See You Again (Time Already Knows) - Chapter 37
Chapter 37 - “If It Snows, Snap A Photo And Send It To Me.”
Shi Jian had indeed stayed in Qinglin City and hadn’t yet returned to A-City.
There were a few days until the bidding convention. Yi Pei had originally planned to have Zhang Kai stay behind. She had volunteered to stay. She’d done a project in bidding conventions before and could be considered to have experience in this area.
Of course, she had selfish reasons too. Firstly, she seemed to have contracted an illness that made her unreasonable. She’d hung up Ye Jiacheng’s phone call without another word last night. She even felt a lump in her heart this morning. Secondly, she wanted to stay in this city for a few more days.
If she wasn’t too busy, she could even take half a day to walk around between work.
Shi Jian had volunteered herself for the project and Yi Pei didn’t take the job opportunity away from her. Before he returned to A-City, Yi Pei specially took her to meet the manager of the branch office and explained the situation. Regarding Yi Pei actually agreeing to have her stay behind, the one who was anxious was Zhang Kai. He was probably worried that she wouldn’t be able to complete the job well. He had even sneakily given her eight words before he left: “Don’t do too much, don’t speak too much.”
Being her master, Zhang Kai had his reasons to be like that. Being an intern, not doing too much and speaking little would minimize the issues that came up. As long as there weren’t any big errors, he could take responsibility for her.
Zhang Kai’s words also basically encapsulated Yi Pei’s thoughts.
So, even though Yi Pei left her in Qinglin City, he probably didn’t expect her to get her job done well. Thinking about it like this, the fact that Yi Pei agreed to leave her behind indeed gave her a huge learning opportunity.
……followed the right boss!
When she received Ye Jiacheng’s text, Shi Jian was having a meal with the people from the branch office. When she glanced at the text message, her mood brightened and then she immediately felt some pity after. She was staying by herself in Qinglin City and couldn’t have her meals with Yi Pei. The quality of her food dropped exponentially. Her work meals were conformed to the company’s standards. Shi Jian had ordered a Qinglin appetizer. It was not as good as the one Auntie Zhang made. She wanted to ask Ye Jiacheng what he got for her. When she sent the message, she didn’t get a reply.
He probably shut his phone off.
Three hours later, she was sitting in the company car going back to the hotel. Ye Jiacheng had replied to her text: “I already gave the stuff to Zhang Kai. You’ll see it when you get back. There’s two big bags.”
Ye Jiacheng wouldn’t tell her…… He clearly knew that she was curious, but wouldn’t tell her. It was fine that he wouldn’t tell her, but he even mentioned that there’s two big bags. Shi Jian endured it and didn’t ask anymore. If she asked him, then she would be a puppy!
Then, she found out from Zhang Kai what were in the two bags.
She called Zhang Kai. Before she could open her mouth, Zhang Kai spoke garrulously: “Who said that southern men are all short? Ye Jiacheng is a wolf that comes from the south! Shi Jian, did you know? Ye Jiacheng has his eyes on you…… Shi Jian, no matter what, you should never ever let him eat you!”
Shi Jian: “……” Sigh. Did Zhang Kai think she was a little white sheep and was scared of her being eaten? If Zhang Kai knew that she wanted to eat the wolf that was Ye Jiacheng up, he would spit up blood.
Zhang Kai spoke again: “I’m not scared that the man is a wolf, I’m scared that the wolf is civilized and sly.”
“……” Why did she feel like this was amusing? How did Ye Jiacheng have tricks? She asked Zhang Kai: “What happened?”
“Actually, it’s not much.” Zhang Kai returned to his normal tone of voice, “He just gave me two bags of things to deliver to you. A gift, and some Qinglin specialty foods. Nothing special.”
Her: “……oh.”
Zhang Kai couldn’t hear the joy in her voice and asked her: “Do you need me to help you get rid of it?”
Get rid of it? How was that possible?! Shi Jian hurriedly replied: “But I still have to eat it!”
“……”
Zhang Kai was probably feeling crushed and didn’t respond for a while. After a bit, Yi Pei’s voice suddenly drifted through the speaker. Yi Pei had Zhang Kai ask her about the situation in the afternoon. Shi Jian turned her face and silently rolled her eyes. So when she was speaking with Zhang Kai minutes ago, Yi Pei was present.
Zhang Kai asked about the afternoon’s situation. She opened her laptop to start her report. On the other side of the phone, Zhang Kai probably handed the cellphone to Yi Pei. Sure enough, the next moment Yi Pei’s warm voice drifted by her ear through the radio waves: “Shi Jian, you can speak now.”
Shi Jian started her report. Many things happened that afternoon. She had organized more than 20 slides of information. She moved her mouse as she spoke from the powerpoints. Before she got past the third point, Yi Pei had already given her a few monosyllabic words, such as “en” and “good”, as well as some two-syllable words, like “okay” and “proceed”. They were very formal.
[Please read on jeytranslations.blogspot.com | Do not repost to other sites. ]
She’d been on the phone for a long time and her ears were slightly warm. The signal also wasn’t good and the intermittent radio waves seemed to stagger the sound of her voice. She couldn’t hear what Yi Pei said and asked twice: “President Yi, can you hear me?”
Still no reply.
In the era of 2G networks, the signal was terrible. Shi Jian stood up with her cellphone. She didn’t know whether Yi Pei could hear her or not, but spoke as she exited the hotel room: “President Yi, wait for a bit. My signal seems to be cutting out. I’ll try going out of my room.”
There was a resting lounge area outside the hotel hallway. Shi Jian walked over there and the signal finally returned to normal. Yi Pei’s voice smoothly entered her ear: “Shi Jian, I can hear now.”
……
She finished her report. There was no heating outside and she hadn’t put on a jacket when she walked out. Her hands and feet were a bit cold. She didn’t know whether Yi Pei had any more instructions for her. She stood and walked around for a little and planned to produce some warmth. At that moment, Yi Pei spoke: “I understand it all. You go back to your room and sleep first.”
“Alright.” It turned out that the signal right then wasn’t good and she couldn’t hear what Yi Pei said, but Yi Pei could still hear her speak.
Shi Jian returned to her room. In an unconscious sleep, her phone was not shut off and was on the bedside cabinet. The habit of turning her phone off before bed that she’d worked hard to cultivate was gone once again.
The next day was the bidding convention.
She originally thought there wasn’t much to be done, but in the end, she worked until 11 before she returned to the hotel. She was too busy in the day and didn’t take notice of whether her phone had rung or not. When she had free time, she’d checked her phone twice. There were no calls from Ye Jiacheng both times.
This really made a person dejected! Shi Jian sang to herself as she showered to lift her spirits. The white collagen all over her body told her that she had really become young!
After that, she wasn’t so upset anymore. She was finished with work and she didn’t need to go to the branch office tomorrow. She still had a day left to do whatever she wanted.
She was muddle-headed and just wanted to unwind. While she was still sleeping in the early morning, her cellphone rang. The blackout curtains blocked the sunshine coming from the outside; the room was still dark and shadowy. She didn’t know who was calling or what time it was. She reached out a hand to scrabble at her phone and answered the call with squinting eyes. Then, she put the phone on the pillow by her ear.
This annoying call in the early morning was from Ye Jiacheng.
Damn scoundrel! Her brain slowly regained consciousness, but her voice still carried a thread of grogginess.
“Still sleeping?” Ye Jiacheng asked her, his voice clear and distinct. He was much more awake and lively than she was.
“En……” She murmured. She cracked open her eyes and looked at the time on her phone. It was only 5:00 AM! Her voice suddenly became sharper. She couldn’t help reminding Ye Jiacheng: “It’s only 5 in the morning.”
“Oh.” Ye Jiacheng replied, “I calculated the time difference wrong. I thought you’d be up.”
So it was an international call. Shi Jian turned over, “You’re in Germany already?”
Over the phone, Ye Jiacheng called to a hotel attendant in fluent English, and even added a few German words that she didn’t understand. Shi Jian woke up slightly and leaned against the headboard. International calls were so expensive, speaking for another minute was an extra minute. She put the phone by her ear. Her mind was still a bit muddled and she didn’t know what to say for a while.
Ye Jiacheng asked her: “You’re still in Qinglin?”
“En, but there’s not much to do today. I plan to walk around outside for a bit.”
“Not bad.” Ye Jiacheng magnanimously said to her, “I’ll tell you some fun places to go. You note it down.”
“Okay.” She smiled. Inside, she thought that of all the places he recommended, which of them had she not been to? Ye Jiacheng quickly listed them out. Along with each place he mentioned, the memories she had of those places popped up one by one before her eyes.
He’d brought her to all these places once before. But now, only her memories of them remained.
Tianhua Snack Street. She and Ye Jiacheng had shared a bowl of tofu-balls there.
Qingtong Temple. She’d bought a lovers’ knot1 there.
Linwan Bridge. Ye Jiacheng had piggybacked her across it once. Their spirits were high and they even sang together. She sang the first verse and he sang the second. Neither were annoyed at the other for getting more off-key the more they sang.
Ye Jiacheng was nearly finished talking and Shi Jian was nearly fully awake. She hopped out of bed and pulled open the curtains. She looked down and got a bird’s eye view of the perfectly straight street below her. Actually, it wasn’t so early anymore. The street cleaners were already at work.
“Did you go to Germany for work?” She asked.
“It’s not considered work.” Ye Jiacheng replied in negative. He lightly asked her, “Shi Jian, do you know Union Internationale des Architectes?”
“UIA?” Shi Jian scratched her head and softly asked: “……did you get past the qualifying round?”
“En. It’s a pretty meaningless competition, but since I made it, I should still come.” Ye Jiacheng said in a completely indifferent tone.
That’s not right! Shi Jian suddenly became anxious and didn’t know how she should say it.
When Shi Jian first met Mr.Ye, Mr.Ye was already a very distinguished avant-garde architect both domestically and internationally. He was talented and famous. He had many notable designs and blueprints, including the “Spirit Bird” that did not win any awards at the UIA. Whenever other people brought up Ye Jiacheng, he was always known as the one who attained a great reputation while he was young, and the currents were smoothly in his favor. But no one knew that even the most exemplary youth who came from a pure lineage had occasions where they were rejected.
Ye Jiacheng’s work that overturned traditional architectural ideas had been rejected before. He went to the UIA in good spirits, but returned disappointed.
Afterwards, Mr.Ye continued to make architectural designs, but he didn’t enter any contests anymore. He played with parameters and composition, he grasped the plans more clearly, and his work became even more pragmatic and refined.
“To me, their rejection doesn’t even count as a setback.” Ye Jiacheng had spoken to her about the UIA competition before. His tone was light as a cloud and soft as the wind. Of course, the thirty-five year old Mr.Ye didn’t need to hide anything from her. He really considered that competition merely a cloud in the sky and a breeze that passed by.
But, what about the twenty-five year old Ye Jiacheng?
Shi Jian’s nose suddenly felt ticklish and she had even less of an ability to speak. The result of Ye Jiacheng going to Germany this time would be disappointment. She knew, but she couldn’t say anything.
“Is Germany interesting?” She endured her ticklish nose and asked him.
“What’s wrong?” Ye Jiacheng still heard that her voice didn’t sound the same. He retorted: “Don’t tell me. I only gave you a call and you feel upset.” When he finished, he smiled with a kind of helpless amusement.
Today, Ye Jiacheng’s mood was probably pretty good. The pitch at the end of his sentences even rose! Shi Jian smiled with him, then she forcefully told him: “I caught a cold——”
But, she added: “It’s all your fault, waking me up so early and making my nose stuffed.”
“Oh, blaming me——?” Ye Jiacheng drawled, “Alright, it’s my fault.”
Shi Jian: “……” Jiacheng, she will wait for you to return. She had celebrated many successes with him before, sharing his glorious accomplishments as Mrs.Ye. But shouldn’t she accompany him the most during his crestfallen periods?
“Little fox, it’s very cold here.” Ye Jiacheng spoke again in his young and unhurried voice, “I heard people say it will snow tomorrow and that the snow in Germany is very beautiful. Little fox, do you want to see it?”
“Okay…… I want to see it.” Shi Jian thought and said, “If it snows, snap a photo and send it to me.”
“I can do that.” Ye Jiacheng replied, “If it snows tomorrow.”
TN: The next chapter is 6k words T-T have mercy on this poor translator.
Comments
Post a Comment