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Brooks: "..."

Lily: "I have nothing to do tomorrow, Old Jian. I'll drop by your office. I remember you have a pound of wild Taiping Houkui tea there. My husband likes it too, so prepare half a pound for me to take back."

Brooks: "… You little rascal!"

That phone call drained Brooks of his energy. He waved to his deputy to continue the meeting and walked outside with his phone to calm down. Everyone in the meeting room watched him leave, exchanging bewildered glances. So, who exactly was the "little rascal"? The chairman had been furious just moments ago, but he had forced himself to calm down, looking rather aggrieved and even a bit... wronged?

Leopold followed Brooks out. "Dad, what's wrong? What did Lily say?"

What did she say? Brooks, now calmer, found it baffling. That girl suddenly mentioned a model and spouted some incomprehensible things. He even suspected that Lily, that little rascal, was deliberately using him to insult someone indirectly. But who? He had no idea. Yet, he felt he had become the fall guy somehow.

Brooks decided not to dwell on it. He remembered something else and addressed his secretary, who had followed him out. "My youngest daughter is coming over tomorrow. Hide anything valuable in my office."

Secretary: "?"

Was he protecting himself from his own daughter? Brooks reconsidered and decided not to be too harsh. He still had favors to ask of Lily, so he changed his instruction. "Leave a few things out. Take out the small leaf sandalwood prayer beads that Young Master Zhang sent yesterday and put them on my desk."

After the secretary left, Leopold hesitated before speaking. "Dad, Zoya will be back in a couple of days. She loves those trinkets. Why not save the beads for her? Lily doesn't care for them."

Brooks's mind flashed to Lily smashing the family photo with a baseball bat. After a moment's silence, he turned to his son. "Zoya is closest to you. Persuade her not to be so picky. Young Master Yao from Ya'an is a good match."

Leopold's face changed slightly. "Dad, you promised to respect her, not force her or use her as a family pawn!"

Brooks patted his son's shoulder without a word.

Meanwhile, at the Win Studio, Makeup Room No. 1.

After a round of indirect insults, Lily felt relieved and hung up the phone. Ignoring Mi Shan's furious gaze, she called Alistair outside.

"Alistair, Mi Shan delayed the date and moved the time to six o'clock. Aria guessed she wouldn't cooperate, but we still arrived at five."

Alistair wasn't a fool. He understood today's situation.

Today was entirely Mi Shan's fault for intentionally causing trouble for Aria and Lily.

Alistair frowned. "If Aria had already guessed it, why did she come?"

"Why?" Lily frowned, surprised he would ask that. "What is this place? It's a studio, not her riverside restaurant. This is Mi Shan's first magazine shoot since her comeback. It's her job."

"Aria and I thought she might just not cooperate during the shoot. I figured I'd just need more patience. Who knew she would be so childish and willful, wasting four and a half hours."

"Aria and I keep work and personal life separate. Despite knowing Mi Shan would be difficult, we still came. We got up at four and arrived at five to prepare, out of respect for her."

Lily asked him, "Alistair, would you treat your career as a joke? Would you mix business with personal matters?"

Alistair felt ashamed. "I'm sorry."

Lily reminded him, "Mi Shan knows I'm Edmond's wife and knows I have a bad temper. Why would she openly provoke me?"

Alistair remained silent. Why? Because Mi Shan was emboldened by his support.

When Lily entered the makeup room earlier, Aria was about to follow, but her phone rang with a call from her sister-in-law, so she stepped out to take it and hadn't returned yet. Lily thought of Aria's red but stoic eyes and lost control of her emotions.

"Alistair, no matter what, you and Aria's engagement isn't broken off yet. She's still your fiancée. Showing up with Mi Shan today is a slap in her face."

"If you really like Mi Shan, can't you break off the engagement already?"

Alistair felt he needed to explain. "I ran into Mi Shan at the entrance. I..."

"Does it matter?" Lily interrupted. "You two walked in together. Mi Shan's using your influence, and you appeared together."

Lily finally lost it and kicked his shin.

"This is too much. It's too unfair. Even if you don't like Aria, at least give her some dignity, even a little bit."

"This project, her sister-in-law staked her reputation on it. If the shoot fails, her sister-in-law is done for. Because Mi Shan was late, Aria was afraid of failing her sister-in-law. She cried the whole time before you arrived."

"She's already very upset today. Yet you sided with Mi Shan and aggravated her, and that deputy editor, who's against her sister-in-law. Today was her sister-in-law's day. You brought that deputy editor here just to make things worse?"

"Alistair, if it weren't for your help back then, I'd fight you today!"

...

After Aria finished her call, she didn't hurry back. She needed a coffee to perk up, so she headed to a nearby café. She had just messaged Lily when Alistair walked in, sat across from her, and ordered warm water.

"I asked the security guard at the entrance. He said you came this way."

Alistair recalled Lily's words about Aria crying before they arrived and focused on her eyes. She hadn't looked at him directly in the studio, always lowering her head. Now, surprised to see him, her eyes were red, clearly from crying.

"I'm sorry."

Aria was taken aback by his apology, then forced a smile. "Sorry? Apologizing for Mi Shan again? No need."

Alistair explained the misunderstandings. "I ran into Mi Shan at the entrance. I knew you were coming for the shoot. Afraid of conflicts, given past issues, I decided to visit."

"I didn't know your original time was six. Mi Shan said eleven, so I said I'd be here by ten-thirty. We didn't come together."

He had another point to clarify. "Mi Shan mentioned she was at my place last night, which is a misunderstanding. I wasn't with her. After her comeback, paparazzi camped at her place. It wasn't safe. I lent her an apartment with good security."

Alistair paused briefly, then defended his integrity. "I've said before, I won't start a new relationship without ending the previous one. Our engagement isn't dissolved, so I won't be with another woman. I'm not involved with Mi Shan the way you think."

Aria apologized. "So the engagement is holding you back? Sorry."

Alistair frowned. "That's not what I meant."

The waiter arrived with Aria's iced Americano and Alistair's warm water. Aria broke the silence.

"Alistair, do you know why Lily could let go of Royce after loving him for so many years in just one night?"

Alistair didn't understand why she brought up Lily and Royce but sensed she had more to say, so he remained silent.

"It wasn't sudden. Lily gave him many chances. Can you guess how many?"

Without waiting for a response, she continued. "A hundred times. Every time Royce hurt her, she recorded it in her diary, each word like a knife, pulling out her thorns. The more it hurt, the clearer she became."

"People think she gave up because of what happened at Zoya's birthday party. I used to think so too, but it wasn't."