Chapter 17 — The Mighty, All-Powerful Genie

The next three years passed at a pace both familiar and tumultuous. Đường Gia Group, under the increasingly steady management of Nhã Kỳ, continues to expand its business scale, overcoming many small challenges from the market and from the ongoing silent competition from Long Thịnh, although not as fierce as the stock crisis last year. Nhã Kỳ has become one of the most respected young CEOs in the business world, regularly appearing on rankings of promising young entrepreneurs and invited to speak at many major economic forums.

During those three years, they together overcame many small ups and downs - a surprise audit from the tax agency that turned out to be just a procedural error, a small labor dispute at an affiliated factory that Nhã Kỳ personally went to resolve, a time when Bách Nguyên caught a severe cold due to being exposed to the rain and helped villagers near the industrial park repair a broken dike that no one knew about except Đắc Tường and Nhã Kỳ herself, who personally took care of him for three days of high fever without leaving his side. step. Each of those small events, in its own way, has woven an invisible bond between the two people, stronger than any vows they ever exchanged on their wedding day.

The relationship between her and Bách Nguyên also gradually changed along a slow but undeniable trajectory. They eat dinner together almost every day, watch movies together on weekends, and walk in the back garden together on rare free evenings. Outside, many acquaintances have begun to comment that the couple look more like a truly happy couple than ever before. But behind that warm exterior, Nhã Kỳ has never once proactively said the three words that Bách Nguyên has been silently waiting for all these years, still keeping a certain emotional distance as a last defense measure that she cannot completely give up.

Bách Nguyên, for his part, although his feelings for her have grown over the years to the point of becoming an inseparable part of his life, he always respects that distance, never forcing her to express her feelings faster than she is ready. But as the five-year deadline of the arranged marriage drew closer, a silent anxiety began to creep into his heart.

"In less than two months it will be five years." He told Lâm Đắc Tường one evening, when they were both sitting in the kitchen after Nhã Kỳ had gone to her room to rest. "But she has never told me that she truly wants to continue this marriage because of love, not because she is used to my presence."

"Master, I think she has real feelings for you," Đắc Tường said, his eyes full of certainty. "She just needs more time to have the courage to admit it."

"But if I keep waiting, am I forcing her into a marriage she doesn't really want, just because of a promise to her boss and because she's too familiar with my presence in her daily life?" Bách Nguyên said, his voice carrying a deep concern that he had been silently struggling with for many weeks. "She deserves the freedom to choose her love, not to be bound by a promise she never truly agreed to in the first place."

Đắc Tường, witnessing Bách Nguyên's inner struggle over the past weeks, could not help but worry about both of them, whom he considered his biological descendants. "Are you sure this is the right decision? Maybe you should wait more, instead of drawing your own conclusions when you're not really sure about her feelings."

"I've been waiting three years, Uncle Tuong," Bách Nguyên replied, his voice carrying a rare tiredness. "I don't regret waiting, but I also don't want her to live her whole life in a marriage that she didn't really choose, just because she was too used to my presence."

That thought kept haunting Bách Nguyên in the following days, especially after a small event that had a big impact on his psychology. At a party celebrating the founding of the group, when a reporter asked Nhã Kỳ about her future plans for the marriage after the five-year period ended, she answered vaguely, without clearly affirming that she wanted to continue this marriage.

"We will consider everything when the time comes," she said, an answer that was safe for the media but made Bách Nguyên's heart, listening from afar, painfully sink.

Standing silently in the corner of the room, he watched her smile politely at the reporter and then quickly move on to another question, as if the previous story was nothing to worry about. He understood that perhaps she was just trying to maintain privacy in front of the public, not wanting to reveal her personal emotions in front of cameras and curious reporters. But in his heart, a fear kept growing: could it be that, despite everything the two of them had overcome together, Nhã Kỳ had never, and perhaps never would, truly love him the way he loved her?

He remembered Vĩnh Bảo's advice before he passed away, not to just protect Nhã Kỳ from the shadows forever, to let her know if he truly had feelings, not to repeat the mistake of keeping the most important things inside until it was too late. But he also thought about another aspect of that promise — that love cannot be forced, and if Nhã Kỳ was never truly ready to reciprocate his feelings after such a long journey, perhaps continuing to bind her in this marriage just because of a promise from the past was the wrongest thing he could do.

One evening, after thinking for many nights in a row, Bách Nguyên finally made a decision. He found Nhã Kỳ's office and knocked gently on the door.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" He asked, his serious tone different from usual, making Nhã Kỳ, sitting at the table working, immediately realize that something important was about to be said.

"What's up?" She asked, putting down her pen, her eyes searching his unusually tense expression.

Bách Nguyên took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible even though he was feeling an unprecedented pain in his heart. "In less than two months it will be five years since we got married. I think it's time for us to talk frankly about the future."

"What do you want to say?" Nhã Kỳ asked, a vague feeling of insecurity began to rise in her heart.

"I think, when the five year period ends, we should officially divorce," Bách Nguyên said, each word seemed to rip through his chest as it was uttered. "You deserve complete freedom, to choose a true love for yourself, not to continue to be bound by a promise that you never truly agreed to in the first place."

Nhã Kỳ sat silently, completely stunned by that sudden proposal, feeling like a storm suddenly came in the clear blue sky that she was not mentally prepared to receive. "Are... are you serious?"

"I'm serious," Bách Nguyên replied, his eyes remained steadfast even though his heart was broken. "I don't want you to feel trapped forever in a marriage that begins with conditions, not your own true love."

He turned and left the room before Nhã Kỳ could react, leaving her sitting alone in the middle of the large office, her heart racing, her mind reeling with a series of conflicting emotions she had never experienced with such intensity — a strange panic that she did not expect to feel at the prospect of being completely free, something she should have welcomed happily after five years of being bound by an arranged marriage.

She sat there long after the door had closed, no longer in the mood to continue her unfinished work on the computer screen. She kept repeating his words in her head, trying to figure out why a news that should have brought relief made her chest feel like someone was squeezing it. Until late at night, she still sat still, not bothering to turn on the light, letting the darkness cover the room and her chaotic mind.