"I never once celebrated your birthday," he whispered hoarsely, his voice breaking as grief rose like a tide in his chest, "I never once thanked you for waiting for me every night… for cooking for me… for loving me even when I never gave you anything back. I didn't appreciate your presence in our lives and the kids'"
The breeze rustled softly through the maple branches overhead, cool and fleeting against his burning skin.
"I thought you would always be there, I thought you would always wait," he continued, his words ragged with regret, "I thought there would always be time… but in the end… all I gave you was a cold, lonely life… and a cold, lonely death."
A tear slipped down his cheek, falling onto the sun-warmed marble below.
"Forgive me, Ruyi," he whispered brokenly, bowing his head until his forehead touched the grave, "Forgive me… I was a fool… I am still a fool… but I promise you… I will find out the truth… I will find who did this to you… to our son… even if it destroys everything else I have left."
He closed his eyes, breathing in the faint scent of lilies and earth and warm summer grass, as memories of her gentle smile burned silently behind his eyelids.
And for the first time in years, Li Feng wept.
Not as President Li and not as the heir of the Li Corporation, but as a man who had loved too late, and lost too completely, to ever be whole again.
He remained kneeling there for a long while, listening to the rustling maple leaves above and the distant chirping of morning sparrows.
Finally, he wiped his tears with the back of his hand, placed his palm flat against her tombstone in a silent farewell, and slowly rose to his feet.
"Wait for me, Ruyi… I will make it right… even if I have to burn this entire world down to do it."
He turned away, his black leather shoes crunching softly over the gravel path as he walked back towards the cemetery parking lot. Secretary Yu followed a few paces behind, silent and respectful.
Reaching his sleek black sedan, Li Feng opened the back door and slipped inside. The familiar leather scent enveloped him, mixed faintly with the remnants of cologne and warm sun on polished upholstery.
But instead of instructing Secretary Yu to drive off, he leaned back against the headrest, loosening his tie slightly as he exhaled a slow, trembling breath.
"Master Li…?" Secretary Yu asked softly from the driver's seat, glancing at him through the rear-view mirror.
"Wait," Li Feng murmured, closing his eyes like he was reminiscing about some faraway memories, "Just… wait for a little while."
And so they remained there, parked under the wide shade tree at the edge of the cemetery lot.
Outside, the breeze rustled through the branches, carrying with it the faint scent of lilies and fresh earth.
He did not want to go back to reality just yet. Not to the office and not to the boardroom politics or hollow greetings or ruthless betrayals waiting in that steel and glass tower downtown.
For now, he only wanted to sit here, in silence and in grief, in memories of a woman he once thought would always wait for him, and a child he never truly got to watch grow up.
Minutes slipped by, measured only by the ticking dashboard clock and the faint chirping of sparrows returning to their nests.