Shаng Zhi Тао hadn't eхресtеd Dony to bе оn a business triр in the samе сitу. Аftеr finishing hеr work, cоlleagues from the branсh оfficе said thеу wаntеd to trеаt hеr tо skеwers, сasually mеntiоning, "Donу is here toо." The сolleаguе's ехрrеssiоn was somеwhаt cоmрliсatеd.
Shang Zhi Таo pаusеd for а moment and аsked, "What is he hеrе fоr?"
"Hе said he's herе fоr а plаnning рrоjесt."
"Оh."
Shang Zhi Таo knеw Donу definitelу hadn't соmе to Сhеngdu sреcificallу for her. Her schеdule had beеn set just the dаy bеfоre thе business trip, so it was just a coincidence. But this coincidence felt uncomfortable.
"I'll go back to the hotel first to write my report and join you after I finish," Shang Zhi Tao found an excuse to escape, but the colleague grabbed her arm. "Write after eating! Work is never-ending!" And so, Shang Zhi Tao was dragged to the skewer restaurant. The other colleagues had already arrived, sitting around two small tables. Dony waved at her when he saw her. "Flora, sit here." He then made room for her. After a moment's thought, Shang Zhi Tao finally sat down.
Dony joked with everyone, "I always feel like Flora is afraid of me. Am I some kind of monster?" he asked Shang Zhi Tao.
"How could that be?" the colleagues laughed, covering for Shang Zhi Tao. "Flora is just shy."
Shang Zhi Tao forced a slight smile and got up to mix her dipping sauce. Dony followed her, asking in a seemingly casual tone, "Which hotel are you staying at, Flora? The company's contracted hotel?"
Shang Zhi Tao nodded. "Yes."
"We can go back together later then."
"Okay."
After replying, Shang Zhi Tao returned to the table. They wanted to drink, but she turned her cup upside down on the table. "You know I can't drink. I still won't drink today!"
She asked the server for a bottle of mineral water and placed it beside her.
All of this was thanks to having a good teacher.
Luan Nian had said, "If you can't drink, then don't take a single sip."
Luan Nian had also said, "A girl should drink her own water in public."
Shang Zhi Tao felt as if Luan Nian were sitting right beside her, supervising her. Dony didn't force her either, just praised her, "Flora really seems like a good girl."
As he praised her, his hand naturally landed on her knee. Shang Zhi Tao shifted her leg to avoid it and said to the colleague across from her, "I want something spicy. Let's swap seats."
Her evasion, in the hunter's eyes, was merely playing hard to get. Young girls act coy in front of eligible men to raise their value, but they eventually give in.
But what the young girl was really thinking was, "You're not worthy of sitting beside me, you maggot." No matter what you have, if you're low-class, you're low-class.
Shang Zhi Tao calmly finished the meal, watching as her drunken colleagues gradually lost their composure. Dony had a high alcohol tolerance; all that liquor passed right through him without even changing his complexion. He coldly watched the female colleagues lose their dignity, and when he looked at Shang Zhi Tao again, his gaze held an ambiguous meaning. He took out his phone and texted her, "Come to my room later?" making his intentions clear.
"No, Dony," Shang Zhi Tao replied.
"Just for a cup of tea." When a man has intentions toward a woman, tea and coffee are the best excuses. It's just a performance without substance.
"I have tea in my room."It was time to end this pointless conversation. Shang Zhi Tao looked up from her phone and said to her colleague beside her, "You've had too much drink. Let me take you back?"
Shang Zhi Tao helped her up and walked her out, leaving the rest of the colleagues behind. Once outside, the female colleague leaned against Shang Zhi Tao for a few steps, turned out of the alley where the skewer shop was located, and suddenly straightened up.
Shang Zhi Tao looked at her in surprise.
She, however, seemed a bit helpless. "I didn’t want to drink."
"Why? I remember you were quite a drinker."
"Because... there’s a wolf at the table." The colleague didn’t explain clearly, but Shang Zhi Tao vaguely felt they were facing the same wolf.
After parting ways with her colleague, she returned to the hotel, locked the door, pushed her luggage on a chair against the door, and only after doing all this did she go to shower and lie down on the bed. Work wasn’t that tiring, but having dinner with Dony was exhausting. Shang Zhi Tao hadn’t even eaten much. It was only in recent years, navigating society, that she realized some people were inherently bad to the core.
"Has the fever gone down? Have the other symptoms eased?" She sent the message to Luan Nian, not expecting a reply.
But Luan Nian, breaking all precedent, called her directly. Shang Zhi Tao was even a bit flustered when she answered the phone. "Why did you call?"
"Aren’t you the one complaining that I don’t reply to your messages or call you?"
"..." He had heard what she said. This feeling was wonderful. Shang Zhi Tao felt her little vanity was satisfied and chuckled twice, a bit guilty yet like a child acting spoiled. "So, are you better now?"
"No."
"Didn’t you take medicine?"
"I did."
"Then what’s going on?" Shang Zhi Tao grew anxious. "Do you need to go to the hospital? If not, maybe get an IV? Once when I was sick, I had a fever for several days and nothing helped. Sun Yu took me to a small clinic downstairs for a butt injection, and I got better that very night!" When she was anxious, she tended to ramble. Luan Nian listened to her chatter, thinking to himself, how could there be a woman who talked so much?
A woman who talked a lot, but wasn’t annoying.
Luan Nian sometimes disliked talkative people; he found them noisy. He preferred the world quiet and orderly.
"Is Sun Yu that roommate of yours who’s starting a business?" Luan Nian asked her. Shang Zhi Tao occasionally mentioned her roommates, just a few words here and there—like Sun Yu injuring her foot, Zhang Lei getting promoted, or Sun Yuanzhu often staying in the northwest. She also had a senior named Yao Bei who often took her out to eat. When she talked about these people, Luan Nian never interrupted, but over time, they gradually formed vivid images in his mind. Like Sun Yuanzhu, the knowledgeable, kind-hearted noble son, who had countless girls smitten with him, including Shang Zhi Tao.
"Mhm!" Shang Zhi Tao remembered what she had promised Sun Yu and began thinking about how to bring it up.
Luan Nian sensed the meaning behind her pause and said, "Just say it directly."
"It’s about Sun Yu... she’s been looking for investors, right? I remember one day you were on the phone with a friend, and that friend seemed to have gone into investment banking... I..." Shang Zhi Tao still felt embarrassed to ask, worried it would trouble Luan Nian.
"You eavesdropped on my phone call?" Luan Nian teased her. It wasn’t that she had eavesdropped; he simply hadn’t avoided her and took all kinds of calls when she was around.
"I didn’t eavesdrop..." Shang Zhi Tao hurriedly explained. "You were right next to me taking the call. It’s not like I’m deaf..."A low chuckle came through the phone from Luan Nian. Shang Zhi Tao stopped speaking, realizing he was teasing her, and her face suddenly felt a little warm.
"Shang Zhi Tao."
"Hmm?"
"Does Sun Yu's company have a profile? Or a project proposal? Anything, just send it to me."
"Really?"
"Otherwise?"
"No otherwise! I'll send it to you right now!" Shang Zhi Tao hadn't expected Luan Nian to agree so quickly. Afraid he might change his mind, she immediately opened her computer, found the materials, and sent them to him. "I've sent it."
"Mhm, let me take a look." Luan Nian leaned against the headboard, picked up his laptop, and opened the file. His eyebrows raised. "Sun Yu is in the matchmaking business?"
"...Ah... what's wrong with matchmaking... isn't it a good market... I think... I mentioned it to you before..."
"Wait a moment." Luan Nian flipped through the materials. The preparation was decent, showing some thought. Securing a bit of investment shouldn't be too difficult. Further along, he saw past case studies, which included a photo—likely from a matchmaking event. Shang Zhi Tao was shaking hands with a man who held a rose in his hand, and Shang Zhi Tao was smiling like a blooming flower. Luan Nian frowned without realizing it.
"Is Sun Yu running a matchmaking service or a marriage scam?" There was a hint of mockery in his tone.
"Huh?"
"What kind of people attend their offline events?"
"Single people, all single."
Luan Nian's gaze fell on the photo of Shang Zhi Tao and the man shaking hands. "Holding a rose and shaking hands means it's a match?"
"Mhm... yeah... after that, the organizers provide contact information, and then they can chat, go on dates..."
Fuck.
Luan Nian was probably burning up from the fever, a surge of anger rushing to his head, giving him the urge to strangle Shang Zhi Tao. Chatting, dating... why are you so damn busy?
Seeing he wasn't speaking, Shang Zhi Tao thought he was considering the matter and asked, "Do you think the materials are okay? Sun Yu is very reliable, and her partners and team are too. If the materials are good, could you ask your friends to help?"
"Help with what? Aiding and abetting?" Luan Nian's tone was distinctly unfriendly.
"...How is that aiding and abetting? It's providing a platform for single men and women to meet, helping them find their destined other half..." Shang Zhi Tao parroted the lines Sun Yu had drilled into her. "It's a service to humanity." After saying this, she mentally praised herself—she really hadn't wasted all that time listening to Sun Yu's preaching; it all came in handy at the crucial moment.
Luan Nian finally understood exactly what Shang Zhi Tao had been doing on all those weekends she disappeared—hanging out with her roommate, attending matchmaking events to meet men, going on dates. He had thought she was an utterly well-behaved girl, but it turned out this girl transformed every weekend. Flitting among strange men, probably planning her own romantic future.
He had truly been deceived by her innocent appearance.
"Why aren't you saying anything? Are you tired? Do you want to rest early?"
"Not sleepy." Shang Zhi Tao had riled him up.
"Oh. So, will you help?"
"Mhm."
Luan Nian looked over the materials and thought it was a decent project, so he forwarded them to his friend Song Qiu Han. He had gone into investment banking and also reviewed projects occasionally.
"Thank you."
"Mhm."
"Could you take your temperature again now and see if the fever has gone down?"
"You sound just like my mom."
"Just caring about you...""Save your breath!" Luan Nian said this, yet still went to get the thermometer and tucked it under his arm. Sure enough, his fever had returned.
Shang Zhi Tao was hungry, so she got up and found a welcome fruit to eat. The apple crunched crisply with each bite, especially clear over the late-night phone call.
"Didn’t eat?" Luan Nian asked her.
"I did, but I didn’t have much appetite." Shang Zhi Tao left out the matter of Dony. Luan Nian wasn’t foolish, though—he knew Dony was on a business trip to Chengdu, so he asked, "With Dony?"
Shang Zhi Tao thought for a moment. "With a lot of people."
On the matter of Dony, Luan Nian was well aware of Shang Zhi Tao’s deliberate evasion. He kept asking, and she kept avoiding.
"Dony isn’t a good person. If any female colleague thinks Dony is getting close to them to start a relationship, you should tell her to save her energy. Dony has high standards—none of the women in the company are good enough for him. He’s just cycling through people for novelty." Luan Nian’s words were harsh, and they were meant for Shang Zhi Tao. He knew she wasn’t that kind of person, but after her repeated evasions, doubts had begun to creep in.
To Shang Zhi Tao, it sounded as though he were talking about them. Him and her—one a fleeting shadow in the clouds, the other a wild grass on the plains, just seeking novelty. How strange—it was their third year together, and Luan Nian’s sense of novelty still hadn’t faded?
She took another bite of the apple and said to Luan Nian, "I don’t know which female colleague Dony might be interested in—after all, I’m not close to him. And I don’t know which female colleague might be interested in Dony either. It’s none of my business. Whether Dony wants to date someone or sleep with them, I suppose only the people involved know. In other words, I don’t meddle in other people’s affairs."
…
What kind of talk was that? Luan Nian felt his temperature rising again. He took out the thermometer—sure enough, 38.4°C. If this phone call went on any longer, he’d be dead. Who said long phone calls were a good thing? What nonsense! Why would anyone waste time on a long call for no reason?
He hung up the phone without another word, ignoring Shang Zhi Tao.
And he was furious again.
Shang Zhi Tao, oblivious to the danger, sent him a message: "What if Dony is just looking for true love?"
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