James Black, Chief Black, probably got so used to managing people at the team base that he entirely exuded a kind of…
Well, a kind of authority similar to that of a patriarch.
In any case, Jane Sampson had been afraid of him since childhood, as were the people inside the great courtyard.
In the great courtyard, shouting "James Black is coming!" was more effective than shouting "your dad is coming!" A group of rambunctious kids would scatter immediately, hiding as far away as they could.
Even Jane's good friend Nina Rice, notorious in the courtyard as a troublemaker, was afraid of James Black.
But in fact, James Black was not that much older than this bunch of kids.
As Bright Sampson put it, James Black was probably born to manage these wayward children.
Since Jane Sampson's marriage contract with James Black had been arranged since they were little, people in the courtyard had always been especially lenient and caring toward her, out of sympathy, thinking her life would be very hard once she grew up.
From the moment Jane entered, James's gaze had constantly been on her. Standing next to him with such a look, Jane simply braved it out, but as soon as she felt his gaze on her legs, she quickly pulled her skirt hem to cover her thighs.
"Why did you suddenly come back today? You didn't even tell me in advance." It gave her quite a start and shocked her beloved younger brother too.
Luckily, she hadn't been up to any mischief; otherwise, his unexpected return would've given her a heart attack.
"You called me." James Black was sparing with his words, and after saying that, he pointed to Jane's mobile phone on the sofa.
Jane made a sound of realization and nodded, "Yes, I did call you, but I wasn't asking you to come home."
Jane thought that James Black at first hadn't received her call, and then, seeing the call log later, might have mistakenly thought she was urging him to return home.
Jane didn't know that James Black actually hadn't planned on going home tonight initially. He had been leading training outdoors for over a month, and today was the day scheduled to return to the team base.
When Jane called him, he was still in the car. He had forgotten to switch on his phone after a meeting, so he didn't receive the call at the time; when he later saw the two missed calls from Jane and called back, she hadn't picked up her mobile phone.
Whether before or after marriage, Jane hardly ever took the initiative to call him, so he was rather surprised to see that Jane had called him twice.
One call could be a mistake, but two meant she was certainly looking for him.
Since Jane didn't answer, James Black then left his car midway in the city district and hurried back home.
Jane picked up the phone from the sofa and checked it; sure enough, there was a missed call from James Black. It happened that her phone was set to silent mode at some point, so she hadn't heard it.
Jane internally criticized the fruit phone's silent mode shortcut key design as being filled with flaws—a design that was contrary to human intuition, easily flicked into silent mode by accident.
"Is something the matter?" James's gaze fell upon Jane's frustrated expression. Seeing her shake her head and purse her lips without speaking, he extended his questioning, "Did you call me because something was wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong." Jane continued to shake her head. Looking at James's indifferent demeanor, she didn't need to ask or probe. His situation was surely different from hers.
James regarded Jane skeptically, seemingly unconvinced, so he turned to Bright Sampson and asked, "Where are you guys heading tonight?"