Shen Yu's feelings were never a shallow case of falling for someone's looks. They began with an “accident” that shattered every rule he lived by. Three years ago, when Wen Tang stumbled into his office, it wasn't her breathtaking beauty that first caught his eye. It was her quiet resilience, the way she remained neither servile nor arrogant, that broke through years of coldness and defenses. She became the one and only exception in his life, a love at first sight etched into his very bones, impossible to recreate.
It was only after countless later reflections that Shen Yu understood what that first faint stirring meant. He had never fallen for her beauty. He had fallen for the way she held her back straight even in the midst of panic, for her unassuming poise, for the way she shattered all his defenses and rules and made him want, for the first time, to keep someone by his side and protect them. This love at first sight had nothing to do with physical beauty or a suitable match of status. It was simply that her resilience and sincerity in that moment had found their way into his long-desolate heart, taken root, and grown into an uncontrollable obsession and devotion. He made up his mind in secret: he would keep this woman by his side and protect her, even if only in the roles of boss and assistant, even if he could only watch her from afar, even if he had to restrain every possessive impulse. He couldn't bear the thought of letting her slip away.
