The Early Spring - Chapter 70
Chapter 70 - Dunhuang 108
The 108-kilometer Dunhuang trek felt like a devil's training camp.
Shang Zhitao wrapped her sun hat and face mask tightly around her, turning to Lumi beside her. "I think sand got in my shoes. I need to go dump it out."
"Me too, I think." Lumi pulled down her mask, spat out a mouthful of grit, and the two of them stepped away from the main group to clear out their shoes while muttering curses under their breaths. "That bastard Dony is out of his mind, suggesting that everyone has to participate. Participate my ass! The team leader didn't even check if everyone's gaiters were tied properly; it was Luke who went around checking everyone's gear himself."
Lumi couldn't stand the sight of Dony anymore. Ever since she found out that Dony had been hitting on Shang Zhitao, she had wanted to snap his neck with a sharp crunch.
"I don't even know how to fix these!" Lumi grumbled with growing impatience.
"Let me take a look."
The two of them raised their heads and were momentarily startled to see Luan Nian standing there. When Luan Nian had helped everyone organize their equipment that morning, the two of them had been handling logistics. Everyone else's gear was fine, but the two of them had managed to scoop up a bootful of sand.
"There's no need..." Shang Zhitao reflexively tried to refuse, but Lumi slapped her arm hard. "Thanks, Luke."
"Get up." Luan Nian didn't waste words, instructing them to put their shoes back on and stand up so he could inspect their equipment. He knelt on one knee, moving like a gentleman. Lumi pulled down her mask and mimicked an excited silent scream at Shang Zhitao, who couldn't help but let out a sudden snort of laughter.
Luan Nian acted as though he hadn't heard the master-and-apprentice pair's bizarre antics, turning his attention to Shang Zhitao. "Your turn."
Shang Zhitao let out an "oh" and stepped in front of Luan Nian, feeling a sudden flutter of nervousness. Luan Nian's palm pressed against her lower calf as he fastened her gaiters. A secret thrill coursed through Shang Zhitao, and she didn't dare look down at him, afraid that a single glance would betray her innermost thoughts.
Once he finished adjusting everything, Luan Nian told them, "Walk a few steps and see how it feels."
"Oh." After taking a few steps, Lumi gave Luan Nian a thumbs-up. "As expected of our Luke—a walking encyclopedia, capable of everything."
"Do you know why attractive women often lose points in people's eyes?"
"Why?"
"Because they talk too much."
Lumi curled her lip. Well, at least he still praised me for being pretty, didn't he?
Luan Nian cast a sidelong glance at them. "Still not moving? You're falling behind the group." He pulled out his phone and messaged Shang Zhitao: What are you so nervous about? It's not like I haven't touched you before.
Shang Zhitao nearly dropped her phone right then and there. Yet looking at Luan Nian, he wore such a proper, deadpan expression that nobody would ever suspect a thing.
They finally reached a rest stop where everyone sat down to hydrate, recover, and chat. Luan Nian was talking with Dony when he noticed Dony's gaze freeze on a specific spot. Following his line of sight, Luan Nian saw Shang Zhitao tilting her head back to drink water, her fair face flushed red from the exertion, her ponytail swinging behind her like a schoolgirl still in class.
"Dony," Luan Nian called out.
"Where were we just now?" Dony asked Luan Nian.
Luan Nian simply shrugged. "Come find me when you've actually figured out what you want to talk about." With that, he turned and walked away. The look Dony had just thrown at Shang Zhitao displeased him deeply; it was the predatory gaze of a man sizing up a woman he intended to conquer. He turned to Tracy. "How's the background check coming along?"
"Just starting to get some traction."
"Too slow."
"Why are you in such a rush?"
Luan Nian didn't answer her.
A short while later, Tracy called him back. "Are you available to talk?"
Luan Nian slowed his pace, dropping to the very tail end of the marching column. "Available. What's up?"
"It's getting interesting," Tracy told him.
"Spit it out."
"Scandal. A sexual scandal. Dony left his previous company because of a sexual misconduct scandal." Tracy said.
Luan Nian recalled the raw, possessive, inevitable look Dony had given Shang Zhitao earlier. He asked Tracy, "To what extent?"
"Word is it blew up into a massive public mess, which is why he pulled strings to get transferred back to the country."
"Send me the files."
"Don't have them yet, wait for my word."
Luan Nian hung up the phone. He felt that assigning an opponent devoid of basic professional ethics to him was nothing short of an insult.
By the time the first day's trek concluded, everyone was too exhausted to speak.
The marketing department, however, still had plenty of work to handle—organizing the evening banquet, lodging, and various other logistical tasks. As the acting head of the marketing department, Luan Nian called everyone together for a brief meeting. Looking at his usually energetic, high-performing troops now looking dust-covered, disheveled, and drooping with exhaustion, he let out a soft laugh. "Are you tired?"
Everyone nodded, and Lumi groaned, "I'm dead tired."
"Once the event wraps up, everyone gets two days off. But for now, we still need to review the upcoming workload. Let's start with Lumi."
"The vendor for this event is a problem," Lumi stated bluntly. "I still don't understand why this event's vendor was allowed to bypass the standard bidding process."
The vendor handpicked by the planning department acted like absolute royalty; they cleared the warehouse entry through a special expedited process and hastily took over the job. What kind of nonsense was that? Only when it came time to put them to work did the team realize the vendors knew absolutely nothing. "Organizing an event like this with such incompetent vendors is going to cause a disaster. What happens if we run into extreme weather? What if someone falls ill? The contingency plans we confirmed with the vendor beforehand turned out to be completely unprepared for once we hit the site."
"Let's put the vendor issue aside for a moment. What are our internal contingency plans?" Luan Nian asked her.
"The marketing department has two colleagues trained in first aid. We've deployed one to the front of the trekking column and one to the back. As for dedicated equipment and trekking specialists—we don't have any."
"Count me as one," Luan Nian told her. "I know first aid, and I know trekking. I'll still inspect the gear tomorrow morning, and afterwards, I need all the male colleagues to stay behind so I can brief everyone."
"Got it."
"Moving on, Flora."
"I'm handling the catering. I just noticed that the actual food being provided doesn't match the menu given by the vendor, and I've already communicated with the hotel and the vendor regarding the discrepancy. We are refusing payment for the substituted meals."
"Good work, thank you."
As they went down the checklist item by item, the team realized just how many underlying issues there were. Fortunately, Luan Nian was there; experienced as he was, he tackled the problems one by one. Moreover, he was uncharacteristically amiable today. Working with him was generally a pleasant experience—aside from his excessively high standards for subordinates—especially when he was in a good mood, making it feel like a spring breeze. He reassured the team: "There's no need for everyone to trace the blame regarding the vendor issue this time. Once a special approval workflow like this is run through and proves the vendor is unreliable, it will prevent any recurrence in the future. Let's focus on solving the immediate problems at hand. Good work, everyone."
Lumi whispered to Shang Zhitao, "Why does he not look tired at all?"
Shang Zhitao glanced at him, shaking her head. "I have no idea."
How could he not be tired? He suffered from dry eye syndrome, and his stomach wasn't great either. Shang Zhitao sometimes pondered: he clearly lacked nothing in life, yet why did he push himself so hard? What was he even chasing? Walking over to check on the banquet preparations, she spotted Luan Nian sitting on a chair beside a dimly lit pathway, quietly applying eye drops.
Whenever they were alone together, those eye drops were something she would administer for him. He would tilt his head back, and she would stand between his knees to apply them, then cup his face and plant a quick kiss on his lips.
"Flora."
Hearing someone call her name, Shang Zhitao turned around to see Dony standing there. Luan Nian opened his eyes, watching Dony and Shang Zhitao standing together on the pathway.
Shang Zhitao took a step backward. "Is something the matter, Dony?"
"You've worked hard today."
"It's just part of the job." Slipping her hands into her pockets, Shang Zhitao took another step back. "I need to go check on the catering."
"We reach the destination the day after tomorrow—want to grab dinner together?"
"We'll still have plenty of wrap-up work to do the day after tomorrow."
"Fair enough. I just figured you all worked so hard and wanted to treat you to a meal."
"Thank you, Dony."
"I'm free." Luan Nian stepped out of the shadows, offering Dony a faint smile. "Thanks to Dony for looking after the employees of the department I'm temporarily overseeing. I know a pretty decent restaurant; let's all go together the day after tomorrow."
"Sounds good." From start to finish, Dony hadn't uttered a single overtly inappropriate word, yet any mature adult understood the underlying subtext. High-level players operated seamlessly outside the standard rules, casually plucking a flower—if they plucked it, great; if they missed it, there was no disappointment, leaving you without even a shred of tangible evidence to complain about.
In Lumi's words: sweeping the yard to hit a passing rabbit, missing nothing.
Seeing right through the venomous, maggot-ridden heart hidden beneath Dony's sunny, cultured facade—a nature far more repulsive than an open sewer—Luan Nian found the mere sight of such a person standing within Shang Zhitao's field of vision completely intolerable.
He turned his gaze back to Shang Zhitao. "Didn't Flora say she had to check on the catering?"
"Yes."
"Go on then."
"What kind of entertainment does Luke usually enjoy in the evenings? I happen to know two great spots in Beijing."
"I know a few entertainment spots myself," Luan Nian replied smoothly. "As you know, the greatest perk of working at Lingmei is staying right at the bleeding edge of fashion. We'll go check something out together another day."
Exchanging pleasantries, Luan Nian walked alongside Dony into the banquet hall, where they subsequently split up to mingle with the clients, leaving zero visible trace of tension. Having known Luan Nian for over three years and possessing a razor-sharp intuition, Jiang Lan sauntered right up to Luan Nian's ear and murmured softly, "Luke, you're pissed."
Luan Nian looked at her without speaking. Jiang Lan was too smart; if he denied being angry, she would simply assume he took her for a fool.
Jiang Lan's eyes narrowed slightly. "This Dony is quite interesting."
"What's so interesting about him?"
"He mentioned that he likes fitness and combat sports." Jiang Lan blinked playfully at Luan Nian. "Brought it up completely out of nowhere when he came to pay me a private visit." Such an implication couldn't have been more obvious, but Jiang Lan wasn't interested. Jiang Lan preferred men like Luan Nian—men who refused to lower their stance, keeping their distance, yet driving you crazy with the urge to provoke them anyway.
"Congratulations to President Jiang, then. That sounds entirely like President Jiang's cup of tea." Luan Nian's tone remained cool and indifferent.
"Is that so? My taste isn't quite that basic."
Jiang Lan let out a light laugh and walked away. Once Shang Zhitao finished inspecting the catering and returned to the banquet hall, she saw that everything was fully set up and found an empty seat. Her legs felt as though they had been filled with molten lead—aching, heavy, and swollen—demanding immense effort with every single step she took.
"You okay?" Lumi collapsed into the chair beside her, watching the various corporate executives putting on breezy, cheerful facades across the room—especially Jiang Lan, whose hips still swayed with effortless charm as she walked. "These corporate sharks are something else!"
Pulling Lumi by the hand, Shang Zhitao dragged her off to a secluded corner away from the crowd. "Lumi."
"Hmm?"
"Dony asked me out to dinner." Shang Zhitao told Lumi.
"What did you say?"
"I told him I didn't have time. But I know he's going to ask me again." Shang Zhitao paused for a moment before continuing, "I'm guessing that when he asks me out like this, it's definitely not because he wants to date me romantically. It's because I look timid and mild-mannered, and he's calculated that I'm an easy target to bully."
Lumi glanced back toward the bustling, lively venue filled with all sorts of workplace ghouls and monsters.
"What are you planning to do?"
"I haven't fully decided yet. But I think I might need your help."
"Help you clean up a maggot? Oh, I'd be more than happy to."
"Thank you."
"Don't be so polite with me, you silly goose."
Luan Nian always called Shang Zhitao a silly goose, but Shang Zhitao wasn't actually stupid. While working outside the main venue, she received a message from Luan Nian asking her: Did Dony ever harass you?
No.