The report on Yang Ruoqian's desk was thin, but he still read it twice. It said Sparkle had become Xplendi's internal music center. To other bosses, this was a problem to solve. To him, it was a possible receipt for failure.
His private calculation was colder than his expression. If the matter stayed at the level of a quiet pre-release mess, the money leaving Xplendi still had a chance to stay gone. The path was legal, the expense was operational, and the system could not accuse him of deliberately throwing funds into a hole.
The cost side also looked friendly to him: argument, uncertainty, delayed conversion, and staff time spent on something that should have stayed cold. These were not flashy numbers. They were the kind of dull, documented costs that made accountants frown and made Yang Ruoqian feel a little warmth in his heart.
