"Click, click, click..."
High heels struck the marble floor in an unhurried rhythm.
Lila Piquery wore her usual expression, stern yet somewhat approachable, and nodded to colleagues as she passed them.
As she passed a corner, she casually glanced toward the railing and saw a concealed hem of clothing swiftly vanish behind a filing cabinet.
Someone was watching her?
Lila's heart gave a jolt, as though someone had stepped on it with neither too much nor too little force.
Her expression unchanged, she pushed open the door to her office. Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the blinds, casting alternating bands of light and shadow across the floor.
Lila shut the door, casually removed and hung up her coat, then swept her gaze across her desk—neatly stacked documents, a quill slanted in an ink bottle. Everything looked as it usually did.
She sat down and looked around, and her heart began pounding violently once more.
The books on the shelves seemed to have been placed haphazardly, arranged neither by category nor by size or color. But in Lila's mind, there was naturally a system of classification and order that only she understood.
In the past, those books had been perfectly ordered, their boundaries distinct. Yet now, several had appeared in places where they did not belong.
Looking closely, the changes seemed to be everywhere—
The handle of her coffee cup was no longer angled in the position most convenient for her;
The fireplace mantel had also been subtly shifted, and there was even a small pinch of ash stuck to the grate;
Not to mention the pothos by the window. Lila was used to having one of its heart-shaped leaves face her. Yet now, that green leaf had been turned roughly ninety degrees.
After sitting silently for a while, Lila