ATLAS TRANSLATES

When Cheng Yi arrived, Chu Zhi was still crouching at the street corner crying.

Her phone was carelessly thrown on the ground. She was crouching next to a street tree, head covered with a scarf, hanging low so her expression couldn’t be seen.

Cheng Yi smoothly got out of the car, slowed his steps as he walked over, hesitated for a moment, then crouched in front of Chu Zhi and carefully called out to her: “Sister Zhi?”

Chu Zhi lifted her head.

Her eyes were a bit swollen from crying, red and wet, with some tears still not wiped away on her face.

Cheng Yi was taken aback.

He had been out playing and had just arrived at the bar when he received Lu Jiaheng’s call.

At the time, Lu Jiaheng’s tone and voice made Cheng Yi feel that if he didn’t go immediately, Lu Jiaheng would descend from the heavens and kill him the next second.

Cheng Yi had just picked up his drink when he put it back down, stood up to leave, and heard airport announcements in the background of Lu Jiaheng’s call.

Cheng Yi was startled: “Where the hell are you?”

“The airport?”

“You’re coming back now?”

“I’m already back, should be in the city center in about an hour,” Lu Jiaheng said concisely, “Ask Lin Tong for the address, it should be near her internship company, I don’t know where she’s interning.”

Cheng Yi was surprised: “Don’t you practically know her ID number by heart? How do you not know where she’s interning?”

Lu Jiaheng was silent for a moment, his tone showing rare impatience: “Why are you talking so much? Hurry up and go, find somewhere to sit and wait for me to get there, don’t let her stay alone.”

Young Master Cheng resigned himself, feeling that being friends with someone like this was eight lifetimes of bad luck. When they were young he had to take the blame, and now that they were grown up he still had to be responsible for picking up his sister.

Since he was already back, couldn’t he pick up his own sister!

Cheng Yi felt he was truly the most loyal servant of the Lu family, the most dedicated driver, serving wholeheartedly until death.

But when he saw Chu Zhi, he was also a bit stunned.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen women cry before, but he really hadn’t seen his brother’s precious sister cry like this before.

Cheng Yi was like an underage boy who had never interacted with girls before, helpless and confused, completely not knowing what to do.

Should he comfort her or not?

How does one interact with a soft-spoken girl?

If he just let her cry until Lu Jiaheng arrived, wouldn’t he get beaten to death?

But how the hell do you comfort a soft-spoken girl?

Cheng Yi thought Lu Jiaheng was really impressive, being able to maintain a relationship for so long. After all, they used to just solve problems by buying bags, and if that didn’t work, they’d buy another one.

After pondering for a while, looking at the young girl whose eyes were as red as a little rabbit’s, Cheng Yi carefully said: “It’s cold outside, want to get in the car first?”

Chu Zhi was hiccuping from crying, and stuttered as she called him Senior Cheng.

Cheng Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Let’s get in the car first.”

Chu Zhi wiped her face but didn’t move.

Cheng Yi sighed: “It’s fine if you don’t want to get in.”

Chu Zhi shook her head and looked at him pitifully: “Senior Cheng, my legs are numb.”

Cheng Yi: “…”

It took a while for Chu Zhi to recover before she slowly stood up and got in the car.

Cheng Yi had no idea where to drive, so he randomly found a café by the road, parked, and sent Lu Jiaheng the location.

The café was warm and cozy, with a petit bourgeois and vintage decoration style. It was after work hours, so there were quite a few people, and classical music was playing softly.

Chu Zhi was starving, she hadn’t even eaten lunch. She ordered a chocolate waffle and a piece of red velvet cake, and began wolfing them down.

By now she had calmed down, though her eyes were still red.

Cheng Yi sat across from her, holding a cup of coffee: “Eat slowly, Ah Heng will be here soon, then he can take you somewhere nice to eat.”

Chu Zhi froze, pausing her cake-cutting motion with the fork, and looked up at him blankly: “What?”

Cheng Yi was also surprised: “He didn’t tell you?”

Chu Zhi shook her head in confusion: “When did he come back?”

“Yesterday’s flight, I guess. When he called me just now he said he was at the airport.”

Chu Zhi’s heart skipped a beat.

Yesterday she had hung up on him.

Today he came back.

Calculating the timing, as soon as she turned off her phone, he must have booked the flight.

Chu Zhi started to panic.

She swallowed, slowly put down her fork, and began glancing toward the door: “When is he coming?”

Cheng Yi hadn’t noticed her small movements. He took a couple sips of coffee while checking his watch: “Not sure, but should be soon. It takes about an hour from the airport.”

Chu Zhi nodded, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and pushed forward the plate with the chocolate waffle: “Senior Cheng, thank you for today, I should go now. I’ll treat you to something nice another time to repay you.”

As Chu Zhi said this, she stood up, intending to turn around and grab her coat.

Cheng Yi didn’t say anything, his gaze drifting behind Chu Zhi.

A shadow loomed over her as a familiar voice sounded from behind: “Where are you going?”

Chu Zhi: “…”

Chu Zhi hung her head and reluctantly turned around.

It had been so long since they’d seen each other.

So long that Chu Zhi felt like they’d been apart for many half-years.

She raised her head to look at him.

He had lost some weight, his jaw was sharper, and there was a hint of stubble he hadn’t had time to shave.

His hair was a bit messy, and his whole person carried a trace of fatigue from pulling an all-nighter.

But he was still handsome.

When she hadn’t seen him, Chu Zhi felt she missed him too much. She had imagined countless times secretly running to America and seeing his surprised expression.

But now that she saw him, Chu Zhi was momentarily dazed.

Her first thought was that she must look awful now, with eyes as red as a rabbit’s and tears staining her face.

After crying and crouching in the cold wind for so long, her skin must feel rough too.

Chu Zhi had wanted to look pretty when she saw him, hopefully even surprise him a little.

But now not only was there no surprise, she had just been through something terrible, looked so disheveled, and had become ugly.

She quickly lowered her head, her voice deflated and hoarse from crying: “Why did you—”

Before she could finish, she was gently pulled into an embrace.

Her nose was filled with his familiar scent, clean and pleasant, carrying a hint of travel weariness.

Chu Zhi pathetically felt like crying again.

She nuzzled her head and took a soft breath: “Why did you come back?”

Lu Jiaheng’s arms encircled her, the force so strong it was as if he wanted to knead her into his body, or strangle her.

He bent down and raised his hand to stroke her hair: “Came back to argue with you, but seeing you now, I find I can’t get angry at all, I just want to hold you.”

“…”

Cheng Yi lightly coughed, shifting his chair back, looking very much like he wanted to melt into the café wall and become part of the background.

Cheng Yi finally realized that Lu Jiaheng was no longer just that idiot who only knew how to spend money and buy bags.

Though they were in a corner booth with partitions, Lu Jiaheng’s tall figure standing there with half his body visible was still quite eye-catching. Chu Zhi let him hold her without moving, and mumbled: “Now that you’ve hugged me, are you going to argue with me?”

“You’ve been crying, how can I argue with you? Are you doing this on purpose? Taking advantage of the fact that I can’t bear to upset you, hmm?”

Chu Zhi secretly raised her hand and pinched his abs through his clothes.

When she couldn’t pinch his abs, she switched to pinching his waist.

Lu Jiaheng hissed and finally loosened his arms, looking down: “Why resort to domestic violence right away?”

It was clear she had cried hard – her eyes were still swollen, her nose was red, and her hair was a bit messy, like a little cat.

Lu Jiaheng remembered her voice on the phone earlier, crying as if on the verge of collapse.

So desperate and wronged, it made his heart twist.

He lowered his gaze, his thumb gently brushing her red eyes: “Who bullied our baby?”

It was fine until he mentioned it, but once he did, Chu Zhi wanted to cry again.

The whole day today, including recently, she had been so down. Chu Zhi couldn’t imagine how things could get any worse.

In her nineteen years of life, today was her worst day ever.

If things really got a bit worse, it seemed like it wouldn’t matter anymore.

Chu Zhi pouted, deciding to just go all in, and looked up: “Lu Jiaheng.”

“Mm.”

“Do you have a dog outside?”

“…”

Lu Jiaheng paused, then chuckled softly: “No, I’m allergic to dog hair.”

Chu Zhi looked up at him, her wet eyes full of grievance: “You’re lying, you’re not even allergic to cat hair, you’ve held your guess before. You have another woman.”

Before Lu Jiaheng could speak.

Cheng Yi coughed again, clearing his throat.

They both looked over at him.

Cheng Yi was leaning back in his chair like he was watching a show: “Although I’m quite curious about how this plot develops, could you two stop standing there being lovey-dovey endlessly?”

Lu Jiaheng hadn’t driven here, he had taken a taxi from the airport.

Naturally, Cheng Yi drove them home. After they got out of the car, Chu Zhi thanked Cheng Yi again before heading upstairs.

The elevator rose slowly with just the two of them inside. Chu Zhi’s earlier courage to dig for answers was gone, and by the time they reached the fourteenth floor, she wanted to run home.

Chu Zhi calculated the possibility of quickly pressing her floor button, running out of the elevator, and successfully opening her door without being caught.

Lu Jiaheng suddenly blocked her shoulder, pulling her whole body into his arms as he bent down: “Where are you trying to run to?”

Chu Zhi: “…”

She mumbled softly: “Did you put roundworms in my stomach?”

Lu Jiaheng’s lips curled up: “No, but I can put tadpoles in there later.”

Chu Zhi lowered her head, not responding.

Lu Jiaheng raised his eyebrows, observing her small white ear that was exposed.

The elevator rose floor by floor, then dinged as the doors opened.

Chu Zhi’s ears slowly turned red.

How cute.

She heard him laugh out loud.

Chu Zhi turned around and glared at him angrily.

Her eyes were still a bit swollen, her mouth puffed up like a swollen-eyed goldfish.

Or maybe like a little pufferfish, that would go “puff” and inflate when it blew up.

Lu Jiaheng licked his lips to hold back his smile, lowered his head and gently kissed her eyes.

They were still warm.

She must have cried for so long.

His cool, soft lips pressed against her eyes as he softened his voice: “My Chu Zhi was so wronged today.”

Chu Zhi tilted her head to dodge backwards.

She hung her head, standing quietly at the elevator door, looking pitiful and a bit like she was sulking.

Lu Jiaheng sighed softly: “Don’t be angry anymore, it was my fault.”

Chu Zhi still wouldn’t look up: “You haven’t actively reached out to me for so long, and when I talk to you, you don’t have the patience to listen anymore. You find me boring now.”

Lu Jiaheng went to hug her, holding her as he turned in a circle, slowly walking step by step towards their door: “I don’t find you boring, my little Chu Zhi is the cutest.”

When they reached the door and she watched him open it, she said, “You have other little Chu Zhis now,” thinking of that seemingly sexy nightgown, she bit her lip and corrected herself, “You have little roses.”

Click, the door unlocked.

Lu Jiaheng turned his head, stepping aside to let her in: “I’m allergic to roses too.”

Chu Zhi stood at the entrance, watching the man bend down to pull slippers from the shoe cabinet and place them at her feet, pouting: “You’re allergic to everything, except when you’re doing bad things.”

“Only not allergic to Chu Zhi,” Lu Jiaheng straightened up, his expression both helpless and amused: “Chu Zhi, why are you so certain that I did something bad?”

Chu Zhi went quiet again.

She stood beside him wearing the slippers, one foot not fully in yet, one hand gripping the edge of her scarf, her knuckles white from the force.

After a few seconds, as if she had made some mental preparation: “I saw everything.”

Lu Jiaheng furrowed his brows in confusion: “What?”

“I saw everything, there’s a woman’s nightgown hanging in your home,” Chu Zhi paused, took a deep breath, and continued, “I know, there must be many beautiful girls in America, taller and prettier than me, better than me in every way.”

She spoke very quickly, seeming completely unwilling to give him a chance to speak, or completely unwilling to hear his answer.

Chu Zhi didn’t look at him, didn’t know what expression he had, and didn’t dare to look, afraid of seeing guilt or silent acknowledgment on his face.

She lowered her eyelashes, her voice soft: “Actually it’s okay if there really is someone, if there is you should just tell me, I won’t cling to you, these things can’t be forced anyway.”

“Lu Jiaheng, if you don’t like me anymore just tell me, I won’t want you either.”

By the end, she was almost crying.

She tried hard to stare at the ground with wide eyes, but her vision was still a bit blurry.

Movies often show scenes where the female lead loses her job the same day she catches her boyfriend cheating, suffering setbacks in both career and love, leaving the female lead devastated.

Chu Zhi had almost projected herself onto that female lead role, and imagined the following plot, like going to a bar to drink away her sorrows, then meeting the male lead.

But that’s usually just in TV dramas. In reality, a girl alone is more likely to meet bad guys than her true love.

As Chu Zhi’s internal drama was playing out, she vaguely heard Lu Jiaheng laugh.

She dazedly came back to her senses and looked up.

Lu Jiaheng was leaning his whole body against the shoe cabinet, tilted to the side as he laughed.

Chu Zhi still had unshed tears in her eyes, her expression sad and confused and bewildered all at once.

He was laughing with great amusement, his dark peach blossom eyes filled with tiny scattered lights as he looked down at her with raised lips: “A woman’s clothes? You saw that?”

Chu Zhi froze.

She had imagined many possible expressions and reactions from him, but had never expected him to admit it so casually.

She came to her senses and widened her eyes at him: “How could you…”

Lu Jiaheng smiled as he leaned closer, holding her waist to lift her onto the shoe cabinet, unhurriedly unwrapping her scarf one loop at a time: “Chu Zhi, I have a roommate, I mentioned him before.”

Chu Zhi sat on the shoe cabinet swinging her legs.

Lu Jiaheng hung up the scarf nearby and took hold of her coat’s toggle buttons, undoing them one by one: “He has some unique preferences, and his sexual orientation is the same as yours.” He gripped the two sides of her coat, leaning in close as his fingertips gently brushed her tear-laden eyelashes, “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Chu Zhi’s whole body froze as she stared at him with a shocked expression.

Crossdressing guys, cute trans girls.

Thunder. Struck. From. Clear. Skies.

A memory from long ago resurfaced, asserting its presence with vivid clarity.

At the train station, beside the high-speed rail, the man had casually said: “I like crossdressing guys and cute trans girls.”

Chu Zhi: “…”

Isn’t this even more to your liking then?