ATLAS TRANSLATES

For a long time afterward, Chu Zhi and Xiao Yi didn’t speak to each other again.

At first, Zhou Ming would still greet Chu Zhi and her friends in the classroom, but Gu Han, Lin Tong and the others were very cold, and Xiao Yi didn’t seem very enthusiastic either. Zhou Ming was confused but eventually stopped greeting them.

Although A University focused more on sciences, even a lean camel is larger than a horse – their advertising program was still quite good nationally, winning many awards in various college advertising competitions. Xiao Yi was particularly active in these competitions and over the years had become quite the idol senior among the younger female students.

Chu Zhi hadn’t participated in many advertising competitions, only winning a couple of scattered awards. She couldn’t say she loved the advertising major, and her participation enthusiasm wasn’t very high. Though her grades were good, it was purely due to study habits developed since childhood.

However, after the winter break, she suddenly became energized like she’d been injected with enthusiasm, as if approaching her senior year had finally made her think about her future. She started paying attention to various advertising festivals and competitions.

Though she only paid attention and prepared, she never actually signed up.

After the Qingming Festival, as the weather warmed up in May, Chu Zhi started an internship as a copywriter at a medium-sized private company.

She only needed to go three days a week with flexible hours of her choosing. The office was in the building across from her previous advertising company.

After being accused of plagiarism, she had never returned to that area.

The day of her interview, she hesitated for a long time.

Every traffic light, every intersection felt as clear as yesterday. The closer she got, the more she wanted to run away, afraid that at any moment she might run into someone from her old office.

She felt both pathetic and embarrassed, like a defeated general – going in gloriously but retreating in shame after losing the battle, now sneaking back reluctantly.

But she hadn’t done anything wrong.

Chu Zhi took a deep breath, patted her face, and was about to walk into the building with her head held high when she saw two people come out from across the street.

The man wore a clean, crisp denim shirt and was very tall and thin, looking like a bamboo pole.

The woman beside him wore business attire – a pencil skirt and stockings covering her slender legs, her purple-red hair styled in waves.

The two walked out of the building one after another, turned the corner, and started walking side by side as the man’s hand settled on the woman’s waist.

Xiao Yi and Zhao Mei.

Chu Zhi froze.

Many details she hadn’t noticed or had overlooked before suddenly became clear.

Duo Si was a large, well-known advertising company in the industry. Even though Xiao Yi’s planning proposal was more comprehensive than hers, even though he submitted it earlier, they shouldn’t have so arbitrarily determined that she was the plagiarist.

Before, she had been too blinded by grievance and anger to think carefully about this issue. Now looking at it this way, everything seemed to make sense.

Chu Zhi stood at the building entrance, momentarily unable to process it.

She wanted to vent to someone about how incredibly unbelievable it was. They had only interned at Duo Si together for half a month, and normally there hadn’t seemed to be anything improper between them.

A female manager and intern student – she hadn’t even seen such a pairing in novels.

She immediately imagined three thousand different scenarios in her head: a fresh graduate phoenix man and a mature female manager, complete with a caring girlfriend who had been with him since university into society, playing out a dramatic annual drama.

Chu Zhi’s worldview was completely shattered.

In the last two months of junior year, Chu Zhi signed up for the Summer College Student Advertising Festival.

The summer International College Student Advertising Festival was the largest of the year, an integrated platform for learning, competition, internships and employment. Many domestic and international companies paid attention to it, with over ten thousand students and teachers participating. The competition awards were also highly recognized in the industry.

She didn’t tell anyone, quietly submitting her work. That afternoon, Chu Zhi ran into Xiao Yi in the school cafeteria.

At 3 PM the cafeteria was nearly empty. Chu Zhi ordered some spicy hot pot, wore an earphone in one ear, and sat quietly eating in a corner.

A man’s hand appeared in her vision, holding a can of Want Want milk.

Chu Zhi had a fish ball in her mouth as she looked up.

Xiao Yi stood smiling by the table, looking every bit the gentleman.

Chu Zhi blinked, stuffing half the fish ball in her mouth and chewing as she removed one earphone.

Xiao Yi smiled: “You signed up for this advertising festival?”

Chu Zhi blinked: “Yes, I did.”

Xiao Yi looked at her with kind approval: “You’ve finally picked yourself up. I was worried you wouldn’t recover.”

Chu Zhi lowered her head, picking up a shrimp dumpling, suddenly asking: “How’s your internship at Duo Si going?”

“Pretty good.”

Chu Zhi nodded: “Things are good between you and Manager Zhao too?”

Xiao Yi paused before saying slowly: “What do you mean?”

Chu Zhi stabbed at a shrimp dumpling, her chopsticks lifting slightly: “I saw you with her once when I was passing by,” she looked at him curiously, “are you dating?”

Xiao Yi looked down at her, saying slowly: “I was just discussing some things with Manager Zhao.”

Chu Zhi nodded, stuffing the shrimp dumpling in her mouth, her cheeks puffing as she chewed. After swallowing, she said calmly: “Discussing things while holding her.”

Xiao Yi’s expression changed slightly, his smile faltering.

Chu Zhi looked at him with an innocent expression, tilting her head slightly as her white earphone cord swayed with her movement: “I even took a photo. Want to see? I noticed your back view is quite handsome, Class Monitor.”

Xiao Yi’s maintained smile finally disappeared completely.

His expression stiffened, “It’s not what you think between me and her…”

By then Chu Zhi had finished eating. She stuck her chopsticks in her hot pot bowl, fishing out two bean sprouts to play with: “Actually I think May-December romances are fine nowadays. Sister Zhao Mei is only in her thirties, and your age gap is quite cute,” she raised her eyes, blinking her big eyes as she looked at him sincerely,

“Really, they say when an older woman marries it’s like holding gold bricks. By that calculation, you’d be holding three or four bricks.”

“…”

Xiao Yi’s expression was extremely unpleasant. After a long while, he finally said in a lowered voice: “What do you want? I know you resent me and Manager Zhao, but you don’t need to talk to me like this. What exactly do you want?”

“Don’t be nervous, love is free nowadays, there’s nothing wrong with you two dating. I haven’t even said anything yet,” Chu Zhi pushed away her hot pot bowl and stood up.

The height difference between them was quite large – Xiao Yi looking down and Chu Zhi looking up, but she didn’t seem pressured at all.

She continued in a soft voice, unhurried: “Don’t worry, I just took the photo casually. I don’t have any thoughts about you and Sister Zhao Mei, and I’m not planning to do anything. I’m not like you – even without all those crooked methods, I can do well on my own.”

The afternoon cafeteria was quiet, with only a scattered few people sitting far away, occasionally glancing over.

The young woman stood by the window backlit by light, the early summer sun wrapping around her, her fine soft hair flying about, looking as if covered in soft down.

Xiao Yi suddenly remembered the first time he saw Chu Zhi was also in a cafeteria.

It was back in the high school cafeteria, which wasn’t as big. The young girl held a fried rice cake, wearing a school uniform that was a bit too big for her, bouncing past him with a smile brighter than the sun that day, calling out her friend’s name in a soft voice like cotton candy at an amusement park: “Do you want some rice cake!”

She looked so happy, carefree as if without any worries. Even the heaviest academic pressure couldn’t cast any shadow over her. She was passionate, pure and vivid, making everything around her seem dim in comparison.

That year Xiao Yi was still the model student, the one all students were supposed to emulate, every teacher’s favorite, his parents’ only hope in life and all their spiritual sustenance.

Back then he still studied diligently without distractions, firmly believing that studying was the only way to change one’s fate.

At that time, he still had clear goals.

When did so many things start to change?

Chu Zhi’s new internship supervisor was a smiling middle-aged man.

The man appeared to be in his early forties and reportedly studied computer science in university. Now he worked in SEO, maintaining a perpetually peaceful expression, the characteristic male pattern baldness of the profession, and was extremely easy to talk to.

Chu Zhi’s position was copywriting planning intern. Following him, she learned many new things she had never encountered before. Although she only went three days a week, it was still very fulfilling.

This was probably different from her time at Duo Si, where everyone was busy and you had to figure things out on your own or learn by watching – no one would teach you hands-on how to do things.

Yuan Ci got into graduate school at their university. His major was reportedly among the top ten “unworthy of having hair” majors, yet the young man still maintained a calm and composed demeanor, his hair thick as ever, even having time every day to visit Chu Zhi.

Though he was in sciences, when he helped review Chu Zhi’s planning proposals and gave suggestions, he was still thorough and professional enough to make one question life.

Chu Zhi felt this must be the insurmountable gap between geniuses and ordinary people.

Time galloped past – it felt like school had just started one day, and the next day Chu Zhi was already sitting in her final exam.

The third year of university ended, and the young woman officially entered her senior year.

Chu Zhi became increasingly busy, wishing she could split each minute into ten parts. As if by tacit agreement between them, her contact with Lu Jiaheng also became less and less frequent, until finally there were only occasional text messages updating each other on recent situations.

Everyone was like a spinning top – Xue Niannan had started preparing early for graduate school entrance exams, Lin Tong struggled for a long time between graduate school and work before finally deciding to work for a while first before making further plans.

Gu Han broke up with her literature department romantic boyfriend Chen Xingchen.

Chen Xingchen was a year older than Gu Han. After graduating he returned to his hometown to work. They had a long-distance relationship for exactly a year before finally succumbing to the distance.

The day they broke up, Gu Han appeared nonchalant. Xue Niannan rarely set aside her books and test papers to come out. The four girls went for street food, eating their way along before finally finding a barbecue restaurant.

Chu Zhi knew her alcohol tolerance, so even though Gu Han insisted that on such a day sisters should drink until they couldn’t anymore, she still only took two sips.

Four girls getting drunk alone outside would be dangerous no matter how you looked at it.

Chu Zhi nibbled on skewers and grilled bread while watching the other three drink glass after glass, until finally they were drinking straight from the bottles.

At first, Gu Han was still normal.

After five bottles of beer, she suddenly started crying.

Without warning, someone who had been laughing one second was shedding tears the next.

Chu Zhi was stunned.

From the first time she met Gu Han through over three years of university, she had never seen Gu Han cry.

She had always seemed carefree and uninhibited.

She loved brightly colored clothes, passionate like the equatorial winds, she loved talking and laughing loudly.

She lived her life joyfully and colorfully, her life bright and flamboyant.

No matter what happened, she would stand in front, looking after Chu Zhi and everyone else like a big sister, often mysteriously pulling her aside to look at fate, being the first to stand up when friends were wronged.

She seemed so incredibly strong, as if nothing could defeat her.

Yet such a person, someone who seemed indestructible inside, was now hugging Chu Zhi and crying heart-wrenchingly, crying as if the world had collapsed.

Her words were contained in her mouth, repeating the same few sentences over and over, but Chu Zhi heard them all clearly.

It’s too hard.

Loving someone is so hard.

Wanting to stay together is so hard.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry I was wrong, I’ll never doubt you again, never complain about you not paying attention to me, please don’t leave me.

I’ll go work where you are, okay? Let’s not break up.

Sorrowful, tragic, sometimes hysterical anger and complaints.

Hot tears fell one by one on Chu Zhi’s neck, burning her skin.

Listening, Chu Zhi’s nose stung and her eyes reddened as she patted her back repeatedly, feeling both sad and helpless.

She wanted to drag that man from thousands of miles away and beat him up, pour a bottle of mineral water over his head out of protective anger, curse him out to vent for her, or share her pain.

Long-distance relationships were often like this – conflicts arose not from lack of love, but from loneliness, suspicion, and the fact that in every moment when I need you most, every instant I want to share with you, you’re not by my side.

My sadness, my happiness – you know nothing about them.

Sometimes Chu Zhi would think about how lucky she was.

How lucky that she had met Lu Jiaheng.

In her most immature times, her most confused times, her most childish and sensitive times, he was always by her side, giving her unconditional trust, accommodating her, understanding her, accompanying her, patiently waiting for her to grow up.

Life is so long – you meet all kinds of people and experience countless partings.

Before forever, people must first learn how to say goodbye.