ATLAS TRANSLATES

At first, Chu Zhi thought that even if they were in different places, it wouldn’t have much impact.

There shouldn’t be that many awkward moments and conflicts – they got along fine when they were together every day, so there was no reason for problems to multiply after being apart.

So even when Lin Tong specifically came to talk to her about this, Chu Zhi didn’t pay much attention to it.

Now, with the conflict staring her right in the face, Chu Zhi realized her previous thoughts had been too simplistic.

Many things she thought she could ignore had become impossible to overlook. Emotions she never had before started appearing mysteriously. Even words that should have been easy to say naturally became difficult to voice.

There was so much she wanted to ask, but she was also genuinely afraid, worried about receiving answers she didn’t want to accept. She could only hide like an ostrich, constantly, constantly avoiding.

When she finally gathered her courage, being interrupted meant she could no longer speak.

Chu Zhi lay flat on her bed, holding her phone to her ear, staring blankly at the ceiling.

The hair at her temples was damp, liquid slowly rolling into the strands, cold and ticklish.

She had thought she was generous and understanding, that as long as he could become better, she could endure many things.

But that wasn’t true. She was actually petty and awkward, emotional and willful.

Lu Jiaheng listened to her quietly throw a tantrum, unsure for a moment what was wrong, yet feeling like everything was wrong.

He could only lower his voice, gently coaxing: “Chu Chu, let’s not fight now, don’t argue over the phone.”

Chu Zhi sniffled softly: “I’m not fighting with you, let’s talk calmly. You’re busy with studies too, and I should be understanding. I’m also very busy with my internship now, I don’t have time to fight with you,” she silently raised her hand to wipe her eyes, “I’m doing very well at work, I’m not that useless, Lu Jiaheng, I don’t only have you, I can manage without you.”

Her defiant words spilled out like beads on a string, almost without thinking.

These somewhat aggressive, thorny words were something Chu Zhi would never say normally.

Lu Jiaheng was silent for a very, very long time on the other end.

They stayed on the phone together in complete silence, only able to hear the weak sound of static and his barely audible breathing.

After a long while, he spoke flatly: “What do you mean?”

His voice was cold, his tone flat and icy.

For the first time, he used this tone to speak to her.

Before, when she threw little tantrums with him, when she was feeling insecure and got angry over a title, he was still patient.

Chu Zhi pressed her lips together, not speaking.

Lu Jiaheng let out a low laugh, as if her words had angered him into laughing.

He took a deep breath, just as he started to speak, calling her name: “Chu Zhi—”

Chu Zhi hung up the phone.

“…”

For the first time, Lu Jiaheng had someone hang up on him mid-sentence.

All the words he wanted to say were stuck in his throat, a breath caught uncomfortably in his chest, he listened to the busy signal, his whole person seemed to be paused.

If it were anyone else, Lu Jiaheng would probably have exploded already.

But this was Chu Zhi.

When everything involved her, no matter how angry he got, he still couldn’t bring himself to lose his temper.

He looked at the hung-up screen on his phone, took a deep breath, and called her again.

Chu Zhi had turned off her phone.

The next day brought heavy snow. From Chu Zhi’s home to the company required taking the subway and then a bus. She waited a long time but no bus came.

Seeing she was about to be late, she took a taxi, but got stuck in traffic, and still ended up being late to the company.

It seemed like nothing was going right.

Chu Zhi got out of the elevator, figuring since she was already late, there was no rush to clock in. She stood in the elevator area shaking the snow off herself, stamped her feet, and then walked in.

She had basically stayed up all night with her eyes open. In the morning, she had pressed cold yogurt from the refrigerator’s fresh compartment on her eyes for quite a while but they were still swollen, with unhealthy dark circles underneath. Her whole person looked much more haggard.

Chu Zhi trudged into the office to her cubicle, slowly unwrapped her scarf and took off her coat to hang it up. During this time, Xiao Yi happened to walk by with a water cup. Chu Zhi lifted her eyes listlessly to greet him: “Morning…”

Xiao Yi seemed a bit surprised seeing her condition, but quickly recovered and smiled: “Morning.”

He seemed normal again.

Even though just yesterday he had pretended not to see her.

Chu Zhi didn’t have the energy to think about this, figuring he probably really hadn’t seen her yesterday.

She sat down dejectedly, lay on her desk spacing out for a while, then let out a long sigh and slowly turned on her computer.

Her phone was still off. Initially it was for some unclear reason, hard to say if it was stubbornness or avoidance or something else, but by now it was completely out of fear.

Fear of seeing messages and words she didn’t want to see, and not wanting to fight with him.

Chu Zhi started getting a headache, holding her head and letting out two low whimpering groans.

Xiao Yi watched her for a while from the side, finally unable to help asking: “What’s wrong? Not happy today?”

Chu Zhi lifted her head.

He pressed his lips together, looking somewhat worried.

There was also a hint of nervous unease.

Chu Zhi was still dejected, lifting her head listlessly with both hands propping up her head as she looked at him: “Monitor.”

“Hmm?”

“What did you do wrong?”

Xiao Yi froze.

His expression tensed slightly, reflexively asking quickly: “What wrong?”

Chu Zhi tilted her head slightly: “You look like you’re afraid of being scolded today.”

Xiao Yi said nothing, pressed his lips together and smiled: “No, I watched a movie yesterday and went to bed late,” he paused, lowering his eyes, “You don’t look too energetic either, stayed up late last night?”

Chu Zhi didn’t know how to explain, it was complicated. Her fair little face scrunched up again, big eyes looking at him pitifully: “Monitor.”

“Hmm?”

“You really are a good person.”

Xiao Yi: “…”

The two chatted for a while in the morning, then each did their own work. During lunch break Chu Zhi had no appetite to eat, staring blankly at her computer screen. When she came to her senses and looked up, the office was empty.

Xiao Yi must have gone to eat too, leaving without calling her.

Until 3:30 in the afternoon, their supervisor who had been directly managing both of them came over.

The office was busy but quiet, the supervisor walked over and lightly knocked on the corner of Chu Zhi’s desk.

Chu Zhi’s first reaction was that she had been caught not doing her work well all day because her mind was elsewhere.

She lifted her head and obediently called out “Sister.”

Their supervisor was called Zhao Mei, a fairly typical career woman in her early thirties who took good care of herself. Usually she was gentle and easy to talk to.

But now her face was serious as she looked at Chu Zhi expressionlessly: “Come with me for a moment.”

She didn’t look too happy.

Chu Zhi was a bit confused but obediently stood up to follow her out.

Among the several small meeting rooms in the marketing department, Chu Zhi was led by Zhao Mei into the innermost one.

As soon as she entered, she froze.

The marketing department’s two other supervisors besides Zhao Mei were all sitting inside, with Xiao Yi also sitting to the side. When she pushed open the door, he lifted his eyes to look at her.

Zhao Mei went in first, calmly beckoning to her: “Sit.”

Chu Zhi was a bit uneasy.

She pulled out the chair next to Xiao Yi, and as soon as she sat down, Zhao Mei handed her two advertising proposals: “These are both of your proposals from last time, we’ve all taken a look, you look at them yourself.”

Chu Zhi was a bit nervous. Although she knew they would pick the better one of the two, she hadn’t expected there would be a meeting like this. She had thought they would just directly tell her the result.

Chu Zhi swallowed and opened the first one.

It was her own – every word and sentence was completely familiar. Chu Zhi looked through it once, put it aside, and picked up the second one.

She had never seen Xiao Yi’s proposal before, but Monitor Xiao had excellent grades in school, the type who got scholarships every semester.

Plus he had more internship experience than her, so Chu Zhi really wasn’t confident, she could only try her best to do her best when working on it.

She took a deep breath and opened to the first page.

The meeting room was completely quiet. Besides her reading, everyone else was watching her. Chu Zhi turned page by page, her face growing increasingly pale.

Xiao Yi’s advertising proposal was exactly the same as hers in everything from the creative concept to the approach, channel combinations, media choices, etc.

Chu Zhi suddenly lifted her head to look at Xiao Yi beside her.

He was looking at her too, with an expression of both helplessness and surprise.

Chu Zhi closed the proposal, already understanding why they had called her over.

For something like an advertising proposal, especially the creative aspects, it was completely personal – it was impossible for them to be exactly the same just by coincidence.

Moreover, he knew her general direction.

She had told him all her questions and thoughts without holding anything back.

Xiao Yi.

They had been classmates for three years, the events of the first day they met still felt fresh.

She still remembered the young man wearing green military camouflage, smiling shyly yet purely, telling her “Hello, I’m Xiao Yi, we were schoolmates in high school.”

Now, that young man had grown into a man, wearing a neat shirt, looking at her with a completely unexpected innocent expression.

Zhao Mei interlocked her fingers, looking calmly: “Finished looking?”

Chu Zhi said nothing, lifting her head and opening her mouth.

“I already called Xiao Yi over earlier to ask about this, I want to hear what you have to say.”

Chu Zhi was still in a daze, she stared blankly at her, opening her mouth: “I don’t know either… I did it myself…”

Zhao Mei smiled: “No one said someone else did this for you.” She turned her head, “Xiao Yi?”

Xiao Yi rubbed his nose: “I hadn’t expected this either, I did share some experience with her before, just here at the company, quite a few colleagues saw it, but we’re also university classmates, I thought helping each other out was the right thing to do, it’s good.”

There was a “buzz” in Chu Zhi’s head, blood seeming to rush from all over her body to the top of her head, then freeze into ice.

Her fingers were ice cold, her whole body started trembling uncontrollably, unable to say a single word.

The man looked no different than usual, his expression hadn’t even changed.

Chu Zhi looked at him in disbelief.

Zhao Mei nodded, turning to Chu Zhi: “I’ve looked at both proposals, their merits and flaws are obvious at a glance. Actually anyone with a bit of experience can see the quality difference, calling you over was mainly to hear your explanation.”

Chu Zhi’s face was pale, her lips pressed tightly together.

She didn’t know how to explain, both panicked and helpless, so anxious she wanted to cry, but she forcefully held it back, her eyes widening slightly: “But this really was my own idea, I worked hard writing it, I revised it many times, spent so long on it, I also—”

I also told him about it.

Your own work is your own work, how could he do this.

How could he, after doing something like this, still be so calm and innocent in framing her first, acting like he was the victim.

Chu Zhi sniffled, forcefully holding back tears, but her voice couldn’t help carrying a bit of a crying tone: “I didn’t plagiarize, I spent a long time writing this proposal, these are my ideas…”

Zhao Mei was unmoved: “But although your proposal has good ideas and creative concepts, and you can see you seriously researched the product, there are still many holes and rough areas, while Xiao Yi’s, besides a few small immature flaws, could be said to be comprehensive and good in all aspects,” Zhao Mei paused, “Moreover, Xiao Yi submitted three days before you.”

Chu Zhi was speechless.

She had no way to explain.

She really had no way to explain at all.

The small young woman sat quietly curled up in her chair, her pretty face deathly pale, large eyes filled with tears.

A male supervisor on the side seemed unable to watch anymore, sighing: “Actually you’re very clever, with strong learning ability, there was really no need to do something like this. The company won’t decide who stays and who goes just based on this one result, after all it’s just the internship period.”

Chu Zhi hung her head low, stubbornly biting her lip, forcefully holding back, not letting the tears roll down.

That’s not it.

It wasn’t like that at all.

She had always known Xiao Yi had good grades and worked hard, she never thought she could win against him on her first try at something like this.

She just wanted, just wanted to do her very best.

But after something like this happened, she didn’t even have a way to prove herself.

Probably her nervousness when she first came in, in others’ eyes, was just the guilty conscience of someone who had done wrong.

Chu Zhi closed her eyes, tears hanging on her eyelashes, falling drop by drop onto the meeting room’s polished table.

The meeting room was completely quiet, only that male supervisor was still continuing to speak, saying something, but Chu Zhi could no longer hear anything.

She suddenly stood up, raising her hand to wipe away tears, choking but clear: “Something I didn’t do is something I didn’t do, there’s no concrete evidence, yet you can casually conclude this proposal’s core was stolen by me just because he submitted a few days earlier and his is more polished? If you can make such arbitrary judgments, then your company really has no value or meaning in staying at.”

She sniffled, hands supporting the table edge trying hard to stand steady, looking at the several people sitting opposite.

“This advertising proposal was my first real proposal, every word was written with my heart, everything in it was my own work. Even if stolen work is packaged well it’s still just surface level. The reason I worked hard wasn’t because I wanted to win, but because I wanted to do the best I possibly could,”

Her whole body was shaking, her vision going white in waves from anger, but she still gritted her teeth and forcefully resisted the urge to rush out the door, struggling to keep her thoughts clear as she bowed low to the people opposite, enunciating word by word, “Thank you very much for everyone’s care during this time, it has indeed been very beneficial, I learned a lot not just professionally. I will go fill out the resignation form shortly.”

After she finished speaking, she walked out of the meeting room without looking back.

Chu Zhi moved quickly, going straight to HR to fill out the form after leaving.

The HR person was still the same one from her interview. While Chu Zhi was filling out the form she kept crying, big teardrops falling plop plop. The HR sister had no idea what had happened, comfortingly patted her back and said softly: “Work is always like this, you’ll get used to it, don’t cry.”

Chu Zhi felt she could never get used to it.

She couldn’t understand why classmates who had good relationships in school would become like this once actual benefits were involved.

And just recently, he had told her internships were just for learning, results didn’t matter.

He wanted to win so badly that he would even do something like this against his conscience.

She sobbed and wiped the tears from her face, handing the form to HR: “I never want to become that kind of person.”

After leaving the HR department, Chu Zhi went back to the office to pack up her things.

She had only been there less than a month, didn’t have much stuff, so packing went quickly. She packed up some of her own things, put on her coat and left the company.

It was during work hours, not many people in the elevator, most hurrying about with documents in hand busy with their own things.

The cold metal box descended floor by floor to the first floor, Chu Zhi kept her head down, not wanting others to see her swollen eyes and disheveled appearance from crying.

Winter days were short, especially in the north. At just past four, the sky was already dark. As soon as she left the office building, cold wind howled past, her scarf not wrapped properly, puffing up in circles.

Chu Zhi stood on the main street, feeling a bit lost.

The company was in the city center, an eternally bustling prosperous area, surrounded by high-end office buildings, their glass curtain walls reflecting the remaining glow of sunset.

Chu Zhi suddenly realized how unnecessary it had been to keep her head so low earlier – pedestrians came and went, everyone busy hurrying about for their livelihood, no one had time to pay attention to others.

No one noticed if her eyes were red and swollen, no one cared how much grievance she had suffered, why she was crying.

Chu Zhi walked forward a few steps, her phone buzzing repeatedly in her pocket.

She mechanically answered it, not checking who was calling, not speaking.

Lu Jiaheng’s voice was still the same as always, low and gentle, his tone endings soft and affectionate.

She could almost imagine what he looked like saying these words.

He only called her name once, “Chu Chu.”

Chu Zhi’s footsteps stopped.

“Lu Jiaheng…” she choked out his name, her voice hoarse, so quiet it was barely audible.

On the other end of the phone, Lu Jiaheng fell silent.

Chu Zhi suddenly remembered the brazen words she had said when fighting with Lu Jiaheng before.

She actually hadn’t done well at all, she was stupid and useless.

Even though it was her own work, her own framework, others could do it better than her.

Even though it was her own creative concept, she didn’t even have the ability to prove herself.

She had stayed up so many nights, read so many product materials, could practically recite every word.

That was the first independent world she had created and described, yet she couldn’t even protect it.

That feeling was really too painful.

That grievance, that humiliation of being falsely accused, that feeling of powerlessness, that unwillingness to give up.

“Lu Jiaheng…”

The street lights had already come on, car headlights stretching into bands.

Like a wronged child finally finding support.

Chu Zhi held her phone, calling his name over and over, standing at the street corner sobbing loudly.