The cafe was crowded, and they stood off to one side waiting. Whenever someone tried to pass, Shang Zhitao stepped closer to Luan Nian to clear the way, then stepped back once they'd gone by. She did this over and over, her face flushed the whole time, like a girl who hadn't quite gotten over being in love. Luan Nian watched her fidget without saying anything.
"What are you blushing about?" he finally asked.
"Huh?" She looked up at him, her eyes meeting his. His gaze was amused, teasing even, and he repeated himself. "What are you blushing about?"
"Maybe it's just hot in here." She really did feel warm, and she reached up to wipe a bit of sweat from her forehead, though the air conditioning in the terminal was more than adequate. There was no real reason for the heat she felt.
"Shang Zhitao." He said her full name, and when she looked at him with clear, questioning eyes, he went on slowly. "How does someone like you end up in advertising?"
She had no idea what he meant by that, and her confusion showed plainly, the kind of clean, open bewilderment that even her glasses couldn't hide. It was like a sheet of thin ice on a lake starting to break apart in early spring, catching the light as it melted.
Luan Nian had a fleeting urge to take those glasses off her, the ones that made her look so plain. Instead he kept talking. "How does someone as timid, shy, spineless, and self-effacing as you end up in this industry? Do you have any idea what kind of people work in advertising?"
Hearing him say, once again, that she wasn't cut out for the job made something in her flare up. Her face went redder still. "I don't know. Please, enlighten me."
Luan Nian shrugged. "I can't teach you anything. The only advice I have is that you should change careers."
He didn't wait for a response. He turned and walked toward the counter to get his coffee. Shang Zhitao took her own cup without a word and followed him. Once they left the cafe, the noise faded and everything went quiet. Whatever stubborn streak had been buried in her suddenly surfaced, insisting she push back. She quickened her pace, stepped in front of him, and blocked his path. There was a new hardness in her eyes, a faint edge to her whole bearing that hadn't been there before. Luan Nian stopped and looked at her. "What is it now?"
"I remember what you told me."
"And?"
"I'm not quitting!" The words came out short and fierce, almost childish, and by the time she'd said them her eyes had already gone red. She felt wronged, as if he were trying to push her over some edge. She turned and walked away without another word, so angry that she forgot she was even holding the coffee. Not a drop spilled by the time she reached Lumi.
Lumi took one look at her face, pulled her legs off the suitcase she'd been resting them on, and asked with a grin, "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing." Shang Zhitao handed her the latte and sat down beside her.
Luan Nian came over and set his own coffee in front of her. She almost refused it, but in the end took it with red-rimmed eyes and even managed a "thank you." No matter how angry she was, she still had her manners. She must have grown up comfortable, in a family that loved and looked after her. She wasn't wealthy or well connected, but she'd clearly been raised well. It showed in the small things she said and did.
Luan Nian frowned, realizing he'd overstepped. What business was it of his whether she stayed at the company or not? She wasn't even in his department.
Lumi sensed something was off between them but had no idea what, so she sat quietly, saying nothing. The three of them drank their coffee like strangers who happened to share a table. Conversation only picked back up once the other two arrived and they all headed to the creative center together.
After leaving the airport, Shang Zhitao sat in the taxi looking out at the greenery rushing past and thought that she shouldn't have let herself get so worked up over some throwaway comment from a boss who didn't matter to her. The world outside was lovely, far lovelier than anything that came out of Luke's mouth. Just thinking his English name made her want to scoff.
This was her first time in Guangzhou.
"Grace just got a call. Luke wants to treat everyone to morning tea and wants us to come along," Lumi said.
"Oh. Okay." Shang Zhitao said it without any enthusiasm at all. She didn't want to eat a meal with Luan Nian sitting across from her. Whatever they served, it wouldn't taste good with him there. She'd told herself not to be angry anymore, but some part of her clearly hadn't gotten the message.
"You've been off ever since you came back with the coffee. What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. A mosquito bit me and it's driving me crazy."
"Where? I brought back some green oil from Thailand, let me put some on it." Lumi dug a small bottle out of her bag, entirely serious.
Shang Zhitao gave in and pointed to the bite from the night before. "There."
"Ha! Whatever bit you has a real mean streak." Lumi laughed, and it wasn't clear whether she meant the mosquito or someone else entirely.
Shang Zhitao couldn't help laughing along with her. She went back to the hotel, changed, and set out again with her laptop on her back.
She'd put on a floral dress with a plunging V-neck, her pale neck bare and a sliver of smooth skin showing above the collar. Someone who normally looked unremarkable could turn heads once in a while with the right outfit.
Walking beside her, Lumi couldn't help but click her tongue. "I never would have guessed. Look at you, so put together."
Shang Zhitao flushed a little at the compliment and glanced down at her own neckline out of habit. The cut was conservative, showing almost nothing, and she genuinely didn't understand what Lumi was teasing her about.
When they got to the restaurant, Luan Nian was already there, going over the menu. He glanced up when he heard Lumi greet him, nodded at the group, let his eyes pass briefly over Shang Zhitao, then looked back down and added a few more dishes to the order.
The restaurant was loud, full of elderly diners chatting away in soft, unhurried Cantonese. Shang Zhitao felt as though she'd stepped into an old Hong Kong film from the nineties, the kind she used to love. It brought back memories of learning Cantonese songs by writing out the lyrics in pinyin, and her eyes lit up at the thought.
Grace turned to Luan Nian. "I heard you're from Guangdong?"
"My family's from Jiangsu, originally."
That opened the door, and soon everyone was talking about where they'd grown up. Shang Zhitao sat and listened, chiming in only when asked something directly. Her silence was like a glass of water left on the table, there when someone needed it, unnoticed the rest of the time.
Eventually the conversation drifted toward love and marriage. Lumi rested a hand on Shang Zhitao's shoulder. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
The question caught her off guard, and her face went red. "No."
"Blushing like that, you've never even been in love, have you?" Women loved to gossip about this sort of thing even when it had nothing to do with them, and now everyone at the table except Luan Nian was looking at her.
Put on the spot like that, she had to say something. Unlike the seasoned office types who could talk endlessly without meaning any of it, she took the question seriously when she answered. "I dated someone in college."
"Tell us more!" Lumi pressed.
"That's enough." She pressed her lips together and looked away. A memory surfaced, unbidden, of Xin Zhaozhou kissing her cheek in a crowded, noisy duck blood soup shop. She still remembered how awkward things had been between them after that.
Luan Nian, who hadn't said a word until now, spoke up. "Would anyone like tea?" He stood and started pouring for the women at the table. Grace, not comfortable letting her boss serve her, jumped up. "I'll do it."
"It's fine. Looking after the ladies is my job." He said it with easy grace, nothing like the man who'd mocked Shang Zhitao more than once that day and told her to quit. As it happened, his interruption gave her a way out of the conversation about her past.
Luan Nian genuinely disliked socializing, and this dinner was exactly the kind of socializing he couldn't stand. He especially hated the sort of idle talk that filled these gatherings, as if knowing who had slept with whom could somehow close a deal.
Once he started pouring the tea, his staff caught on immediately. The conversation, which had wandered all over the place, was steered firmly back to business, and everyone settled into a serious discussion of the case at hand.
Whatever anger Shang Zhitao had been holding toward Luan Nian evaporated, replaced by something closer to gratitude. He really was an odd person, the kind who could make you swing between respecting him and resenting him again and again, and somehow never grow tired of either.