Transmigration; A Mother's Redemption and a perfect Wife.-Chapter 353; Conducting Auditions

Just then, Tang Fei looked up from her work and caught Huo Ting Cheng’s eye through the glass. She enthusiastically waved, pointing at a screen and mouthing, "This one is amazing!"

Huo Ting Cheng’s expression transformed in an instant. The Arctic cold melted into a look of tender indulgence. He raised a hand in a gentle wave back to her, a perfect display of spousal support.

Then, without looking at the three men again, he murmured, his voice barely audible over the city’s hum, "Look at her. So alive. So brilliant. I will not let the world touch her. I will not let the past claim her. If that makes me a monster in your eyes, then so be it."

He turned and slid the balcony door open, stepping back into the light and warmth of the penthouse office, leaving his most loyal confidants in the gathering dark, burdened with the knowledge that they were now complicit in the beautiful, tragic undoing of everything they had helped him build.

The glass door slid shut behind Huo Ting Cheng, sealing him back into the world Tang Fei was so brilliantly constructing. The sterile, air-conditioned calm of the pentoffice was a stark contrast to the heavy, unresolved tension on the balcony. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Tang Fei looked up from her screens, her face illuminated by both the digital glow and her own excitement. "Ting Cheng, come look at this! She called, beckoning him over. The raw talent in the dance auditions is incredible. This one girl, she’s a natural, her technique is unpolished, but the emotion is just... breathtaking. He moved to stand behind her, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders. He could feel the vibrant energy humming through her. She was in her element, a queen surveying her nascent kingdom.

"As good as this is," she continued, tilting her head back to look up at him, "it’s not the same as being there.".. You can’t feel the energy, the nervousness, the sheer life of it through a screen." She spun around to face him fully, her expression earnest and hopeful. "I missed being there today. Tomorrow, I want to go to the halls myself. I need to be on the ground, to see these talents with my own eyes, to talk to them, to really understand what we’re building. Her request hung in the air, simple and reasonable, yet it felt like a seismic shift in the room.

Huo Ting Cheng’s hands stilled on her shoulders. His gaze drifted from her eager face to the cityscape beyond the window, where his men were even now hunting shadows. The image of her, vibrant and exposed in a crowded public hall, sent a cold jolt through him. He could almost see a sniper’s laser dot dancing over her heart.

The cage he had so meticulously planned, the fortified estate, the controlled environment, the placid, medicated existence, seemed to materialize in the space between them, a phantom structure only he could see. It was the safest option and the most logical. To let her walk back into the unpredictable world was an unbearable risk.

But then he looked down at her. He saw the fire in her eyes, the unwavering trust in his, the sheer force of will that had brought her back from the brink. To snuff that out now, to tell her "no," would be to break her spirit in a different, more profound way. It would be the first crack in the foundation of their relationship, a confirmation of the prison she didn’t yet know she was in.

A long, weighted silence stretched between them. Huo Ting Cheng’s face was an unreadable mask, but the conflict was a palpable force in the set of his jaw, the slight tightening of his fingers on her shoulders.

He finally leaned down, brushing a stray strand of hair from her forehead, his touch deceptively gentle.

"We will see," he said, his voice a low, neutral murmur that gave nothing away. "The security situation is... fluid.". Let me assess what is possible."

It was neither a yes nor a no. It was a delay, a strategic holding pattern. He was buying time, time to crush the threat completely, or time to build a cage so seamlessly she would never feel the bars.

Tang Fei searched his eyes for a clearer answer but found only the impenetrable, sapphire depth she was so accustomed to. She chose to take his non-refusal as a tentative agreement, her smile returning, though slightly dimmer.

"Okay," she said softly, turning back to her screens. "Just let me know."

As she immersed herself back in her work, Huo Ting Cheng remained standing behind her, a sentinel in the shadows of his own making. His gaze was fixed on her reflection in the dark glass of the monitor, a perfect, trapped image of the woman he loved too much to set free, and too much to ever truly cage.

The decision hung in the balance, a silent war between his love and his fear, and for now, the outcome remained a terrifying mystery.

The sliding glass door opened once more, and the three men from the balcony re-entered the pent office. The air around them was thick with unspoken dissent, but their faces were schooled into masks of professional composure.

Huo Qi was the first to speak, his voice clipped and efficient. "President Huo, Madam, we will proceed with the discussed matters. If you’ll excuse us." He gave a curt bow respectfully.

Secretary Li and Dr. Zu Zhi offered their own quiet, formal farewells, the latter unable to meet Tang Fei’s eyes for more than a second before looking away, a flicker of pity in his gaze. They filed out of the office, the heavy door closing with a soft, definitive click, leaving the couple in a silence that felt suddenly vast.

Huo Ting Cheng watched them go, his expression unreadable. He then moved to a deep, leather armchair in the corner of the spacious office, sinking into it with a weary grace that seemed at odds with his powerful frame.