Chapter 3

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To be honest, when he first started working at HALO, Zheng Yi hadn’t really held any enmity for Chen Gong.

Personal grudges aside, Chen Gong was quite a handsome man. He dressed smartly every day, and coupled with the sharp lines of his model-esque face and his thick-browed… not-very-big eyes– the effect sent Zheng Yi’s heart racing. On top of that, when Chen Gong had personally interviewed Zheng Yi, he’d even complimented Zheng Yi on his qualifications, giving him the honour of having his “senpai” notice him.

But once he had began work, the man who had left that “warm and handsome” impression on him turned around and, for reasons unknown, only gave him the dourest of expressions.

Zheng Yi had always been accustomed to things going his way. Having the great “fortune” of being bullied at work, he could not help but charge forth into battle.

By the time Zheng Yi was done resting his sore legs on the sofa, it was already past 12.

Instead of returning to the office, he went straight to lunch with Qiu Mang.

The two carried out a mostly one-sided conversation on the latest office gossip. Zheng Yi didn’t hear a word of it– his thoughts lingered behind.

Qiu Mang’s monologue had already brought the conversation to a discussion of the latest hot TV series… would it be unseemly to drag it back to Chen Gong?

Zheng Yi didn’t know what to do. His head grew fevered. He picked up a rib and brought it to his mouth.

— “Ah… ow…”

Hearing Zheng Yi’s odd hiss, Qiu Mang jarred herself from the topic at hand and fished out a tissue. “Your mouth is bleeding again!” she cried in horror.

No longer able to eat, Zheng Yi flushed out his mouth with a sip of ice water and took the offered tissue.

Qiu Mang frowned. “Chen Xuezhang [1] really was too hard on you!”

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

Zheng Yi seized this opening. Having long dismissed his wound to the back of his mind, he quickly honed in on the point: “Do you think I should offer Chen Gong a public apology?”

Completely forgetting his own injuries and brightly talking about his arch enemy instead…?

Sometimes, Qiu Mang could not fathom what went on in the brain of her idiotic friend.

What Zheng Yi meant was this: After he’d provoked Chen Gong so openly, the office must be wildly speculating about the events that happened the night before. The fact that the matter was settled and that Chen Gong hadn’t harassed the intern was all irrelevant. People would simply label Chen Gong as a “suspected pervert”, tainting his reputation forever.

Qiu Mang listened in wonder. “…I think you should become an actor.”

Zheng Yi: “Because I’m handsome?”

Qiu Mang rolled her eyes. “Because you’re a drama queen. You’re making a mountain of a molehill: whether it’s the issue from last night, or a ‘public apology’, aren’t you constantly overreacting?”

Zheng Yi’s head drooped. “I know…”

“…Don’t be so emotional. You’re a rich boy. Once you get tired of HALO, you’ll have your pick of other studios to choose from; if you don’t like any of them, you can go home and do nothing and still have enough to live off of. Being overly emotional doesn’t really affect you, but other people might not be able to handle it.” Qiu Mang put her chopsticks down and wiped her mouth. “You have to apologise, but don’t make it a ‘public’ apology… Do you seriously want to broadcast it to the whole company? The issue’s big enough as is.”

Zheng Yi felt severely chastised by Qiu Mang. He flopped on the table with a whine. “I’ll buy him a coffee, then.”

–

By the time he rushed back to the office with two iced americanos, it was only 12:42. There was still some time before the end of the lunch hour.

— Chen Gong wasn’t there.

Zheng Yi was the sort who wanted to solve problems the moment he encountered them. With his apology temporarily stymied, he sank in his chair, uncomfortable and fidgety.

But then he thought it over. It was lunch break, so the office was mostly empty… was an apology like this really sincere? It wouldn’t stop people’s tongues from wagging about Chen Gong.

Perhaps he could get some shut-eye to refresh himself — with last night’s matter on his mind, he’d been unable to sleep well all night. Lunchtime was just the right moment to perk himself up.

Zheng Yi had only closed his eyes for a moment when his phone vibrated in his right pocket.

Lil’ Sheep Yi 30 Sep 12:45

Zheng Ge [2], got bashed? :snigger: [3]

[2] Ge, from Gege (哥– pronounced Geuh, 哥哥- pronounced Geuh-geuh) means older brother. Affectionate/respectful way of addressing a slightly older male.

[3] :x: will be used to denote emotes & stickers in-app.

Lil’ Sheep Yi 30 Sep 12:45

I walked past the office on the way to the toilet this morning, saw u and Chen Gong holding hands… :sad:

“Lil’ Sheep Yi” was Yang Yi’s Wechat ID [4].

[4] Sheep is a homophone of Yang in Chinese– they have different characters but are pronounced the same.

Zheng Yi found the name super cute. It gave people the impression that he was tiny and fluffy, and cuddling him would be very warm.

In his moment of frustration, receiving a text from Yang Yi soothed Zheng Yi a great deal.

Zheng Yi really liked the boyish little Yang Yi — clean, bright, and handsome, with a sweet mouth that could always cheer him up. Yang Yi was an operations specialist at HALOstudio. Early in his tenure at the company, Zheng Yi had left a team building activity after drinking a little too much and squatted next to the backdoor of the bar to smoke and sober up. Just then, Yang Yi had come out for a breather. The two hit it off straight away, and started hanging out together from then on.

Last night, after clocking out, Yang Yi had complained to Zheng Yi about work, saying that he wanted to drink.

Zheng Yi’s one-track mind recalled the saying: “one man’s frustration is another’s opportunity to attack”. A lightbulb went off in his head, and he brought Yang Yi to karaoke.

The whole night, Zheng Yi sang his greatest hits and acted like a complete fool for ages before Yang Yi finally stopped frowning. Seeing dimples appear in the attractive young man’s smiling face, Zheng Yi felt a little high. The twinkling lights in the darkness of the karaoke box coalesced, turning into an island chalet for two, or the seventh cherry tree outside the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, or the northern lights in the sky above Lapland…

— If Yang Yi had been a girl, Zheng Yi would have already picked out baby names.

Recalling this, Zheng Yi sent a :naughty_smile: sticker back to Yang Yi, asking him: “Why :sad:? Jealous that I’m holding hands with another guy?”

Yang Yi didn’t reply directly. He just sent Zheng Yi a sobbing emoji.

It seemed like he really was jealous. Zheng Yi let out a shy smile and decided to strike while the iron was hot: “I didn’t properly console you last night, wanna go out again tonight?”

Yang Yi: “Where to?”

Zheng Yi’s mind raced through all the dating spots in the city, but couldn’t find the right one. He gave Yang Yi the chance to decide: “Enough with karaoke or nightclubs, I’m old and can’t keep up. Let’s go somewhere quiet?”

Yang Yi quickly responded: “As long as it’s with you, anywhere’s fine, we can even get a room and watch the nightscape together.”

Zheng Yi stared at the words “get a room”. His thumb hovered aimlessly above the keyboard, so excited that he couldn’t type.

Then Yang Yi added: “No no, better not, Zheng Ge is too old and can’t keep up…”

Zheng Yi’s head grew hot.

Yang Yi’s hints were not particularly covert, teasing out Zheng Yi’s passionate feelings.

Zheng Yi’s breath quickened — as if afraid that Yang Yi might take it back, he swiftly replied: “I can keep up!”

After sending that, he felt it wasn’t enough, and added a biceps emoji.

Two minutes later.

Lil’ Sheep Yi 30 Sep 12:53

:shy:

–

After flirting with Yang Yi, Zheng Yi looked at the time and put his phone back on his desk.

Chen Gong’s cubicle was still empty. Zheng Yi closed his eyes and took a nap.

There were all sorts of men in this world – men like Chen Gong, and men like Yang Yi.

If they were in the time of cut-sleeves [5], in the feudal era; if these two men were served up by unscrupulous officials to muddle the head of the emperor with pleasure — Zheng Yi felt that Chen Gong would be, as Qiu Mang put it, dead within half an episode, with his stubborn prejudices and cool, uncompromising demeanour. Meanwhile, Yang Yi would be the favourite concubine, the sort who would drive the emperor to distraction, neglecting his duties.

[5] Cut-sleeve (断袖 duàn xiù– pronounced Doo-ahn Shyoh) is a Chinese term for a gay male and male homosexuality– it comes from the story of Emperor Ai of Han [27 BCE – 2 BCE] and his lover, Official Dong Xian. Essentially the Emperor didn’t want to wake his lover who was sleeping on his arm, so he cut his sleeve off so as not to wake him.

Lifting Yang Yi’s face with his index finger, parting the beaded curtain falling from his imperial headdress, Emperor Zheng admired the youth’s face from close up — the coy look in his eyes, the smile on his vermilion lips. Turning his head, he saw Chen Gong kneeling in a shadowy corner like a wooden carving, dark-skinned and cold-eyed, a tight expression on his face.

“Servants! Drag him away and beat him to death!”

The tyrannical ruler slammed the table in anger, shocking the court and subjects.

As well as the visual department.

“Zheng the Tyrant” woke up, rubbing his eyes amidst smothered giggles. Realising that his tired body had vocalised his dreams, he sheepishly ducked behind the cubicle wall again.

It was already 1:05p.m. Zheng Yi peeked at Chen Gong’s desk and realised that it was still empty.

At 1:30, Zheng Yi could wait no longer. In a stir, he ran over to HR to talk to Qiu Mang. “It’s already half past one!”

Qiu Mang looked up from her work. “Okay… so?”

Zheng Yi panicked. “Why isn’t Chen Gong here? He can’t be skipping work, can he? Where is he?”

Qiu Mang handed Zheng Yi the signed leave-of-absence slips she was holding. Zheng Yi had barely started reading them before he heard a familiar cold voice behind him.

“Really Mr Zheng, you should pick the right moment to file complaints.”

Zheng Yi turned around, only for Chen Gong to approach him and take the slips that HR head Qiu Mang had handed him.

Zheng Yi was still stunned.

During lunch break, Chen Gong had changed into a fresh white shirt, all but the first two buttons fastened, gaping to reveal the border of an inner vest. His hair had been re-done with wax; the morning’s drooping fringe was now sharply styled, showing his forehead.

From close up, Chen Gong’s gaze was complex, as if looking at a particularly difficult child. Zheng Yi felt a heavy sense of oppression.

Chen Gong tucked the slips into his breast pocket. He pulled out his sunglasses from his collar and put them on, blocking out Zheng Yi’s gaze. “I’m going on a work trip. In accordance with the SOP, I emailed the itinerary to you at 12.30p.m., Director Zheng. So no, I am not skipping work.”

Zheng Yi stared blankly.

Chen Gong turned and said goodbye to Qiu Mang, before walking out of the HR department, suitcase in tow.

Zheng Yi stood motionless for a long moment. He finally turned to Qiu Mang, pointing at Chen Gong. “Did he think I was here to complain that he was skipping work?”

“Looks like it… yeah.”

Zheng Yi blanched. “But I wasn’t!”

“I know…”

Zheng Yi choked slightly. “What do I do?!”

“… Go explain?”

But by the time Zheng Yi had rushed out of HALO, Chen Gong was long gone.

–

Credits:

Author – Liang Azha (Weibo|Twitter)

Raws – Nandemonaiya

Translation – Nandemonaiya

Proofreading – Nandemonaiya, Nicholas, Terukutie, Zhiming

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< Chapter 2: The Lecturing Incident

> Chapter 4: The Man in the Clip Incident

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