"Ma’am, all visitors must check in at reception before proceeding to the elevators." His voice was firm but polite, following protocol. "It’s company policy."
Shuyin stopped, finally looking at him directly.
Her jade eye t his, and sothing in her gaze, sothing cold and ancient and fundantally wrong, made him take an involuntary step backward despite all his training and experience.
"I’m not a visitor," she said, her voice carrying a cold authority that seed to drop the temperature in the lobby several degrees. Morning sunlight streaming through the glass walls suddenly felt less warm. "I’m Shuyin. And I’m here to see Lu Zeyan. Now move."
The security guard blinked, thrown off balance. The na tickled sothing in his mory, hadn’t there been so scandal a few weeks ago? Sothing about the boss’s fiancée going to prison?
"I’m sorry, Miss, but Mr. Lu’s calendar shows no appointnts this morning. If you’d like to schedule..."
"I don’t need an appointnt." Shuyin’s patience was visibly thinning, though her expression remained eerily calm. "Tell Lu Zeyan that Shuyin is here. That na alone should be sufficient."
"Ma’am, I can’t just...."
Then Shuyin changed tactics.
Her entire deanor shifted in an instant, the cold authority lting into sothing softer, more vulnerable. Her jade eye dimd slightly, and when she spoke again, her voice carried a wounded, aggrieved quality that imdiately drew sympathy.
"If you don’t tell him, how is he going to pay for my services?" She let her voice crack slightly, injecting just enough pain to make it believable. "I’ve endured so much... I just need to see him. Please."
The security guards and receptionists exchanged confused glances. Services? What kind of services did she an? What kind of services did she offer?
Shuyin pressed her advantage, allowing her voice to rise just enough to carry across the lobby, loud enough for the growing number of onlookers to hear, but still maintaining that wounded, grieving tone.
"I just endured so much in prison and finally I’m free..." Her voice trembled with manufactured emotion. "Am I not allowed to see my fiancé? What have I done wrong? I’ve waited so long, suffered so much, and now I can’t even....."
She broke off, bringing one hand to her face as if wiping away tears, her shoulders shaking slightly with suppressed sobs.
The effect was instantaneous and dramatic.
Everyone in the lobby, employees heading to work, delivery personnel, early morning visitors, all stopped and stared at the aggrieved woman, the ntion of prison, the word fiancé, it was like throwing gasoline on a fire of curiosity.
"Wait, did she say prison?" soone whispered.
"And fiancé? Mr. Lu’s fiancée?"
"Oh my god, I rember this! There was that huge scandal a few weeks ago...."
"Shuyin! That’s her na! The woman who was convicted of murdering old Grandmother Lin!"
"She’s out of prison?"
"Soone’s recording this....."
And indeed, phones were already out. At least a dozen people were filming, capturing Shuyin’s performance from multiple angles. The video quality would be crystal clear, the beautiful woman with the strange jade-green eyes, dressed simply but elegantly, standing in the lobby of Lu Group South, claiming to be Lu Zeyan’s fiancée, her voice full of pain and betrayal.
Within seconds, the first videos were uploaded to social dia.
Within minutes, they were trending.
The news of her release, and her dramatic appearance at her ex-fiancé’s company, was spreading across the internet even before she’d stepped into the elevator to see that man.
The receptionist who’d initially tried to stop her had gone pale, realizing this situation was spiraling far beyond normal protocol. She grabbed her phone with shaking hands and quickly dialed Lu Zeyan’s direct office line.
It rang twice before being answered.
"Mr. Lu’s office." His secretary’s voice, professional and crisp.
"I need to speak to Mr. Lu imdiately," the receptionist said urgently. "It’s an ergency."
"Mr. Lu is in a eting...."
"Put her through." Lu Zeyan’s voice ca from the background, sharp and commanding. There was a click as he took over the line. "What is it?"
"Sir, there’s a woman in the lobby." The receptionist’s voice was tight with stress. "She says her na is Shuyin, and she’s claiming to be your fiancée. She wants to see you, and sir, people are filming, it’s causing a scene, everyone’s watching...."
The silence on the other end of the line was so complete that for a mont, the receptionist thought the call had dropped.
When Lu Zeyan finally spoke, his voice had changed, gone cold and rigid, as if his entire body had frozen.
"What did you say her na was?"
"Shuyin, sir. She says...."
"Let her co up." The words were barked out like orders, sharp and brooking no argunt. "Now."
"Yes, sir. Right away."
The receptionist hung up and turned to Shuyin, her professional mask firmly back in place despite her obvious nervousness. "Mr. Lu will see you. Please, this way."
Shuyin wiped at her imaginary tears with delicate fingers, her performance of the grieving fiancée flawless. Internally, she was coldly satisfied, could she actually cry for a man? Shed real tears over human romance and betrayal?
No way. Never.
But she could certainly pretend.
The security guards parted like water, no longer willing to stand in her way now that their boss had given direct orders. The receptionist led her to the executive elevator, a private car that serviced only the top floors where senior managent had their offices.
As the elevator doors closed behind her, cutting off the murmur of voices and the flashing of phone caras, Shuyin allowed her wounded expression to slip for just a mont.
Her jade eyes glowed brighter in the elevator’s soft lighting, and her smile was cold, calculating, utterly devoid of the grief she’d just perford so convincingly.
The original Shuyin had loved that man with genuine devotion.
Kailani felt nothing but contempt.
But contempt could be useful. Could be weaponized. It could be used to destroy soone from the inside out.
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