Once Gwyn settled down in Sheffield's arms, he began prattling, "Gwyn, you and I have met twice now, but I haven't heard you call me 'Uncle' yet. And since we both like each other so much, could you call me 'Uncle' now?"
She didn't respond.
He continued, "Just once, please? That's all I'm asking. Come on, say it—Un-cle. Un-cle. Uncle!"
Gwyn stared at him. Immediately, Sheffield stopped. He saw something in her eyes. What was that? A look of dislike?
Did she think he was talking too much? 'Probably an illusion, ' he thought. So he went on, "Let's try again, Gwyn—"
"Uncle!" Gwyn called before Sheffield could get the word out of his mouth. A huge grin spread across his face.
He was elated. He had thought it might take him longer to coax her.
Sheffield gently kissed Gwyn's cheek. "That's my girl. Since I'm your favorite uncle now, you'll be under my protection from today onwards! If anyone dares to bully you in Y City, just call me and I'll deal with it for you."
Gwyn listened to him blabber, not quite understanding what he was going on about. She wondered how someone in the world could laugh so much and talk as much as her aunt Terilynn did.
But his voice was pleasant; she didn't hate it, even though he continued rattling on.
Finally, Sheffield got tired of talking too much. He lay on the lawn to enjoy the sunshine, regardless of his obsession with cleanliness.
Gwyn dropped the ball in her hand by accident, so she ran after it. Sheffield watched her closely as she skipped after the ball.
When she came back holding the basketball, she walked around him, looking for a comfortable spot to sit on. After much consideration, she chose to sit on his stomach.
Sheffield laughed. "You are a very smart girl. This is indeed a comfy spot to sit on. Soft, huh?"
It was almost noon when they returned to his office. Sheffield had planned to book a table in a restaurant and invite Joshua and Terilynn to lunch.
But Terilynn told him that Debbie had asked the chef to prepare Gwyn's lunch at home. So, she returned with Gwyn to the manor.
Two days later, another piece of hot news about Evelyn caused a stir on the Internet.
A man was publicly professing his love for Evelyn using Theo Group's giant screen in the city center. The building had a total of ninety-nine floors, and the outdoor LED screen was huge enough to cover several floors.
The skyscraper buildings of Theo Group and ZL Group were landmarks of Y City. Half the city could see the huge screen.
Usually, the screen was used by companies to advertise their products—for marketing. Some people also used the screen to express their love, but it was very rare.
It was too expensive. The toll was one thousand dollars per minute, at the least. The charter price for a 24/7 runtime would be ten million.
Right now, on the screen were the words—Evelyn Huo, I love you! It changed colors, and occasionally a particular photo of Evelyn was displayed.
In the photo, she was feeding an elephant. She was in a light-colored dress, had her sunglasses on, and was smiling softly.
However, there was no signature on the huge love letter. The extravagant proposal became a hot topic in Y City.
Citizens and netizens around the world wondered who was so romantic enough to have reserved such a luxurious screen to please the princess of the Huo family.
It was easy enough to guess that it could only be a high profile CEO or someone from a very rich family.
That evening, Evelyn was stuck in a traffic jam near Theo Group's building. She rolled down the window and looked up at the big screen. It was the third day since that proposal had been put up. She figured that the confession would be on the screen for a week.
Two scooters were waiting side by side next to her car. The girl on one scooter, who was wearing a mask, told her friend, "See that screen? Mr. Tang did that. He's the one pursuing Evelyn Huo."
"Your CEO, Mr. Tang?"
"Yeah! Peterson Tang had found this son from nowhere to take over his position, and thank God for that! He is so handsome! The girls in our company are all attracted to him. I told you I'm in the advertisement department, right? I heard Tobias, the CEO's personal assistant, talking about it when I brought coffee to my manager's office the other day."
"Wow! He is so romantic."
The girl with the mask was so excited that she took off her mask, revealing her fair, pretty face. "Yes, and more importantly, he is a really nice person. As soon as he became the CEO, he raised the employees' salary, which is the most direct way to care about your employees. He is simply amazing!
"What else did he do?"
"Well, he transferred many people, even Sterling Tang, his own brother. Sterling used to be the general manager, but Mr. Tang transferred him to another city to be the regional CEO."
"It's a good thing that he got a promotion, right?"
"Actually, it's not. My manager told me that it looked like Sterling was promoted, but actually it was to weaken his force in the company. That day, the two brothers almost had a fight inside the office."
As the light turned green, the scooters drove off.
But something that the girl had said stuck in Evelyn's mind. 'Mr. Tang did that. He is the one pursuing Evelyn Huo.'
Later, she asked Felix to stop in front of Theo Group's building. She called Sheffield. "I'm outside your office."
"Oh," Sheffield simply replied. He said nothing else and fell into a deep silence.
"I have something to ask you." She ignored his nonchalant attitude.
"Fire away." He stood up from his seat and walked to the French window in his office. He looked down, hoping to see her figure downstairs, but he was on the 99th floor. He couldn't see anything on the ground from that height.
Evelyn insisted, "I can only ask you face to face."
"I'm not in my office right now," he lied, leaning against the window.
"Fine, forget it."
"Okay," he replied flatly.
Evelyn didn't hang up yet. She told Felix, "Take me to Rock Bar."
"Yes, Miss Huo."
"Wait!" said Sheffield anxiously.
Evelyn winked at Felix, who was about to start the car. He understood and stopped.
"Why are you going to the bar this late at night?"
Evelyn smirked. "What do you think I would do in a bar this late at night? The second son of the Li family and the youngest son of the Cao family are my alumni. They just invited me to a gathering there."
"But why did they choose a bar to have a reunion?" he asked, frustration clear in his voice.
"Isn't that normal? We're done here, Mr. Tang. You can get back to whatever you're doing. Bye!" Evelyn hung up without hesitation.
She looked at her phone and counted, 'One, two, three, four...'
Before her count reached five, her cell phone rang. She grinned, seeing his caller ID.