Eleanor poured herself a ss of water, then took a disposable cup and filled it for him. She carried it over to him.


    "Of course,"n nodded.


    Eleanor went upstairs with her ss of water, her long, waist-length hair flowing behind her. Still recovering from the fever, her steps were a bit unsteady, and her slender back looked frail in the oversized T-shirt.


    This woman who looked so breakable was the one person who could turn the entire tech world on its head.


    Who would have thought that the woman who was just running a fever, so


    distressed by a nightmare that she cried in her sleep, was the lead developer of the world''s most advanced Neural Interface Project?


    Even he, in this moment, was struck with awe.


    The wife who used to be so yful and childlike in his arms had been hiding such genius. If...


    If he hadn''t agreed to marry her back then, she would have already made a name for herself in the world of scientific research.


    In truth, he had initially refused.


    He had been a twenty-year-old man who had just lost his father and barely emerged from a deepa. He had taken over a corporate empire on the verge of copse, battling internal factions and fending off powerful external rivals. On top of that, his mother was gravely ill. At the time, he was being watched by countless eyes, suffocating under the immense pressure and responsibility.


    He could barely keep his own head above water. How could he have the energy or confidence to start a marriage?


    He remembered that afternoon in the hospital garden. Freshly awakened, he sat in the sun, quietly observing the vibrant girl before him. She exuded the sweet freshness of a summer spring, her eyes clear and innocent, her smile disarmingly pure and healing.


    She gave people hope and made them yearn for something more.


    It felt like she could chase off any darkness.


    In fact, his feelings for Eleanor went back much further. He was first


    drawn to her the year before his father passed away, when she appeared in his father''s office for the first time:


    Later, at the hospital''s library corner, after discovering she would read there, he started waiting for her.


    During that period, he was studying for his doctorate in business school. The academic pressure was immense, and he had already begun tatakeover thepany''s affairs. He truly had no time to be at that library.


    But Eleanor was there at a set time, so he began to show up at a set time, too.


    The result was that, a week before his doctoral qualifying exams, he found himself seriously behind in his studies. He was too distracted whenever he was reading with Eleanor.


    Finally, his advisor called him several times, warning him sternly that if he continued like this, he was at very high risk of failing.


    To pass the exam, he had to force himself to disappear for a while. In the end, he passed.


    This secret crush, which began in a library, was something he had never told anyone, not even Eleanor.


    That was why he had once told Eleanor that he was the one who fell first.


    Behind those words were six months of a silent, secret flutter in his heart that he could never speak of.


    But back then, his world was in shambles. His future was uncertain, and he carried the fate of the entirepany and his mother''s life on his shoulders. He couldn''t give her happiness; he might even drag her down into the mire with him.


    But fate worked in mysterious ways.


    No matter how ruthless or cold a person tried to be, they could never refuse


    something their heart truly desired.


    He was no exception.