In the dining room, the atmosphere was thick with the scent of lilies and cold ambition. Ming Su's phone gave a delicate, crystalline ting against the marble tabletop. She didn't need to look at the screen to know the message: Done.
She slid the device into her clutch and looked up, her expression shifting with surgical precision from a smirk to a mask of soft, fluttering worry.
"Aren't they taking a long time, Ah Qi?" she mused, swirling the dark dregs of wine in her glass.
Bai Qi lifted his gaze, his patience finally snapping. The silence from the hallway was an insult. "He's likely struggling with the labels just to spite me," he muttered, his jaw tightening.
The heavy oak doors creaked open. Naina appeared, a solitary figure cradling a vintage bottle like a trophy.
Her breathing was slightly elevated, her face a pale, dutiful blank. She bowed low before the table.
Bai Qi looked behind her. The doorway remained empty. The shadow that usually haunted his footsteps was gone.
"Where is he?" Bai Qi demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous, low frequency.
Ming Su leaned forward, her voice a silk thread of concern. "Yes, Naina. Where did you leave Shu Yao?"
Naina swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on the floor. "He... he left, Sir."
The words hung in the air like a lethal gas. Bai Qi's hand froze mid-air, his obsidian eyes widening in a rare moment of genuine shock.
"He left?" Bai Qi repeated, the syllables jagged.
"Yes, Sir," Naina lied, her voice trembling with just enough "fear" to be convincing. "We reached the cellar, but he seemed...
distressed. He looked at the wine, then at the service exit. He told me he couldn't stay a moment longer. He turned around and walked out. I tried to call after him, but he was gone."
A surge of hot, acidic rage boiled in Bai Qi's chest. The audacity. The sheer, unmitigated disrespect. To walk out on a dinner he had commanded him to attend? To leave him here with Ming Su without a word of dismissal?
"You bastard," Bai Qi hissed under his breath, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the edge of the table. "You dare to walk away from me?"
Ming Su let out a soft, sharp gasp. She brought a manicured hand to her chest, her expression crumpling into a beautiful, tragic sadness. She looked down at her lap, her shoulders trembling as she performed the role of the wounded angel
"He... he really left?" she whispered, her voice wavering. "But we still haven't finished our dinner. Was I... was I that unpleasant to him? How could he just leave like this, Ah Qi?"
The sight of her "pain" was the final blow to Bai Qi's logic. He looked at the empty chair where Shu Yao had sat—the chair of the man he claimed to own—and felt a profound sense of betrayal.
He didn't see the trap. He didn't see the sedative coursing through a dying boy's veins three hundred feet away. He only saw the tears of the woman he thought was his salvation.
"This bastard," Bai Qi repeated, the venom in his voice echoing the coldness of the cellar.
"It's okay, Ah Qi," Ming Su said softly, reaching out to cover his clenched fist with her hand. She offered him a brave, sorrowful smile. "It's okay.
If he didn't feel good... if he didn't want to be here... it's fine. You are still here. That is all that matters."
Bai Qi looked at her, and the misplaced guilt burned through him. He felt responsible for Shu Yao's "cruelty."
"He will regret this," Bai Qi promised, his voice cold as the grave. "I swear to you, Ming Su. He will regret walking out that door."
Downstairs, the lobby remained a cathedral of silence. George checked his watch again. The hands hadn't moved nearly enough. He looked at the elevator bank, his emerald eyes narrowing.
The elevator chimed—a sharp, clinical sound that cut through the silence. The doors slid open.
Bai Qi stepped out.
He moved with his usual predatory grace, but his brow was knitted in a dark, jagged frown. He looked like a man who had been promised a feast and given ashes. He didn't see his uncle at first; he was too busy dwelling on the "insult" he believed he had suffered.
George's heart stuttered. He looked behind his nephew, searching the golden light of the elevator car for the one silhouette that mattered.
The car was empty.
George lunged forward,"Bai Qi!"
The younger man stopped, his obsidian eyes widening in genuine shock. "Uncle? What the hell are you doing here at this hour?"
George didn't offer a greeting. He grabbed Bai Qi's shoulders, his fingers digging into the expensive fabric of the charcoal suit. "Where is he? Where is Shu Yao?"
Bai Qi's expression tightened into a mask of defensive arrogance. He pulled away, smoothing his lapels.
"Why are you asking me? The brat has already left. He walked out in the middle of dinner without a word of permission. I assumed he ran back to you to play the victim."
The air in the lobby seemed to turn to ice. George's face went from pale to a terrifying, mottled red.
"Left?" George's voice was a low, dangerous vibration. "What the hell are you talking about, Bai Qi? Do you think I am a fool? Do you think I am some senile old man?"
"Wait," Bai Qi's eyes narrowed, a flash of irritation crossing his face. "Were you spying on me? You stayed here the whole time?"
"I couldn't leave him alone!" George roared, the sound echoing off the high ceilings like a cannon shot.
"I knew you would do something. I knew your temper would flare like a blind beast's. I have been sitting right here, facing that damn entrance, since the moment you both arrived."
Bai Qi stilled. The fury in his eyes was slowly replaced by a cold, creeping dread.
"I didn't do anything. We were eating, and then—"
"If you didn't do anything, then where is he?" George stepped into Bai Qi's personal space, his emerald eyes burning with a lethal fire.
"I have watched every soul exit this building for the last three hours. I have watched the staff, the guests, and the cleaners. Shu Yao did not walk through those doors."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Bai Qi felt a surge of nausea. "If he didn't go home... then where did he go?"
"That is what I am asking you!" George shoved Bai Qi's chest, a rare display of physical aggression. "I don't know what lies you've been fed, but you will regret it if you've left him alone in there."
Bai Qi stumbled back, his mind racing. "I swear... I thought he left. It made me angry. Yes, I loathed him for it. He was being disrespectful to Ming Su."
"Ming Su," George spat the name as if it were poison. "You trust that girl too much. That is why I couldn't afford to let him stay with you. You are blind, Bai Qi. Blinded by a face that wore ghost smile"
Bai Qi's brows knitted together, his jealousy and protectiveness warring within him. "If he didn't go outside, and he isn't here... where could he be? He was weak today. He looked like he could barely stand."
The realization hit him like a physical blow. "What if he collapsed? What if he's lying in a hallway somewhere? He was fragile..."
"He was dying for your attention, and you always gave him cold shoulders," George hissed, turning toward the elevator bank
"I'm coming too," Bai Qi snapped.
The two men stepped into the lift. As the car ascended, the silence was suffocating.
Bai Qi closed his eyes, leaning his head against the cold metal wall. He remembered the last time he saw Shu Yao—walking away with Naina to fetch the wine.
Maybe he didn't feel well, Bai Qi thought, a flicker of genuine worry finally piercing his pride. Maybe he fell.
He glanced at his uncle. George's face was set in a mask of stone, his eyes moist with unshed tears. The sight made Bai Qi's chest tighten with an ugly, misplaced jealousy.
"Don't worry, Uncle," Bai Qi muttered. "If he didn't leave, he must be somewhere. He probably just fainted."
"You know nothing of that poor boy," George replied, his voice a jagged rasp. "You know nothing about a soul that gives until there is nothing left but bone and breath, and still tries to give more."
"I never asked him to," Bai Qi snapped, turning his head away.
"Even if you didn't, he is still trying. Isn't that enough?" George turned to him, his gaze piercing. "He didn't eat. He didn't rest. He spent his days shielding you from your own shadows, and you treat him like an inconvenience."
Bai Qi's expression hardened. "I offered him food today! But he refused. He can eat with you, Uncle, but he can't bear a single bite with me. How am I supposed to be merciful when he treats me like a stranger?"
"If you were merciful enough," George whispered, "none of this would be happening. You blame him for his sister? Do you think he wanted her to die? You are punishing the survivor for surviving."
Bai Qi stopped speaking. The argument was a circle of pain they had traveled too many times.
Fifty floors above, the dining room was a theater of cruelty.
Ming Su leaned back in her chair, a flute of champagne in her hand. She let out a soft, melodic laugh that didn't reach her eyes.
"You did well, Naina," she murmured.
Naina stood before her, her head bowed so low her chin touched her collarbone.
She was trembling—not with regret, but with the sheer terror of the woman sitting in front of her.
Ming Su's brown eyes burned with a dark, obsidian light.
"If I frame him, Bai Qi will never believe a word he says. The Monarch is so easy to lead when you use the right leash."
She stood up, gliding toward the window. "Let's see if he is still breathing. We can't let him die quite yet; a corpse is a waste of a good pawn. If he's still alive, we'll move him to the service quarters and claim he was hiding."
Naina didn't answer. She couldn't.
Suddenly, the heavy oak doors were thrown open with such force they rebounded off the walls.
"Ming Su!"
The girl flinched, her champagne splashing onto the white tablecloth. She whirled around, her eyes widening as she saw Bai Qi storming in, followed by the towering, formidable presence of George.
"Ah Qi?" Ming Su stammered, her voice instantly shifting back to a soft, innocent trill. "What happened? Did you forget something?.
Bai Qi didn't look at her. His eyes were fixed on Naina. "Shu Yao didn't leave."
Naina's heart stopped. She gulped, her eyes darting toward the service hallway. "Sir? I... I told you, he walked out the exit—"
"Where the hell is he?" George barked, his voice shaking the crystal on the table. He stepped toward Naina,"I have been in the lobby for hours. No one left. where is he?"
Naina swallowed hard, the lie turning to ash in her mouth. "He... he told me... he just left..."
"I said where is he" George roared.
Ming Su's face went pale. She saw her perfect plan crumbling in real-time. She took a deep, shaky breath, her eyes welling with fake tears. "Ah Qi... what is happening? If... if he didn't go outside, then where did he go.
Bai Qi turn, he was sick? He was so weak earlier... what if he fainted in the hallway?"
"Last time He was with you," he said to Naina, his voice a lethal whisper. "Take me there. Exactly where you saw him left.
"Now."
Naina's knees nearly gave out.
She looked at Ming Su, but her mistress was staring at the floor, already calculating her next move.
"Follow me, Sir," Naina whispered.
As they walked toward the cold storage, the air grew thinner and colder. Bai Qi's pulse hammered in his ears, a rhythmic chant of regret he wasn't ready to admit.