The report on Yang Ruoqian's desk was thin, but he still read it twice. It said Sparkle's schedule had filled with Xplendi projects. 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 small follow-up nuisance, 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: maintenance work, internal queues, small cultural credit, and reputation that did not arrive as clean cash. 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.
