The Early Spring - Chapter 14
Chapter 14 - A Night of Being Looked After
Shang Zhitao felt that being Luke's secretary must be a thrilling experience. The man could be all-inclusive and delightfully amiable when dealing with one client, only for the weather to radically change the moment they stepped in front of the next.
Shang Zhitao didn't know how to describe her feelings; she had never witnessed an agency actually pushing back against a client. She figured it might also be because her time in the workforce was still too short, meaning she hadn't yet crossed paths with all the monsters and demons of the corporate world.
The trigger was the second client demanding minor adjustments to the creative concept.
To Shang Zhitao, a minor adjustment meant tweaking the color palette, shifting sizes, and things of that nature—everyone assumed minor adjustments meant just that. Not the client. What the client meant by a minor adjustment was tearing it all down and starting completely from scratch. With a laid-back Cantonese accent, he slowly dropped the bomb: "For this commercial film, you know, we really feel it needs to be completely overthrown and remade." The Guangfen colleagues instantly froze in shock, casting a glance over at Luan Nian.
Luan Nian ignored the client's words. Tapping his knuckles against the desktop, he turned his head and asked Shang Zhitao, "That project you did back in college—when the client asked you to make minor adjustments, what exactly did they adjust?" Huh? A project from college? Shang Zhitao finally remembered that during her interview round, she had mentioned a project her team had completed. He hadn't said a single word during that entire interview, so she had assumed he wasn't listening to her at all.
"The client asked us to adjust the arrangement of the venue set pieces."
"Did they ask you to add anything?"
"No."
"Did they ask you to choose a new venue from scratch?"
"No."
Luan Nian nodded, then turned to ask the Guangfen colleagues, "Are there email records confirming every single round of communication prior to this?"
"Yes."
"Pull them up and show President Qin."
Doing business requires integrity. When the sample video has already been delivered and you suddenly demand to tear it up and start over, it's equivalent to buying two sets of creative concepts for the price of one—that simply isn't playing fair. The advertising market back then wasn't nearly as transparent and fair; even an agency like Lime would occasionally run into these kinds of tyrannical clients who bullied smaller players.
The Guangfen colleagues were no strangers to the industry either. Showing no servility yet refusing to be pushed around, they pulled out the past email chains to show the client: "Take a look right here. Every single step was confirmed."
"What can we do, though? We held a meeting last night and suddenly felt there were issues." The client resorted to acting like an unprincipled rogue.
"We understand your esteemed company's changing views on creativity and aesthetics. Tearing it down to start over is out of the question. I'll have finance contact you to calculate the cost of the sample video, and you can go find another agency to take a look." ? Shang Zhitao thought she had misheard, staring straight at Luan Nian. You could actually do that? But Luan Nian meant business; he began packing up his things. "We've deleted the sample videos, mind you. I'll have finance calculate it based on the minimum cost, and refund the rest of the deposit. Consider it a parting gift to make a new acquaintance." With that, he extended his hand toward President Qin. "Thank you, President Qin."
Accustomed to playing the role of the pampered client, President Qin had never encountered such a stubborn, uncompromising opponent. He was walking out after barely saying a few words, but being a businessman at heart, Luan Nian had left him a sliver of face. So President Qin offered, "How about this, let's hold another meeting to touch base today, and then we'll get back to everyone."
"Fine." Luan Nian shot a glance at the Guangfen colleagues and turned to walk out the door. The sheer, resolute finality of his attitude was jaw-dropping.
Following right behind him, Shang Zhitao felt like her blood pressure had already spiked. The expenditure for that commercial film was managed through the marketing department; she had happened to look at the ledger last week, and given such a massive sum of money, Luan Nian was just walking away from it like that?
Luan Nian walked away without looking back. Shang Zhitao trotted to keep up, and the two of them exited the building to stand out on the humid, sweltering streets of Guangzhou. Shang Zhitao's eyes were filled with utter incomprehension.
"If you don't understand, ask." Luan Nian detested people who kept their thoughts bottled up.
"So... we're just dropping the partnership?"
"Mhm."
"Just like that... we take the loss?"
"Mhm."
...
Luan Nian pointed to the bustling traffic on the street. "Don't you love hailing cabs? Go on, hail one." He then stepped back into the shadows between the towering office blocks, leaving Shang Zhitao with time to ponder and process. The girl had no hidden agendas; every little thought was written plainly across her face, making her stupidity entirely transparent.
Client negotiations were all about coordination. Luan Nian was unfamiliar with the client to begin with, so in a situation like this, he deliberately adopted a hardline stance—stating he would walk if things fell through—while leaving the local colleagues behind to smooth things over, manage client relations, and resolve the issue. By blending a firm approach with a soft touch in a coordinated tag-team effort, problems became much easier to solve. Otherwise, they would be led around by the nose by the client. Shang Zhitao would figure out the answer sooner or later; Luan Nian deliberately kept her in the dark because he found teasing her rather amusing.
Shang Zhitao stood ramrod straight as she hailed a cab, looking so rigid and stiff that she didn't resemble a modern person at all. A girl barely in her twenties clearly radiating youthful energy, yet every time she walked, sat, or stood, she held herself with this bizarre posture, making her look somewhat out of place in this era.
Luan Nian was reminded of how she had stood in the bustling airport crowds with reddened eyes and stamping feet: "I just won't quit!" No matter how angry she got, that was the absolute limit of it—she was hopelessly easy to bully.
Getting into the taxi that Shang Zhitao had successfully flagged down, they headed off to attend a dinner banquet. Shang Zhitao still couldn't wrap her head around it: such a massive deal, and they just gave it up like that? She stole several glances at Luan Nian before finally giving in to the urge to ask: "Are you really letting it go?"
"If your heart aches for it, you can run back and chase the deal." Luan Nian tossed that single line at her before leaning back against the seat and closing his eyes to rest. Shang Zhitao curiously threw him another look, her gaze landing on his slightly upturned jawline, and abruptly found her face flushing hot.
Her thoughts drifted to sex.
Out of nowhere.
Perhaps Guangzhou was simply too hot, causing a fundamental shift in her body's survival environment, which was why she was suddenly entertaining wicked thoughts about the boss who constantly advised her to quit. This was completely normal; anyone would have wicked thoughts. Shang Zhitao hastily drafted an acquittal statement in her mind: if she were ever put on trial for harboring wicked thoughts toward her boss, her defense would surely be struck down right at the opening statements.
The dinner banquet was held along the banks of the Pearl River, and right through the window, one could gaze out at the brightly lit Canton Tower.
"What should we call this beautiful young lady?" Seeing how quiet and demure Shang Zhitao looked sitting there—making her stand out completely from the rest of Lime's employees—Zhou Yuchi made a point to address her directly.
"Shang Zhitao. You can just call me Flora," Shang Zhitao replied politely.
"Miss Shang is clean and gentle, she has wonderful poise," Zhou Yuchi praised her sincerely.
Shang Zhitao's face flushed crimson once more. Amidst a drinking banquet like this, her blushing stood out as conspicuously as a single stalk of red plum blooming across a vast snowy plain.
The men couldn't help stealing extra glances, and following the general gaze, Luan Nian turned his head slightly to catch sight of her pink-tinted earlobes.
"Would Miss Shang care for a sip of red wine?" Zhou Yuchi pressed further.
"I'm sorry, I don't drink."
"Not even a tiny sip?" Zhou Yuchi kept up his persuasion. Whenever girls at a drinking table claimed they couldn't drink, it was always just an excuse; once they took that very first sip, most women who claimed to be teetotalers turned out to have a surprisingly high tolerance for alcohol.
Having never experienced this kind of environment, Shang Zhitao had no idea how to rebuff him.
"She really can't drink today; she needs to help me write a report later." Luan Nian suddenly spoke up, then turned his gaze toward Shang Zhitao. "I'll have to trouble Flora to stay clear-headed and help me send out the report today."
Apollo, the head of sales, exchanged a glance with Luan Nian, the silent communication roughly translating to: Well, look at you stepping in to protect the fair maiden.
With an air of detachment, Luan Nian picked up his phone and fired off a message to him: If the lady gets wasted and makes a fool of herself, don't blame me if you blow the account.
Having followed Apollo for so long, the client naturally understood Luan Nian's underlying message, so he raised his glass toward Zhou Yuchi. "Flora genuinely has important work on her plate. Let's just down one between us brothers first, shall we!"
Everyone happily drank away. Shang Zhitao sat quietly beside Luan Nian, watching him sip from tiny wine cups one after another. His alcohol tolerance was truly formidable; after polishing off more than half a cat jin, his expression remained completely unchanged. Yet while drinking, he rarely touched the food, focusing entirely on the liquor as if truly savoring it, only occasionally taking a sip of hot soup.
Shang Zhitao was captivated by his profile, though she didn't dare stare for too long. Not that prolonged staring was even necessary; she had every single detail permanently etched into her memory.
The topics tossed around at the dining table were just as eclectic—military affairs, politics, history, philosophy, chatting about whatever came to mind. Luan Nian didn't speak much, but he knew a little bit about everything, and whenever he expressed a viewpoint, it always hit the nail right on the head. Sometimes he would rest his hand on the dining table—long, slender fingers, clean and neatly trimmed nails, accompanied by the faint blue veins tracing across the back of his hand. A mature twenty-eight-year-old man: clean, poised, sharp, and strikingly handsome. The wicked thoughts Shang Zhitao harbored toward him simply refused to disperse.
As the drinking grew heavier, the conversation inevitably drifted toward women. No matter how successful a man might be, once he drank too much, he always loved talking about women—as if, without this specific component, their towering, pillars-of-society image somehow wouldn't stand upright.
When the topic shifted to women, Luan Nian spoke very little.
He found it vulgar.
A man like Luan Nian could share very, very lighthearted jokes with close friends, but they remained strictly light. Anything deeper—such as the veiled, crude sexual innuendos tossed around the table that evening—he was neither willing to speak nor willing to listen to.
Grown a bit tipsy, Apollo began discussing various intimate anatomical terms with Zhou Yuchi. Having both traveled long and hard through the fields of romance, the two of them eventually concluded with a grand summary of "each has their own unique charms." Shang Zhitao couldn't quite follow, but from their expressions alone, she knew it wasn't anything proper.
Having listened for a short while, Luan Nian stood up and walked outside. Three minutes later, he pushed the door open, phone still pressed against his ear, offered an apologetic smile to everyone, and then motioned for Shang Zhitao. "Flora, come take this conference call."
Feeling an immense sense of relief, Shang Zhitao hurried out after him. Luan Nian tossed his phone to her, dropping a single instruction: "If another call comes in, you don't need to answer; if messages come in, you don't need to reply."
Shang Zhitao paused for a moment before realizing what had happened: Luan Nian was rescuing her. A wave of gratitude washed over her. She suddenly felt that while Luan Nian might appear ice-cold on the outside, his heart wasn't bad at all. He could be quite scathing toward people—especially toward her—yet he was continuously acting as her mentor.