The light in the master suite was too bright, a relentless, sterile gold that burned through Li Yue's eyelids. She shifted, her skin catching on the unfamiliar friction of black silk sheets, and groaned. Her body felt like it had been hollowed out, every muscle heavy with the residual exhaustion of a year's worth of family stress and a month of wedding planning.
She reached for her phone, her movements sluggish.
12:14 PM.
Li Yue bolted upright, a sharp gasp escaping her. She hadn't slept this late since she was a teenager. The panic of "shaming the family" hit her first, before the reality of her surroundings settled in. She wasn't in her girlhood bedroom. She was in the Fu fortress.
The other side of the king-sized bed was cold. Perfectly smooth. The pillow sat there, plump and untouched, as if Fu Yao had never even reclined his head.
Then she saw the notifications.
3 Missed Calls: Mei.
1 Text Message: Mei (09:15 AM) — "Pick up, you corpse! Or I'm calling the morgue."
She hit the call button immediately. It didn't even ring twice.
"Oh, look who decided to join the land of the living," Mei's voice crackled with a mix of dry sarcasm and genuine relief. "Do you know how many times I called? And do you know who answered your phone, Yue?"
Li Yue's heart skipped a beat, her fingers tightening on the device. "Fu Yao?"
"The Beast himself," Mei said, and Li Yue could practically see her rolling her eyes through the phone. "I was mid-sentence, ready to ask if you were still walking straight, when this deep, icy voice just cuts me off. 'My wife is sleeping. She is not to be disturbed.' Then? He just hung up. No 'hello,' no 'who is this.'"
Li Yue looked at the empty room, a flush creeping up her neck. "He said that?"
"Word for word. I didn't know whether to be terrified for you or start a fan club. So? Give me the details. Did he break the bed? Did you survive the experience?"
Li Yue's gaze fell to the scarlet silk strings of her lingerie, still perfectly in place. The irony felt like a weight.
"Nothing happened, Mei."
The silence on the other end was absolute. "Excuse me? Is he broken? Did the Fu family's golden boy run out of batteries?"
"He told me to go to sleep because he had a meeting," Li Yue whispered, pulling the duvet up to her chest as if someone were watching. "He didn't even look at me. I was... I was ready for it, I guess. I mean, we're married."
It's his right, she thought. With Wei, she had always felt like she had to prove she loved him by giving in, so she just figured this would be the same, only colder. But Fu Yao didn't even try. He just worked on his tablet until she fell asleep."
"Wait, so you're telling me you spent the night in a bed with a man who looks like that, and he did... nothing?" Mei sighed.
"I'm almost relieved," Li Yue lied, staring at the sunlight hitting the floor-to-ceiling windows. "But it's weird. He's already gone. Who has meetings at noon on a Saturday?"
"The kind of man who owns half the skyline," Mei countered. Then her voice softened, the sarcasm fading into genuine comfort "Yue, maybe it's a good thing. You've been through enough. You don't need a man claiming his rights when you're still healing from that loser Wei."
Li Yue leaned her head against the headboard. "Enough about me," Yue said, her voice firmer as she deliberately shifted the spotlight away from the empty side of her bed. "Monday is the big day, you start at the legendary Huan Construction."
She heard Mei let out a long, dramatic exhale, the sound of a rustling duvet following it.
"Oh, Yue. I am a literal vibrating wire," Mei confessed, her dry bravado slipping just enough to show the girl who had stayed up until 3:00 AM studying blueprints for four years. She switchedto video call, showing yue her wardrobe. "I've already laid out three different outfits. Is a cream blazer too 'I'm trying too hard'? Is a pinstripe skirt too 'I'm your boss already'?" She went back to the end , face first to the mattress. "I'm spiraling."
Li Yue smiled, a genuine warmth spreading through her chest. "You placed first in the recruitment cycle, Mei. You didn't just get the job; you broke the firm's scoring record. Wear the pinstripe. Remind them why they hired you."
"I just want to be on that team, Yue. The lead design unit. I've heard rumors that the Architectural Prodigy, Yan Jing, is finally taking on a new batch of juniors for the North Quay project. If I get assigned to him... God, I'll be set for life. He's supposed to be a ghost in the office, but his work? It's poetry in concrete."
"A prodigy and a ghost," Li Yue mused, tracing a pattern on the duvet.
"I just want to be in the room when he draws. I want to see how his mind works."
"You'll get in," Li Yue said with total conviction. "And when you do, you're going to show him that the top-ranked graduate isn't just a name on a resume.."
"From your lips to the Universe's ears, cutie bun," Mei sighed happily. "Anyway, I have a date with a steamer and a very stubborn silk blouse. You? You go find a massive breakfast. Eat something expensive on Fu Yao's tab. Make him pay for being a boring robot."
"I'll try," Li Yue laughed. "Good luck, Mei. I'll be waiting to hear about your first day."
"You'll be the first to know. Love you, Yue!"
"Love you too."