The soft drizzle of evening rain washed over the city like a curtain of forgotten dreams. The air was cool, touched with petrichor and neon. Inside the luxury hotel, warmth glowed from the chandeliers, but between them stood Tang Yuhan—drenched, alone, and trembling slightly under her soaked designer coat.
She shouldn't have come.
The rooftop was empty, save for one figure leaning against the railing: Lu Shenyan. Cigar unlit between his fingers, suit unwrinkled even in the damp air, he turned as if he had known she would come.
"Tang Yuhan," he said quietly, as if speaking her name would undo the cold distance between them.
"I signed it," she whispered, voice sharp as the wind. "The contract."
He didn't react immediately. Didn't move. But she knew—she knew—that he'd been waiting for that sentence.
Lu Shenyan finally approached her, his eyes dark and unreadable. "Why did you?"
Her fingers curled around the strap of her bag. "Because you made sure I had no other choice. My mother's surgery. My company's downfall. You cornered me, Lu Shenyan."
He took one step closer. "I gave you an offer."
"You gave me chains."
Thunder rolled in the distance. Between them, the air was thick—not just with rain, but with every unsaid word, every unresolved night.
"Six months," he murmured. "Six months of being Mrs. Lu. You'll have everything you want—money, protection, power. And in return…"
He didn't finish. He didn't have to.
She stared up at him, chin high despite the water dripping down her cheeks. "And after six months?"
"You walk away. Unless you decide not to."
Yuhan's chest tightened. "I'll never fall for you, Lu Shenyan."
His lips curved. Not a smile. A challenge.
"We'll see."
---
That night, she lay awake in the guest bedroom of the Lu estate. The sheets were Egyptian cotton, the windows tall and beautiful. And yet, sleep never came.
Her mind kept replaying that look in his eyes. Possessive. Distant. Dangerous.
Who was the real Lu Shenyan?
And why… why did her heart tremble, not from fear—but from the anticipation of falling?
---