Han Shān stepped out of the elevator onto the merger floor, tablet in hand, mind still replaying the café conversation like a loop he couldn’t pause. Bai Yue’s surprised smile when he offered the nanny position. The way her fingers had brushed his when she took the card. The faint vanilla scent that had lingered long after he left.

He told himself it was practical. Zhen needed stability. Rui Xuě needed someone who didn’t make him retreat behind that too-heavy coat of responsibility. Nothing more.

Then he saw Zhao Yàn.

The red-haired bastard was leaning against the lobby wall, crimson tie slightly loosened, smirk already in place. Their eyes met across the open space, and the air thickened the way it always did between them, ice meeting fire, two foster brothers who had once shared everything and now shared only barbed words and old memories.

"Well, hello, old friend," Zhao Yàn drawled, voice carrying just loud enough to turn heads. He pushed off the wall and sauntered forward, hands in his pockets. "Slumming it on the public floors today? Or did the ice king finally decide to grace us mere mortals with his presence?"

Han Shān stopped, jaw tightening a fraction. He had known Zhao Yàn since they were scrawny kids in the same group home, two boys who had clung to each other through cold nights and empty stomachs. They had been inseparable once. Brothers in every way that mattered. Until life, ambition, and a single brutal betrayal had driven a wedge between them so deep that "old friend" now tasted like rust.

"Zhao Yàn," Han Shān said, voice cold. "If you’re here to waste my time with another ’friendly’ takeover bid, save it. The board already rejected your last offer."

Zhao Yàn’s smirk widened, golden-orange eyes glinting with pure mischief. "Always so charming. I’m just here for a tour. Heard you’re merging with Stellar Dynamics. Thought I’d see if there’s anything worth poaching. Or anyone."

Han Shān’s fingers tightened on the tablet.

"You never could resist sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong," Han Shān replied. "Some things never change."

"Unlike you," Zhao Yàn shot back, circling him slowly. "Still staring at the stars every night like they’re going to give you the answers you’re too stubborn to ask for. Tell me, Shān, does it ever get lonely up there in that penthouse fortress of yours?"

Han Shān didn’t flinch. "Lonelier than watching you chase every shiny new toy that crosses your path, apparently."

Zhao Yàn laughed, low and sharp. "At least my toys smile back. Speaking of..." He tilted his head toward the marketing section where Bai Yue sat with her friends, trying and failing to look like she wasn’t watching. "I was informed you kept staring at her during the merger meeting yesterday. What’s her name again? Bai something? The one with the soft eyes and the pencil skirt that shouldn’t look that good on a Monday."

Han Shān froze. Just for a heartbeat, but Zhao Yàn caught it, of course he did. The man had always been able to read him like an open ledger.

"She’s nothing to me," Han Shān said, voice like winter steel. "An employee. Part of the merger team. Don’t be stupid." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Zhao Yàn’s smirk turned predatory. "Nothing, huh? Then you won’t mind if I try to make her mine. She looks like she could use someone who actually knows how to warm up a room instead of freezing it solid."

Han Shān chuckled. "Do what you want to do, Zhao Yàn. She’s a grown woman. She can make her own choices."

"Oh, I will," Zhao Yàn said, stepping closer, voice dropping.

"Careful," Han Shān warned quietly. "Some games end with both players losing."

Zhao Yàn grinned. "Good thing I’ve always been better at winning than you."

Before Han Shān could reply, Zhao Yàn’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen, and for a split second the smirk faltered. He answered with a sigh.

"Yeah?"

A woman’s voice, his nanny, spilled through the speaker, harried and exasperated. "Mr. Yàn, it’s You Lin again. He’s climbed the bookshelf for the third time today, knocked over your entire collection of vintage watches, and is now declaring he’s building a ’fox fort’ in the middle of the living room. He keeps asking when you’re coming home because ’Papa promised we’d race cars after dinner’ and he won’t sit still for anything. He’s a bundle of joy, sure, but he’s hyperactive today. I’m barely keeping up."

Zhao Yàn pinched the bridge of his nose, fiery hair falling across his forehead. You Lin, his nine-year-old son, roughly Rui Xuě’s age, was a whirlwind of energy wrapped in a mischievous grin and an endless supply of questions. The boy was brilliant, affectionate, and exhausting. Raising him alone after his mother’s sudden departure had been a masterclass in controlled chaos.

"I’ll be right there," Zhao Yàn said, voice softening in a way it rarely did for anyone else. "Tell him to leave the watches alone and that we’ll build the biggest fox fort he’s ever seen when I get home. Ten minutes."

He hung up and looked back at Han Shān, the smirk sliding back into place like armor. "Duty calls. My little terror waits for no man. Try not to freeze your new nanny solid before the weekend, Shān. Wouldn’t want her running off before I get a chance to say hello properly."

Han Shān watched him go, jaw tight. The old closeness they had shared as foster kids, the nights they had stayed up planning impossible futures, promising to conquer the world together, felt like another lifetime. Now it was just this: barbed words, rival companies, and the occasional glimpse of the boy he used to know beneath the smirk.

Zhao Yàn disappeared into the elevator, but his words lingered.

Then you won’t mind if I try to make her mine.

Han Shān turned toward the conference room, but his steps were slower than usual. He pulled out his phone and stared at the text he had sent Bai Yue earlier.

This weekend. My place. Stars optional. —H

He hadn’t expected her to say yes to the nanny offer so quickly. Hadn’t expected the way her smile had lit something inside him that had been dark for years. Zhen liked her. Rui Xuě didn’t hide from her. And he... he kept remembering the way she had looked at him across the café table, matcha foam on her lip, eyes wide and warm.

It was practical, he told himself again. Nothing more.

~

Zhao Yàn, meanwhile, rode the elevator down, already dialing his driver. His mind replayed the conversation with Han Shān, a familiar satisfaction curling in his chest. Getting on his old foster brother’s nerves had always been one of life’s small pleasures. The man was too controlled, too cold, too convinced he could handle everything alone.

But Bai Yue..... normally he couldn’t care less about silly employees. But she seemed interesting. Zhao Yàn liked interesting things. And if it annoyed the ice king in the process? Even better.

His phone buzzed again, another update from the nanny. You Lin had apparently tried to "help" by reorganizing the kitchen cabinets and was now covered in flour.

Zhao Yàn chuckled despite himself. "Little boy," he muttered fondly. "You’re going to be the death of me."

The elevator doors opened. He stepped out into the bright afternoon, already planning how to turn the rivalry up a notch. Han Shān thought he could claim the quiet, vanilla-scented woman with a simple nanny offer and a mention of stars?

Cute.

Zhao Yàn pulled out his own phone and sent a quick message to his assistant.

Find out everything about Bai Yue from marketing. Quietly.