The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 95: A Brewing Storm

Although Dahlia Thorne’s situation was important because it had an influence on Gabriel Cole’s side, Ethan Caldwell had a more pressing matter to attend to immediately: the collaboration with Iris Visuals to expand into a new market. His trip abroad this time was primarily to negotiate this specific issue.

Fortunately, the trip that took several days was not a waste. Ethan had signed a cooperation contract with The Olympus Group, although the various terms and conditions had not yet been fully clarified. To call it a signed contract was perhaps too generous, it was more accurate to say it was a written commitment to cooperate with legal validity. It did not carry a guarantee regarding profit-sharing rights, nor did it ensure that The Olympus Group would exert one hundred percent of their capabilities to assist the Caldwell family.

These matters still depended on how far this current project could develop, as well as whether it was truly valuable enough for The Olympus Group to invest so much effort and resources.

While on the plane, Ethan had calculated that after landing, he would find Julian Sterling to negotiate the issues related to the contract. Unexpectedly, as soon as he stepped out of the airport gate, he heard the news that Julian had encountered trouble. Handling everything up until now had caused him to lose a significant amount of time.

Ethan looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time, so he went down to the kitchen, placed a small pot of porridge on the hydrothermal warmer, and then returned to the bedroom. Inside the room, Julian was sleeping very obediently; his chest rose and fell gently with his breathing, and his cheeks were still slightly flushed.

Ethan watched for a while, then he could not resist lowering his head to kiss the younger man on the forehead, speaking in a low voice: "Sweetheart, wake up."

The person lying on the bed seemed to be disturbed. He made a humming sound and squirmed a few times, waving his hand as if he wanted to chase away the person who was buzzing beside his ear. Julian’s sleeping appearance was adorable, always looking somewhat petulant and clingy, causing Ethan to chuckle a few times.

After that, he pulled this lazy little worm completely into his arms, kissed his cheeks, and said continuously: "Wake up, little pig. Didn’t you say you didn’t want to go to sleep earlier?"

Being constantly pestered by Ethan, Julian finally opened his eyes with difficulty. He pouted, his vision was not yet clear, but out of habit, he relied on Ethan and rubbed his head against the man’s neck.

"You are so noisy. I want to sleep."

"Be good, wake up and eat a little, then you can go back to sleep, okay?"

Julian did not answer, but he seemed to be a bit more awake. Ethan coaxed him a little longer, and it was not until nearly ten minutes later that Julian sulkily went into the bathroom to wash his face, while Ethan went down to the kitchen to ladle out the porridge.

When Ethan returned, Julian was fully awake. He was sitting leaning against the headboard, an open laptop resting on his stomach, typing something on the phone in his hand. Seeing Ethan come up, Julian turned his head to look at him and beamed with a bright smile.

"What is it?" Ethan walked closer. Julian did not answer immediately but signaled for him to bend down, then kissed him on the cheek.

The atmosphere became significantly gentler and warmer.

Julian took the bowl of porridge from Ethan’s hand, eating while opening the laptop for him to see: "Here is the master plan for the project that I preliminarily completed while you were abroad. Of course, it is not a detailed plan, only the core priorities and a preliminary summary of the market for us to note. Waiting until the negotiation with Iris Visuals is successful, we need to establish a team specifically in charge of this project, and only then can both sides develop detailed plans."

Ethan read the document while unable to resist teasing: "So confident that the negotiation will be successful?"

"Of course." Seeing Ethan looking at him, Julian bit the spoon, his voice vague but unable to hide his confidence: "If it doesn’t work out, Seraphina will find a way to push for the cooperation to succeed anyway." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Ethan flicked Julian’s nose: "You, don’t rely on other people like that."

"So what? Let me tell you, this time she suggested a lot of ideas for me to develop the project." As Julian spoke, he presented a few special points in the plan for Ethan to hear. At this moment, Ethan noticed that the plan was indeed drafted with many segments approached from very new perspectives.

While Ethan pondered that information, Julian finished the bowl of porridge. He placed the empty bowl on the bedside table and burrowed completely into Ethan’s embrace, resting his head on the man’s chest and yawning twice.

At this point, Ethan no longer looked at the laptop but rested his chin on Julian’s jet-black hair, his voice deep: "Tired?"

"No, I just feel a bit groggy from sleeping too much. How are things on your end?"

"Just normal, but there is something I think you will be very interested in." Ethan stopped there. Sure enough, the head resting on his chest moved, and when Ethan looked down, he met Julian’s glistening eyes.

"What is it?"

"Do you remember Jason Harrington?"

"Jason Harrington... hmm, the grandson who abandoned his girlfriend to marry a child from a wealthy family and was almost kicked out of the house by Mr. Harrington of Helios Technologies?"

"Mm... The story is this..."

Ethan leisurely recounted the information that Helen Lloyd had reported to him earlier for Julian to hear. Initially, Julian listened very engrossedly, as if preparing to hear a scandal about the upper class. However, the more he listened, the more his brows furrowed, and finally, he fell into deep thought.

"Have you arranged to meet that person yet?"

"Yes, I told Helen to arrange it. Depending on her side, we might meet Dahlia Thorne before negotiating with Iris Visuals."

"I want to go too." Julian requested, and Ethan did not refuse. Since he had decided to tell Julian, it was obvious that this meeting would definitely include him.