ATLAS TRANSLATES

Jing Heng’s marketing department was large, divided into several groups handling advertising, public relations, and other functions.

Chu Zhi’s current internship position was brand planning, along with miscellaneous tasks.

Most interns were like this – they had to handle all sorts of odd jobs in the department, so they were generally worked like dogs.

Regarding the new boss coming down for an undercover visit, according to the research supervisor’s meaning, everyone shouldn’t act too fake, but appear natural and excellent, to show Mr. Lu the basic quality of Jing Heng employees.

Although this itself was quite artificial.

Chu Zhi sat in her chair, propping her chin up as she watched Xu the planner secretly take out a small mirror to touch up her makeup, looking not very enthusiastic.

Equally calm was the gold-rimmed sea turtle.

The sea turtle was actually quite handsome, 180cm tall, with an upright and very righteous face, thick eyebrows and bright eyes – overall someone who looked like an ambitious young seedling for the future.

However, this little seedling constantly maintained his chin tilted up at a 45-degree angle, black pupils looking down, or using the whites of his eyes to look at people, responding with a disdainful and contemptuous “hmph” from his nostrils.

His daily catchphrases were “In England—” “China is now like this—” “In England this would absolutely never happen—” “Chinese people really are—”

And so on.

Therefore, this highly educated sea turtle actually didn’t have very good relationships in the office. Usually only Chu Zhi would enthusiastically talk to him.

The little seedling’s expression looked quite disdainful of this kind of bureaucratic Chinese worship. He lightly snorted, not caring about the commotion around him, keeping his head down clicking away at his keyboard.

They sat facing each other, separated by frosted glass partitions. Chu Zhi could see his exposed scalp and two thick black eyebrows.

Chu Zhi remembered what Pink Shirt had just said, and after several days thought back to that time in the meeting room.

She had just said it casually then, without any malice, but thinking about it now, saying that in front of so many people probably wasn’t very appropriate.

Thinking more carefully, this sea turtle seemed to have gone several days straight not even willing to look at her with his nostrils.

Chu Zhi suddenly realized, and was just thinking about finding time to properly apologize to him or treat him to lunch or afternoon tea or something, when Lu Jiaheng walked in while she was lost in thought.

Black hair, narrow peach blossom eyes with double eyelids, thin red lips with slightly upturned corners.

He had put on a suit jacket, his tie was neatly tied, white shirt buttoned all the way to the top button. His whole person looked both frivolous and ascetic, contradictory yet harmonious.

Chu Zhi saw red-lipped Xu the planner exchange a look with the girl beside her – that look was exactly the same as when female seniors and juniors at school would come ask for his phone number.

So the campus heartthrob that girls discussed during school was her boyfriend, and now the young diamond bachelor that colleagues discussed at work was also her boyfriend.

Chu Zhi propped up her chin, lost in thought.

When she looked up again, Lu Jiaheng was already standing in front of her.

He blocked the light, casting a shadow. Chu Zhi lifted her head.

The office was silent, everyone’s gazes turned this way with various expressions.

Chu Zhi sat in her seat, looking up, fingers gripping the edge of the desk.

Lu Jiaheng raised an eyebrow.

Chu Zhi widened her eyes, her expression looking a bit terrified as she nervously watched him.

After a moment of silence.

The research supervisor moved closer: “Mr. Lu, this is a new intern, just arrived not long ago.”

“Intern?” He kept his head lowered looking at her, voice low without much emotion, his gaze at her also flat, as if looking at a stranger.

Chu Zhi froze.

Lu Jiaheng’s gaze moved down, breaking eye contact with her, sliding along her nose bridge, lips, chin tip to her neck, finally landing on her work badge on her chest.

It had her photo, name, and internship position.

Lu Jiaheng leaned slightly forward, maintaining an appropriate distance, his enunciation flat but with soft endings, his gentle voice making anything he said sound like sweet nothings.

“Chu Zhi, Brand Planner—” he read slowly word by word, paused, lifted his eyes to look at her, “Since you’re an intern, why isn’t it ‘Intern Brand Planner’?”

Chu Zhi was completely confused by him, not quite reacting.

Lu Jiaheng’s lips curved up slightly as he straightened, looking down at her from above: “Take off your badge, get a new one in a couple days.”

Chu Zhi: “…”

Chu Zhi had thought he had given up on the badge issue.

But unexpectedly he had been waiting for this moment.

For a whole week, the young Mr. Lu made his mark as the new boss, visiting the marketing department two or three times, causing female hormones to run wild throughout the company, with all sorts of mixed perfume scents everywhere.

After going through two work badges, Chu Zhi finally couldn’t help but pin a certain someone against the driver’s seat after work and bite him several times hard, only then managing to keep her third badge.

The next day at work, young Mr. Lu had two band-aids on his chin.

As the most popular and highly watched figure at Jing Heng at the time, many people noticed this change. The company’s internal chat software gossiped about it all morning.

Those band-aids being discussed all morning by a group of beautiful female white-collar workers could be said to be very prestigious band-aids indeed.

In the meeting room.

As soon as Lu Jiaheng entered, groups of two or three people stood up to greet him.

He arrived right on time. The long table was already full of people, with Old Master Lu in the main seat, Lu Hongsheng sitting beside him, and an empty seat on the other side.

Three years ago, when Lu Jiaheng first stepped into this office, he could only randomly pull up a chair in the corner next to the secretary on the outermost edge, not even getting coffee.

Lu Jiaheng’s black eyelashes lowered slightly as his gaze swept around, stopping for two seconds on Lu Hongsheng’s face.

The man was also looking at him, his expression somewhat unpleasant.

Lu Jiaheng curved his lips, eyes glancing sideways to look at Old Master Lu, nodding slightly.

Old Master Lu raised his hand: “You’re here, sit.”

Lu Jiaheng walked to the empty seat beside him and sat down, resting his arm on the chair armrest, leaning his upper body back slightly, expression lazy.

After a pause, he straightened up slightly and opened the documents in front of him.

Three years ago when he left, Lu Hongsheng had his eye on a piece of land in the suburbs. He got some information from somewhere claiming that area would be developed as a key economic zone later, with extremely high commercial value. Several real estate plans were written up, enthusiasm running high.

For a time, the land price skyrocketed. Old Master Lu’s attitude toward this matter was completely hands-off for some reason, allowing Lu Hongsheng to charge ahead at full steam, finally acquiring that piece of land at several times the normal land price.

But until now, there hadn’t been even a hint of the promised key economic development zone news, not even a whisper.

Lu Hongsheng had this piece of land stuck in his hands with no results yet.

Then before one wave settled another arose – Lu Jiaheng returned early from America.

Actually how could he not have detected something unusual early on. Back then he was so eager to achieve results because Old Master Lu had thoughts of letting Lu Jiaheng inherit. The young master who used to just party was recalled to intern at the company, making him somewhat anxious at the time.

Not only did it seem to backfire, but now the ancestor had returned.

No wonder Lu Hongsheng’s expression had been so unpleasant lately, looking worried every day, seeming to have lost quite a bit of weight.

Lu Jiaheng’s knuckles tapped on the meeting room table as he listened to various departments report work progress. Old Master Lu intentionally slowed the pace, letting him adjust.

After the meeting ended and most people had left, the huge meeting room had only him, Lu Jiaheng and Lu Hongsheng remaining.

Old Master Lu changed the topic, head tilting slightly, finally asking about that piece of land in Lu Hongsheng’s hands.

Lu Hongsheng’s face turned pale: “I asked friends at the Housing and Construction Department, they said there should be news this year. By then the land price there will at least triple. There are quite a few people coming to me now wanting to buy it from me.”

Old Master Lu listened to him continue for a while, never saying anything, finally just nodding before leaving.

Lu Jiaheng hadn’t moved at all throughout, not speaking, just lounging lazily in his chair.

Now with only two people left in the meeting room, he propped his chin on one hand, looking at him with a half-smile, drawling: “Actually I suggest you hurry up and sell it to them now, save yourself from losing even your autumn pants later.”

Lu Hongsheng’s expression grew increasingly unpleasant as he turned his head to look at him, eyes narrowing: “You think you can teach me just because you studied for two more years? I’ve been at Jing Heng for decades, I don’t need you teaching me! Is this how you talk to your father?”

Lu Jiaheng had no reaction, unhurriedly standing up and adjusting his suit that had gotten slightly messy from sitting. Head lowered, he stared at him with pitch black eyes, pupils dark with penetrating coldness: “I think you should go find someone to check again, don’t get fooled by false news. With land prices hyped so high, you’re the only sucker who believed it.”

Chu Zhi had made plans with Lin Tong and the others for Saturday. After submitting her graduation thesis, Chu Zhi mostly went home to live, usually preparing for her defense during internship rest days. The girls had all been busy with their own things and hadn’t met for a long time. This time Chu Zhi actively invited them out, and everyone responded very enthusiastically.

The girls planned to meet at noon, watched a movie, went shopping, had dessert, and sat in the dessert shop discussing what to eat for dinner, finally deciding on Japanese food.

Chu Zhi held a small fork, with half a strawberry snow ice remaining in front of her. She stuck a strawberry in her mouth, mumbling: “Are we sure about Japanese?”

Lin Tong was enthusiastic: “Let’s do Japanese! Every day it’s hot pot, barbecue, skewers – let’s eat something elegant this time.”

Chu Zhi grabbed her phone, typing out a message while lowering her eyes and nodding: “Then I’ll call someone to pick us up.”

Gu Han said with a grin: “Just call a Didi! No need – doesn’t Nian Nan drive? Let’s not let her drink today, she can be our driver.”

Chu Zhi blinked: “It’s not Didi.”

Lin Tong hummed: “She’s calling her boyfriend to come.”

“…”

Gu Han: “????????”

Xue Nian Nan: “????????”

Gu Han jumped up, eyes wide, pointing at Chu Zhi stuttering “you you you” for half a day: “Chu Xiao Zhi, you’re something else! When did you start dating! Without telling us!”

Before Chu Zhi could speak, Lin Tong continued: “In her freshman year.”

Gu Han was furious, slamming the table with a bang. People around all looked over, but she ignored them, nearly roaring: “Chu Zhi! We’re about to graduate and you’re just telling us now! Friendship over!!!”

Lin Tong crossed her arms with an “serves you right, serves you right” expression.

Chu Zhi’s little shoulders shrank at being yelled at, looking pitiful: “I didn’t mean to hide it from you all… At first I couldn’t find the right opportunity, then later he went abroad so there was even less chance to bring it up, and you never asked me either…”

Gu Han took a deep breath, snorting coldly, still not satisfied. She leaned over to pinch Chu Zhi’s little face for quite a while before letting go, getting excited again and slamming the table once more with quite the big sister energy: “Call your man over later! Forget Japanese food, let’s do barbecue, get the beer ready, your Sister Han wants to check him out.”

As she was speaking, the clear bell at the dessert shop door rang, and a man in a camel colored coat stood at the entrance looking around.

Lin Tong sat facing the door and saw him first.

The last time she saw Lu Jiaheng was two years ago. After two years, the man’s aura had clearly changed – his presence was extremely strong, carrying a kind of lazy pressure that could easily attract others’ attention just by standing there.

Meanwhile Gu Han was still shouting at Chu Zhi: “If I don’t take down your man today I’ll be your grandson!”

Lu Jiaheng had already walked straight over under many people’s gazes in the shop, stopping at their table.

All four girls at the table looked up at once.

Gu Han took a few seconds to recognize him, expression somewhat surprised: “Senior Pink Water Cup, what a coincidence.”

Lu Jiaheng lowered his eyes, first glancing at Chu Zhi, then turning his head to look at Gu Han, nodding slightly.

Chu Zhi was like a little ostrich, not speaking, just keeping her head down low, grabbing her spoon to randomly stir the strawberry ice in front of her.

Lu Jiaheng looked down, seeing her wilted little appearance and curving his lips slightly.

He stood by the table, raising his hand to rub Chu Zhi’s hair, saying lazily, “Not a coincidence, I’m her man.”