The Early Spring - Chapter 68

Chapter 68 - Does Flora Have a Boyfriend? 

"Things got pretty rowdy the other day," Lumi said to Shang Zhitao while picking at her fingernails. "The grandpas and grandmas in the hutong were terrified. Someone even called my mom saying, 'You'd better come take a look! Someone's about to get killed over at your place!'"

Lumi was talking about the property her family rented out—which was, of course, Zang Yao's place.

"And then?"

"Then I drove my mom over there, obviously! That asshole of a guy was completely drunk and beat up that fairy of a woman. But the fairy wasn't someone to mess with either; she used a knife to stab that guy's hand. Total badass. By the time I arrived, that asshole was scared limp, sitting in a corner crying! The fairy pointed a knife right at him and yelled, 'Shut the fuck up!'" Lumi mimicked Zang Yao before giving a thumbs-up. "Seriously awesome. First time in my life I've seen a woman even more ruthless than me."

Shang Zhitao didn't care whether Zang Yao was ruthless or not; she cared about how badly she was hurt. "Is it serious? The beating."

"Her arm is bruised. The guy probably figured he couldn't bring himself to hit a face that gorgeous."

"What happened after that?"

"They left. Turns out the fairy's family is loaded and based in the US. She moves house every few days just to experience how the other half lives!"

"Oh."

Zang Yao, who had received flowers from Luan Nian, had left. Did Luan Nian really not try to make her stay? Did he know she had a boyfriend? Did he know she'd been beaten by him? Shang Zhitao's head was spinning with questions, but she had nowhere to ask them. How could someone actually beat a person up like that? What kind of garbage behaves like this?

"Men who hit women are utterly disgusting," Shang Zhitao said.

"They should castrate the bastard." Lumi was furious too, then asked Shang Zhitao, "Do you think Luke knows she got beaten?"

Shang Zhitao shook her head.

"Come on. Let's head downstairs for coffee." Pulling Shang Zhitao along, the two of them walked toward the elevator lobby. The exact instant the elevator doors were closing, a hand shot in between them, and a very gentle male voice said, "Hold on, please. Thank you."

It was the first time Shang Zhitao and Lumi had a formal face-to-face encounter with Dony. Since the two of them were frequently away on business trips, they spent very little time at the company headquarters. Dony offered a faint smile. "Are you Lumi and Flora?"

Lumi exchanged a glance with Shang Zhitao before replying, "Hello, Dony."

No further words were exchanged.

Shang Zhitao stood ramrod straight, eyes fixed straight ahead, an upright posture that naturally set her apart from others. As they descended in the elevator, she caught a glimpse in the mirror of Dony's gaze landing on her. It was just a fleeting look, yet it left an uncomfortable sensation crawling under her skin. All three of them were headed to the café. When ordering, Dony turned back to ask them, "What would you two ladies like? It's on me."

"Two lattes, please," Lumi answered on behalf of Shang Zhitao.

Dony nodded, ordered two lattes, and handed a cup to each of them.

Lumi had zero desire to ride back up to the office with Dony, so she told Shang Zhitao, "Come keep me company for a smoke."

"Sure."

The two of them smiled at Dony, exited the café, and walked over to the outdoor smoking area. With no one else around, Lumi lit a slim cigarette and muttered to Shang Zhitao, "Why does this Dony look like such a slimy schemer?"

"How is he a schemer? I heard Kitty praising him all morning: handsome, gentle, wealthy—every young girl's dream."

"Ugh, please! Those girls must be blind. A young girl's true dream is my stubborn donkey."

Shang Zhitao burst out laughing. "If Luke knew you were having daily erotic fantasies about it, it would probably skin you alive."

Lumi gave a sly chuckle and used the tip of her cigarette to gesture toward the upper floors. "Have you noticed those bastards starting to take sides?"

"What sides?" Shang Zhitao was rather slow on the uptake and hadn't been paying attention to office politics.

"Word is that Dony was sent by the board to replace Luke. The board isn't happy with Luke because he's too hard to control."

Remembering the bottle of water Luan Nian had called "Of One Mind," Shang Zhitao asked Lumi, "Whose side are you on?"

"I'm not picking sides. I'm just a low-level grunt; I just need to do my job." She stubbed out her cigarette. "That being said, I'm rooting for Luke. Even though my voice doesn't amount to much and backing him won't change anything, I still find Luke a hell of a lot easier on the eyes than Dony."

"Just because he's easier on the eyes?"

"Yup. Old Lady here supports whoever pleases Old Lady's eyes."

Shang Zhitao giggled at her remarks. Just then, Luan Nian, who had just finished discussing business with someone, happened to walk past them. "Slacking off on company time?"

Lumi curled her lip. The two of them trailed meekly behind Luan Nian into the elevator, not daring to make a single peep. As fierce as they were when talking trash about him behind his back, they shrank down like timid little chicks the second they stood in his presence.

Observing the master-and-apprentice pair through the elevator mirror, one resembling a female hoodlum and the other an obedient student, looking altogether comical standing there, Luan Nian let out a scoff and stepped out of the elevator.

Clutching her chest dramatically, Lumi hissed at Shang Zhitao, "That scared the absolute shit out of me."

You call that scary? Shang Zhitao thought to herself. Try turning off the lights with him.

Upon returning to her workstation, she resumed processing budget approvals for the various departments. Two budget items from the planning department didn't add up; the actual requested amount exceeded the pre-audited figure by 300,000 yuan. She turned to Kitty and asked, "I need to see the itemized breakdown for these two budget lines. They also require a special approval request."

Kitty replied, "Dony has already approved them."

"Special approvals have to go through Luke."

"The approval pipeline is that long?" Kitty remarked.

"Did you sleep through budget training week or something?" Lumi chimed in. "I strongly suggest you rush that paperwork through, sister. If it doesn't get cleared by this Friday, it hits the rejection deadline."

After putting Kitty squarely in her place, Lumi felt immensely gratified and whispered privately to Shang Zhitao, "You need to show more spine with her going forward. She's a bully who always picks soft persimmons, thinking you're easy to push around!"

"I'm actually in the middle of sending her the workflow diagram right now."

"She knows how it works just fine; she's deliberately making things difficult for you. It's not like it's the first time." Lumi shared the budget management duties with Shang Zhitao. While Shang Zhitao usually kept a low profile, Lumi was peerless when it came to dealing with thorny troublemakers. As the two of them were talking, Shang Zhitao saw Kitty stand up from her desk and head straight toward Dony's office.

Lumi curled her lip. "Big Sister has gone running to tattle."

Of course Kitty went to complain. Highly competitive by nature, she had never liked Shang Zhitao. In her mind, Shang Zhitao was unworthy of working alongside them, yet not only had she survived, but she had also been promoted two years running just like her. Since their job ranks were relatively junior, internal departmental sign-offs were usually sufficient; last year, Alex had approved Shang Zhitao's promotion, which Kitty had written off as pure luck. She had assumed Luke would block her this year, yet Luke had approved it as well. Everyone in the company knew Luke detested Shang Zhitao—so why had he let her pass? Kitty couldn't wrap her head around it. What baffled her even more was that Shang Zhitao had been handed two core responsibilities—suppliers and budgets—and was even authorized to recruit external contractors.

She reported the budget discrepancy and approval issue to Dony. While framing it strictly as a work report, she couldn't help slipping in a final jab: "Other departments experience budget overruns too, yet their requests don't require Luke's personal sign-off." The subtext was clear: Shang Zhitao was deliberately targeting him.

Listening to her presentation, Dony nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Tell you what, have Flora step into my office for a moment. Thank you." Dony always projected an air of extreme gentleness, but everyone knew that was merely a veneer; the board of directors would never dispatch someone who was only gentle.

Upon being summoned by Dony, Shang Zhitao felt no fear whatsoever. She picked up her laptop and knocked on his office door. His office was situated one door down from Luan Nian's and was roughly a third smaller than Luan Nian's workspace, yet it remained spacious and well-lit.

"Flora, please have a seat." Dony stood up to pour Shang Zhitao a glass of water. Watching her sit primly upright in her chair like an obedient schoolgirl—a neat, unpretentious woman—he continued, "Kitty just spoke to me about the budget approvals. Since I'm new, I'm still unfamiliar with this workflow. Could you walk me through it, Flora?"

"Certainly." Shang Zhitao opened her laptop, located the workflow chart she had created, and zoomed in. Dony pointed to the chair right next to his. "Shall I sit here? It'll be easier to view."

"That's fine, Dony." Shang Zhitao shifted her chair outward a fraction to maintain a polite distance. This was the corporate world, after all—sit too close to your boss, and by the next day, wild rumors would be flying through the office.

"The three core pillars of Lingmei's budget management are monetary amount, approval timeframe, and application context—meaning project tier. Different amounts and contexts dictate completely different approval workflows, time limits, and authorization scopes." Shang Zhitao pulled up the planning department's budget sheets and walked Dony through them one by one.

In truth, Dony had grasped the mechanics the moment he glanced at the flowchart, but he chose not to interrupt Shang Zhitao. There was a pleasant, clean scent about her, and her delivery was gentle yet crisp, completely devoid of redundancy or fluff. Her mentor must be an exceptional individual.

Dony listened attentively, interjecting with a few pointed questions which Shang Zhitao answered with professional precision. By the end, Dony fully understood the situation: past budgeting practices had indeed suffered from lax oversight, meaning Kitty hadn't lied. However, now that the task had fallen to Shang Zhitao, she was simply executing her duties diligently without intentionally sabotaging the planning department. As for why Kitty seemed harboring hostility, that likely stemmed from past grievances between the two women. That had nothing to do with Dony; he hadn't returned to the country to mire himself in petty workplace squabbles.

"Alright. Thank you, Flora. I understand now. Let's process those two budgets through the standard workflow, and I'll also lean on Luke to expedite the approval."

"Understood. Thank you for your understanding." Packing up her laptop, Shang Zhitao stood up. "Then I won't disturb you any further."

Dony smiled, stood up to escort Shang Zhitao out, and out of nowhere dropped a question: "Does Flora have a boyfriend?"

Thinking she must have misheard, Shang Zhitao turned back to look at him, only to find him smiling. "You heard correctly. I was indeed just asking whether you have a boyfriend."

"Does that have any bearing on our work?"

"Not much bearing on work, no. Just casual curiosity—you're free not to answer." Dony discovered that Shang Zhitao possessed a sharp, unyielding edge beneath her compliant exterior; the obedient subordinate who had just walked him through spreadsheets was now bristling with spikes. Fascinating.

"Then please forgive me for declining to answer. Excuse me."

Dony merely chuckled. "I don't see why it's so hard to answer. For the record, I'm single."

Recalling Lumi's golden rule of judging people—that anyone found repulsive is inherently a scumbag—Shang Zhitao realized that although crude, the logic was surprisingly effective. Take Dony, for instance: he looked like a total sleazebag, and sure enough, he acted like one, casually prying into whether a cross-departmental female employee was single. Returning to her desk, she mulled it over for a moment before unlocking her phone, checking a few things, and opening an online shopping site.

She finally understood why Dony's look in the elevator had left such a foul taste in her mouth. It was the look of a man stripping away a woman's clothes with his eyes, a gaze that screamed: This woman is someone I can sleep with whenever I please. It was sheer, unadulterated contempt.

Screw you.

That rebellious streak deep inside Shang Zhitao's mind instantly shot up, and she cursed him out in her head using Lumi's exact vernacular.