THE BILLIONAIRE'S RIVAL

Chapter 3: Locked in

On the third day, Shanghai had a red alert. Typhoon Meihua was coming.

Lin Xiao woke up at 4 AM as usual. The wind was already howling outside her tiny apartment window. Rain smashed against the glass. Her phone buzzed with government alerts: _All citizens stay indoors. Do not go out._

But she had to open the bakery. The court inspector was coming today. If they were closed, they would lose automatically.

She ran downstairs in her yellow raincoat. The street of Tianzifang was empty, flooded with ankle-deep water. Shutters were closed. Only Sugar Corner's warm light was on.

And Li Zeyan was already inside.

He was standing by the window, looking at the storm. He was not wearing a suit today. He wore a simple black sweater and black pants. His hair was slightly wet. He looked less like a billionaire and more like a normal man, a handsome, tired normal man.

"You came," Lin Xiao said, surprised.

"You came too," he said without turning. "I thought girls like you were scared of storms."

"Girls like me bake even in storms," she said, taking off her raincoat. Her shirt was soaked. She shivered.

Li Zeyan finally turned. He saw her wet hair sticking to her face, her white shirt almost transparent from rain. He quickly looked away, his ears turning red.

"Go change," he said stiffly. "There is a towel in the back."

Lin Xiao went to the small storage room. It was only 2 square meters, full of flour bags. She changed into her spare work shirt. When she came out, Li Zeyan was trying to fix the old air conditioner that was leaking.

"You will get electrocuted! Leave it!" she ran over and pulled his arm.

He lost balance. Both of them fell onto the flour bags in the storage room.

BAM.

The old wooden door of the storage room — which had been broken for months — slammed shut.

Lin Xiao tried the handle. Locked. From outside, the lock had rusted and jammed because of the rain.

"Oh no. No no no!" she banged the door. "It's stuck! The door always sticks!"

Li Zeyan stood up calmly and tried. It didn't move. He pushed harder. Nothing. His phone had no signal because of the typhoon. Her phone was on the bakery counter outside.

They were trapped in a 2-square-meter storage room, together, with 10 bags of flour, during a typhoon.

"This is ridiculous," Li Zeyan muttered. He was so tall his head almost touched the ceiling.

Lin Xiao sat down on a flour bag, hugging her knees. "It's all your fault. If you didn't demolish our street, the door would have been fixed!"

"My fault that your door is broken for ten years?" He sat down opposite her. Their knees touched because there was no space. He quickly moved his knee.

Silence, except for the typhoon roaring outside.

The storage room was cold and dark, only a small yellow bulb flickered. Rain leaked from the ceiling, drip drip.

Lin Xiao sneezed. "Achoo!"

Li Zeyan looked at her. She was still shivering in her thin shirt. Without thinking, he took off his black sweater. Underneath he wore a white t-shirt that showed his muscles.

"Wear it," he said, handing it to her.

Lin Xiao stared. "I... I don't need..."

"You are shaking. Wear it. Don't make me repeat."

She took it. It smelled like him — expensive cologne and clean laundry. It was warm. She put it on. It was huge on her, reaching her knees.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He nodded and looked away. But in the small space, he could see everything — her wet eyelashes, her small hands holding his sweater tight.

"Why do you protect this bakery so much?" he asked suddenly, his voice low. "Two million yuan. You could go to university, open a bigger shop in Xintiandi. Why stay?"

Lin Xiao hugged the sweater. "My Nainai... my grandmother picked me up from an orphanage. She had no children. She taught me to make red bean buns when I was 5. She said, 'Xiao Xiao, if you are sad, knead dough. The dough will listen.' When she got sick last year, she held my hand and said, 'Don't let them take our smell away.' This bakery smells like her. If it's gone, she's really gone."

Her eyes turned red. She tried not to cry.

Li Zeyan was silent for a long time. Then he said, "My grandfather said similar. But he said, 'If you are sad, make money. Money will never leave.'"

"That's so cold," Lin Xiao said.

"That's why I am rich and you are poor," he said, but there was no mockery in his voice. It sounded sad.

Lin Xiao looked up at him. For the first time, she didn't see a cold billionaire. She saw a lonely boy who also lost someone.

"You must be very lonely in that big office," she said softly.

Li Zeyan's eyes widened. No one had ever said that to him.

Before he could answer, the yellow bulb went out. Total darkness.

Lin Xiao gasped and instinctively grabbed his arm. "I'm scared of dark!"

He froze. Her small hand was holding his forearm tightly. In the dark, her breathing was fast.

He slowly put his other hand over hers. "I'm here. Don't be scared."

They stayed like that for maybe 10 minutes. In the dark, in the small storage room, with the typhoon outside, a billionaire and a baker girl holding hands.

Then the door was kicked open from outside with a loud BANG.

It was the court inspector, a fat man in a raincoat, holding an umbrella and shouting, "Is anyone here?! Typhoon inspection! I saw lights..."

Light flooded in. Lin Xiao quickly let go of Li Zeyan's hand and jumped up, her face burning red.

The inspector stared at them — Lin Xiao wearing a huge men's sweater that was obviously Li Zeyan's, Li Zeyan in only a wet white t-shirt, both sitting on flour bags in a dark storage room.

His eyes went wide. "Oh! Oh! Sorry! I... I didn't know you were... busy! I will come back later!"

"No! It's not what you think!" Lin Xiao shouted.

Li Zeyan stood up, his face black again, but his ears were still red. "We were trapped. The door broke."

But the inspector was already taking photos for his report. "Co-habitation during work hours! Very good teamwork! I will write: Co-owners show excellent cooperation and... intimate understanding of storage management!"

Lin Xiao wanted to die.

An hour later, the typhoon passed a little. The bakery was safe but wet. Lin Xiao gave Li Zeyan back his sweater. He didn't take it.

"Keep it. You get cold easily," he said.

She held the sweater. It was still warm.

That evening, someone uploaded a photo to Weibo. It was taken through Sugar Corner's window during the typhoon: In the dark storage room, a tall man in white t-shirt holding a small girl in his sweater, close together.

The caption: *#FlourCouple Trapped In Typhoon - Billionaire Li Zeyan spends typhoon with Flour Girl! Is this love?*

In 2 hours, it got 50 million views.

In his 88th-floor apartment that night, Li Zeyan looked at the photo. He zoomed in on Lin Xiao's hand holding his arm. He saved the photo.

Then he texted her for the first time. Not through assistant. Directly.

*Li Zeyan: [Your door is still broken. I will send someone to fix it tomorrow.]*

Lin Xiao replied after 10 minutes.

*Lin Xiao: [No need, Billionaire. Save your money.]*

He stared at the message and smiled — a real, small smile that no one had seen in years.

*Li Zeyan: [It will be deducted from your profit. 200 yuan.]*

*Lin Xiao: [YOU ROBBER!!!]*

He laughed out loud in his empty apartment.

To be continued.......