By the time the morning meeting began, Yang Ruoqian had already opened the same file six times. Each time, the conclusion remained offensive: the system's settlement note refused to treat Sparkle and the film as a simple cash loss. If a project could no longer fail cleanly after losing money, what dignity did a loser have left?
Yang Ruoqian's private calculation was still very professional. The plan around the Settlement Explanation matter had receipts, workflow, and enough normal business logic to pass the system's eyes. Better yet, the costs were concrete: review meetings, finance hours, staff coordination, duplicated filing, and a report nobody outside the company could spend. A normal boss would ask how to convert those costs into growth. Yang only cared whether the administrative friction could keep swallowing money without producing a number large enough to punish him.
