Early in that spring, Shang Zhitao once again felt just how difficult work could be.
She sat in the conference room beside her colleagues from the planning department, on a call with Luan Nian, who was still in the United States.
"Flora, don't worry," Grace told her. "The work in planning is different from marketing, but the essence of the job hasn't really changed. You've built a solid foundation these past few years. You'll catch up soon enough."
Grace was her new mentor in the planning department.
Zhitao liked Grace. She was rational, professional, and clearly talented, and ever since Zhitao had heard her deliver the presentation that won her a million-yuan equity award, she'd quietly regarded Grace as something like a legend.
Grace was visibly pregnant now, faint spots showing on her face, though she still carried herself with an intelligent kind of beauty.
"Write down anything you don't understand during the meeting, and ask me all at once when it's over," Grace told her. For all her kindness, Grace wasn't entirely without self-interest. During the department's internal competition for the position, she had given Zhitao the highest score, because Zhitao was someone she could trust. Grace was pregnant, and whoever ended up covering her projects when she went on leave would matter a great deal. Everyone in planning was sharp and ambitious; if she handed her projects to the wrong person, she might never get them back. And with maternity leave stretching ahead of her, her career at Lingmei could very well end there.
So she'd set her sights on Zhitao.
Zhitao was reliable. Grace had watched her for a long time. She was upright, kind, and compassionate, and Grace was willing to bet on her.
On the line, Luan Nian asked, "Did the new hire start today?"
"Flora started yesterday, this is her first planning meeting," Grace answered. "Another internal transfer is still handing off her current project, so she's joining remotely today. The external hire had a death in the family and pushed back her start date. Also, HR reached out this morning: they're expecting to open two headcounts for planning in this year's campus recruiting, focused on overseas universities."
"Fine. Let's begin."
The pace of planning department meetings was brutal.
Even after several years at Lingmei, Zhitao still found herself struggling to keep up. Upper management, industry associations, client relations, consulting, special projects, project management: all of the company's core functions converged here. In other words, Lingmei's planning department was the company's brain. The brain issued the orders, and every other department carried them out. If the brain got something wrong, every department downstream would suffer for it.
Zhitao's first task in the department was taking meeting minutes, which she only needed to send to Grace. After her first meeting, she compiled her notes and sent them off, expecting nothing more. Instead, Grace sent back a thoroughly annotated version, circling every important point and adding explanations for technical terms. She even pulled Zhitao aside in the break room afterward and walked her through the background of the department's core projects, holding nothing back.
Grace really was a wonderful mentor. She spoke concisely, her manner warm but her goals always clear. In the break room, she closed with, "Don't be scared. It's not as hard as it looks. Ask questions whenever you need to. You'll be fine."
There was something in her way of speaking that reminded Zhitao of Luan Nian. It struck her, suddenly, why he thought so highly of Grace: at heart, the two of them were the same kind of person.
"I will, Grace," Zhitao said, nodding.
Grace pressed a hand to her chest. "I can't catch my breath. Come with me downstairs for some air. I'll fill you in on the company's strategic direction for the year while we're at it. It ties into our core projects anyway."
"Sure."
They headed downstairs together. Zhitao had rarely had the chance to talk with pregnant coworkers before; the company had a few, but without overlapping work, there had never been much opportunity to get to know them. On the way down, she asked, "Isn't it exhausting? Carrying the baby, I mean."
Grace laughed. "It's manageable. We hadn't planned on having a child these next couple of years, honestly, it just happened. The doctor advised against terminating, given that I'm thirty-three."
"What did the boss think? Aren't bosses supposed to hate it when female employees get pregnant?"
"You mean Luke?"
Zhitao nodded.
"Luke said, better to have it young. Work is work either way, and I've already got my equity, so what's there to be afraid of?" Grace laughed. "He's actually a good person. I was intimidated by him at first, but I've come to realize he just has a sharp tongue. Underneath it, he's soft-hearted. I don't think he has a capitalist's mindset at all."
"Oh, oh, oh," Zhitao murmured, half-listening. Their senior executive was about to come home.
He had been away far too long this time. Zhitao hadn't seen him in over two months. She'd rushed around all day and by the time she got home that night, close to midnight, she found a box waiting on her bed: an extremely revealing nightgown. Sun Yu's message arrived right on cue: "A gift. Wear it for your boss. Two birds, one stone."
Zhitao slipped the gown on. The front was a sheer, deep V-neck lace panel, the back an expanse of bare skin. It wasn't so much a nightgown as a scrap of fabric that happened to cover the essentials. But it looked good. She let her hair down, took a selfie, and clicked her tongue in satisfaction at the result.
That night, Luan Nian texted her: "Finished the report?"
Zhitao thought about it for a moment, then sent him the photo instead.
Luan Nian opened the chat, saw the picture, and swore under his breath.
His face went red all the way to his neck. He killed the screen at once, afraid someone might see. It was a long while before he replied: "Just the one?"
Zhitao sent two more: dim lighting, her sitting in front of a full-length mirror, long bare legs drawn up in front of her, the shoulder strap of the gown slipping down, the lace pattern rumpled, her lips slightly parted. And then, recklessly, she added: "So what have you been doing for the last half hour?"
Luan Nian's throat moved. He typed back: "Reading the report." Never expect an arrogant man to flirt shamelessly. He couldn't let his guard down that far.
"Oh, of course. Do enjoy your reading. I already sent the report to your inbox, Luke."
Zhitao had picked up some bad habits.
Lumi had taught her. Zhitao had gone with her over lunch for a manicure, and Lumi had held up her hand and told her, "Look at you, so plain and boring. Even if you land a boyfriend, it won't last long. Add some spice."
"Spice how?" Zhitao had asked, genuinely wanting to know.
Lumi had leaned in and murmured a few things in her ear. Zhitao's face went red. "Oh. Noted." Noted, and apparently already put to good use.
She imagined the look on Luan Nian's face losing control and laughed to herself in bed. Two evenings later, his message came out of nowhere:
"Come over. Bring that nightgown."
"Wait, weren't you coming back next week?"
"Moved it up."
The two of them, having not seen each other in so long, didn't bother with pleasantries. Zhitao heard the sound of fabric tearing; Luan Nian, in a fit of impatience, ripped her nightgown apart. What had Lumi said again? Don't ask if he likes it, just watch how he reacts. Zhitao thought she was starting to understand men a little. Take Luan Nian: so serious and composed most of the time, but the moment he was tearing her nightgown off, he was anything but proper.
The next morning she set an alarm and got up to find Luan Nian already awake, getting dressed.
"Are you heading out?" she asked him.
"Mm, meeting a friend. What are you doing today?" he asked idly, waiting to see what ridiculous answer she'd come up with.
"I'm going to the library today!" Zhitao smiled at him, threw on some clothes, and left. She needed to go home and change; Sun Yu had told her today's event was full of high-end members, plenty of them very wealthy, and she was hoping Zhitao would put in extra effort to upsell them to a higher service tier.
Zhitao hurried home, changed into a black dress that fell just past the knee, pulled on black leather boots, applied light makeup and a red lipstick, threw on her coat, and headed out. The event was at a bar, quiet during the day and cheap to rent out, with easy access. When she arrived and signed in, she hung up her coat, turned around, and caught a few men looking her way.
Sun Yu hadn't lied. This was, indeed, a high-quality gathering today.
She exchanged a glance with Sun Yu and found an inconspicuous seat. Looking up a moment later, she saw someone walk in, and before she could get out of the way, he was already seated across from her, smiling at her. It was not a pleasant smile. What was Luan Nian doing here?
Zhitao thought, I'm dead. She pulled out her phone and texted him: "I'm helping Sun Yu out."
"I hardly ever come to these things!" Which, of course, was as good as admitting guilt.
"And when I do come to these events, it's purely for show. I never actually go through with anything."
"Why are you here?"
But Luan Nian didn't so much as glance at his phone. Zhitao looked at him, pointed at her own screen, and he acted as though he hadn't noticed at all. Dr. Liang had signed him up for this event, an eight-hundred-eighty-eight yuan entry fee. He'd said he wasn't going, and Dr. Liang had pushed: go, just go, and if you happen to see the girl in the photos, take a picture for me, I want to see what she looks like in person.
Luan Nian had very nearly sent Dr. Liang the photo of Zhitao in the nightgown.
That morning, watching Zhitao lie to his face so casually, he'd decided not to let the eight hundred eighty-eight go to waste. As it turned out, the money hadn't been wasted at all: she'd put on makeup, and worn, damn it, an impossibly short dress. Really something. Years of knowing her, and she went around plain as a nun in front of him, only to show up polished and dressed up at some high-end mixer, working the room.
When it came time to hand out profile sheets, Luan Nian looked over Zhitao's: it differed slightly from the one on the website. Graduated from Penn, worked at a foreign firm, annual salary of four hundred thousand, one hundred seventy-one centimeters tall, fifty-four kilograms, enjoyed diving, skiing, and golf, fluent in three languages. He let out a short laugh.
Hearing that laugh, Zhitao had a sinking feeling this day was about to fall apart. She texted Sun Yu: "Why is Luan Nian here?"
"How would I know? I checked. He signed in under another member's name. He must have registered using someone else's account."
Damn it.
Zhitao had no idea any of that was going on. All she could do was smile placatingly at Luan Nian, quietly worried he might ruin Sun Yu's whole event.
She got up and stepped outside for air. When she came back, Luan Nian was talking to a bartender, his gaze sweeping over her without pause, still ignoring her completely. She walked up to him and said, "Can we talk?" There was just the faintest note of pleading in it.
"I'm sorry, private contact isn't permitted during the event." Luan Nian offered her a forced smile and turned to walk further inside.
Zhitao hurried after him and pulled him into a side room. "No one's watching here. Let's talk."
"I don't even know you."
"..."
"Are you angry?" she asked him. "I wasn't lying to you on purpose this morning. There just wasn't anything worth mentioning..."
"Just this morning?"
Luan Nian meant every Saturday morning he'd left her apartment. All those absurd excuses she gave him. What angered him most was how seriously she'd taken this one, going so far as to put on makeup.
"There have been... a few other times too."
"Didn't I tell you? If you ever run into someone, be upfront with them. Don't treat people like fools."
"You did tell me that. But it's not like I ever actually ran into anyone." Zhitao was starting to get annoyed herself. Why couldn't Luan Nian understand? She was just doing Sun Yu a favor, and picking up a little extra money on the side.
"..." That comment struck a nerve. The moment Dr. Liang registered her account, Zhitao had thrown herself into the conversation, practically ready to hand over her home address. Over the break, Dr. Liang had shown him her chat logs with various women every single day, especially Zhitao's, all but reading them aloud with feeling. What had Dr. Liang said, word for word? "This girl seems so sincere. You can tell she's really desperate to find someone. Put in some effort for me."
At the time, Luan Nian hadn't been particularly bothered. He'd even mocked Dr. Liang for not understanding the difference between a "professionally managed account" and a "fake account."
Not until he saw Zhitao here, made up and dressed for the occasion, did he realize: fine, he was the one who hadn't understood.
"Move."
"No. Promise me you won't cause trouble and I'll move."
Luan Nian's eyes narrowed to slits. It was a long moment before he spoke. "Fine. I won't cause trouble."
Luan Nian never kept his word.
When it came time for him to speak, he suddenly announced, "Female guest number eight looks a lot like an employee at my company. Though that employee isn't fluent in three languages, and didn't go to Penn. Right?"
Damn it.
You simply couldn't trust anything that came out of Luan Nian's mouth. Zhitao thought fast: "I just have one of those common faces. Quite the coincidence."
"Mm. And that employee's name happens to be Shang Zhitao too."
The other attendees began to murmur. Sun Yu started sweating off to the side. This was over. She knew exactly what Luan Nian's mouth was capable of, and how petty he could be about settling scores. She quickly pulled up his account, thinking she'd sacrifice him first: since his photo didn't match his face, she could claim he was here to crash the event. No one at the mixer had ever seen the real Shang Zhitao from his company, but his fake photo was right there as evidence. Might as well count it as a contingency plan for future events.
But Luan Nian didn't give her the chance. "I think I'll withdraw from today's event," he said. "Seeing guest number eight, I keep thinking of one of my subordinates. I can't stay in character."
"Of course, what a coincidence," the host cut in smoothly. "We'll arrange a refund for you right away. We hope you'll join us again next time."
Luan Nian glanced at Zhitao once, then left.
He'd wanted to strangle her a moment ago, but he'd still left things some room. Sun Yu's business wasn't easy, and she'd only just started gaining traction.
Outside the bar, he headed for his car, and Zhitao ran out after him, sliding into the passenger seat just as he opened the door.
Luan Nian looked at her. "Not looking for a match anymore? The place was full of eligible bachelors in there."
Zhitao gave a sheepish laugh and buckled her seatbelt.
"Get out."
"No."
He glanced at her. "Is running marriage scams fun? Was chatting up my mother for two or three months fun for you?"
"What?"
"Didn't see that coming, did you? The marriage scammer ran into an old scammer."
Zhitao had no idea which account belonged to Luan Nian's mother. Her account was professionally managed; before every event, Sun Yu would send her the chat logs to review beforehand. She did remember the name attached to the account Luan Nian had signed in with, and yes, they'd already talked quite a bit.
"I told you my account is managed by the platform, you're not going to argue with that, are you?" Zhitao stopped short. "Wait, how did Dr. Liang even find out about Sun Yu's site while she's overseas? Why would she register an account for you?"
There was quite a story behind that, but Luan Nian had no intention of telling Zhitao any of it.
"Get out of the car. I have a date."
"A date with who?"
"Zhitao, this is one thing I have on you. You ask, I answer. Teacher Gong Yue. Now get out."
"If you run into someone, be upfront with them."
"I'll be plenty upfront. I'll let you know before I go to bed with her."
"Fine. Great. Thanks so much." Zhitao delivered her three-word parting shot with maximum irritation and got out of the car.
Luan Nian's car kicked up a small cloud of dust as it sped away.