Xiang Yuan, with a mindset of just giving it a try, turned the doorknob. To her surprise, she found that Xu Yanshi hadn’t locked the door. Overjoyed, she pushed it open and stepped inside.

She tiptoed over to the man, pulled out a chair, and sat down. Xu Yanshi leaned back lazily in his seat. He had his glasses off, eyes closed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He looked less than pleased.

She asked with concern, “Are you okay?”

Xu Yanshi didn’t answer. After a moment of silence, he opened his eyes and put his glasses back on. His gaze, still slightly dazed, fell on her as he asked in a low voice, “You need something?”

That voice carried the kind of husky languor that came right after waking up, making Xiang Yuan’s heart skip a beat. She snapped back to reality, leaned back in her chair, and said with a grin, “I just came to check on you.”

Xu Yanshi let out a lazy smile, still slouched in his seat. He reached out and opened the laptop in front of him, typing in the password one-handed while raising an eyebrow skeptically. “You’re that kind?”

The screen lit up. Xiang Yuan glanced at it from the side. It was impressively clean, with almost nothing on it. Just like she thought. He’s a self-disciplined man who even keeps his computer tidy.

She thoughtfully shifted her gaze away and asked half-jokingly, “Do you know what my name used to be?”

Xu Yanshi glanced at her. “What?”

“Xiang Shanliang^[1]One who is kind and good.” She replied without the slightest hesitation. She always treated it like a joke. “My name was supposed to be Xiang Shan, but the officer registering it at the police station messed up and wrote Xiang Shanliang instead. I used that name for a while until I got mocked by classmates for sounding like a Mary Sue princess. Then I had it changed to Xiang Yuan^[2]Xiang’s Garden. Actually, everyone in my family has changed their names. My grandpa’s name used to be Xiang Guangming^[3]Towards the light, and my brother used to be Xiang Rikui^[4]Sunflower.”

Xu Yanshi finally couldn’t hold it in when he heard the name Xiang Rikui. The corners of his lips lifted in a dry, amused smile, though he was clearly distracted.

All their names were given by Xiang Yuan’s grandmother. Her grandfather’s original name had been Xiang Guangming. Once, during a fierce argument with his wife in their younger days, full of pride and temper, he shouted at her, “If I ever keep indulging your terrible temper, I’ll take your surname!”

The next day, he begrudgingly changed his name to Situ Mingtian. Xiang Yuan had only heard the story from older relatives. Back then, when her grandfather was still Xiang Guangming, Xiang Yuan’s father was only two or three years old. The company was still in its early days, so not many people even knew her grandfather’s original name.

Seeing Xu Yanshi finally crack a smile, she quickly added, “Let me tell you, my brother is hilarious.”

Xu Yanshi still sat there with legs apart, carelessly leaning back in his chair, one hand on the mouse and scrolling through emails. His eyes never left the screen. Even while drinking water, he stared straight ahead, offering no response.

Xiang Yuan rambled on, “When I was in middle school, I bought something on Taobao and got scammed out of two hundred yuan. Then my brother went online and found a hacker to help me recover it……”

Xu Yanshi, still watching his screen, followed up dully, “And then he got scammed out of two thousand?”

Xiang Yuan froze, her mouth falling open in shock. “Huh? How’d you know?”

“You told me. In high school.” Xu Yanshi finally looked over at her.

“I’ve got another one.”

Unusually patient today, Xu Yanshi didn’t tell her to leave. He folded his arms in front of him in a posture that didn’t suit his usual cold demeanor. “Go on.”

“When we were kids, my brother stole money from our grandma. She didn’t find out the first few times. But one day she caught him, and he asked how she knew. Truth was, I told her. I was so scared she’d rat me out, but instead, she said it was the Bodhisattva who told her. My grandma’s a devout Buddhist. Then one day, my brother tried to steal again and got caught. Want to guess what he said?”

Xu Yanshi played along, “What?”

Xiang Yuan grinned mischievously. “He said, the Bodhisattva told him to take it.”

Xu Yanshi burst into laughter.

────ρя


Outside the meeting room, Gao Leng and Shi Tianyou kept glancing through the blinds at the two people inside.

Scratching his head in disbelief, Gao Leng whispered, “This is a miracle. The boss has looked like a thundercloud for days, and now look at him. Smiling like that, arms crossed and leaning back in his chair, all relaxed.”

A chatterbox and a cold prince? It kind of worked.

Shi Tianyou thought the same, sighing with admiration. “I haven’t seen the boss smile like that in forever. Amazing. I should be nicer to Team Leader Xiang from now on. Let her keep cheering him up. The boss is devastatingly handsome when he smiles like that. It’s almost dangerous.”

Gao Leng eyed him suspiciously. “What are you scheming?”

“What am I scheming? You guys are the ones scheming against me!” Shi Tianyou huffed. “Don’t think I don’t know you and Li Chi sneaked sips of my calming tonic. I don’t know if the boss had any, but I’m not taking chances. This time, I’ve hidden it somewhere none of you will ever find.”

Gao Leng rolled his eyes in contempt. No matter where Shi Tianyou hid it, it was useless. You Zhi had been the first to sneak some, and every time Shi Tianyou tried to change hiding spots, You Zhi had already planted a tracker on the box.

Speak of the devil.

You Zhi strolled in just then, sipping Shi Tianyou’s supplement drink like it was his own. What he didn’t expect was for Shi Tianyou to skip his usual afternoon nap and be sitting at his desk.

Shi Tianyou had been waiting to catch the little thief. The calming tonic had just been delivered, and now half a box was already gone!

Gao Leng cleared his throat, signaling madly at You Zhi with his eyes. You Zhi, sharp and fast, quickly hid the bottle behind his back. But Shi Tianyou had already seen it. Stretching, he stood up from his chair, each step heavy like lead as he slowly advanced with exaggerated drama toward the door.

“You Zhi.” He growled. “I never imagined that the real culprit was you!”

Towering at 180 centimeters, Shi Tianyou didn’t hold back when he threw a punch. You Zhi tried to stay cool, though he was already stammering, “C-calm down…… I was just experimenting…… I think the tonic tastes even better mixed with cola. It soothes the mind and the— uh— vigor. In less than a hundred days, it’ll definitely turn you into a woman……”

────ρя


Inside the meeting room.

Perhaps it was the constant glances from Gao Leng through the blinds, or maybe it was the chaos outside with Shi Tianyou and You Zhi’s shouting, but Xu Yanshi found himself annoyed. He reached for the remote and shut the blinds.

Gao Leng shouted outside, “Hey! Won’t even let us watch? Whatever!”

Xu Yanshi leaned back in his chair, shifting to a more comfortable position, and asked, “You came here to tell me jokes?”

“Sort of.” Xiang Yuan scratched her nose awkwardly.

“Yeah, right.” Xu Yanshi didn’t believe her. He casually closed his laptop. “Pouring drinks and cracking jokes…… You could tell I wasn’t in a good mood?”

Xiang Yuan smiled cheerfully. “I just feel like everyone’s been under a lot of pressure lately. Is the situation with Wade really that serious? What’s the worst-case scenario?”

The Wade situation……

Xu Yanshi had quit smoking years ago. This had been the only time in recent years that the pressure in his chest had made him crave a cigarette. But he resisted. He turned his head away and replied in a calm voice, “Not exactly catastrophic. Worst case? They’ll cancel all future collaborations. The parts of the navigation market involving the Wade system might have to be dissolved. We might even have to pay damages for breach of contract. Nothing’s confirmed yet.”

Xiang Yuan looked surprised. “All that, just over this shipment?”

Xu Yanshi forced a smile— cold, bitter, and with a trace of defeat.

“Maybe it has nothing to do with anyone else. We still don’t know.”

The look in his eyes hit Xiang Yuan like a blow. There was something in him, something once proud, now slowly slipping away— and she couldn’t catch it no matter how hard she tried. The man who had once been so brilliant…… It felt like that had been a lifetime ago.

She couldn’t pretend not to notice. Foolishly, she asked him why. Why had it come to this?

Suddenly, she regretted making that bet with her grandfather. If she hadn’t, could she have helped him now? Forget getting into headquarters— whatever he wanted to do, she could pave the way. A house on the Fourth Ring? She could buy him several in the Second. His brother’s illness? She could find the best doctors in the world.

The more she thought about it, the more excited she became, until a quiet cough snapped her back to reality.

Xu Yanshi tapped the table with his index finger. “Talk about your business. You need something from me?”

Oh, right. She was just a girl worrying about a forty-thousand-yuan credit card bill. Xiang Yuan stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point, “You reposted that tech innovation competition earlier, right? I want to join.”

“You?” Xu Yanshi didn’t even try to be polite. “Wrong door. They’re not looking for a host.”

Xiang Yuan took back her sympathy and rolled her eyes. “I want to enter under our company’s name.”

“Reason?”

Her brain spun into high gear, and she recited a quote from Lu Xun^[5]pioneer of modern Chinese literature like it was second nature, “To contribute what I can to the development of the country’s tech industry. To be a passionate, driven youth, shining where I can and burning where I must.”

Xu Yanshi sneered. “You’d be more convincing if you just said you wanted the prize money.”

She grinned. “Well, aren’t you interested? We could split the prize money. Or seventy to thirty, I’m flexible. Honestly, just give me thirty thousand. I’m easy to negotiate with.”

“Not interested.”

Xiang Yuan grew anxious. “Come on, Team Leader Xu. Why not join such a great competition? If you won’t go, then lend me a few of your team members— someone who knows the tech. I really think you’d win if you entered! Why won’t you do it? Besides, you did repost it earlier. That meant you were interested!”

Xu Yanshi still said nothing.

“I really want to join. And maybe we can use this opportunity to rebuild Wade’s trust in us. I’m not just in it for the money. If I can stand alongside you— your team— that’s already more than enough. Even if we don’t win, it’s okay. Life’s full of failure. If we succeeded every time, wouldn’t that make the author of ‘failure is the mother of success’ cry?”

She couldn’t even remember who wrote that quote. Lying her chin on the table, she looked at him pitifully. “Didn’t you wish me success in everything? Well, this is my wish right now!”

Xu Yanshi still kept his head down in silence.

Xiang Yuan quietly reached out and tugged at the sleeve of his jacket, whispering, “Success is hard enough. So what if it has a mother?”

Xu Yanshi looked up slightly and met her eyes that were full of hope. Her innocence, her openness, her curiosity for the unknown and belief in the future— it was a kind of purity he hadn’t seen in years.

It was like she had always been kept safe in a jar of honey. In the past or now, her world had always been clear and bright.

He looked away again and pulled his sleeve from her hand.

Xiang Yuan froze, her smile fading, hand stiff in midair.

“Because of this incident, Wade banned us from the competition.” Xu Yanshi said, leaning back in his chair and turning his head toward the window. His voice was low, as if digging straight into her heart, “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

His gaze, fixed on the world beyond the blinds, looked like that of a caged beast— clearly someone with the power to stand against anything, and yet, at that moment, weighed down by such deep defeat that it hurt to see.