Chapter 4

Chapter 4: 004 – Beautiful, But Not Too Bright

His eyes held a faint, almost imperceptible smile. Even his voice carried a gentle warmth—courteous, soothing, the kind that made people lower their guard without realizing it.

He was around 190 centimeters tall, dressed in a black suit that fit like it had been poured onto him. Light caught the sharp edges of his shoulders and made him seem to glow.

A mask covered the lower half of his face, but his phoenix eyes were striking—dark pupils like still water, calm on the surface with something cold waiting underneath.

He wasn’t as easy to deal with as he looked.

Behind him trailed two men and one woman. An entourage like that meant status, or danger, or both.

But in the Capital—where hidden dragons and crouching tigers filled every street corner—running into someone important was hardly strange.

Qiao Qing Yan glanced at the coffee spreading over his chest.

What a waste.

And yet on him, even a mess looked like a kind of broken beauty.

While she measured him, he measured her.

He’d seen plenty of beautiful women. Plenty of scenery. But this was the first time he found himself lingering, gaze caught.

A graceful silhouette. A slim waist. Long curled hair spilling down to her waist, sunlight sprinkling over the ends in tiny fragments like mischievous spirits.

Even in a simple dress, she looked like a temptress stepped out of a storybook—too dazzling to be real.

Even with sunglasses and a mask, he had the strange sense he could see straight through them to the face beneath.

He handed the remaining coffee to the assistant beside him, then lifted a long finger and pointed toward the hem of her floral dress.

“Miss,” he said gently, “do you need help?”

Some coffee had splashed down and dampened the fabric near her ankles. Qiao Qing Yan didn’t spare it a second thought.

She gave him a small nod—more acknowledgment than gratitude—then stepped around him and kept walking.

He turned his head and watched until the corner of her dress disappeared past the corridor entrance.

In the air lingered a faint trace of cool fragrance tangled with the bitter scent of coffee.

Under his mask, the corner of his mouth lifted without permission.

Beautiful… but not too bright.

“A Shi.” The agent beside him looked uneasy, already scanning for cameras. “You dropped something. I’ll go get it. You go back to the car first.”

The man stripped off the jacket stained with coffee, calm as ever. “I found it in my pocket just now.”

“Let’s go.”

The female assistant stepped forward, reaching for the jacket.

He flicked her a glance—flat, warning—and said nothing.

He walked away.

As their footsteps faded, a furious roar burst from the private room behind them.

It was the room Qiao Qing Yan had just left.

Madam Wang, still seething, snatched up her phone and called.

“What is wrong with you people? Didn’t you say you’d already handled Qiao Qing Yan?”

“If your company doesn’t fix this for me, then don’t even dream about entering the Capital in the future. If this isn’t resolved, don’t blame me for being rude!”

She slammed the call down, breath sharp.

“Hmph.”