Chapter 125 An Eerie Atmosphere

Dan Anwen was still thinking about Gu Ji's unusual behavior this morning. His aura was low, and his thin lips were pressed into a straight line, which frightened the employees on the top floor so much that they didn't dare to breathe in front of him.

Liu Lei could feel most clearly the coldness emanating from the president, a feeling that kept strangers at bay.

His sharp features were tense, and his dark phoenix eyes were fixed on the documents on the table. He didn't speak for a long time.

"President, if there are no problems, I'll pass the message on." Liu Lei couldn't stand the oppressive atmosphere in the office any longer and wanted to leave, even at the risk of being scolded.

Dan Anwen's narrow phoenix eyes were sharp, his indifferent brows and eyes exuded a coldness, and his detached voice came, "If the creative department doesn't want to work here anymore, let them get out of here as soon as possible."

As he spoke, he tossed the documents beside him onto the corner of the table, his face grim.

Liu Lei was on the verge of tears. This was already the third proposal submitted by the creative department today, and the president hadn't said anything about which aspect needed to be changed, but instead kept returning it.

"Okay, I'll pass it on right away." Liu Lei reached for the documents on his desk.

As soon as he stepped out of the CEO's office, he was stopped by the creative director. "Assistant Liu, is the CEO satisfied with this version of the proposal?"

Liu Lei shook his head, handed him the documents, and looked at him with a "good luck" expression. "The president wants your creative department to quickly submit a proposal that satisfies him, or you're all fired."

The creative director's smile was more like a grimace, his lips twitching slightly. "What's wrong with the president today? Wasn't he quite satisfied with the first draft yesterday?"

Liu Lei shrugged. He wasn't quite sure what had gotten into the CEO so early in the morning, as he kept wearing a face that looked like he owed him tens of millions.

Today, his inherent coldness and aloofness were on full display.

He's barely able to keep himself safe right now, terrified of being caught making even the slightest mistake by the CEO, so he has no time to care about the creative director's fate.

"You'd better go downstairs and come up with another version of the proposal," Liu Lei sighed, patting the creative director on the shoulder.

The creative director was left standing there dumbfounded, unable to even point out the shortcomings. Creating ten more versions of the proposal would be pointless.

That evening, Dan Anwen drove to the entrance of Nan'an Middle School two hours early.

He pondered for a whole day, but still couldn't figure out why the child had resisted him that morning.

The man sat in the car, his long, slender fingers tapping haphazardly on the steering wheel, his deep gaze fixed on the school gate, a dim and ambiguous light flashing in his eyes.

Gu Ji, who was studying in the evening, was unaware of the man's thoughts outside the school gate. She was now worried about seeing him after school.

She was distracted all day, her mind filled with the man's passionate narration from the previous night.

She never imagined that Uncle Dan already had someone he liked. If she hadn't realized her own feelings for him before, she might have just gotten over her sadness.

But now she was in excruciating pain, her limbs screaming in agony, and she found it really hard to face him again.

She was afraid she wouldn't be able to control her feelings, and sometimes men could easily see through her thoughts.

At that point, the two might not even be able to be family anymore.

"Zhao Zhao, your answer is wrong." Guan Xiang glanced at the girl's notebook. The answer was clearly copied incorrectly; it was missing a square root compared to the answer on her draft.

Guan Xiang looked at the dazed girl with a puzzled expression. She had been spacing out from time to time since morning, and this had been going on all day.

"What's wrong with you today? How could you make such a basic mistake?"

Gu Ji snapped out of his daze, his blank eyes fixed on Guan Xiang, his voice filled with confusion, "What's wrong, Xiang Xiang?"

Guan Xiang pointed helplessly to the answers in the workbook.

Gu Ji followed her finger and noticed that a square root symbol was missing. Just as he was about to write it down, he heard Guan Xiang's concerned voice in his ear, "Zhao Zhao, you've been absent-minded all day. Is something wrong?"

She barely spoke a word all day.

Gu Ji paused in writing, then forced a smile and said, "It's nothing, I just played too much last night, so I'm a little tired today."

Guan Xiang looked at her suspiciously a few times. She remembered that Zhao Zhao had left the engagement banquet very early last night, but she didn't intend to say anything more, nor did she want to press her for details.

Gu Ji hadn't done many problems all night until the end of evening self-study. Carrying his heavy backpack, he walked with Dan Si towards the school gate.

Dan Si glanced casually at the girl's slightly heavy schoolbag and asked, "Zhao Zhao, didn't you finish your homework today?"

Gu Ji nodded casually, not paying any attention to the disbelief in Dan Si's tone. Her mind was now filled with how to face the man later.

She felt flustered and uneasy whenever she thought about how she subconsciously avoided the man's intimate gestures that morning.

Dan Si raised an eyebrow slightly. It was normal for him to bring his unfinished homework home. Zhao Zhao basically never had any homework left after evening self-study.

Upon arriving at the school gate, the man's Maybach was conspicuously parked not far away. When he saw Gu Ji's figure, Dan Anwen's large, well-defined hands slightly tightened their grip on the steering wheel.

Gu Ji deliberately lagged behind by a step, slowly moving to the car.

The car was moving so slowly that the man inside could clearly sense the girl's awkwardness and hesitation.

Dan Anwen frowned slightly beneath the stray hairs on his forehead, his dark eyes fixed on the girl's slow steps.

When he reached the front of the car, Gu Ji hesitated for a moment outside before finally opening the passenger door.

As she sat down, she instinctively avoided the man's deep, unfathomable gaze, lowering her head slightly, her pale lips pressed tightly together, and remained silent.

Dan Anwen turned to the side, his deep eyes fixed on the girl, his thin lips slightly pursed.

The girl was different from before, sweetly calling men "uncle" as soon as she got into the car. Even Dan Si, who was playing games in the back seat, noticed that the atmosphere in the car was strange.

Everything was fine just a couple of days ago, so why did the atmosphere between the two of them become so unfamiliar after he went back to Danyuan yesterday?

Dan Si cautiously asked, "Uncle, aren't we leaving yet?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed the man's unfriendly gaze. The cold stare shot straight at him, and his hand suddenly trembled, causing his phone to fall onto the carpet with a dull thud, much like the eerie atmosphere at the moment.

"Dan Si, you get out of the car first." Dan An heard Dan Si's indifferent voice from the front. Dan Si didn't react for a moment and stared blankly at him.

"ah?"

Dan Anwen's tone remained icy and unyielding, showing no sign of warming up. Her gaze towards Dan Si even carried a sense of oppression. "Get out of the car."

"Oh, okay." Dan Si hurriedly picked up his phone from the carpet, opened the car door, and got out.

Standing by the roadside, still not fully recovered, Dan Si watched as the Maybach in front of him stepped on the gas and disappeared from his sight, leaving only dust kicked up by the wind on the ground.

Dan Si coughed a few times, his eyes welling up with tears.

He was completely dumbfounded. How come his uncle had driven the car away?

Seeing that there were practically no students or parents left at the school gate, Dan Si had no choice but to resign himself to taking a taxi back to Jinshan Villa.

Dan Anwen kept a straight face, his deep black eyes fixed on the traffic, and drove the car in the opposite direction from Jinshan Villa.

Gu Ji only came to her senses slightly after Dan Si got out of the car, and realized that only she and the man were left in the car.

Moreover, the man was driving the car in the opposite direction, and she didn't know what he was going to do.

After hesitating for a moment, Gu Ji pursed his lips and asked in a low voice, "Uncle Dan, aren't we going back to Jinshan Villa?"

She could sense that Uncle Dan was angry; his face was so dark it looked like ink could drip from it.

Upon hearing her question, Dan An lowered his indifferent eyes and did not answer.

He was afraid that if he spoke now, his unstable emotions would hurt the children.

He didn't know why the children were avoiding him.

The stranger's distant attitude made him feel very depressed, as if his heart had been hit hard with a hammer.

The car headed out of the city and appeared at the top of Wutong Mountain more than an hour later.

Looking at the deserted scene of Wutong Mountain at night, and the gloomy face of the man beside him, Gu Ji suddenly felt a little scared.

Could it be that he was so angry and wanted to kill her to silence her because she dodged Uncle Dan's touch on the head this morning?

Okay, she admits she was overthinking it.

The man merely tilted his head slightly, giving her a few ambiguous looks before pulling out a pack of cigarettes from some compartment, opening the car door, standing in front of the car, and lighting one.

The crimson sparks were held between the man's fair and slender fingertips, and every now and then a few hazy smoke rings were exhaled from his thin lips.

Gu Ji pursed her lips, looking at the man with his back to her through the car window with a worried expression. His tall figure was filled with dejection.

This was the first time she had ever seen him smoke. He always carried a faint, clean fragrance, rather than a strong, pungent smell of smoke.

Today she saw another side of him: indifferent and restrained.