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When you really need to reacquaint yourself with a business, you have to process countless pieces of information. At this stage, Shang Zhitao only asked her team to focus on learning. During the meeting, she said, “Aside from Fang Ke and the operations girls, no one else understands this business. What do we do when we don’t know something? We need to learn. So I’ve asked Fang Ke to help create a study plan. For the next two weeks, we will undergo intensive training at the company. Starting from next Monday, everyone should enjoy the weekend first.”
“I’ll project the study plan,” said Fang Ke.
“Sure. I have another request. Since everyone knows nothing right now, those who understand will make the decisions for now. In other words, during this period, everyone listens to Fang Ke.”
Shang Zhitao was bold in delegating authority. She always remembered Ling Mei’s principle: whoever is capable takes the lead.
During the meeting, Luke lay beside her, and after the meeting ended, it became her shadow—wherever she went, it followed, tongue out, looking very happy.
“Are you happy?” Shang Zhitao asked it.
“Woof!”
“Alright, I get it. You old traitor, do you like him that much? Oh, right, both of you are old ‘men’.” Shang Zhitao pointed at Luke’s forehead with her finger. Luke seemed to sense that wasn’t a compliment and playfully bit her fingertip.
“I’ll come see Luke again before I leave tomorrow,” Luan Nian texted her.
“Okay.”
Shang Zhitao scrolled through their message history. Luan Nian’s messages were always brief; he never liked verbosity. Over nearly half a year, they had exchanged fewer than fifty messages, mostly consisting of: “Sent, please check.”
He didn’t mention what he sent.
Shang Zhitao replied: “Okay.”
“How’s your health?”
“Good.”
Their communication frequency and content made it feel like a jerk communicating with someone in his backup list.
Shang Zhitao had never asked about Luan Nian’s relationship status. With someone like Luan Nian, how could there be a lack of women around him? It seemed that Luke had become the only link between them. The reason they could still communicate and meet so calmly was because Luan Nian loved Luke so much.
But it wasn’t just that.
Shang Zhitao couldn’t explain it. She felt that an invisible string had been pulled taut between her and Luan Nian again. Though unseen in daily life, she knew it was there. But this string was different from before. In the past, she knew the string would snap eventually, but this time, it had more elasticity. Neither of them dared to pull too hard, fearing the rebound might hurt themselves.
When Luan Nian came to walk Luke the next day, Shang Zhitao had just woken up.
After opening the door, she let Luan Nian take Luke downstairs while she turned to fix herself something to eat. She still couldn’t cook, so there were always slices of bread and milk in the house.
She stuffed a slice of bread into her mouth but suddenly remembered the delicious breakfasts she had at Luan Nian’s place, making the bread taste bland. She put down the bread and rummaged through the cabinets, only to find nothing.
When Luan Nian returned, he saw her sitting there lost in thought and untied Luke’s leash. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m hungry.” Shang Zhitao looked at him. “Have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Want to go out for breakfast? My treat.”
“No need. I’m not picky.”
Luan Nian’s palate was still as finicky. He liked so few things that it was better to cook himself.
Rolling up his shirt sleeves, he went to the kitchen and found there wasn’t even an egg in her house.
“Is this how you live?” he asked. He was a little angry. Her house looked clean, but there wasn’t any food. If this continued, she might die of hunger in this house without anyone noticing. It would make the news: middle-aged single woman starves to death at home because she couldn’t cook.
“I can go to my mom’s to eat.”
“You could also learn to cook for yourself.”
“I can’t. I tried seriously, but I failed.”
Luan Nian looked at her. “So you can’t tell salt from sugar?”
“Do you not know how to add water when boiling eggs?”
“Or maybe you can’t even shop at a supermarket?”
“To be honest, I don’t understand why this is difficult.” Luan Nian couldn’t figure it out. Are data formulas hard? She manually inputs them. Is writing reports challenging? She writes dozens or hundreds of pages. Is cooking really that hard?
“Why should I learn to cook? I can order takeout, eat at my mom’s, or find a boyfriend who can cook.”
The boyfriend who can cook was something Shang Zhitao said offhandedly, but she noticed the chill when Luan Nian glanced over.
Luan Nian didn’t like that comment. All of Tan Mian’s preaching had been wasted. He couldn’t give her a friendly face when she said such nonsense. His lips twitched slightly, and he walked out of the kitchen. Rolling up his sleeves, he fastened his cufflinks with his thumb and forefinger. After all these years, his attire was always impeccable, down to every cufflink, which he insisted on liking himself.
Must be exhausting to be a man who never compromises, right?
Shang Zhitao sat there watching him adjust his shirt and asked, “Are you leaving?”
Luan Nian didn’t speak but headed toward the door. Luke followed behind, wanting to go out with him. He stopped, crouched down, and said, “I have to go back to work. You play with your mom.”
“Sister,” Shang Zhitao corrected him.
“You play with your thirty-something sister.” Luan Nian finished speaking, stood up, and walked out.
After taking two steps, he heard Shang Zhitao say to Luke, “Say goodbye to your forty-something brother.”
Luan Nian turned back to look at her. She stubbornly raised her neck, her expression still defiant, unwilling to lose this verbal sparring match. Luan Nian’s lips twitched slightly, forming something between a smile and a hint of sarcasm. “Wish you luck in your second entrepreneurial venture.”
“Thank you.”
Shang Zhitao and Luke watched Luan Nian disappear from the window, then grabbed some bread and milk to eat casually.
On Monday, the courier called her: “You have a cold chain delivery.”
“Huh?” Shang Zhitao was puzzled. She took a taxi home from the company and received a foam box. Upon opening it, sure enough, it was a cold chain package, the ice hadn’t completely melted. Inside were fresh milk and a small box of osmanthus flowers.
Luan Nian’s osmanthus milk tasted good because dried osmanthus was drizzled with syrup, dried again, and sprinkled on the milk. When drinking, the sweetness of the syrup and the subtle aroma of osmanthus combined to create an addictive crispy sweetness.
Shang Zhitao had studied it before but couldn’t replicate it. Unable to wait, she boiled the milk, poured it out, and sprinkled osmanthus on top. One sip transported her back to those mornings years ago, waking up at his place where he prepared breakfast and pushed a glass of osmanthus milk toward her.
Her heart softened momentarily.
She picked up her phone and added him as a friend.
Luan Nian was in the midst of a boring and lengthy board meeting when he saw a new friend request notification. The note accompanying Shang Zhitao’s request made him feel as if a part of his heart had been illuminated, unable to hide his joy as it spread from his heart to the corners of his mouth.
He smiled.
After accepting her friend request, he clicked on her profile picture. It was likely taken during a trip, a close-up of her face in icy snow, cheeks red, smiling happily. Looking at her social media feed, it was clean—nothing at all.
Around 2017, a chat app introduced a review feature. Out of boredom, Luan Nian casually clicked to participate. The first item in the review was: Who was your first friend, and are you still in touch? Luan Nian saw Shang Zhitao’s tiny avatar from back then. He remembered the day they added each other as friends; she seemed to be on a business trip and sent him an invitation.
He asked her, “What?”
“Download it.”
Luan Nian added her.
That review was almost the death of Luan Nian. He thought, the first person I added disappeared.
I’ve looked for her. I know where she is. I’m waiting for the right moment to appear, but the right moment never comes.
At this moment, sitting in the conference room, he sent Shang Zhitao a question mark.
“Thank you for the osmanthus milk.”
“You’re welcome. Hope you find a boyfriend who can cook soon.” He said it out of spite.
Shang Zhitao laughed when she read this message in the taxi.
The driver asked her, “Something good happen, miss?”
“No. Just met a funny guy.”
Shang Zhitao dived headfirst into her studies.
The logic of online advertising was very complex, with the core being mastering the data metrics. Once understood, the methodology naturally followed. She required everyone in the company to be proficient in math and memorize all industry terms.
CPM, CPC, CPA, CTR… Hundreds of abbreviations were thrown out, and everyone had to explain what each meant when pointed at randomly. Given data, everyone needed to calculate. Naturally, the girls had no problem—they used to immerse themselves in systems and backends, tinkering with materials and studying data. The boys, however, groaned in complaint. A bunch of rough men used to frequenting conventions suddenly dealing with data metrics—everyone’s brains felt fried.
Shang Zhitao couldn’t help but laugh for a long time at their gloomy faces, thinking: you bunch of little fools.
Suddenly, she recalled Luan Nian always saying to her:
“Did you bring your brain?”
“Can you use your brain for once?”
“What are you keeping that brain of yours for if not to use it?”
She would never say such things to her employees. Luan Nian was too harsh on people.
At noon, she went up to the rooftop of the company to eat. Lumi sent her a video: Luan Nian was berating someone during a meeting, and no one dared to speak. Shang Zhitao was immediately transported back to the terror of attending meetings with Luan Nian.
“See? A stubborn donkey can only become more stubborn, evolving into the most stubborn orientation male old donkey. But a donkey is always a donkey.”
“Aren’t you afraid he’ll find out if you talk about him like this?”
“I’m not afraid of him.” Lumi sent a picture captioned “Who’s scared?” “I dare say I’m the second person in the company brave enough to provoke him. The first is Tracy.”
“What about outside the company? I think only someone named Shang Zhitao dares to provoke him.”
“No way, I wouldn’t dare.” Shang Zhitao quickly admitted defeat.
The breeze on the rooftop was comfortable, making Shang Zhitao drowsy. With the boost from a cup of osmanthus milk, she felt today had gone well. After days of intensive study, by the weekend, she suddenly wanted to go out and walk around.
So she rented a car and drove to the outskirts with Luke.
After checking into a random agritainment venue, she took Luke out for a run. Luke loved the outing, and both human and dog had a blast. It wasn’t until the third call from Luan Nian that she finally heard and answered, asking, “What’s up?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m out playing.”
“I came to see Luke.”
“Luke’s with me.”
Luan Nian hadn’t expected to fly over early in the morning only to find an empty house. He asked her, “Can you let me know next time you go out to play?”
“Did you tell me beforehand that you were coming to see Luke?”
The next time, Luan Nian gave her a heads-up. Shang Zhitao left Luke with him and went off to play herself. The two didn’t even meet face-to-face.
“If going back and forth between the hotel and my place is inconvenient, you can stay in the guest room. That way, you can spend more time with it.” She said this to Luan Nian.
“Aren’t you afraid of neighbors gossiping?”
“What do I have to fear?”
Gossip was nothing new. A single woman entrepreneur in her thirties had been labeled countless times. Stories were fabricated so vividly that they even described the appearance of her supposed sugar daddy—he was in his fifties, bald, with a potbelly, wearing a gold watch, looking very wealthy, walking out of her home in the early morning.
If the neighbors saw Luan Nian, perhaps the rumors would sound better. In his early thirties, handsome, arrogant demeanor, distinctive style—perhaps she had used her old flame’s money to keep a young man.
And so, Luan Nian really stayed in the guest room.
He had everything in his suitcase, treating Shang Zhitao’s place like a hotel. Her place was great except for the lack of food. Luan Nian couldn’t understand why a woman lived like this. So, he went to the supermarket after leaving and bought lots of fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, eggs, and seafood, filling up the fridge.
In the evening, he made minced meat and steamed meatballs for Luke, just like before.
Luke never thought he’d get to eat this again in his lifetime. He sat on the side, tongue out, drooling. The sound of saliva hitting the floor caught Luan Nian’s attention, and he turned to look at him. “Aren’t you ashamed?”
“Have you never eaten meat before?”
“Look at you, what a sight!”
While scolding Luke, Luan Nian pulled him over to brush his fur. “That bath card we got years ago still hasn’t been used. We’ve extended it four times already. Will I ever get to take you to bathe again in this lifetime?”
Luke rubbed his head against him as if to say: I think so.
When Luan Nian left, Shang Zhitao was still stuck in traffic on the outskirts of the city. Seeing his message: “I’m leaving.”
“Safe travels.”
When she got home, she opened the fridge to find something to eat. Inside, the fridge was fully stocked with fruits and vegetables. Opening the freezer revealed seafood, fish, and meat.
There was also a note: “Luke’s meatballs are on the first shelf. Heat three for him each time.”
She called him, hearing the boarding announcement on his end, and asked, “Are you coming to see Luke again next week?”
“If time permits.”
“Did you run into my neighbors when you were walking the dog?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
“They asked if I’m your boyfriend.”
“Oh.”
Shang Zhitao responded with an “oh,” then, after a moment, heard Luan Nian say: “I said yes.”
“It’s fine either way. My reputation isn’t great anyway.” After saying that, Shang Zhitao hung up.
The next day, while walking the dog, she saw the neighbor who nodded at her: “Your boyfriend not walking the dog today?”
“Which boyfriend?” Shang Zhitao teased the nosy neighbor.
“How many do you have? Who else could it be? That young man who looks like a star!”
“Oh, oh, oh!” Shang Zhitao nodded. “He left. Went back to work.”
She laughed it off nonchalantly.
During the holidays, she had talked with Shang Zhishu. Both of them felt that criticism of single women was nothing. Some even labeled you as an unscrupulous professional, and no amount of denial could clear your name.
“How much better is my bald, potbellied, gold-watch-wearing uncle anyway?” Shang Zhitao joked.
====
By July, when Shang Zhitao had everything prepared, the channel manager from Zhang Lei’s company arrived to evaluate, and Zhang Lei came along too.
Sun Yu, upon hearing that Zhang Lei was visiting Ice City to inspect Shang Zhitao’s company, found time to fly over as well.
Sun Yu’s company was now a KA client of Zhang Lei’s company, with 150 million yuan in annual ad spending placed with them.
Sitting in Shang Zhitao’s office, the group exchanged glances and suddenly burst into laughter.
Zhang Lei said to the channel manager, “You probably don’t know why we’re laughing, right?”
“Back then, all of us lived together in a rented apartment.”
Thinking back, that was many, many years ago. They were all young then, pushed forward by fate every day. Looking back now, those simple times were the most cherished.
Zhang Lei said to Shang Zhitao, “I haven’t seen you in five or six years, but why haven’t you changed? I envy you.”
“I’ve changed too—in mindset.” She smiled. “First, let’s have the vendor boss inspect the business. Then I’ll treat everyone to dinner. Today, let’s have a home-cooked meal at my place.”
“Will we get to see Big Zhai and Old Shang?” Zhang Lei asked.
“Yes.”
“Alright.”
Shang Zhitao guided the vendor leaders through the inspection. She was meticulous because she knew they would write an evaluation report containing details about the company’s office space, employee quality, the boss’s financial strength, and network resources. This report would determine Shang Zhitao’s initial track.
She brought the channel manager to the office area and clapped her hands. “Everyone, come and meet the vendor’s channel manager.”
The young men and women stood up, smiling sincerely, each displaying their company’s characteristics.
“You can ask any questions about professional knowledge,” Shang Zhitao told the channel manager.
“Any question?”
“Yes, feel free to ask anything.”
Shang Zhitao had always known that learning was useful. She never expected that in her early thirties, she would be pushed onto a completely new track. When we don’t know anything, all we can do is learn. Learning will show us the way.
She was confident and resolute.
The channel manager asked a few random questions about LBS positioning, audience packages, information flow ads, and data algorithms. He randomly pointed to one of the company’s colleagues to answer. The young people responded crisply and added their insights, matching the level of the vendor’s operations manager.
Sun Yu and Zhang Lei sat in Shang Zhitao’s office, listening to the commotion outside. Sun Yu chuckled and said, “I always knew she would be serious.”
“Being careless isn’t Shang Zhitao.”
“Admitting defeat isn’t Shang Zhitao either.”
Shang Zhitao took the channel manager to tour the company’s pantry—a small but fully equipped space. She ground a cup of coffee for him, and the two sat inside chatting for a while.
Shang Zhitao said to him, “I think it’s necessary to properly introduce myself.”
“I know you used to work at Ling Mei.”
“Yes, I was a special contributor at Ling Mei. My specialty is exploring new businesses and organizing methodologies.”
“It shows. The data understanding your employees mentioned earlier is rarely covered in our internal training.”
“So, I want a core track.” Shang Zhitao said, “Believe me, I know we can’t compare to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Shenzhen here. The internet environment here isn’t good. But I can guarantee two things: first, growth rate surpassing Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen; second, industry methodology—the benchmark approach. I know your internal promotions are based on these metrics.”
The channel manager had met many agency bosses, most of whom were middle-aged, wealthy, and bold. They would often say, “I’ll invest money, I’ll invest people, and I guarantee success.” But when asked how, the boss would pull someone aside and say, “You explain how we’ll succeed.”
Shang Zhitao was different. She analyzed the business clearly, even understanding their internal promotion mechanisms.
But he said, “You and President Zhang are old acquaintances. You can secure a core track.”
“No.” Shang Zhitao shook her head. “I also guarantee that I won’t discuss any work-related matters privately with President Zhang. My first partner and reporting person is you.”
Shang Zhitao thought, this is the workplace, and she understood the importance of relationships.
“Alright.” The channel manager stood up. “Then let’s leave the inspection as it is for today. I’ll write the report carefully. Also, review your resources and tell me which track you want to enter.”
“Okay. I’ll finalize it next week.”
That evening, during dinner at the old tavern, the channel manager praised her: “I’ve never met such a professional agency boss.”
“But you haven’t seen the cases she handled before.” Zhang Lei said, “I wanted to poach her to lead our planning team back then, but she decided to return to Ice City.”
“Stop praising me!” Shang Zhitao covered her face. “I can’t handle praise!”
It had been years since they last drank together. Tonight’s drinking felt like catching up on all those missed years. Yet, when the drinking session ended, it felt incomplete. Shang Zhitao invited them: “Why don’t you all come over to my place?”
So, the group went to her home.
Sun Yu saw Luke again, and Zhang Lei saw the wall filled with books. Standing in front of it, he randomly pulled out a book and saw the reading notes. Suddenly, his eyes reddened, and he muttered, “Damn!”
“You can have this one,” Shang Zhitao said to him. “Books are for those with a connection.”
Zhang Lei wiped his eyes: “Damn, I’m still envious of him. All of us will grow older and eventually become old folks. Only he stays forever young.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” Shang Zhitao said softly. She walked to the book wall, took out a book, and inside was a photo. Behind them, clouds swirled as the four of them grinned foolishly at the camera.
It was the best year, the best version of themselves atop Mount Tai, gazing down at the majestic mountains, their shouts piercing the heavens and earth, connecting the past with the present.
Shang Zhitao secretly asked Sun Yu: “Have you let go?”
“Let go, but maybe not entirely. What about you?”
Let go.
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