The Early Spring - Chapter 34

Chapter 34 - My Boss Is Exceptionally Capable

She caught the very tail end of autumn to go see the red leaves. Unlike the ones in Nanjing, these red leaves possessed a magnificent, sweeping grandeur reminiscent of towering mountains and vast rivers. The lingering sense of depression in her heart simply vanished just like that.

When they came down the mountain, the tour guide suggested going to Guijie Street for dinner.

Guijie Street was actually not far from Shang Zhitao's company, but she had never been there before, so she signed up for the group dinner along with Sun Yu. Beijing was such an open, welcoming city; even though everyone was completely unacquainted and had only exchanged a few passing glances on the mountain, once they sat down at the same table, they instantly grew chummy.

Sun Yu loved a lively atmosphere and drank alongside the guys. Having a whole table of strangers chatting about everything under the sun was also a novel experience.

Shang Zhitao only cared about the crayfish right in front of her. When she was studying in Nanjing, she loved eating crayfish the most. Nanjing's crayfish were a bit cheaper, shipped straight from Xuyi with a short transit time, making the meat fresh and tender. Sometimes she and her roommates would buy them at the market and take them to a nearby small diner to have them cooked—it didn't cost much for a full meal, and it really satisfied her cravings. She hadn't eaten crayfish in a long time, and with this single bite, she felt as though her life over the past few months had finally reconnected with her student days.

She ate her crayfish quietly, listening to everyone chat about everything from north to south, and didn't notice her phone ringing a few times. It wasn't until she went to the restroom that she realized it was Alex. Alex usually wouldn't call her on weekends; he often said that work time meant working hard and life time meant truly living. He played harder than anyone else once he got off work. If he was looking for her, it definitely meant something important had come up.

Shang Zhitao quickly called him back. "Sorry, Alex, I didn't hear it just now."

"No worries. Are you free to work a bit of overtime this weekend?" Alex asked for Shang Zhitao's opinion.

"I'm still out, and I probably won't get home until around eleven. Is that still okay?"

"You don't even need to open your computer. Our company is having a basketball game with a major key account client, and both sides need to put together cheerleading squads. That organizing task landed on our department. Do you want to handle the organization?" Alex thought Shang Zhitao was young and had recently graduated, so cheerleading squad tasks wouldn't be too far outside her wheelhouse, and organizing it should be a breeze for her.

"Sure." Shang Zhitao had participated in a cheerleading squad back in university—pushed into it on short notice, though. It wasn't completely foreign to her, so she agreed.

Once she agreed, Alex was thrilled. "This isn't even a KPI or actual work, so I'm really glad you said yes. Flora, you're truly my lifesaver. I'll have Luke contact you right away; he's the captain of the company's basketball team."

"Who?"

"Luke, of course. He's great at basketball, and this major key account is his connection..."

"Oh."

Shang Zhitao thought to herself that if she hadn't resigned, she would probably never escape the theorem of "nowhere on earth can you escape running into old acquaintances." She returned to the dinner table and continued devouring her crayfish. When Luan Nian’s call came in, she had just taken off her gloves, stood up, and walked aside to answer it.

Hearing the lively background noise around her—with the overlapping laughter of men and women—Luan Nian remained silent. Young girls loved lively environments, and spending the weekend hanging out with friends was only natural.

"It's too loud here, please wait a moment while I step outside to take this." Shang Zhitao hurried outside and asked Luan Nian, "Is it still noisy?"

"Not anymore. Tomorrow afternoon at three, we're meeting with Santian at the stadium. Come by as well to check out the venue."

"Got it."

"I'll send you the address later."

"Understood."

"Don't make it too complicated, just three minutes will do. Use NBA cheerleading squads as a reference."

His standards were pretty high—NBA, no less. Shang Zhitao rebelled inwardly, but out loud she still answered, "Got it."

She rattled off a series of affirmations without uttering a single word about that designer bag. After sleeping on it, she had figured it out: it didn't matter. As long as she never carried it, the bag wouldn't be something that bought her body and spirit. Using that bag to give both of them a graceful out for that night—he gave it, she accepted it, and that was the end of it. As for whatever way Luan Nian chose to view her, let him.

"Luke, just text me the address later, and I'll be there on time tomorrow, okay? If you don't have anything else, I'll hang up first?"

"Mhm, goodbye."

"Bye-bye." This time, Shang Zhitao didn't bother with corporate etiquette; she hung up first and jogged back inside to continue listening to their chatter. During the meal, a man kept glancing at Sun Yu, and Sun Yu wasn't shy either, looking right back at him openly. After the gathering ended, that man walked up to Sun Yu. "Can I exchange phone numbers with you? We can hang out together again sometime."

"Sure."

Shang Zhitao stood to the side watching them exchange numbers, gave the man a polite smile, and left with Sun Yu.

"He seems to like you," Shang Zhitao remarked while they were waiting for a cab.

"Nah, at best he's just interested in me, or maybe he just wants to sleep with me." Sun Yu shrugged. Ever since her breakup, she seemed like a completely different person. The girl who had suffered a total emotional meltdown that night now spoke of romance as if it were a trivial, painless matter.

Sun Yu had taken a heavy blow. She hadn't fully walked out of the fallout yet; sometimes she would cry in secret at night, but the next day she would act as if nothing was wrong.

"They say the best way to get over a breakup is to hurry up and find someone new. I'm going to see if that actually works," Sun Yu said with self-deprecating humor.

"Why don't I introduce my boss to you?" Shang Zhitao joked. When she was with her good friends, she had zero conversational taboos. "My boss is... pretty capable."

"Pretty capable, or exceptionally capable?" Sun Yu leaned her face close to Shang Zhitao's, scrutinizing her expression.

Shang Zhitao thought about it for a second, then burst out laughing. "Exceptionally capable. After you sleep with him, he even gifts you a bag. I didn't have any experience before, but if you ever sleep with him, remember to pick out your bag in advance."

The two girls burst into laughter, laughing away such an awkward and heavy matter just like that.

The next day, Shang Zhitao went out to eat grilled fish with Sun Yu, took a quick shower when she got home, and set off early for the basketball stadium. She didn't like being late; Old Shang always said not to pick up those messy, corrupt social habits—dating meant arriving a few minutes early to show respect to others, which was also a form of self-respect. On the bus ride there, Shang Zhitao recited movie lines in her head. Long Zhentian had left her homework before going out to travel, saying he would test her when they met next week.

Reciting for a bit and listening to music made the time fly by.

When she arrived, Luan Nian was already there playing basketball. Shang Zhitao picked an inconspicuous corner spot and resumed reciting her lines.

Luan Nian scored a basket, and the moment he turned around, he caught sight of Shang Zhitao sitting in the corner. She seemed to always be like this: choosing the second row in meetings, hanging back when it was time to toast drinks, slipping away quietly after sleeping with him by leaving a note without a single word of follow-up, taking whatever losses came her way without chasing after explanations.

She certainly couldn't be expected to hand him a bottle of water during halftime. It wasn't that she lacked that kind of situational awareness; she simply figured someone else would definitely do it, and she just didn't care to compete for the spotlight.

She only kept her head down and worked hard.

Luan Nian was well aware of the pretense of unconcern that Shang Zhitao put on. He had seen right through her from the very beginning.

There were probably just some people in this world who never envied what others possessed, completely accepting whatever meager belongings and unfortunate encounters life dealt them. Shang Zhitao was precisely that kind of person. Luan Nian felt that he had played rather ruthlessly with Shang Zhitao. There were plenty of carefree women who didn't take things seriously—why did he have to target her? Was he short on women? For once, feeling that he had acted wrongly, when he was in Hong Kong right next to a shopping mall—even though he never went shopping on business trips—he had broken his own rule and gone for once. The bag he bought wasn't cheap; after currency conversion, it still cost over thirty thousand yuan.

Luan Nian pulled back his gaze and resumed playing until the rest of the Lemei crew arrived one after another, at which point he stepped off the court. He was drenched in sweat, his hair plastered down, and after wiping his face with a towel, he called out to everyone, "Let's gather around."

Shang Zhitao retrieved her earbuds and stuffed her materials into her backpack. As the only female colleague present today, she was blocked completely from view by the male colleagues from her company. She could only listen quietly as they discussed the venue logistics and tactical strategy. Xin Zhaozhou used to play basketball too; back then, he would drag Shang Zhitao along to explain basketball rules to her and demand that she watch him play.

After listening for a while, she felt it didn't have much to do with her and began spacing out, until she heard Luan Nian call her name: "Flora."

"Hmm?"

Only then did the male colleagues remember Shang Zhitao was standing behind them. They chuckled and stepped aside to let her step into view.

"I've already spoken with Alex; he's started recruiting cheerleaders across the departments," Luan Nian told her.

"Got it, understood." Organizing rehearsals was actually quite difficult; those high-spirited female classmates at Lemei were harder to handle than the last. Shang Zhitao even suspected they might end up getting into physical fights.

"But Alex said we're short on people, so you're stepping in as well," Luan Nian added.

"Huh?" Shang Zhitao stood there like a dazed goose, her eyes clearly spelling out: Me? Are you talking about me?

Apollo from the Sales Department laughed. "Hard work ahead, Flora."

"But I don't know how to dance."

"You should be fine." Luan Nian inexplicably dropped that line. Her physical flexibility was top-notch; doing a bit of aerobics would be an absolute breeze for her.

...Only Shang Zhitao caught the underlying meaning behind his words, her face instantly turning burning red. Was Luan Nian flirting with her? Yet he wore a completely straight face, betraying nothing, as if he had just spoken the most ordinary sentence in the world.

"Alright, let's wrap it up. Good job, everyone. Flora, stay behind; the opposing cheerleading squad wants to coordinate an interactive segment, so I'll be calling them in a moment and you can listen in too."

"Okay."

With that, everyone dispersed. Shang Zhitao stood there feeling rather awkward, and Luan Nian glanced at her. "Wait for me a minute, I'm going inside to change clothes."

"Oh." Shang Zhitao caught a glimpse of Luan Nian's biceps and the outline of his chest muscles showing through his shirt, and hurriedly averted her gaze, deciding it was best not to look at impropriety.

Luan Nian took quite a while changing his clothes—so long that Shang Zhitao briefly wondered if he was in there applying a full face of makeup like a woman. She waited until 4:30 before finally seeing him emerge dressed in casual wear. People in creative fields really had top-tier aesthetics; the outfit he put together looked effortlessly high-end, causing even the men playing basketball on the court to cast admiring glances his way.

"Let's go. We'll make the call in the car; it's too noisy in here."

"Oh."

Another "oh."

Luan Nian didn't say much else, leading Shang Zhitao to the parking lot. They both got into the car, and just as Luan Nian made the call, the other party hung up on him. "Hold on a second."

They just sat there waiting in the car. Luan Nian didn't speak, and Shang Zhitao didn't speak either. During that time, Luan Nian received three phone calls. Two of them were from women; he exchanged a few brief words and hung up. The third one was from his mother.

Shang Zhitao held her breath, not daring to make a sound as she sat there listening to Luan Nian talk to his mother, feeling an indescribable wave of nervousness. Luan Nian’s mother sounded like a wonderful person—apparently a doctor—and she was talking to Luan Nian about one or two patients she was treating. At one point, his mother sounded a bit saddened, and Luan Nian comforted her, saying, "You did your best." It was a very warm mother-son dynamic.

Toward the end of the call, Luan Nian's mother said, "The girl Auntie Liu introduced to you—go meet her. Whether you end up dating doesn't matter, but you need to be polite."

"Alright."

So Luke needed to go on blind dates, too. Ah right, he was twenty-eight; it was about time for blind dates. By the time this phone call reached its end, Shang Zhitao had already relaxed considerably. She even perked up her ears, showing a deep, vested interest. Luan Nian caught a peripheral glimpse of her ears twitching and decided to simply reach out and pinch her ear. The warm touch of his fingertips brushed against Shang Zhitao's burning earlobe, and she instinctively tilted her head away to escape that strange, lingering intimacy, only to hear Luan Nian ask her, "Are you coming home with me?"