The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 43: A Fox in Sheep’s Clothing

Upon hearing Julian Sterling speak, Richard Sterling slammed his chopsticks onto the table and glared at him: "Is that how you speak to your father? The older you get, the more worthless you become?"

Even Catherine Sterling’s attitude changed, not to mention Edward Sterling. The woman who just moments ago feigned gentleness and benevolence, serving food and caring for Julian, now displayed very clear dissatisfaction. As for Julian’s always biased brother, his face was swollen with anger, his eyebrows furrowed so tightly they could squeeze a fly to death.

If it were the "Julian Sterling" of the past, seeing this scene would likely have made him shrink back, both afraid and resentful. But the Julian now would never do such a thing; he did not care, merely sneering.

"So what if I’m worthless? At least I don’t go out using other people’s reputations to make a profit for myself. And to be so useless that I can’t even get it done, getting warned by the person himself, yet still harboring thoughts of making a quick buck." Julian looked over at Aaron Sterling; this was the first time he had cursed Aaron straight to his face like this: "You talk a big game, cooperative investment. Investment in what? Or should Ethan just hand the land over to you? Calculating profit, ha, construction costs, rental fees are all decided by you, so whether it’s a profit or loss, little or much, you people can cook the books however you want."

"Stop buying news articles to flatter yourself. Young and talented, a brilliant businessman? You couldn’t even negotiate a piece of land, even after dragging out the title of in-laws, yet people still didn’t believe you. You piece of trash."

"Do you hate me that much?" Hearing him say that, Aaron teared up and asked sobbingly. Before Julian could speak, Aaron continued with tears welling in his eyes: "I know you don’t like me. I wanted to buy that land, so you stepped in to snatch it. But that land isn’t small, you shouldn’t make demands of Ethan like that. You two haven’t been married long, and you’ve already made Ethan spend such a large sum. If Grandpa Arthur finds out, he will scold Ethan."

Oh my, would you listen to that. Clearly it was his brother’s husband, yet he opened his mouth with "Ethan" and closed it with "Ethan". People who didn’t know better would think Ethan’s husband was Aaron, not Julian. Every word and sentence seemed to be considering others, while his eyes were brimming with tears, ready to cry. Ugh, did he look any different from those homewreckers lusting after someone else’s husband, pretending to be fragile and weak?

"Aaron, are you stupid so you don’t understand human language, or do you want to be the third party snatching your brother’s husband? I remember very clearly that Ethan told you not to keep calling him ’Ethan’ like that. What about it? Which brother of yours is he exactly? A lover in your imagination?"

"My goodness, even outsiders know shame, and they know to keep their distance from their brother’s husband. But that’s true, there’s no blood relation, so why would Aaron need to care about morality, right? But people with morals don’t just stare fixatedly at someone else’s husband. You should be thankful that the Sterling family is still harboring you, and you haven’t met a fierce woman, otherwise your face would have been smashed in by now."

If they wanted to curse at each other, Julian wouldn’t bother holding back. So what? On paper, he was the legitimate second young master of the Sterling family. Aaron, in the end, was just someone who had been mooching off this house for eighteen years. Even if the Sterling family liked him more, so what? The nature of him being a cuckoo occupying the nest couldn’t be changed.

Ethan Caldwell sat beside him and had to look over; it seemed this was the first time he had seen his baby get so furious, wasn’t it? But for some reason, Ethan felt that Julian was only pretending to be angry; he even thought that maybe after this argument, Julian would have quite a "harvest".

Clearly a pitiful and frail child, but living together for a while made Ethan realize this kid was a fox in sheep’s clothing.

Not a wolf, because he didn’t bare his fangs and claws to harm people. Julian’s nature was like a lazy fox, scheming enough to keep himself comfortable. If no one touched him, he would be an idler, leisurely enjoying his blessings. But if anyone touched Julian even a little bit, he would secretly plot quite a few things, unwittingly harming that person terribly.

Some people think such a person is very petty. But this world is very strange; the more one endures humiliation, the more they suffer disadvantages. Human nature isn’t bad, but there are some who aren’t born very worthy of being human. If one stirs up trouble with others for their own benefit, they must always be ready to bear the consequences.

Hearing Julian scold him with such a barrage, Aaron felt so aggrieved that he burst into loud sobs. His whole face was covered in tears, his eyelashes wet and trembling, looking truly pitiful.

How could someone chosen to be the protagonist be ugly? Therefore, Aaron’s appearance had to be called excellent, partly even overshadowing Julian. He had fair white skin; just a little agitation would make his eyes turn red. The corners of his eyes curved, long eyelashes, plus small, delicate lips. Overall, he looked very beautiful, a beauty that, whether strong or pitiful, made others’ hearts flutter, yet was not effeminate at all.

Thus, those red, watery eyes and that aggrieved expression of wanting to speak but stopping were the weapons that helped Aaron conquer quite a few supporting male characters in the original story. Even the male lead, a god-like figure whose stomp could shake the economy of an entire nation, could not escape this "killer move." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

But it seemed to have absolutely no effect on Ethan Caldwell at all.