Chapter 4: Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Roses

At seven the next morning a flower truck backed up to the front doors of the Su tower.

The security guard came running for Su Yu.

"Vice President, they say the order is yours. They say it is nine hundred and ninety-nine."

"Nine hundred and ninety-nine what?" Su Yu said.

"Roses, sir."

He had phoned the florist from the sofa at midnight and said, send everything you have, with a card.

He had meant it as a figure of speech.

The florist had taken it as an order.

By the time Su Yu reached the lobby there were roses on the reception desk, on the benches and around the directory board.

The receptionist stood in the middle of them with her arms full.

Two board members had stopped on their way to the elevators to look.

"Congratulations on your engagement," one of them said carefully.

"I'm not engaged," Su Yu said. "I'm just starting."

Lu Chen came out of the elevator at exactly seven-fifteen.

He stopped three paces from the roses, took off his glasses, cleaned them, and put them back on.

Then he walked the length of the lobby and read the card on the nearest bunch.

It said, To Lu Chen, from your Vice President, in a florist's handwriting.

"Who wrote this?"

"The florist. I told her what to say."

"Who chose the roses?"

"She did. I chose the number."

"Who carried them?"

"The delivery driver and two of his cousins."

Lu Chen took out his notebook, wrote a short line, and showed it to him.

It said, 0.

"Delegated effort scores zero," he said. "Choosing a number is not an effort. It is a quotation."