Chapter 2

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Truth was, by the next day, Chen Gong had already sent Zheng Yi’s “roar down the phone line” to the very back of his mind.

Ever since Zheng Yi started working at HALO, the two clashed with each other over matters big and small. In fact, Chen Gong actually felt more uncomfortable on the days where Zheng Yi didn’t randomly provoke him.

So Zheng Yi’s “drunken rambling” was not, to Chen Gong, anything of note.

After the morning meeting, Chen Gong returned to his desk. While he was in the middle of editing the slide deck sent to him by his colleague, Zheng Yi had gone over and emptied a whole energy drink over his head.

As for why, Chen Gong neither knew nor cared.

In that moment, only three things flashed through his mind:

Two days ago, the janitor had mentioned how to clean spills on clothes. Now he needed to ask her about it again as he wasn’t really listening that day.There was an old promotional T-shirt that he received from the gym under his desk. He could probably use it in this sh**** situation.Press Ctrl+S to save your work.

After putting that third thought into action, Chen Gong rubbed the liquid from his eyes, turned around, and responded to Zheng Yi with a sweet, juicy punch from his wet, lemon-flavoured fist.

Zheng Yi fell. He sat on the floor nursing his chin and glared at Chen Gong.

Chen Gong, with his signature aloofness, silently returned the gaze.

After a moment, Zheng Yi wiped his jaw. A drop of blood dotted the corner of his mouth—he was injured.

Almost imperceptibly, Chen Gong frowned. His unfisted hand fell unnaturally by his leg, his fingers rubbing together in discomfort.

Sticky and irritating.

Chen Gong had interviewed Zheng Yi himself—since then, Chen Gong thought upon it as the time he’d “put the fox into the henhouse”.

Since its founding, HALO had never experienced something like a sudden boom, but instead grew at a steady pace. After amassing capital over the years, the company finally decided to expand into the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai market this year [1]. They decided to send a few of their key people to Hangzhou [2] to set up and run the new branches.

[1], Jiangsu and Zhejiang are Eastern Chinese provinces that are beside each other and 2 of the richest provinces in China– Shanghai is a standalone city between the two. Suffice to say, it’s a good place for business.

[2] Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang province.

At first, Chen Gong was on that list of people. He would have risen from his present post of assistant director straight to assistant branch manager. It was a rare and precious opportunity.

But Chen Gong decided to stay for one reason—— “I can’t leave Mr. Wang.”

Wang Yao [3] was the CEO of HALO, as well as Chen Gong’s headhunter and life mentor.

[3] Wáng Yào’s name (王耀) is pronounced roughly as “wong yaw-oh”. His surname is “王Wáng“, and his name is “耀yào”, meaning “to shine/sparkle”.

When Wang Yao had first set up HALOstudio, the whole team was made up of four or five people; now it had grown to forty or fifty, with a good amount of turnover too. Out of everyone, only Chen Gong had been with Wang Yao and HALO every step of the way.

It was a Sunday evening when Wang Yao had invited Chen Gong over to the bar under his apartment to discuss the branch expansion plans. Upon hearing Chen Gong’s reason for refusing the transfer, the piss-drunk Wang Yao was moved to tears. Right at the bar, he hugged Chen Gong and shouted, “Ah, my loyal brother!”, refusing to let go. He added that, “since Ms. Liu (the original visual director) is going to Hangzhou”, he would compensate Chen Gong with the position of visual director.

Not even two days later, Mr. Wang chucked a CV at Chen Gong and asked him to “help interview this guy for your visual department”.

Zheng Yi’s CV was stunning. A bachelor’s degree in Visual Design at the London College of the Arts, a masters in Mass Comm at the Bauhaus Design School; runner-up for the Blue Dot Design Award, special mention in the Tokyo Photographic Arts Society Yearbook…. (A/N: All fictional and not worth looking up)

During the interview, Chen Gong and Zheng Yi’s conversation was exceedingly speculative: topics ranged from unethical behaviour in the local photographic arts scene to the trends in the industry’s growth, turning the interview into a photographic arts seminar or talk shop.

After seeing Zheng Yi off, Mr. Wang asked Chen Gong: “So, how was he?”

Chen Gong nodded. “Phenomenal!”

“Compared to you?”

“There’s no comparison. His CV beats mine by a mile.”

Mr. Wang patted Chen Gong on the shoulder. “Don’t sell yourself short. He’s here to be your underling, after all.”

The next week, Zheng Yi entered HALO as “Visual Director”. Chen Gong was nonplussed. That was when he truly understood ——an old man’s drunken word was not to be trusted.

–

The evening of Zheng Yi’s first day, Mr. Wang took both Chen Gong and Zheng Yi out drinking.

Mr. Wang threw an arm around Zheng Yi’s shoulders and gave him a thumbs up. “Xiao Zheng [4], your strength is in your broad aesthetic vision——I gave you this position so you could “modernise” this department! A sharp sense for aesthetic trends is what this department needs the most. As for Xiao Chen, your vision may be narrow, but you have a keen sense of business, so I hope your skills will complement each other and you’ll become my left and right hands! How’s that?”

[4], Xiao (小– pronounced Shee-ah-oh) can be attached to somebody’s name to give a sense of familiarity (direct meaning is like calling Zheng Yi “Little Zheng”).

Upon hearing Wang Yao’s words, Zheng Yi’s fighting spirit flared. Burning with motivation, he nodded aggressively. “Rest assured, Lao Wang [5]!”

But Chen Gong only sipped his drink in silence, his dissatisfaction at being robbed of the position lingering. After a long pause, he finally let out an “mhm”.

[5], Lao (老– pronounced Law-oh) can be attached to somebody’s name to give a sense of familiarity, similarly to Xiao, (direct meaning is like calling Wang Yao “Ol’ Wang”).

Though he was a stubborn man, Chen Gong could see where Lao Wang was coming from. With the company going through a pivotal stage, Lao Wang had to sweeten the deal to keep Zheng Yi as a trump card. Chen Gong was willing to suffer a little for that.

But now that trump card was making his life hell. On top of that, he’d dumped his drink all over him and went to the HR office dramatically yelling “Chen Gong is sexually harassing female interns!”

Chen Gong felt he really was too noisy.

CCTV footage: from 18:00 to 20:56, there are only two people working overtime in that area of the visual department — Chen Gong and a female intern. Over the span of almost three hours, both sat at their own desks and did not have any close contact. The few conversations they had were held across large tables and chairs.

HR head Qiu Mang took off her spectacles, first glancing at the “accused”, Chen Gong, sitting diagonally on the sofa, then turned to face Zheng Yi. “This is the entirety of the CCTV footage… at the very least, it proves that Chen Gong didn’t physically harass the intern.”

In disbelief, Zheng Yi frowned and fast-forwarded the video again. Just then, the “victim” herself was ushered into the meeting room.

Bewildered, Zheng Yi turned to the intern and asked, “Can you specify exactly how Chen Gong sexually harassed you? If not physically, was it verbally?”

The intern furrowed her brows and glanced at Chen Gong, then at Qiu Mang, before facing Zheng Yi with a look of pure astonishment. “I never said Mr. Chen sexually harassed me…”

Hearing her denial, Zheng Yi felt his temper rise. “Don’t deny it — didn’t you say so on the phone yesterday?!”

The intern shook her head. “Well, I just said that… Mr. Chen was speaking a bit disrespectfully.”

Zheng Yi nodded aggressively. “That’s right, that’s what you said!”

“Mr. Chen said that I was useless, that I didn’t know how to improve, that sort of thing… isn’t that disrespectful?” the intern justified, her eyes turning red. “I didn’t mean for things to escalate, I just didn’t want to work overtime… I didn’t say that Mr Chen was sexually harassing me, maybe you were drunk and misheard, Mr. Zheng…”

Watching the intern become a sobbing mess, Zheng Yi was inches away from losing it again.

He was clearly the “bringer of justice,” reporting Chen Gong’s abuse of power, but in a flash he had taken the role of the villain, slandering others.

With his brain swollen and aching from the lingering hangover, Zheng Yi took a breath to calm himself and think. After a long pause, he raised his head and looked at the intern again. “…So I misunderstood you?”

Pouting, the intern nodded. She continued to sob.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Chen Gong, still sitting on the sofa in silence. Even without turning to look, Zheng Yi knew the calm look on his face — that usual corpse-like expression.

Feeling bitter, Zheng Yi glanced at Qiu Mang who returned his gaze with one that plainly said “I can’t save you now” as she sipped her freshly brewed espresso.

Steadying his breaths, Zheng Yi steeled himself to turn and appear calm as he faced Chen Gong. “Then… why did you keep her here so late?”

Chen Gong kept his eyes downcast. “She hadn’t finished the poster design over the past two weeks, but we had to give it to the client this morning.”

“And why did you force her to go home with you?”

“I didn’t force her. It was late, so it wasn’t safe for her to go alone.”

The truth was plain as day at this point. Each question sounded more and more like a petty hounding on his part.

Zheng Yi had ended up stuck in a pool of muck. He’d meant to be a public voice of justice, but now it seemed like he was a mudslinging idiot.

It was his own recklessness; nobody else was to blame.

At last, Qiu Mang put him out of his awkward misery. “So it looks like a misunderstanding after all. Great then, everyone’s fine!” With that evasive conclusion, Qiu Mang looked at each of them in turn. Her gaze finally alighted on the intern who avoided all eye contact, and she broke into a meaningful smile.

“I wonder if there are men in this world who aren’t stupid,” she finished, before reminding them of the company rule — the “handholding punishment”.

With his name cleared, Chen Gong let out a long sigh and rose. He dusted himself off and strode out of the meeting room into the lounge.

Zheng Yi, both embarrassed and yet too ashamed to admit he was wrong, could only raise his chin and endure the pain as he followed Chen Gong out.

He grasped clumsily at Chen Gong’s proffered hand, clenching his jaw and knitting his brow.

–

At 11.49a.m., while they were still being punished, Chen Gong received a phone call.

Though all he said was three “mhm”s and a “thank you, sir” before hanging up, Zheng Yi could tell that the voice was that of their mutual boss — HALO CEO Mr. Wang.

After frightening back a few onlookers with his glare, Zheng Yi tried to talk to Chen Gong. “Lao Wang called you up?”

Chen Gong replied: “Mhm.”

Zheng Yi turned to look at Chen Gong. “What for?”

Bluntly, Chen Gong answered, “To scold me.”

“Oh,” was all Zheng Yi said.

Even if the two of them didn’t usually get along, Zheng Yi felt guilty after today’s misunderstanding.

His attempt at conversing with Chen Gong was meant to lead to an apology, but Chen Gong’s curt answer was likely the result of the matter at hand… and considering that he might still be angry, it didn’t seem like a good time to talk.

And so they stood in a long awkward silence.

At 12 noon, the punishment ended.

Qiu Mang walked into the lounge from the HALO office, stood before them, and waved the company rulebook in her hand. “How should colleagues behave?”

Completely out of sync, the two replied: “…with unity and friendship, fighting side by side…”

“And when you disagree?”

“Be reasonable and communicative…” Zheng Yi didn’t quite remember this one, slurring his words to hide behind Chen Gong’s sharp and decisive voice.

Qiu Mang let this pass. Done with her reprimands, she raised her phone at them, and with it followed a shutter noise.

Chen Gong bristled under Qiu Mang’s camera. “What are you doing?”

“Look! I’m just proving that you’ve both been punished!” Qiu Mang ignored Chen Gong’s displeasure, putting her phone away. “Chen Xuezhang [5], your temper’s been like this since our university days, are you never going to change? If you come across a lazy intern again, I suggest you talk to HR directly – i.e. me. I’ll take care of it.”

[5] Xuezhang (学长– pronounced Shoo-rih Jawng) means school senior, similar to Senpai).

Chen Gong sneered. “How? Wouldn’t you just outright fire them?”

“Mr. Chen! If this were a historical palace drama, you’d be dead in half an episode! You’re the one being called a “huge perv”, why are you still worrying about other people?!”

Chen Gong had no reply. He simply looked away.

Speechless, Qiu Mang shook her head. Now turning to Zheng Yi, she began, “What’s more incomprehensible is how someone could be fooled so thoroughly!”

Scolded into shame, Zheng Yi’s face grew green and then paled. He had no retort; all he could do after a long moment was shoot daggers at Qiu Mang.

After ridiculing the two men towering above her, Qiu Mang let out a long-suffering sigh. “How does the saying go again? ‘Tall in height, short on knowledge’! Let this be a lesson to you. Lao Wang is tearing his hair out trying to raise capital, and you two are his most trusted deputies — stop making trouble!”

Her words made sense. Chen Gong and Zheng Yi exchanged looks.

Qiu Mang cleared her throat. “Um, you know the punishment’s over now. How long are you two going to hold hands for–”

Chen Gong pulled free. “Have you bought my flight tickets?” he asked Qiu Mang, and left immediately after she answered in the affirmative.

Left behind, Zheng Yi swallowed the cloying taste of blood in his mouth and muttered “Harsh!” at Chen Gong’s retreating back.

Watching Chen Gong disappear into the HALO office, Qiu Mang took off her HR hat and reverted to Zheng Yi’s friend, swatting his head with the book in her hand. “Talk about pot calling the kettle black. If you were accused of sexually harassing an intern, you’d be so mad the whole office would explode!”

Feeling the truth of her words, Zheng Yi grew even more upset.

He backed up and collapsed onto the sofa, massaging his sore calf. After a while, he turned to check if Chen Gong was still in sight.

Unable to see his target, he raised his head and asked Qiu Mang: “Did I… go a little overboard?”

Qiu Mang nodded serenely. “Big time.”

–

[*T/N: I decided to put the translation notes directly under the passage this time instead of at the end of the chapter– hope that makes reading easier haha.]

Credits:

Author – Liang Azha (Weibo|Twitter)

Raws – Nandemonaiya

Translation – Nandemonaiya

Proofreading – Nandemonaiya, Nicholas, Terukutie, Zhiming

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< Chapter 1: The Hand-Holding Incident

> Chapter 3: The Failed Apology Incident

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