Chapter 8

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It was easy enough to say “I won’t care”, but even after Zheng Yi confirmed that he’d landed, Chen Gong still couldn’t sleep. He was a little worried.

Chen Gong always felt that rich brats tended to have no basic life skills, hence his concern for Zheng Yi. This was also why he felt extraordinarily resistant when Lao Wang told him that Zheng Yi was “coming to Chengdu to work with you”.

Chen Gong was used to getting things done quickly, by himself. He didn’t need people breaking his stride, and he definitely didn’t need to bend over backwards to adapt to someone else’s working habits.

With Zheng Yi forced upon him, the full attention he usually gave his work would have 30% subtracted to focus on Zheng Yi.

Especially since Zheng Yi was the apple of Lao Wang’s eye.

Any potential hazard Zheng Yi might run into would have Lao Wang blaming him for “not taking good care of our Zheng Yi”, and Chen Gong didn’t want that.

In actual fact, Lao Wang hadn’t said anything to the effect of “Zheng Yi’s landing very late and won’t have eaten, you should prepare something for him” — getting food for Zheng Yi was completely Chen Gong’s own initiative.

Of course, this had nothing to do with him being caring. Chen Gong simply didn’t want the unruly, cocky little prince to throw a tantrum from overworking — it’d be bad for productivity.

There was another reason that Chen Gong didn’t want to think about.

Chen Gong was informed of the trip on the 30th of September, and Qiu Mang booked a red-eye flight for the same day.

At around 1:30PM, after getting his permission slips, Chen Gong pulled his luggage out of the office and past the lounge to the lift.

The high-class office building was on Beijing’s 3rd Ring Road — an exceptionally good property. But the slightly stupid thing about it was its “one-lift-to-twelve-occupants” policy. Simply put, the larger the number of lifts to the occupants-per-floor, the smoother the traffic.

Normally there were enough lifts. Each floor had six lifts and two sets of escalators, and traffic was fine. But there was emergency maintenance today, and the two lifts closest to Halo were out of order.

The luggage itself wasn’t too heavy, and Chen Gong was too lazy to walk across the floor to the next set of lifts, so he headed for the fire escape.

He had just reached the corner of the fourth floor stairs when he heard a voice from below.

In general, Chen Gong didn’t care much about phone conversations in passing. But a name emerged that made Chen Gong pause in surprise.

“That ******* Zheng Yi genuinely thinks I like him. I just hinted that we should get a room and he was high as a kite!”

“Dumb-landlord’s-son types like him are the best catch!”

“Ugh, shut up, don’t give me that mental image!”

On hearing these not inaccurate comments about Zheng Yi, Chen Gong unconsciously backtracked up the stairs.

He didn’t mean to eavesdrop on the conversation, but what were the odds?

As the subject’s own assistant, he didn’t want to think about what would happen if he ran into the speaker.

Turning and opening the fire exit for the fourth floor, Chen Gong decided to flee the scene of the crime.

But then he heard a nasty laugh, after which the speaker added, “But if I do manage to catch him, I wouldn’t really go for a pretty-boy idiot like him — I’ll just get a secret “intimate video” to live off of later on.”

At this, Chen Gong’s nerve endings hissed and exploded.

If Zheng Yi had been a good friend of his, Chen Gong would have gone back down the fire escape, pummelled the man, and kicked him down the stairs.

But Zheng Yi was his enemy. He was the foe who had doused him in juice this morning, the arch rival who went to make a report to “expose” his truancy at noon… Chen Gong could already imagine Zheng Yi’s “intimate video” forcing him to leave Halo in disgrace.

…He could imagine it, but it didn’t make him happy.

Chen Gong frowned, his emotions fluctuating. He felt a shred of wickedness sprout in his heart, then swiftly shrivel and die.

Chen Gong didn’t quite dare to picture Zheng Yi’s crestfallen expression when betrayed and made to leave; nor did he want to imagine what attitude he himself should take in order to calmly replace Zheng Yi as director; not to mention how awkward the self-professed genius Zheng Yi would be when realising that he’d been emotionally duped…

There were many things Chen Gong didn’t dare imagine, but they played in his mind regardless.

After coming back to his senses with some effort, Chen Gong turned back again.

Through the glass of the fire doors, Chen Gong saw the shadowy profile of the man who had just gone back in.

He wasn’t familiar with the guy, but years of working at the company meant Chen Gong recognised him. He also knew him as Zheng Yi’s “rumoured lover”.

His name was something like… Yang Yi.

–

The last time he called Zheng Yi, they’d been so busy bickering that he forgot to tell Zheng Yi the most important matter. Chen Gong wasn’t sure why, but whenever he crossed paths with that idiot Zheng Yi, he too became an idiot.

After a few gulps from the opened can of beer on his window desk, Chen Gong called Zheng Yi again.

It was late. From the window, he could see the empty streets – the street lamps and billboard lights had the place to themselves.

Chen Gong had already yawned countless times.

Chen Gong was a man of discipline. Early to bed, early to rise, never skipping exercise — even his smoking and drinking habits were a matter of social lubrication, so he never exceeded his limits.

Zheng Yi was the opposite. He frequently went out to karaoke bars at night and showed up to work dreadfully hungover the next day. Chen Gong would be unable to talk to him about work — indeed, he sometimes accidentally set Zheng Yi off in his pained stupor, leading to yet another argument.

On the third ring, Zheng Yi picked up his call.

Chen Gong put on his calmest face and said into the phone: “I need to discuss the prospecting with you ahead of time. Since we’re seeing them early in the morning, we should probably meet up beforeha…”

Halfway through, he realised that the phone was playing a dial tone.

Chen Gong drew deeply on his cigarette and slowly exhaled.

He was probably so irritated with Chen Gong that he wouldn’t even take a call.

Chen Gong didn’t mean for their relationship to deteriorate to this level, either.

Zheng Yi’s skills and strengths complemented his own. Chen Gong was rich in experience, Zheng Yi in expertise; had the two been friends, he would have been able to see vicariously just how green the grass was on the other side of the globe — at very least, it’d be something to add to his narrow little corner of the world.

Sometimes, Chen Gong didn’t really get his own petulance.

Even if Zheng Yi had taken away the directorship, Chen Gong had clearly promised himself that he would be mature and maintain some basic civility.

But it was easier said than done. Some things were really too important to him– it was hard to make himself feel what he ought to. Even when he discovered the plot against Zheng Yi, he couldn’t completely stifle his emotions.

Perhaps they were destined to be enemies. Chen Gong admitted defeat.

Stubbing out the cigarette butt in the ashtray, he prepared to send Zheng Yi’s food to the lobby.

–

His phone dead, Zheng Yi sat on his suitcase, heavy-lidded and at a loss.

He suddenly remembered… was it seven years ago now? Exiting the arrival hall at Heathrow and looking into the dark night of a foreign country, he’d been just like this — breathing in the hot summer air, yet feeling strangely cold.

He looked up at the hotel building. Only four or five windows were lit.

Zheng Yi rose with a sigh.

“Where are you going?”

A familiar, calm voice came from behind him.

Zheng Yi turned to see Chen Gong walking out the hotel entrance.

Wearing a loose-collared old T-shirt, he looked as if he had just washed his hair and dried it with a simple rub of a towel.

Zheng Yi stared at him for a moment before his sleepy brain finally registered the question. “Ah… wherever.”

“Why didn’t you pick up?”

“My phone’s dead…”

“It’s so late, why aren’t you checking in?”

“I lost my ID.”

“Well… can’t the front desk accommodate you? Are you really going to wander about till 6? What if you miss work?”

Faced with Chen Gong’s barrage of questions, Zheng Yi felt mildly amused — right now, his miserable state was laid bare before Chen Gong’s gaze.

Though the two didn’t usually see eye to eye, did Chen Gong really need to don his work attitude in this dire situation?

Zheng Yi laughed coldly. “The fuck’s it gotta do with you?”

Chen Gong replied, calm as always: “Do as you like, it’s nothing to me so long as you don’t miss work. I called to remind you to bring a camera. Now you know. Handle the damn ID situation yourself, I’m going to bed.”

Zheng Yi had no strength left to argue. “‘Kay.”

Chen Gong turned and left.

Zheng Yi felt his nose twinge from choked tears. Only after staring into space for a short while could he calm the turbulence inside.

He felt like shit, but it wasn’t because of Chen Gong’s indifference, or the stress of work, or even that he ended up out on the street… He’d faced worse, and he’d always managed to handle it before.

It was just that he was too hungry — so hungry he was almost nauseated.

Zheng Yi was an emotional person.

Unlike the stony-faced Chen Gong, Zheng Yi’s emotions had always been unapologetically on full display. When he saw something that angered him, he would tremble with rage and charge forth to fix it; when he watched sad movies, he would wipe his tears as he grumbled; if something on Weibo amused him, he wouldn’t be able to control his laughter even if he was in a business meeting.

So getting teary-eyed with hunger was not out of character.

To be honest, Zheng Yi could sometimes understand why Chen Gong was so cold to him.

The directorship was something Chen Gong had worked hard for throughout his past six years in HALOstudio. And just when it was within his sights, when it had slipped into his grasp, Zheng Yi snatched it away.

Anyone would be upset.

But at the thought, Zheng Yi let out a quiet “tch”. “Society is cruel that way. I don’t feel great about it, but it was something I won on the strength of my beautiful CV and capabilities, so I’m not about to give it up…”

After all, the workplace wasn’t like a pear you could share [1]; nobody would “promote harmony through courtesy” when it came to something they really cared about.

[1] A reference to the pear-sharing story of Kong Rong from the Han Dynasty (153CE – 208CE), in which a 4 year old Kong Rong gave up his larger pears for his older & younger brothers.

Zheng Yi was well aware that he was reckless and emotional, but he was also quick to make nice. Had Chen Gong not given him dirty looks so frequently, they might have even become friends. But Chen Gong was determined to be his enemy, and this roused the young master’s ire. He could laugh it off the first time, even hold his temper the second, but the third time sent him wild.

If anyone was to blame… it was Chen Gong, for being so narrow-minded.

Zheng Yi could understand him, but he couldn’t empathise. Chen Gong seemed like the sort of person whose prime motivation was profit, whose ambition was too intense.

The word that defined his life was “Success”.

Even his own name [2] spelt that desire.

[2] Chen Gong’s name is very similar to the Chinese word for success– Cheng Gong.

In the summer night, Zheng Yi sat and pondered. He couldn’t get the hotel receptionist to give him a room.

But he still went in and took the hamburger that Chen Gong had left for him at reception. He chewed as he dragged his suitcase, deciding to look for a 24-hour fast food restaurant to rest his weary feet.

As for everything else… He’d think about it once he had his phone charged and turned on.

Luggage in tow, he descended the hotel steps and blindly turned right.

And saw Chen Gong once again. He was squatting down and smoking under the eaves, looking for all the world like a street thug.

Zheng Yi was eating the hamburger that Chen Gong had bought him when he caught sight of Chen Gong. He was embarrassed once again, but on remembering that it was bought on company dime, felt less like he had taken advantage of Chen Gong. He continued to chew on the burger and pretended not to have noticed Chen Gong, deciding to walk on by.

When he passed Chen Gong, Chen Gong stood and took his luggage.

Chen Gong put out his cigarette. Not looking at Zheng Yi, he said, “When I think about it, I’m still worried you’ll mess up work tomorrow. How about you sleep in my room for a night? You won’t need your ID, we’ll sneak in the back.”

Zheng Yi felt his nose twinge again. The hamburger must not have been enough.

He’d meant to snort coldly and mock Chen Gong, but when the snort passed through his nostrils, it seemed to change, sounding like a pitiful whimper instead.

Realising that he hadn’t “snorted coldly”, Zheng Yi just wanted to die on the spot.

But Chen Gong didn’t mind.

He simply pulled Zheng Yi’s suitcase, leaving Zheng Yi in his shadow as he said: “You can count this as me taking care of you. Just don’t slam me when Lao Wang asks.”

–

Credits:

Author – Liang Azha (Weibo|Twitter)

Raws – Nandemonaiya

Translation – Nandemonaiya

Proofreading – Nandemonaiya, Terukutie, Zhiming

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