Chapter Text
Shengmei walks past An Di’s car on her way home from work one day and catches sight of an unfamiliar car parked next to it.
A trendy sports car of clearly foreign (and classy) make.
Shengmei is a connoisseur of all things expensive and she takes an admiring walk around it eyeing it like some men might eye beautiful women, whistling lowly.
Niiiice. Very nice.
And then
I wonder if the owner just moved in here.
I wonder if he’s also handsome, tall and single.
And right on cue, a tall guy dressed in the type of tasteful sweater and pants that Shengmei associates with chic fashion magazines, and a relaxed demeanor that speaks of confidence and warmth, walks up to the car, winks cheerfully at Shengmei’s frank stare and gets in the car.
As the car disappears around the corner, Shengmei feels a tap on her shoulder and turns to find an amused-looking An Di apparently saying hello for the fourth time.
“An Di!” Shengmei’s turns to look in the direction of the car, too engrossed to be embarrassed “Did you see THAT?”
An Di’s voice carries a generous tone of laughter “By ‘that’ do you mean Tan Zongming or his car?”
“You KNOW him?” Shengmei whips around in excitement. “Please, please tell me he’s single.”
An Di gives up and giggles. “Yes to both questions. As a matter of fact he’s a good friend of mine, and has been for over a decade. We met in school- he was my senior in Columbia and is currently my boss.”
Shengmei is about the pass out with joy “Wait… did you say 'Tan Zongming'? As in THE Tan Zongming? The one whose one arched eyebrow could cause whole companies to collapse?”
“Shengmei, I think you might be taking those tabloids a little too literally….”
But Shengmei is on a roll,
“THE Tan Zongming is your boss and you’ve known him since school and he’s single and you NEVER ever thought of introducing us?”
Then she backtracks a little nervously “Wait… please tell me he’s into women!”
An Di grins mischievously,
“Yes he is… very, very into women. He’s only single in the sense that he’s not married. He gets a new car ever month or so, but he seems to switch girlfriends more often than that! Trust me Shengmei, he’s now 40 and still shows no sign of being the marry-his-sweetheart type.”
Shengmei looks wistfully.
“Maybe he’s just waiting for the right girl?”
An Di tries not to judge Shengmei’s goals in meeting men, and in any case, perhaps meeting Zongming or meeting people around Zongming could help Shengmei professionally. What’s the harm?
“I could introduce you two if…”
Shengmei looks like Christmas came early and Santa wrote her a personal letter detailing all her gifts.
“Oh An Di! You’re the best!”
Then after a heartbeat “You’ve known him for so long… what type of girl does he usually go for?”
That gets An Di thoughtful.
All these years of knowing him, and An Di cannot rightly remember ever having been introduced properly to one of Zongming’s girlfriends. He talks about them yes. All sorts of hilarious stories about the blatant gold-diggers, the shy heiresses set up by parents, the hopeful intellectuals, the ones that propositioned him with exotic offers… with Zongming always positioning himself humorously as their hapless victim.
An Di enjoyed those outlandish tales that she had always assumed were half-truth and half exaggeration, although in retrospect, she wonders why she would assume that. Zongming is certainly is one of the most eligible, physically attractive bachelors she’s ever met- not to mention he’s also an incredibly warm and caring person- why shouldn’t women stand in line to throw themselves at him?
An Di herself rarely dates, and doesn’t even have many friends. An Di supposes its no wonder Zongming doesn’t bother introducing any of his girlfriends to her.
“I… hmmm… I know a lot about what he doesn’t like, but don’t really know what he does like.”
Shengmei sighs “I bet a man like him could afford to be picky and still get his choice of offers from women. An Di… you’re a good friend of his. Surely, surely you can find out? I can’t become his perfect female, but at least I can dress to impress so I get the chance to know him?”
In the face of Shengmei’s doe-like pleading eyes, An Di reluctantly agrees but firmly draws a line in the sand.
“Shengmei, I’m going to just invite him over to dinner with all of us on the 22nd floor… and what happens from there is up to you!”
Shengmei’s squeeze on her arm catches An Di by surprise and she tries not to squirm at the contact, but she is nonetheless glad to give Shengmei something to look forward to after the rough time she has had in the last few months of dealing with family issues.