*Runze's POV*
The study feels strangely light after Grandmother and Mrs. Wen leave.
I save my open files, close the laptop, and just stare at it on the desk for a few seconds.
A nursery. Names. Clothes. Entire categories of basic preparation that neither of us had bothered to process.
Beside me, Bael picks up his tablet again. He doesn't swipe. He doesn't open a file. He just holds it, his jaw set in that quiet, immovable line.
Across the room, Ling Yue finally stops pretending to look out the window. His shoulders drop, and a genuine, uncontrolled laugh breaks out of him.
"You should have seen your faces," Ling Yue says, resting his chin in his palm as he looks at us. "I thought you two were about to pull out a spreadsheet to prove why a baby doesn't need a room."
I pick up a plastic pen cap from my desk and toss it across the gap between us. Ling Yue catches it effortlessly between two fingers, his grin widening.
