“Look at your pale skin; where did you go again last night?” Bai Qi looked at Zhang Jing and threw a piece of bread at him.
Zhang Jing simpered, “Did stuff outdoors.”
Bai Qi raised his eyebrow, “How did it feel?”
Zhang Jing ripped open the packaging of the bread, reached into his drawer for a box of milk, and replied, “Pretty nice, her ass was nice.”
Bai Qi was accustomed to his fickle attitude, so he just laughed, “Be careful of AIDS.”
He nodded, “We used protection.”
Bai Qi helplessly shook his head.
When Shan Shan came in, Zhang Jing was about to finish his last bite of the bread, which finally soothed his stomach pain. Shan Shan reached for a heat pack from her purse and asked, “My mom made dumplings this morning. Do you want some, Brother Jing? I brought them for you.”
Zhang Jing glanced at the milk box he just finished, “Why didn’t you come five minutes earlier?”
Shan Shan was surprised. “Wait, you finished eating already? I thought you never ate on time.”
Zhang Jing pointed at Bai Qi. “He gave me bread earlier, but you can bring the dumplings here. I can still eat a few.”
Shan Shan’s mom’s homemade dumplings. Zhang Jing hasn’t had homemade food in so many years, so he accidentally ate too much. Afterwards, he pressed on his stomach and reflected that his stomach is quite fragile: Not eating hurts, but eating also hurts.
Born as a master but has the fate of a wretch.
“Oh right, Shan Shan,” Zhang Jing found the contract on his desk and threw it to her. “Yesterday Mei Hua sent us this contract. Take a look, and if it looks all right, tell Bai Qi to sign it.”
“Got it.”
“Mei, did your team finish the promotional video project? Show me once you guys finish.”
Mei was a skinny guy that seemed as pure and clean as a girl. He hurriedly responded, “It’s finished, it’s finished! They’re experts in hurrying us! They didn’t pay much for this small stupid promotional video, but they gave so many restrictions!”
This advertising studio was founded by Zhang Jing and Bai Qi. Even though it was on a small scale, the employees were all highly trained, so one person could do the work of three. Moreover, the studio was slowly growing in scale too.
Zhang Jing and Bai Qi had different responsibilities: Since Zhang Jing didn’t major in design, Bai Qi focused on the design aspects while Zhang Jing was responsible for all the other work. However, Bai Qi was someone with a low temper. He used to be a Creative Director at a large advertising firm, but he disliked his boss for his unnecessary and troublesome requests. So he impulsively resigned to create his own studio, and brought along his team of well-trained colleagues, including Mei and Shan Shan.
In this studio there was a radish in each pit, without a single idle person (unlike his previous boss).
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Last night, Zhang Jing was drunk and slept at Lin Zhou’s house, so he couldn’t even change his clothes this morning. In the afternoon, he rode his deluxe motorcycle to the address, but the security guard blocked him from entering.
“Good afternoon sir,” the security guard respectfully bowed his head, waiting for his response.
Zhang Jing was aware that his scruffy outfit and motorcycle seemed out of place, so he couldn’t even blame him. “I’m here representing my advertising studio to discuss a contract.”
The security guard double checked with the receptionist, and finally let him in. To be honest, he dislikes these so-called big companies—entering them is harder than entering the government buildings.
He pointed at his motorcycle and told the security guard, “Sorry for bothering you. You don’t have to guard that, just please look after my helmet.”
The security guard once again respectfully bowed his head, “Okay, sir.”
When he entered the building, the receptionist stopped him as well. She was pretty; her makeup was light and clean.
“Good afternoon sir, please wait a moment.”
“Okay.”
Zhang Jing watched as she made an internal phone call, “Good afternoon Secretary Chen, the studio’s manager has arrived. Is now a good time to lead him upstairs?”
“Yes, it’s a gentleman.”
“Okay.”
She ended the call and politely smiled, “I’m very sorry that you waited so long. Please go this way to the elevator and press Floor 16. Someone there will welcome you.”
Zhang Jing smiled back at her.
From the reception to the elevator, all the floor tiles were so clean that they reflected light. Once he entered the elevator, he terminated his smiling. These complex processes and overly respectful people irritated him—signing a contract here is as troublesome as breaking through obstacles.
When he reached the sixteenth floor, there was, as expected, a person there waiting for him. But this time the person was a male. He nodded slightly to Zhang Jing, “Good afternoon, please follow me this way.”
When they reached the office, the guy knocked twice, and then pushed open the door. “Mr. Ji, the representative of the studio has arrived.”
He turned around to Zhang Jing and said, “Please come inside.” Immediately after, he left.
Normally, Zhang Jing would’ve walked up, reached out his hand, and greeted, “Hello Mr. Ji, I’m the manager of Alum Studio.” But now, he couldn’t even move forward a step.
He looked at the face that was staring back at him, and realized that he lost the ability to move and talk. That same face appeared in his dream last night, where they confessed to each other, and kissed…
Zhang Jing even suspected that he was still dreaming and never woke up.
He watched the person walk towards him, and spaced out until the deep voice resonated in the room.
“What a coincidence. I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
Calming himself down, Zhang Jing returned to the present and replied, “Yep, it’s been quite a while.”
There was no response; Zhang Jing didn’t say anything either. He turned his head to look at the bookshelves, and some inexplicable anger grew inside. He felt really embarrassed.
He had a pale ghost face due to the hangover, crumpled clothing with the scent of alcohol, and an extremely unnatural response upon meeting him. Compared to the well-dressed, calm, and composed person in front of him, he felt even more awkward and wished to disappear.
Then he sneered at himself and thought, “He’s just an old acquaintance from a few years ago, why should I care?”
After brainwashing himself, he raised his head, focused on Mr. Ji’s face, and emotionlessly stated, “Mr. Ji, it seems like these few years went well for you. Let’s skip the small talk and get down to business. I have more work to attend to, so please sign the contract and roughly explain your demands. As for the specifics, you can directly communicate with our studio’s designers in the future.”
Ji Dongxun gazed heavily at him, and responded after a long while, “Okay.”
Actually, the so-called negotiation is trivial for an advertising studio—there isn’t much to talk about. They merely give each other restrictions: You promise that you will pay for our service; and if our product isn’t satisfactory, you have the right to deduct from your payments. The rest are just minor details.
Even though Zhang Jing appeared composed and spoke logically, nothing passed his brain. If you asked him what his previous sentence was, he would’ve looked back at you blankly.
Throughout the conversation, Ji Dongxun didn’t say much either. He replied “sure” and “okay” to everything Zhang Jing said. His eyes occasionally set on Zhang Jing’s face, remained there for a short time, and looked away.
No one would have suspected that there was anything more to their relationship than coincidentally meeting an old acquaintance.
“Then let’s pause here, Mr. Ji. Later after I print the contract, I can scan or fax it to you, either works. I’m not in charge of the design aspects, so you should contact a designer from our studio about the details.”
Ji Dongxun, staring at him, answered, “Okay.”
Zhang Jing stood up, “Then I’ll take my leave.”
He thought he would receive the same plain response, yet he heard the deep, seductive voice ask, “What is the hurry?”
These four words once again stirred up Zhang Jing’s calmed feelings.
In an instant, an innumerable amount of flashbacks crashed into his mind: All those nights when they parted for their dorms, he would clasp his arms and unhappily ask, “What is the hurry?”
Suffocating, Zhang Jing felt pain spreading like roots from the tip of his heart.
He responded, “I still have other things to do, so I won’t waste Mr. Ji’s time. I look forward to working with you.”
He desperately wanted to to shake Ji Dongxun’s hand, but he hesitated and eventually didn’t reach out.
Then Zhang Jing left without hesitation; he didn’t even give him another glance. Outside the building, he walked straight towards his motorcycle, buckled his helmet, pressed the “Start” button, and rolled the throttle twice. He completed this process without a hitch in a rather attractive fashion.
Once he reached his studio, he stayed outside to smoke a few cigarettes before going back in.
Bai Qi asked, “How was it?”
“Went pretty smoothly. Later I’ll draft a contract, he’ll sign it, and it’ll be sealed.”
“Thank you for your hard work,” Bai Qi tossed a lollipop to him. “We shouldn’t receive any more commissions this month; we’re all too busy. Let’s finish what’s on our plate first.”
Zhang Jing nodded, “Okay.”
Ever since Zhang Jing came back, he seemed preoccupied with something. Bai Qi glanced at him a few times and noticed that something was off.
Later in the evening, everyone finished their work and left, except for Bai Qi and Zhang Jing. The former didn’t finish his work, and the latter sat on the chair and stared blankly at nothing.
Bai Qi looked at him again, “You lost your soul?”
“What?” Zhang Jing blinked his eyes a few times. “What did you just say? I didn’t comprehend it.”
“I asked if you lost your soul.”
Zhang Jing didn’t reply.
After a long time, he walked over, leaned on the table, and asked, “The dude you mentioned last time—the one you wanted to introduce me to. Did he find a partner?”
Bai Qi raised his eyebrow, “What’s your intention?”
Zhang Jing smiled insincerely, “I just feel a bit lonely these days due to the lack of love. If he’s still single, you can give him my WeChat.”
I feel like I was sitting on pins and needles the whole time reading this. The anxiety is quite overwhelming there. This is just the beginning but I already want them to reconcile and fix their misunderstanding. 😅
Thank you for this chapter, Izzy. 💕
Thank you for reading! Same here, I can’t wait to translate the part where they reconcile~
So far, so angsty… Thank you for the chapter 💙
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