ATLAS TRANSLATES

The moment Xu Miyu stepped into “Night Encounter”, she felt like she had entered another world.

The music grew increasingly passionate, pounding at her with an impact that shook her spirit.

As she walked into the bar, a server immediately led her to one of the few remaining booths.

The booths in front and behind were already full, occupied by what appeared to be a group of avant-garde, fun-loving youngsters.

Xu Miyu had just sat down when someone whistled at her.

She ignored it. Almost instantly a second whistle sounded.

She still ignored it and browsed the drink menu, ordering a mint ice cocktail. The server took her order and left. Suddenly the sofa next to Xu Miyu sank down.

She turned her head and was met with a wave of alcohol breath.

“Beauty, alone? Let’s drink together!”

Xu Miyu saw a flushed face and head of pink hair.

He looked to be a man in his early twenties, with a frivolous gaze and attitude.

As the pink-haired guy invited her, his eyes roamed up and down her legs as he let out another appreciative whistle. “Smokin’ hot! First time here, beauty? How come I’ve never seen you before?”

Xu Miyu coolly told him that she wasn’t alone and her friend would arrive shortly, asking him to please return to his own seat.

But the pink-haired guy seemed too tipsy to comprehend her words. Instead of leaving, he reached to grab Xu Miyu’s arm.

Right as his claws were about to touch her, someone seized his hand.

A sharp female voice followed. “Young Master Zhao, how much have you had? Up to your old tricks again with harassing pretty ladies? Didn’t we agree last time that if you kept this up I’d ban you from Night Encounter?”

Zhao Xinghua yelped as he struggled, much of his drunken courage instantly sobering away. “Sis Qi, Boss, spare me! I was just teasing coz this girl’s a looker. It was a joke!”

The female boss released his hand and spat, “Get your ass back to your table!”

Zhao Xinghua hurried back to his own table of debauchee friends and continued drinking.

His friends jeered, “Got owned, huh?”

Zhao Xinghua gritted his teeth. “Just wait and see! Even if I can’t get her, my bro will definitely nail her when he gets here!”

Curious, his friends asked how long he’d known that person to be calling him bro already.

Zhao Xinghua bragged, “My dad just hired him as an assistant. He’s pretty satisfied with the guy, so I called him bro!”

His friend enviously said, “Lucky! I wanna have a rich playboy gege like that too!”

Meanwhile, after shooing Zhao Xinghua off, the female boss of the bar brought a tray of drinks to Xu Miyu’s table. “Here’s your mint cocktail, ma’am.”

Xu Miyu looked up at her. “Thank you.”

The dance floor lighting flashed brightly, perfectly illuminating the boss lady’s face.

It was indeed a bewitching, bold-spirited countenance.

Seeing her face, Xu Miyu’s eyes suddenly widened.

The dance floor darkened again as the lights pulsed erratically to the music’s cadence.

Xu Miyu heard the boss say, “First time? We get all sorts here so women should bring company their first time. If anyone else bothers you, ring for me.” As she turned to leave, Xu Miyu quickly called her back.

The boss lady stopped and looked back quizzically. “Anything else?”

Xu Miyu rose and approached her under the intermittent lights from the dance floor, scrutinizing her face. “Are you…Li Qiaoqi?”

The boss lady froze at the call of her name. She pulled Xu Miyu a couple steps away from the booth into an area better lit by the strobing dance floor. Peering at her face, she exclaimed in astonishment.

“Xu Miyu?!”

Xu Miyu was equally shocked. “Fancy meeting you! You look so different now, real foxy! Why are you alone? Where’s your husband?”

A multitude of complex emotions swirled inside Xu Miyu, at a loss what to say upon this university roommate and bestie from days past.

Back then their relationship had been extremely close. They took classes together, ate together, copied homework and went shopping together. With one gentle and one fiery personality, they perfectly complemented each other as a matching pair of BFFs.

Yet this great friendship only lasted until Xu Miyu started dating Nie Yucheng.

Initially when Li Qiaoqi heard Xu Miyu was in a relationship, she insisted on vetting the boyfriend. So Xu Miyu arranged dinner for Li Qiaoqi to meet Nie Yucheng. The night after their meal, Li Qiaoqi went straight to bed when she returned to their dorm. Only the next morning did she laugh and tell Xu Miyu that she didn’t expect her boyfriend to be the campus heartthrob from their neighboring prestigious university who was fancied by so many girls over there, yet Xu Miyu managed to capture his heart. Now wasn’t that quite an honor she brought to their third-rate school!

Back then Xu Miyu was still foolishly tickled by this praise. It was only later that she reacted — how did Li Qiaoqi know so much about Nie Yucheng from the other school?

Later whenever she ate out with Nie Yucheng, she would often invite Li Qiaoqi along. Gradually from subtleties in their conversations, Xu Miyu detected that Li Qiaoqi had already known Nie Yucheng before she met him. Back when Li Qiaoqi went to their neighbor school for a lecture series, Nie Yucheng, as a student council executive, had given the welcoming speech and handled event coordination.

Xu Miyu also perceived that Li Qiaoqi actually really liked Nie Yucheng. Looking back, she recalled it was Li Qiaoqi who dragged her to that mixer where she first encountered Nie Yucheng. Belatedly she understood — Li Qiaoqi had gone just for Nie Yucheng. It was unexpected that he would notice her instead in the end.

After sensing Li Qiaoqi also held affections for Nie Yucheng, Xu Miyu sank into turmoil. She couldn’t fathom winding up in such a silly drama where she and her best friend fell for the same guy.

She didn’t dare directly ask Li Qiaoqi, Do you like my boyfriend? Even if she asked, then what? It wasn’t as if she could forcibly wring out and stomp apart Li Qiaoqi’s feelings. Anyway with Li Qiaoqi developing feelings first, what right did she have?

Yet keeping up pretenses of oblivion, she also couldn’t continue inviting Li Qiaoqi out together with Nie Yucheng as they used to.

Later on everyone got busy with graduation and internships. Their contact gradually drifted apart. It was then that Xu Miyu learned Li Qiaoqi’s family was very wealthy unlike her own average status.

After university they seemed to tacitly keep their distance over this one man without explicitly acknowledging it. She married Nie Yucheng not long after graduation and had no interactions with Li Qiaoqi since. Up till tonight when they crossed paths again, she truly hadn’t imagined Li Qiaoqi to be the proprietor of this “Night Encounter” bar.

Gazing at Li Qiaoqi, Xu Miyu was flooded by complex emotions.

To think they severed a friendship over something as silly as a fleeting romance in those youthful days — how laughable now in hindsight.

Somewhat moved, Xu Miyu sincerely exclaimed, “Qiaoqi, it really has been ages!”

Li Qiaoqi gave a mocking laugh. “It sure has!” Suddenly she stretched out a finger coated in bright red nail polish which highlighted both the gesture and her hand’s allure. Not lightly or heavily, precisely moderately, she poked Xu Miyu’s shoulder. “Yet you still have the nerve claiming it’s been ages? You got married to Nie Yucheng without even inviting me to your wedding!”

Xu Miyu explained, “But I did try to invite you, on QQ.”

“Ha!” Li Qiaoqi barked another laugh, voice piercing through the music, poorly concealing her sarcasm. “Who still goes on QQ after graduation? If you truly wanted me there you should’ve just called me directly!”

Xu Miyu said, “I did call you but it was always switched off.”

Li Qiaoqi froze then patted her own forehead. “Oh right, I lost my phone getting smashed at the graduation farewell dinner.”

She paused before continuing haughtily, “Then you can’t say you sincerely wanted me there. If you genuinely hoped for me to attend, you would’ve found a way no matter what right? The fact is you didn’t try that hard.”

Watching Li Qiaoqi, Xu Miyu calmly asked, “Then if I had indeed tried every means to contact and invite you like you said, would you truly have come to my wedding? Can you deny you deliberately avoided QQ and changed your number, subconsciously unwilling to be reached by me?”

Li Qiaoqi stood speechlessly for a good while. After a period she stopped a passing server and snatched a bottle of wine off his tray despite his protest that it was a customer order. She yelled at him to just grab another bottle from the bar and get lost.

The server repeatedly acknowledged and scurried off.

Li Qiaoqi heavily thunked the pilfered wine onto the small table in Xu Miyu’s booth. “Doesn’t matter how it went down. The crux is you forgot your friend once you got a boyfriend. If you finish this bottle today, consider us scrubbing clean the past. One bottle to dissolve all grievances. If you don’t drink, we remain strangers like the past years. Don’t contact me again or come around here. Two options, your pick!”

Without a second word or bargaining, Xu Miyu immediately popped the bottle cork open and started chugging.

Ji Feng soon arrived at “Night Encounter” with Xue Rui, Yoneda, and Jiang Zhicheng.

The server who came to receive them asked Jiang Zhicheng’s aid translating to request being led to a lively booth.

Yoneda also happily explained to Ji Feng that coming to play of course meant needing a bustling spot. Ji Feng agreed right?

Ji Feng scowled. Of course not. This place was deafeningly noisy already. Choosing an even more boisterous area on top would be murder on his eardrums.

He regretted coming and nearly turned to leave outright.

But Xue Rui pulled him back and suddenly pointed somewhere. “Boss, look, Sister Xiaoyu.”

Following his indication, Ji Feng’s eyes were seized by a sight of the woman with wavy long hair in a figure-hugging black dress.

He watched her swaying to the deafening music, undulating under the erratic lights.

For some reason his chest tightened, leaving him slightly breathless. He furrowed his brows.

Beside him Xue Rui had to shout over the music, “Boss look over there! It’s Sister Xiaoyu dancing in the crowd! Damn she’s smokin’ hot tonight!”

Ji Feng picked up a glass from the table and unceremoniously shoved it into Xue Rui’s mouth. The glass edge knocked against Xue Rui’s teeth making him yelp painfully, unable to comment further.

But as Xue Rui’s volume diminished, Yoneda’s rose.

“That bombshell with wavy hair on the dance floor has an insane body. So slender yet so busty, simply sublime! I’m gonna go get acquainted!” His Japanese words gushed out excitedly.

Ji Feng immediately looked his way.

He originally intended to find some excuse to stop Yoneda from approaching Xiaoyu, but what came out instead was, “What for? She just loudly announced she’s divorced.”

His statement again reassured Jiang Zhicheng. She reaffirmed that Ji Feng indeed wouldn’t be interested in a divorced woman. And this conviction came not from her own speculation but from Ji Feng’s own mouth.

Yet Yoneda just chortled heartily and told Ji Feng, “Boss you know her? What’s there to worry about, I’m not planning to marry her, just make a fun new friend!”

Having said so he rose to walk towards the dance floor.

Ji Feng grabbed and stopped him.

Yoneda looked at him puzzledly. Ji Feng also questioned himself — what was he doing?

“If she rejects you,” Ji Feng paused gravely, “you mustn’t force her.”

Yoneda blanked before naturally agreeing. Ji Feng released his grip and Yoneda made his way into the crowd.

At the table Ji Feng unknowingly picked up a glass and downed it one go. What burst of impulsivity made him intervene? And what compelled him to give that warning? He couldn’t figure it out.

Xue Rui watched Ji Feng closely. When the lights pulsed bright he swore he glimpsed Ji Feng’s eyes lock fiercely onto somewhere in the dance floor crowd. But the instant they dimmed he couldn’t ascertain where.

When he turned back the lights flared again yet Ji Feng’s expression had reverted normal.

Xue Rui felt during those fleeting shifts between brightness and darkness he glimpsed two distinctly different Ji Fengs. One the usualhim, the other somehow anomalously deviant from norm.

But what exactly was different? The alcohol was fogging his brain, preventing him from gaining insight for now.

In the dance floor crowd, Yoneda squeezed next to Xiaoyu and greeted in his awkward Chinese, “Ni hao!” That exhausted his Chinese vocabulary. He switched to Japanese, asking if they could get acquainted then go for a drink together while pointing at some booth and making drinking gestures.

Xu Miyu’s eyes rounded as her face filled with utter incomprehension, vividly depicting her lack of Japanese understanding.

Yoneda tried English instead, reiterating himself.

Xu Miyu maintained her oblivious head shaking, projecting an image of a silly beauty.

From his seat Ji Feng observed this exchange, silently smirking at one corner of his mouth. Something like relief seemed to emit from that hint of a smile. Concurrently that strange tension coiling inside him, that peculiar impulse on the verge of spurring him into motion, also unraveled.

— She’s really grown shrewd, even able to pull off playing dumb.

Ji Feng derisively thought to himself.

Yoneda gesticulated energetically:

Can we, go over there, together drink, yes? — pointing at some booth below the dance floor. A flash of light allowed Xu Miyu to glimpse Xue Rui, Jiang Zhicheng and…Ji Feng occupying that booth.

She unconsciously froze.

Her line of sight virtually clashed with Ji Feng’s. So he should’ve spotted her already before she looked his way too.

And this Japanese man clearly arrived together with Ji Feng’s party. She recalled Xue Rui recently mentioning an upcoming Japanese client. Her assistance would likely be needed receiving them.

So this Japanese businessman was Ji Feng’s collaborator.

Then Ji Feng was perfectly happy watching his Japanese client hit on her?

In this instant Xu Miyu couldn’t quite define her feelings. Nor did she want to dissect its composition.

Retracting her eyes she continued playing the fool, adamantly shaking her head at the Japanese client.

Her silly obliviousness quickly exhausted the Japanese man’s patience and interest. Annoyed, he uttered “forget it, forget it” and turned to leave.