On the tarmac of Capital International Airport, planes continuously took off and landed with their giant wings spread.

Inside the floor-to-ceiling windows made of large glass panes was a noisy waiting area. Luggage wheels kept rolling past, children’s cries rose and fell one after another, someone was talking loudly on the phone, someone spilled milk. In this chaotic environment, a man wearing an iron-gray suit and thin-rimmed glasses looked at his computer with undivided attention. This man had sharp features, a straight nose bridge, and a focused gaze.

Chen An finished reading the financial report sent by Simultaneous Translation Technology and clicked “Next Email.”

Recipient: President Chen of Xingchen Cinema

CC: Director Huang of the Theater Chain, Manager Feng of HR

Subject: Regarding Personnel Deployment from Tongda Film and Television to Xingchen Cinema

Attachments: None

Dear President Chen,

Hello!

I am Cindy from the Operations Department of Tongda Film and Television Media Group’s theater chain company. According to the supplementary agreement signed between your company and ours at the end of last year, and in the spirit of mutual support and joint development, I will be dispatched as a company representative to participate in the operational work at Xingchen Cinema. I feel very honored about this and look forward to Xingchen Cinema achieving impressive box office results through our joint efforts.

Please review my resume attached.

I have begun the handover work at headquarters and am prepared to familiarize myself with Xingchen Cinema’s specific business in advance. I will report to your company after the National Day holiday. If you have a specific contact person, please provide their contact information, or you can directly add my corporate WeChat. Thank you!

Best regards for your business success!

Cindy

[Corporate WeChat QR Code]

September 25, 2020

Chen An skimmed through the email at a glance. Assistant Tang Xin whispered: “Boss, last boarding.”

Chen An closed his computer: “Let’s go.”

Tang Xin followed behind. As Chen An handed his boarding pass to the gate agent, he indeed turned around to scan the waiting area. His gaze was desolate, gentle, and mixed with other complex emotions. Then he turned back and quickly entered the corridor.

The boss was a strange person.

Tang Xin had worked for him for several years. During the handover, her predecessor had instructed her to avoid scheduling business trips to Beijing whenever possible. She didn’t know the reason and didn’t dare ask too many questions, simply following the instruction without error. However, as an investment company, Beijing was an unavoidable city. There were far too many important occasions arranged in Beijing, and as the company’s president, Chen An always had times when he had no choice but to set aside personal preferences and fly to Beijing.

Over these years, Tang Xin had never figured out why exactly the boss didn’t like Beijing.

If you said he didn’t like it, well, when there were no evening arrangements, he would go out alone to wander the streets and alleys. With a few hours to spare, he could still have the interest to visit trendy tourist spots. Passing by vendors selling candied hawthorn skewers, he would have the car stop to buy one, sitting in the back like a child eating while handling business.

Unfathomable. The strange aspects weren’t limited to just one thing.

The boss was always focused and dedicated in his work, but in Beijing, he often spaced out and lost himself in thought, occasionally suddenly looking around in all directions.

When leaving, instead of staying in the spacious and comfortable VIP lounge, he insisted on sitting in the crowded and noisy waiting area.

He didn’t like coming to Beijing, yet when leaving, he would look back with reluctance.

Once back at the company, he returned to his habit of avoiding Beijing in all matters.

Besides this, there were several other strange things.

For instance, the boss never accepted news interviews and detested people posting his photos. The reason was supposedly “someone doesn’t want to see them,” but that was an unverifiable reason passed down from many years ago.

For instance, the boss didn’t often appear at the company. If you wanted to find him in person, you had to go to his hometown of Taixi. She had initially thought he was a mama’s boy, but after going there, she discovered he just lived alone in an old building from a bygone era with cramped floor space.

For instance, the boss had recently acquired a nearly bankrupt cinema in his personal capacity. To be a mind reader for her boss, a few days ago she went to tour that cinema. The employees were lax, the equipment outdated, and it was barely surviving. She had only ever seen the boss’s peers buy yachts, islands, or mansions—at minimum installing luxury home theaters—but none like her boss buying a rundown cinema. After the boss bought it back, he neither managed it nor saved it, letting it rot away.

As the boss’s assistant, yet unable to fathom the boss’s thoughts, Tang Xin often felt her rice bowl was in constant jeopardy.