The Early Spring - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 - Playing Dumb

Shang Zhitao rushed headlong into the elevator, lifted her leg to rest her backpack on her knee, and shoved a business English textbook into the bag. Just as the elevator doors were about to close, they reopened, and Luan Nian walked in wearing sunglasses.

Shang Zhitao hurriedly put her foot down, stood up straight, and greeted him. "Morning, Luke."

"Morning." Luan Nian glanced at her through his sunglasses. Half of the business English textbook was still sticking out of her bag. So, the clumsy bird still needed to study English on her commute? Shang Zhitao had no idea Luan Nian was appraising her as she stood there rigidly and cautiously. She knew Luan Nian disliked idle chit-chat, so after saying good morning, she didn't speak another word. Her face was serious, earnest, and deadpan.

Yet, she was very surprised by how diligent Luan Nian was. Last week, across five days of work, aside from spending one morning meeting a client, he arrived at the company bright and early every other day to handle work. When someone with natural talent works harder than everyone else, it becomes terrifying. Therefore, the day he told her he worked just to make money to squander must have been a lie. He arrived earlier than anyone else, left later than anyone else, and had no time left over to squander anything.

Shang Zhitao concluded that Luan Nian was the kind of person who said one thing and meant another. He had a vicious mouth and a strange temper, but he wasn't someone who took life and work as a game. Shang Zhitao had never heard of anyone who treated life as a game spending over a dozen hours a day working intensely at the office.

The two of them stepped out of the elevator one after the other. With his hands in his pockets, Luan Nian actually took the initiative to greet the cleaning lady: "Morning, Auntie."

The cleaning lady didn't look surprised at all. "Morning."

Shang Zhitao's jaw dropped. Did the aloof Luke actually have great manners? She was lost in wild thoughts behind him and almost bumped right into Luan Nian when he stopped.

"Do you come at this time every day?" Luan Nian suddenly asked her.

"Yeah." Shang Zhitao looked a bit dazed. "There's no traffic at this hour."

Seeing Luan Nian turn and walk away, she hurried after him and asked, "Is there any work you need me to handle this morning, Luke?"

"Shouldn't you ask your boss what work you are supposed to handle?"

"Then why did you ask me what time I arrive every day?" She was stubborn and determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Just seeing how long your diligence can last."

With a half-smile, Luan Nian dropped that remark and walked away. Looking suspicious, Shang Zhitao trailed behind him and turned into her own workstation. When she sat down, she raised her eyes to look at Luan Nian's office. He had already settled into his desk chair and opened his laptop.

Shang Zhitao remembered what Lumi had said about Luan Nian: He is stern, but very serious when he works.

Shang Zhitao felt Lumi was entirely right. He really was serious when working, much more so than Alex. Alex worked in marketing, spent his entire life playing games, and was often impossible to track down. But Alex's redeeming quality was that he was easy to get along with, keeping a pleasant expression every day. Unlike Luke, who always wore a stern face. And on top of wearing a stern face, he constantly mocked others. How annoying!

Thinking this, Shang Zhitao opened a document and typed out her daily work plan. She knew very well she had no shortcuts to take, and since she didn't want to be weeded out, she couldn't let Luke get his wish. She recalled Luan Nian advising her to change jobs, and now she felt that being eliminated wouldn't be embarrassing; having Luan Nian's predictions prove correct was the most humiliating thing of all.

For some reason, a fierce competitive streak against Luan Nian quietly ignited in her heart.

Of course, Luan Nian had no idea Shang Zhitao was quietly competing with him. He had a major project to follow, but the creative department was short-handed, and communications with several other departments had yielded no results. So, he asked Alex, "Can you second two pure execution personnel to me?"

"What do you mean by pure execution?"

"It means no brainpower required, just helping me mechanically process some raw materials and follow up on procedures." Luan Nian thought for a moment and added, "Send someone sharp."

"Lumi and Flora, then." Alex knew what Luan Nian meant by that added sentence. Wasn't he just saying Shang Zhitao wasn't up to snuff? Well, he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. "Coincidentally, they're the ones interfacing with your department's work anyway, so it'll be easy for them to jump right in."

"No."

"Who's no?"

"Flora is no."

"Then there's nobody else..." Alex resorted to playing the rascal. Others in the company yielded to Luan Nian, wary that he might actually exercise the appointment powers rumors whispered about. Alex didn't care about that at all; where couldn't a marketing guy find a job? You can look down on me all you want, but you can't look down on my people. At his core, Alex was someone fiercely protective of his own.

Luan Nian caught Alex's drift: Shang Zhitao is there for you to use or not use; if you don't use her, the marketing department has no one else. He lifted his eyes and saw Shang Zhitao standing up, talking to Kitty across the partition. Kitty was saying something, looking somewhat overbearing, while Shang Zhitao just kept nodding.

What a pushover. Submissive to her boss, yet lacking the backbone to stand tall even with her peers. Luan Nian frowned slightly and told Alex, "Fine. Can you recruit some competent people? Didn't Tracy give you headcount?"

"I am recruiting! Borrow these two for now, and return them to me as soon as you're done."

"Fine. Have them pack their bags tonight and come with us to Guangzhou tomorrow."

Shang Zhitao's very first business trip in life arrived just like that, completely unannounced. She went home at midnight to pack her luggage, but when she lay down in bed, she found herself somewhat unable to sleep. It was just a business trip, not a wedding; why was she so excited? She simply sat up, took out her planner, hand-drawn a simplified map of China, and pasted a tiny flag on Guangzhou. As she worked, she thought: my journey starts right here, and I'm going to go to many more places in the future.

She kept her eyes open until dawn broke, then dragged her luggage to catch the early flight. The morning glow over the airport highway was truly breathtaking; the sky was filled with hazy, blended colors that made everything in the world tender.

She arrived two hours early, bathed in the morning light when she got there, her cheeks slightly flushed from rushing, her hair scattered across her shoulders—looking entirely warm and glowing. Luan Nian was drinking coffee, his gaze pausing briefly on that hurried figure. Shang Zhitao wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses on her face, looking just like a dazed goose. That dazed goose glanced at him, pretended she hadn't seen him, and sat down in the distance with her back to him.

Unbelievable.

Such clumsy acting.

Shang Zhitao felt like needles were pricking her back, constantly sensing that Luan Nian was staring at her. It was her own guilty conscience; she was pretending she hadn't seen him. What else was she supposed to do? Go say hello and get left hanging by him? She didn't realize how her straight spine radiated tension, as if she were waiting for someone to come rescue her. She looked utterly pitiful.

She finally waited for Lumi to swagger over like a model, and Shang Zhitao let out a long sigh of relief, waving at her. "Lumi."

"Oh, you're here pretty early. Huh? Isn't that Luke over there?"

"Is it? Luke is here too?" Shang Zhitao feigned turning around, seeing Luan Nian reading a book with his head down, acting as if he hadn't heard a thing.

Lumi dragged Shang Zhitao right up to him. "Morning, Luke."

"Morning." Luan Nian lifted his face from the book, saw Shang Zhitao's expression of having just noticed him, and curled his lips. "Morning to you too, Flora."

Huh? He took the initiative to say good morning?

Shang Zhitao caught the teasing glint in the depths of Luan Nian's eyes and instantly turned red. "Morning, Luke."

"Why are you blushing?" Lumi suddenly asked Shang Zhitao. The latter secretly poked Lumi's back with her finger, prompting Lumi to blurt out, "Then why are you poking me?"

...

Luan Nian suddenly laughed, out loud.

Lumi had been at the company for two years and had never heard Luan Nian laugh like that. She looked at him in astonishment, realizing that when this guy smiled, he looked genuinely handsome—his teeth neat and clean, radiating bright, sunny warmth, completely unlike his usual ghastly self.

"Want some coffee?" Ignoring the looks they were giving him, Luan Nian stood up and asked.

"Huh?" Shang Zhitao was slow to react.

"Yes!" Lumi reacted fast. He was the boss, so she might as well fleece him while she could. "Little Taotao can help go fetch it. I just got here and I'm still catching my breath!"

Luan Nian took two steps, and seeing Shang Zhitao still standing there rooted to the spot, he turned back and threw her a line: "Are you coming or not?"