The Next Morning - Lu Rowan's Penthouse - 7:00 AM

Mei stood at the kitchen counter, her movements precise and controlled as she prepared breakfast. When Lu Rowan emerged from his bedroom, she offered him the same polite smile she'd worn at Skyline Atelier, the professional, distant, empty of any real warmth.

"Good morning," she said, setting his coffee at his usual place. "I made congee with preserved egg. There's also toast if you prefer something lighter."

Her voice carried the careful courtesy of a waitress it was pleasant, effficient and completely impersonal.

Lu Rowan studied her face, searching for any crack in the mask she'd constructed overnight. But Mei had retreated behind walls he recognized it was the same protective numbness he'd perfected in his own childhood.

"Mei—"

"I've been thinking about your work schedule," she continued as if he hadn't spoken. "If you have no evening meetings this week, I can arrange to eat earlier so we don't clash. It's more efficient that way."

The word 'efficient' hit him like a slap. This was what she'd reduced 'them' to they were now in an efficient arrangement between two people who happened to share living space.

"I don't want you to—"

"It's no trouble." She turned back to the stove, her shoulders rigid. "I understand the parameters of our arrangement now. It's actually easier this way we meet when we only need each other "

Lu Rowan felt something cold and sharp twist in his chest. He'd gotten exactly what he'd claimed to want. Mei treating their marriage as a business transaction so why did it feel like punishment?

He left for work without finishing his breakfast.

Crafts Construction Headquarters - 9:30 AM

Lu Rowan's mood had been black since he'd walked into the office and everyone could feel it. He'd snapped at his assistant for scheduling conflicts, torn apart a presentation that was actually quite good, and dismissed two different project proposals with barely a glance.

"The structural analysis for the Pudong development is incomplete," he said curtly to the engineering team. "I need comprehensive load calculations, not these rough estimates."

"Sir, we can have those by end of week"

"I need them by tomorrow. If that's a problem, I can find engineers who understand deadlines there are many people who are in need of your positions ."

The room went silent. Lu Rowan's reputation for demanding excellence was well-known, but this was different harsher and more personal somehow.

Arthur watched from the corner of the conference room, noting the tight line of his boss's shoulders, the way Lu Rowan's hands clenched whenever someone asked a clarifying question. Something had happened at home, and whatever it was it had left Lu Rowan in thhat kind of mood that made grown men reconsider their career choices.

Lu Rowan's Office - 2:00 PM

"The quarterly reports are ready for your review," Arthur said, setting a stack of folders on Lu Rowan's desk.

"Leave them there."

Arthur didn't move. "Sir, is everything"

"I said leave them." Lu Rowan's voice could have frozen water.

Arthur hesitated at the door. In five years of working together, he'd never seen Lu Rowan like this not even during the most stressful business crises or family pressures. This was personal. This was about Mei.

"Should I reschedule your afternoon meetings?" Arthur asked carefully.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because you've been..." Arthur searched for diplomatic phrasing. "Unusually direct with people today."

Lu Rowan looked up from his computer screen, his eyes cold. "I've been efficient. I thought you'd approve."

The word 'efficient' carried bitter weight, and Arthur filed that information away for later.

Meanwhile - The Penthouse - Same Time

Mei sat in the living room with a design pad in her lap, sketching architectural details with mechanical precision. Her lines were clean, technical, emotionally vacant. She'd spent the morning organizing the apartment with the same methodical thoroughness—rearranging books by height, reorganizing the kitchen cabinets for maximum efficiency, folding Lu Rowan's clothes with military precision.

Staying busy meant not thinking. Not thinking meant not feeling. It was a survival strategy that had served her well during her worst years with the Liangs.

Her phone buzzed with a text from Mrs. Liang: Mei, I hope you're settling into married life well. Remember that a good wife supports her husband's career above all else.

The cruel irony of receiving marriage advice from the woman who'd spent years telling her she was unworthy of love made Mei's hand tighten around her phone. But instead of anger, she felt only a dull recognition.

Mrs. Liang was right, in her way. Mei had forgotten her place, had confused business arrangement for genuine affection. Last night had been a necessary reminder of reality.

She deleted the message without responding and returned to her sketching.

Arthur's Decision - 3:30 PM

Arthur had seen enough he thought of calling his boss lady bt they were not that close to do so. After watching Lu Rowan reduce two junior architects to near-tears and dismiss a proposal that represented months of work with a single cutting remark, he made a phone call.

"Dr. Chen? It's Arthur. Are you free tonight?... Yes, it's about Lu Rowan. We need to talk invite him for a beer."

Chen Ning's Apartment - 8:00 PM

Dr. Chen Ning opened three bottles of imported beer and set them on his coffee table as Arthur and Lu Rowan settled into his living room. The apartment was a study in controlled chaos—medical journals scattered across surfaces, expensive furniture mixed with personal mementos from his years studying abroad.

"So," Chen said, settling into his armchair with the easy confidence of someone who'd spent years getting people to tell him things they didn't want to admit. "Arthur says you've been acting like an ass all day."

"Arthur..... ," Lu Rowan replied, but he took a long pull from his beer.

"He fired someone for bringing him lukewarm coffee," Arthur said flatly. "You made three people cry before lunch."

Chen raised an eyebrow. "Rough night at home?"

Lu Rowan's grip tightened on his beer bottle. "Everything's fine at home."

"Bullshit." Chen's bluntness was refreshing after a day of careful diplomatic phrasing. "You look like someone who's been hit by a truck. What happened with your wife? "

The direct question cut through Lu Rowan's defenses more effectively than sympathy would have.

"She wants children," he said finally. "She thinks we can have a real family."

Chen and Arthur exchanged a look.

"And that's a problem because...?" Chen prompted.

"Because it's not what we agreed to. Because she's romanticizing something based on one afternoon with my grandmother. Because because we slept together several times " Lu Rowan stopped, running a hand through his hair.

"Because you're terrified of being a father," Chen finished.

Lu Rowan's silence was answer enough.

"Let me guess," Chen continued, his voice matter-of-fact rather than gentle. "You panicked, said something designed to hurt her before she could hurt you, and now she's treating you like a polite stranger."

"She asked me why I married her if I think she's so damaged." Lu Rowan's voice was barely audible. "I couldn't answer her."

"Why not?" Arthur asked.

"Because the truth is worse than her assumptions."

Chen leaned forward. "Which is?"

Lu Rowan was quiet for a long moment, staring at the beer bottle in his hands.

"I married her because she's broken in ways that match how I'm broken. Because she wouldn't expect the kind of emotional intimacy I don't know how to give. Because she understood survival, not love, and that felt... safe."

The admission hung in the air like smoke.

"Jesus, Rowan," Arthur muttered.

"I told her she was too damaged to be a mother," Lu Rowan continued, his voice flat. "I used every insecurity l know of her as ammunition to shut down a conversation I wasn't ready to have."

"That's fucked up, man," Chen said bluntly. "Even for you."

"I know."

"Do you?" Chen's medical training had taught him to cut through deflection. "Because it sounds like you're more upset about the consequences than the actual cruelty."

Lu Rowan flinched. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're sitting here angry that she's gone cold on you, but you're not talking about how you destroyed something she was brave enough to hope for." Chen's tone remained conversational, which somehow made the words hit harder. "You're not talking about how you proved to a woman who's spent her life being told she's worthless that the one person she trusted agrees with that assessment."

"I was protecting—"

"Protecting yourself," Arthur interrupted. "By demolishing her."

The truth of it sat heavy in the room. Lu Rowan had used his intimate knowledge of Mei's vulnerabilities as a weapon, had struck at the core of her deepest fears to avoid confronting his own.

"So what do I do now?" Lu Rowan asked finally.

Chen shrugged. "Depends. Do you actually think she'd be a terrible mother, or were you just scared and lashing out?"

Lu Rowan considered the question seriously. He thought about Mei's gentleness with injured animals, the way she'd cared for him when he had said something so hurtful , her instinctive protectiveness toward anyone she perceived as vulnerable.

"She'd probably be a better mother than I will be as a father," he admitted.

"Then you need to figure out what you're actually afraid of," Chen said. "Because it's not her parenting abilities."

Lu Rowan knew exactly what he was afraid of it was becoming his parents. Giving a child the same casual indifference he'd grown up with. Failing at the most fundamental human relationship the way his family had failed him at .

But acknowledging that fear meant acknowledging that Mei deserved better than someone who was too damaged by his own childhood to risk creating a family.

"She's shut me out completely," he said instead. "This morning she treated me like a business associate."

"Good for her," Arthur said, surprising him. "She's protecting herself the only way she knows how."

"Whose side are you on?"

"The side of not being a complete bastard to the woman you married," Arthur replied. "You want her back? Then you need to fix what you broke. Actually fix it, not just apologize and expect her to forgive you because it's convenient."

The conversation continued late into the night, but Lu Rowan's mind was already elsewhere at the penthouse where Mei was probably lying awake, staring at the ceiling, convinced that the person now closest to her in the world thought she was fundamentally flawed.

He'd gotten what he'd thought he wanted distance, safety, the preservation of their business arrangement without the messy complications of deeper feeling.

But sitting in his friend's living room, surrounded by the debris of his own emotional cowardice, Lu Rowan realized that what he'd actually gotten was exactly what his parents had given him: a relationship empty of warmth, connection, or genuine care.

And for the first time, he understood that some forms of safety came at too high a price.

The Penthouse - 11:30 PM

Mei lay in bed, staring at the adjoining door that connected her room to Lu Rowan's. She could hear him moving around on the other side the sound of drawers opening, water running in his bathroom, the soft thud of shoes being placed in the closet.

Normal domestic sounds that felt as distant as thunder from a storm happening to someone else.

Her heart had built new walls overnight, thick and impenetrable. She'd spent years perfecting this kind of emotional isolation, and it settled around her now like familiar armor.

Lu Rowan had shown her exactly who he was and what he thought of her. The kindness, the protection, the moments of genuine care those had been part of their business arrangement, nothing more. She'd been foolish to think otherwise even though she wouldn't deny that this was better than marrying Shen Ji.

But she wasn't naive anymore. She understood the parameters now.

Three years of efficient coexistence. Three years of being useful enough to keep around but not significant enough to truly matter.

She could do that. She'd done harder things.

The sound from Lu Rowan's room eventually quieted, but sleep didn't come. Instead, Mei lay awake planning how to rebuild herself into someone who could survive living with someone who you should never have thoughts about nomatter what.

It was a skill she'd learned young and never quite forgotten. She just hadn't expected to need it again so soon.