Tang Yueru sat in her old apartment that night — the one she hadn't returned to in weeks.
The key Lu Shenyan gave her rested in her palm, warm from how tightly she held it.
It wasn't gold.
It wasn't diamond-studded.
It was plain. Simple. Ordinary.
But her heart beat like she was holding a live grenade.
Because it wasn't about the key.
It was about what came with it: trust.
And trust… was always the riskiest currency.
---
She looked around the tiny space she once called home.
The leaky faucet. The uneven bookshelf. The plant she forgot to water.
This place was safe because it never expected anything from her.
But Lu Shenyan did.
And that scared her more than anything.
---
Later that night, he called.
She didn't answer the first two times.
But on the third, her thumb slipped and she heard his voice.
"I didn't give you that key because I need you to move in," he said without hello.
"Then why?" she asked softly.
"Because I needed you to know… I'd open the door even if you never used it."
---
The next morning, Yueru didn't return to the penthouse.
Instead, she walked into the Lu Corporation's lobby dressed not as the CEO's wife—but as herself.
Confident. Composed. Ready.
She headed straight for the PR floor and requested a private meeting with the department head.
When asked why, she said, "Because I'm not hiding anymore."
---
In the boardroom later that day, Lu Shenyan entered to find the directors already assembled—and Tang Yueru sitting at the end of the table, holding a file.
He froze.
The lead director looked up. "Your wife has requested to speak before today's vote."
Shenyan looked at her. She didn't flinch.
"Go ahead," he said quietly.
---
Yueru stood.
"I know I was never part of your plan. I'm not from your world. But I also know perception is currency, and you believe I've devalued his."
She opened the file.
Inside—a PR proposal.
A campaign. Public, honest, powerful.
The headline?
> "What If It Was Love All Along?"
The campaign didn't deny the contract.
It acknowledged it—then redefined it.
Not a lie. A second chance. A gamble on love.
She finished. "You want stability. I'm offering story. Redemption. Control of the narrative."
One by one, the directors flipped through the proposal.
No one spoke.
Until Shenyan did.
"I approve it."
---
As the meeting ended, he stopped her outside.
"You didn't have to protect me," he said.
"I wasn't protecting you."
She turned to face him.
"I was protecting us."
---
That night, she returned to the penthouse.
She didn't knock.
She used the key.
---