The rain hit the windows of XuanTech Group like soft drumming fingers, and Yuxuan Chen sat in his glass-walled office, fingers loosely holding a cup of steaming oolong tea. He wasn't working. Not really. His laptop screen had gone dark five minutes ago. His assistant Zhao Lei was somewhere pestering interns. But Yuxuan wasn't even aware of it.
Because she had returned.
Xia Yuwei.
That name hadn't passed his lips in five years, yet now it echoed in his head like a ghost knocking on old doors.
He leaned back in his leather chair, eyes half-lidded, as the memories began to drip in like rainwater through a crack in the roof.
Five Years Ago — University of Beijing
She used to call him "Mr. Ice Cube" — partly because he was always quiet, and partly because he refused to laugh at her terrible puns.
"Do you know why the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?" she asked once, legs swinging from the university rooftop ledge.
He glanced sideways. "Because it produces ATP?"
She grinned. "No. Because I say so."
He didn't smile. But he memorized that moment forever.
They weren't official. They never labeled it. But they'd skip lectures to sit in quiet cafes, walk the streets during night rains, share bubble tea, and argue about who had better music taste (she said Jay Chou; he said Chopin).
And then came her.
Luo Bingbing. The girl who sat next to Yuxuan in Finance class, always too close, always too giggly. Yuwei hated her. Yuxuan... tolerated her.
But then that one evening…
Yuwei had walked past the library and saw Bingbing handing Yuxuan a gift. He hadn't accepted it, but she didn't see that. All she saw was Bingbing, her perfect hair and perfect smile, laughing beside him.
She didn't wait for explanations. She stopped returning his texts. Avoided him in the corridors. And one day, without warning, she was gone.
Transferred. Disappeared.
And Yuxuan never chased her.
The present felt colder now.
He tapped his desk twice. The door creaked open and Zhao Lei peeked in.
"Boss, are you glaring at the rain or just thinking about your tragic ex?"
Yuxuan looked up. "Was I glaring?"
"Like you were about to sue the sky."
"I'm fine."
"You're not. You haven't even insulted my shirt today."
Yuxuan sighed. "What do you want, Zhao Lei?"
"Uh, update. Our new janitor — Miss Xia — has been assigned to clean the executive floors permanently."
Yuxuan raised an eyebrow. "Who approved that?"
"The cleaning department said she's oddly efficient. Like, freakishly observant. One of the staff joked she cleaned their desk before they spilled anything."
Yuxuan narrowed his eyes. "...Observant?"
"Yeah. One intern said she even asked about the camera blind spots near the east corridor."
That made him sit straighter.
"What kind of cleaner asks about blind spots?"
Zhao Lei shrugged. "Maybe she wants to avoid being caught napping."
Yuxuan's fingers tapped again. Thoughts racing.
Something didn't add up. She wasn't just back. She was watching. Looking. Calculating.
But why?
And yet, despite the suspicion brewing in him...
He couldn't stop remembering her laugh. Her dramatic eye-rolls. Her mango milk obsession. The way she used to flick his forehead and say, "One day, I'll be your boss, just watch."
He had watched.
She had disappeared.
And now she was here.
In his company. Pretending to mop floors.
Was it fate? Or something else?
Whatever it was... he wasn't letting her vanish again.
To be continued....