Mr. Liang, you mustn't covet other people's fiancées!

The meeting was scheduled for 10:00 a.m., and Wen Li and Liang Chaoxu entered the Jingyue Group Building one after the other.

She went directly to the conference room, while he went to the co-working area on the top floor first.

Halfway through the project progress meeting, Liang Chaoxu pushed open the door and came in, holding several supplementary documents in his hand. He went straight to the head of the long table.

Meng Shu noticed his wrist, which was immobilized in a cast, and felt worried. She turned to look at him, her gaze pausing for a moment as it swept across his face.

He had a cartoon band-aid on his jawline, with a light blue background and a small white bear printed on it.

Her gaze lingered on the band-aid for two seconds before shifting away, and she continued the meeting as usual.

Wen Li sat on the other side of the long table, speaking in a steady and logical voice. Occasionally, she would meet Liang Chaoxu's gaze, and she would quickly look away and never look at him again.

This morning, after I accidentally scratched his chin, he said it was nothing, but before leaving the house, he insisted that I put a band-aid on it. He even claimed it was to prevent infection.

The wound was so thin it was barely the thickness of a hair; it would have healed by now if I had gone out any later. How could it have gotten infected?

As the meeting ended, the crowd surged toward the door. Wen Li and Tian Miao chatted as they walked toward the elevator.

As Wen Li passed by Meng Shu, she greeted her with a smile, "Director Meng, we're leaving now."

"Okay, see you another day." Meng Shu smiled and replied. As she spoke, she caught a faint, almost imperceptible scent of gardenias, which was very light and pleasant.

She looked at Wen Li and asked, "Team Leader Wen's perfume smells wonderful, what brand is it?"

Wen Li was slightly taken aback, then smiled and shook her head: "It's not perfume, it's my shampoo. If Director Meng likes it, I'll bring you a set another day."

Meng Shu didn't stand on ceremony: "Then I'll treat Team Leader Wen to dinner another day."

"Okay." After saying that, Wen Li and Tian Miao walked into the elevator together. As the elevator doors were about to close, Wen Li waved to Meng Shu.

Meng Shu responded with a smile.

After last night's conversation and the one just now, she realized that Wen Li didn't seem to have any feelings for Liang Chaoxu.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to listen to her talk about those things so calmly, and then greet her with a smile.

After thinking it over, Meng Shu walked towards Liang Chaoxu, who was standing by the window answering a phone call, with a smile on her lips.

Just as she reached his side, the fresh scent of gardenias wafted past her nose again. Her smile faltered for a moment, then she took another half step forward, getting even closer to Liang Chaoxu.

After confirming that the scent on him was exactly the same as the one on Wen Li, Meng Shu's eyes were filled with disbelief.

She glanced at the band-aid on Liang Chaoxu's chin, and suddenly realized something. Her emotions surged up, and a hint of resentment and ruthlessness appeared in her eyes.

After finishing his call, Liang Chaoxu turned around and saw her standing beside him. He put his phone away and asked, "Is there anything else?"

Meng Shu smiled, her tone relaxed and natural, but her gaze fell on his bandaged left wrist: "What happened to your hand? It was fine last night."

"I tripped and fell, but it wasn't serious," he replied briefly, without further explanation.

Meng Shu nodded, her gaze sliding over the little bear bandage on his chin before settling on his face. She asked tentatively, "Didn't you shave properly this morning? I see you have something on your face."

Liang Chaoxu raised his hand and touched his chin, pressing his fingertip along the edge of the bandage. He smiled and said, "I haven't used a razor blade in a long time, so I didn't control the pressure well."

The smile on his lips made Meng Shu's heart sink; it seemed her guess was pretty much right.

She didn't ask any further questions, put the documents into her bag, and nodded to him: "Okay, I'll have someone compile next week's node data and send it to you."

After saying that, she turned and walked towards the elevator. The sound of her high heels gradually faded away in the corridor. The faint smile on her face disappeared the moment she turned around, and her brows furrowed.

Wen Li, you actually tried to play this double-dealing game with me.

Around 6 p.m., Wen Li received a call from the police station.

Wen Chenghua stayed inside overnight and asked the police to tell Wen Li that he had something to say to her and wanted to see her.

Wen Li hung up the phone and fiddled with it repeatedly at her workstation. After get off work, she said goodbye to Tian Miao and went straight to the police station from the company.

The meeting room at the police station was brightly lit and cold. Wen Chenghua sat on the other side of the table, looking extremely haggard.

He was wearing a large coat, his hair was messy, and his face was bruised. His gaze was no longer as fierce as it had been the night before; it was lowered as he looked at the table.

Wen Li sat down opposite him, looking at him across the table without saying a word.

Wen Chenghua raised his head, his lips moved, and his voice was very low, with a humility that Wen Li had never seen before: "Youyou, Daddy was wrong, Daddy is not human."

He spoke with difficulty, as if each word was being squeezed from the depths of his throat: "But your brother is innocent. He's only fourteen. Zheng Ying is in jail too, and no one at home cares for him. You...you can take care of him, okay?"

Wen Li sat in the chair, her back ramrod straight, her face expressionless.

Looking at her face and seeing that she didn't budge, Wen Chenghua anxiously added, "No matter what, he's still your brother. Just think of it as helping your father out, okay?"

Wen Li did not answer.

She looked at the face opposite her, the face she had called "Dad" for eighteen years.

She recalled the winter when Zheng Ying was locked out of the house after school, and the time when Wen Chenghua threw her luggage out the door when she was nine years old, telling her to "go find your mother."

He remembered how he used to beat and scold me all those years, yet he doted on and spoiled our son, Wen Yizhuo. Those memories flooded back like a tide, and my eyes stung from the bright white light.

Wen Li stood up from her seat, her voice flat and even: "Fourteen years old, not a child anymore. She can cook for herself, go to school by herself, and take care of herself. There's nothing wrong with that."

She paused for a moment: "When you drove me away and abandoned me, I wasn't even as old as him, but I still survived."

After she finished speaking, she turned and walked out of the meeting room.

Behind her, Wen Chenghua's voice came through the glass, muffled and urgent, as if scolding her for being unfilial to her parents and unloving her siblings.

Wen Li gave a bitter smile, ignored him, and strode away.

As Wen Li walked into the corridor, she paused.

At the end of the corridor, Liang Chaoxu sat on a bench. When he saw her come out, he stood up and walked towards her.

He smiled at her, extended his uninjured hand, and intertwined his fingers with hers, holding hers: "Want to go get some wontons?"

Wen Li looked up at him: "Why are you here?"

"My lawyer called me and said you came to the police station alone. I was worried, so I came to check on you," Liang Chaoxu said, leading her out of the police station.

The two walked out of the police station side by side. It was already dark outside, and the streetlights cast long, thin shadows of them.

Reaching the car, Wen Li withdrew her hand: "I'm going to the outskirts of Beijing."

Liang Chaoxu turned to look at her, his eyes filled with complex emotions—a mixture of heartache and helplessness. After a moment, he opened the back door: "Get in, I'll go with you."