Lin Yanyan clutched the strap of her laptop bag as the elevator rose, each passing floor a silent drumbeat against her chest. The ding announcing the thirty-eighth floor echoed louder than it should have. She stepped out into a corridor of polished silence, familiar now, yet still daunting.
Secretary Zhang was already waiting by the reception desk, as though he'd been tracking her arrival to the minute.
"Miss Lin," he greeted, his face as unreadable as glass. "Follow me."
She nodded, swallowing the nerves that had risen the moment she read the HR email. She hadn’t asked for this reassignment. She certainly didn’t understand why the executive legal division needed a low-level intern.
As she followed him through the frosted glass hallway, her heels tapping softly on the marble, she caught a glimpse of that office again—the one with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view that made the world below feel insignificant.
The door slid open.
And there he was.
Yu Aotian.
He wasn’t looking at her. His focus remained on a document spread across his sleek desk. The room smelled faintly of cedar and leather, expensive and quietly intimidating.
"Miss Lin, you’ll be supporting Mr. Yu’s direct counsel team," Secretary Zhang explained. "For now, you'll review confidential acquisition contracts. Please be aware that no copies may leave this floor."
Yanyan nodded. "Yes, sir."
Only then did Yu Aotian glance up.
Their eyes locked.
A flicker of recognition passed between them, though his expression remained controlled. Yanyan stiffened automatically, unsure if she was supposed to speak.
"You’re from Huashi," he said, tone smooth but deep, like velvet with an edge.
She nodded, surprised he remembered. "Second-year, Sir."
"Impressive," he replied, and motioned to a side room enclosed by glass walls. "That’ll be your space. Everything you need is in there."
Yanyan gave a small bow. "Thank you."
As she turned to enter, he added without looking up again, "You’ve been observed. Don’t give anyone a reason to regret that."
The glass door slid shut behind her. For a moment, she simply stood there. The room was minimalist—modern, with an elegant desk, a touchscreen interface built into the glass surface, and a wall of digital case files already queued for her.
This wasn’t a desk. It was a chessboard.
---
Hours passed. Yanyan buried herself in the contracts, grateful for the silence, the clarity of task. She didn’t look toward the office on the other side of the wall.
But she felt him.
The tension in the air was subtle—just enough to keep her spine straight. She told herself it was the pressure of working at the top, nothing more.
By late afternoon, she’d compiled a full report on discrepancies in a merger clause. She emailed the summary to Secretary Zhang as protocol demanded. Just as she leaned back to stretch, her phone buzzed.
[New Message]
From: Secretary Zhang
Message: "Mr. Yu wishes to discuss your report. Now."
She inhaled slowly, then gathered the file and stepped into his office.
Yu Aotian sat back in his chair, one hand resting against his lips in quiet thought. He didn’t offer her a seat.
"You flagged the equity distribution terms," he said without preamble.
"Yes, sir. The ratio in the annex contradicts the clause in Section 4.3."
He raised a brow, finally motioning for her to sit. "No one else caught that. Not even the senior legal consultant."
Yanyan's throat tightened. "I just... double-checked the numbers."
"You do more than double-check," he said, voice low. "You read between the lines. That’s not something you’re taught."
She opened her mouth to respond, but the intensity of his gaze pinned her. Not predatory—yet not indifferent either. Like he was trying to unravel her.
"How old are you?"
She blinked. "Twenty-one."
He stood, slowly circling to her side of the desk.
Yanyan shifted but didn’t rise. Her pulse picked up as he leaned down—not quite close, but enough that she could feel the warmth of him, the static in the air.
"I wonder," he murmured, eyes still fixed on her, "if you understand what it means to work this close to me."
Yanyan swallowed. "Professional boundaries, sir. I’m very clear on them."
His mouth twitched—amused. "I hope so. Because there are eyes everywhere, Miss Lin. And not all of them are as polite as mine."
She nodded, lips pressed together.
"Dismissed."
As she left, her legs felt unsteady, her mind both sharper and more muddled than before.
What exactly had she stepped into?
---
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