I'm sorry

Ying Yue didn't say anything, and continued to quietly study the document on her desk.

Fei Huangjin started to get tensed and worried. Was she going to ignore him the whole time? His head spinned. What else did Zihan say again? He struggled to remember the order of things to do. He should've written everything down if he knew the situation was going to end up like this.

Flowers. Apologize sincerely. Ask what he could do to make up for his mistakes. Be a puppy. And then something about offering up everything he had? He couldn't remember. All he knew was that the last resort was to get down on his knees for her.

He gulped. Should he do that?

"Ying Yue," he started again, "What can I do to make it up for you?"

She was writing down a few notes at the corner of the document when she heard him say that, and her pen stopped where it was, the ink blotting through the paper. When she realized what had happened, she sighed and placed her pen down, rubbing at her temples frustratingly. "I'm busy, Huangjin. You're not helping by bothering me like this."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be in your way of work." He looked away before turning back to her with a sad smile. Be a puppy, he told himself. "I hate this. I hate not being able to see you smile, I hate knowing you hate me."

Ying Yue's forehead wrinkled into a frown.

"Do you want me to go? Just say the word. I'll do whatever you want me to do as long as it makes you happy."

Oh, Huangjin. She sighed.

They looked at each other in silence. They had always been good in conversing honestly with anything and everything, but when it came to faults, they were bad at it. They were both proud people -- Huangjin, especially. But in times like this, you couldn't fix something without swallowing a bit of your pride and having to compromise.

"I don't… hate you." She said quietly.

She only said four words. Four. Words. But those four words lit up the candle called hope inside him, making him visibly brighten. And it made him want to kiss Zhang Zihan at that moment for giving him useful advice for once.

Ying Yue tapped a finger on her desk and grimaced. "You can't do that, Huangjin. You can't hide things from me like that and you most definitely cannot have some woman all over you. I thought you knew better. Before I married you, you would've thrown out anyone who would touch you like that. But that night, you didn't. So what changed? Are you sick of being married now? Should we just have a divorce?"

The hope that he had was completely dashed away as soon as it appeared, and his mood sunk again into despair. Divorce? He was alarmed that she could even bring that up with thim. That stupid Zihan. Being a puppy wasn't working, after all!

"No. We will never have a divorce." He shook his head. "You're the only one I want to stay with for the rest of my life."

His words took her breath away for a moment, and she felt something pricking at her chest. "And you didn't even look for me last night like you usually would."

"I thought--- I thought I was giving you time to process things. Guan Ting said you'd file for divorce if he told me where you were, so I surmised that you'd want to divorce me if I forced to look for you and take you back. Little did I know not doing that would cause you to offer up a divorce anyway," he added bitterly.

Ying Yue bit her lip. Yes, she did say that to Guan Ting. It might have been a step too far, but she was mad that night. She didn't really mean it.

"Please don't leave me." Fei Huangjin took a step closer to her desk, gazing at her with hopelessness in his eyes. And the next thing he did, made her lips part in surprise. He knelt down on one knee and took her hand in his, planting a soft kiss on her knuckles. "I'm sorry." His voice was a bit hoarse.

She had married a powerful man that no one could trump in the city, and yet here he was, on his knees, apologizing. If anyone else saw this, she didn't know what they would even think of him now. Fei Huangjin's head was still lowered, and for some reason, it made her chest hurt.

"I love you, I'm sorry."

His words made tears well at the bottom of her eyes, and her lips quivered as she touched her forehead against his. "Let's go home." She whispered.