Chapter 1: A Meeting After the Rain

Seven fifteen in the morning.

The city had just woken after a long night of rain. Water still clung to the trees along the road, each small drop glittering in the early sunlight. On the street leading into the city center, the traffic was beginning to thicken.

Lâm Khải stepped out of a black car in front of the company headquarters.

He wore a white shirt under a dark gray suit. Tall, with a composed face and eyes that always made the person in front of him feel he could see through everything they were trying to hide.

Thirty-two years old.

The youngest CEO the Lâm Thịnh Group had ever had.

To his employees, he was hard to approach, a man of principle who almost never let his feelings get in the way of his work.

But no one knew that for the past six years, the left-hand drawer of his desk had held a small box.

Inside that box was an old movie ticket.

And a slip of paper with exactly one line on it.

“I’ll come back.”

Khải had once thought he’d forgotten the person who wrote it.

Until that morning.

“Mr. Khải.”

His assistant, Minh, hurried over.

“The board meeting starts at eight. The file for the riverside hotel project is already in the meeting room.”

Khải nodded.

“And the interview for design director?”

“The last candidate arrives at nine.”

“Fine.”

He walked into the lobby.

Just then, the glass door behind him opened.

A young woman rushed in.

She was clutching a folder to her chest, her long hair a little tangled from the wind. A simple cream dress, low brown shoes, and an umbrella in her hand that she hadn’t had time to fold.

She had barely stepped through the door when the folder slipped from her grasp.

Papers scattered across the stone floor.

“Sorry…”

She bent down to pick them up.

Khải had been heading for the elevator. He stopped.

He couldn’t have said why.

He looked at her.

Only for a second.

But it was enough for every sound around him to seem to slow down.

She looked up.

Their eyes met.

Khải stood motionless.

That face.

Those eyes.

Even the way she frowned a little when she was flustered…

Six years ago, he had seen all of it every day.

“Lâm Khải…”

Her voice was very soft.

The folder fell from her hands again.

Khải didn’t answer.

She looked at him for a few seconds, then smiled.

A very faint smile.

“It’s been a long time.”

He clenched his hand.

“An Nhiên?”

She nodded.

“It’s me.”

The answer was so simple it threw his heart into chaos.

Six years.

Not one call.

Not one explanation.

Not one message.

And yet here she was in front of him, as if that time had never existed.

Minh, standing behind him, noticed something was off too.

“Mr. Khải…”

Khải didn’t look at his assistant.

He only asked:

“What are you doing here?”

An Nhiên bent to pick up the last sheet of paper.

“An interview.”

“For what position?”

“Design director for the riverside hotel project.”

Khải was silent.

Minh understood the problem at once.

That was the very position Khải would be interviewing for personally that morning.

An Nhiên stood up, hugging the folder to her chest.

“I didn’t know you were the one interviewing.”

Khải looked at her.

“Now you do.”

“Yes.”

The air between them turned strange.

An Nhiên was the one to break the silence.

“I’ll do my best in the interview.”

“No need to try.”

She looked a little taken aback.

Khải glanced at his watch.

“Just answer according to what you’re capable of.”

With that, he stepped into the elevator.

The doors began to close.

An Nhiên was still standing there.

Just before the doors shut completely, she heard his voice:

“Nine o’clock. Don’t be late.”

The elevator doors closed.

An Nhiên let out a soft breath.

She put a hand to her chest.

Six years.

She had thought that if they ever met again, she would be calm.

But one look from him had made all her preparation meaningless.

Nine o’clock sharp.

An Nhiên walked into the meeting room.

Khải sat in the center seat.

He had gone back to his usual cool demeanor.

Her file lay in front of him.

“Begin.”

An Nhiên presented her proposal.

She spoke clearly and logically, every figure carefully prepared. Her design concept focused on open space, natural light, and connecting the hotel to the old neighborhood along the river.

Khải listened intently.

He didn’t interrupt.

Only at the very end did he ask:

“Why did you choose to keep the old buildings in the project?”

“Because I don’t think a modern building has to erase the memories that were already there.”

“But keeping them will raise costs.”

“Yes.”

“So how do you solve that?”

An Nhiên looked straight at him.

“Not everything of value can be measured in cost.”

Khải raised an eyebrow slightly.

“This is a business project.”

“I know.”

She paused a moment, then said:

“But a place that makes people want to come back again and again is usually more than just beautiful.”

The room was silent.

Khải looked at her for a long time.

That sentence was exactly like the girl she used to be.

Always believing a place could make people stay through feeling.

The interview ended after nearly an hour.

An Nhiên stood up.

“Thank you.”

Khải didn’t answer right away.

As she was about to leave, he asked:

“When did you get back?”

An Nhiên stopped.

“Three days ago.”

“Why?”

She turned around.

“Work.”

“Only work?”

Her eyes wavered slightly.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Khải leaned back in his chair.

“You still answer the way you used to.”

An Nhiên smiled.

“And you still ask questions that are hard to answer, the way you used to.”

She walked out.

The door closed.

Khải sat alone in the room.

He opened her file.

The last page had her contact address.

One line held his gaze for a long time.

An Nhiên was now living in this city.

She really had come back.

That night, Khải got home to his apartment at almost eleven.

He took off his watch and set it on the table.

The apartment was spacious but quiet.

He opened the drawer.

The small box was still there.

Khải looked at it for a long time.

At last, he opened the lid.

The old slip of paper was still intact.

“I’ll come back.”

He laughed softly.

A laugh with a touch of helplessness.

“You really did come back.”

But the man who had waited six years for her was no longer the boy he used to be.

He had learned not to wait.

Or at least, he had once thought he had.

His phone buzzed.

A message from Minh.

Mr. Khải, the board has agreed to choose An Nhiên for the design director position.

Khải looked at the screen.

Soon after, another message appeared.

She officially starts tomorrow.

He set the phone down.

Outside the glass, the city was still lit up.

Khải walked to the window.

In that moment, he suddenly realized that some people, even after they’ve been gone from your life for a long time, only have to appear once for every memory you thought was asleep to wake up again.

The next morning, An Nhiên officially became his colleague.

And what Khải didn’t know was that she hadn’t come back just for work.

She had brought with her a secret she had kept for six years.

A secret that had everything to do with him.