Tracy sent the files to Luan Nian bit by bit. They were thorough, more thorough than any ordinary background check firm could manage. Whoever had compiled them clearly had real skill, and connections overseas besides. Luan Nian read through them carefully. Tracy did solid work, and he told her so: "Money well spent."
Tracy ignored that and asked him directly, "Take him down?"
"However messy his private life, that's in his past. Nothing illegal, and no evidence of anything out of line at the company now." Luan Nian's answer was measured.
"You're sure he hasn't broken the law?" Tracy pushed back. "Page fifteen. A woman's statement. At a company dinner, drunk and not fully conscious, and he had relations with her."
"I saw it."
"So I'll ask again. Take him down?" Tracy was rarely this serious, this combative.
"You want him gone because the board assigned him without asking you?" Luan Nian asked her.
"You want him gone because the board wants to use him against you?" Tracy asked back.
A moment passed, then both of them sent a message at almost the same time. "No. Because it's disgusting," Luan Nian wrote. "No. Because I'm a woman," Tracy wrote.
That was how the alliance was formed.
But Luan Nian was the kind of man who either left something alone or made sure the other side never got back up. He was no saint, and not someone to provoke lightly.
Flipping through Tracy's files, he confirmed what he'd said: what happened overseas couldn't be traced domestically, unless the man hadn't changed his habits here too. No point waiting around for that. Luan Nian decided to move first.
Song Qiuhan's call broke into his thoughts. Luan Nian asked him, "Did you go through the file?"
"I did."
"And?"
"Solid. But it's not my territory, so I passed it to a colleague in the China office. They'll set up a meeting soon."
"Good. I'll come along."
"No problem. Don't worry, as long as the team's legitimate, they've got a ninety-five percent shot at the investment." Song Qiuhan gave his read.
"You're always careful with these things. I trust your judgment. Thanks."
"Don't mention it. Talk later."
"Later."
Listening to the call alone, one might think the two men weren't especially close. They were, in fact. They'd traveled together twice and shared a group chat, just the four of them, a friendship built on solid ground. But neither of them talked much, and both ran cold, so a few clipped lines passed for a greeting between them. Still, Luan Nian knew Song Qiuhan could be trusted.
So he called Shang Zhitao.
She was at an event, the noise loud around her, a little surprised to hear from him at all, given that he'd hung up on her abruptly the night before and ignored her ever since.
"Have Sun Yu call me."
"Huh?"
"There's someone from an investment bank who wants to meet her."
Zhitao couldn't believe what she'd heard. She checked with him again. "Really?"
Luan Nian caught the genuine joy in her voice, and found, unusually, that it made him a little happy too. "Yeah. Get me her contact information. I'll set up a time."
Zhitao had never thought Luan Nian would take her business to heart, let alone her friend's business, especially not after he'd hung up on her for no reason the night before. Something in her chest gave, and she sniffled before saying, "Thank you. Really."
"You could marry me for it."
"I could also just take you out to dinner."
"You'd better stop making me angry." Luan Nian hung up, leaving Zhitao staring at her phone. Me, making you angry? When did I ever make you angry? I can barely get you to stop sulking as it is, when did I make you angry? The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt, so she texted him: "When did I ever make you angry?"
"Figure it out yourself."
Luan Nian sent that without expecting her to actually work it out. Her head probably couldn't manage it. When it was time to leave work, he packed up and headed out, running into Tracy on the way. She took in his puzzled look. "Meeting a client?"
"Going home to walk the dog."
"Didn't you say you gave that dog away?"
"Took him back."
Tracy followed him into the elevator and looked him over. "Are you seeing someone?"
"That's your business now too?"
"Not yet. But it will be, the day your girlfriend blasts your dirty laundry to the whole company mailing list." Tracy could hold her own in a fight of words, soft-spoken but sharp underneath, and her opponent was worse. "At least then you'll finally have something to do around here."
Neither of them came out ahead. Tracy clicked her tongue and stepped off the elevator.
Luan Nian thought again of the name that had flashed across Zhitao's phone that night, dony, and decided he wasn't giving dony any more time to slip up on his own. He couldn't afford to wait. It was time to act.
He got home, leashed Luke, and left the complex. He'd booked the dog a bath. They hadn't even reached the pet store before Luke started acting up. He hated baths and wanted to stay dirty, so he planted himself on the ground, craned his neck back, and refused to take another step no matter what.
Luan Nian threatened him. "Keep this up and I'll stew you for dinner."
Luke still wouldn't budge. Stew me, then.
Man and dog were at a standstill for a long while, until Luan Nian finally gave in, walked over, and picked him up. Luke clung to his shoulder, legs shaking pathetically. Luan Nian, uncharacteristically gentle, patted his back to calm him down. "What are you so scared of? It's just a bath."
Luke let out a long whine, I'm not doing it, as if he had a great deal more to say on the subject.
Luan Nian carried him into the pet store, set him down by the tub, murmured to him for a good while, and only then stepped back outside the glass to watch him get washed. He thought he must really have too much time on his hands, carrying a dog to its bath and coaxing it the whole way. What kind of business was this?
Luke transformed as he was scrubbed, and soon the bathing room was drifting with loose white fur, a thick layer of it building on the floor. Luan Nian decided the money was well spent, and when the bath was finished, he went ahead and got him a membership card, as if Luke were going to be staying at his place regularly.
Freshly washed, Luke really did look good, all fine soft fur, eyes narrowed, tongue out, grinning into the autumn wind. Sharp enough that even Luan Nian had to admit the dog wasn't bad.
That night Zhitao called to ask if Luke had behaved, and Luan Nian still couldn't resist needling her. "You don't know your own dog? Shaking over a bath. Never seen such a coward of a dog."
"You took him for a bath?"
"Yeah."
"How much?"
"Five thousand."
"What? A dog bath near your place costs five thousand?"
"...I got him a membership."
"Oh." Zhitao thought it over, then said carefully, "Well, if it's a five-thousand-yuan card, Luke had better keep going there regularly. Otherwise the owner might just run off with the money."
"Yeah."
When Luan Nian said that, Luke was sitting by the window watching the leaves fall, the light behind him dim and yellow, his small silhouette so solitary it looked almost depressed. Why was Zhitao's dog just as pitiful as she was?
"I'm coming back next Friday. Is it all right if I go straight to your place? It's such a hassle going back and forth otherwise."
"Sure." Luan Nian glanced at Luke again. The dog had better bathe his way through that whole membership, or the five thousand would be wasted.
Why was Luan Nian being so agreeable today, not difficult about anything, Zhitao almost didn't know what to do with herself. A colleague poked her head out of the private room and called to her. "Zhitao, come on!" She answered, then told Luan Nian, "The southwest branch set up a dinner tonight. I have to go in."
"All right. Not drinking, are you?"
"No."
"Take care of yourself."
Zhitao agreed, hung up, and went inside.
Inside the private room several rounds of drinks in, the mood was loud and lively, loose enough that even dony's expression had shifted. He'd undone two buttons of his shirt and rolled up his sleeves, showing off a good-looking wrist, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. Handsome enough, in his way.
Zhitao thought, if this man didn't have such rotten intentions, how far he could go in this line of work. She was drifting off in her own head when dony's gaze crossed the table of food and drink and landed on her face. He smiled at her.
She smiled back, picked up the teacup in front of her, took a sip, and looked away.
To dony, that read as shyness, maybe even a little interest on her part. So he made a point of glancing her way from time to time as he talked, with something deliberate behind it, meaning to draw his net tight around her, until eventually she'd throw down her guard and give in completely.
Dony liked this kind of game. He liked the thrill of bringing a woman to heel.
A while later Zhitao got up to use the restroom. Rather than the one inside the private room, she went to the public one at the end of the hallway, passing several empty rooms along the way. Most of the other parties had already broken up for the night.
She stayed in the restroom longer than usual, then came out, washed her hands, dried them, and started back. Dony came toward her, and as they passed each other he grabbed her and pulled her into a nearby private room, the door swinging shut. They were left in the dark.
"What are you doing!" Zhitao demanded.
"Flora, drop the act. We're both adults. I know what you want." Dony's hand clamped down on her shoulder, and he shoved her against the wall. She heard the thud of her own body hitting it.
She forced herself to stay calm. "Let go of me, or I'll scream."
"Will you?" His hand moved to her throat. "I hear you don't have enough on your record for the planning department. Is that right?" Her body temperature had risen slightly, and dony thought he was holding a baby chick in his hands.
It was a blunt offer, nothing dressed up about it. Zhitao said nothing, and he went on. "Promotion, raise, all within reach. Think about it. Wouldn't that be easier than doing it on your own? Two years of effort and you've only moved up two levels. When's that going to end?"
"I never thought dony would need tactics like this to get a woman." Zhitao made herself sound steady, though she couldn't quite manage it. She was close to tears.
"The method doesn't matter. Only the result does." He laughed, his mouth moving toward her ear, and she started to fight back, shouting, "Let go of me! Let go!"
She grabbed at his shirt to tear it. The door opened, the colleague from Chengdu standing there right on time, reaching in to flip on the light. "What's going on?"
Zhitao shoved dony off with everything she had and ran, back to the private room, snatching up her bag amid everyone's stunned faces, and out the door.
She ran clear out of the hotel and called lumi, her voice shaking a little.
"Lumi, I have evidence. Solid evidence, of workplace sexual harassment."
"Flora, where are you? What about your coworker in Chengdu?"
"I'm still in Chengdu, but I'm about to catch the last flight back."
"Once you're back, let's take the last step together, all right?" Lumi told her, "Hey, girl, you know that? You're something else. Now I know why I liked you the second I saw you, because deep down I knew you had it in you all along."
Zhitao held back tears. After enduring for so long, she'd finally gotten a man's harassment on record, start to finish, from words to action, with a witness on top of it. Ever since the day dony had asked if she had a boyfriend, she'd carried a voice recorder on her at all times. Whenever he was nearby, she switched it on.
Zhitao thought, I'm no bleating little lamb. I'm going to make sure there's nowhere left for you to hide, you maggot. That day was the bravest moment of her life, and part of that courage came from what a coworker had told her once: "I don't want to drink. There's a wolf at this table." That girl had cried to Zhitao afterward, telling her how dony had pinned her down once she was drunk. Luckily for her, her period had come that day.
Dony had told that same coworker: you had too much to drink, nobody's going to believe a drunk woman. I could say you came on to me. Don't you want that promotion? I can make it happen.
Having gotten away with it once, he'd decided every woman was easy prey.
Now Zhitao had the evidence, and could finally go after this maggot.
Up to that point, dony still assumed the whole thing would blow over. He didn't think Zhitao would do anything against him. She seemed too easy to push around.
Zhitao felt victory was close, but her legs wouldn't stop shaking, not through boarding the plane, not through landing, not through the whole drive straight to Luan Nian's place. The trembling never let up.
She let herself in. Luke greeted her in the middle of the night, and she hugged him before running to Luan Nian's room. He'd just shut down his computer. She stripped off her clothes piece by piece, took his face in her hands, and kissed him hard. Luan Nian pulled her shaking body into his arms, his lips pressing against her skin, and murmured against her ear, "Weren't you supposed to be back in half a month?"
"I couldn't wait. I wanted to see you today."
She arched into him, pressing close. "I want to see you right now."
"Zhitao. What happened?"
She shook her head. "I just missed you. All of a sudden." She thought she should tell him, about dony, about all of it, but she didn't. Some small stubborn pride kept her from it. She felt she should handle it herself, as an independent, grown woman. Besides, she had lumi behind her, and Sun Yuanzhu, and Sun Yu, and that other suffering coworker. They could manage.
Zhitao never regretted that choice. She knew that from that moment on, she was learning to face things alone. She knew she'd been thrown into a reality this harsh, and that anyone who tried to solve real problems with fairy tales would struggle to find a way out, because reality was always bloody at its core. This was how she proved to herself that she could do it, that she didn't need Luan Nian to.
Some things had to be met head on, at least once.
"Luan Nian." She said his name into the dark and held him tighter.
"I'm here." Luan Nian kissed her, hot and burning, and led her out of the night and into the light.