By noon, the release had already travelled through three internal chats. The matter itself was simple: the box office had refused to fall. The dangerous part was that everyone at Xplendi had begun discussing it with bright eyes.
Yang Ruoqian's first concern was not whether the frozen smile sounded embarrassing. Embarrassment was acceptable. What mattered was that this still looked like a controlled release problem, the kind of normal business trouble that could swallow money without asking for applause.
The expenses were especially comforting because they looked ordinary: screening control, missed merchandise, quiet interviews, and opportunities he was trying not to monetize. A normal boss would ask whether those costs could be recovered. Yang Ruoqian only cared that the receipts were real.
