Chapter 225: His Own Life

*Ling Yue’s POV*

By the time breakfast is ready, I have already eaten half a plate of pastries.

I stare down at the empty space where the other half used to be and decide that Mrs. Wen is partly responsible. The woman has spent the past few days feeding me as though I arrived at the estate with a hidden starvation problem.

I reach for another piece. Then stop.

No. I am not going to let myself become one of those people who gets fat because someone else keeps putting delicious food in front of them.

I stare at the pastry for another three seconds. I take it.

Whatever.

I have not seen Runze since yesterday evening, and judging by the silence upstairs, I probably won’t see him anytime soon. Mrs. Wen walks past the dining room carrying another tray and glances toward the staircase.

"They should be coming down soon."

I look at her. "You’ve been saying that for twenty minutes."

Mrs. Wen smiles as though this is perfectly normal. "They have a lot to do in the mornings."

I nearly choke on my tea. "Mrs. Wen."

"What?"

"You know exactly what they’re doing upstairs."

Her expression doesn’t change. "I didn’t say anything."

"Your face did."

She simply places the tray on the table and walks away. I stare after her. This house is becoming far too comfortable.

I lean back in my chair, listening to the quiet sounds of breakfast being prepared around me.

It is strange. Before I came here, I used to think mornings were supposed to be shared with the person you loved. Wake up together. Eat together. Decide what to do with the day together.

Jin Hao and I used to do that sometimes. Or at least, I thought we did.

The thought comes so naturally that I don’t notice what it does to me until my fingers stop moving around the handle of my cup.

I look toward the staircase again.

A few seconds later, the faint sound of footsteps echoes down the hall.

Runze and Bael finally appear. Runze looks sleepy, wearing an oversized sweater that hides his bump, his steps slightly slow in the cool morning air. He offers me a brief, sleepy nod as he approaches the table. Bael walks right behind him, dressed casually, looking entirely composed and unbothered.

And somehow, everyone in this house knows exactly why they’re late.

A quiet laugh threatens to escape me. The image is almost ridiculous.

Wuchen Bael. The Wuchen Bael.

The man whose name makes people in the business world straighten their backs before he has even entered the room. The Alpha ranked at the very top of every corporate dashboard for being cold, ruthless, and entirely devoid of basic human warmth.

I’ve heard enough stories about him to know that there are executives who would rather spend an hour arguing with three shareholders than five minutes alone in a room with him.

And yet...

Before Runze can even settle into his seat, Bael shifts. He pulls out Runze’s chair, holding it steady. He reaches over, moves the bowl of warm soup closer to Runze, checks the temperature of the teapot with the back of his hand, and pours him a fresh cup of jasmine tea.

He doesn’t do it with a grand flourish. It is automatic. Like breathing.

I watch as Runze simply takes a sip, muttering something under his breath about Bael hovering too much. Bael doesn’t snap. He just reaches out, his large hand resting for a second on the back of Runze’s neck, squeezing gently before sitting down in his own chair.

It’s almost embarrassing. Not for Runze. For Bael.

I smile into my tea, watching them. He probably thinks nobody notices.

Maybe that’s why it feels so strange to me. Because I thought I understood what it looked like when someone loved you. I thought I understood Jin Hao. I thought I understood our relationship.

But now, every time I look at Runze and Bael, something in me keeps comparing. And I hate that.

I put my cup down.

Stop it. Runze isn’t me, and Bael isn’t Jin Hao. So why do I keep looking at them and measuring my own relationship against theirs?

Because Runze has something I don’t.

The thought comes quietly. Not beauty. Not money. Not Bael.

Something else.

Runze has his own direction. Ever since I’ve known him, he’s had his own mind, his work, his ambition, and things he cares about that have nothing to do with whether an Alpha is looking at him. Even now, seven months pregnant and after everything he’s been through, he’s still talking about his work. Still drafting sketches, still making plans, still finding things to work toward.

He never stopped being himself. I did.

The realization makes my stomach sink. I look down at my hands.

When I met Jin Hao, I was happy... really happy. He was older, confident, successful, and completely different from everyone I’d grown up around. He made everything feel easy. If I wanted something, he bought it. If I wanted to go somewhere, he took me. If I was bored, I called him.

Eventually, I stopped wondering what I wanted to do with my own life. Because there was always Jin Hao.

I could go out with him, travel with him, spend his money, come home to him. And somehow, I had convinced myself that was enough. That if we loved each other, the rest would naturally fall into place.

Marriage. A home. A future.

I never stopped to ask what I was actually bringing into that future. What had I built that was mine? What could I point to and say, "This is my life. This is something I chose and made for myself"?

The answer was painfully small.

Almost nothing.

My fingers curl against my palm.

And suddenly, I remember something I haven’t thought about in a long time. The first time I heard about Runze. Not from Runze himself... from someone else. They had said that Runze was beautiful enough to catch Wuchen Bael’s attention, that he had been able to make a man who was supposed to marry someone else choose him instead.

At the time, I remember thinking: Maybe I can do that too.

It sounds so stupid now.

I had looked at Runze and seen the easiest part.

From the outside, his life looked like a fairytale for people who wanted to be saved. I thought his story was simple: a wayward Omega who got lucky, ended up beside the most powerful Alpha in the business world, and was handed protection, wealth, and safety on a silver platter. I thought Bael was the one holding everything together.

I never thought about what came before and after that. I never thought about the person, I never asked myself what kind of quiet, stubborn strength it took to keep moving forward when the world gave you nothing. I only looked at the result and assumed the Alpha was the reward.

And then I met him.

And realized that Runze isn’t someone who just got lucky. He works for everything even when he doesn’t have to, even when nobody is watching, he throws himself into things completely. If he cares about something, he gives it everything he has. If something hurts him, he doesn’t pretend it doesn’t. If he wants something, he goes after it.

Even now. Especially now.

Across the table, Runze sets his teacup down and glances at Bael. "Liang Feng is driving me out for a few site visits today."

Bael doesn’t hesitate for a second. "I’ll go with you."

"No," Runze says softly, but with that quiet, immovable firmness he always has. "You should be at the office today. I’m taking Liang Feng, and I’m handling my own work."

Bael stares at him for a long beat, clearly wanting to argue, to oversee, to protect. Runze doesn’t look away, holding Bael’s intense gaze with a calm, steady patience that leaves no room for debate. After a second, Bael lets out a slow breath, yielding without a fight, and simply reaches out to adjust the hood of Runze’s sweater instead.

I lower my eyes.

Maybe that’s why I respected him so quickly. I thought I wanted what Runze had. But I never actually wanted to become the kind of person who could have it.

I wanted the beautiful ending, the husband, the comfortable life, the certainty that someone would always be there to take care of me.

I wanted to be chosen. I just never thought about what I would do after someone chose me.

My chest tightens. Jin Hao chose me. And I made him my entire world. Then the world collapsed.

I swallow hard. Tang Suyi didn’t ruin my relationship. Tang Suyi was just the catalyst that exposed how empty my life actually was.

Tang Suyi had a seat at the table. She had a family legacy, business knowledge, and a life that existed completely independently of Jin Hao. When Jin Hao looked at her, he saw someone who brought value to his future. When he looked at me, he saw a sweet distraction he loved, but ultimately someone who relied on him for everything.

I gave Jin Hao absolute devotion, but I gave him nothing to respect.

I made myself small, thinking that being easy to love would make me impossible to leave. Instead, it just made me easy to replace.

I lean back in the chair and stare down at my plate. For once, I don’t want to blame her. I don’t even want to blame Jin Hao.

I just... I don’t like what I see when I look at myself.

"Ling Yue?"

Runze’s voice breaks through my thoughts. I blink, snapping my gaze up.

Runze is watching me from across the table, his eyebrows lightly knit with quiet concern. "You’ve been staring at that dumpling for five minutes. Are you feeling okay?"

Beside him, Bael glances over briefly, his sharp eyes scanning my face for a split second before returning his attention to his cup.

"Ah—no, I’m fine," I say quickly, offering them a small, practiced smile. "Just... thinking. Sleepy, I guess."

Runze doesn’t look entirely convinced, but he nods softly, not pushing. "Mrs. Wen made fresh bao if you want something warm."

"Thanks. I’ll get some."

I reach for a dumpling, but the quiet truth stays locked in my chest.

When Jin Hao finally finds me... I don’t want him to find me sitting here, just hiding and waiting. I don’t want my entire future to depend on whether he eventually breaks off his engagement or realizes what he lost.

And I don’t want to become Runze. I couldn’t even if I tried. He’s Runze. I’m me.

But maybe I can become someone I’m not embarrassed to stand in front of him as. Someone with something of his own, something I built, something that doesn’t disappear just because I walked away from the man I loved.

I take a bite of the dumpling.

For the first time since I packed my bags and turned off my phone, I don’t spend the morning wondering how close Jin Hao is to finding me.

I think about what I’m going to do with myself.