I stared at the messages on the screen.

The person I love is you.

Her family has some connections so I can’t turn back now.

Six years.

That was how Luc Thua Chu described six years with me.

Some connections.

I almost laughed.

Hua Niem An watched my face carefully.

“Now you understand?”

I looked at her.

“Understand what?”

“That Thua Chu doesn’t love you.”

She stepped closer.

“He only tolerates you because of your family’s relationship with Headquarters.”

Around us, employees whispered.

I bent down and picked up my employee card.

Then my phone vibrated.

Mom had replied.

【Understood. The 36-trillion-yuan strategic support agreement has been suspended. The On family will not sign.】

I read it once.

Then locked my screen.

“Thank you,” I told Hua Niem An.

She frowned.

“For what?”

“For showing me those messages.”

The elevator doors opened behind her.

Someone hurried out.

“General Director Luc is here!”

The atmosphere changed instantly.

Luc Thua Chu walked through the lobby surrounded by project managers.

The moment he saw me, he stopped.

His face drained of color.

“Nam Chi?”

Hua Niem An immediately ran toward him.

“Thua Chu.”

She slipped naturally beside him.

Luc didn’t push her away.

That told me everything.

He walked toward me.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

His eyes moved to the candy scattered across the floor.

Then to the enormous promotional photograph of himself and Hua Niem An.

For the first time, panic appeared in his eyes.

“Nam Chi, this isn’t what you think.”

I looked toward the photograph.

“Which part?”

“The campaign?”

“The fiancée?”

“The public confession?”

“Or the messages where you said I was using my family connections to force you to stay with me?”

The lobby became deathly quiet.

Hua Niem An grabbed his sleeve.

“Thua Chu, why are you explaining yourself to her?”

Luc immediately pulled his arm away.

Her expression froze.

He looked at me.

“The fiancée title is marketing.”

“Interesting.”

I nodded toward Hua Niem An.

“Does your marketing department usually allow interns to promise management positions?”

His face hardened.

“Niem An, what did you say?”

She turned pale.

“I was joking.”

I smiled.

“Then let’s discuss something serious.”

I removed the engagement ring from my finger.

Luc stared at it.

“Nam Chi.”

I placed it in his palm.

“Our engagement is over.”

His fingers closed instinctively around the ring.

“No.”

I almost admired his confidence.

“You don’t decide that alone.”

“We’ve been together six years!”

“Yes.”

I looked at him calmly.

“And it took you three months to publicly replace me.”

I turned toward the elevators.

Luc grabbed my wrist.

“Wait.”

His voice dropped.

“Don’t involve your family because of a personal argument.”

There it was.

Not Don’t leave me.

Not I’m sorry.

My family.

He was afraid of the On family.

I removed his hand.

“Why would my family be involved?”

He stared at me.

I smiled.

“You said we only have some connections.”

Then I left.

The next morning, Truong Dieu Group’s board meeting began at eight.

At 8:17, the chairman received official notice.

The On family had suspended the strategic support agreement.

Thirty-six trillion yuan.

The capital package was supposed to finance Truong Dieu’s restructuring, new-energy division, debt refinancing and expansion for the next five years.

Without it, the company wouldn’t disappear overnight.

But several projects would immediately lose their financial foundation.

At 8:23, Luc called me.

I declined.

At 8:24, he called again.

By nine, I had thirty-seven missed calls.

At ten, his father called.

At eleven, Chairman Luc himself appeared at the hotel where I was staying.

The old man who had once visited our home personally to ask my mother for help now stood before me looking ten years older.

“Nam Chi.”

I poured him tea.

“Chairman Luc.”

His expression tightened at the formality.

“You used to call me Uncle.”

“I used to be your son’s fiancée.”

He closed his eyes briefly.

“Thua Chu made a mistake.”

“A three-month citywide marketing campaign is not a mistake.”

“He became confused.”

“No.”

I placed my phone on the table.

“He became comfortable.”

Chairman Luc looked at me.

I continued.

“He believed the agreement was guaranteed. He believed our marriage was guaranteed. He believed I was guaranteed.”

That was the real problem.

Luc hadn’t suddenly fallen in love.

He had simply reached the point where he thought there would never be consequences.

The chairman lowered his voice.

“The agreement concerns thousands of employees.”

“I know.”

“Then please separate business from emotion.”

“I already have.”

He frowned.

I slid a folder toward him.

Inside were reports from the Nam Thanh branch.

Unauthorized promotional spending.

Preferential vendor contracts.

Hua Niem An had been an intern for three months, yet companies connected to her uncle had already received event contracts worth millions.

Several hiring decisions had bypassed procedure.

And Luc had used Truong Dieu Group’s official channels to promote his personal relationship as corporate branding.

“My mother didn’t suspend thirty-six trillion because her daughter was cheated on.”

I looked directly at him.

“She suspended it because the man your board presented as Truong Dieu’s future leader demonstrated that he cannot separate company resources from personal indulgence.”

Chairman Luc stopped speaking.

That afternoon, an emergency audit began.

Hua Niem An was dismissed pending investigation.

The curly-haired employee who had promised herself a management position suddenly deleted every post she had made about the “future young lady.”

The giant LED screens went dark.

The candy boxes disappeared.

And the romantic confession festival that had supposedly proved Luc’s love became evidence in an internal review.

Luc finally found me that evening.

He had waited outside my hotel for two hours.

“Nam Chi.”

I continued walking.

He followed.

“I ended things with Niem An.”

I stopped.

“Why?”

He looked stunned.

“What?”

“Why did you end it?”

“Because I realized—”

“Yesterday you told her you loved her.”

His mouth closed.

I looked at him.

“If the agreement had been signed this morning, would you still have realized?”

He couldn’t answer.

That was enough.

“I thought you were forcing me,” he finally said.

“Who told you that?”

He looked away.

“Niem An said everyone at Headquarters knew your family was using the agreement to control me.”

“And you believed an intern you’d known for three months over the woman you’d known for six years?”

His face tightened.

“I was tired of feeling like everything I achieved came from you.”

For the first time, he had said something honest.

I nodded.

“So you humiliated me to prove you didn’t need me.”

“No—”

“And now you’re standing outside my hotel because you discovered you did.”

His eyes reddened.

“Nam Chi, I love you.”

“Perhaps.”

I wasn’t angry anymore.

“But love without respect is just possession with a prettier name.”

I walked away.

The audit lasted six weeks.

It found enough governance failures that Luc was removed from the Nam Thanh leadership position.

But my mother did not destroy Truong Dieu Group.

That mattered to me.

Thousands of employees had done nothing wrong.

After restructuring, the On family reopened negotiations.

Not for thirty-six trillion.

Not under the old terms.

And not with Luc as designated successor.

When Chairman Luc heard that condition, he accepted it.

Luc did not.

He came to Van Chau one final time.

He stood outside my office holding the ring I’d returned.

“So that’s it?”

“Yes.”

“You’re taking everything from me.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

“No, Thua Chu.”

I pointed to the ring.

“I gave you six years.”

Then toward the headquarters behind me.

“My family gave your company six years of opportunity.”

I paused.

“You decided what to do with both.”

His hand slowly dropped.

Months later, Truong Dieu appointed a professional executive team.

The company survived.

Hua Niem An vanished from corporate gossip as quickly as she had entered it.

Luc remained a shareholder through his family, but the path everyone assumed would lead him to the chairman’s seat disappeared.

As for me, I returned to my own work.

The following Mid-Autumn Festival, I happened to be in Nam Thanh again.

The city still held its lantern festival.

But this time, there were no giant photographs of lovers pretending forever could be purchased through advertising.

I walked alone beside the river.

Thousands of lanterns reflected across the water.

The same taxi driver from the year before wouldn’t have recognized me.

Maybe that was appropriate.

Because I wasn’t the woman who had arrived carrying an engagement ring and planning to surprise her fiancé anymore.

My mother called.

“Do you regret it?”

I knew what she meant.

Six years.

A wedding almost prepared.

A future everyone thought was settled.

“No.”

“Not even a little?”

I looked at the lanterns.

“I regret that it took a giant screen for me to see him clearly.”

Mom laughed softly.

Then she asked:

“What about the agreement?”

“Sign the revised one.”

She was quiet.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

Truong Dieu had corrected its governance.

New leadership had been installed.

The employees didn’t deserve to lose their livelihoods because Luc had betrayed me.

That was the difference between him and me.

He had used corporate resources to reward the woman he loved.

I refused to use corporate power to punish the man I no longer did.

Before hanging up, my mother said:

“Your father would be proud.”

I smiled.

Across the river, hundreds of lanterns rose into the night.

A year earlier, Luc Thua Chu had confessed his love to another woman in front of an entire city because he believed I was too attached to leave and my family’s support was too secure to lose.

He was wrong twice.

The thirty-six-trillion agreement was eventually signed.

But his name wasn’t on it.

And neither was mine beside his on a marriage certificate.

Sometimes the most expensive thing a person loses isn’t money.

Luc lost something worth far more.

A woman who had stood beside him before he had power.

A family that had trusted him before he had proven himself.

And a future he believed was guaranteed.

The night I saw another woman’s name beside his on that giant screen, I didn’t fight for my place.

I simply stepped away.

Only then did Luc finally understand:

I had never been the obstacle standing between him and success.

I had been the bridge.

And he was the one who set it on fire.