Sparkle's newest update looked obedient at first glance. The core line said Sparkle had begun looking useful to every Xplendi project. Yang Ruoqian stared at it for several seconds, trying to decide whether this was finally the kind of ordinary mistake that could stay ordinary.
On paper, nothing about Sparkle's dangerous usefulness looked like an achievement. That was why Yang Ruoqian liked it. A dull, legal, operationally reasonable problem was far more beautiful to him than any public praise.
In the file, every cost had a respectable name: argument, uncertainty, delayed conversion, and staff time spent on something that should have stayed cold. Respectable costs were the best kind, because they could lose money without looking like deliberate sabotage.
