Chapter 6

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The heart-shaped birthmark was something Zheng Yi noticed around the fifty-something-th replay– the clip itself was of poor quality, and since it was recorded secretly, it probably wouldn’t use mirroring technology…

Zheng Yi spent a significant amount of time catching this “identifying feature”.

It did look like him from every angle, but Zheng Yi held one final shred of hope that the victim was not Chen Gong.

This wasn’t just due to his natural sympathy for Chen Gong, but also came from a sense of self-preservation.

From the clues that Qiu Mang had dropped, it seemed that Chen Gong, despite being broke, had still chosen to give up his income. Considering his upright, principled personality, whatever happened must have been something completely unacceptable…

Could he have been… violated by a customer?

If the matter really was as Zheng Yi imagined… then didn’t he stab Chen Gong’s deepest wound by accusing him of “violating” someone?

And if he’d stabbed Chen Gong’s deepest wound, wouldn’t Chen Gong absolutely detest him, to his very core?

This train of thought choked Zheng Yi.

After finishing his work, Zheng Yi walked over to the operations department.

The lights were out and the department was empty. Perhaps Yang Yi had gone to meet the client.

Zheng Yi looked at the empty cubicle, feeling a little lonely.

Now that he escaped his depressed mood, Zheng Yi recalled Yang Yi’s “leave of absence” call. When he’d picked up earlier, Zheng Yi was still muddled and not in the right frame of mind to talk to Yang Yi — in fact, Zheng Yi hadn’t the slightest idea what Yang Yi had said.

Retrieving his phone from his pocket, Zheng Yi opened his Wechat conversation with [Lil’ Sheep] and sent him a text: “Still busy?”

Immediately the reply came: “Yup… :cry:”

Zheng Yi responded: “No worries, do your work.”

After a while he added: “Gege is going to Chengdu tomorrow and can’t be with you this holiday, have fun by yourself.”

Lil’ Sheep: “Aw… I can’t bear it!”

At the line “can’t bear it”, Zheng Yi grinned. It was nice to feel needed. He warmed up again, and replied: “Wait for me to get back and make it up to me?”

Lil’ Sheep: “Okay! :shy:”

Satisfied, Zheng Yi left the operations office.

–

At 11.13p.m., Chen Gong received an email.

The sender was [Zheng Yi], and the recipient was the client, CC-ing [Chen Gong].

At that moment, Chen Gong had just found a small Chongqing noodle shop on a street near to the hotel, and was preparing to have dinner — it was six bucks for two bowls of noodles, a much delightful contrast to Beijing prices.

It was late summer, but Sichuan was hot and humid. Chen Gong sweated buckets as he ate.

He downloaded the attached file onto his phone and opened up Zheng Yi’s poster. Only after a moment of pondering did he turn his screen off.

— Call a spade a spade: Zheng Yi’s design skills were incredible.

Earlier, Mr Wang had called him, saying he’d arranged for Zheng Yi to come and assist Chen Gong’s negotiations.

Chen Gong didn’t understand why. “I’m fine on my own. The prospecting will be done tomorrow, and I’ll sign the papers tomorrow once the negotiations are over. No point in Zheng Yi coming.”

“I don’t trust you enough for this one.” Mr Wang was just as blunt and quick as he. “Xiao Zheng’s from abroad, he always dresses handsomely. You look like a hick. Anyway, the female clients always liked it when Xiao Zheng sealed the deals.”

Chen Gong couldn’t rebut.

— Call a spade a spade: Zheng Yi’s aesthetic senses were excellent.

Zheng Yi had indeed studied abroad, returning with an armful of commendations. And often, when the girls at work talked about makeup and fashion, Zheng Yi could join in too. Suave, sophisticated, stylish… a man of good taste and good looks, a witty and natural conversationalist.

Zheng Yi was very popular at work.

Chen Gong reflected upon himself. His origins were below average — there was no comparison with Zheng Yi.

The Hangzhou branch had been set up at the end of July. The old head of the visual department and a few other capable people had been sent as “pioneers”, with the position of visual department director left for Chen Gong’s “promotional purposes” — Lao Wang himself had promised this to Chen Gong.

Then in mid-August, Zheng Yi came in as the visual department director.

Only then did Chen Gong realise what was almost his had been snatched away, just like that.

This was how Lao Wang had explained things to Chen Gong: “Back when I was just a kid, Zheng Yi’s dad supported me, and asked me to take good care of Zheng Yi where I could. Don’t be upset. I told Qiu Mang to give you a 20% raise — it’s a director’s salary! And you still hold the power in the department… in fact, you’re the leader. At the end of the day, Zheng Yi is there to assist you. It’s just a matter of the title. I’ve never been unfair to you otherwise, right?”

Chen Gong had nodded and said, “I understand,” but a lump lingered in his heart.

Chen Gong just didn’t like Zheng Yi.

C’est la vie. Some people fought tooth and nail for a living, climbing up to their position through blood, sweat and tears; some floated over on the backs of their father’s words and snatched it away with ease.

Chen Gong knew that he was what they called a “phoenix man” — rising from the ashes of poverty through education to survive in the city.

Well, Chen Gong wasn’t completely sure what the phrase meant… it was his ex who described him that way when they broke up. “You phoenix man: even after reaching the top branches, you still have that pauper’s stench from your wild duck origins. That’s you — you’re the archetype!”

Chen Gong picked up his collar and sniffed his shirt– it was soaked in a day’s worth of sweat. As he slurped his six-yuan noodles, he realised that a “pauper’s stench” probably smelled something like that.

But he remembered that he’d flown up by his own hard work, instead of riding in a heavenly catapult…

At least he needn’t be ashamed of himself.

–

After dinner, Chen Gong went back to the hotel and had a nice long shower. When he came out of the bathroom and saw a missed call from Qiu Mang two minutes ago, he called back, thinking it was about the prospecting work.

Qiu Mang’s dulcet tones came through, seeking his praise: “Chen Xuezhang! Zheng Yi finished the work under my supervision. Satisfied?”

“Very good,” Chen Gong replied.

Qiu Mang was slightly aggrieved by his calm response. “Would it kill you to say ‘that’s amazing’?”

Chen Gong imitated Qiu Mang’s tone, pitching his voice high: “That’s amazing!”

From the phone came a giggle from the amused Qiu Mang. “I have to say– you’re such a cute guy, why are you always so poker-faced? Ahh! Do you know how many people at work call you a gorgeous male god behind your back, but run away at the sight of you?! — it’s all because of your poker face.”

Chen Gong didn’t know how to respond to Qiu Mang’s teasing. He “uhh”-ed for a good moment before returning, “aren’t you called the Dark Lady Manager yourself?”

Qiu Mang ignored his weak attempt at rebuttal. “Zheng Yi worked until late to fix this, don’t be mad at him anymore– he gets reckless and overreacts sometimes, so he misunderstood when the intern made vague comments about you. And like I said, he wasn’t asking about your whereabouts to complain, he just wanted to apologise to you. He even bought you a coffee… When Zheng Yi gets to Chengdu tomorrow night, do your best to be accommodating, okay… he’s so childish even I get annoyed at him — nothing like my own senior, so mature and steady…”

Chen Gong, unlike Zheng Yi, was not the type to thrive on compliments; in the face of Qiu Mang’s panegyrics he simply replied “mm”.

Qiu Mang accepted this. She tried to talk up Zheng Yi’s accountability before hanging up. “Zheng Yi had a date tonight, but he still focussed on work. He went back to the office after his date, around 10 — so you can at least think of him as diligent even if you don’t think much of his work…”

Instead, Chen Gong was unsettled by this. He frowned and unconsciously raised his voice. “You mean — Zheng Yi went on his date anyway?!”

Qiu Mang was baffled by this attitude. “Huh? …something wrong?”

Chen Gong stayed silent for a while. He finally said “it’s nothing” and hung up.

After hanging up, Chen Gong stood stock still. Perhaps he hadn’t dried himself completely after his shower — his back was growing cold.

–

Qiu Mang listened to the dial tone for a moment after the call ended, feeling as if Chen Gong was hiding something.

But with that iron-clamped mouth of his, nobody would be able to weasel out anything he didn’t want to say.

Qiu Mang was a little concerned for Chen Gong, wondering whether friction would arise when Zheng Yi reached Chengdu. From the perspective of an HR director, Qiu Mang couldn’t stand to see the director and his assistant at odds; from the perspective of a friend and a junior, she hated to see the two stubbornly opposing each other.

Zheng Yi was a sort of childhood best friend to Qiu Mang, while Chen Gong was her senior from university. Since she was on good terms with them both, she was placed in an uncomfortable position between two enemies.

At seventeen, thanks to his father’s work, Zheng Yi’s family moved to Beijing and became Qiu Mang’s new neighbour.

Qiu Mang had a little brother named Qiu Tian. The two boys were close in age and easily befriended one another. They’d hear things about Zheng Yi from Qiu Tian — “he always eats convenience store bentos”, “he’s always alone in that big house”, “his parents didn’t come for the parent-teacher meeting”… when she put it all together, albeit blurry, Qiu Mang had a picture of Zheng Yi’s situation as a wealthy latchkey kid.

Out of sympathy, Mother Qiu began to make Qiu Tian bring an extra bento every day for his schoolmate Zheng Yi. Qiu Mang and Zheng Yi met when the boy had come over to express his gratitude for the packed lunches.

Zheng Yi was well-mannered and capable of getting along with all sorts of people. His usual mode of interaction was self-effacing, often saying things like “my good brother A’Tian” [1] and “Qiu Jiejie” [2], even endearing himself to their parents with the appellations “Papa Qiu” and “Mama Qiu”. At their most intimate, even the surname was left off altogether, and he became “the Qius’ third child”.

[1], You can add 阿 (sometimes romanised as Ah) to someone’s name as an affectionate nickname.

[2] Jie/jiejie (姐/姐姐) means older sister, a respectful way to refer to a slightly older woman/girl.

Whenever Zheng Yi was joking around with the Qius, Qiu Mang would laugh along, but felt a little sad too.

She knew it was the self-preservation skill of a teen forced into early maturity. The warmth that Zheng Yi craved was here, so he would try to steal a little bit of it even if he had to lower himself somewhat.

And so Qiu Mang — or rather, the Qiu family, shared it generously with him.

As for Chen Gong, he had been the teaching assistant for Qiu Mang’s Architectural Photography class in university.

Chen Gong was cold and inflexible.

At the beginning of the course, his cool, handsome face captivated many of the students, but they gradually became disenchanted by his strict principles over the semester. Not many of the kids could comprehend his need to have everyone understand the course content, finding him unreasonable and difficult.

Once, when the art students were out on a field trip, the TA Chen Gong walked ahead, leading the group. Qiu Mang could hear the students laughing about a small hole in the back of Chen Gong’s T-shirt. She mused for a moment, then ran over. In a coquettish tone she called out, “Chen Xuezhang, help carry some of the weight,” and thrust into his hands a light backpack with only a folder in it.

Chen Gong was stunned. He slung the bag over his back. In a small voice he said, “Thank you…”

Qiu Mang then realised: he heard the students mocking him after all.

Whenever she looked at Chen Gong, Qiu Mang felt as if she was looking through a layer of ice — the light scattered as it passed through, showing a clear yet untouchable outline. When she looked at Zheng Yi, it was like looking across a flame — the light was distorted, his image flickering and hard to grasp.

It was impossible to see their true colours.

Qiu Mang sighed and tore the dried mask off her face, wondering at Chen Gong’s strange reaction on the phone earlier.

— “You mean — Zheng Yi went on his date anyway?!”

— “I don’t care if he has a date with the Weaver Girl herself, he can’t go! “

— “Don’t let Zheng Yi go anywhere tonight!”

Coming back after her trip down memory lane, Qiu Mang still had no clue what Chen Gong was trying to do.

–

Credits:

Author – Liang Azha (Weibo|Twitter)

Raws – Nandemonaiya

Translation – Nandemonaiya

Proofreading – Nandemonaiya, Terukutie, Zhiming

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