When Shang Zhitao returned home, Sun Yu happened to be there, making clothes for Luke. As she put it, “Autumn is coming soon, doesn’t our Luke need a nice trench coat too?” Sun Yu had taken out one of her old trench coats, measured it against Luke’s size, then cut it. She used a small sewing machine for the thicker parts and hand-stitched the delicate areas with needle and thread.

“Luke must be the happiest dog in the world, having his autumn outfit handmade by a dating industry mogul.”

Sun Yu patted Luke’s head and asked her, “Why are you home so early today?”

“I have a business trip tomorrow, 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 business trip with me. Fortunately, Sun Yuanzhu will be back tomorrow morning.” After speaking, Shang Zhitao sat down in front of Sun Yu and said, “I don’t like your new boyfriend.”

“It’s not like I like him either.” Sun Yu giggled. “Let’s not discuss this. I’m going to Shanghai early tomorrow. There’s an entrepreneur training camp where many people meet big shots and secure investments after attending. Our company pooled funds to send me on this important mission. Where are you going tomorrow?”

“To Dunhuang. Taking S-level clients on an 108-kilometer hike. Four days and three nights, six days round trip. So this Shanghai trip of yours carries the responsibility for your entire company’s rise.” Shang Zhitao thought for a moment and asked Sun Yu, “Do you have a project introduction?”

“Yes, why?”

“I once overheard Luan Nian on the phone. He seems to have a friend who just joined an investment bank. I don’t know which one, but they evaluate projects overseas. I could ask him for you.”

“Would that be convenient?”

“Of course. Give it to me. Didn’t you say relationships should be used if available? I don’t usually need them, so what’s wrong with using them for my friend?” She finished with a hearty laugh.

They chatted for a long time. Shang Zhitao got a bit hungry and went to the kitchen to cook Sun-style hot and sour noodles. They each had a bowl, eating while discussing the progress of Sun Yu’s company. It had finally started to show improvement, with online data picking up. Sun Yu’s worry was how to prevent unscrupulous practitioners from registering on their platform, so she spent money on information verification, reviewing inappropriate content daily. Business builds up bit by bit, and difficulties that couldn’t be predicted before gradually appear at your doorstep. Having to level up and defeat monsters every day had transformed Sun Yu, with her sales background, into someone who could talk fluently about content compliance and materials—work had forced her to become an expert.

The two chatted for a long time. Luke’s trench coat was finally done. Sun Yu pulled him over, put it on him, and carefully checked the fit, as if he were a child. That night, as Shang Zhitao packed her luggage, Luke knew his owner was leaving as soon as she opened the suitcase. He stood in the empty suitcase, not letting Shang Zhitao pack her clothes, with pitiful eyes saying: If you’re leaving, take me too!

Shang Zhitao patted his head. “Will you wait for me to come back? Brother Yuanzhu will walk you and feed you.” It took a great effort to lift Luke out of the suitcase. Early the next morning, Sun Yu left. Just before Shang Zhitao was about to leave, Sun Yuanzhu returned.

It seemed like she hadn’t seen Sun Yuanzhu for nearly two months. He had lost some weight and was tanned from the wind and sand. Luke jumped up to greet him. He picked Luke up and spun him around as if holding a girlfriend.

“Weren’t you supposed to come back later?”

“Changed flights.” Sun Yuanzhu took out some dates from his suitcase and gave them to Shang Zhitao. “These are for you all.” His fingertips felt a bit hot.

“Do you have a fever?” Shang Zhitao ran to her room to get a thermometer. “Let’s check.”

“I don’t have a fever,” Sun Yuanzhu shook his head.

“You have a fever. Take your temperature.” Shang Zhitao insisted.

Sun Yuanzhu couldn’t refuse her and sat on the living room sofa with the thermometer under his arm.

38.4 degrees Celsius. Sun Yuanzhu was sick. There was no fever reducer at home, so Shang Zhitao rushed out to buy some. She checked the time and realized she couldn’t catch her flight, so she sent a message to Lu Mi: “I have something to take care of, need to change my flight.”

“Go ahead. Other colleagues are keeping an eye on things. Today wasn’t your main event anyway.”

“Okay.”

Shang Zhitao had developed a habit of arriving early even when it wasn’t her primary responsibility, helping colleagues with preparations. But today she couldn’t. Sun Yuanzhu was sick. She went to the pharmacy, bought medicine, and rushed back home. Sun Yuanzhu had fallen asleep on the sofa. Shang Zhitao 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, seeing that he had fallen asleep, searched for a pen and paper on his desk to write medication instructions.

Sun Yuanzhu turned over and called her, “Taotao.”

Shang Zhitao 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 Taotao, and it sounded a bit sad. Shang Zhitao’s heart felt pierced by something, causing a bit of pain.

“What is it, Sun Yuanzhu? I’m here.”

After a very long time, Sun Yuanzhu finally said, “Don’t worry about me, just go.”

“I changed to a later flight,” Shang Zhitao said. “I’ll make you something to eat at noon, and Zhang Lei will come to take care of you after he gets off work in the afternoon.”

Sun Yuanzhu nodded and said to Shang Zhitao, “There are dates from the Northwest in my backpack for all of you.”

“I’ll wash some and eat them now.”

“Good.”

Shang Zhitao went to his backpack to get the dates, washed them, and when she went to check on him again, he was already asleep. That “Taotao” just now seemed as if it wasn’t he who had called her. Shang Zhitao sat in the living room, opened her laptop, and started handling work.

Lu Mi sent her a message: “I was just at security, didn’t ask you properly. What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“Sun Yuanzhu is sick.”

“That angel roommate of yours?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should take good care of him. Go ahead! See you tonight.”

Lu Mi put away her phone and saw that the bosses had all arrived at the gate. Dony and Luan Nian were standing together, seemingly discussing something. Luan Nian even smiled.

Lu Mi thought to herself, You stubborn donkey, why don’t you make a move!

Dony was talking to Luan Nian about the new strategy. The board was fighting fiercely, and nothing had been decided yet. He hoped Luan Nian would take a stance. Luan Nian hedged: “Last year’s strategy adjustment and new project were reported seven times and modified seven times. The board—if it were easy to coordinate, it wouldn’t be called a board. We still need to continue communicating.”

“If we keep communicating, the year will be over.”

“There’s plenty of time.” Luan Nian patted his shoulder, glancing around, but didn’t see Shang Zhitao.

It was nearly ten o’clock when Shang Zhitao arrived at the hotel. Dony was at the hotel entrance talking to someone. Shang Zhitao nodded at him and walked past without stopping. She wasn’t a fresh graduate anymore, being extremely respectful to everyone in the workplace. She had also learned that with people she didn’t like, she could just think, “Go to hell.”

She simply disliked Dony.

Not only because of his inexplicable question and the way he looked at her, but also because he was overreaching and showed aggressiveness toward Luan Nian.

In her heart, Shang Zhitao sided with Luan Nian. She felt that in this matter, she wasn’t being rational, simply because she slept with Luan Nian and they had drunk from that bottle of water called “One Heart.”

After quickly checking in, Lu Mi had already changed into her pajamas and was applying a face mask. Seeing Shang Zhitao come in, she asked, “Has the angel’s fever gone down?”

“He’s still running a fever. Zhang Lei is taking care of him.”

Lu Mi pressed her head against the window, looking at the northwestern wind. As she looked, she complained, “Our company is quite ridiculous. What’s with this Dunhuang hiking trip? Wouldn’t it be better to lie on a beach?”

“They say S-level clients all like this.”

Lu Mi clicked her tongue and suddenly leaned forward, almost sticking her body out the window.

“What are you doing?”

“Which room is Dony staying in?”

“Huh?”

“Which room is he staying in?”

Shang Zhitao told her a room number, and Lu Mi threw on a coat, pulling Shang Zhitao along. “Let’s go!”

Shang Zhitao followed her suspiciously, climbing the stairs to the corner of Dony’s floor. Lu Mi stopped, set her phone to record, and held the camera side.

…

Shang Zhitao was a bit confused. Lu Mi put her finger to her lips: “Shh.”

After who knows how long, Shang Zhitao heard the sound of a door opening and closing. Lu Mi withdrew her phone, pulled Shang Zhitao back to their room, closed the door, and tossed the phone to Shang Zhitao. “Here, take a look.”

Shang Zhitao opened the video, which was shot at an upward angle. Kitty was standing outside a room door. The door opened, and Shang Zhitao saw a hand placed on Kitty’s waist, pulling her inside.

Her eyes widened. “You… how…”

“How did I know to do this, right? I’ve helped my girlfriends catch cheaters before.”

“No, I mean, how did you know Kitty would go find him?”

“Intuition.”

It was pure intuition. When Kitty walked by, Dony’s eyes fell on her buttocks—not a good look at all. Lu Mi had seen it clearly from upstairs.

“I knew that bitch Kitty would pull this kind of thing. Every time she dresses like that and goes to Luke’s office, her intentions are clear as day. I like Luke because he doesn’t fall for her tricks.”

“What if he did?”

“Kitty? If someone like her slept with Luke, wouldn’t she tell the whole world?”

“Oh, oh, oh, oh.”

Shang Zhitao acknowledged this with a series of “ohs,” then asked Lu Mi, “What should we do with this video?”

“Keep it.” Lu Mi lay on the bed. “It’ll come in handy someday.”

“My mentor is something.” Shang Zhitao gave her a thumbs up. Lu Mi giggled, “That’s what she gets for messing with me for no reason!”

Lu Mi was just that righteous in her hatred of evil. Shang Zhitao had learned quite a few tactics from her. They turned off the lights and talked. When they got to the topic of Dony, Shang Zhitao told Lu Mi, “I hate him because in his office, he asked me if I had a boyfriend and even mentioned that he was single. I found him extremely frivolous.”

“He asked you that?”

“Yes.”

“This dog of a man is too much. He looks like a decent person, but is rotten. Just the fact that he slept with Kitty so quickly says it all.”

“Why is he so fearless?”

“Maybe because he’s never suffered consequences in this area, or maybe because he has strong backing. Hard to say.”

“Oh.”

Strong backing—would that mean Luan Nian would lose out? Shang Zhitao worried about Luan Nian. But Luan Nian seemed not to take Dony seriously at all, going about his daily business as usual, just appearing a bit more relaxed than before.

Shang Zhitao hadn’t told Luan Nian about Dony asking if she was single. She felt it wasn’t necessary; she could handle it herself. The important thing was not to bow to him.

She was getting a bit sleepy. She picked up her phone and sent a message to Luan Nian: “Tomorrow when we set out, will you be in the same car as Mr. Jiang?”

“Are you crazy?”

Luan Nian replied.

Shang Zhitao sent back a smiley face: “I’m serious. This afternoon during our meeting, we arranged for you to be in the same car.”

…

Shang Zhitao closed her eyes to sleep, with that “Taotao” still echoing in her ears.

Somehow, her heart ached just a little.