Yang Ruoqian had learned one rule from repeated defeat: the smaller a matter looked, the more likely his employees were to turn it into a strategic monument. This time, the system had recognized rising influence. He decided to treat it with proper suspicion.
He reviewed the logic once more with the caution of a man who had been betrayed by success too many times. If the talent-discovery warning could still be explained as ordinary process, this could remain a controlled release problem rather than another Xplendi miracle.
He liked the shape of the spending. Screening control, missed merchandise, quiet interviews, and opportunities he was trying not to monetize sounded like exactly the kind of heavy, slow burden that could drag a project below the settlement line.
