For a briefest moment, he continued to look at her, his expression unreadable, as though he were reconsidering something he had not fully understood before. Then he straightened and walked toward the door. His steps remained calm and measured, yet the atmosphere shifted the instant he crossed the threshold. The door closed softly behind him, leaving the silence heavier than it had been.

Su Wan stayed where she was. Fading daylight stretched across the floor while wind pressed against the windows outside. The weather had turned without her noticing. Tree branches shifted against the darkening sky, their shadows moving unevenly through the curtains.

Slowly she leaned back into the chair, allowing some of the tension to leave her shoulders now that she was alone. Pain pulsed sharply through her injured arm with the movement, but she ignored it.

Her fingers rested lightly against the contract folder. Not signed. But not dismissed either. That mattered more than she had expected because Lu Shaohan had acknowledged the possibility that the Lu family could collapse under what was happening now. Which meant he finally understood the situation had moved beyond ordinary household conflict.

Su Wan lifted her eyes toward the window, thoughtfully. The original storyline no longer aligned cleanly. Too many things had changed too quickly—the attack, the stolen biological material, the pregnant women, the growing pressure surrounding succession. And someone else was moving faster than everyone around them.

That was what unsettled her most. Not danger. Unknown players.

A knock interrupted the silence. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Enter."

Li Chen stepped inside and closed the door behind him quietly. His gaze moved briefly toward her injured arm before settling on the contract lying on the table.

"He left?"

Su Wan nodded once.

Li Chen remained silent for a moment before speaking again. "The three women have been separated. Old Master Lu placed people around them."

"And their families?"

"Still uninformed."

So the Lu family was trying to contain everything internally before the situation spread outside the estate. For now.

The wind rattled harder against the windows.

Li Chen’s expression sharpened slightly. "Miss... something about this feels wrong."

Su Wan looked at him quietly, because she felt it too. Not the chaos itself. The timing of it. Everything happening around the Lu Residence felt too controlled, too deliberate, as though the attack, the women, and the succession pressure were only the beginning of something much larger still waiting to unfold.

Su Wan remained silent for several moments after Li Chen spoke. The wind outside had strengthened, making the windows tremble faintly against their frames. The weather matched the atmosphere now settling over the Lu Residence--restless, heavy, waiting.

Li Chen stepped closer to the table and lowered his voice. "I checked the backgrounds of the other two women again. Nothing obvious connects them. Different cities, different social circles, different family structures."

Su Wan’s fingers tapped once against the contract folder before stilling. "That’s what makes it deliberate."

If the women had shared visible connections, the structure behind them would have revealed itself too easily. Whoever orchestrated this had chosen people who appeared unrelated on the surface—compartmentalized, carefully separated.

Li Chen studied her expression before continuing. "There’s something else. The timing of the pregnancies." He hesitated. "If they’re truly six or seven months along..."

He did not need to finish. The insemination had happened long before the current instability, long before the attack, long before Su Wan’s pregnancy became publicly important. This operation had not been built in reaction to recent events. It had been waiting.

Su Wan leaned back slightly, her gaze lowering in thought. "That means whoever planned this already expected the Lu family succession to become unstable eventually." Or worse—they had planned to create that instability themselves and now with a loophole, they found the opportunity to attack.

The room fell quiet.

Li Chen’s eyes shifted briefly toward the door. "Miss... do you still think the original plan matters now?"

The question lingered heavily between them. She knew how far things had diverged. In the original plot, Su Wan was supposed to remain emotionally obsessed with Lu Shaohan until the end. She was never meant to survive long enough to negotiate power, expose hidden threats, or stand at the center of succession politics. There had certainly never been stolen heirs.

Su Wan lowered her gaze to the bandage wrapped around her arm. "No," she said finally, her voice calm but colder now. "The plotline already broke."

Li Chen studied her carefully. "In the original succession structure, your position was secure because you were carrying the first confirmed heir. But now there are additional variables."

Additional variables. The phrase sounded clinical, yet both understood exactly what it meant: the women, the pregnancies, potential heirs connected to the Lu bloodline.

Li Chen’s expression tightened. "If even one of those children is verified, your position becomes unstable immediately."

Su Wan remained quiet, not because she disagreed, but because she had already realized it herself. The Lu family might still publicly recognize her as Mrs. Lu, but powerful households rarely centered themselves around sentiment once succession politics entered the equation. The moment multiple heirs existed, influence fractured naturally around them. And fragmentation created danger—especially for the woman standing at the center.

Li Chen continued carefully. "Right now Old Master Lu is trying to contain everything internally, but once the families become involved, the pressure won’t stay inside the residence anymore."

Su Wan leaned back in the chair, her fingers resting lightly against the contract folder. "That’s exactly why I prepared it."

Li Chen glanced at the unsigned contract before returning his attention to her. "But if the situation continues escalating, even financial protection may not be enough Missus."

That drew a faint smile from Su Wan—not warmth, but recognition. "Li Chen," she said softly, "money was never the real protection."

His expression shifted slightly.

Su Wan’s gaze lifted toward the darkening window. "Position is."

The room fell silent again. Because now the problem had become much larger than simple divorce preparation. If multiple heirs entered the Lu family structure simultaneously, succession itself would become unstable. And an unstable succession created factions. Once factions formed, people stopped protecting Mrs. Lu. They started calculating whether replacing her would be more beneficial.