The Early Spring - Chapter 52

Chapter 52 - The Warmth of the Palm 

"What would you like to eat?" Sun Yuanzhu asked Sun Yu. Her mascara was smeared around her eyes, making her look quite disheveled.

Sun Yu shook her head: "I don't know what I want to eat. I feel like today has just been terrible. Is it only me who's having such a wretched time, or is everyone like this?"

"You know what? My startup project can't secure funding. We didn't even need that much money in the first place, just time. But no one is willing to give us time."

"We targeted the tier-two and tier-three city dating and marriage market, but that market is far too complex. Our event in Handan was crashed by people, and a member got hurt."

"My foot hurts so much."

Sun Yu felt like she had been very strong, yet she still dropped her armor and surrendered completely in front of Sun Yuanzhu. Sun Yuanzhu listened very quietly, only occasionally handing Sun Yu a tissue.

By evening, Sun Yu finally felt somewhat better. She wiped away her last tear and smiled with a hint of bashfulness: "I really was a mess today. Thank you, Sun Yuanzhu. Did I frighten you?"

"No." Sun Yuanzhu thought for a moment, then handed Sun Yu another tissue: "I have a friend who told me he often has suicidal thoughts. When he acts up emotionally, he's much worse than you were just now. It's nothing; being able to vent your emotions is a good thing."

"You know what? I feel like the best stroke of fortune for me was when that real estate agency cheated me, forcing me to only be able to live here, and then I got to know all of you."

That was wonderful.

Truly wonderful.

They both felt that fortune often played tricks on people, but it wasn't necessarily always a losing game. Occasionally, after tasting extreme bitterness, just a tiny bit of sweetness would follow—that was simply the norm of life.

Shang Zhitao's performance review was predictably just a formality. She gave her presentation, her colleagues went about their own tasks, Alex asked a few harmless questions, and then submitted the scores. She was a bit baffled, as this was completely different from the expert reviews she had heard about. Once it ended, she secretly asked Lumi: "Did I pass?"

"Of course."

"Really. Alex told me that our department has a high quota this year, and you've worked so hard, so of course you passed."

"Do I get a raise?"

"You do, the increase should be around 15%."

Shang Zhitao mentally pinched her fingers to calculate, then her eyes widened: "15%?! That's way too much!"

Lumi was amused by her silly expression: "Such ambition!"

The two of them giggled for a bit before finally pulling themselves together to start working. For the remaining stops of the summit, Lumi served as the project manager, and Shang Zhitao volunteered to take charge of organizing the breakout sessions to help relieve Lumi's stress, steadily acting as a good corporate citizen.

With all this busyness, time flew straight into August.

Work was just like that; once things got busy, life gradually slipped away. Shang Zhitao still didn't know how to extricate herself from work; once she plunged in headfirst, it was very hard to get out. Being conscientious, she couldn't allow the work in her hands to have any errors, no matter what. Even a tiny mistake gave her no way to forgive herself.

At the celebration banquet after the Luoyang stop, Shang Zhitao drank a little alcohol. With the heavy stone in her heart finally lifted, she grabbed Lumi's hand and asked her: "Did I coordinate well?"

"Exceptionally well." Lumi gave her a thumbs-up, then told her: "The company has given our department a special group vacation—four days—to let us go on a team-building trip. You should take this opportunity to get some good rest too."

"Huh?" This was the first time Shang Zhitao had ever heard of a special group vacation: "What kind of vacation is this? Is there even such a vacation?"

"Because we've been working day and night on these projects and it's been extremely exhausting, the company provided a special vacation and budget. Alex was just talking about wanting to take the weekend and bring us to the beach."

"Whoa."

Shang Zhitao loved the beach, but she rarely had the opportunity to go.

"Then where are we going?"

"They say it's Phuket."

"Whoa!"

"Back in Beijing, we'll go buy bikinis together!"

Shang Zhitao's mind was completely dominated by the word "bikini," filled entirely with sunshine, beaches, coconut trees, bikini beauties, and foreign handsome guys with six-pack abs. Humming a little tune, she walked back to her room to grab her things, only to spot Luan Nian standing in the hotel atrium making a phone call, with his back to her, seeming in a pretty good mood. As she passed by, Shang Zhitao heard Luan Nian say: "You only want a bunch of flowers?"

"Alright. Then I'll come see you this weekend with flowers."

"I'll come see you this weekend with flowers." As Shang Zhitao walked, she imagined what Luan Nian looked like walking down the street carrying flowers; he would surely draw sideways glances. Suddenly, she decided she wanted to go to Mount Tai with her roommates this weekend. So she replied in their chat group: "I just confirmed it, leaving on Friday is totally fine!" She thought she shouldn't give up the chance to gather with her friends just because she was supposed to see him on Friday. She ought to have the weekends she wanted to live; when she wanted to be with him she would go find him, and when she didn't want to be with him, she would arrange her own matters—like right now.

Once she made up her mind, she began to look forward to it. Arriving home on Thursday night, she carefully listened to Zhang Lei's guide on climbing Mount Tai at night, and the four of them unanimously decided to pack light and rent military-style padded coats once they reached the mountain. The two guys would be responsible for carrying everyone's snacks and fruit, while everyone else would only carry a single bottle of water.

Following Zhang Lei's guide, Shang Zhitao prepared a change of clothes and a backpack, heading out for work at five o'clock the next morning. Her damned sense of responsibility and morality were at play, leaving her unable to justify openly skipping work. She would rather arrive early at the company to make up her work hours so she wouldn't feel guilty when she left.

Yet when she heard Alex announce during a meeting that the company reward vacation had been finalized as Phuket, with all expenses fully covered by the company, she suddenly changed her mind. She took the initiative to ask Alex for leave: "Can I leave at two this afternoon, Alex?"

"Sure." Alex didn't even ask for the reason, which warmed Shang Zhitao's heart.

At two in the afternoon, she shouldered her backpack and walked out of the company with a clear conscience. She felt ashamed for ever having had the thought of skipping work. As she stepped out of the elevator lobby, she bumped into Luan Nian, who had just returned from a business trip. His suitcase stood beside him as he leisurely waited for the elevator. Seeing Shang Zhitao with her backpack on, he glanced down at his watch, then looked back at Shang Zhitao.

Shang Zhitao smiled at him and said with a guilty conscience, "Hello, Luke."

"Skipping work?"

People were passing by nearby, and those two words—"skipping work"—scared a cold sweat out of Shang Zhitao. She was a little afraid that Luan Nian might have a psychotic episode, and because Alex hadn't asked her to log her leave online yet, she was somewhat worried about implicating Alex. She could only cast a "spare my life" look at Luan Nian. Luan Nian saw it, but pretended not to.

He asked her again, flatly: "Skipping work?"

Shang Zhitao could tell; he was in a bad mood. You couldn't butt heads with him when he was in a bad mood; Shang Zhitao had learned that lesson. So she had no choice but to say, "I have a personal matter to attend to."

"Did you report it to Alex and attendance tracking?"

"I reported it."

"Where are you going?"

"Going climbing with friends."

"Today is Friday."

"Mm-hmm, right, we're heading out today and coming back Sunday." Behind her, the elevator doors opened and closed, opened and closed, carrying away a few waves of people, while the inexplicable standoff between her and Luan Nian had not yet ended. Shang Zhitao knew what Luan Nian meant by saying today was Friday, but she didn't want to play along.

Just because it was a Friday didn't mean she had to be available every single time he wanted to see her. She offered Luan Nian a slight smile: "I have to go, Luke. Goodbye." With that, she turned and bolted.

She caught the subway and rushed all the way to the railway station. The few of them rarely managed to put together a short trip like this, and they all felt incomparably happy.

Shang Zhitao's very first night climb in her life was thus dedicated to Mount Tai. Starting at eleven o'clock at night, they climbed step by step toward the summit. It was a magical experience: the temperature dropped bit by bit, the narrow mountain trail was surrounded by all sorts of people, and there were even elderly folks leaning on walking sticks, walking a step and stopping a step as if making a pilgrimage.

The faint lights on the mountain path looked like stars scattered across the mortal world, guiding you toward the vastness of the cosmos.

Spending a Friday night without Luan Nian, Shang Zhitao didn't feel wretched at all. It was just that someone who didn't climb mountains often would inevitably feel a bit tired under such sudden intensity, and she gradually fell behind.

Hearing no sound of Shang Zhitao humming, Sun Yuanzhu looked back and found her figure had disappeared. So he said to Sun Yu and Zhang Lei, "Wait up ahead for a bit, I'll go look for Shang Zhitao."

He went back against the flow of the crowd and finally spotted Shang Zhitao after three hundred steps. She was wiping away her sweat and seemed a little cold. Seeing Sun Yuanzhu come to look for her, she smiled happily.

The two of them climbed side by side. Admiring Sun Yuanzhu's great stamina, Shang Zhitao couldn't help asking, "Why do you climb so fast?"

"Because I grew up in the mountains. My favorite pastime in childhood was climbing mountains."

"Is the mountain a lot of fun?"

"It hides a magical world."

Shang Zhitao looked forward a bit to the magical world Sun Yuanzhu spoke of; it must be very interesting. When they reached the Eighteen Bends, the cliff walls were steep, resembling a heavenly gate's cloud ladder. Shang Zhitao's legs felt a bit weak, when a warm hand grabbed hers tightly, and Sun Yuanzhu said softly, "Let me help you."

Warmth pierced through the chill, leaving a light, fleeting trace on the human body—like spring rain moistening things silently, teaching a person to still find it lingering when pondering it deeply in days to come.

They reached the mountaintop. Wrapped in military padded coats, they found the best viewing spot for the sunrise on the Jade Emperor Peak—the ultimate summit of Mount Tai—and curled up to sleep individually. The sunrise time that day was five-fifty-seven in the morning. Before that, the sea of clouds gradually revealed itself. Sun Yuanzhu woke them up one by one, saying: "It's about to dawn."

It's about to dawn.

Sun Yu murmured those words. Sitting side by side, they watched the sea of clouds change colors right before their eyes bit by bit. When the sun peeked out a fraction and finally leaped out from the cloud layer, Shang Zhitao heard Sun Yuanzhu say: "I really want to jump into this sea of clouds."

There were even tears glistening in his eyes.

None of them spoke, not knowing what to say, feeling only that all the hardship along the way was rewarded at this very moment. In this lifetime, one must have many, many such experiences; after tasting bitterness, one also tastes sweetness, and all those experiences become worth it.

They took photos at the most scenic spots on the way down the mountain. Shang Zhitao liked three of those photos the most: one was of the four of them standing side by side, bathed in the morning light, representing the finest time of their lives; another was a group photo of her and Sun Yu, with Sun Yu leaning her head on her shoulder as both of them laughed joyfully; and the last one was of her and Sun Yuanzhu, standing a little distance apart, as if someone had said something and they had glanced at each other.

At that time they were in their twenties. One's twenties—truly a wonderful time, an age with a thriving metabolic rate, when no matter how much you ate you wouldn't easily put on weight. An age looking tender and raw, with clear gazes.

Many of the people you met back then were worth cherishing for a lifetime.

Everything I said is true.

While they were getting a foot massage, Sun Yu repeatedly murmured those words in Shang Zhitao's ear, and then said to her: "Is this passage okay to use as the promotional slogan for our dating event this time?"

"It's fine."