A weekend after Su Kaiming was sent to prison, Su Rou came downstairs to find Su Yuze stretched out on the sofa, half-watching the TV. She eased herself next to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Zé-gege," she said, using the nickname that always softened him, "Su Kaiming is in jail. Aren't you going back to the Su household to take charge?"
"No rush." Su Yuze slipped an arm around her narrow shoulders. "I'm waiting for Grandpa to come find me."
Su Rou looked at him, puzzled. By all logic, this should be the moment he returned to claim the family business.
"He'll come," Su Yuze went on calmly. "No one is running Su Corporation right now. Su Yue certainly won't. Grandpa will notice I've stayed away, and he'll come to talk. At times like this he's more likely to give me concessions."
A little cunning was useful in business; Su Yuze had always been purposeful. Su Rou nodded silently. If he had a plan, she trusted him to see it through.
That evening, as if to prove his words, Grandpa Su really did turn up.
They were having dinner when Su Rongqi appeared. Su Rou stared for a beat, then quickly rose to her feet and invited him in. "Grandpa Su, have you eaten? Shall I set another place?"
"All right." He didn't refuse. He settled into a chair at the table with quiet, old-bred ease.
For a while the three of them ate in an awkward silence—awkward for everyone but the grandfather, who kept his thoughts to himself. Su Rou and Su Yuze kept to their familiar rhythm, behaving like this was their home because, in a sense, it was.
When his bowl grew light, Su Rongqi finally spoke. "Yuze, we need to talk."
"Go on," Su Yuze said.
"You said you'd come back to the Su family. Is now the time you keep that promise?"
Su Yuze nodded slowly. "Yes. I intend to take over Su Corporation."
"And…?"
"But I have a condition. I want to keep living here—with Rou. This is where we live." He met his grandfather's eyes. "If I become head of the family, I won't move to the old manor. This house is our home."
Su Rongqi was silent a moment. "The old manor is where the family head should live…"
"You can still live there," Su Yuze said before he finished. "Think of this place as your new home. But we'll still visit the old manor now and then. Is that acceptable?"
Su Yuze agreed.
Su Rou watched the old man closely. He wouldn't look at her directly, but something in his manner had softened; the hostility she'd expected didn't feel as sharp as before.
"When will you take over the company?" Su Rongqi asked. "I know you're also busy with Shengshi, but you promised you wouldn't abandon Su Corporation."
"I know." Su Yuze's voice was steady. "I'll take over as soon as I finish restructuring the internal affairs. It won't take long."
"Good." A smile—small, genuine—finally creased the old man's face. "Then I can rest easy."
"At most a month," Su Yuze added.
"All right. I trust you." Standing at the door to leave, Su Rongqi added, "I'll be waiting at the old manor."
When the door clicked shut, Su Rou squeezed Su Yuze's hand. "So… Grandpa's not holding a grudge against me anymore?"
"He can't." Su Yuze's tone was matter-of-fact. "This isn't your fault. Him coming means he accepts you as part of the family."
She remembered the way he'd even said "new home." She smiled, then admitted, softer, "I miss how things used to be with Grandpa. It wasn't perfect, but it was simpler—no distance between us."
Life sped up after that. Su Yuze dove into Su Corporation's affairs; Su Rou handled most of the day-to-day at Shengshi.
"If you get swamped, call Yufeng to help," Su Yuze told her one morning. "He's got time, and I don't want you burning out."
Su Rou nodded. "Okay. You go handle Su Corporation. If I can't manage, I'll call Yufeng."
She sat back down at her desk. Being chief secretary had always kept her busy, but running Shengshi felt like a different kind of exhaustion—every detail mattered now. She found a strange, satisfying tiredness in working shoulder to shoulder with the man she loved.
Outside, Su Yuze drove to Su Corporation's headquarters. Word had spread that a new chairman was coming; employees lined the entrance, expectant.
When Su Yuze stepped from the car, the crowd paused, then broke into polite applause. "Welcome, new chairman!" someone called.
"Welcome!" Xiao Ka—formerly an assistant to Su Kaiming—pushed through the crowd and offered his hand. Up close, he looked the part of a loyal aide: composed, alert. He and Su Yuze had crossed paths before at a bidding meeting; Su Yuze remembered him as the man who had stood behind Kaiming.
"I remember you," Su Yuze said, watching him a moment, then adding with a thin smile, "You're the assistant who worked with my uncle, aren't you?"
Xiao Ka's face flickered. There was a flash of unease—understandable, given the change of power—but he recovered quickly. He was not someone who'd risen to chairman's assistant without learning to read a room. "From now on," he said with quiet resolve, "I'll be the chairman's assistant."
Su Yuze returned the smile, approval plain. "Good. Just remember whose paycheck you answer to."
"Of course." Xiao Ka smiled too, though he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow as soon as Su Yuze's back was turned. Talking to the new boss cost him more nerves than he'd expected.
The message was clear enough: habits of allegiance couldn't survive the fall of a leader. Xiao Ka, like everyone else, would adapt—after all, who argues with where the money comes from?