CHAPTER 20
For a long moment, the room stood suspended in silence—sharp, fragile, and trembling like the instant before glass shatters.
Shi Yunxi did not move.
She stood poised, back straight, one hand placed gently on Mu Rui's quivering shoulder. The little boy clung to her tightly, burying his tear-streaked face against her dress while his small fingers curled around the fabric like he never intended to let go.
Across from them, Mu Lingchen stood absolutely still.
Cold.
Expressionless.
Terrifying in his restraint.
His dark eyes locked onto Yunxi's calm ones—deep, unreadable, heavy with an intensity that pressed against her chest and made the air itself feel thin. Around them, the washroom corridor seemed to shrink, the fluorescent lights humming faintly above as if afraid to interrupt the moment.
But Yunxi didn't bow her head.
She didn't avert her gaze.
She met Mu Lingchen's coldness with quiet strength.
Mu Rui shifted shakily, his small voice breaking the stillness.
"Daddy… don't be mad…"
His lips wobbled, another tear slipping down his cheek.
At those trembling words, something in Mu Lingchen's expression shifted—so subtly that anyone else might have missed it. A faint tightening near his eyes. A controlled breath he forced through clenched teeth.
Not anger.
But a battle against it.
And underneath… something raw. Unspoken.
Slowly—so slowly he looked like a predator calculating every step—Mu Lingchen walked forward. His polished shoes echoed faintly on the marble floor until he stopped just a breath away from Yunxi and the child.
Then he crouched.
A gesture so rare, so intimate, it froze Yunxi in place.
The cold CEO of the Mu Group… kneeling.
Mu Rui lifted his head a little, eyes still wet.
"Daddy…"
Mu Lingchen studied him silently, gaze sweeping over the tear tracks on his son's face, the trembling in his small shoulders, the way he desperately held onto Yunxi as if she were a lifeline.
His voice, when it came, was low and impossibly controlled.
"I'm not angry."
Mu Rui blinked up at him. "…You're not?"
"No."
A beat.
"Come."
Mu Rui hesitated, torn between Yunxi's soothing presence and the father he adored but feared disappointing. Finally, with a shaky breath, he released her dress and reached out.
Mu Lingchen lifted him with one arm—effortless, secure—but his posture remained stiff, as if he were holding something delicate and dangerously breakable.
Mu Rui buried his face in his father's shoulder.
"She didn't do anything wrong…" the little boy whispered again, voice muffled.
Mu Lingchen's jaw tensed, but his response was quiet, almost gentle.
"I know."
Shi Yunxi's gaze softened, though her expression stayed composed. For a moment, she allowed them the space—the father struggling with emotions he refused to show, the child who only wanted reassurance.
Then Mu Lingchen looked at her again.
And this time, the look was different.
Still cold. Still unreadable.
But no longer dismissive.
Something darker.
Something questioning.
Something he didn't understand yet—and hated not understanding.
"Thank you," he said quietly, each word measured. "For taking care of him."
Two seconds passed.
A heartbeat.
Then he straightened, his presence snapping back into place—the powerful, untouchable CEO once more.
But the air between them…
was no longer the same.