Xiao mei still remembered the first evening she saw Chi yuan as if it were carved into her mind. It was after her part time shift at the small milk tea shop near the city river. She was tired and her hands smelled faintly like sugar syrup, but she was happy because the night breeze felt soft on her skin. She planned to take the long way home that night, walking beside the river lights and letting her mind relax from a long day of classes and work.
She did not expect anyone else to be there. Most people rushed home at this hour. But she saw a tall figure sitting on the stone steps that led down to the water. At first she wanted to ignore him. People often came here to drink or cry or just escape stress. She respected that. But something about the way he sat made her pause. His shoulders were stiff and tense, and he kept rubbing his forehead, like he was trying to press back a headache or something even worse.
She stepped a little closer. Not too close. Just enough to check if he was hurt. The man lifted his head at the small crunch of gravel under her shoes. That was the first time she saw his face. The street lights were dim but she could still see the exhaustion around his eyes. And sadness. A deep kind of sadness that made her chest tighten for no reason she understood.
She knew him. Not personally. No one like her would personally know a man like him. But she had seen him in business articles and social media posts. Chi yuan. The young CEO who everyone talked about. People always described him as cold, distant, extremely focused. But now he sat here alone like the loneliest person in the city.
Xiao mei hesitated. She did not want to bother him. But leaving him alone felt wrong too. Finally she asked softly if he was alright. Her voice came out so small she almost regretted speaking at all.
He looked at her like he had forgotten other people existed. His lips parted slightly, like he was trying to find words but had lost them somewhere in his mind. For a second she thought he might tell her to leave. Someone like him had every right to avoid strangers. But instead he let out a slow breath and said that he was fine. Though it was painfully clear he was not.
She nodded and stepped back a little, not wanting him to feel pressured. She told him that sometimes it helped to sit somewhere quiet. She told him she came here too whenever school and work made her feel like she was carrying a heavy stone on her chest. He listened. She did not know why he would listen to someone like her, but he did. Maybe because she was the only person nearby. Or maybe he just needed a human voice that was not judging him or expecting anything from him.
After a long minute he said that he had lost something important that day. Something he thought he would never lose. She realized then. He must have meant someone. A woman probably. Someone he loved before. The kind of love that leaves a shadow even after it is gone.
Xiao mei felt an ache in her heart. Not jealousy. Just sadness for him. Because even a powerful CEO was still a human who could hurt like anyone else. She wanted to comfort him, but she did not know how. She was nobody compared to him. A poor girl from a normal family, working part time and studying hard to survive. Why would he care about her words.
Still she sat down a few steps away from him. Not close enough to disturb him, but close enough so he would not feel alone. She told him gently that losing someone was not the end of life. She told him sometimes people leave so that new paths can appear. Her words were simple and maybe too naive, but she meant every word from her heart.
He did not answer right away. But his shoulders relaxed a little. He seemed grateful even if he did not say it. And Xiao mei felt something warm rising inside her chest, something she could not name yet. It was strange, feeling connected to someone who did not even know her name. Someone who had a life so different from hers. Yet at that moment he looked almost fragile, like a man who had seen everything except comfort.
She stood up after a while because her shift had ended more than an hour ago and her mother would worry. She told him she needed to go and wished him a good night. When she walked away she did not look back, but she could feel his gaze on her. It made her steps feel lighter than they should have.
That night she lay in bed thinking about him. Chi yuan. The CEO who the whole city admired. The man who looked lost beside the river. She wondered what kind of woman he lost. She wondered how much he had loved her. And then she wondered why she felt so much for someone she had met only once.
She scolded herself. People like her should not dream like that. But the thought of him clung to her mind anyway. His eyes. His voice. The sadness that wrapped around him. Something inside her heart opened just a little.
She did not know this meeting would change her life. She did not know it would lead to marriage and heartbreak and everything in between. She did not know it would one day break her the same way he was broken when she found him. All she knew in that moment was that she had seen a man who needed someone, even if he did not say it. And she had wanted to be that someone. Even if she had no right to want that.
Days passed. She thought that she would never see him again. She even forced herself to forget him, but the image of him sitting near the water stayed in her mind. Sometimes she caught herself smiling without meaning to, remembering the way he had looked at her with quiet attention. She thought he probably forgot her already. Why would someone like Chi yuan remember a simple girl he met by accident.
But fate had a strange way of weaving lives together.
A week later, she saw him again. This time not by the river, but right in front of the milk tea shop where she worked. He was standing by the window, looking at the menu as if he had never stepped foot in a cheap place like that. The customers inside whispered and stared. People recognized him instantly. Even her manager stared with wide eyes.
Xiao mei felt her heart jump so suddenly she dropped the cup she was holding. The sound made him turn his head toward her. Their eyes met again. For a moment everything around her blurred. The shop noise, the customers, the bright lights. All she saw was him.
He gave a small polite nod. Not too cold. Not too warm. Just enough to show he remembered her. And that tiny gesture made her breath catch.
She did not know why he came. She did not know if he had searched for her or if this was just another accident. But the moment he stepped inside the shop, she understood something clearly.
Her quiet life was no longer going to stay quiet.
And her heart which she had always protected carefully was now walking toward danger without even realizing it.
That was the beginning.
The moment Xiao mei unknowingly stepped into a future full of love, p
ain, betrayal and strength she never knew she had.