The Moon Pavilion was quiet.
Too quiet.
Li Zeyan stepped through the front doors just after 9:00 PM, his suit jacket slung over one shoulder, briefcase in hand, tie long forgotten somewhere in his car.
The sun had long been gone, casting the halls in soft amber shadows. The air inside the mansion smelled faintly of sandalwood, and something sweeter he couldn't name.
He paused in the foyer.
He didn't know why.
But something felt… different.
He handed off his briefcase to one of the butlers, nodded curtly, and walked deeper inside.
No staff dared to greet him.
No footsteps followed him.
Only silence.
And in that silence, something shifted.
He found her in the drawing room.
Xu Meilin.
Curled on the long velvet chaise by the window, wrapped in a pale knit throw, her gaze lost somewhere beyond the glass.
She had changed into a soft gray dress, her hair now dry and pinned loosely. Her profile was bathed in moonlight, soft and solemn, eyes distant.
She didn't turn when he walked in.
Didn't greet him.
Didn't move.
But she knew he was there.
And he knew… something had happened.
He took a step closer, slow, steady.
The tension between them wasn't explosive, it was quiet.
The kind of tension that filled a room before a confession.
Before a storm.
Before a touch you couldn't take back.
"You're home early," she said, voice soft, still not looking at him.
"It's late," he replied.
"I suppose that depends on what kind of night you've had."
He didn't answer.
Not immediately.
His eyes moved over her face, her lips pressed together, her hands folded tightly in her lap.
Too tightly.
She'd been holding herself together for hours.
He could feel it in the air.
"I heard you went to the Xu estate," he said finally.
She nodded slowly, her gaze never leaving the window. "They wanted me to perform again."
"For who ?"
"The Shen family."
A pause.
"They're bringing their daughter."
He said nothing, but his jaw clenched.
Meilin let out a breath, a slow one, her fingers loosening slightly. "They want us to attend the dinner together. Smile. Pose. Play the roles."
Silence.
Then:
"Will we?" she asked, voice almost too calm. "Play along?"
He didn't reply.
Not because he didn't know the answer.
But because he didn't like the answer he wanted to give.
He stepped closer, slowly, stopping a few feet away from her. The moonlight fell between them like a line drawn in chalk.
She finally turned to look at him.
And for the first time in a long time, she wasn't hiding anything in her eyes.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Just exhaustion.
A quiet kind of vulnerability that hit him harder than any words could have.
He hated that she looked like this.
He hated that they did this to her.
He hated...
That he still didn't know what he was supposed to be to her.
But he knew one thing:
She wasn't just a pawn.
Not anymore.
Not to him.
"I'll handle it," he said, voice low.
Meilin blinked. "The dinner?"
"No," he murmured. "Them."
For a brief moment, her eyes flickered, confused. Disbelieving. But she said nothing.
He didn't explain.
He didn't need to.
She looked at him like she wanted to say something, maybe thank you, maybe why now, maybe nothing at all.
But instead, she stood slowly, the throw slipping from her shoulders.
She moved past him without a word.
But as she walked away, her hand brushed lightly against his.
Just barely.
Just enough to say:
I see you.
I feel it too.
And for Li Zeyan, that was louder than anything she could've said.