Jing Rui was extremely dissatisfied with himself. After leaving Jiang Yuyan’s place last night, he returned home intending to go to bed early and forget his frustrations. Instead, he tossed and turned all night, ultimately getting up and opening his laptop to pick apart the annual work reports submitted by each project manager at the company.

If he approached it with a nitpicking mentality, he could find faults in even the best reports, especially since the ones submitted had their imperfections.

As he made notes and corrections, he thought about how he would sarcastically criticize them in the review meeting.

He worked until dawn and then drove straight to the office. Once inside, he slammed a stack of reports marked with red ink onto his desk.

The dull thud of the reports hitting the table, burdened with countless efforts, was like the thunder of spring, instantly waking him up.

What was he doing? Was he really trying to shift his anger onto his employees? What kind of boss was that? Where was the rationality he usually prided himself on? Just because he had a fight with his secretary, he had turned into one of those hot-headed fools? He frowned at himself, took a deep breath, brewed a strong cup of black coffee, sank into his office chair, and gazed at the city outside, which was yet to fully awaken, slowly sipping his coffee.

For a woman, he had almost lost his sanity. In fact, even the anger he had expressed toward her last night felt excessive.

What was the big deal? She just wanted to plead for a nearly bankrupt company. He could have treated it as a joke and coldly mocked her a bit, so why get angry?

But he was indeed very angry, even feeling a sense of betrayal. He had always trusted her, regarded her as his most important partner in life, yet it turned out she, too, was secretly criticizing him like everyone else.

A cold-blooded animal. He knew many people talked about him behind his back, especially those competitors who had suffered greatly at his hands.

And he was indeed cold-blooded. From the moment his irresponsible parents abandoned him alone in this world, his blood had gradually lost warmth, slowly freezing over.

Being bullied at relatives’ houses, ostracized at school—each scar etched into his body and mind only confirmed for him that this was a world where the strong preyed on the weak, and deceit was the truth of survival. He didn’t trust anyone; even when making friends, he insisted on keeping a layer of distance, never allowing anyone to see his true self. Except for her.

With this thought, Jing Rui’s expression grew darker. He set down his mug, stood up, and faced the window, pressing his forehead against the cold glass, trying to cool his simmering emotions.

Why was she the only exception? How had she managed to break into his heart?

Time had passed too long, and memories felt too distant. He could no longer untangle the threads, only recalling that from a long, long time ago, after she had handed him a bowl of hot soup on that dark night of despair, her figure had gradually become clearer in his shadowy world.

It seemed he could see her wherever he went. In high school, she had laughed and said he was one of her subjects of observation, always appearing and disappearing around him. At first, he found it annoying, but he gradually got used to it and didn’t mind occasionally letting her stumble upon his private life, even sharing his schemes and plans with her.

She never criticized him and didn’t preach those hypocritical moral standards. Sometimes, she even helped him out at the most crucial moments.

She was his first true friend, perhaps his only one.

He liked her a lot, and even during his time working in the UK, he kept in touch with her. Upon returning to Taiwan, he eagerly brought her into his circle as his most capable right-hand person. He genuinely liked her. Perhaps because he liked her too much and valued her too highly, he had exploded at her last night without reason.

The sound of someone knocking on the door broke his thoughts, and the lively rhythm clearly belonged to someone he recognized. Jing Rui’s body tensed, but he remained still and silent.

Jiang Yuyan pushed the door open and walked in. “Good morning! Why are you in the office so early today?” Her cheerful tone was as usual, as if the two had not parted on bad terms the night before.

He frowned.

“Have you had breakfast yet? I got you a sandwich from the café at the corner—your favorite smoked salmon—and coffee… do you already have some? That’s okay; I also bought a bottle of fresh milk.”

“I don’t like milk,” he replied, turning around with a blank expression.

“We’re at that age; we should take better care of our health. Drinking a bottle of fresh milk occasionally to get some calcium isn’t a bad thing,” she said gently. “If you don’t like it, I can add it to your coffee, okay?”

“No need,” he countered. “I only drink black coffee; what taste does it have with milk?”

“Alright, no milk then,” she quickly conceded. “But you should try the sandwich with the fresh milk; it’s refreshing. I poured the milk into a glass; it looks nice, right?”

He was speechless. The glass was filled with creamy liquid, which didn’t look bad, but he was drinking milk, not admiring art. Why did she have to play these games? She even brought in a crystal vase with a vibrant sunflower in it.

“How about now? Is your mood a little better?” she asked softly.

He understood; she was trying to make peace with him.

His heart tightened, and he suddenly felt like a little boy sulking, very childish. “What about you? Have you eaten?”

“I’ve already had my breakfast.”

“Uh-huh.” He sat back down in his office chair with a stern face, munching silently on the sandwich while drinking the milk.

Jiang Yuyan watched him, knowing that him drinking the milk she bought meant he was no longer angry. A faint smile curved her lips, and she instinctively took out her phone to snap a photo.

“Are you really going to take a picture of this? How boring!” he snapped. Her obsession with documenting everything really was unchangeable.

“Because you look cute drinking milk,” she teased him boldly. “Come on, look at the camera and take another sip.”

He glared at her fiercely.