Jiang Shiyan arrived home just before ten. As soon as he lay down after washing up, a message came in from his pinned WeChat contact labeled “ty”.
[ty: You said I’d treat you if I was late, but I just realized you paid!]
[ty: I’m not one to take advantage. How about this: you treated me to 500 yuan per person Japanese food this time, so next time I’ll treat you to 5 yuan per person fried rice, and you can eat as much as you want.]
Jiang Shiyan snorted and replied with his usual gibberish that Tang Yang was all too familiar with.
[t$efvbhu&: Newly promoted, dear? You, Deputy Tang, deal with millions and tens of millions with a flick of your wrist. How can you say that with a straight face?]
[t$efvbhu&: It should be at least 10 yuan per person.]
Tang Yang was a person of principle.
[ty: 8 yuan, not a cent more.]
[t$efvbhu&: I’m grateful for the Chinese philosophy of compromise. As Papa-Lu Xun said, if a room is too dark and one person wants to open a window, others will surely disagree, but if someone suggests tearing down the roof to compromise…]
Even through the screen, one could sense Tang Yang’s cold smirk.
Before she could block him, Jiang Shiyan quickly reined in his playfulness.
[t$efvbhu&: They’ve renovated several streets in the old town. Call me when you’re free.]
There was still no reply from the other side.
Jiang Shiyan made a voice call: “I heard there’s a place that serves Meiwayutou…” He hadn’t finished speaking.
Tang Yang: “Go, go, go!”
Heaven knows, every winter she would indulge in Meiwayutou while repenting that she’d never eat so much again next winter.
Heaven knows B City didn’t have this dish, and her craving had reached its peak.
Jiang Shiyan lazily chuckled: “Young ladies shouldn’t use such coarse language.”
Tang Yang yawned: “Who’s a young lady? Five-character name, awesome!”
————
The next day was Sunday.
Before 9 AM, Tang Yang was already at the bank. The cubicle closest to her office was already occupied.
The female colleague was named Fan Linlang, the same age as Tang Yang. She joined Huishang Bank right after her undergraduate degree, spent three years in a branch, and four years in the Credit Review Department. She was considered Tang Yang’s direct subordinate.
As soon as Tang Yang appeared at the door, she stood up. When Tang Yang came over, she followed her in, wanting to help carry her bag.
“No need,” Tang Yang thanked her, taking off her coat while asking, “Have you finished entering the regular cases? Are these the special cases on the desk?” Tang Yang glanced at the height of the stack, about ten centimeters.
“I’ve pre-screened the special cases for you, leaving only the necessary ones on your desk,” Fan Linlang said. “There are a few that get rejected every month but are always resubmitted with the same content. They definitely won’t pass review, so I’ve removed them for you.”
The purpose of management trainee rotations was to familiarize oneself with departmental processes. During their tenure, if they had one or two outstanding business deals, it would be considered a success, and they’d move on to the next department. Moreover, loan approvals were now a lifetime responsibility. Once you signed your name on the approval line, no matter where you went in the future, that loan would follow your file. If the borrower defaulted or delayed repayment, the approver would bear corresponding responsibility.
The fewer loans Tang Yang handled, the less responsibility she’d bear.
Fan Linlang was reasonably helping Tang Yang reduce her workload, with a hint of seeking credit in her tone.
Tang Yang naturally heard this. She hung her coat on the back of her chair, her expression unchanged: “I still need to review them. Please go downstairs and retrieve them for me.”
Fan Linlang’s smile froze for a moment, then returned to normal: “I don’t know if they’ve been returned to the customers yet… But if I sent them back yesterday, the branch should keep them until Monday.”
Tang Yang: “I don’t like others interfering with my work,” she paused, then said gently, “but thank you for your good intentions.”
“Yang Jie, what are you saying? It was my presumption.” Fan Linlang and Tang Yang nodded to each other, and she immediately returned to her seat to call the branch.
Setting aside how Fan Linlang had introduced Tang Yang to good restaurants when she first arrived, in terms of work, Tang Yang liked such experienced colleagues, even considering them half-friends.
If you said something, she’d understand immediately. If she occasionally overstepped, you could point it out, and she wouldn’t get angry.
If it were some fresh interns, in that situation, they’d probably post several moments on WeChat crying about how no good deed goes unpunished and how they’ve encountered workplace bullying.
Of course, Tang Yang had never experienced that.
————
Fan Linlang brought the documents back quickly, but Tang Yang, contrary to her habit, reviewed them slowly.
When she got to one particular file, Tang Yang couldn’t move past it no matter what. She barely ate two bites of bread for lunch and postponed her afternoon blind date.
After hanging up the phone with her mother and returning to the office, Tang Yang looked at the ID photo on the document again and suddenly realized—this was the waitress she had bumped into at the Japanese restaurant last night.
Zhang Zhilan, 29 years old, has two children, one seven years old, and the other three. Previously a full-time housewife, widowed a year ago, now a single mother.
Her fixed monthly salary was 3,800 yuan, and with her mother-in-law’s salary, their annual income was less than 50,000 yuan.
The mortgage value of their single-story house was 70,000 yuan, and a van was mortgaged for 20,000 yuan. Then, she filled in a loan amount of 1.8 million yuan, to buy a second-hand river-view apartment in a well-known residential area.
From their brief encounter, Tang Yang felt that she didn’t have mental issues, at least not visibly.
But thinking carefully, with an annual income of 50,000 yuan, after deducting living expenses and costs for two children, she’d have at most 20,000 yuan left. Even without considering interest, it would take 90 years to repay 1.8 million yuan.
Even if Huishang Bank’s loan threshold was as low as dust sprouting flowers, they still couldn’t lend to her. The bank wasn’t brainless.
The head of the Credit Review Department was also a management trainee, 31 years old, married, named Gan Yiming.
Perhaps because they were alumni, he was particularly considerate towards Tang Yang.
Gan Yiming invited everyone out for afternoon tea.
“Where’s Deputy Tang?” He pushed open the door to Tang Yang’s office and saw the woman looking serious.
“Why the long face?” Gan Yiming said, “What to do if the supermarket only sells Cute-dos and not Happy-dos?”
Tang Yang was used to his glib remarks. She composed herself and stood up, saying: “It’s about Zhang Zhilan’s case. Something’s off.”
“Oh, her,” Gan Yiming explained to Tang Yang, “Her case is problematic, but the branch submitted it to pad their numbers. We can’t approve it, but they keep sending it back up after we reject it. From February last year to this January, count how long it’s been… Just reject it directly.”
Tang Yang asked: “Has there been any in-depth investigation?”
Gan Yiming said: “There’s no need.”
Tang Yang said: “The more unusual it is, the more necessary it becomes.”
Fan Linlang chimed in: “What’s necessary?”
Tang Yang half-jokingly said: “To understand how crazy our countrymen can get about buying houses. Also, doesn’t the whole bank require each department to provide case studies every year? Putting this up would be an excellent negative example. Otherwise, we’d just be copying and modifying last year’s examples every year. How boring is that?”
Gan Yiming gave his assistant a look: “Did you note that down?” Then he turned and said, “Everyone, learn from Deputy Tang. This kind of foresight is the mark of someone destined for great things.”
Tang Yang made a wry face: “I’m only 159cm in shoes but claim to be 160cm. What foresight can I have? Short-sightedness, more like.”
Everyone burst into laughter.
————
Others thought Tang Yang was just joking.
After afternoon tea, having finished her work, Tang Yang browsed maps in her office.
Zhang Zhilan’s home address was in the old town. Tang Yang hadn’t heard of that street before. Remembering that someone had mentioned the old town had been renovated, Tang Yang sent a text: “Familiar with the old town? South Jin Street.”
Jiang Shiyan replied instantly: “Very familiar, it’s opposite North Jin Street.”
Tang Yang sent another: “Working overtime? Free to accompany me there?”
From this, Jiang Shiyan knew Tang Yang was free. He called back: “Don’t you know the best thing about being your boss is being free anytime? For example, while you crawl to work early in the morning and sit miserably in front of a computer all day, I sleep until I naturally wake up, bored enough to scroll through Weibo posts from three days ago…”
He continued dramatically with an “Oh my”: “Sorry, I forgot. Someone could never be their boss, after all. Buying a bank is quite challenging.”
Tang Yang smirked coldly, about to hang up.
The other party, like a worm in her belly, immediately suppressed his playfulness and asked in a low voice: “It’s four now… four-thirty, shall I wait for you downstairs at Huishang?”
A “Wait for your sister” was on the tip of Tang Yang’s tongue, but then she thought about her poor sense of direction, which was inversely proportional to her beauty. She also considered that she’d be using Jiang Shiyan’s car, his driver, and his time.
Tang Yang softened her tone, pinching her voice to sound coy and sweet: “Okay~~”
Jiang Shiyan’s hand trembled, nearly dropping his phone.
Tang Yang pressed the back of her right hand with her left, smiling and taking deep breaths, one, two.
She silently recited: Life is like a play, you and I met by fate, it’s just you playing games while I work hard. Buddha says, be calm, be calm…
————
Jiang Shiyan’s Yixiu Media releases a set of special documentaries every year at the beginning of the year.
When Tang Yang texted him, he was listening to various producers pitch their topics.
The great Ji was indeed bored enough to check his Jump Jump rankings at noon, but he was extremely busy in the afternoon.
The consequence of leaving early and putting on airs was that his assistant wailed that they must have results today, or else the sample videos couldn’t be released. Jiang Shiyan wore a Bluetooth earpiece, driving while listening to everyone’s passionate presentations.
Some approached from the angle of storytelling, some from state-owned enterprises, some from selling cabbage.
The most common topic was the rejuvenation of academia. University professors playing Honor of Kings and going clubbing.
Jiang Shiyan, having rarely been praised by teachers in his student days, naturally had no fondness for this profession.
He heard a producer reading out a potential subject: “Professor of Physics at Jiaotong University, Jia Nan, 33 years old, specializing in quantum physics and…”
Tang Yang had mentioned that her previous blind date was 33 years old, a university professor teaching quantum physics.
“Wait,” Jiang Shiyan said.
On the other end of the earpiece, everyone held their breath.
After a long while.
Jiang Shiyan’s assistant asked on the other end: “Mr. Ji…”
Jiang Shiyan: “Continue.”
————
Tang Yang exited the building right at 4:30, immediately spotting Jiang Shiyan standing on the steps, talking on the phone. His foot idly played with the embossed pattern on the ground. His four-ringed R8 and the winter sunlight formed the backdrop, parked at the bottom of the steps.
Tang Yang felt her bag vibrate and waved at him.
Jiang Shiyan put away his phone.
As she approached.
Tang Yang: “How long have you been here?”
Jiang Shiyan: “Just arrived.”
Jiang Shiyan looked Tang Yang up and down, then after a while, said: “You should wear less pink in the future.”
“Don’t you know middle-aged girls love pink?” Tang Yang followed his gaze to see the cream stain she had accidentally spilled on the hem of her down jacket at noon. She futilely wiped it a couple of times, “Light colors do get dirty easily…”
Jiang Shiyan said seriously: “It makes you look fat.”
Tang Yang choked on her breath, looked up at him directly, and smiled: “Do you know why you still don’t have a girlfriend?”
Jiang Shiyan’s next sentence: “You look almost 90 jin now.”
The 92-jin Deputy Tang, who was good at hiding her weight, immediately smiled with crinkled eyes, patting his arm: “Too! Excellent!”
Both sides’ compliments were very sincere.
Deputy Tang was willing to overlook the tension in Jiang Shiyan’s phone call, and Jiang Shiyan was equally willing to overlook Deputy Tang’s messy blind dates, reaching a temporary truce.
The great Ji’s eyes held a hint of a smile as he opened the car door, bent down, and extended his hand in invitation to the smug-faced little friend.
Deputy Tang cleared her throat, putting on a bit of a workplace elite air, and gracefully and cheerfully got into his beloved car.