The silence in Director Yen Rui's office was heavy, broken only by the faint ticking of the clock on the wall. He stood like a pillar of steel on one side of the polished table, while Li Na's heart pounded against her ribs on the other.
Her humiliation had already burned into rage, and rage had hardened into something sharper defiance. She had been left at the altar, ridiculed by society, reduced to whispers. And yet, here was a man, abandoned on the same day, standing as if untouched by shame.
Why should he walk away with his pride intact, while hers lay in ruins?
The words left her lips before she had time to second-guess.
"Director Yen… your bride didn't come. My groom ran away. Why don't we solve both problems—marry each other?"
The room froze. Gao Jie, still standing at the doorway, gasped audibly. Papers rustled faintly in the air-conditioned breeze, but Yen Rui's face did not move.
For a heartbeat, Li Na regretted it. The proposal was absurd, impulsive, humiliating if he mocked her. She braced herself for his scorn.
But instead, Yen Rui tilted his head, his expression unreadable, as though weighing the balance sheet of her reckless idea. His voice, when it came, was calm—too calm.
"Marriage, Miss Chen, is not a bargaining chip."
Her fists tightened. "Neither is reputation. And yet both of ours were dragged through the mud yesterday." She stepped closer, her chin lifted in defiance. "Do you want the board, the investors, the public, to see their Director abandoned at the altar? Or do you want them to see a man who kept control and signed a contract no one can question?"
For the first time, something flickered in his gaze with curiosity.
"A contract," he echoed slowly. He walked to the table, pulled open a drawer, and withdrew a crisp document, sliding it across the surface toward her. "You speak of marriage like business, Miss Chen. Convenient. Transactional. I prefer clear terms."
Li Na blinked. "You mean… you're agreeing?"
He looked at her directly now, his stare unflinching. "Why not? A Director does not wait for luck. He signs what is useful."
Her breath caught. Recklessness had been her shield, but his cool acceptance was more unnerving than rejection. She stepped closer, her hand hovering over the pen beside the contract.
Before touching it, she spoke, her voice firm. "If we do this, there will be conditions. Even if we share the same house" she swallowed, gathering her strength"nothing will happen between us. We may share a bed, but not a life."
For the first time, Yen Rui's lips curved into the faintest trace of a smile. Not warmth, but challenge. He leaned forward, his voice low, deliberate.
"If we don't test the boundaries, Miss Chen," he murmured, "how would we ever know if they can hold?"
The strings had been pulled. The ink was ready. And with a single stroke of the pen, her reckless defiance would bind her to a man who turned every vow into a battlefield.