Alex handed the small project to Shang Zhitao. None of the other people in the department wanted to take on something so minor, since it was hard to make it look good on paper. But Zhitao was willing. Whatever else it was, it was her first time acting as project manager.
She felt a flicker of excitement mixed with nerves. After she picked up the initial project materials, she sat at her desk and didn't move for a long while. The annual industry survey was one of the company's required projects every year, used to support different departments in shaping ad strategy for clients across various industries.
Small as it was, the project was far from simple. It called for surveying the needs of related departments, analyzing past years' input and output, selecting a research firm, setting project milestones. Every piece had to be in place. She had trailed behind Lumi on a handful of projects before and read up on the subject herself, but now it felt like all that studying had led to this, the moment she finally had to sit for the exam.
By the time Zhitao finished going through the materials, it was already late. When she looked up, the office was empty except for the light still on in Luan Nian's room. She thought about it for a moment, then picked up her phone and typed: "I took on a project by myself today." Her finger hovered over send for a long time before she deleted the message. She wasn't sure they were close enough to share things like that. Luan Nian wasn't the type to take interest in other people's daily lives. So she deleted it. But she still wanted to tell him, small as it was, it meant she'd made progress.
"I took on a project by myself today." She sent it.
Luan Nian glanced at his phone, then set it down without replying. Zhitao kept checking her phone while she packed up her bag, but he never wrote back. She sighed and slung her bag over her shoulder, heading out of the office.
She got lucky that evening and caught a car the moment she stepped outside. She put in her earbuds, played some music, and kept her eyes on her phone the whole ride. Just as she was nearly home, his reply finally came: "Do well. Good luck." Nothing could have sounded more formal.
"Thank you."
The project turned out to be a headache. The first step of the needs survey stalled right away. It stalled at the creative center.
Kitty wouldn't give her the scope of requirements from the creative center. Zhitao had followed up with her twice, and both times Kitty said she was too busy and hadn't gotten to it. It puzzled Zhitao. This was a service project meant to support the business. Why was Kitty being so uncooperative?
Lumi suggested Zhitao escalate the issue and let the boss push it through, but Zhitao didn't think that was the right move. It hadn't reached the point where escalation was necessary. Kitty already disliked her, and if she escalated now, there would be no walking it back later.
At the root of it, Zhitao was simply afraid of conflict. She thought it over for a long time without figuring out how to handle it, until Wednesday evening, when she finally gave in and messaged Luan Nian: "Luke, sorry to bother you. I'm running a project on my own, but I've hit a wall at the needs survey stage. Could I ask how I might get everyone to cooperate with the timeline?" She had no intention of complaining about anyone. She just wanted to solve the problem.
Luan Nian replied quickly this time. "Hold a project sync that isn't aimed at anyone in particular. Have each side report on their progress. Then send a follow up email listing each party's assigned execution items."
A moment later, another message came through. "Don't be afraid of conflict."
Seeing him tell her not to be afraid of conflict, Zhitao felt like he'd read her completely. He'd never paid her much attention, and yet he seemed to know exactly what kind of person she was, and exactly what kind of thing would make her hesitate.
"Okay, thank you."
"You're welcome. How's the cheer squad coming along for the basketball friendly?"
"We'll rehearse Thursday and Friday."
"Good. Thanks for the effort." Luan Nian thought for a moment and added, "Running a project on your own is a good thing, but the important part is handling people. Once people are handled, the timeline takes care of itself."
He left her room to work it out on her own.
After finishing his messages, Luan Nian packed up and left the office. He'd arranged dinner with Jiang Lan. Jiang Lan was vice chair of the industry association, and the board wanted him to keep working on her, to bring her on as an advisor to the domestic industry association. Luan Nian had suggested the board pick someone else for the job. The board said no, Jiang Lan only liked him.
Luan Nian drove to the restaurant, a Japanese place. Jiang Lan hadn't arrived yet. He sat and waited without rushing her. After about forty minutes, he called her. She picked up and immediately started apologizing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got stuck in traffic."
"It's fine. Should we reschedule?"
"No, let's keep tonight. I'm the one who's late, so dinner's on me. Please just wait a little longer."
"All right."
Luan Nian hung up, aware that Jiang Lan was testing him. She was used to being the client, and it had left her with a certain haughtiness. He understood it well enough. He simply took out his laptop and got some work done. When Jiang Lan arrived, he stood to greet her. "You must be tired."
"Sorry to keep you waiting so long."
"It's fine. Give me ten minutes, I just got an email I need to deal with." There was no email at all, just a bit of petty payback. He opened one at random, typed something, and frowned like he meant it. Jiang Lan sat beside him and waited. After twenty minutes, she finally laughed. "You're petty."
Luan Nian pretended not to understand and closed his laptop. "Shall we eat?"
"I owe you a proper apology. Waiting for someone really isn't pleasant."
"You must be starving." Luan Nian didn't take the bait and instead turned to the server. "We're ready to start, please."
"Want something to drink?" Jiang Lan asked him.
"I drove."
"What about your driver?"
Luan Nian smiled. "I suppose I could have a little."
He and Jiang Lan drank a bit together, and like last time, they didn't talk about work at all. Jiang Lan told him about the trip she'd taken alone to Hokkaido for a few days after her last breakup. "I realized then how draining relationships really are. I'd almost rather not date at all going forward."
"Learning your lesson the hard way?"
"You don't feel the same?"
"No."
Jiang Lan laughed. When she laughed, her eyes narrowed into thin crescents, giving her a touch of allure. She was the kind of woman who knew exactly where her charm lay and knew exactly how to use it. "But I heard your last relationship was quite the headache for you."
"Honestly, it wasn't. Why trouble myself over something that's already over?"
That was just who Luan Nian was. These days he valued his freedom above all. Jiang Lan propped her chin in her hand and studied him, thinking the man was rather easy on the eyes. She only had a little to drink that evening and barely touched her food. "I need to be more disciplined. Keeping my figure is such a struggle."
"I understand." Luan Nian nodded.
Over the course of the meal, Jiang Lan talked at length about her past. It seemed like it had been a long time since she'd opened up to anyone like this, and once she started, she couldn't stop. She even told him about her first time, on a rainy night in a motel outside Las Vegas.
Luan Nian listened quietly, rarely interrupting.
His patience seemed to please her. In the end, though her life looked lively enough from the outside, she despised crude men. She liked a man who had some backbone, and she liked, piece by piece, taking that backbone apart until she and he became one. She enjoyed that kind of hunt. And Luan Nian was the finest prey she'd come across.
The two of them finished their drinks and stepped outside. The night air was heady, and Jiang Lan, a little tipsy, stumbled slightly. Luan Nian caught her arm and helped her into the car. "Where should I take you?"
"My place." She gave him an address. He nodded. "All right."
Jiang Lan looked at Luan Nian's face, lit and shadowed by the passing streetlights, thinking what a fine face it was. She rested her palm on his knee and leaned in close, whispering near his ear. "Want to come up for a while?"
"I don't do one night stands."
"Long term. Secret. No strings attached."
"That's not a habit of mine." As soon as he said it, Luan Nian thought of Zhitao, of the woman who'd asked him where to keep her contact lens case, her bathrobe, her pajamas. So much for a man's eyes staying steady when he lied. What did he mean, not a habit of his? He was practically cultivating one right now.
Luan Nian composed himself and sighed. "I thought what we had was worth more than that."
"Such as?" Jiang Lan settled back against the seat, tilting her head to look at him, her collar loosening just slightly, offering a glimpse most men would surrender to on the spot. It didn't move Luan Nian at all.
He gave her a smile and offered no answer.
He turned to look out the window, thinking to himself that next time, someone else could deal with Jiang Lan. It was exhausting. Once he'd dropped her off, he finally got home, showered, and lay down in bed. His thoughts drifted to Zhitao's trouble at work, and he called her. "Did you sort it out?"
Zhitao was climbing the stairs and sounded a little out of breath. "Not quite yet. I sent an email inviting everyone to a project sync tomorrow."
"I didn't get your email."
"I didn't send it to you."
"Why not? You're holding a project sync and you're not inviting the department heads? What leverage do you have without them? The stray cats outside our building are fiercer than you."
"I..."
"What time tomorrow?"
"Three in the afternoon."
"Understood." Luan Nian said it plainly, then heard the sound of a lock turning on her end. "You're home?"
Zhitao lowered her voice, speaking softly into the phone. "Yes." She didn't want to wake her roommates. Zhang Lei had been working overtime and traveling nonstop lately, Sun Yuanzhu's schedule had flipped upside down since joining the autonomous driving project, and Sun Yu had been pulled onto some dating app project. Everyone was busy, and everyone needed their sleep.
She quietly shut the door, tiptoed to her own room, closed it behind her, and said, "Luke, I'm home. You're still up this late?"
"I just got home myself."
"Oh."
"Get some sleep."
"Goodnight."
Luan Nian hung up, thinking that he really had too much time on his hands, checking in on an ordinary employee's project timeline this late at night. But Zhitao was the kind of person who never let a favor go unacknowledged. After the call ended, she sent him another message. "Luke, thank you for really helping me with my project."
Luan Nian wasn't sure how to reply, the same way he hadn't known how to respond that day she'd told him out of nowhere that she'd taken on a project by herself. He set his phone aside and closed his eyes, ready to sleep, then picked it back up a moment later. "It's fine, no need to thank me. Just do well."
"I'll do my best."
I know you will.
Luan Nian had never seen anyone work as hard as Zhitao did. It was just a job, and yet she pushed herself as if she had no fallback, no safety net. That day, when Tracy had talked with him about the company's hiring strategy for the next year, she'd mentioned wanting to bring on one or two more people like Zhitao. Her exact words had been: "Do you see it? Zhitao is a kind of hiring experiment. And what the results tell us is that with a bit of talent and enough hard work, you can close the gap left by an uneven education."
Tracy had sounded rather pleased with herself. Zhitao was her most successful experiment. Luan Nian hadn't argued with her that day.