The next day, Noah arrived at the retail store just before noon. He paused for a moment in front of the entrance, looking up at the two-story building that now seemed far more lively than his memory of similar stores.The promotional banners were still neatly in place, the store mascot greeted customers with cheerful movements, and the flow of people going in and out showed no sign of slowing down.“Wow… it’s seriously crowded,” Noah muttered under his breath, without realizing it.As soon as he stepped inside, several employees immediately recognized him, or at least recognized his face from a screen. Some glanced at him discreetly, others whispered among themselves, clearly curious. But before the attention could grow any further, Jeremy appeared from deeper inside the store.“You’re right on time,” Jeremy said briefly.“Don’t hear praise from Mr. Jeremy very often,” Noah replied casually.Jeremy merely let out a small snort and motioned for Noah to follow him. The two went up to th

After the evaluation meeting ended, the participants rose from their seats one by one. The sound of chairs scraping against the floor, footsteps, and light conversations filled the room for a moment before gradually fading.“Jeremy,” Mr. Keller’s voice rang out, calm yet firm. “Please stay for a moment.”Jeremy paused. He gave a brief nod and sat back down as the others filed out of the meeting room one by one. Before long, only the two of them remained.Mr. Keller closed the folder in front of him and leaned back slightly. His expression was not stiff, on the contrary, he looked rather relaxed.Without any small talk, he went straight to the point. “We’re planning to hold a celebratory dinner two days from now. To mark the success of this retail store’s rebranding.”Jeremy fell silent for a moment. He wasn’t surprised, something like this was actually quite common, but he still felt a trace of uncertainty. So he answered modestly, “Thank you, sir, but in my opinion, it’s still too ea

Jeremy glanced at Lucas with a look that hovered somewhere between disbelief and quiet astonishment. When he thought about it calmly, the pieces began to fall into place. The way Lucas questioned him, the tone of his voice, the fixation on the so-called “new intern” all of it pointed to a single goal.Lucas was hunting for the mind behind the retail store’s rebranding.The only problem was that Lucas still didn’t know who that person was. And clearly, he had never once imagined that the person he was looking for was standing right in front of him.Jeremy held back a faint smile that almost surfaced. He answered casually, as if the topic meant nothing at all.“No,” he said shortly.Lucas sneered.“No?” he repeated, clearly unconvinced. “Come on, Jeremy. Don’t play mysterious. Hasn’t your store been declining for a long time? Getting worse year by year? Don’t tell me you never thought about making changes.”He leaned in slightly. “Or don’t tell me you’re here for the same reason I am, l

Silence filled the interior of the car for a while. Only the smooth, rhythmic hum of the engine accompanied the city lights sliding past the windows.Thomas was the one who finally broke it.“Your mother wants to have dinner together,” he said flatly, as if stating a routine agenda.Jeremy blinked slowly, not expecting his father to say nothing at all about the fight earlier. There was a brief pause before he nodded.“Alright.”He was keenly aware of how long it had been since he last saw his mother. Not because he was unwilling, but because his days had been carved up by meetings, reports, targets, and one crisis after another. His phone was filled with messages he hadn’t had time to reply to, and one of them was certainly from her.The car slowed and turned into a parking area in front of a restaurant whose sign was familiar to Jeremy. The lettering was simple, understated, yet always felt warm.It was the place his mother chose whenever she needed to “breathe for a moment.”As soon

Lucas strode out of the Guava Hotel with his jaw clenched. The bright lobby lights were left behind, replaced by the cold, biting night air.The car door shut with a heavy thud, and the moment the engine started, a taut silence filled the cabin.His assistant sat in the front seat, hesitant to speak. Every so often, his gaze flicked to the rearview mirror, catching the shadowed reflection of Lucas’s darkened expression.Those words echoed again in Lucas’s mind, looping like a broken recording.The person we’re trying to recruit… Jeremy.His fingers slowly curled into a fist against his thigh. A muscle twitched at his temple.Jeremy.That name alone was enough to make his teeth grind. The man he had always looked down on. The one he had shoved aside, mocked, dismissed as nothing more than someone who existed to inflate his sense of superiority.And yet, it turned out that he was the brain behind that damn retail rebranding.Lucas let out a short, humorless laugh.“So he really is capab