Meanwhile, back in Solaris, the news of Matthias’ return soon traveled to Tony’s ears. However, what surprised Tony was that Heather didn’t come back with him.
Ever since Matthias returned to Solaria, he had been wearing a sulky face every day. His handling of company matters had become increasingly harsh and resolute. Initially, the working atmosphere in Locke Group was rather relaxed. However, due to the sudden change in Matthias’ mood, the atmosphere of the entire company became gloomy too.
Nikolai had already expected this to happen. He was in a state of shock when Matthias had asked him to book him a flight back home. After that, he couldn’t reach the latter by phone at all. He also never replied to his messages, even when Nikolai had sent them through various channels.
As such, Nikolai guessed that Matthias had a fight with Heather. Even then, he still bought two flight tickets just in case. Alas, Matthias still came back alone toward the end. From that moment, Nikolai knew things had gotten serious when he picked Matthias up from the airport.
Matthias’ face was scaringly stiff. At that time, Nikolai wanted to bring up some relaxing topics to ease the tension, but the latter had started a serious conversation before he could speak up.
“Any recent updates from Locke Group?” Matthias asked Nikolai in a stern manner.
“It’s very complicated. I’m afraid I can’t explain it to you right now,” Nikolai answered awkwardly. He felt pressured being asked such a question right after they met.
“Just summarize it. You don’t have to go through the details.” Matthias insisted Nikolai give him a summary. This was truly a difficult task for Nikolai as he wouldn’t be able to summarize everything within such a short time.
Matthias fixated his eyes on Nikolai, who quietly lowered his head after receiving the pressure from Matthias’ gaze. Matthias narrowed his eyes as he was annoyed seeing Nikolai’s reaction. “Nikolai, have you forgotten my command to you?” Matthias questioned him angrily.
Nikolai lowered his head even more. Indeed, he hadn’t taken Matthias’ exhortation to heart. All this while, he had obviously been relying on Matthias with the perception that the latter would have everything handled even if some issues occurred.
Although he had perceived Matthias’ intention to let him deal with things independently, Nikolai didn’t want to officially do things on his own. Matthias, however, had a totally opposite reaction toward this action of his, resulting in Nikolai being extremely flustered.
All this while, Nikolai had been obediently carrying out tasks according to Matthias’ orders, and he had lost the ability to think independently. Now that Matthias suddenly requested him to do so, there was no way he could do that.
“Lift up your head. You’re getting more irresponsible,” Matthias rebuked disappointedly. He hadn’t lectured Nikolai in a long while, so Nikolai felt like he was being thrown into hell hearing Matthias’ strict remarks.
“Where’s Lara?” Matthias was surprised to not see Lara. By right, she should be the one coming to pick him up.
“She has some matters to attend to in the company,” Nikolai answered guiltily. He didn’t even dare to lift his head to look at Matthias.
“What happened in the company?” Matthias didn’t expect to receive this kind of news right after stepping back into the country, which made him even fretful.
“Some people are stirring up trouble in the company, so Lara is resolving it.” Truth was, Nikolai couldn’t handle the situation at all, so he pushed it to Lara. Even Nikolai himself thought he was such a failure as a man.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” Matthias was even more irritated, growing more disappointed in Nikolai’s actions.
“Lara didn’t want you to worry, so she asked me not to tell you,” Nikolai mumbled timidly. He had truly pissed Matthias off this time, and he didn’t even know how to respond to him.
“Did you think you would be able to hide such matters from me?” Matthias really wanted to crack Nikolai’s brain to take a look at what was in it.
Nikolai stuttered, for he was truly at a loss for words. Matthias’ words actually made him uncomfortable, making Nikolai reflect upon his own problems. Lately, he had indeed spent too much energy on some issues even though he was aware Locke Group was in a critical period.
“Your heart has not been about work at all recently. I have no idea what exactly happened to you, but you shouldn’t let it affect your performance at work.” Matthias realized his words were a little too harsh just now, so he adjusted his tone as he didn’t want to be too fierce with Nikolai.
To think about it, Matthias actually regretted dragging Nikolai into the business circle because the latter was an emotional and artistic person to begin with. As such, Matthias was thinking if he should have a talk with Nikolai. Back then, he thought what he did was for Nikolai’s benefit, but now it seemed like he might be wrong.
The two of them quickly arrived back at the company, and it just so happened that Matthias caught Lara looking all anxious. As such, he quickly walked over to her. He knew all the people who were causing trouble were the mid-level managers in the company. By right, they should be a rational group of staff, so why did they come to cause a scene at the director’s office?
The calm look on their faces subsided a little when they saw Matthias. On the other hand, Matthias glared coldly at them while wearing a half-smile.
“Don’t you all have tasks to complete today?” Matthias’ voice was cold. His mood was already unpleasant to begin with, yet this group of people still wanted to cause trouble at this point in time.
“Director Locke,” one of them who seemed to be the leader greeted Matthias politely.
“So, you do remember that I’m the director of Locke Group.” Matthias curled his lips in disdain.
That person lowered his head with guilt. He, too, did not have the guts to look Matthias in the eye. Today, Matthias was indeed different from how he was in his usual days, especially his eyes; it was as if his eyes were piercing through their flesh. Initially, they were all staring at Matthias, but after he walked into the office, no one dared to even make eye contact with him.
“So what’s your problem? Come in and tell me,” Matthias said while opening his office door.
Before this, Lara had been stopping them from barging into the director’s office, but now when Matthias actually invited them to come in, none of them dared to come forward. Matthias turned around and looked at them. “Don’t you all have something to complain about? Why are you still standing there? Shall I escort you in personally?”
Hearing that, the leader took a step forward, and it was only then that the others followed suit. Seeing this, Matthias roughly knew that this ruckus was planned. Seeing how obvious that there was a leader, Matthias reckoned someone must be instigating this group of employees in the dark.
Matthias sat in the chair and waited for them to come over. It would only take a few steps to walk into his office, yet the managers took around two minutes to muster the courage to walk into it. Matthias stared at them coldly as they approached him.
In the past, Matthias would invite them to take a seat. After all, he had always remained friendly on the surface despite his fierceness deep down. But today, he had directly put away his disguise. His face was so gloomy and terrifying that none dared to look at him at all.
“I didn’t ask you to take a seat,” Matthias said to one of the managers who took a seat self-consciously.
Matthias knew straight away this person was the laziest among this group of managers. He would be the first person to sit down whenever there was a chair, and he would never stand if there was an option to sit. That person stood up immediately, which made the leader look at him in disappointment. What a bad beginning. Their energy was diminished right from the start.
“Why didn’t the last one who entered the room close the door?” Matthias asked crabbily.
With that, the crowd was flustered. It seemed like Matthias was very different from usual as he had been picking on them. Sweat broke out from the forehead of the leader as he felt immensely stressed.
“Are you guys putting on airs for me?” Matthias questioned them sternly.
Everyone turned to look at the leader as they didn’t know how to respond to Matthias’ question. They could only depend on the leader now. Meanwhile, the leader was stunned by Matthias’ vehemence; he was so stunned he couldn’t even recall any of the appeals that he had prepared before this.
“No one’s talking. Did you guys plan this whole thing just to annoy me?” Matthias continued picking on them. He had completely overwhelmed the managers with his solemn aura.
“Not at all, Director Locke. You’ve mistaken us. This time, we—” The leader finally spoke up in a timid manner as he was still fearful of Matthias.
Unfortunately, Matthias didn’t even give him the chance to complete his sentence and interrupted him directly, “What is it that you guys are stirring up trouble this time for?” Matthias had directly deemed their actions as causing trouble, not intending to be nice to them at all.
“Director Locke, we’re really not looking for trouble.” The leader pulled a long face as he regretted agreeing to be part of this stupid plan. Now, he had officially offended Matthias.
“I’ll be the judge of that.” Matthias continued retorting the leader as he was extremely cheesed off.
“Just get to the point and tell me about your dissatisfaction.” Matthias deliberately softened his tone as he knew it would be meaningless to argue with this bunch of people. He would rather stay calm at this moment.
The managers stared at one another. They had lost the nerves to say a single word after they saw Matthias. In fact, that was exactly the situation Matthias had expected, so he used his glare to scare them off. He had returned from Iceland after having a fallout with Heather, and these mid-level managers decided to find trouble with him. As such, Matthias wanted to teach them a good lesson.
“I’ll give you three minutes. If there’s nothing you’d like to say, get back to your respective work after three minutes. Since you’re my employees, I’ll entertain you no matter how big of trouble you want to stir up, provided that your tasks are not affected,” Matthias said nonchalantly. This was, in fact, a subtle threat.
Three minutes had never felt so long before. The managers were all waiting for their leader to speak up, but the leader was actually even more timid than they were. After a while, the leader still failed to speak up while the others just stared at the ground and only lifted their eyes occasionally.
“Time’s up,” Matthias humphed gloomily in a cold voice.
“Since you all have nothing to say, get back to your tasks immediately. Each of you will receive a salary deduction of half a month for making trouble out of nothing today,” Matthias rebuked coldly. Since you dared to stir up trouble, don’t blame me for giving you a heavy punishment.
Finally, the leader mustered his courage and said, “Director Locke, I’m not sure how I should say this.”
“Three minutes isn’t enough for you to sort out your thoughts? It seems like you’re really stupid. Locke Group doesn’t need a fool.” Matthias didn’t directly call him out on his last sentence, but obviously, he intended to beat the dog before the lion.
The leader had never thought Matthias would make a decision in such a short time. What was worse, he had never expected such an unfavorable outcome—to lose his job because of this incident. As such, he was put in an awkward situation.
“Director Locke, I’ll give you a reasonable explanation, but if you’re asking me to just spit it out, I’m afraid I can’t put it to you adequately.” Since Matthias had already driven him into a corner, he might as well be bolder and honest with Matthias.
