The week moved like a dream Tang Yueru didn't quite trust.
Since that night at the gallery, something had shifted between them.
Lu Shenyan didn't say much. He never did.
But his silences were different now—less like walls, more like bridges waiting to be crossed.
He no longer avoided her gaze. No longer hid behind cold business talk. Sometimes, she caught him watching her… with something that looked dangerously close to vulnerability.
And she hated that it made her chest ache.
Because this was still a contract.
Still a lie.
Wasn't it?
---
Until she walked into the Lu Corporation's lobby and saw her.
The woman every gossip column once called "Lu Shenyan's perfect match."
Long legs. Velvet heels. Expensive perfume. Perfect smile.
And ice in her eyes.
"Yueru," she said sweetly, extending a hand. "Or should I call you Mrs. Lu now?"
Tang Yueru didn't flinch.
"You can call me whatever you want. I'm still the one wearing the ring."
The woman laughed—low and graceful.
"I see Shenyan still has a thing for stubborn women."
---
They sat across from each other in the executive lounge—unplanned, unwanted.
"I'm only in Shanghai for a few days," the ex-fiancée said casually, sipping champagne. "But when I heard the news, I had to see the woman who finally made Lu Shenyan settle down."
"You make it sound like I dragged him to the altar."
The woman's smile didn't reach her eyes. "He never looked at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like he's scared to lose you."
That shut Yueru up for a beat.
---
Then she dropped the real bomb:
> "He proposed to me once. Did he ever tell you?"
Yueru's stomach flipped.
"No," she said evenly.
"He did. On a snowy rooftop in Paris. I turned him down. Told him love wasn't enough."
She tilted her head. "What did he offer you?"
Yueru stared. "What?"
"Money? Power? His name? What was your price?"
It was a slap.
But Yueru only smiled—calm and lethal.
"Your mistake was turning him down for not loving you enough. Mine was agreeing to marry him without love at all."
---
When Yueru returned home that night, Lu Shenyan was already waiting.
He looked up from his desk. "You saw her."
Yueru didn't answer.
"She asked for a private dinner," he said.
Yueru's voice was sharp. "And you said yes?"
He stood slowly. "I said no."
Her breath caught.
He walked to her, stopping inches away.
"She doesn't matter anymore."
"Then why does it still hurt?" she whispered.
He didn't answer.
But he reached up and cupped her face, just for a moment.
"I don't know how to love someone," he repeated the same words.
But this time, he added, "But I know how it feels to lose them."
And then…
He kissed her.
For real.
Not part of the contract.
Not for the public.
Not because anyone was watching.
Just them.
Just this moment.
Just a scarred man trying to learn how to feel—and a woman who might be willing to teach him.
---