Chapter Text
The invitation arrived on a Monday morning.
It was thick.
Expensive.
The kind of invitation designed to impress people before they even opened it.
Chi Cheng tossed it onto his desk without a second glance.
His assistant immediately looked nervous.
"President Chi..."
"What?"
"You should probably read it."
Chi Cheng sighed.
He hated social events.
Hated business galas.
Hated networking dinners.
Most of all, he hated invitations delivered in envelopes that cost more than most people's monthly salaries.
Still, he picked it up.
Opened it.
Read the first line.
And froze.
The Wang Group cordially invites you-
The rest became meaningless.
Because a familiar name appeared near the bottom.
Wu Suo Wei.
For a long moment, Chi Cheng didn't move.
Four years.
Four years since graduation.
Four years since the breakup.
Four years since he'd last seen him.
Four years was apparently not enough.
His jaw tightened.
"Cancel my afternoon meetings."
His assistant blinked.
"Sir?"
"I'll attend."
The assistant looked shocked.
Chi Cheng never attended anything.
Which was exactly why nobody questioned him further.
The moment the office door closed, Chi Cheng looked down at the invitation again.
Wu Suo Wei.
The name should not have affected him anymore.
It did.
Unfortunately.
---
Across the city, Wu Suo Wei was trying not to be late.
His phone rang for the third time.
He already knew who it was.
Wang Zhen.
Suppressing a sigh, he answered.
"Hello."
"Where are you?"
The question came immediately.
Not hello.
Not good morning.
Where are you?
Wei looked at the traffic ahead.
"On my way."
"You were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago."
"I know."
Silence.
The kind of silence that wasn't really silence.
The kind that felt like pressure.
Eventually Wang Zhen spoke again.
"Don't be late."
The line disconnected.
Wei stared at his phone.
Then slowly put it away.
Outside, rain tapped softly against the car window.
His reflection stared back at him.
Twenty-five years old.
Engaged.
Successful.
Everything people expected him to be.
Then why did he feel exhausted all the time?
The thought disappeared as quickly as it came.
He had a gala to attend.
A fiancé waiting for him.
And absolutely no idea that his past was about to walk back into his life.
---
The annual Wang Group Charity Gala was exactly the kind of event Chi Cheng hated.
Crystal chandeliers.
Expensive suits.
Fake smiles.
People pretending to enjoy each other's company.
He arrived thirty minutes late.
Intentionally.
The moment he entered the ballroom, conversations paused.
Everyone knew who he was.
Chi Cheng.
Founder and CEO of Cheng Corp.
One of the youngest self-made executives in the country.
No family empire. No inherited fortune. No powerful relatives.
Everything he'd built belonged to him.
And everyone in the room knew it.
Chi Cheng ignored them.
Because he wasn't looking at them.
He was looking across the ballroom.
At a familiar figure standing beside Wang Zhen.
Time did something strange.
For a moment, four years disappeared.
Then reality returned.
Wu Suo Wei looked different.
Older.
More mature.
Sharper.
But the eyes were the same.
The same eyes Chi Cheng had spent four years trying to forget.
As if sensing something, Wei looked up. Their gazes met.
And suddenly the entire room disappeared.
Neither moved. Neither looked away.
Four years.
Four years of silence.
Four years of unanswered questions.
Four years of resentment.
The first thing Chi Cheng felt wasn't nostalgia.
It wasn't longing. It wasn't love. It was anger.
Cold. Sharp. Patient.
Because unlike Wu Suo Wei-
Chi Cheng had never forgiven the past.
And he hadn't returned to forget it.
He had returned to settle it.