As the sun began to climb over the city skyline, an uninvited and unwelcome presence entered Yanlan's corporate headquarters.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but you absolutely cannot go in without a prior appointment!" a frantic staff member cried out, struggling to keep pace with a man who was storming through the lobby with a sense of arrogance.
"I don't need an appointment. I need to see your Chairwoman right this second!" the man demanded, his voice booming through the glass atrium and causing employees to stop in their tracks.
"And what exactly is the heir of the Zhou family doing in my lobby? Trying to see if he can cause a loud enough ruckus to wake the dead?" A sharp, feminine voice cut through the noise. Yanlan appeared at the top of the grand staircase, radiating a confident aura that immediately shifted the power dynamic in the room.
"There you are," Jin Rou said, his eyes snapping to her. He didn't waste time with pleasantries. "I know Qixian is here. Tell me where he is. I know you're the one hiding him."
Yanlan descended the stairs slowly, her eyes boring into Jin Rou. "Ah, I see. Your position as the heir must be feeling quite precarious lately because of those nasty rumors, isn't it, Mr. Jin Rou? Is that why you've resorted to shouting at my receptionists?" she asked, her tone was a wave of clear intimidation.
Jin Rou's face hardened. "Miss Yanlan, let's be very clear here. You may be a successful woman overseas, but you don't have the leverage to fight the Zhou family on this soil. You are not on par with us here, and it would be a mistake to think otherwise."
Yanlan remained silent for a beat, a cold, mocking smile playing on her lips. "Is that so? And yet, here you are, trespassing on private property and breaking the law in broad daylight. I didn't realize the Zhou heir was so desperate that he felt the need to disgrace his family name by acting like a common thug," she said with perfect nonchalance.
Now it was Jin Rou's turn to fall silent, his jaw tightening as he realized he had walked straight into her verbal trap.
"Besides," Yanlan continued, her voice turning ice-cold as she adjusted her blazer. "Qixian isn't here. But by all means, feel free to waste your morning looking for him here. My security will be happy to document every room you disturb."
Without another word, she turned her back on him and began walking toward her private office, her heels clicking rhythmically on the marble floor. Frustrated and seeing red, Jin Rou barked an order to his men to search every floor.
______________
Meanwhile, Qixian stood alone in the graveyard, the silence of the stones matching the hollow ache in his chest as he looked down at the fresh earth of Bo Wenxian's grave.
"If you had just taken me with you... maybe your son would still be alive," Qixian whispered, his vision blurring as tears began to pool. "Maybe I should have been the one to die. Then your father wouldn't have mistakenly shot his own grandson while trying to kill me."
He reached out, his hand trembling as he hovered over the cold stone. "Big Sister, I'm so sorry. That day, as soon as the paralyzing serum wore off, I dragged myself back, desperately to tell you, that I don't hate you... But as soon a I saw you... I saw you grieving person holding a child's lifeless body."
A sob broke through his composure, and he clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. "When Jun Xiang killed him—when he murdered his own grandson thinking he was finally getting rid of me—I saw them drag you away. I was right there, but I was too paralyzed by fear to move. I was a coward. I didn't run to you. I didn't even call for help."
His voice cracked, heavy with a decade of suppressed guilt. "Maybe if I had just screamed... if I had told the adults to save you... maybe you wouldn't have been stripped of your second gender. Maybe you wouldn't have died so miserably and alone. It was my fault. All of it. I'm sorry you met such a coward."
Qixian finally collapsed, his knees hitting the damp grass as he let out an uncontrollable cry as if he spent years holding it back. "I'm sorry, Wenxian. I'm sorry that I'm becoming just like them. I couldn't stay the person you knew... I'm so sorry."
He bowed his head, his tears falling onto the grass as he sobbed into the silence, the weight of the past finally breaking the last of his carefully constructed walls.
________________
"He's not here, sir," one of the men reported, his head bowed low to avoid Jin Rou's scorching gaze.
Jin Rou's eyes flashed with fury as he glared at Yanlan. She remained entirely unfazed, shifting through her files as if he were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
"Where is he?" Jin Rou demanded. When Yanlan didn't even bother to look up, he stormed over to her desk and slammed his palms down on the surface with a resounding thud. The force made the pens rattle, but Yanlan only looked at him with an expression of cold indifference.
"I have no idea where your younger brother is, Mr. Zhou," Yanlan said, her voice smooth and steady. "If you are so desperate to find him, why haven't you simply called him?"
"Damn it! Qixian's phone is untraceable! I can't even get a signal lock on it!" Jin Rou roared, his face contorting with rage. "Do I look like I even have his current number? He's blocked every line I have!"
"He is your brother," Yanlan noted, her eyes dropping back to her paperwork. "How is it that you're asking strangers for his contact information?"
"Damn you! Fine! I'll find that brat myself!" Jin Rou hissed, spinning on his heel and storming out of the office.
Once he reached the lobby, he stopped and jabbed a finger at one of his most trusted subordinates. "You! Stay here, right outside the main entrance. You don't leave your post until you see Qixian entering this building. Report to me the second he shows his face."
________________
"Yichen!" Madam Gu called out, her voice echoing through the grand foyer.
Yichen glanced over his shoulder but didn't say a word, his expression unreadable.
"Come here and eat with us," Madam Gu said, offering a hopeful smile. "We haven't shared a meal together since your birthday."
"I'm full," Yichen replied coldly, turning back toward the door without breaking his stride.
"Can't you at least try to be decent toward your mother?" his father asked, his voice booming with rhetorical frustration.
Yichen stopped, a mocking smirk playing on his lips as he looked at the man. "If you weren't standing there, Father, I might actually be able to forgive Mother."
"Yichen! Don't you dare speak to your father like that," Madam Gu ordered, her voice trembling with a mix of shock and desperation.
"I'm off," Yichen said flatly. He pulled the heavy door open and stepped out into the morning air, leaving before they could utter another word.
_______________
As soon as Qixian finally composed himself, he climbed back into his car and switched on his phone, which he had kept powered off to avoid being tracked. The moment the screen flickered to life, a notification pinged at the top of his display.
Yanlan: Call me the second you see this.
"Miss Yanlan?" Qixian muttered to the empty car, his brow furrowing as he immediately tapped the call button.
"You finally decided to pick up," Yanlan said, her voice sharp but laced with a hint of relief.
"What's wrong, Miss Yanlan? You sound like the world is ending," Qixian asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Don't come into the office today. In fact, stay away for a while," Yanlan said, her tone shifting into something deadly serious.
"Wait, why? Are you firing me already?" Qixian blurted out, his heart sinking. "I was only going to be a little late today! I can make up the hours!"
"That isn't it at all," Yanlan replied, her tone suggesting she was wondering why he was so prone to overreacting.
"Then why the sudden ban?" Qixian asked, sounding as though someone had just told him his car had been impounded.
"Jin Rou was here. He came looking for you, and he looked absolutely furious. He caused a scene, shouted at my staff, managed to get his filthy hands all over my desk, and even stomp on my floor," Yanlan said, her voice dripping with pure disgust at the memory.
Qixian couldn't help it, he let out a jagged, bitter laugh. "You've got guts to even complain about a dirty floor when an Alpha like him is not easy to mess with!"
"Weren't you the one who had the guts to call your own brother an orphan in a public rumor?" Yanlan countered smoothly.
"Brother? He isn't my brother. He's just a stranger sharing a last name," Qixian said, his voice flat as he stated the cold, hard fact of his reality.
"That must be why he was so desperate to find you. You really are dismantling his reputation, and he knows it," Yanlan noted.
"Of course. He's just like everyone else in high society, he only cares about his image and the weight of his name," Qixian said, his voice laced with a thick layer of bitterness that he couldn't quite hide.
"It must have sucked, living in that cage for twenty-one years," Yanlan said with a soft, sympathetic chuckle.
"Yeah," Qixian whispered, the weight of the graveyard still heavy on his shoulders. "It really did."
"By the way, are you on the road? Where did you go this early?" Yanlan asked as the sound of roaring engines and city traffic began to bleed through the phone line.
"Yeah, I'm driving right now," Qixian answered, his eyes focused on the road ahead.
"You're on a call while driving?!" Yanlan's voice rose, a scolding clearly beginning to brew.
"Relax, you're on speaker! Geez, why do you and Haoran always get so worked up when I call while I'm behind the wheel?" Qixian complained.
"Because driving while distracted is dangerous. Don't do it again," Yanlan scolded, her protective streak showing.
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you," Qixian said, though his tone suggested he'd likely do it again the very next time he felt like it.
"Where are you coming from? I told you it wasn't safe to come to the company," Yanlan asked again.
"I... I visited Sister Wenxian's grave," Qixian said, his voice fading out as the sadness returned to haunt him.
"You still feel guilty about that, don't you?" Yanlan asked, her voice softening with genuine sympathy.
"Yeah. I guess I always will," Qixian said, his throat tightening.
"If she were here, she would tell you to stop. It wasn't your fault, Qixian. You were just a child caught in a monster's game," Yanlan tried to reassure him.
Qixian didn't say anything for a long minute, the silence on the line stretching until it became uncomfortable. "I think I have to end the call," he finally said, his voice thick. "My battery is dying."
"Well, be careful on the road. I'll call you if I see his men leave," Yanlan said softly before ending the call.