The café was crowded with laughter and chatter, but the moment Li Na stepped inside, the sound seemed to dim. At a corner table, Fang Mei sat with her legs crossed elegantly, stirring her coffee as if she owned the room.
"Li Na," she purred, her lips curling into a smile too sharp to be friendly. "Still glowing from your… whirlwind marriage, I see."
Li Na slid into the chair opposite her, spine straight, eyes cool. "Why did you ask me here?"
Fang Mei leaned forward, her perfume cloying, her eyes glittering with mockery. "To congratulate you, of course. From abandoned bride to Mrs. Yen overnight. That's a climb worth applauding."
Li Na's fingers tightened around her cup, but she refused to flinch. "If you called me here to gloat, you're wasting your time."
"Oh, no." Fang Mei's laughter was low, dangerous. "I came to warn you. You may have signed a contract, but contracts can be torn apart. Do you think a man like Yen Rui, a man who commands empires will ever belong to a woman like you?"
Li Na met her gaze, unblinking. "I don't need him to belong to me. I only need him to stand by me."
The words surprised even her, but she didn't let the flicker of uncertainty show.
Fang Mei's smile faltered, just briefly, before sharpening again. "Interesting. Zhao Ming still asks about you, you know. He regrets leaving you at the altar. He wonders if you'd take him back."
The name struck Li Na like ice, but she forced a laugh. "Tell Zhao Ming I don't collect discarded things. And tell him to stop hiding behind you if he wants to face me."
For the first time, Fang Mei's mask cracked. Her fingers drummed sharply against her cup before she rose to leave, heels clicking against the floor like daggers.
"You'll regret this," she whispered, her voice dripping venom. "Men like Yen Rui don't play house, Li Na. They play games. And when he's finished, you'll find yourself discarded all over again."
Li Na watched her walk away, her heart pounding. The words clung like smoke, suffocating, but she refused to let them see her shaken.
As she stepped back into the cool evening air, she whispered to herself, steady and fierce:
*This time, I won't be the one left behind.*
What she didn't see was the black car parked across the street, where Yen Rui sat in the backseat, expression unreadable, having witnessed the entire exchange.