Without another word, he turned and ascended the grand staircase, his footsteps echoing with a solitary finality. The mantle of the heir was a lonely one, and the new burden of this investigation promised to make it heavier still.
Zi Zhen adjusted his glasses, his gaze distant as he processed the day's data—both corporate and personal. He gave a curt nod to Ting Zhou. "Get some rest." Then he, too, turned and walked down the hallway toward his own wing, his mind undoubtedly already constructing algorithms and timelines to decode their family's hidden history.
Left alone in the foyer, Ting Zhou let out a long, slow breath. The mischievous glint was gone from his eyes, replaced by a pensive seriousness. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around the vast, silent space—the house he had grown up in, which now felt like a beautiful, unfamiliar maze with a secret locked at its center.
