From the morning arrangements to the afternoon rehearsal, the banquet hall was filled with endless calls of, “Manager Lu, come take a look at this…” “Manager Lu, is this setup, okay?” “Manager Lu, where’s xxx?” 

Everyone was looking for Lu Nan, waiting for her to make decisions. 

Dong Hui was so jealous her eyes almost turned red. 

If Brother Xiao wasn’t so biased, she would be the one shining in the banquet hall today! 

Lu Nan was someone who was very sensitive to others’ emotions and intentions. 

She noticed Dong Hui’s jealousy. 

But Lu Nan didn’t care at all. 

If no one’s jealous of you, you’re just ordinary. 

All Dong Hui could do was drown in her own jealousy. As for today’s work, Lu Nan had assigned her tasks to do with Xiang Feifei, which effectively prevented her from making the same mistake she did with the wine cabinet earlier. 

… 

With the event approaching, Lu Nan’s full focus was on the rehearsal. Even when Chen Xiao told her he was going to the provincial office to pick up the finished products, she just nodded casually, acknowledging she heard him. 

Her calm response made Yan Kai feel something was strange. After all, who’s the superior and who’s the subordinate here? 

Yan Kai glanced at Chen Xiao and then at Lu Nan, thinking to himself: Lu Nan has been following up on the entire large-scale tasting event. No one knows the process better than her. It must be because of this that Brother Xiao unconsciously tends to follow her opinion. 

Lu Nan noticed Yan Kai still standing there and quietly urged, “Senior, Zhou Lei is calling for you.” 

“Oh, okay, I’ll go.” Yan Kai said, then left, and Lu Nan turned her attention back to the stage. 

She recalled that during the grand tasting event in her past life, there was an issue during the rehearsal—a model had tripped during the runway practice. 

Since she knew there would be an accident, she had to be prepared. 

Before the rehearsal, Lu Nan had the team check the runway again to make sure there were no obstacles or debris. 

“Since there’s no carpet during the rehearsal and the friction is low, should we have the models not wear high heels?” Lu Nan suggested to Pei Xuedong. 

Pei Xuedong seemed a bit uneasy: “If they don’t walk in high heels a few times, I’m worried they’ll be uncomfortable when it’s time for the real performance, and they might make a mistake.” 

His concern makes sense. Lu Nan didn’t remember exactly when or why the model had tripped last time—she had only seen the aftermath, so all she could do was try to minimize any potential risks: “How about I borrow a roll of carpet from the hotel staff?” 

“That works.” Pei Xuedong nodded. The new carpet could only be laid down after everything was almost ready in the afternoon, so it wouldn’t get dirty before the banquet started. 

Lu Nan went to speak with the banquet hall staff. 

The staff member said, “There’s an old carpet in the storage room.” 

“That’s fine, please bring it to me.” 

Soon, the staff member brought a somewhat worn, deep red carpet on a cart. 

Behind him was Zhao Bin: “Manager Pei, Manager Lu, I heard from Xiao Xu that you need a carpet. Why not use a new one?” 

“Manager Zhao,” Lu Nan nodded at him, “We’re just using it for the rehearsal to prevent slipping. The custom carpet from Feixiang will be put down before the actual event.” 

Zhao Bin understood: “Manager Lu is really meticulous.” 

People just can’t handle compliments. 

Before Lu Nan could even respond with a modest “You’re too kind,” one of the models had tripped on the runway. Since the carpet hadn’t been laid yet, all Lu Nan could think was: No matter how careful she was, she still couldn’t prevent everything. 

Her polite smile turned into a wry one as she looked at Zhao Bin. “Manager Zhao, I’ll handle this.” She quickly followed behind Pei Xuedong. 

“How is it? Can she still move?” Pei Xuedong was anxious. “What happened? How could she be so careless?” 

The model who had fallen had injured her ankle quite badly, and it had already begun swelling. 

She was also frustrated—she hadn’t even been paid yet and had already tripped. With a teary voice, she said, “The floor is too slippery, and my shoes don’t fit well.” 

Pei Xuedong saw her limping with support, clearly unable to continue the rehearsal or the actual performance. Sweat started beading on his forehead. “What should we do?” 

What should they do? 

The people around them were all thinking: They really should have listened to Manager Lu earlier and had the models take off their shoes during the rehearsal, or at least waited for the carpet to arrive before starting. Who could have known such an accident would happen in the blink of an eye? 

In this situation, Lu Nan naturally said, “We must notify Mr. Yang.” This situation was far more serious than the minor bump with the wine cabinet—this wasn’t something Lu Nan and Pei Xuedong could just decide on their own. 

Mr. Yang and his wife were hosting important leaders and clients at the company and wouldn’t be arriving at the hotel for about an hour. 

Pei Xuedong immediately called his brother-in-law, and after hanging up, he said to Lu Nan, “Is Manager Chen here? Mr. Yang said to discuss it with him.” 

Lu Nan shook her head. “Brother Xiao took the team to pick up the display wine. It’s all finished products and very valuable.” 

Maybe, in this life, Chen Xiao trusts my ability too much? He’s not even here right now. 

So, of course, it’s up to me to handle this emergency. 

“What should we do?” Pei Xuedong didn’t even know who to blame anymore. 

Blame the model for being unprofessional? Blame the runway for being too slippery? Blame himself for not being careful enough? 

The number of models for the runway show had already been set. Initially, Lu Nan had suggested having a backup, but models weren’t cheap, and Pei Xuedong didn’t want to increase the expenses. 

Now, it was too late to say anything. 

The runway show required the following products to be displayed: 

Three classic wines (10 years, 15 years, 20 years) 

12 zodiac wines (12 zodiac signs) 

Luxury fragrance wines (30 years, 50 years, 100 years, and Heritage) 

For the runway show, each model has to hold an empty bottle as part of the routine. There are no outfit changes or model swaps during the show. After touring and performing in different spots, the models return to the main stage and strike a pose once all 19 of them are done. 

So, missing one model means there is no one to replace them. It’s impossible to have Model A finish their walk, change into Model B’s outfit, and walk again. 

More importantly, after the runway show begins, it does not mean the work for the day is complete. 

The sixth show on the program is a classical dance medley, and ten of the models still need to perform to get their second paycheck. The girl who twisted her ankle earlier, is among them. 

Pei Xuedong was about to suggest bringing in another model but then checked the time. It was almost 3 PM! Not only would it be hard to find someone on short notice, but even if they did, they might be able to walk the runway fine—but what about dancing? Would there be enough time to learn the routine? This was no joke. 

“Don’t worry,” Lu Nan said, holding her right hand in a loose fist and tapping her left palm a few times. 

She furrowed her brows; this sentence was addressed to Pei Xuedong, but it was also directed at herself. 

A few seconds later, Lu Nan took a deep breath and said to the nearby waitress, who was standing by the cart looking unsure: “Please take this girl to take care of her sprained ankle. Thank you.” 

She then clapped her hands to get the attention of the surrounding people: “Ladies, be careful, the floor is slippery. Take off your high heels for now. Good… Now, which nine of you still need to dance? You, right? Stand over there and don’t move.” 

She asked the remaining nine girls: “Does anyone here have a dance background?” 

The girls responsible for the runway show shook their heads. 

“Have you seen the rehearsals over the past few days and tried following along? Anyone feel like they’ve learned it?” 

The answer was still no. 

This can’t be blamed on them. Lu Nan turned to the nine girls who needed to dance: “Here’s the thing, can you adjust your dance formations? Originally, there were five people on each side of the centerline, but now we need one person at the center position and four on each side.” 

One of the girls spoke up, “Changing the positions is fine, but what about the other movements? It used to be in a petal formation, but how do we change that?” 

“You’ll modify the moves as you go, immediately!” Lu Nan decisively gave instructions. She pointed to one of the runway models and said, “While they’re dancing, record the video. Take three shots from the front, left side, and right side, and as soon as you’re done, show the video to Manager Pei and me.” 

After this sequence of orders, Lu Nan asked, “Brother Pei, do you think this will work?” 

“What else can we do? Let’s try it and see,” Pei Xuedong sighed, wishing Lu Nan would just take over everything. 

The dancers quickly started adjusting their movements, but who knows if it will work. 

And there was still one missing model for the runway—Pei Xuedong looked up and turned to Lu Nan: “Manager Lu, maybe you… Could you step in as the model? You know the program sequence and the order of appearances better than anyone.” 

Lu Nan shook her head. “I’m a bit shorter than they are, so my height wouldn’t match theirs on stage.” It wasn’t actually a big difference—Lu Nan was 1.65 meters tall, while the models were typically around 1.68 to 1.70 meters. But if you looked closely, Lu Nan did seem a little shorter than them. 

Liu Yuhan and Meng Lusi are perfect height-wise, but they’re assigned to stay close to Mr. Yang tonight, handling business and protecting him from drunk guests. That’s far more important than being on stage. 

Both Lu Nan and Pei Xuedong knew this, so neither of them mentioned Liu Yuhan or Meng Lusi. 

“What about asking my colleague to try?” Lu Nan suggested. 

“The one at the sign-in desk?” Among the three female employees of Yuan Chuan today, only Dong Hui had the right height. Pei Xuedong had some impression of her, but it wasn’t a good one. “Can she handle it? She didn’t even do well with something as simple as arranging the wine cabinet. You two had to clean up the mess for her.” 

Lu Nan reassured Pei Xuedong: “At this point, we’ll be lucky if we can find someone who’s close enough.” 

Then she called Dong Hui over. 

When Dong Hui heard what Lu Nan needed, her first thought was, “She’s not trying to set me up, is she?” But then she realized that Lu Nan was the one running the event and probably wanted the show to go smoothly more than anyone. 

Clearly, they were asking for her help, and she was getting a chance to stand out. 

Lu Nan must be really frustrated right now, right? Thinking this, Dong Hui held back her satisfaction and said modestly, “I have done similar part-time work before, so it should be fine.” 

Lu Nan patted Pei Xuedong’s shoulder. “Brother Pei, explain the runway arrangements to her. I’ll go check how the dance moves are coming along.” 

… 

The changes weren’t going too well. 

The girls performing the classical dance did have dance skills, and they learned the moves quickly, but their choreography skills were clearly lacking. 

Lu Nan watched the videos taken from three angles and handed them to Pei Xuedong, who had just arranged for Dong Hui to rehearse. Pei Xuedong gritted his teeth and let out a low hiss: “This… isn’t going to work.” 

Now, she knew what kind of taste Pei Xuedong had. It was that “just barely passing” kind of taste—something that even the design team at Feixiang wanted to complain about! If even he thought it wasn’t good, then it was really not good. 

It wasn’t that these girls were to blame. Their main job is just walking the runway and dancing. If they had choreography skills, they would obviously be taking higher-paying gigs. 

Pei Xuedong frowned and shook his head. “Manager Lu, what should we do?” 

Unknowingly, Pei Xuedong had started to see Lu Nan as the backbone of the situation. 

“It’s my fault for not thinking it through. I was being too optimistic,” Lu Nan admitted. She realized that asking the dancers to change their moves on the spot was a bit unrealistic but people always have a bit of hope, thinking, “What if we can make it work after just a few adjustments?” 

“Manager Lu, don’t say that. You’ve got way more solutions than I do.” Earlier, Pei Xuedong had insisted the models wear high heels for the rehearsal, but now, he didn’t dare blame Lu Nan for anything. He was worried that this calm and resourceful manager wouldn’t help fix the situation. 

“What happened here?” It was Manager Wang asking. Chen Xiao was beside him, along with Yi Wei, who was pushing a flatbed cart filled with display bottles of wine. 

Lu Nan raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you just leave not long ago?” 

“I ran into Manager Wang at the hotel entrance. He already borrowed the wine from the provincial office, and it just happened to be delivered.” Chen Xiao explained quietly. “What happened?” 

Pei Xuedong looked at Chen Xiao like he had seen a savior. He quickly explained what happened—he gave a straightforward version of events, then added the solution Lu Nan had come up with. 

It was an accident. 

No one could have predicted it. 

And no one could claim that if they were in charge, they would’ve avoided this situation completely. 

Of course, Manager Wang and Chen Xiao wouldn’t criticize Lu Nan, because before entering the banquet hall, they had met Manager Zhao from the hotel, who had implied that Lu Nan had acted decisively. Now, after hearing Pei Xuedong explain the situation—if it weren’t for the shortage of classical dancers, Manager Wang and Chen Xiao might have even singled out Lu Nan’s quick thinking for praise. 

However, the reality was that they couldn’t praise Lu Nan yet because of the unresolved issue that came before. 

Even though the mistake wasn’t due to anything Lu Nan did directly, it was still a problem she faced while being in charge. 

The problem wasn’t perfectly solved, and it led to an imperfect performance at the big event. So Lu Nan had to take the hit, even if she didn’t cause the issue. 

That’s the reality of work. 

If you go beyond your job description, you might not get rewarded; but if something goes wrong, even if it’s outside your scope, it’s still your responsibility.