Luan Nian tried to understand Shang Zhitao’s joy, but he honestly didn’t think passing probation was anything worth celebrating. His past twenty-eight years had been smooth sailing, so he couldn’t relate to Shang Zhitao’s current swelling sense of satisfaction.

“Give me your wallet,” Luan Nian reached out to Shang Zhitao.

“Why?”

“I’m afraid you’ll drink too much and won’t be able to pay the bill.”

…Shang Zhitao obediently took out her wallet and gave it to Luan Nian. How to describe her wallet? It had an ink painting on it, and looking more carefully, there were two dogs in the picture, a strange collage of images. Luan Nian frowned slightly: concerning aesthetic taste.

“Enough cash?” Luan Nian asked.

“Not enough.”

“Which card should I use?”

Shang Zhitao stood up, took back her wallet, and pulled out a card to hand to Luan Nian: “This one.” She was going all in—if she was treating, she might as well go through with it, just this once.

“Password.”

“062400.” 0624 was Xin Zhaozhou’s birthday. Couples in love often use each other’s birthdays as special passwords. After breaking up, it should have been changed, but Shang Zhitao was lazy and never modified it.

“Alright. Drink up.”

Shang Zhitao was very happy and had two more small cups, but stopped there. Her alcohol tolerance wasn’t good, and she felt a bit dizzy. She shook her head, saying no more, no more. Yet after saying no, she took another sip.

Luan Nian didn’t stop her and focused on eating the foie gras and sashimi. It had been a while since he’d had Japanese food, and now that he was eating it, he found the taste quite good and his appetite opened up. The girl across from him had a flushed face, and once again he thought her silliness went well with the alcohol.

Luan Nian, a calculating person, was slowly weaving a web. After repeatedly having thoughts about Shang Zhitao, he immediately made a decision—he wanted to do something with this woman. But he needed the right timing. He wanted to do something with Shang Zhitao without getting too entangled with her. If they could satisfy each other’s needs without having to be responsible for each other, that would be the perfect state.

“Going to the mountains was voluntary?” he suddenly asked Shang Zhitao. The company environment was like this: veterans bullied newcomers, higher positions bullied lower positions, and those with connections bullied those without. It was hard to have purely professional relationships unless someone was extremely capable and their position couldn’t do without them.

“Yes, it was.” Shang Zhitao had drunk a lot of water, and her dizziness had improved somewhat. “I’ve never done it before and wanted to try. I want to learn many, many things and become a very, very capable person. Like Kitty.” Shang Zhitao became talkative after drinking.

“Why be like Kitty?”

“Kitty is amazing. She knows everything, can do everything, and does everything beautifully.”

Luan Nian glanced at her but didn’t engage with her comment.

“If Kitty weren’t amazing, she wouldn’t have entered the Creative Center. Everyone in the company knows that the Creative Center and Planning Department always pick the best.”

“Rather than blindly comparing yourself to others, you’d be better off finding a big tree to lean on,” Luan Nian spoke with a mix of truth and jest.

“I’m a stranger here, whose leg should I cling to?”

“Tracy’s.”

“I’m not close to Tracy.”

“Then you could try clinging to my leg.”

Hmm? Shang Zhitao suddenly recalled the jumbled thoughts from that night, the idea that Luan Nian wanted to take advantage of her. She put her hands in front of her chest, expression guarded: “I won’t sell myself.”

Luan Nian rarely lost his composure, but being caught with his secret thoughts by Shang Zhitao, he nearly spat out his drink: “Are you okay?”

“But you told me to cling to your leg? I’m just a young girl who’s new here, unfamiliar with everything, no money, and average abilities—what do I have to offer in exchange for your support?”

Luan Nian pointed at Shang Zhitao: “Move your hands?”

“Hmm?”

“Move them.”

Shang Zhitao moved her hands away, looking suspiciously at Luan Nian. He examined her chest and then smirked: “Your concerns are truly unnecessary.” Luan Nian laughed: “Shang Zhitao, do you think I want to sleep with you? Do I lack women?”

Shang Zhitao’s face turned red.

“Stop dreaming!” Luan Nian knocked on her head across the table: “Wait for a sunny weekend and dry out the water in your brain.”

Damn.

Aren’t I quite good? Shang Zhitao looked down at her clothes, feeling wronged.

The two of them ate for a very long time. When Shang Zhitao stood up, she wobbled. Luan Nian asked the server to pour her water, and true to his word, he took Shang Zhitao’s wallet to pay.

Luan Nian did make Shang Zhitao pay for the meal. After paying, he returned the wallet to her, not forgetting to thank her: “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. It’s my pleasure.”

“Congratulations on being formally hired,” Luan Nian said very sincerely. He now felt that Tracy was right—a company should have a diverse talent structure. A team shouldn’t just be filled with elites; it should also have people like this, interesting fools.

They left the restaurant. Luan Nian didn’t call his driver but stood with Shang Zhitao at the roadside to hail a taxi. She wasn’t standing steadily, and the wind had messed up her hair. With laughter diffusing in her clear eyes, she seriously said to Luan Nian: “I won’t sell myself.”

As if encouraging herself, her nervousness was visible to Luan Nian, and he suddenly understood: Shang Zhitao liked him.

====

Shang Zhitao left with Lu Mi. On the plane, Lu Mi said to Shang Zhitao: “Usually we call the people in the marketing department ‘masters,’ but when you get there, you’ll find that marketing people are just their errand runners—one moment they’re thirsty, the next they’re hungry, the next there are big bugs in the hotel. At home I’m used to having everything handed to me, but here I have to serve those fussy people.”

Shang Zhitao was bent over with laughter at Lu Mi’s words.

Lu Mi was a young lady; for her, work was just a way to pass the time. So she wasn’t afraid of anyone, but she also didn’t have much ambition. In her words: “What’s so great about being an official? Officials’ salaries aren’t even as much as the rent I collect!” She was considered a force to be reckoned with in the company, and colleagues all gave her some respect.

They got off the plane, met up with the filming crew, and boarded a large bus. The group of more than a dozen people journeyed majestically for over six hours before finally reaching a small town in the mountains. The small town was no more than a kilometer from east to west, with houses at varying heights. It was already 2010, yet there were still such small towns—Shang Zhitao found it novel.

Kitty held a camera and took pictures everywhere, saying in her words: “This is a perfect opportunity to experience life.”

Lu Mi pursed her lips and said to Shang Zhitao: “Experience life? She thinks she’s a fairy descending to the mortal world?”

Shang Zhitao hurriedly covered her mouth. Her heart was constantly up and down, feeling that Lu Mi would eventually get into a fight with Kitty. Lu Mi didn’t like Kitty; she thought Kitty was too “pretentious.”

After Kitty left, the commercial director handed Lu Mi a list of shooting locations, very politely asking them to help coordinate the filming locations.

“Haven’t they been finalized?” Lu Mi asked.

“We took a rough look before.”

Lu Mi took the stack of papers and pulled Shang Zhitao along: “See? It’s starting already.”

The town, from here to there, didn’t look far. But walking was tiring. Shang Zhitao took a few steps and almost tripped. The branches of the large trees extended underground and then emerged from the ground for a section, which she hadn’t seen.

The two of them trudged along, checking each filming location one by one. By the time they had seen them all, the sky was completely dark.

The temperature dropped after dark in the mountains. The two of them, shivering with cold, walked back. When they reached their accommodation, they saw everyone else dressed warmly, sitting outside drinking and chatting. Kitty, seeing Shang Zhitao, waved to her: “Flora, you’re back! The work in the marketing department is too hard. If it were me, I definitely couldn’t do it.”

Lu Mi clicked her tongue: “Seeing Kitty gathering material, I think your physical stamina should be quite good. When you have free time tomorrow, join us at the filming location behind the mountain.”

Kitty didn’t dare to offend Lu Mi, so she smiled at them and continued talking to others.

Kitty didn’t like Shang Zhitao. The reason she didn’t like her was that she had accidentally seen Shang Zhitao’s resume and felt that she had gotten into Lingmei purely by luck. Kitty always believed she should be with similarly excellent people, and being in the same batch as Shang Zhitao made her doubt her abilities. Not only that, Kitty hated Shang Zhitao’s personality. Always smiling, saying everything was good no matter what others said—a person without ability relying on hard work to build good relationships wasn’t worthy of respect.

Shang Zhitao didn’t know Kitty’s thoughts. She only knew that Kitty didn’t like her that much because the way Kitty spoke to her was completely different from how she spoke to others. But this didn’t matter; Shang Zhitao didn’t care.

She and Lu Mi each ate a mouthful of hot instant noodles before crawling into their beds. The mountains were too cold, and there was no hot water today, so neither of them wanted to wash their faces. They barely managed to brush their teeth.

Thinking that the day had ended once they got into bed, after everything quieted down, they heard rustling sounds from the corner of the wall. Shang Zhitao sat up and turned on the light, seeing a rat in the corner. The rat was as big as a foot, fat and greasy, and when it saw the light, it started scurrying around the room frantically.

Shang Zhitao had been afraid of rats since childhood. She screamed and jumped off the bed, then remembered the rat was on the floor and jumped back onto the bed. Lu Mi was also afraid; her scream was even louder than Shang Zhitao’s. She jumped onto Shang Zhitao’s bed, and the two hugged each other.

Their screams woke everyone up. Male colleagues knocked on the door, and Shang Zhitao and Lu Mi rushed to the door and ran out.

“What happened?”

“A big rat! This big!” Lu Mi gestured to her colleagues: “Didn’t you say you put rat poison down before we arrived?”

The innkeeper also came out and, hearing this, looked a bit embarrassed: “We ran out of rat poison, and there were two rooms where we didn’t put any… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll go to the county town to buy some tomorrow.”

Shang Zhitao wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said: “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

She was really scared. Her hands and feet were ice-cold. She knew coming to the mountains would be difficult, but she didn’t expect to be defeated by a rat on the first night. Fortunately, some kind male colleagues exchanged rooms with them.

Shang Zhitao lay on the hard wooden bed, listening to the sounds outside, feeling very sorry towards Lu Mi: “Lu Mi, I’m sorry. If I hadn’t insisted on coming here, you wouldn’t have to suffer with me.”

“Don’t say such useless things, I came to experience life,” Lu Mi comforted Shang Zhitao. “After experiencing this, I can appreciate normal happiness. When I go back, I’ll kowtow to my parents twice.”

“How about I treat you to a meal when we get back?”

“Forget the meal. When we get back, you can cover two of my shifts! You know I don’t like working overtime…”

“I’ll cover your shifts for a whole month.”