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Psst! We're moving!
Shang Zhitao returned home and coincidentally, Sun Yu was also there, making clothes for Luke. As she put it, “Autumn is coming soon, doesn’t our Luke deserve a beautiful windbreaker?” Sun Yu found one of her old windbreakers, compared it to Luke’s size, then cut it accordingly. She used a small sewing machine for the thicker parts and sewed the finer details by hand, stitch by stitch.
“Luke must be the happiest dog, his autumn outfit is handmade by a big shot in the dating industry.”
Sun Yu patted Luke’s head and asked her, “Why are you back so early today?”
“I have a business trip tomorrow, so I came back early to pack.”
“Are you sending Luke to Luan Nian again?”
“Not this time, Luan Nian is going on the trip with me. Fortunately, Sun Yuanzhu will be back tomorrow morning.” After saying this, Shang Zhitao sat down in front of Sun Yu and said, “I don’t like your new boyfriend.”
“As if I do,” Sun Yu giggled. “Let’s not talk about this. I’m going to Shanghai early tomorrow for an entrepreneur training camp. Many people meet big shots after attending that camp and can secure investments. Our company raised funds to send me to take on this important mission. Where are you going tomorrow?”
“To Dunhuang. I’ll be taking S-level clients on a 108-kilometer hike. Four days and three nights, round trip in six days. So your trip to Shanghai really carries the burden of the entire company’s rise.” Shang Zhitao thought for a moment and asked Sun Yu, “Do you have any project introductions?”
“Yes, why?”
“I overheard Luan Nian on the phone once; he seems to have a friend who just joined an investment bank. I don’t know which one, but they handle projects abroad. I can help you ask.”
“Is it convenient?”
“Of course. Give it to me. Didn’t you say connections should not go to waste? I usually don’t need them, so why not let my friends use them?” She laughed heartily after saying this.
They chatted for a long time. Shang Zhitao was feeling a bit hungry, so she went to the kitchen and cooked Sun-style spicy and sour noodles. She served one bowl each to Sun Yu and herself, eating and chatting about the progress of Sun Yu’s company. Things were finally starting to improve, online data was rising. Sun Yu’s concern was how to prevent bad actors from registering on their platform, so she spent some money hiring information reviewers to check harmful content daily. The business grew step by step, unforeseen difficulties gradually surfaced. Every day felt like leveling up in a game. This forced saleswoman Sun Yu to become an expert in content compliance.
After a long chat, Luke’s windbreaker was ready. Sun Yu pulled him over and tried it on him, carefully comparing sizes, treating him like a child. That evening, as Shang Zhitao packed her luggage, when she opened her suitcase, Luke knew his master was leaving. He stood in the empty suitcase, preventing her from packing clothes, looking pitifully at her: if you’re leaving, take me with you!
Shang Zhitao patted his head, “Can you wait for me to come back? Uncle Yuanzhu will walk you and feed you.” It took a lot of effort to pull Luke out of the suitcase. Early the next morning, Sun Yu left, and before Shang Zhitao went out, Sun Yuanzhu came back.
She hadn’t seen Sun Yuanzhu for nearly two months. He had lost some weight and was tanned from the wind and sand. Luke jumped up to greet him, and he picked up Luke and spun around, hugging him like a girlfriend.
“I thought you were coming later?”
“I changed my flight.” Sun Yuanzhu took out some dates from his luggage and gave them to Shang Zhitao, “For you guys.” His fingertips felt a little hot.
“Do you have a fever?” Shang Zhitao ran to the room to get a thermometer, “Let’s take your temperature.”
“I don’t have a fever,” Sun Yuanzhu shook his head.
“You do have a fever, let’s take your temperature.” Shang Zhitao insisted.
Unable to resist her, Sun Yuanzhu placed the thermometer under his arm and sat on the living room sofa.
38.4 degrees Celsius, Sun Yuanzhu was sick. There was no fever medicine at home, so Shang Zhitao ran out to buy some. She checked the time and realized she would miss her flight, so she messaged Lumi, “Something came up, I need to reschedule my flight.”
“Go ahead. Other colleagues are keeping an eye on things. Today wasn’t your main event anyway.”
“Okay.”
Shang Zhitao had developed the habit of arriving early even when it wasn’t her main event, helping colleagues with tasks. But today, Sun Yuanzhu was sick. She bought medicine from the pharmacy and rushed back home. Sun Yuanzhu had fallen asleep on the sofa. Shang Zhitao woke him up, fed him the medicine, and told him to sleep in his room.
She placed the medicine on his desk, watched him fall asleep, and searched his desk for pen and paper to write medication instructions.
Sun Yuanzhu turned over in his sleep, calling her name, “Tao Tao.”
Shang Zhitao stopped writing and looked at him. He slightly opened his eyes, dim light flickering within. It was the first time he called her Tao Tao, and it sounded somewhat sad. Something pricked her heart, causing a slight pain.
“What’s wrong, Sun Yuanzhu? I’m here.”
After a long while, Sun Yuanzhu finally said, “Leave me alone, go.”
“I’ve rescheduled to a later flight.” Shang Zhitao said, “I’ll make lunch for you at noon, and Zhang Lei will come over to take care of you after work.”
Sun Yuanzhu nodded and told Shang Zhitao, “There are dates from the northwest in my backpack for you guys.”
“I’ll wash and eat them now.”
“Okay.”
Shang Zhitao went to his backpack, took out the dates, washed them, and checked on him again. He had already fallen asleep. That call of “Tao Tao” seemed unreal. Shang Zhitao sat in the living room, opened her laptop, and started working.
Lumi sent her a message, “I didn’t ask carefully at security earlier. What happened? Is something wrong?”
“Sun Yuanzhu is sick.”
“Your angel roommate?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you should take good care of him. Take care of him! See you tonight.”
Lumi put away her phone and saw the bosses at the boarding gate. Dony and Luan Nian were standing together, talking about something. Luan Nian even smiled.
Lumi thought, stubborn mule, why don’t you make a move!
Dony was discussing new strategies with Luan Nian. The board meeting had been contentious, and nothing was settled yet. He hoped Luan Nian would express his stance. Luan Nian evaded the topic, “Last year, we adjusted strategies and new projects, reported seven times, revised seven times. The board, if easy to coordinate, wouldn’t be called a board. We still need to continue communicating.”
“If we keep communicating, this year will pass.”
“Time will tell.” Luan Nian patted his shoulder, scanned around, and didn’t see Shang Zhitao.
When Shang Zhitao arrived at the hotel, it was almost ten o’clock. Dony was speaking with someone at the hotel entrance. Shang Zhitao nodded at him and passed by without stopping. She wasn’t fresh out of school, bowing to everyone in the workplace. She learned to tell people she didn’t like off.
She disliked Dony.
Not only because of those inexplicable words he said to her and the way he looked at her, but also because he meddled too much and was overly aggressive towards Luan Nian.
In her heart, Shang Zhitao sided with Luan Nian. She felt that she wasn’t rational about this matter; simply because she slept with Luan Nian and they drank that bottle of water named “One Heart.”
After quickly checking in, Lumi had already changed into her pajamas and was applying a facial mask. Seeing Shang Zhitao enter, she asked, “Has the angel’s fever subsided?”
“He’s still running a fever. Zhang Lei is taking care of him.”
Lumi pressed her head against the window, watching the northwest wind. While watching, she complained, “Our company is quite funny, organizing this Dunhuang trek. Why not just lie on the beach?”
“They say all S-level clients like this.”
Lumi snorted, suddenly leaning forward, wishing she could stick her body out the window.
“What are you doing?”
“Which room is Dony staying in?”
“Huh?”
“Which room is he in?”
Shang Zhitao gave a room number. Seeing Lumi grab her coat and pull her along, she followed suspiciously. They climbed the stairs to Dony’s floor, and Lumi stopped, setting her phone to record mode, sticking the camera side out.
...
Shang Zhitao was a bit confused. Lumi put her finger to her lips, “Shh.”
After what seemed like an eternity, Shang Zhitao heard the sound of a door opening and closing. Lumi retracted her phone, pulled Shang Zhitao back to the room, closed the door, and tossed her phone to Shang Zhitao, “Here, look.”
Shang Zhitao opened the video. It was shot at an upward angle. Kitty was standing outside a room, the door opened, and Shang Zhitao saw a hand on Kitty’s waist pulling her inside.
Her eyes widened, “You... how...”
“How did I manage this, right? I helped my sister catch her cheating partner.”
“No, I meant how did you know Kitty would go to him?”
“Intuition.”
Pure intuition. When Kitty walked by, Dony’s eyes fell on her butt with a predatory gaze. Lumi saw it clearly from upstairs.
“This tramp Kitty, I knew she’d pull this kind of stunt. Every time she dresses like that to visit Luke’s office, it’s obvious. I like Luke because he doesn’t fall for her tricks.”
“What if he does?”
“Kitty? If she slept with Luke, wouldn’t she tell the whole world?”
“Oh, oh, oh.”
Shang Zhitao made a sound and then asked Lumi, “What do we do with this video?”
“Keep it.” Lumi lay on the bed, “It might be useful someday.”
“My mentor is truly amazing.” Shang Zhitao gave her a thumbs-up, and Lumi giggled, “Who told him to provoke me!”
Lumi was very quick to hate evil. Shang Zhitao learned a lot of tricks from her. They turned off the lights and talked, mentioning Dony. Shang Zhitao told Lumi, “I dislike him because in his office, he asked me if I had a boyfriend and told me he was single. I think he’s very frivolous.”
“He asked you that?”
“Mhm.”
“That dirty man is enough. Looks decent, but he’s rotten. Just seeing how quickly he got into bed with Kitty proves it.”
“Why is he so brazen?”
“Maybe because he hasn’t faced consequences in this area or maybe because he has strong backing. Who knows.”
“Oh.”
If he has strong backing, would Luan Nian suffer? Shang Zhitao was worried about Luan Nian. However, Luan Nian didn’t seem to care about Dony at all. He continued doing what he always did, though he appeared more relaxed than before.
Shang Zhitao didn’t tell Luan Nian about Dony asking if she was single. She felt it unnecessary; she could handle it herself. She resolved not to bow to him.
Feeling a bit sleepy, she picked up her phone and messaged Luan Nian, “Tomorrow, when we set off, should we ride with CEO Jiang?”
“Are you crazy?”
Luan Nian replied.
Shang Zhitao sent a smiley face, “I’m serious. During the meeting this afternoon, we arranged for you to share a car.”
…
Shang Zhitao closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, the sound of “Tao Tao” lingering in her ears.
Somehow, it hurt a little.
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