed him everything, guaranteeing that the land would be secured. He had relied on his family connections, and perhaps even his ability to coerce and manipulate Julian, to deliver on that promise. But now, that land belonged to Ethan Caldwell. The deed was done, the ink was dry, and Aaron’s credibility, once shiny and seemingly unbreakable in Cedric’s eyes, was destined to plummet into the abyss. The foundation of the mutually beneficial relationship between the two houses, built on greed and shared interests, was beginning to crack, swaying precariously like a tower built on shifting sands.

And this... this was precisely the golden opportunity Julian had been waiting for.

It was the opening move in a game he was determined to win, a game played in the shadows where the most dangerous moves were the ones nobody saw coming.

Julian’s eyes narrowed slightly in the dark as he ran the simulation in his mind. What if, at this precise moment of vulnerability, another figure from within the Harrington clan were to step out of the shadows? Consider a scenario where a silent rival, a lurking competitor of Cedric’s within the Harrington empire, suddenly presented a proposal so dazzling, so promising, that it could sway the iron hearts of the Board of Directors.

What if there was a project that proposed continuing the collaboration with the Sterlings, but with a crucial, calculated twist: it would completely disregard the land that Cedric coveted so desperately? What if this hypothetical rival proposed a safer alternative, a plan that promised higher immediate returns and eliminated the risk associated with the lost territory?

To the rest of the world, and specifically to the pragmatic, profit-driven members of the board, land was just dirt and grass. It was an asset, nothing more. If one plot was lost, another could simply be purchased. For those elderly stakeholders who sat in plush leather chairs and cared only for the bottom line of the year-end financial reports and the weight of their dividends, the specific location didn’t matter. They did not possess the strange, almost fanatical obsession with those specific coordinates that consumed Cedric Harrington. To them, business was a numbers game, not an emotional crusade.

Cedric, of course, would be seething. He was a man of immense pride, an arrogant conqueror who believed that whatever he desired must be his by divine right. To have the project changed, to have his primary directive tossed aside like garbage in favor of a "safer" option, would feel like a sharp slap across his face. It would be an insult to his authority.

However, Julian knew the nature of the beast. If the rival proposal was lucrative enough, if it clearly outlined the benefits and immediate revenue, the board would accept it without hesitation. In the cold, hard world of business, profit was king, and sentimentality was a liability.

The beauty of Julian’s trap lay in the invisible constraints it placed on Cedric. The heir to the Harrington empire could not storm into the meeting room and vehemently oppose this new, profitable project. To do so would reveal that he cared far too much about a simple plot of land. It would expose his desperate, irrational desire, and in this world, such visible desire was a weakness, a fatal point for enemies to strike. If he revealed how much he needed that land, his rivals would know exactly where to aim their daggers.

So, what would a man like Cedric do?

He would maneuver from behind the curtain. He would never dirty his own hands with open dissent against a profitable venture. Instead, he would signal for someone on the Sterling side to stand up and object to the new project. He would need a puppet to fight for the "original plan", the one inextricably tied to the land Ethan now owned. And naturally, the sacrificial pawn, the one who would have to stand in the line of fire and scream objections to please his master, would be none other than Aaron Sterling.

Julian could almost see it happening. Aaron would find himself trapped between a rock and a hard place, caught in a dilemma with no easy escape.

On one side, Aaron would have to defend a failed strategy to stroke Cedric’s ego, essentially arguing against the collective interests of both corporations to salvage a dead deal. On the other side stood a fresh, potential-filled project favored by the shareholders and the opposition. Aaron would be squeezed in the middle, suffocating under the pressure.

If Aaron followed Cedric’s unspoken orders, he would offend both the Harrington and Sterling families by obstructing profit and progress. He would look like an incompetent fool clinging to the past. But if he didn’t, if he supported the new plan, he would become useless in Cedric’s eyes, a tool that no longer functioned, ready to be discarded.

In truth, when Julian had first drafted this "bait" of a plan, the trap he had laid out for Lucas Hill to deliver, he hadn’t calculated that Aaron would descend into such madness. He hadn’t expected the kidnapping, the drugging, the filming, the desperate, low-class tactics of a cornered animal. Julian had simply thought in terms of corporate warfare: get the contract to the rivals, and Cedric would be busy for months cleaning up the internal mess.

But now, the outcome seemed even more favorable.

Whether the plan was adopted, modified, or rejected didn’t matter to Julian in the slightest. The document itself was irrelevant, its purpose was to be a virus introduced into the Harrington system.

If they took it seriously, and Cedric actually intervened to "save" the project, he would discover the deliberate loopholes in the rough plan Lucas had handed over. He would have to waste his precious time and burn through his neurons trying to fix a broken structure. Julian had no problem with that. The more energy Cedric wasted, the better.

And if they didn’t discover the flaws? Or what if the opposing faction within the Harrington family deliberately turned a blind eye to the flaws, pushing the project through just to undermine Cedric’s authority?