Heather chatted with Matthias on Messenger while drawing on the canvas. She found a book that taught its readers how to draw using charcoal, and after following the step-by-step instructions stated in the book, she slowly got the hang of it.
She looked at the drawing she made contentedly, and it looked much better than the sketch she had made in the beginning. Her mouth curved into a smile of satisfaction; she realized that drawing wasn’t as difficult as she thought it was, for smart people would always be faster than others in whatever they did.
As a result, it took her much longer to reply to Matthias’s messages, but Matthias didn’t mind this. After all, he was happy enough as long as she was still willing to pay heed to him.
Just then, a knock on the door was heard from the outside. Matthias knitted his brows, for he had ordered Lara not to let anyone disturb him.
However, the knock on the door wouldn’t stop, so he had to open the door himself. When he opened the door, Regan revealed himself and his plastic smile at once. As he expected, it was the annoying Regan who had been knocking on the door. On the other hand, Lara stood behind Regan with a troubled expression while giving Matthias an apologetic look.
Matthias smiled at her to soothe her apologetic feelings. Then, he directly stood in front of Regan to keep him from coming in. “What’s the matter, Director Locke?” He had no time to waste on Regan since he was in a rush to reply to Heather’s messages.
Regan took out a document and looked at Matthias with a serious expression. “This is the company’s latest financial statement.”
Matthias took the statement directly from Regan before thanking the latter politely as he said, “Thanks for your hard work.” However, just as he was about to close the door, Regan stretched out his arm and stopped him from doing so. He then said, “I haven’t finished yet, President Locke.”
Regan’s expression grew increasingly sullen, and it boggled Matthias’ mind. After all, he seldom saw the former wearing such an expression. “Come in,” he said with much reluctance. In his eyes, Regan was bad news who caused him trouble whenever he came.
Regan sat down unceremoniously across from Matthias, and the latter looked at him furtively. He took the financial statement and read it as though nothing happened, but he suddenly felt his cell phone vibrating. When he saw that the notification was from Messenger, he thought Heather must have texted him. However, he couldn’t take out his cell phone since Regan was across from him. It was hard to describe his feelings at this moment, but he had never hated Regan so much before.
Meanwhile, Heather took a look at her cell phone when there was no reply from Matthias for a long time. Then, she directly put her cell phone on the bookshelf. As she happened to be taking a book, she decided to concentrate on drawing.
On the other hand, Regan kept badgering Matthias the whole time. Matthias had held the concurrent post of chief financial officer, so he was quite proficient at reading financial statements. However, he didn’t notice anything after reading the financial statements, and Regan’s inscrutable expression made him suspect that he was up to something again.
“Our company’s financial expenditure has increased significantly since May, but many of the expenses were written down in only a word or two. I’m afraid it’s inappropriate to explain the whereabouts of such a large sum of money in such simple terms.” Regan tapped the desk as he spoke.
Only then did Matthias realize what Regan was up to. “Inappropriate?” He gave a nonchalant smile. “In that case, what do you think is appropriate, Director Locke?” He stared into Regan’s conniving eyes. It’s too confident of Regan to pick at me from the aspect of finances, he thought to himself.
“You were in charge of the company’s finances earlier, President Locke. You wouldn’t mind if I ask you about any doubts that I encounter while taking over the job, would you?” Regan asked tactfully. The meaning behind his words couldn’t be clearer—he wanted Matthias to explain the specific whereabouts of the large sum of funds.
“Ask me? I’m afraid that you’re questioning me.” Matthias could no longer care about Heather. After all, he had to concentrate on dealing with Regan now that the latter had suddenly created such a difficult situation for him.
“I wouldn’t dare to do that at all.” Regan didn’t dare to defy Matthias rashly, for he was still on Matthias’ turf. However, he mustn’t show signs of weakness—he had to give that man a sense of danger.
“I’m afraid there’s nothing that you wouldn’t dare to do. Matthias pushed the financial statement aside directly as he was really annoyed by the way Regan behaved; it seemed like he was trying to force him into stepping down.
“President Locke, I only joined the Locke Group recently, so I’m afraid that I might make some mistakes. You know how cautious I am; I’d like to figure out the cause behind the increased expenditure and the expenses, so could you enlighten me on this, President Locke?” Regan deliberately humbled himself, but he was actually talking back to Matthias. Moreover, his aggressive-looking eyes showed no modesty as someone asking for advice.
Matthias directly pushed the financial statement toward Regan and squinted at him. “Since you know that you’re a newcomer, you should focus more on watching and learning instead of speaking out of turn.”
Regan picked up the financial statement with a smile of embarrassment. “Are you not going to explain to me the story behind this, President Locke?” He was still unwilling to admit defeat, so he insisted on knowing the reason behind the increased expenditure.
“What right do you have for me to explain it to you? There aren’t many explanations in the financial sheet, but whatever you want to know can be found from the financial information. How could you come and question me without doing anything? Regan, you’re only my subordinate, so don’t think of riding roughshod over me,” Matthias admonished snappishly. Since they were in the Locke Group, he would be the one calling the shots. How could Regan have the nerve to question him just days after taking up his post?
Upon being told off by Matthias, Regan looked as black as thunder; even the insincere smile on his face vanished. At the sight of this, Matthias felt much better—he had had enough of Regan’s relentless fault-finding these days.
As he suppressed his anger, Regan replied without a change in his countenance, “You’re right, President Locke. It’s my fault for bothering you without checking it out. I’ll go back and study the documents.”
“Make a new statement when you finish reading the documents. I want a detailed one,” Matthias ordered while tapping the desk with his index finger. He pondered how to give Regan trouble since he couldn’t let him continue on with his audacity.
Regan could only nod and acquiesce. He had shot himself in the foot, for Matthias had already sent him a pile of documents previously. It would take a long time and a great deal of work for him to find out the whole story behind the increased expenditure from the pile of documents.
With that, Matthias finally sent Regan away. However, as soon as Regan left, Lara pushed the door open and came in right away before Matthias could even pick up his cell phone. When he looked up, he saw the aggrieved look on her face. Did Regan bully her? he wondered to himself.
“President Locke,” Lara greeted aggrievedly.
“Uh-huh,” Matthias responded while looking at the cell phone in his hand with a resentful expression. Can’t I play with my cell phone to my heart’s content?
However, Lara felt much more aggrieved than Matthias. “President Locke, Director Locke has created a lot of burden on my work ever since he took his post.”
“What sort of burden did he create on your work?” Matthias looked at Lara in puzzlement. Regan had caused him a lot of trouble, but it seemed like he hadn’t started picking on Lara yet.
“He keeps asking me for this and that. What did you two talk about just now? He had such a scary look in his eyes before he left. I’m afraid that he’ll demand a pile of documents from me later again, and I’m about to become a filing clerk,” Lara complained resentfully as Regan really gave her a lot of trouble.
Meanwhile, Matthias looked at her puzzledly. “He can just search for the documents he wants from the file library. Why would he demand the documents from you instead?” It was clear that Regan was using Matthias’ people as slaves. Regan really hesitates at nothing, he thought to himself.
“I told him that too, but he sounded very serious every time as if I’d be betraying the Locke Group if I didn’t do this.” Lara was almost driven crazy by Regan, for she had no idea how Regan came up with so many high-sounding excuses.
“So you’re airing your grievances to me because you aren’t capable enough?” Matthias replied disdainfully. He noticed that Lara looked run-down these days, but he hadn’t expected it to be because of Regan. At the thought of this, he was inwardly displeased, for Regan was making him look bad by giving his people a hard time. As the saying went, one should find out who a dog’s owner was before beating it. Yet, Regan fancied himself as a big shot just days after taking his post.
However, Lara felt even more resentful. She plucked up her courage and told Matthias about this with great effort, only to be held in contempt by the latter. She felt hurt on the inside, but she couldn’t say anything to refute him. Indeed, it was her fault for being a pushover.
Seeing how pitiful Lara looked, Matthias comforted her and said, “If he bosses you around again in the future, turn him down directly and tell him to come to me.”
Only then did Lara give a smile. She was precisely waiting for Matthias to say this, for she knew that he would definitely stand up for her. After all, she saw him as a kind person.
“Just use your head.” Matthias sighed. He always thought that Lara was clever, so he didn’t expect that she would be bullied by Regan this way.
The thought of Regan gave Matthias a headache. Indeed, Regan was a heavy-going person who could be described most adequately as sanctimonious. Even Matthias had a hard time dealing with him, let alone Lara.
As Matthias thought about this, he swallowed his disdain for Lara. Come to speak of it, Regan bullied him many times back then and was simply evil. As Matthias recalled how Regan had been making threatening gestures in front of him since he was little, he couldn’t stop himself from feeling that Regan was rather lucky—he hadn’t been beaten to death up until now.
Regan was such a double-dealer that Matthias thought all the mean words he could think of were inadequate to express his dislike for Regan. The more he thought about it, the sulkier he was, so he quickly got rid of Regan from his mind.
After Lara closed the door and went out quietly, Matthias immediately picked up his cell phone. He wondered if Heather had gotten anxious while waiting for his message, but when he opened his Messenger, he was somewhat disappointed to see that her message simply read, ‘Oh.’ He didn’t see any other new messages from Heather and was quite unwilling to reconcile himself to it, but he knew that Heather was like this. He hurriedly sent her a message that read, ‘I was attending to my work just now. What are you doing?’
Heather’s cell phone beeped on the bookshelf, but she was so absorbed that she ignored this notification directly. Naturally, she wasn’t interested in continuing her conversation with Matthias at this moment since she had found something interesting to do.
She hadn’t been so relaxed for a long time. As she toyed with the charcoal in her hand, her lips curled into a childlike smile. Sketching wasn’t as interesting as painting, so she tried her best to make a satisfying painting.
As she concentrated on painting a picture filled with mountains and rivers, the door opened with a squeak. Heather looked up, and her eyelashes fluttered the moment she was dazzled by the light.
