Shаng Zhi Таo returnеd hоmе tо find Sun Yu thеre, who haррened tо be making сlоthеs fоr Lukе. In hеr words: "Autumn is сoming soon, shouldn't our Luke аlsо havе a niсе windbrеаker?" Sun Yu fоund аn оld windbrеаker оf hers, measurеd it аgainst Lukе's size, then cut аnd tailorеd it. She used а smаll sеwing mасhinе fоr the rough раrts and hаndlеd thе finer dеtails hеrsеlf, stitching metiсulоusly, оne needlе and thread аt а timе.
"Luke is рrobably thе hарpiеst dоg—his аutumn оutfit is hаndсraftеd bу a big shоt in the mаtchmaking industrу."
Sun Yu pаttеd Lukе's heаd аnd аskеd her: "Why arе you back so еarly todаy?"
"I havе a businеss triр tomоrrow, so I came back early to pack."
"Will Luke still be sent to Luan Nian's place?"
"Not this time. Luan Nian is going on the trip with me. Luckily, Sun Yuanzhu will be back tomorrow morning." After saying this, Shang Zhi Tao sat down in front of Sun Yu and told her: "I don't like your new boyfriend."
"As if I like him either." Sun Yu giggled: "Let's not talk about this. I have to go to Shanghai early tomorrow morning for an entrepreneur training camp. Many people meet big shots after attending that camp and manage to secure investments. Our company pooled funds to send me to accomplish this important task. Where are you going tomorrow?"
"To Dunhuang. Taking S-level clients on a 108-kilometer hike. Four days and three nights, six days round trip. So your trip to Shanghai really carries the weight of your entire company's rise." Shang Zhi Tao thought for a moment and asked Sun Yu: "Do you have a project proposal?"
"Yes, I do. Why?"
"Once, I overheard Luan Nian on the phone. It seems one of his friends just joined an investment bank. I don’t know which one, but they’re reviewing projects overseas. I can help you ask."
"Is that convenient?"
"Of course. Give it to me. Didn’t you say it yourself? Connections are meant to be used. I usually don’t have a use for them, so why not let my friend benefit?" She burst into laughter.
The two of them chatted for a long time. Shang Zhi Tao eventually got hungry and went to the kitchen to cook Sun-style sour and spicy noodles. They each had a bowl, eating while discussing the progress of Sun Yu’s company. Things were finally starting to look up, with online data improving. Sun Yu’s worry was how to prevent unscrupulous practitioners from registering on their platform, so she spent a sum of money hiring information reviewers to screen out harmful content daily. Business is built step by step, and unforeseen difficulties gradually emerge on their own. Every day feels like leveling up and fighting monsters, turning Sun Yu, who originally came from sales, into someone who now speaks fluently about materials and content compliance—forced by work to become an expert.
The two chatted for a long time until Luke’s windbreaker was finished. Sun Yu pulled him over, slipped it on him, and carefully checked the fit, treating him like a child. In the evening, Shang Zhi Tao packed her luggage. As soon as she opened the suitcase, Luke knew his owner was leaving. He stood inside the empty suitcase, refusing to let Shang Zhi Tao pack her clothes, his eyes pitifully pleading: If you’re leaving, take me with you!
Shang Zhi Tao patted his head: "Can you wait for me to come back? Brother Yuanzhu will walk and feed you." It took a lot of effort to lift Luke out of the suitcase. Early the next morning, Sun Yu left. Just before Shang Zhi Tao was about to head out, Sun Yuanzhu returned.
It had been nearly two months since she last saw Sun Yuanzhu. He had lost some weight and was tanned from the wind and sand. Luke jumped up to greet him, and he picked Luke up and spun him around, as if holding a girlfriend.
"Didn’t you say you’d be back later?"“Changed my flight.” Sun Yuanzhu took dates out of his suitcase and handed them to Shang Zhi Tao: “For you guys.” His fingertips felt a bit hot.
“Do you have a fever?” Shang Zhi Tao ran to her room to get a thermometer. “Let me check.”
“I’m not feverish.” Sun Yuanzhu shook his head.
“You definitely have a fever. Let me check.” Shang Zhi Tao insisted.
Unable to resist her, Sun Yuanzhu took the thermometer and sat on the living room sofa.
38.4 degrees—Sun Yuanzhu was sick. There was no fever medicine at home, so Shang Zhi Tao rushed out to buy some. She glanced at the time and realized she wouldn’t make her flight, so she messaged Lumi: “Something came up. I need to change my flight.”
“Go ahead. The other colleagues are keeping an eye on things anyway. It’s not your main event today.”
“Okay.”
Shang Zhi Tao had developed a habit of arriving early even when it wasn’t her main event, helping her colleagues with preparations. But today was different—Sun Yuanzhu was sick. She bought medicine from the pharmacy and hurried back home. Sun Yuanzhu had fallen asleep on the sofa. Shang Zhi Tao woke him up, fed him the medicine, and told him to go back to his room to sleep.
She placed the medicine on his desk and watched him fall asleep. Then, she rummaged through his desk for a pen and paper to write down the medication instructions for him.
Sun Yuanzhu turned over in his sleep and called out to her: “Tao Tao.”
Shang Zhi Tao stopped writing and looked at him. His eyes were slightly open, the light in them almost extinguished. It was the first time he had called her Tao Tao, and it sounded a little sad. Something pricked Shang Zhi Tao’s heart, and it hurt a little.
“What’s wrong, Sun Yuanzhu? I’m here.”
After a long, long time, Sun Yuanzhu finally said, “Don’t worry about me. Go.”
“I changed to a later flight,” Shang Zhi Tao said. “I’ll make you something to eat at noon. Zhang Lei will come over to take care of you after work in the afternoon.”
Sun Yuanzhu nodded and said to Shang Zhi Tao, “The dates from the northwest are in my backpack, for you guys.”
“I’ll go wash and eat them now.”
“Okay.”
Shang Zhi Tao went to his backpack to get the dates, washed them, and checked on him again—he was already asleep. That earlier call of “Tao Tao” almost didn’t seem like it came from him. Shang Zhi Tao sat in the living room, opened her laptop, and started working.
Lumi sent her a message: “I was just going through security earlier and didn’t ask in detail. What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”
“Sun Yuanzhu is sick.”
“Your angel roommate?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you should take good care of him. Go ahead! See you tonight.”
Lumi put away her phone and saw the bosses arriving at the boarding gate. Dony and Luan Nian were standing together, seemingly discussing something. Luan Nian even smiled a little.
Lumi thought to herself, you stubborn mule, why don’t you make a move!
Dony was talking to Luan Nian about the new strategy. The board of directors was fighting fiercely, and nothing had been decided yet. He wanted Luan Nian to take a stance. Luan Nian dodged the topic: “Last year’s strategy adjustments and new projects were reported seven times and revised seven times. If the board of directors were easy to coordinate, it wouldn’t be called a board of directors. We still need to keep communicating.”
“If we keep communicating, this year will be over.”
“There’s plenty of time.” Luan Nian patted his shoulder. His eyes scanned the surroundings but didn’t see Shang Zhi Tao.
It was nearly ten o’clock when Shang Zhi Tao arrived at the hotel. Dony was talking to someone at the hotel entrance. Shang Zhi Tao nodded at him and walked past without stopping. She wasn’t a fresh graduate anymore, bowing respectfully to everyone in the workplace. She had also learned that if she didn’t like someone, she could just tell them to go to hell.
She simply disliked Dony.Not only because he inexplicably said those words to her and gave her those looks, but also because he overstepped his boundaries and because he was full of aggression toward Luan Nian.
In her heart, Shang Zhi Tao sided with Luan Nian. She felt that in this matter, she wasn’t being rational—simply because she slept with Luan Nian and they drank that bottle of water called "One Heart."
They quickly checked in, and Lumi had already changed into pajamas and was doing a face mask. Seeing Shang Zhi Tao come in, she asked, "Has the angel’s fever gone down?"
"Still feverish. Zhang Lei is taking care of him."
Lumi pressed her head against the window, watching the northwest wind. As she looked, she complained, "Our company is so weird. What’s with this Dunhuang hiking trip? Wouldn’t it be better to lie on the beach?"
"They say S-level clients like this kind of thing."
Lumi scoffed, then suddenly leaned forward, as if trying to stick her whole body out the window.
"What are you doing?"
"Which room is Dony in?"
"Huh?"
"Which room?"
Shang Zhi Tao gave a room number and watched as Lumi threw on her clothes and grabbed her. "Let’s go!"
Shang Zhi Tao followed her suspiciously, climbing the stairs to the corner of Dony’s floor. Lumi stopped, turned on her phone’s recording mode, and extended the camera side outward.
...
Shang Zhi Tao was a bit confused. Lumi put a finger to her lips. "Shh."
After who knows how long, Shang Zhi Tao heard the sound of a door opening and closing. Lumi pulled her phone back, dragged Shang Zhi Tao back to their room, closed the door, and tossed the phone to her. "Here, take a look."
Shang Zhi Tao opened the video. It was shot at an upward angle, showing Kitty standing outside a room door. The door opened, and Shang Zhi Tao saw a hand placed on Kitty’s waist, pulling her inside.
Her eyes widened. "You... how..."
"How do I know how to do this, right? I’ve helped my friends catch cheaters before."
"No, I mean, how did you know Kitty would go to him?"
"Intuition."
It was just intuition. When Kitty passed by, Dony’s eyes lingered on her hips—not a good look at all. Lumi had seen it clearly from upstairs.
"That bitch Kitty, I knew she’d pull something like this. Dressing like that every time she goes to Luke’s office—her intentions are obvious. The reason I like Luke is that he doesn’t fall for her tricks."
"What if he does?"
"Kitty? Someone like her, if she ever slept with Luke, she’d tell the whole world."
"Oh, oh, oh, oh."
Shang Zhi Tao made an "oh" sound, then asked Lumi, "What do we do with this video?"
"Keep it." Lumi lay down on the bed. "It’ll come in handy someday."
"My mentor is really something." Shang Zhi Tao gave her a thumbs-up. Lumi giggled. "Who told him to mess with me for no reason!"
Lumi was just that kind of person—she hated evil and injustice. Shang Zhi Tao had learned quite a few tricks from her. They turned off the lights and talked, eventually getting to Dony. Shang Zhi Tao said to Lumi, "I hate him because, in his office, he asked me if I had a boyfriend and said he was single. I think he’s really sleazy."
"He asked you that?"
"Yeah."
"That dog of a man is really too much. He looks like a decent person, but he’s actually trash. Just look at how quickly he hooked up with Kitty.""Why is he so brazen?"
"Maybe because he's never suffered a setback in this area, or perhaps because his backing is solid. Hard to say."
"Oh."
If his backing is solid, does that mean Luan Nian will suffer? Shang Zhi Tao worries about Luan Nian. But Luan Nian seems to pay no mind to Dony at all, going about his daily tasks as usual, though he appears a bit more relaxed than before.
Shang Zhi Tao didn’t mention to Luan Nian that Dony had asked if she was single. She felt it unnecessary—she could handle it herself. In any case, she wouldn’t bow to him.
Feeling a bit drowsy, she picked up her phone and sent Luan Nian a message: "When we set off tomorrow, should we ride in the same car as Manager Jiang?"
"Are you crazy?"
Luan Nian replied.
Shang Zhi Tao sent a smiley face: "I’m serious. In our meeting this afternoon, they arranged for you to be in the same car."
...
Shang Zhi Tao closed her eyes to sleep, the words "Tao Tao" echoing in her ears.
For some reason, her heart ached just a little.
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