After the engagement ceremony — dazzling like a flawlessly executed media spectacle — the business world of Vân Hải began to notice something unusual.
ÉCLAT's growth curve rose like the graph of a perfect equation.
Too perfect to be real.
Only the sharpest minds sensed the anomaly.
And the sharpest of the three people involved… remained silent.
Ngạo Thiên — Adjusting the Light So the Prey Can See the Path
After the engagement, Ngạo Thiên did not immediately tighten his hold over Tống Group.
Instead, he employed a subtler strategy:
Raise ÉCLAT to its peak first.
He did not elevate it with visible force.
He used:
– European partnership channels
– Vân Hải's media network
– Northern China supply chains
– trading platforms quietly backed by the Vũ family
– several "coincidental" contracts that opened new paths for ÉCLAT
Each influence was light enough to conceal his presence.
Yet large enough to make investors believe they were witnessing the rise of a brilliant young fashion visionary.
ÉCLAT grew like a celestial body lifted by invisible gravity.
⸻
One evening, as the two of them reviewed the reports together, Ngạo Thiên spoke softly.
"Do you see it? When people believe in you… you rise very high."
She smiled faintly.
"But I don't want you helping too much. I want to stand on my own."
He looked at her.
His gaze softened, dark velvet covering steel beneath.
"You're about to become my wife.
Your family's affairs… are my family's affairs."
From another man, those words might have been sweet.
From Ngạo Thiên, they were a rope spun from sugar.
Sweet.
And tightening.
Dĩ Yến had always feared dependence.
Yet his words touched the most vulnerable place in any woman approaching marriage:
the longing to be protected.
She nodded.
Unaware that, in that instant, one step of the sacrifice had already begun.
Tống Hành — A Veteran Father's Unease
When Tống Group reinvested into ÉCLAT, profits nearly doubled.
Departments celebrated.
Shareholders applauded.
But one man felt uneasy.
Tống Hành.
He studied the reports.
The graphs.
The risk ratios.
A conglomerate that had trembled months ago should not suddenly experience miraculous growth.
No matter how talented his daughter was, markets did not operate by magic.
He studied the curve again.
Too smooth.
Too steady.
Too precise.
He closed his eyes slowly.
"Someone… is lifting ÉCLAT upward."
But who?
Who could elevate it without leaving a trace?
Who would benefit from such elevation before the wedding?
Who possessed the skill to both destabilize and support without detection?
One name surfaced in his mind.
Vũ Ngạo Thiên.
Yet the man was too clean.
Too precise.
No evidence.
No flaw.
Tống Hành exhaled heavily.
"My future son-in-law… or a storm?"
But with the engagement announced, with the Vũ family's immense influence, he could do nothing but wait.
The unease inside him thickened quietly.
Dĩ Yến — A Soul Wanting to Escape the Supporting Hand
The higher she rose, the more uncomfortable she felt.
Not out of pride.
But from professional integrity.
"My success must come from my own ability — not from my husband's power."
One evening, she told Ngạo Thiên exactly that.
Her tone calm but resolute.
"I don't want you involved too deeply. ÉCLAT must be built by me."
Ngạo Thiên studied her.
His smile curved slightly — beautiful, precise.
"I know. Everything I do… is simply to ensure you aren't harmed."
"I can endure it."
He placed his hand against her cheek, voice dropping gently.
"You can endure it.
But your father cannot."
She froze.
His hand tightened slightly.
Still gentle.
Still sweet.
Still making it seem like concern.
When in truth, he was placing invisible threads around the throat of Tống Group.
She did not realize his words were soft manipulation.
The kind that moves the heart so deeply the listener never notices they have been guided.
Ngạo Thần — Seeing Both Light and Shadow
Within Vũ Holdings, and across the entire financial landscape of Vân Hải, only one man looked at ÉCLAT's growth curve and felt something different.
Not jealousy.
Not rivalry.
Not suspicion.
But recognition.
Because he knew exactly whose hand could raise and lower an empire without leaving evidence.
Vũ Ngạo Thần.
The golden mind.
The only man of his generation capable of hearing the movement of capital as if it were sound.
He reviewed everything:
– the first tremor
– the miraculous recovery
– the second tremor
– the flawless rise
– the capital flowing into ÉCLAT
– the timing aligned with the engagement
He understood.
Every move bore the imprint of his brother.
Yet he did not know the ultimate purpose.
He did not know the hatred hidden beneath.
But he worried.
For his brother — whose ambition might grow too large.
For Dĩ Yến — raised too high too quickly.
And for himself — because a love buried for twenty years had begun to stir.
One night, standing alone on the balcony of the Vũ estate, he murmured quietly:
"Brother… what exactly are you planning?"
He wanted to ask.
But could not.
Ngạo Thiên was his elder brother.
The man he respected most.
The moral boundary of their family.
A brother who had never done wrong.
But this time—
even Ngạo Thần was no longer certain.
And the most painful truth of all:
Dĩ Yến stood in the middle of a storm, believing it was only a gentle breeze.
The Gift — And the Prophecy of Sacrifice
One evening, Ngạo Thiên drove her home, his arm around her shoulders as if she were the only person he wished to keep in the world.
"Next week," he said softly, "I have a gift for you."
She laughed.
"A gift? You rarely keep secrets."
He leaned closer, whispering near her ear, voice like honey poured slowly.
"Something that will prove you are the woman I chose…
and the key to the future."
Her cheeks flushed.
Her heart quickened.
Yet behind those words, something cold stirred.
Something vast.
Something dark.
Something inevitable.
She did not understand.
But Ngạo Thần did.
From a distance he watched them, unease filling his eyes.
What was coming was not a gift.
It was a hymn before the sacrifice.
And within that hymn, the sacrifice would not be only her.
It would include his own heart.
Message of Chapter 12
When a man loves and hates at the same time, the gifts he offers are never simple happiness.
They are invitations to step onto the chessboard.
The higher one is lifted, the closer the fall.
The deeper the love appears, the nearer the price that must be paid.