Originally translated from the Thai language.
Rong Ru stepped out of the office, her heart brimming with newfound hope. But the moment the door swung open, she froze coming face to face with Lu Rong, Senior Executive and Meiling's father, standing right outside like a sentinel.
His razor-sharp gaze swept over the new secretary with cold suspicion. He remembered her well a mere pawn from Director Chen's department. How, then, had she found her way into his daughter's inner sanctum?
Lu Rong said nothing. He merely adjusted his tie with a practiced flick of his wrist and stepped inside, his presence a silent shadow.
"Congratulations," he said quietly, placing a ribbon tied gift box on the center table already buried under a mountain of celebratory offerings.
Meiling looked up, wearing a radiant smile fueled by the intoxicating pride of her own achievement. "You see my success now, don't you, Father?"
She rose smoothly, her eyes sweeping the vast expanse of her new office many times grander than anything she'd had before. "I did this on my own. I no longer need to lean on your shadow the way I once did."
The boastful edge in her words drew a soft, weary sigh from Lu Rong. Beneath the bright lights bathing his daughter, he saw a black, suffocating shadow looming right behind her.
"Have you ever truly stopped to think," he said gently, his hand resting lightly on the gift box, "why a man like Markrim would exhaust every resource just to hoist you up to this height…?"
Meiling's smile flickered. Cold resentment flared in her eyes that her own father refused to acknowledge her triumph and chose instead to poison the moment with doubt. "Whatever hidden agenda he may have, the result is clear, isn't it? I'm here now. Isn't that what matters most?"
"But a result gained too easily… often comes with a price that demands everything you are." Lu Rong stepped closer, his eyes clouded with dread. He could already see the gates of hell cracking open with Markrim standing just inside, holding the door wide. "Markrim is a predator. He searches for prey, lifts them to the highest peak… only to use them."
Meiling let out a low, mocking laugh.
"Are you saying I'm so incompetent I had to rely on a devil, Father?" Her voice rose, trembling with anger.
"I'm not saying you lack talent," Lu Rong replied, his tone firm and weighted with urgency. "I'm saying do not fall for his game. Because the day he comes to collect his due… you may not have even a name left for anyone to remember."
The pressure became suffocating. Meiling bit her lip hard. Her father's warning only made her lift her chin higher.
"Even if he uses me as a bridge to reach the top, I'll still be standing on that fortress. Why should I fear the man who pulled me from KCC's wreckage when even you, Father, never reached out to save me?"
Her voice cracked at the edges. The old wound still ached the day her father, as CFO, had stood powerless and let her claw her way out alone. Without Markrim, she would have been swallowed by the ruins forever.
"Markrim is dangerous… He has no good intentions toward us, Meiling," Lu Rong pressed, his voice cracking despite himself desperate to drag his daughter back from the abyss he could already see yawning beneath her feet.
"I know," Meiling snapped. A brief tremor flickered in her eyes buried instantly beneath a gaze of pure steel. "I know… but I want to stand at the highest point. No matter the cost."
"Just how high… are you planning to go?" Lu Rong took one step back, a chill racing down his spine as he stared into the inferno of ambition burning in his daughter's eyes.
Meiling's lips curled into a chilling smirk, her eyes turning hard and unyielding. "How high do you think a woman like me can climb, Father?"
The question landed like a blade. Lu Rong understood instantly and felt the full weight of whatever deal Markrim must have offered her.
"Don't tell me… you intend to replace Wen Jie."
Silence swallowed the room.
Meiling let out a soft, airy chuckle. "That seat… isn't it the very dream you've chased your entire life, Father?"
"Meiling!" Lu Rong's brows knotted tight, hands trembling with fury and terror. "It's too dangerous. Don't do something beyond your reach!"
"You still can't stop yourself from wanting it… so why try to stop me?" She stepped toward him slowly, mocking smile widening. "Or is it because you think I can't do it? Because you see me as nothing more than the little girl who's always lived under your wing… is that it?"
"Meiling!" His voice came out raw and broken.
"Right now, I see only one person who truly helped me." She declared it with cold finality, eyes blazing without mercy. "Markrim. And I will not stop here. Prepare yourself to witness a success far greater than anything you've achieved in your entire life."
Lu Rong stood frozen, heart hammering as though struck by a leaden weight. He had never imagined the ambition he once nurtured in her would one day turn and impale him like this.
And worse he felt it clearly now.
The devil hadn't merely handed his daughter an opportunity. Markrim had already stolen her heart, her humanity and left nothing behind but hunger.