Five years without pregnancy means you're too weak; I remarried a powerful man and had triplets

Ten minutes later, when Shen Zhiyi walked to the garage with her laptop bag, Lu Zichuan was already waiting next to her usual parking space.

He stood tall and straight, his 1.87-meter frame standing out in the spacious underground parking garage. He wasn't leaning against the car, but just standing there casually, twirling the obsidian car key engraved with his initials in his fingertips. Hearing footsteps, he looked up and paused briefly, then casually tilted his head at her, gesturing for her to get in the car.

From the moment they started the car until they entered the underground parking garage of her apartment building, the two of them didn't exchange a single word.

The car stereo was playing very soft, pure music.

Shen Zhiyi sat in the passenger seat, the seatbelt digging into her collarbone and causing a slight pain. She secretly glanced at him in the rearview mirror and saw only his straight jawline and his well-defined knuckles resting on the steering wheel, while his hand on his knee unconsciously scratched itself.

When the elevator stopped on her floor, Shen Zhiyi placed her hand on the cold metal door handle, paused for two seconds, and then turned around. She spoke softly, but deliberately emphasized the three words: "Thank you, Mr. Lu. Goodbye, Mr. Lu."

Lu Zichuan, with one hand in his suit trouser pocket, merely nodded faintly and hummed in response.

His Adam's apple bobbed in the dim light of the elevator. He swallowed back the "go to bed early" that was on the tip of his tongue, and just stared at her with a straight face, his brows furrowing slightly as if he thought she was too long-winded and was putting on airs like a boss.

As the elevator doors slowly closed, Shen Zhiyi finally dared to relax her back, which had been tense all night. She took a deep breath, opened the door, and went inside.

Inside the elevator, Lu Zichuan looked at the closing metal doors and finally relaxed his jawline, which had been tense for a long time. He took his fingertips out of his pocket and unconsciously rubbed them. He sighed softly, and the tenderness that had been suppressed for half the night finally overflowed in his eyes.

When Shen Zhiyi pushed open the door, the living room was completely dark. Not a ray of light leaked through the crack in Tan Gui's bedroom door. She couldn't even hear the suspense podcast that Tan Gui always listened to before going to bed, so she must have been fast asleep long ago.

She changed her shoes quietly, picked up her laptop bag, and tiptoed back to her room, even slowing down her movements when closing the door, as if afraid that the metal lock would make the slightest noise and wake anyone.

By the time I finished showering, brushing my teeth, and completing my skincare routine, the clock was almost pointing to one o'clock.

She paused for a moment when she was wiping her face in front of the mirror; this was her first time working overtime since switching jobs to General Star.

Back when I was in Hsu Che-sheng's team, it was common to stay up until three or four in the morning. When I got back, I was too lazy to even remove my makeup and would just collapse on the bed, my mind filled with Hsu Che-sheng's sarcastic comments like "What kind of garbage is this editing?" It even made me feel a bit disgusted by his disdain.

Now that I've gotten used to the good life, after just one all-nighter, I feel heavy all over.

She simply sprawled out on the bed, her lower back stiff and aching from sitting for so long. She pressed it a couple of times, and the soreness shot up her spine.

While pressing her lower back, she used her other hand to reach for her phone to set an alarm for tomorrow. The moment she unlocked it, she saw a message from Lu Zichuan in the WeChat chat window, sent half an hour earlier:

"Go to the office a little later tomorrow, no need to clock in. You've worked hard today, get some rest."

There were no extra words, not even an emoji, just like the way he spoke with a cold face that afternoon.

Shen Zhiyi stared at that line of text for a long time, her fingertips tapping on the screen, deleting and rewriting. She originally wanted to type "President Lu, you should also get some rest," but after typing half of it, she felt it was too much, like overstepping the boundaries between superior and subordinate. In the end, she honestly replied, "Okay, thank you, President Lu."

After sending the message, she stared at the chat box for a long time until the screen automatically went dark, but she still didn't receive a reply.

the next day.

Even with Lu Zichuan's special permission, Shen Zhiyi didn't dare to be too presumptuous, arriving at her workstation only half an hour later than usual.

As soon as she swiped open the glass door to the office area, she noticed an unusual sticky feeling in the air. Several colleagues who were gathered in the tea room getting their coffee fell silent when they saw her come in. They then pretended to be nonchalant and walked back with their cups, but their eyes all darted in her direction, as if some kind of excitement was waiting for her to stumble upon.

Shen Zhiyi's heart skipped a beat. She thought that news of her lateness had spread and that Lu Zichuan's failure to inform HR had upset others. Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the canvas strap of her laptop bag.

She had just placed her bag on the table, and before the computer screen had even fully lit up, Yang Chun'er came stumbling over in her seven-centimeter heels, one heel crooked to one side. A few strands of her usually meticulously styled low ponytail had come loose, and the hem of her white shirt was half-exposed from her pencil skirt. She slammed her hand on the edge of her desk, panting heavily, her chest heaving: "Zhi, Zhizhi! You're finally here! Something terrible has happened!"

Shen Zhiyi was startled by her. Her mouse slid across the keyboard, almost dragging the folder of videos that Lu Zichuan had asked her to edit yesterday into the recycle bin. She quickly steadied the cursor: "What's wrong? Speak slowly."

"That Su Manman!" Yang Chun'er's voice cracked with anger as she grabbed her wrist, her nails digging into her flesh. "She barged in as soon as the door opened this morning, her voice as shrill as if she had a megaphone, yelling that she had to see you. The whole office could hear her cursing! We were afraid she'd disturb everyone's work, so we quickly took her to the meeting room and managed to calm her down!"

She gasped for breath, stamping her foot in frustration, her hair swaying as she spoke: "You haven't come, and she thinks we're stalling. She threw a tantrum, smashing several cups in the meeting room. When we asked her what was wrong, she wouldn't answer a word, just kept calling your name, saying she'd tear the whole company down if you didn't show up! Even the cleaning lady who went in to try and calm her down was yelled at and sent away. You'd better go check on her!"

Shen Zhiyi's brows furrowed instantly, her fingertips digging into her palms, somewhat bewildered: "Su Manman? What does she want with me?"

She and Su Manman didn't have much interaction to begin with. She hadn't lost her temper when Su Manman was arguing with Xu Zhesheng in front of her. Now that Su Manman had taken her away, she didn't want her anymore, so why was she causing trouble for her?

She weakly pinched her brow, feeling as if her chest was blocked, and her good mood from the morning was completely gone.

"Okay, I'll go take a look."

She stood up and let out a heavy sigh.

Seeing this, Yang Chun'er immediately stopped catching her breath, quickly tucked the disheveled shirt hem back into her skirt, then turned around and, as if adjusting the armor of a general about to go into battle, carefully tidied Shen Zhiyi's stray hairs and slightly wrinkled collar, her face filled with a death-defying resolve: "Zhiyi, don't be afraid! I'll go with you! If that shrew dares to lay a hand on us, we'll just fall to the ground, and I'll immediately call the police and sue her for intentional assault!"

Shen Zhiyi was amused by her protective attitude and her lips curved into a smile. Her originally heavy heart was suddenly relieved by this warmth, and she chuckled softly, "Okay."

The two walked towards the reception room, one after the other. Before they even stepped inside, Su Manman's shrill voice, like fingernails scraping a blackboard, pierced through the soundproof glass door and exploded unrestrainedly in the corridor:

"Where has that coward Shen Zhiyi gone?! I've been waiting for her here for half an hour! How much longer do I have to wait?!"

This was followed by a piercing scream, like porcelain shattering, accompanied by vicious curses:

"You're so capable of secretly flirting with men and stealing other women's fiancés, but you don't have the guts to confront me? Get out here!"