The following morning, the mansion was already empty when Li Na woke. No footsteps in the hall, no voice to greet her, only silence broken by the faint hum of the housekeeper moving downstairs.
She learned quickly that Director Yen Rui's day began long before dawn. By the time she stirred, he was already in his office tower, buried beneath contracts and numbers. His life revolved around ledgers and meetings, not people.
Curious, Li Na decided to see for herself. She dressed carefully and asked the driver to take her to the company headquarters.
Inside the towering glass building, the atmosphere was taut and brisk. Employees hurried across marble floors with files in hand, whispering in hushed tones when they spotted her. *The Director's new wife,* they murmured, their eyes a mix of curiosity and doubt.
She ignored them, her heels clicking as she followed the path to his office. The door was slightly ajar, and when she peeked in, she found him exactly as she imagined, His sleeves rolled up, jacket discarded, eyes fixed on a stack of reports. His phone buzzed, his laptop chimed, and still he moved with steady precision, signing, calculating, commanding.
"Director Yen, the board meeting is at noon," Gao Jie reminded him from the corner.
"Move it to eleven," he replied without looking up. "I need the extra hour for the Shanghai investors."
Li Na lingered at the doorway, unnoticed, her chest tightening. This was his world: relentless, consuming, mechanical.
Finally, she stepped inside. "Do you ever rest?"
He looked up, his pen pausing mid-signature. For a moment, surprise flickered in his eyes, then faded into calm neutrality. "Rest is inefficient."
She frowned. "Even machines stop for maintenance. Are you telling me you don't?"
His lips curved faintly, though his eyes stayed cool. "I function better than machines."
There it was again, that unshakable confidence, the arrogance of a man who believed control could bend reality. She wanted to laugh, or perhaps scream, but instead she crossed her arms.
"Then why marry at all, Director Yen, if you already have everything you need in your work?"
This time, he leaned back in his chair, studying her as though she were another equation on his desk. "Because even a Director needs appearances. Stability. And now, thanks to you, I have both."
The bluntness stung, but his words also revealed a truth she hadn't fully grasped until now: to him, she was another contract filed, another arrangement secured.
As she turned to leave, her heart pulled between anger and pity, his voice stopped her.
"Li Na," he said, her name startlingly soft on his tongue. She glanced back, meeting his eyes. "You'll find this world is simpler if you stop expecting more from it than it can give."
Her chest tightened, but she said nothing.
She left his office with a bitter realization, she had stepped into the life of a man married to work first, and to her second.