There were no direct flights from Beijing to Shangri-La, so they had to transfer once in Kunming.
Former intern Tan Xiao used his connection with the president to smuggle himself into WenCheng’s luxurious corporate-retreat delegation.
The mid-to-senior managers attending the event departed from different parts of the country and arranged their own travel. Everyone only needed to assemble at the event venue in Shangri-La on time.
Zhang Xingchuan brought Tan Xiao. Traveling with them were Special Assistant Jiaxin and Administrative Secretary Feng, forming the President & President’s Office team.
During the second leg after the Kunming transfer, they encountered another group of WenCheng employees booked on the same flight to Shangri-La: an executive Tan Xiao did not know and the executive’s two assistants.
The two groups met in the VIP lounge at Kunming Changshui International Airport.
Tan Xiao was telling Zhang Xingchuan and Jiaxin a compilation of stupid things he had done while rushing for flights in the past. Both of them completely got his sense of humor.
Secretary Feng sat nearby looking baffled. He had no idea what was so funny. If those things happened to him, he would only feel humiliated and wear a mask every time he returned to that airport so the staff would not recognize him. But the president was laughing, so Feng had no choice but to smile too. Seriously, when had the president’s threshold for humor become this low? He laughed at everything Tan Xiao said. Secretary Feng’s fake smile was making his cheek muscles ache.
Zhang Xingchuan noticed someone familiar coming in from outside. His expression immediately composed itself and he rose to greet him. The other man walked over. They shook hands, then automatically shifted into a booth to talk.
The accompanying staff found other seats nearby without being told.
“That’s President Fu,” Jiaxin quietly introduced him to Tan Xiao from the sidelines. “He’s also one of WenCheng’s co-founders.”
With that clue, Tan Xiao knew who he was. During his internship, he had learned the company culture and WenCheng’s history.
WenCheng had three co-founders. One had left very early because of differences in personal vision. The only two still at WenCheng were Zhang Xingchuan and this President Fu. Fu had been based in Guangdong and Hong Kong for the last few years, so Tan Xiao had never met him.
Tan Xiao looked toward the booth several times, curious about WenCheng’s CFO.
Zhang Xingchuan quickly noticed him peeking and sent him a questioning look, even appearing ready to get up and ask what was wrong.
Tan Xiao immediately waved to indicate everything was fine and told him with his expression to go discuss actual business with President Fu.
On the first flight from Beijing, Jiaxin had fallen asleep and missed the meal service. Now, during the layover, with the president off talking to someone else, she enthusiastically attacked the lounge buffet.
Secretary Feng sat farther away with his laptop open, deliberately keeping his distance from Tan Xiao so the university guy with far too much E in him would not try chatting him up again.
But Secretary Feng was highly sensitive to the atmosphere between people. That morning at Daxing Airport, the moment he saw Tan Xiao appear with the president, apparently also traveling to Yunnan, he had already sensed their relationship had become closer than before.
Now he observed the looks exchanged between Tan Xiao and the president. Could it be…?
Could it be that after finishing his PhD, Tan Xiao would parachute directly into the President’s Office, instantly rise to prominence, and become the president’s right-hand man?
The boarding announcement sounded. Every WenCheng employee present was in business class, though the aircraft was narrow-body.
When Jiaxin had checked everyone in and selected seats, she had correctly interpreted the higher will. Tan Xiao and Zhang Xingchuan were seated side by side in the first row, while Jiaxin and Secretary Feng were placed separately farther back. The first leg had been arranged the same way.
After boarding, Tan Xiao quietly asked Zhang Xingchuan beside him, “Should I go ask President Fu to switch seats?”
He had noticed Zhang Xingchuan and President Fu had not finished talking at the airport. They could continue in the air.
Zhang Xingchuan looked astonished. “Why are you trying to go play with Secretary Feng again? Leave him alone.”
“?” Tan Xiao leaned over the seatback and looked behind him. Sure enough, President Fu was sitting beside a visibly tense Secretary Feng.
President Fu happened to meet Tan Xiao’s eyes. Tan Xiao politely smiled. President Fu merely tipped his chin in acknowledgment.
In the end, nobody switched seats.
On the first flight out of Beijing, they had departed early and Tan Xiao had been sleepy, so he spent most of it asleep. Now it was afternoon. He had sampled some local Yunnan arabica at Kunming Airport and was completely awake, practically vibrating with energy. He desperately wanted to talk to Zhang Xingchuan, but the cabin was deeply quiet and he was embarrassed to break the silence. Fortunately the flight was only about ninety minutes.
He rarely traveled domestically and did not often take narrow-body aircraft. Bored now, he looked around with curiosity, studying this small, old, cramped so-called business class. He adjusted the seat, found it uncomfortable, put it back, then picked up the advertising magazine from the seat pocket and flipped through it.
In Zhang Xingchuan’s eyes, this became: the kid usually flies economy when traveling and therefore is unfamiliar with business-class features. Fundamentally, the kid was still a poor student.
The president did have some money. When Tan Xiao had only been his little brother, Zhang Xingchuan had already been happy to drop some gold coins on him. Now Tan Xiao was about to become his wife. Naturally Zhang Xingchuan needed to shower him with even more.
From these first-row seats, the WenCheng employees behind them could not see small movements clearly. Zhang Xingchuan reached over and took Tan Xiao’s hand.
Tan Xiao was reading the inflight magazine. He turned toward Zhang Xingchuan and asked with his eyes: What?
Zhang Xingchuan was now a domineering CEO with a heart twisting through a hundred tender turns. Just wait. Watch how I spoil you all the way to the heavens.
Tan Xiao naturally could not hear the president’s ridiculous inner monologue. From Zhang Xingchuan’s expression, he interpreted that the man probably had some boring romantic line to say.
Coincidentally, Tan Xiao wanted to say one too.
He braced an elbow on the shared armrest and leaned toward Zhang Xingchuan’s ear, intending to whisper. Zhang Xingchuan turned at the same moment and quickly kissed him on the lips.
Tan Xiao had no warning at all. He hurriedly looked toward the curtain ahead, afraid a flight attendant had seen. Fortunately they were already at cruising altitude and the curtain was closed, temporarily separating the front galley. The two passengers across the aisle in the first row were asleep.
“What were you going to tell me?” Zhang Xingchuan whispered.
Tan Xiao had originally prepared a flirty line to tease him, but being teased first destroyed any chance of topping that sudden kiss. So he simply abandoned the line. The two continued holding hands and idly scratched each other’s palms.
They landed at Diqing Shangri-La Airport. The airport was very close to their destination, and two business vans arrived separately to collect the two groups.
WenCheng’s new wilderness-luxury resort brand had chosen this property both as the retreat venue and as something the executives could inspect together.
It was almost dark. The temperature difference between day and night was enormous. Tan Xiao had left the plane wearing only a thin hoodie, but sensibly pulled a soft-shell outdoor jacket from his backpack and put it on.
There had been a period when he loved traveling everywhere. Once, while trekking in the Peruvian Andes, he was caught in the rain, got chilled, and then developed altitude sickness badly enough that he nearly needed hospitalization. Ever since, he was careful on high-altitude trips. He did not run or jump around, kept warm, and even reduced his talking, quietly following beside Zhang Xingchuan.
Zhang Xingchuan needed to guard against altitude sickness too. If he developed it, it would interfere with far too many things.
He exchanged a few brief words with the reception staff and suggested everyone go rest in their rooms first. They had left in the early morning and spent the whole day traveling with the layover.
This was the first property under WenCheng’s new wilderness-luxury resort brand. The village-like resort was built into the mountainside, made up of detached two-story cottages. There were only a few dozen guest rooms. No windows faced directly into one another, and different rooms looked toward different views: snow mountains, meadow, or distant lake. Dining and leisure facilities were comprehensive. The target clientele was upper-middle-class and affluent travelers looking for a genuine secluded escape.
Tan Xiao had once been a WenCheng intern and had heard about the project while working there. The positioning was high-end wilderness luxury, with even the basic room averaging more than five thousand yuan per night on ordinary dates.
His reaction was: not bad. At least they aren’t fleecing ordinary people. This round is aimed directly at us rich people.
More than twenty mid-to-senior managers had come from around the country for WenCheng’s corporate-empowerment retreat, and once their accompanying staff were included, they nearly filled the entire resort. Before trial operations began for the May-June peak season, they were getting to experience their own new product before outsiders did.
Rooms were tight. A former intern who had tagged along “for free food and fun” naturally had not been assigned a private room.
So Tan Xiao had no choice but to squeeze in with the president, who happened to occupy the most luxurious dual-view courtyard suite in the entire resort.
Since this was an upscale resort at high altitude, the rooms naturally had intelligent diffuse oxygen systems. The floor heating had also been turned on in advance.
Tan Xiao did not have altitude sickness, but the bad experience on the Altiplano had made him psychologically tense, which made his body tense too. The moment he entered the warm room with scientific oxygen supplementation and finally relaxed, the vague discomfort disappeared. He felt instantly better.
As soon as Zhang Xingchuan entered, he received a work call. He gestured for Tan Xiao to entertain himself while he handled business.
Tan Xiao wandered around the courtyard and the cottage alone. The overall design was more beautiful than he had expected. The interior mixed vintage aesthetics with the surrounding wilderness, and seemed to include cultural elements from local ethnic minorities. Unfortunately it was already dark. Apart from the resort’s decorative lights, the scenery before and behind the building was difficult to make out.
He came back in, removed his outdoor jacket, and stood in front of Zhang Xingchuan, who was still on the phone, playing charades: Do you want hot water?
Zhang Xingchuan nodded.
Tan Xiao found the kettle and started boiling water.
While waiting, he received a message from Jiaxin.
She felt somewhat guilty that Tan Xiao had not been assigned his own room and suggested: Do you want to squeeze in with Xiao Feng tonight? His room has twin beds. The colleague sharing with him won’t arrive until tomorrow.
The president’s room might have been the supreme luxury suite, but even it only had one 2.2-meter bed.
In Jiaxin’s innocent imagination, Tan Xiao either had to sleep on the very edge of the president’s bed or on the sofa.
Tan Xiao replied: Let’s spare Secretary Feng. If he has to share with me, he’d rather sleep outdoors.
When Tan Xiao and Secretary Feng first met, Jiaxin happened to be away here on another business trip. She knew nothing about how the two of them had developed their Tom-and-Jerry-style unfortunate relationship.
Zhang Xingchuan finished his call. “Who are you chatting with?”
“Sister Jiaxin. She told me to go sleep with Secretary Feng because his room has twin beds.”
Even Zhang Xingchuan laughed. “Are you going?”
“Brother, stop pretending.” Tan Xiao gave him a look that saw through everything. “You brought me here because you wanted to sleep with me, didn’t you?”
It was true, yet Zhang Xingchuan was unusually embarrassed. Had his ulterior motive in bringing someone on a trip really been that obvious?
Tan Xiao himself became embarrassed after saying it. Perhaps he should not have said it aloud. If he did not, at least there would still have been a fig leaf. “Then I’ll pretend I don’t know,” Tan Xiao said.
Zhang Xingchuan laughed. “How exactly are you planning to pretend?”
“When the time comes, I’ll act shocked.” Tan Xiao immediately demonstrated. “How could you do this? I treated you like an older brother, and you actually want to… want to…”
He could not decide which word would sound best. He rarely swore and neither listened to nor told dirty jokes. He knew perfectly well what the act involved, and he knew which verbs described it in Chinese, English, German, and Spanish. But placing himself after any of those verbs felt deeply strange.
Zhang Xingchuan immediately followed his logic and nearly died from how innocent he was. He walked over intending to kiss him.
Tan Xiao hurriedly refused. “Back, back, back. No kissing today. Every time you kiss me I get oxygen-deprived. If I suddenly keel over with altitude sickness, anything we planned afterward is finished.”
Zhang Xingchuan had no choice but to stop. He only kissed Tan Xiao’s cheek.
Tan Xiao was somewhat looking forward to what might happen later. For now, he kept it to himself.
He had also discovered that Zhang Xingchuan liked his innocent-university-boy side. Tan Xiao did not consider himself especially innocent, but if his CEO boyfriend liked seeing it, then letting him see more and making him happy cost nothing.
After resting for a while, they went to dinner. The meal was the plated set menu the resort planned to serve during trial operations, giving the president and the others a chance to evaluate it first.
The food was much better than Tan Xiao had expected too. The ingredients were balanced scientifically and incorporated local specialties. The flavors were good and still felt fresh and distinctive.
Tan Xiao normally did not especially like red meat, but the yak here had been prepared with curry, one of his favorite flavors, so he ate several pieces.
“Don’t overeat. You’ll feel uncomfortable,” Zhang Xingchuan reminded him. Then he moved his own pastry to Tan Xiao’s plate. “This oat tsampa is good. Have two pieces. Carbohydrates help reduce the burden from low oxygen.”
It was not the trendy urban bakery type of whole-grain pastry, but a modernized version of a traditional Tibetan snack. Toasted oat flour was mixed with local sweet butter tea, and the chef seemed to have added butter as well. It smelled wonderful.
Jiaxin and Secretary Feng had not come to dinner yet, one resting, the other apparently performing psychological preparation before leaving his room.
President Fu and his people had arrived, however, seated on the other side of the dining room. Their table was diagonally behind Zhang Xingchuan, so Zhang Xingchuan could not see them. President Fu, by coincidence, faced Tan Xiao from a distance.
President Fu wore no expression. Tan Xiao did not put on his trademark smile either.
President Fu did not particularly like Tan Xiao. Tan Xiao had already sensed that at Kunming Airport.
Originally, because this man had been Zhang Xingchuan’s partner for many years, Tan Xiao had been somewhat interested in him. Once he noticed the dislike, though, he could not be bothered.
That kind of dislike was certainly different from Secretary Feng’s. Secretary Feng disliked all extroverts equally except the president. Tan Xiao actually liked Secretary Feng a little. If Feng did not flee every time he saw him, Tan Xiao genuinely would enjoy playing with him.
As for why President Fu disliked him after only one meeting? Tan Xiao had no idea. Maybe he simply did not like the look of Tan Xiao from the start.
Tan Xiao had grown up being liked almost universally. When he occasionally encountered one or two people who did not like him, he could accept that people had their own peculiar preferences. He certainly would not start wondering whether something was wrong with himself because of it.
Besides, President Fu was not his boss. He was merely one of his boyfriend’s coworkers.
Tan Xiao pretended not to see him and lowered his head to eat. Oat tsampa. Delicious.