ATLAS TRANSLATES

In May, with her thesis finalized, Chu Zhi officially began preparing for her defense.

The northern May weather was dry with harsh sunlight, heavy smog and sandstorms. Between the wind and sand, stepping outside turned a fresh-faced young girl into an Egyptian pharaoh.

Chu Zhi had been at Jinghen for several months now, with Lu Jiaheng driving her to and from work daily. Initially, Chu Zhi thought the new boss seemed quite free, at least his work hours had become normal – much easier than when he was interning.

But on Mrs. Deng’s birthday, when Chu Zhi went upstairs to bring Lu Jiaheng cake, she realized differently. Since her father learned about their relationship, he had taken over driving her to and from work. At the company, they were separated by over ten floors, each busy with their own work, rarely even sharing meals together.

Her father occasionally ran into him but never showed him a friendly face.

Though Chu Zhi was quite curious whether they had confronted each other after that meeting, Lu Jiaheng wouldn’t tell her. When pressed, he would just respond flippantly.

Now, Chu Zhi finally had a legitimate reason to visit, bouncing up despite her father’s objections to deliver cake. Lu Jiaheng had already given her a key. When she entered his study carrying a small plate, she found him wearing glasses, intensely focused at his computer desk.

His study door was open, and Chu Zhi just poked her head in.

He hadn’t even noticed her, clicking his mouse with soft tapping sounds as the white glow of the computer screen reflected off his glasses.

Chu Zhi paused.

She had thought he could leave work on time now, come home to drink tea and watch movies.

She looked down, hesitating as she glanced at the cake in her hands, thinking maybe she should just leave it on the coffee table to avoid disturbing him.

When she looked up again, Lu Jiaheng had already raised his head, looking at her over his laptop.

Chu Zhi blinked, standing still in the doorway.

Having someone suddenly appear silently at home, Lu Jiaheng showed no reaction. He stretched his arm across the desk edge, leaning back slightly before raising his hand and crooking his finger: “Come here.”

Chu Zhi walked over with the small cake, placing it beside his computer as she stood by the desk: “It’s my mom’s birthday today.”

Lu Jiaheng made an “mm” sound: “I know, I already sent a gift.”

Chu Zhi stared at him in disbelief: “You knew?”

“Mm.”

“How did you know?”

Lu Jiaheng laughed softly without answering.

Chu Zhi felt unbalanced and persisted, leaning forward with her hands on the desk edge, eyes wide: “Lu Jiaheng, do you remember my first birthday?”

Lu Jiaheng raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t remember! You didn’t even know it was my birthday that day! I had to secretly bring cake up to find you! Why are you better to my mom than to me?”

He was sitting while she stood, finally putting Chu Zhi at a higher elevation. The man looked up at her slightly as the young girl puffed out her cheeks, looking at him with obvious discontent.

Lu Jiaheng laughed again, reaching up to pinch her face: “About to graduate but still acting like a child.”

Chu Zhi pouted, deciding not to let him eat the cake. She pulled the plate toward herself, picking up the small fork to cut and stab a piece, putting it in her mouth.

She casually glanced at his laptop screen, seeing dense numbers in spreadsheets that hurt her eyes just looking at them.

She sat on the desk edge, turned sideways holding the cake plate: “I thought since you always left work with me that you didn’t have to work overtime anymore.”

Lu Jiaheng turned his attention back to the screen. He was still in his work shirt, tie loosened with two buttons undone, his profile elegant from nose to Adam’s apple as his fingers hovered over the keyboard.

He seemed to barely be paying attention to her, focused on the screen: “Mm, because I wanted to go home with you.”

Chu Zhi blinked, fork in her mouth: “But you’re the boss now.”

Lu Jiaheng put down his mouse, fingers dancing across the keyboard: “Which is why no boss is more free than their employees.”

“So you’ve just been sitting here since you got home?”

Lu Jiaheng neither confirmed nor denied.

Chu Zhi took that as confirmation.

Something suddenly occurred to her and she leaned in closer, expression serious: “Lu Jiaheng, have you eaten dinner?”

Lu Jiaheng’s typing stopped as he finally turned his head.

She sat at the edge of his desk, her short legs dangling as she leaned down to look at him, holding up a fork with cake still on it.

Lu Jiaheng leaned forward, grabbing the wrist of her hand holding the fork and pulling it to him, eating the small piece of cake directly from her fork.

The birthday cake had frosting, and a bit of soft white cream stuck to the corner of his mouth. Lu Jiaheng didn’t seem to notice, releasing her hand to return his attention to work. His tongue darted out to casually lick away the frosting at his lip corner, drawing it into his mouth.

No matter what this man did or said, it always seemed like silent seduction.

Chu Zhi swallowed.

Her heart pounding, as if bewitched, she set the plate down and braced one hand on the desk beside his computer.

He caught her approaching hand in his peripheral vision and turned his head again.

Chu Zhi stared straight at him, her doe eyes nervous and uncertain as she unconsciously swallowed again, licking her lips.

Lu Jiaheng slowly raised his eyebrows but didn’t move.

The girl lowered her eyes, long lashes lowered as she stared at his red lips, inching closer bit by bit.

Their noses nearly touched. Chu Zhi’s face was red, feeling like her heart might jump out of her throat.

She didn’t dare look up, maintaining that tiny distance for half a second.

Usually in these situations, he would take the initiative.

But this time, the man remained completely still from start to finish, just watching her, unhurriedly waiting.

Chu Zhi took a deep breath, tilted her head up and quickly, softly pecked his lips before quickly pulling back.

Her face slightly red, she looked down, fingers fidgeting with the edge of his desk, feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

She raised her eyes to steal a glance at him.

Lu Jiaheng let out a soft laugh, finally deigning to move. He casually pushed his laptop forward slightly, reaching out to place his palm on the back of her neck, not yet applying pressure.

The doorbell rang.

A crisp ding-dong, followed by knocking.

The person outside seemed too impatient to just ring the bell.

They both paused. Lu Jiaheng withdrew his hand as Chu Zhi jumped off the desk, running-stumbling out of the study to look through the peephole.

Her father stood outside with his arms crossed.

Chu Zhi: “…”

She opened the door. Her father stood in the doorway: “Taking this long to deliver cake?”

Lu Jiaheng had just come out, his glasses removed. Seeing who was outside, he obediently said hello.

Her father stared at him like a thief, grabbing Chu Zhi to inspect her from all angles, and only after confirming nothing was amiss did he glance at Lu Jiaheng again: “Hmph.”

Chu Zhi: “…”

In early June, Chu Zhi passed her thesis defense and was about to graduate.

For a long time before this, even though she and Lu Jiaheng were in the same company, neighbors just floors apart seeing each other daily, they barely spoke more than a few words each day.

She was so busy her mind was in a fog, writing copy and brainstorming ideas daily, trying to learn by starting with webpage optimization strategy proposals, though they were mostly rejected drafts.

She also had to prepare for her thesis defense at school, going to bed late every night with her mind more exhausted than her body.

Even so, no matter what time she messaged Lu Jiaheng, he would reply.

He seemed to have endless work every day, always going to sleep later than her.

And this person never ate dinner.

After discovering this, Chu Zhi began secretly bringing him food in the evenings, dragging him out of his study to watch him eat before being dragged back home by her father – this became their daily routine.

On graduation day, Chu Zhi took leave from her supervisor and returned to school the night before.

Their dorm room was mostly packed up already. The girls had planned to spend one last night together, originally thinking to go to Chu Zhi’s house but decided it was too far from school. They ended up getting a hotel room instead, pushing two king beds together, staying up wild all night until finally collapsing together to sleep in the early morning.

Chu Zhi hadn’t gotten around to telling Lu Jiaheng when her graduation was – he had asked himself, wanting every detail down to the minute. When Chu Zhi told him the time, she felt this meant he would definitely come.

The next morning, the young girl took a shower, put on a face mask, and sat seriously at the hotel table. With all her hair pinned back and a small mirror propped up, she prepared to create an earth-shattering makeup look.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t very good at makeup.

In her junior and senior years, Chu Zhi had started wearing a little makeup, but her skills were limited. Her skin was naturally good anyway, looking like peeled egg white up close, her small face full of collagen. She had never worn foundation, let alone eye shadow – just drawing her eyebrows and applying lipstick.

So when Lin Tong woke up and sat up with sleepy eyes to see Chu Zhi looking at her with a devastated expression, she was truly shocked.

The young girl had applied eye shadow, blue and green mixed together on her eyelids, fluorescent white smeared under her eyes, and thick brown eyeliner – her whole face looking more garish than a wall mural.

Lin Tong was dumbfounded: “Are you trying to break up with Senior Lu today?”

Chu Zhi: “…”

Ten minutes later, Chu Zhi had used makeup remover to clean off all the cosmetics and sat back down at the table.

Lin Tong pulled Gu Han out of bed, and the two excitedly rolled up their sleeves, standing on either side of Chu Zhi with various tools and cosmetics, getting to work on her face.

By the time the girls left to check out two hours later, they had to rush to make it on time. Entering the auditorium, Chu Zhi immediately started looking around.

No sign of him.

They walked toward the Advertising Class Two section. The sports representative was the first to see them, waving enthusiastically: “Our class flower sisters! Did you miss your big brother?!”

Zhou Ming sat nearby and when he saw them approach, his gaze fell on Chu Zhi, pausing slightly.

Chu Zhi’s mind was elsewhere as she searched for Lu Jiaheng, not paying much attention to him.

They took their seats, with Chu Zhi ending up next to Zhou Ming.

It had been quite a while since Chu Zhi last saw him. The young man looked much more mature now. He used to be the sunny energetic type, often goofing around with the sports rep, but now he pressed his lips together, half-heartedly listening to others talk, seeming somewhat distracted.

After Chu Zhi sat for a while without spotting Lu Jiaheng in the large auditorium, she gave up looking and finally noticed Zhou Ming staring at her.

Chu Zhi turned her head to greet him.

She had never told others about what happened with Xiao Yi, only later mentioning it to Lin Tong and the others during casual chat, asking them to keep it secret and just be wary of him in the future.

But this had nothing to do with Zhou Ming – even though he was close with Xiao Yi, Chu Zhi wouldn’t hold it against him.

The man looked at her with somewhat evasive eyes, seeming to want to say something but holding back.

Chu Zhi blinked, her mind still wandering as she occasionally checked her phone for messages, not paying much attention.

The graduation ceremony began. After the school leaders finished speaking, alumni returned to give speeches and show off before presenting awards to this year’s outstanding graduates.

As Chu Zhi watched the principal’s animated speaking, Zhou Ming beside her spoke in a low voice that only they could hear: “Before, when you and Xiao Yi interned at Zhuosi together, did something happen?”

Chu Zhi froze and turned to look at him.

His expression was truly awful as he stared at her unblinking.

“What did Xiao Yi tell you?”

Zhou Ming tilted his head back against the chair: “He didn’t say anything specific. We went drinking the day before yesterday for one last get-together before graduation. He drank a lot and said all sorts of confused things, sometimes calling out apologies to you, sometimes saying he hadn’t done anything wrong, that the world is just like this and what could he do, that he couldn’t have what he has now without doing those things.”

“Later, a woman came to pick him up – I’d seen them together before, Xiao Yi said she was his supervisor.” Zhou Ming paused, his expression uncomfortable as he looked at her carefully, as if afraid of saying something wrong: “Little Chu, I’m a year older than you. We’ve all had fun together these past few years and I’ve always seen you as a little sister. I saw how Xiao Yi had been noticing you since high school, which is why I would tease you two. Later when you both interned at the same company, I was really happy, thinking this guy would finally succeed. After school started again, things seemed tense between you – I didn’t think much of it, assumed you’d spent the summer together and broken up because you weren’t compatible.”

Zhou Ming paused again, “But after hearing him talk like that the other day, I wondered if he had done something terrible that hurt you back then?”

Chu Zhi finally understood what he meant.

He thought she and Xiao Yi had gotten together during the internship, but then Xiao Yi dumped her for his female supervisor.

Chu Zhi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, unsure how to explain. She just quickly waved her hands: “No, I was never with him,” she raised her hand to scratch her chin, “Something did happen back then, but it was a long time ago. I don’t really want to talk about it – you can ask him directly. We didn’t have any romantic issues. I already had a boyfriend then.”

Zhou Ming was shocked: “You had a boyfriend? Who?”

Before Chu Zhi could answer.

The school leaders had finished speaking at some point, and the host had gone on and off stage.

On her other side, Lin Tong started repeatedly, insistently elbowing her.

Chu Zhi was talking to Zhou Ming and didn’t respond at first, but Lin Tong’s nudges got harder and harder.

Chu Zhi’s conversation was interrupted and she had to turn to look: “What is it, what is it?”

Just as she spoke, someone on stage started talking.

“Fellow juniors, congratulations on your graduation today. I’m Lu Jiaheng, who graduated two years before you, from the Finance Department.”

Even in such a setting, his voice was still lazy, carrying a hint of casual amusement as it echoed through the auditorium via microphone.

Chu Zhi: “…”

Zhou Ming was still asking: “Who’s your boyfriend, do I know him?”

Chu Zhi turned her head to look at the man standing on stage.

The auditorium was huge and their seats weren’t very close to the front – she couldn’t see him clearly from such a distance.

Chu Zhi blinked: “You’re looking at him right now.”