The Early Spring - Chapter 27

Chapter 27 - No Romance

"What do you want?" Luan Nian's tone softened as he sat by Zhang Xin's bed, gazing down at her indifferently. "I never would have taken you for someone who would resort to threatening suicide after a breakup. I thought we were getting along well."

"I fell into your trap. You subjected me to the silent treatment and forced me to initiate the breakup."

Luan Nian had assumed Zhang Xin was similar to himself—someone who disliked being bound down and believed a comfortable relationship relied on mutual trust, leaving enough breathing room and space for each other. Initially, Zhang Xin had been like that, but later she changed. She started testing him, checking his whereabouts, clinging to him constantly, and even hiring someone to tail him. This drove him to the brink of utter exhaustion and annoyance, prompting him to propose a split, which was met with endless, stubborn entanglements from her.

"I came to see you today not to reconcile." Luan Nian picked up a piece of fruit from Zhang Xin's tray, examined it, and placed it back into her palm. "Eat your fruit, focus on healing, and stop calling me. My stance remains the same: let's make a clean and civil break."

"You're truly cold-blooded." Zhang Xin blinked, fresh tear droplets clinging to her long eyelashes as she put on a pitiful, heart-wrenching display.

Luan Nian wasn't buying it.

Luan Nian was immune to both soft and hard tactics.

Once he made up his mind, it wouldn't matter if you were the ruler of the heavens; it simply wouldn't work.

"Compared to the rumors you tried to manufacture about me, my heart is practically angelic." Zhang Xin had wanted to ruin his reputation to force him back. Luan Nian didn't care; his reputation was hardly stellar to begin with. He pulled out a voice recorder and showed it to her: "If you keep this up, we'll settle this in court."

With that, he stood up and walked out.

Some people could manage a civil separation at the end of a relationship, while others descended into utter chaos. Having witnessed firsthand the ruthlessness of women—how far they would push things, even drawing blades against their own flesh when driven to desperation—Luan Nian abruptly grew weary of intimate relationships. He had never been particularly invested in them anyway; he was simply a man devoid of sentimental warmth. What the world called a heartless scumbag.

He drove back to the company, and upon stepping into the elevator, he ran into Lumi and Alex.

"Morning, Luke." Lumi and Alex greeted him, after which Lumi brought up Shang Zhitao. "Flora has true grit. That dump of a place where we're shooting the commercial is somewhere I never want to set foot in again, but Flora actually stuck it out. The director said she handled the crew's logistics brilliantly. On top of that, she even ran out yesterday to scout brand-new shooting locations. Impressive."

Hearing Lumi suddenly bring up Shang Zhitao, Alex was slightly caught off guard, but as her direct supervisor, he figured he ought to put in a good word. He nodded and replied, "Flora is indeed fantastic, fully deserving of heavy responsibilities."

Luan Nian gave them a dark, lingering look. Their poorly rehearsed acting could only be described as abysmal. Shifting his gaze back to Lumi, he offered a slow, measured remark: "Managing a subordinate like that must be terribly exhausting, right?"

The question left Lumi blinking in confusion. As the elevator doors chimed open, Luan Nian flashed them a faint smile and stepped out. What puzzled him was how this simpleton of a goose, Shang Zhitao, had managed to make friends in the workplace who would bend over backward to sing her praises.

The moment he walked into his office and booted up his computer, a message from Shang Zhitao popped up: "Luke, I've scheduled my progress report meeting with Alex! It's set for Tuesday of next week."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Upward management!" Shang Zhitao applied her newly acquired lesson on the spot. She genuinely believed Luan Nian was right—one had to practice upward management; otherwise, how else would the higher-ups ever know what you had accomplished? Waking up that morning, a sudden wave of enlightenment had washed over her, convincing her that she needed to manage not just Alex, but Tracy and Luke as well. In short, everyone who needed managing was going to be managed!

What if Luke finds me annoying? Shang Zhitao asked herself mentally.

So what? He already finds me annoying anyway. She supplied her own answer a second later.

...

Is she out of her mind? Luan Nian muttered inwardly.

Perhaps inspired by Lumi's praises in the elevator, Alex suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He instructed Lumi to promptly set up an internal group chat, pulling in the production team, Shang Zhitao, himself, Kitty, and Luan Nian.

Lumi figured Alex had finally seen the light and learned how to leverage his executive privileges, so she chimed in with a message: "For this joint project, the front-line comrades have worked hard. If you encounter any issues, please communicate here in the group. Alex says extra chicken drumsticks for everyone once you're back."

Everyone in the group chat chimed in with eager responses, save for a single silence from Shang Zhitao. Where had Shang Zhitao gone off to? She was out scouting for extra actors. The creative team and the director had negotiated a last-minute script revision, requiring an elderly background actor—a kind-faced, clean-looking grandmother with gray hair, specifications that were remarkably detailed.

Kitty had told Shang Zhitao, "Flora, I'll have to leave this to you."

"Wasn't your team supposed to find them?" the director asked Kitty.

Kitty shook her head. "Tasks like this are better suited for the marketing department's colleagues."

Shang Zhitao figured it was just part of the job, and besides, it gave her a chance to get outside and stretch her legs, which sounded rather nice. So off she went.

She was currently strolling through the town, hunting for a suitable elderly extra. From the eastern edge to the western tip, she finally spotted an old grandmother basking in the sun beneath an ancient tree. Shang Zhitao scurried over, flashed a warm smile, and asked, "Granny, would you like to be in a commercial?"

The old woman waved her hands dismissively; she couldn't understand a word Shang Zhitao was saying.

After gesturing wildly for ages with no success, Shang Zhitao simply took the grandmother by the hand and led her toward the set. The moment the old woman caught sight of the cameras, she recoiled in terror, clearly frightened out of her wits. Shang Zhitao had no choice but to walk her all back and return her to the tree.

Finding people was entirely too difficult. She decided to go straight to the driver, Liu Wu. "Could you take me into the county town?"

"Let's roll."

Liu Wu fired up the car and drove Shang Zhitao down to the county seat. Remembering that the noodle shop from earlier had a resident grandmother who loosely matched Kitty and the director's criteria, they bounced along the winding road until they reached the place. Presenting their intent to the shop owner, the proprietor asked, "How much are you paying?"

"Two thousand! It was supposed to be one thousand, but since she'll need to travel back to the town with us and the ride gets a bit bumpy." This was the first time Shang Zhitao had ever taken the initiative to raise a budget quote on her own. Old folks had it hard enough; just to earn this bit of money, they risked having their tailbones rattled to pieces. For the first time, she experienced the sheer joy of holding the purse strings—the wonderful sensation of being able to decide how much to give within a reasonable range and actually having the authority to make it happen.

"That works!" The shop owner was overjoyed. "You wait right here, I'll go ask. If everything checks out, you can come pick her up tomorrow!"

"Splendid, thank you so much."

Growling with hunger while the shop owner went off to inquire, Shang Zhitao treated Liu Wu to a bowl of noodles and even bought him an extra chicken drumstick. Seeing how heartily she was eating, Liu Wu couldn't help asking, "Don't you ever feel like some of these chores shouldn't be falling on your shoulders?" In Liu Wu's eyes, Shang Zhitao was rather foolishly good-natured; no matter what task was dumped on her, she took it on without a single complaint or pickiness. Meanwhile, Kitty spent every waking hour hovering around the director without lifting a finger, yet the director praised her to everyone he met.

"I know, but sitting around up there doesn't accomplish anything anyway. Coming to the county town is lovely, plus we get these delicious noodles."

Her phone buzzed. Shang Zhitao hastily answered to hear Lumi's voice: "My ancestors, where have you scampered off to?"

"I'm out looking for an extra."

"Oh." Lumi hung up, then dialed Kitty's number instead. "Where are you?"

"I'm right here on set!"

"What did you mean by that message you posted in the group earlier? What is this nonsense about Shang Zhitao failing to find a suitable extra—is finding extras supposed to be Shang Zhitao's job description?" Lumi felt her blood pressure spike just thinking about it. With all the senior executives sitting right there in the group chat, who gave you the right to stir the pot behind the scenes?

"Flora was the one who said she could handle it."

Furious enough to pop a blood vessel, Lumi hung up the phone. She retaliated directly in the group chat: "I just spoke with Flora. She volunteered to take on the responsibility of scouting extras and has been running herself ragged heading down to the county town."

Shang Zhitao was entirely oblivious to the drama unfolding back at camp. By the time she finished explaining the scene details to the old grandmother, night had fallen completely. As they made their return journey, however, they ran into an unexpected mishap: it began to rain, and the car's tires sank deep into the mud. No matter how many different techniques Liu Wu tried, the vehicle stubbornly remained wedged in the muck.

With a heavy sigh, Liu Wu climbed back inside and dialed for emergency roadside assistance.

In a godforsaken place like this, road rescue would take hours to arrive, and not a single passing vehicle was in sight.

Surrounded by the pitch-black wilderness of the desolate mountains, Shang Zhitao could have sworn she heard the howling of wolves. With a relatively unfamiliar man sitting right beside her, her imagination ran wild, spinning half a dozen harrowing scenarios of a young woman being abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Racking her brain for options, she finally sent a message to Lumi: "My car with Liu Wu broke down on the road."

"At this hour?"

"At this hour."

"Alright, I'm aware. I'll let them know right now that you and Liu Wu are stranded out there. Liu Wu is Luke's driver, so he should be reliable. Don't panic."

After offering words of comfort, Lumi dropped a message into the group chat: "How is Flora so unfortunate? Her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere late at night, and even Liu Wu is out of options."

Luan Nian had remained silent in the chat up until that point, but upon reading those words, he typed out a brief reply: "Hard work, Flora."

Lumi waited for Luan Nian to follow up with something remotely resembling a human sentence, but he clammed up completely and contributed nothing more to the chat.

Instead, he dialed Liu Wu's number directly: "Car broken down?"

"Yes. No vehicles are passing by, and rescue won't reach us for another few hours."

"Hang in there, and take good care of Shang Zhitao. Hand the phone to her."

Shang Zhitao was shivering as she sat in the passenger seat, her mind already cycling through several worst-case scenarios. She took the phone with trembling fingers and heard Luan Nian's voice asking, "Are you scared?"

Shang Zhitao nodded, forgetting once again that Luan Nian couldn't see her gestures. Even so, Luan Nian could easily picture her state: a fresh college graduate stranded in the wilderness with a stranger, holding back her tears out of sheer bravery.

"Liu Wu was recruited through my interview process; he's a veteran with a settled family, so you don't need to worry." Luan Nian adopted a tone of rare gentleness. "Have you eaten dinner?"

"I had noodles."

"Do you have cold-weather gear in the car?"

"There's a blanket, and Liu Wu gave it to me." Shang Zhitao spoke with a slight nasal whine, though she clenched her teeth to prevent herself from crying. Be strong, what's the use of crying? Yet sometimes, absolute terror was simply impossible to suppress.

Luan Nian let out a soft, amused scoff. "Shang Zhitao is holding up okay."

"Huh?"

"I said you're doing all right, haven't cried your eyes out yet. Even if you're a bit dim-witted, at least you've got some backbone."

Oh. Who the hell wants backbone right now?! I want a warm bed and proper lighting!

Luan Nian wasn't naturally gifted at comforting people; his call was purely a routine check on a subordinate's safety. Having said what needed to be said, he hung up the phone and walked out of the office. He had a dinner appointment with Tan Mian that evening.

Tan Mian was already waiting when he arrived, currently browsing the menu. Seeing Luan Nian walk in, Tan Mian jeered, "Word on the street is you've got your boats parked in four different harbors?"

Luan Nian shrugged off the taunt in silence. Tan Mian, however, refused to drop it. "If you ask me, you should just stop dating altogether. Whenever you need to scratch an itch, just get a casual bed partner with zero mutual interference—isn't that ideal?"

"It's fine, I suppose." Clearly disinterested in discussing the topic, Luan Nian pivoted. "Playing ball this weekend?"

"Count on it."

"Don't invite the cheer squad." Luan Nian loathed cheer squads; they were noisy enough to give him a migraine.

"The cheer squad consists entirely of gorgeous girls. How are you supposed to cultivate bed partners if you don't invite them?"

"Did you moonlight as a matchmaker?" Luan Nian shot him an icy glance, then glanced down at his watch. It was past ten o'clock. Is Shang Zhitao terrified out of her mind right now? The thought flashed unbidden through his mind. Flashing back to the various petty dramas played out in the group chat earlier that day, he finally pulled out his phone and called Kitty. "Pack your bags and come back tomorrow."

"Is there an emergency project?" Kitty sounded slightly surprised that Luan Nian was calling her directly.

"If the marketing department is expected to handle finding extras, then your presence out there serves very little purpose." Luan Nian didn't drop Shang Zhitao's name; he didn't view this as sticking up for her, but rather as a matter of routine team management. In his squad, those who shirked responsibility were pulled back, and those willing to shoulder the load stepped up. That was simply how direct he operated.

Kitty's cognitive reflexes were lightning-fast. She immediately smoothed things over: "I need to explain, Luke—it wasn't that I was trying to dodge work. We had those sudden script revisions that required deep coordination with the director, and since I was stretched too thin, I had to impose on Flora. I'll make sure to watch out for that going forward."

"Understood. Run a project review session when you get back." Luan Nian softened his tone slightly, leaving a window of opportunity for Kitty to correct her course.

"You even bother micromanaging trifles like this?" Tan Mian remarked with genuine astonishment.

Luan Nian offered a nonchalant shrug. "Just indulging in the occasional pleasure of keeping subordinates on their toes."

"I don't believe a word of it."