The Early Spring - Chapter 25

Chapter 25 - Work Is a Form of Spiritual Practice

When Shang Zhitao opened her eyes the next morning, her entire body was sore all over. As someone who grew up on the vast plains, walking mountain paths for the better part of a day was more than her physique could handle. She was still doing relatively well; after letting out a couple of groans about how tired she was, she managed to drag herself up. Lumi, however, wasn't nearly as fortunate—her period had arrived.

Already half-dead from exhaustion, Lumi now felt as though not a single part of her body belonged to her anymore. Her menstrual cramps hit her with a vengeance, accompanied by violent abdominal pain and nausea. Terrified out of her wits, Shang Zhitao bolted outside to find the driver. "We need to take Lumi to the county hospital; she's sick."

The driver didn't dare delay for a second. Together with Shang Zhitao, he rushed Lumi to the hospital, where she was given a painkiller injection. Overwhelmed with guilt, Shang Zhitao sat right beside Lumi and burst into tears. A girl who would normally talk herself into a smile no matter how aggrieved she felt was today crying uncontrollably simply out of heartache for Lumi.

"My goodness, are you sending me off with funeral bells?" Lumi teased her. "Stop crying already, this is just terrible timing."

"Why don't you head back today, okay?" Shang Zhitao wanted Lumi to get out of there immediately. This place was far too harsh, and Lumi had never endured this kind of hardship. She herself hadn't either, but since this was a journey she had chosen to take, she had to persevere.

"Not a chance." Lumi shot her a glare. "You can forget about trying to make me go back. I'll be fine tomorrow. If I left you here all by yourself, wouldn't Kitty bully you to death?"

"I won't let her bully me..."

"Nonsense. I think you're just too soft-hearted; anyone thinks they can push you around." Lumi sighed. "I want a bowl of hot noodles..."

"I'll go buy you some!" Seeing that Lumi finally had some appetite, Shang Zhitao leaped up and dashed off. The county town was, after all, much better than that misnamed little mountain village; right next to the hospital was a bustling food street filled with a steady stream of lively pedestrians. Spotting a noodle shop with a long queue and a mouthwatering aroma, Shang Zhitao called Lumi. "You can't eat spicy food, right...?"

"Nonsense! Give me the spiciest one you have!"

Shang Zhitao let out a giggle. "Got it." She waited in line for a long time, bought two bowls of hot and sour pork intestine noodles, and even picked up some meat skewers on her way back to the hospital. Since Lumi’s right hand was hooked up to an IV and couldn't move, she opened her mouth toward Shang Zhitao. "Come on, feed me." And Shang Zhitao obediently spoon-fed her bite by bite.

Lumi simply adored Shang Zhitao's endearing, earnest streak. Girls like Shang Zhitao were rare nowadays; when she treated others well, it wasn't necessarily with anything lavish—she simply laid her entire heart out there, completely unfiltered.

The two of them stayed at the hospital until the afternoon. Once Lumi had recovered some strength, they headed back up the mountain.

The rest of the crew had already finished their preparatory work and were just waiting for the actors. Seeing the two of them return, everyone crowded around with warm inquiries. Waving her pale, slender hand, Lumi declared, "I've had my shot; I'm as good as new. When do the actors arrive?"

"Soon." The director walked over to Lumi and asked in a low voice, "How much of the budget was actually approved for this?"

"I have no idea... We're just here to handle the execution. Besides, isn't the client footing the bill?" Lumi played dumb with the director. In truth, the deal Lingmei negotiated was an all-inclusive package where the client gave Lingmei full authorization and only showed up for the final sign-off. But before leaving, Alex had explicitly instructed them not to give the production crew straight answers. After all, if you gave a production crew ten million, they'd find a way to spend every last cent.

Failing to squeeze any useful information out of Lumi, the director turned to Shang Zhitao instead. "Flora, do you know?"

By this time, Shang Zhitao had grown a bit wiser and mirrored Lumi's tactic. "I don't know either... The boss just told me to come handle logistics."

Back and forth it went, yielding not a single shred of useful information.

"Not bad at all, little Taotao." Lumi praised her after the director left. "You're catching on fast, learning how to give these old foxes the runaround."

"It's thanks to your good teaching."

As night fell completely, the actors arrived. They weren't famous celebrities; Lingmei's advertising campaign this time was a serialized story bridging products with human nature, leaning heavily into a heartwarming angle. The story being filmed here centered on a youth growing up in the deep mountains who experiences different twists of fate before ultimately returning to his roots. The objective was the recall of the client's existing user base.

Shooting for the exterior scenes began that very night. Shang Zhitao, having never experienced this kind of work before, found it thoroughly entertaining and stood off to the side in her down jacket to watch the excitement. Work truly came in the strangest varieties: some people had to sit in front of a computer typing away endlessly for overtime, while others got to hold scripts and memorize lines—each path possessed its own unique brand of amusement.

Shang Zhitao was so engrossed in watching that she didn't even hear her phone ringing. It wasn't until the midnight wrap of the shoot that she noticed Alex had called her. She quickly called him back; Alex happened to be on a break during a management meeting, so he picked up right there in the conference room.

"Alex, I'm sorry for missing your call earlier; we were out on location."

"Is Lumi alright? Kitty from the creative team just reported in that Lumi fell ill."

"Huh?"

Why would Kitty bring up Lumi being sick during a work report to Alex? Shang Zhitao couldn't fathom it, but she didn't dwell on it either. She proceeded to fill Alex in on Lumi's condition.

"Alright. Tell her to recuperate properly and make sure nothing goes wrong. Also, we have an emergency project in the department, and one of the two of you needs to come back to provide support. Figure out between yourselves who's returning."

"Understood, Alex."

Hanging up the phone, Shang Zhitao turned to Lumi and said, "Alex says there's an emergency project and wants you to go back and help out." She finally had an excuse to send Lumi back, and her sense of guilt lightened just a fraction.

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Then what am I supposed to do if I'm worried about you?"

"If you don't go back, both of us are finished for sure."

Shang Zhitao sent Lumi off early the next morning. Before leaving, Lumi showered her with advice: "You're the marketing department's budget controller; you can handle the logistics, but they still have to treat you with respect. Make sure you log every single income and expense item properly—finance is going to audit this later."

Shang Zhitao took Lumi's instructions to heart, though she still hadn't learned how to put on airs. She happily took on whatever anyone asked her to do, and in less than a day, she had blended right in with the production crew. The director thought Shang Zhitao was fantastic—completely different from the usual marketing reps—and told her, "Next time we shoot a commercial, I'm asking for you again."

"Sounds good!" Shang Zhitao agreed readily before grabbing her procurement list and heading into the county town with the driver. She had transformed into a thorough physical laborer. It turned out that working in marketing required immense physical stamina; Shang Zhitao silently thanked her lucky stars that she had all her limbs intact and plenty of energy, otherwise she might genuinely have worked herself to death in these mountains.

The driver, Liu Wu, was a veteran specifically recruited by the company to drive for Luan Nian. Having served in the military, he was in his forties, sported a buzz cut, and possessed an abundance of vigor and spirit. Seeing that Shang Zhitao was always beaming with a smile, held no airs, and wasn't afraid of hardship, he praised her along the road. "Young lady, you've got grit. For a girl to work in marketing, fearless of hardship and fatigue and staying cheerful every single day—that's quite a rarity."

"Hehe." Shang Zhitao let out an awkward chuckle. "I don't know how to do anything else, so I have to learn more. Doing procurement counts as learning too, right?"

"You certainly have a positive outlook on things. Isn't procurement just buying stuff?"

"Well, that's true too. I heard Kitty mention this morning that you're Luke's driver?"

"That's me, though it's a bit of a lazy post. President Luan prefers to drive himself; he only has me take the wheel when he's been drinking."

"Oh, I see."

Shang Zhitao muttered a couple of acknowledgments as a sudden realization dawned on her: when they had been drinking together a few days prior, Luan Nian hadn't asked Liu Wu to drive. It felt as though she had suddenly cracked a tiny piece of the code—namely, that Luan Nian had deliberately been avoiding suspicion.

I need to watch my mouth too and make sure I don't invite any trouble upon myself, Shang Zhitao thought. Luan Nian was a man of deep calculation; many things that seemed baffling in the moment became clear once you looked back on them after a spell.

"Are you close with President Luan?" Liu Wu asked her out of the blue.

"Ah..." Shang Zhitao blinked in surprise, then immediately replied, "Not close at all. We've only attended a couple of meetings together, and other than that, we just cross paths in the office corridor."

"Is he scary? I've heard a lot of female colleagues are terrified of him."

"Terrified!" Shang Zhitao nodded vigorously. "He is utterly terrifying."

Liu Wu gave a hearty, honest laugh. "Actually, he's a pretty decent guy in private, not nearly as stern. Sometimes when I drive him home after he's been drinking, he'll invite me in for tea or some fruit. We'll chat, too—he's not at all what you see on the surface."

Shang Zhitao wanted to say: That's just because he hasn't tried to pressure you into resigning... But she bit her tongue and settled for a wide, grin-filled smile.

On this second trip to the county town, she was much more familiar with the route than the first time.

The items the crew needed were a mishmash of miscellaneous goods—a tattered cattail leaf fan, a wooden stool, a polyester-cotton shirt, and so on. Many of these things had long since vanished from the big cities, yet they could still be found tucked away in this little mountain county.

Shang Zhitao suddenly recalled what Luan Nian had mentioned in one of the meetings: business localization and sinking markets. How did one sink into lower markets? Presumably, since target audiences were diverse, things no longer used in major cities could be sold off to smaller localities, ensuring a market existed no matter what.

From one shop to the next, browsing goods, haggling over prices, and keeping accounts—doing these trivial chores was no easy feat. By the time they finished buying everything, it was already five in the afternoon. They wolfed down a quick bowl of noodles and hurried back. Bounced around by the bumpy ride all the way, Shang Zhitao suddenly regretted that bowl of noodles; just as they were nearing the town, she had Liu Wu pull over and threw up the entire meal.

What an absolute trial by fire.

Upon returning, she checked the inventory list with everyone to ensure nothing was amiss before finally retreating to her room. After such a grueling day capped off by vomiting in the evening, her stomach felt like it was churning in absolute agony. She took two pills, drank some hot water, crawled back into bed, and opened her laptop.

There was no internet connection, but she could still work on spreadsheets, inputting that day's expenditures until she finally finished working past midnight.

With Lumi gone, a sudden wave of isolation washed over her.

Young girls were exceptionally vulnerable to being defeated by loneliness. Shang Zhitao had no armor to protect her; in the dead of such a night, solitude flooded over her like a tidal wave. A sudden thought popped into her head: when would she ever have a home of her own? In a city like Beijing—out in the fifth or sixth ring road, it didn't matter—could she ever buy a tiny little place like that? If she did, would she stop feeling so lonely?

In the middle of the night, while fast asleep, she sensed something crawling across her quilt. Groggily opening her eyes, she caught sight of a pair of small, gleaming eyes staring right at her through the dim moonlight.

She had never stared eyeball-to-eyeball with a rat before, and in this lifetime, it was an experience destined to happen only once.

The tips of her fingers and toes turned instantly ice-cold, followed immediately by a dense layer of goosebumps erupting across her skin. Time seemed to freeze, and she was so paralyzed she even forgot to scream.

The rat reacted faster than she did, darting away in a flash and vanishing from sight.

Shang Zhitao had lived through the most harrowing, soul-crushing night of her life.

Later on, she would recount this night to others as a joke, saying: You know, a rat's eyes actually shine just as brightly as the stars!