Chapter 5
1261 Words
The figure remained halfway up the staircase, where the shadows clung thickest. Only a faint glint of light caught the edge of their cheekbone. Mei Lin recognized the voice instantly even though she could not yet see the face.
“Uncle Rui?” she whispered.
Zhang Rui, younger brother of the late Zhang Yuantao, stepped fully into the faint glow from the window. His expression was calm and measured, but an unease stirred beneath his eyes. He carried himself with the composed authority of a man used to negotiating behind closed doors.
Mei Lin felt Zhang Wei tense beside her. Rui’s presence was not just unexpected. It was almost impossible.
He had not visited the Liang Estate since Zhenghai’s death. Tradition demanded he attend the funeral, yet he had sent condolences instead. Everyone assumed he was abroad again in Europe, where he handled a discreet branch of the Zhang family business.
“What are you doing here?” Mei Lin asked.
Rui lifted an eyebrow slightly. “I could ask the same question.”
His gaze moved across the room, taking in the disturbed shelves and missing binders. Something flickered behind his eyes, a calculation or a warning Mei Lin could not read.
Wei stepped forward. “This tower is private. You should not be inside.”
Rui offered a thin smile, not quite friendly. “I came to pay respects to your father’s old study. I used to visit him here when we were negotiating the alliance. I assumed the tower was still open.”
Wei’s tone hardened. “The door was locked.”
Rui shrugged lightly. “Perhaps a servant forgot to secure it.”
Mei Lin’s instincts flared. He was lying. Rui was too precise a man to wander anywhere by accident. And he would never forget that Zhenghai guarded this tower fiercely.
Her father’s last words echoed through her mind. Some secrets were dangerous. Some were shameful.
Rui looked at her then, holding her gaze for a moment too long. “Mei Lin, your return has set many things in motion. Your father never did anything without purpose.”
She stepped back slightly. “You knew about the condition in the will.”
“Of course. Your father spoke to me about it years ago. The alliance meant everything to him.”
Wei bristled. “You will not pressure her.”
“Pressure?” Rui repeated, amused. “Wei, I am only reminding your future wife what her father intended.”
Mei Lin drew a slow breath. “We are not engaged.”
Rui’s smile widened. “Not yet.”
There it was. The push. The expectation. The tightening of invisible threads.
Mei Lin spoke firmly. “The will binds me. It does not bind my heart.”
Rui’s expression cooled. “The heart is a luxury. Legacy is not.”
He walked toward them with unhurried steps. The air felt heavier with each footfall.
“As your uncle by alliance,” he continued, “I intend to help protect the interests of both families. Including whatever is stored in this tower.”
Wei shifted closer to Mei Lin. “Help, or control?”
Rui paused at the final step, his face now fully visible. He studied Wei with a hint of pity. “You have always been idealistic. Admirable, but naive.”
His eyes flicked to Mei Lin. “Your father chose you for a reason. You inherited his courage. Do not waste it fighting battles that can be avoided.”
There was an implication hiding inside his words. A warning disguised as advice.
Then Rui stepped past them, glancing once at the broken lock.
“You should leave this place. Whatever you are looking for is already gone.”
He descended the staircase with effortless calm. His footsteps faded into the distance.
Mei Lin and Wei stood in silence for several moments.
“He was lying,” Mei Lin said quietly.
Wei nodded. “About the lock. About why he is here. Possibly more.”
Mei Lin turned back to the shelves. “Why would he come? And why today?”
“Because something in these records threatens him,” Wei said. “Or threatens someone he is trying to protect.”
A steadying breath filled Mei Lin’s lungs. She gathered herself, closed the ledger and wiped her palms on her jeans.
“We need to leave,” she said. “Before he sends someone to check if we remained inside.”
Wei agreed. They exited without another word, slipping into the daylight that felt strangely sharper after the dark tower.
Uncle Rui walked through the garden with the measured calm of a man who planned every second of his day. But when he reached the far end of the estate, away from windows and servants, his composed mask cracked.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number he had memorized years ago.
“It is done,” he said. “They saw the missing binders. They know someone broke the lock.”
A low voice replied through static. Rui listened, eyes narrowing.
“No. She does not have the documents. But Minghao might,” Rui murmured. “If he uses them against us, the alliance is finished.”
The voice crackled again.
“I agree,” Rui said. “We need to find the remaining evidence before she does.”
He ended the call, then looked back toward the tower. For a brief moment, guilt softened his eyes. The guilt vanished as quickly as it came.
“Forgive me, old friend,” he whispered to the memory of Zhenghai. “Your daughter is stronger than I expected. That makes her dangerous.”
Mei Lin and Wei returned to the courtyard. She felt raw and drained, but something fierce had begun to simmer inside her. For years she had avoided this world, choosing art over legacy, but now the legacy had claimed her. There was no escape.
“Mei,” Wei said gently, “you should rest. You have faced enough in one day.”
“I cannot rest,” she said. “Not with Rui involved. Not with Minghao covering his tracks.”
“We will face them together.”
Mei Lin hesitated. She looked at him, unsure what to make of the steadiness in his voice or the sincerity in his eyes.
“Do you trust me?” Wei asked.
The question startled her. It hung in the air between them, fragile but powerful.
Mei Lin looked toward the tower. Then toward the main hall where her family plotted. Then finally into Wei’s eyes.
“I want to,” she said quietly. “But trust is earned.”
Wei nodded. “Then let me earn it.”
She did not answer, but she did not pull away when he lightly touched her elbow, guiding her out of the open courtyard.
Neither of them noticed the figure watching from the veranda.
Liang Guowei leaned against a wooden pillar, his expression unreadable, his fingers tapping a slow rhythm against the railing. He had arrived early enough to see Rui leaving the tower. And he had noticed the look on Mei Lin’s face as she exited.
He smiled slightly, a smile that held no warmth.
“So many secrets,” he murmured. “This might be more entertaining than I expected.”
He turned away and began walking toward the main house.
Tomorrow, the first board meeting since the patriarch’s death would take place.
And Guowei intended to use that meeting to start a war.
- Writer
