The dining room in the seaside villa had never hosted a true meal until tonight.
A long glass table extended through the room's center, flanked by velvet-backed chairs and lit above by a rectangular chandelier of sculpted amber crystal. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sea shimmered like ink under the rising moon. Wind moved through the partially open doors, lifting sheer curtains with lazy rhythm.
Li Chen stood at the head of the table in a black silk shirt, sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms. No watch. No tie. Just presence.
Tonight wasn't about food.
It was about balance.
For the first time, all four women sat around the same table.
Su Mei, his mother, in a long pale-blue dress that clung to her gently. She wore light makeup and a pearl pendant, looking less like a housewife and more like a woman discovering herself again.
Zhao Yuwei, his legal advisor, dressed in ivory with her hair swept up. Cool, regal, poised—but her eyes lingered too long on his hands when he served wine.
Su Ruyin, his aunt, in emerald silk, hair loose, red lipstick painted like sin. She didn't hide the way her gaze wandered—to him, to Xiaoyan, to the other women. Always watching.
And Xiaoyan, the youngest of them, in a short, off-the-shoulder black dress. Her cheeks were pink with wine and attention, and her legs crossed and uncrossed beneath the table too often.
They were all pretending nothing was unusual.
But the air was heavy with knowing.
---
He poured wine in silence, glass by glass.
"I hope the villa suits everyone," he said softly.
Su Mei was the first to speak.
"It's peaceful. Feels like it's apart from the world."
"It is," he replied. "That's the point."
Yuwei sipped and murmured, "It's hard to believe you're only twenty, Mr. Li."
He gave her a look. "And yet you follow me."
"I do," she said. "Willingly."
Ruyin smirked. "He doesn't lead with orders. He leads with gravity."
Xiaoyan tilted her head. "Is that what we're calling it now?"
The table went quiet.
Then Yuwei laughed softly, diffusing it.
"I believe we've all felt it. This…pull."
Li Chen looked over each of them. "You're not here by accident."
"We know," Su Mei said, her voice barely above a whisper.
---
Dinner moved slowly.
The chef delivered soft-shell crab with ginger, steamed sea bass, stir-fried greens, and jasmine rice. Each woman picked at her plate, sipping more than they ate.
Conversation ebbed and flowed, topics skipping from travel to business to memories.
But under every word lay a question:
Who meant the most to him?
When dessert came—just fruit and wine—he stood, walking to the open terrace beyond the dining room.
The sea wind hit his shirt, billowing it softly.
And one by one, they followed.
The moon hung low over the ocean, and the sound of the waves drowned everything else.
They gathered near the railing, wine glasses in hand, bodies barely lit by the chandelier's edge.
Li Chen turned and looked at them.
"I don't belong to anyone," he said.
"But you all belong here."
---
Later, Su Mei retreated early to her room, the weight of the evening leaving her quiet. She sat at her vanity for a long time, brushing her hair slowly, watching her reflection in the candlelit mirror.
In her heart, she remembered the first time she held him. His tiny fingers, his quiet eyes. Now those same eyes looked through her with heat. With something she couldn't deny.
She whispered to her reflection: "I'm already yours. Even if I can't say it."
---
Zhao Yuwei stayed in the study, seated in the leather chair by the window, laptop open, fingers unmoving. She wasn't working. Her eyes were on the corridor.
She was thinking about his hands.
His voice.
The way her control unraveled around him.
She was used to owning rooms, not being owned.
And yet, with him...
She smiled faintly.
She would let herself fall.
But she'd do it on her terms.
---
Xiaoyan retreated to the poolside, dipping her toes into the glowing water. The underwater lights painted her legs in ripples of silver. She lay back on the sun chair, staring up at the stars.
"I'm not a little girl anymore," she murmured to the sky. "I can want him. And I do."
She turned her head toward the villa, where his room glowed faintly.
"I'll make you choose me."
---
And Su Ruyin?
She didn't sleep.
She poured herself another drink and walked barefoot through the halls, finally stopping outside his door.
She stood there, fingers resting on the frame, listening.
After a long pause, she turned the knob.
The room was dim.
Li Chen stood by the window, shirt off, facing the sea.
He didn't turn.
But he knew.
"You're the boldest," he said.
"I was the first to understand what you're becoming."
He turned to her now.
And their eyes met.
---
The next morning, none of them mentioned the late-night movements.
Su Mei made breakfast quietly.
Xiaoyan sat too close to him on the couch.
Yuwei received a call on speaker, loudly confirming a $10 million property purchase "for Mr. Li."
Ruyin went for a swim in the infinity pool—nude.
He didn't stop her.
No one did.
---
By noon, they each returned to their own rhythm.
But the house had changed.
It was no longer a vacation space.
It was a stage.
And the curtains were rising.
---
Later that day, the summoning system triggered again.
> [DING!] New Asset Ready:
Name: Shen Lihua
Age: 34
Role: High-society Consultant & Image Architect
Status: Married, discreet, highly connected to elite social circles.
She would be the final piece of the outer mask.
To the world, Li Chen would soon become known.
Quietly.
Elegantly.
Inevitably.
---
[End of Chapter 9]