The building was one of Shanghai's architectural marvels-glass, steel, and silence. Thirty-five floors of mirrored opulence, where the influential came to talk numbers, not feelings.
Qin Yu liked it. Anything that speaks money is his favorite.
He was supposed to meet a client on the 29th floor, something about a high-end green tech startup seeking funding.
The elevator doors slid open with a smooth whisper, revealing the marbled interior lined with gold-trimmed mirrors and polished steel. Qin Yu didn't look up from his phone as he stepped in, Shen Wenlang trailing quietly behind him, holding a slim tablet and murmuring softly about his next meeting.
"President Qin, after the Jiangsu portfolio review, there's the call from the Paris division, and-"
"Push it to later. I'm not in the mood for Europe this morning," Qin Yu said, his voice clipped, gaze still locked on the phone screen.
Shen Wenlang gave a silent nod and stepped aside as the elevator doors began to close.
Just before they sealed, a hand shot between the narrowing gap long fingers, pale, elegant. The sensors reacted immediately, and the doors slid back open.
Qin Yu's eyes flicked up, just as a man stepped into the elevator.
Tall. Composed. Cold.
Clad in a black tailored coat over a dark turtleneck, the man had the posture of someone used to walking through power measured, silent, magnetic. His hair was neatly slicked back, not a strand out of place. Those eyes, sharp and deep-set, gave the impression of watching and calculating far more than he let on. And why does he look handsome today?
For a second, Qin Yu forgot how to breathe.
The man gave him a slight, unreadable nod formally polite but emotionally vacant and stood at the far end of the elevator, facing forward, eyes trained on the numbers above the door.
YR.
It had to be him.
Though Qin Yu hadn't asked his name on the flight to Shanghai, he hadn't forgotten the intensity of that gaze. That aura of danger veiled in elegance. A ghost of something familiar lingered in his eyes, like a presence Qin Yu couldn't quite place but couldn't ignore either.
The air inside the elevator grew awkward, heavy, like something electric had been trapped in the space between them.
Shen Wenlang cleared his throat, shifting beside him.
Seconds passed. Neither of the men spoke. The hum of the elevator's ascent echoed off the walls like a second heartbeat.
Yan Rui's phone buzzed.
He glanced down, thumb brushing across the screen, then tucked it away without a word.
The silence resumed thick, almost stifling.
Qin Yu's fingers itched to tap his phone, to scroll mindlessly, to do something, but his hands wouldn't move. His spine was rigid. Something about standing this close to the stranger pulled him into full awareness, like being caged with a sleeping predator whose eyes never fully close.
He didn't know this man. Not really. Not yet.
But he wanted to.
More than he should.
Yan Rui, on his end, was equally aware.
Of the subtle scent that clung to Qin Yu's suit-clean, cool, tinged with faint citrus. Of the barely concealed tension in the man's shoulders, the way his jaw tightened when he wasn't looking directly at him. The man from the flight. The one who had caught his eye with the quiet elegance of a blade left unsheathed.
He hadn't expected to see him again so soon.
And he hadn't expected the curiosity to remain this sharp.
Didn't expect🙄, but you've been texting him!
The elevator stopped at the 29th floor. The doors slid open. No one moved.
Qin Yu's lips parted slightly. Just a breath. He turned, as if to step forward, but then paused an unspoken instinct, as if moving first might tip a balance neither of them understood.
Qin yu stepped out.
He didn't look back.
But just as the doors began to close, Qin Yu heard it.
A soft chime. His phone.
A message.
From the same unknown number.
"It seems fate likes confined spaces."
Qin Yu stared at the words, then at the closed doors.
A single breath escaped him half scoff, half laugh.
Shen Wenlang blinked. "President Qin?"
"Nothing." He put the phone away, eyes narrowing. "Get me that number traced. But hold on i asked you to run a check on the name Yan Rui, why didn't i get feedback?"
"Sir, i did but it's kind of deep so i want a full detailed report. "
Qin Yu nodded.
Across the city, Yan Rui slipped into the backseat of a waiting black car, the tinted windows hiding him from view. Yan Shuo sat in the front, reading something on his tablet.
"You sent it?" Yan Rui asked.
"Yes, First Young Master."
"What's his name?"
"I ran facial recognition after you first asked. Qin Yu. CEO of QR Group 26."
Yan Rui tilted his head back against the leather seat. His eyes closed slowly, and for a moment, he looked... amused.
"A clean profile?" he asked.
"On the surface," Yan Shuo replied. "But I don't trust the surface."
"Good."
The car pulled into traffic. Rain began to fall lightly, streaking down the windows.
"Do we proceed with the Hong Kong transfer?"
"Yes. But delay the Spanish deal," Yan Rui murmured. "They'll think we're distracted. Let them."
"And the man from the elevator?"
Yan Rui cracked one eye open, a dangerous glint lurking behind the calm.
"Let him stew. If he bites, we reel him in. If he runs... we chase."
Yan Shuo said nothing.
He didn't need to.
His First Young Master was smiling.
And that never meant anything simple.