The Early Spring - Chapter 24

Chapter 24 - Better to Do Something

Luan Nian tried to understand Shang Zhitao's joy, though the truth was he didn't think passing probation was anything worth celebrating. Having sailed smoothly through his past twenty-eight years, he simply couldn't relate to the swelling sense of fulfillment Shang Zhitao was experiencing right now.

"Give me your wallet." Luan Nian held out his hand toward Shang Zhitao.

"Why?"

"I'm afraid you'll get drunk and not be able to pay the bill."

...Shang Zhitao obediently handed her wallet over to Luan Nian. How should one describe her wallet? It was painted with a traditional ink-wash landscape, and upon closer inspection, the artwork featured two dogs—a bizarre combination of imagery patched together. Luan Nian furrowed his brows: her aesthetic left much to be desired.

"Is there enough cash?" Luan Nian asked again.

"Not enough."

"Which card to swipe?"

Shang Zhitao stood up, took back her wallet, and extracted a card to hand to Luan Nian. "This one." She was throwing caution to the wind—if she was going to treat him, she'd do it right. Just this once.

"PIN."

"062400." 0624 was Xin Zhaozhou's birthday. People in love always used each other's birthdays as their special security codes; she should have changed it after the breakup, but Shang Zhitao was lazy and left it untouched all this time.

"Got it. Drink up."

Shang Zhitao was in high spirits and drank two more small cups, though she stopped right there. Her alcohol tolerance was poor, and feeling a bit lightheaded, she shook her head and declared she wouldn't drink anymore—absolutely not another drop. Having said that, she promptly took another sip anyway.

Luan Nian paid her no mind and concentrated on his foie gras and sashimi. It had been quite a while since he last ate Japanese food, and having it now, he found the flavor rather decent, which finally whetted his appetite. The flushed face of the young woman sitting across from him once again made him feel that her goofy, airheaded demeanor went surprisingly well with drinks.

Calculated and shrewd as he was, Luan Nian was slowly weaving a web. Ever since those successive stirrings of desire toward Shang Zhitao, he had made up his mind: he wanted to do something with this woman. Yet he needed the right timing; he wanted to get involved with Shang Zhitao without becoming overly entangled in her life. If the two of them could satisfy each other's needs without either having to take responsibility, that would be the most perfect arrangement.

"Did you volunteer to go into the mountains?" he asked out of the blue. The corporate culture was always the same—senior employees bullied juniors, those in higher positions bullied those lower down, and those with connections bullied those without. Pure workplace relationships were hard to come by, unless someone possessed extraordinary competence and held a position where the company simply couldn't function without them.

"I did." Shang Zhitao had drunk a lot of water, and her dizziness had subsided somewhat. "I've never done this before, and I just wanted to try it out. I want to learn so, so many things, and become someone truly formidable. Just like Kitty." Once she had a drink in her, Shang Zhitao's tongue loosened up considerably.

"Why like Kitty?"

"Kitty is genuinely amazing. She understands everything, knows how to do everything, and handles everything so gracefully."

Luan Nian glanced at her and didn't take up her thread.

"If Kitty weren't capable, she wouldn't have made it into the Creative Center. Everyone in the company knows that the Creative Center and the Planning Department always snap up the very best."

"Instead of blindly comparing yourself to others, you'd be better off finding a sturdy tree to lean on." Luan Nian spoke in a tone where truth and falsehood intertwined.

"I'm a stranger in a strange land—whose thigh am I supposed to latch onto?"

"Tracy."

"I'm not close with Tracy."

"Then you could try latching onto mine."

Huh? Shang Zhitao suddenly recalled those messy thoughts that had popped up the other night—the notion that Luan Nian might be trying to make a pass at her. She crossed her arms defensively over her chest and looked at him with guarded wariness. "I won't sell myself out."

Luan Nian rarely lost his composure, but being caught so dead-to-rights by Shang Zhitao's blunt accusation nearly made him spit out his drink. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Then why did you tell me to latch onto you? I'm just a young girl who just arrived, a stranger in a strange land with no money and mediocre capability—what else would I be relying on if I latched onto you?"

Luan Nian pointed a finger at Shang Zhitao. "Take your hands down."

"Hmm?"

"Take them down."

Shang Zhitao moved her hands away and looked suspiciously at Luan Nian. She watched as he cast a glance at her chest, curled his lips in disdain, and let out a chuckle. "Your worries are truly redundant. Shang Zhitao, do you really think I want to sleep with you? Am I lacking women?"

Shang Zhitao's face flushed red.

"Stop daydreaming!" Luan Nian flicked her forehead across the table. "Wait for a sunny weekend and air out the water in your brain."

Hmph.

Aren't I doing just fine? Shang Zhitao looked down at her own clothes, feeling deeply aggrieved.

The two of them lingered over that meal for quite a while, and when Shang Zhitao stood up, she wobbled slightly. Luan Nian had the waiter pour her a glass of water, and sure enough, he took Shang Zhitao's wallet to settle the bill.

Luan Nian really had gouged Shang Zhitao for a meal. He came back after paying, handed the wallet back to her, and didn't forget to offer a polite expression of gratitude: "Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome. Only right."

"Congratulations on officially passing probation." Luan Nian said those words with absolute sincerity. He now agreed with Tracy: a company needed a diversified talent structure. A team shouldn't be entirely composed of elites; it also needed people like this—interesting, lovable blockheads.

They stepped out of the restaurant. Instead of calling his driver, Luan Nian stood on the curbside with Shang Zhitao to hail a cab. She wasn't standing very steadily, and the wind had disheveled her hair. Yet, a smile diffused through her clear eyes as she earnestly reiterated to him: "I won't sell myself out."

It was as if she were pumping herself up for courage. Luan Nian took in her lingering panic, and a sudden realization dawned on him: Shang Zhitao liked him.

Shang Zhitao set off with Lumi. On the plane, Lumi told her, "Usually, people in the office treat the marketing department folks like big shots, but once you get there, you'll find out that we're basically their personal errand runners—one minute they're thirsty, the next they're hungry, or there's a giant beetle in their hotel room. Back home I never had to lift a finger for anything, yet now I have to wait on a bunch of high-maintenance divas."

Shang Zhitao was bent double with laughter at Lumi's description.

Lumi was a true pampered miss; to her, work was just a way to idle away the days. Because of that, she was afraid of no one, yet she harbored no grand ambitions either. In her own words: "What's so great about being a boss? A boss's salary isn't even as much as the rent I collect!" She was practically a tyrant within the company, and her colleagues gave her a wide berth.

They landed, joined the shooting crew, and boarded a bus. The group of over a dozen people rumbled along for more than six hours before finally entering a small town nestled in the mountains. The town measured barely a kilometer from one end to the other, with houses haphazardly scattered across varying elevations. To think that even in the year 2010, such a small town still existed—Shang Zhitao found it quite novel.

Kitty walked around with her camera snapping pictures everywhere, declaring in her characteristic manner, "This is a supreme opportunity to experience real life."

Lumi curled her lip in disdain and muttered to Shang Zhitao, "Experience real life, my foot. Does she seriously think she's some fairy maiden descending to the mortal realm?"

Shang Zhitao hurried to cover her mouth. Her heart kept jumping up and down; she had a nagging feeling that Lumi and Kitty were bound to have a full-blown showdown sooner or later. Lumi disliked Kitty because she found her way too pretentious.

Once Kitty walked away, the commercial's director tossed a list of shooting locations to Lumi, politely asking them to help coordinate the scouting.

"Hasn't this been finalized yet?" Lumi asked.

"We only had a rough look earlier."

Clutching the stack of papers, Lumi grabbed Shang Zhitao by the arm and set off. "See that? It's starting already."

That town looked close enough from one point to another, but walking it was genuinely exhausting. After taking just a few steps, Shang Zhitao nearly took a tumble. A tree root stretched out beneath the soil and broke back through the surface, and she hadn't seen it in time.

The two of them trudged forward, sinking deep and shallow into the dirt as they checked the shooting locations one by one. By the time they finished inspecting all of them, the sky was pitch black.

Temperatures plummeted as night fell in the mountains. Shivering from the cold, the two trudged back to their lodging, only to find the others dressed warmly, sitting outside drinking and chatting. Spotting Shang Zhitao, Kitty waved at her. "Flora, you're back? Marketing department work is truly exhausting; if it were me, I definitely couldn't handle it."

Lumi clicked her tongue. "Watching Kitty's artistic excursions, I'd have thought your physical stamina was top-notch. Why don't you join us at the rear mountain scouting location tomorrow when you're free?"

Kitty didn't dare provoke Lumi. She just flashed a tight smile at them and turned back to converse with the others.

Kitty didn't like Shang Zhitao. The reason for her aversion stemmed from accidentally catching a glimpse of Shang Zhitao's resume, which made her feel that getting into Lingmei was purely a matter of luck. Kitty always believed she belonged among the equally elite, and having someone from the same hiring batch as Shang Zhitao made her doubt her own competence. Beyond that, Kitty loathed Shang Zhitao's personality—always grinning from ear to ear, saying yes to whatever anyone asked, relying on sheer grit and industriousness to win people over. It was completely beneath respect.

Shang Zhitao remained oblivious to Kitty's internal monologue; she only knew that Kitty didn't care for her much, as the way Kitty spoke to her was entirely different from how she spoke to everyone else. Still, it didn't matter—Shang Zhitao didn't care.

She and Lumi each ate a bowl of steaming instant noodles before burrowing deep under the covers. The mountain nights were freezing, and with no hot water available that evening, neither of them wanted to wash their faces; they managed a perfunctory brush of their teeth and called it a night.

Just when they thought the day was finally over once the surroundings settled into silence, a rustling sound echoed from the corner of the room. Shang Zhitao sat up, flipped on the light, and spotted a rat huddled in the corner. The creature was the size of a human foot, bloated and slick with grease. Startled by the sudden illumination, it began darting frantically around the room.

Shang Zhitao had harbored a lifelong terror of mice. She shrieked, leaped out of bed, and then, remembering the rodent was scuttling across the floor, scrambled right back up. Lumi was just as terrified—her scream eclipsed Shang Zhitao's entirely. Leaping onto Shang Zhitao's bed, the two of them clung to each other tightly.

Their piercing shrieks jolted everyone awake. Male colleagues knocked on the door from the hallway, and Shang Zhitao and Lumi scrambled toward the entrance, yanked it open, and bolted outside.

"What's wrong?"

"A giant rat! This big!" Lumi gestured wildly to the colleague. "Didn't they say they laid rodenticide before we got here?"

The innkeeper hurried over as well, looking rather sheepish at the sight. "We ran out of rat poison, so two rooms didn't get treated... I'm so, so sorry. I'll go buy some at the county town tomorrow morning."

Wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes, Shang Zhitao whispered, "It's fine, it's fine."

She had genuinely been frightened out of her wits, and her hands and feet were still ice-cold. She had known the mountain assignment would be tough, but she never expected to surrender to a rat on the very first night. Fortunately, one of the male colleagues kindly offered to swap rooms with them.

Lying on the hard wooden bed and listening to the ambient sounds outside, Shang Zhitao felt a profound sense of guilt toward Lumi. "Lumi, I'm so sorry. If I hadn't insisted on coming here, you wouldn't have to suffer through this with me."

"Stop talking useless nonsense, I'm here to experience real life anyway," Lumi consoled her. "After an experience like this, even ordinary happiness feels incredible. The moment I get back, I'm going to kowtow twice to my mom and dad."

"When we get back, can I treat you to a meal?"

"Treating me to a meal won't cut it. When we get back, you can take over a couple of my overtime shifts! You know I hate staying late..."

"I'll cover your overtime for a whole month."