The Early Spring - Chapter 130

Chapter 130 - So Good

Tracy looked at Shang Zhitao, visibly moved. So many years had passed; she had seen countless people throughout her career, hired so many, and fired just as many. She had long since honed herself in the corporate battlefield into an invincible female general. Yet at this moment, her heart felt extraordinarily soft.

"Flora, I want you to know that you are the most exceptional person among all those I've ever hired. Working alongside you every day was an absolute pleasure. Never think of yourself as mediocre, okay? I've judged countless people in my life, and the ones I choose are never truly mediocre."

Shang Zhitao's eyes grew slightly red. Tracy had been so good to her. Back when she was bewildered and fearful, feeling like she was utterly terrible at everything, whenever she crossed paths with Tracy in the office, Tracy would always say to her, "Flora, I heard the project you've been working on lately is coming along great. Keep up the good work." Tracy had constantly encouraged her, and whenever she ran into difficulties, Tracy was always the first to step forward and back her up.

Tracy had been so good to Shang Zhitao—so good that Luan Nian had initially assumed they were relatives.

How could they possibly be relatives? It was simply a kind-hearted person willing to give a mediocre girl a chance.

Tracy had taught her so, so much.

"If we get the chance, let's grab a meal together sometime—as friends," Tracy invited her.

"Sounds wonderful. Next time I come to Beijing, I'll definitely call you first thing, and dinner will be on me."

"Great. It's a deal then."

Luan Nian knocked on the doorframe: "Planning on never seeing each other again or something?" He was clearly asking why they were taking so long.

Tracy pointed at Luan Nian and asked Shang Zhitao, "How do you even put up with that temper of his?"

"Sometimes I can't put up with it either."

Luan Nian let out a snort, pulled Shang Zhitao by the hand out of Tracy's office, and noticed their colleagues staring at them. He paused, turned to face everyone, and said with a stern face: "I'm not gay, and in all these years, I've only ever had this one girlfriend." Turning around to leave, he suddenly recalled something and turned back: "Also, my physical health is just fine."

Once, in the breakroom, he had overheard a female colleague whisper: "Luke is so handsome, but it's a pity he's a bit older. They say when men get older, they aren't really up to par anymore." Another colleague had voiced a disagreement: "I slept with one before; it really depends on the person."

Hearing Luan Nian blurt out such a line, Shang Zhitao's face instantly flushed crimson. Meanwhile, acting as if nothing had happened, he pulled her into the elevator. Behind them, Lumi blew a whistle and shouted, "Shang Zhitao, keep it up!"

Everyone burst into laughter, standing up to pack their things to head home, exchanging "Happy New Year" with one another—marking the end of this year's corporate grind.

"Happy to see your former colleagues?" Luan Nian asked her.

"Really happy."

"Happy enough to blush?" Luan Nian darted a glance at her.

Shang Zhitao pulled his hand: "I just feel a bit overwhelmed with emotion."

"Why?"

"I remembered the years I spent working at WildBeauty—they were truly wonderful years. So many things I couldn't figure out back then have been let go of now. This feeling is really great." Furthermore, Shang Zhitao squeezed Luan Nian's hand: "By letting me come upstairs, you took the lead in violating company policy against workplace romance. Everyone will gossip, thinking I got promoted so fast back then because you favored me. Or maybe people will think you were just playing with my feelings. In any case, the negative chatter will outweigh the good."

Luan Nian opened the car door to soothe Luke, who had been waiting for a long time. Stroking its ears, he asked her, "So?"

"So it reflects badly on you."

Luan Nian patted Luke's head: "Mind your own business." He was referring to others being overly meddlesome. He rarely cared about office gossip, and when he did, it was only out of specific necessity.

Shang Zhitao pulled Luan Nian along to buy gifts for Dr. Liang and Luan Nian's father. They didn't lack anything, so in the end, she followed Lumi's suggestion and went to a heritage shop to buy pastry gift boxes. As she bought them, she told Luan Nian, "Lumi said there's plenty of time ahead."

Luan Nian hated eating these pastries and stood to the side with a sour face. On the day before New Year's Eve, the century-old shop was packed with people. The queue for cooked meats stretched all the way to the entrance, while another line was for pastries. As the two of them stood in line, people kept bumping into Shang Zhitao. Luan Nian gradually grew displeased. Standing there tall, impeccably dressed, and with a tight expression, he looked somewhat like an old-fashioned English gentleman. Shang Zhitao turned back to look at him several times, until he asked stiffly, "What are you looking at?"

"I think you look exceptionally handsome."

Luan Nian symbolically curled the corners of his lips, signaling a smile. When it was finally their turn, Shang Zhitao was truly generous, buying two full boxes of pastries—enough for two elderly people to eat well into the next year.

Carrying the two boxes of pastries, Luan Nian got into the car and called Dr. Liang: "We're coming over now. Come downstairs in fifteen minutes."

"Got it!" Dr. Liang sounded delighted, making Shang Zhitao cover her mouth and chuckle.

She had lost count of how many times she had heard Dr. Liang's phone calls with Luan Nian; she was thoroughly familiar with Dr. Liang's gentle tone of voice and knew she was a wonderful, tender person.

"Flora, Shang Zhitao, Taotao." Dr. Liang addressed her with three different names in a row: "See you in a bit!"

Shang Zhitao quickly straightened her back: "Okay, Dr. Liang."

It had become a habit; sitting up straight when speaking represented respect for others. Luan Nian had grown used to seeing it as well.

In the past, whenever he looked at her posture while sitting or standing, he always felt she didn't look like a modern person. Yet it was precisely this demeanor that made her stand out distinctly from everyone else.

Luan Nian started the car, and Shang Zhitao opened her phone to see a message sent by Lumi: "Taotao, do you know what everyone said after you left? My gossip-loving heart just can't take it anymore, I have to tell you right now."

"What did they say?"

"They said: 'Suddenly, I completely understand why Luke wanted to strangle that bastard back then.'"

...

Shang Zhitao recalled that moment—his eyes blood-red, looking like a demon out to consume a human whole. Setting her phone down, she looked at Luan Nian, her eyes filled with immense tenderness.

"What are you looking at?"

"I want to ask you, why did you hit Dony that year? Was it because he bullied a female employee and disrupted company order? Or because he was someone sent by headquarters?"

"Because the person he bullied was you."

Had Dony merely engaged in misconduct, Luan Nian could have resorted to legal means. But the sound of Shang Zhitao's body hitting the wall had rendered Luan Nian incapable of self-control. He said to Shang Zhitao, "I even wanted to kill him."

"If I had done nothing, I would have never forgiven myself."

That was just who Luan Nian was. His tenderness was hidden within his shell, concealed in the deepest depths of his body. He protected her in his own way, while she had almost lost him.

She looked out the car window with a faint smile. The Beijing of this year was no longer the Beijing of ten years ago. Over the course of a decade, this city had quietly undergone immense changes. For instance, in the North Fifth Ring Road where she used to rent a place, there were still leftover cornfields just five kilometers away ten years ago. Later, as urbanization accelerated, block after block of buildings was erected, and the city drew in more and more people. Some worked, fell in love, got married, had children, and laid down roots here; others, at some dawn or on some evening—on a completely ordinary day—quietly departed.

"This New Year seems livelier than previous years," Shang Zhitao said. In past years when she left for the New Year, the city would almost turn into a ghost town. One year, because she had to rush a project, she returned on the third day of the Lunar New Year, and the buses on that day were completely empty.

"I wouldn't know about the past, but it's certainly livelier than last year," Luan Nian said.

"Why did Dr. Liang return to the country?"

"A medical research project invited her back. She felt it was meaningful, so she came back. It's a non-profit project."

"Wow."

Conversing as they drove, the two soon arrived at the entrance of the older residential complex.

Shang Zhitao saw two elderly people standing there. The woman was intellectual and elegant, while the man was respectable and handsome. So Luan Nian had inherited his parents' good looks. As he brought the car to a stop and Shang Zhitao pushed open the door, Dr. Liang came up to greet her right away: "Flora." She was teasing her; back then when Dr. Liang asked for her name on the phone, she had said her name was Flora.

Blushing from being called that, Shang Zhitao quickly said, "Dr. Liang, you can just call me Taotao."

"Is 'Dr. Liang' something you should be calling her?" Luan Nian stood to the side and undermined her, pointing at Luan Mingrui: "What do you call my dad?"

..."Uncle."

"I call my dad Old Luan. Why don't you follow suit?" Luan Nian undermined her again, taking pleasure in seeing Shang Zhitao's flustered expression when she couldn't take a joke.

Dr. Liang slapped him on the back: "Are you sick or something?"

Her tone was identical to Luan Nian's.

Shang Zhitao couldn't hold it in and burst into a giggle. Her face was flushed, and when she smiled, her radiance was brilliant, her eyes clear and gentle. Her son truly had great taste.

Dr. Liang praised Luan Nian in her heart, absolutely adoring Shang Zhitao. She turned to Luan Nian and said, "Come, take a group photo of me and Taotao."

"What for?"

"Hurry up and snap it. Once you're done, send it to the family group chat."

"..." His face full of reluctance, Luan Nian still took out his phone and snapped a photo. Dr. Liang glanced at it and casually dropped it into the group chat, saying as she sent it: "I feel like I can finally hold my head high. This bachelor son of mine actually knows how to bring a girl home."

Hearing this, Shang Zhitao smiled once more.

Luan Nian swept his gaze over her before snapping at Dr. Liang: "If we don't head over now, it's going to be late!"

The four of them went to the supermarket and bought a vast array of goods.

Dr. Liang held Shang Zhitao's hand, walking behind while having Luan Nian and his father push the shopping cart up front. Dr. Liang shared her personal rule of self-care with Shang Zhitao: never do heavy labor.

"When it comes to carrying things, just leave it to the men. Don't lift a finger."

Shang Zhitao nodded. In truth, Luan Nian hadn't let her do heavy work anyway; even the cooking was handled by him.

Shang Zhitao liked Dr. Liang immensely.

Dr. Liang was a bit scatterbrained, yet deeply gentle. She cared about her patients and the environment, but didn't pay any mind to trivial matters. On the other hand, Luan Nian's father rarely spoke. But every word he uttered hit the mark, devoid of filler.

Luan Nian's personality seemed somewhat similar to his father's.

Shang Zhitao thought that perhaps it was precisely because he had a mother like Dr. Liang that Luan Nian possessed such inadvertent tenderness deep down in his heart.

When the group returned home, Dr. Liang pulled Shang Zhitao into the bedroom. A few handbags were displayed inside. She said to Shang Zhitao, "These aren't for you, don't be nervous. I don't like them either." Reaching into the very bottom of a jewelry box, she pulled out a jade bracelet and said to Shang Zhitao, "An heirloom."

"Has Luan Nian ever mentioned it to you? In the past, the Luan family was considered a prominent family locally, but hardly any old items remain. The elders all liked bracelets, and this one was preserved with great difficulty. It has been passed down through five generations."

"Then I can't accept it. What if..."

"Don't talk nonsense." Dr. Liang refused to let her speak of 'what ifs': "You've already made it to this step, what 'what ifs' could there be? Live your lives well together; I'm entrusting my son to you. Luan Nian has had a bad temper since he was small, so you don't have to endure him. If he's harsh with you, be harsh right back; he's strict with people, but bear with him, he has no malicious intent; that face of his looks like he wouldn't settle down, but as his mother, I know my own son—he's actually quite well-behaved."

Dr. Liang felt a touch emotional, wiping the corner of her eyes.

"If you ever suffer any grievances, you can rest assured and tell me. I'll help you straighten him out. But my only hope is that you don't easily leave him. Because he truly loves you."

"Taotao, he's nearly forty years old, and this is the first time he has ever brought a girl home."

Hearing Dr. Liang say this, Shang Zhitao could only nod with reddened eyes: "Okay, I won't leave him."

The next day was New Year's Eve.

Another year had passed.

This was the very first New Year Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian spent together. Having Luan Nian by her side made her feel grounded and secure; she finally didn't have to watch the fireworks while missing him.

After making phone calls to Da Zhai and Old Shang, Shang Zhitao returned to the living room to chat with them. Dr. Liang was currently feeding meat to Luke, chatting as she fed: "Little fellow, you sure can eat."

When the New Year chime rang out, Dr. Liang pulled out a large red envelope and stuffed it into Shang Zhitao's hand. Shang Zhitao expressed her gratitude three times, only to be stopped by Luan Nian: "Why are you thanking her endlessly?"

Shang Zhitao walked to the window, wanting to see if there were fireworks outside. There were—far off in the distance. As she pressed her head against the windowpane to look, Luan Nian stood behind her, pulling her into his embrace and whispering in her ear: "Shang Zhitao, Happy New Year."

"May everything be good for us."