The Next Day
The sound of blows echoed across the Training Grounds with brutal rhythm.
THUD! THUD!
Adrian was on the ground again.
Sweat stung his eyes, and the pain in his ribs had become a constant note threatening to turn into a fracture. His body had reached its limit. If Su Meilan's father kept this up, Adrian wouldn't even make it to the arena, the mission would fail, and "Extinction" would be his only reward.
A few meters away, Su Meilan watched in silence, her arms crossed. Her face was an expressionless marble mask.
Why do I feel this way? she wondered, barely acknowledging the greetings from her subordinates.
It wasn't the burning anger of a woman scorned.
It was something colder.
Deeper.
And far more irritating.
It was dissonance.
She remembered Adrian from the day they first met: a brilliant businessman, a man with mediocre cultivation but a mind capable of bending entire markets to his will. They had shared secrets, conducted research together, created new things together...
They weren't lovers.
But during those days spent talking, planning, and dreaming side by side, it had felt as though they shared something unique.
She had never felt that way with anyone before.
When Adrian hit the ground again, she almost stepped forward.
The concern was genuine.
Watching him bleed beneath her father's fists made her chest tighten.
But alongside that concern was something worse.
A sharp, uncomfortable chill pierced her heart as she remembered what he had done.
He had kissed another woman...
Right in front of her.
Was it because of the veil?
Because I never showed him my face?
Then the memory of the kiss returned with perfect clarity...
And so did the anger.
Stronger than before.
"Too slow, boy!" her father roared. "You're thinking about the Saint instead of my fist!"
Another punch came crashing toward Adrian.
He barely managed to block it with his forearms.
Su Meilan clenched her fists beneath her long sleeves.
What disturbed her wasn't the act itself.
It was how irrational it had been.
Why would Adrian—the man of efficiency, the man who calculated every step—commit political suicide by kissing Lin Yue in front of everyone?
It made no sense.
Yet he did it.
Does he really like her... more than me?
It shouldn't matter, she told herself, feeling that familiar stab of irritation as Adrian rolled across the ground after another kick.
He's only a member of the Chamber.
A business partner.
But yesterday... when I saw him walk toward her...
For just one second...
I wished that woman had been me.
"That's enough, Father."
Su Meilan's voice cut through the training ground.
It wasn't filled with concern.
It carried authority.
"If you break him now, we still have a great deal of work left to do."
"And he still has that tournament."
The old man stopped reluctantly and looked at his daughter.
Then at Adrian, who was struggling to his feet while spitting blood.
"I'm still not satisfied," the old man said with a strange smile.
"Meilan, don't be soft."
Su Meilan walked over to Adrian.
She didn't kneel.
She didn't offer him a handkerchief.
She simply stood over him, her shadow falling across his battered body.
"Here."
She tossed him a small crystal vial filled with silvery liquid.
"It's a rapid recovery tonic."
"It costs ten thousand spirit stones."
"I'll deduct it from your dividends next quarter."
Adrian drank it, immediately feeling strength returning to his exhausted muscles.
He looked up at her, searching for the familiar look of silent understanding that always existed between them.
Instead...
He found a wall of glass.
"Are you angry?" he asked hoarsely.
Su Meilan tilted her head as though she'd been asked a question in a foreign language.
"Angry?"
"Why would I be angry, Adrian?"
"I'm..."
"It's nothing."
She leaned down slightly.
For the briefest instant, the Fairy revealed a spark of very human fire in her eyes.
"I'm simply wondering whether the man who designed an aircraft with me..."
"...is the same fool who lets himself be ruled by impulse."
She turned before he could answer.
"Wipe the blood off your face."
"We still have work to do."
The office was silent.
Not the usual working silence.
A different one.
Adrian looked up from his report.
He frowned.
"Is it cold in here?"
Su Meilan continued writing.
"No."
Silence.
Adrian looked toward the window.
It was closed.
He looked at the spiritual brazier.
It was still burning.
Then he looked back at Su Meilan.
"Strange..."
She stamped another seal onto a contract.
"Something else?"
"No... I just thought the temperature had dropped about ten degrees."
"That must be your imagination."
Adrian cleared his throat.
"Maybe."
He returned to the reports.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Fifteen.
"You know we managed to reduce spirit herb consumption by another two percent?"
"I saw."
"And?"
"It's in the report."
Silence again.
Adrian took a deep breath.
Second attempt.
"The new coffee turned out pretty well."
"Mhm."
"We reduced the bitterness."
"Excellent."
"..."
"..."
This was worse than negotiating with five elders at once.
He decided to try another strategy.
"Your father nearly broke three of my ribs."
"Only three."
"Only?"
She looked up.
"He's being gentler with you."
Then she returned to her paperwork.
Adrian decided to abandon that battlefield.
"Understood."
Five minutes later...
"Want some coffee?"
"No."
"Tea?"
"No."
"Water?"
"No."
"A civilized conversation?"
She slowly raised her head.
Looked at him.
Adrian felt a chill run down his spine.
"We're already having one."
...
Complete defeat.
Adrian rested his forehead against the desk.
"Negotiating monopolies was easier..."
Su Meilan almost smiled.
She didn't.
Not yet.
Then she picked up one of the reports lying on the desk.
"There's an error here."
Adrian immediately lifted his head.
"Where?"
She walked over to his desk.
Very slowly.
She laid the scroll between them.
"Production Line Three."
Her finger traced several columns of numbers.
"Efficiency dropped by four percent."
Adrian completely forgot about the atmosphere between them.
He leaned over the report.
"No... wait."
He grabbed a brush and corrected several figures.
"Production didn't decrease."
He turned the scroll toward her.
"Internal transportation time increased."
Su Meilan stopped thinking about the kiss.
Her expression changed.
She was no longer looking at Adrian.
She was looking at the problem.
"The new warehouse..."
"It's too far from the furnaces."
"Exactly."
The two of them began writing almost simultaneously.
He drew arrows.
She reorganized departments.
He calculated distances.
She reassigned personnel.
Ideas began flowing as naturally as they always had.
Without realizing it, they both ended up leaning over the same blueprint.
Their shoulders nearly touched.
The silence was still there.
But it was no longer cold.
It had become the comfortable silence of two people solving a problem together.
Then Adrian spoke without thinking.
"You look much more..."
He stopped.
Su Meilan slowly raised her eyes.
"More what?"
Adrian suddenly sensed a danger comparable to one of the System's missions.
"...more efficient."
She stared at him for three long seconds.
Then she looked back down at the blueprint.
"Keep working."
It wasn't forgiveness.
But neither was it the icy distance from before.
And for Adrian, a man accustomed to negotiating in probabilities...
That already counted as a small victory.