ATLAS TRANSLATES

Friday morning, Fang Xu came to Luo Jingyu’s home to pick up the completed Christmas decorations.

He noticed that Little Fish seemed to be in a good mood, not giving him the usual cold shoulder, and even made him a cup of hot tea.

Fang Xu sat down in the chair, watching Luo Jingyu carry over several large cardboard boxes. Each box had a white paper label clearly indicating the types and quantities of decorations inside.

“Hey, Fish.” Fang Xu called out to him, but Luo Jingyu happened to be looking down and didn’t respond. Fang Xu crossed his legs, shook his head and sighed, raised his teacup to blow on it, took a sip, and started playing with his phone.

After three years of working together, they still weren’t really friends. This was partly due to Luo Jingyu’s deafness making communication difficult, but more because they often had disagreements about business philosophy.

Luo Jingyu admitted he didn’t understand business, and his physical condition made it hard to communicate with people. But when it came to the art of pressed flowers, he approached it with complete sincerity, passion, respect, and almost harsh self-demands.

He wasn’t a perfectionist, and certainly understood what kind of work matched what price point. That’s why he preferred to make high-end, refined pieces that could advance his technique and vision, rather than competing on quantity.

But Fang Xu didn’t see it that way. He said that in China, hardly anyone knew about pressed flowers, and clients willing to pay high prices for custom pieces were extremely rare. It would be better to make more affordable small items – they didn’t need to be top quality, but people could buy them to play with or wear. This way, Luo Jingyu’s work would be easier, and he’d make money faster.

Luo Jingyu couldn’t express his thoughts in long discussions. For every sentence he said, Fang Xu could reply with ten.

He had to admit that before working with Fang Xu, his pressed flower business had been much more difficult. Back then, Luo Jingyu was still under his teacher’s wing. When the teacher opened for orders, he would receive some of them to work on. He wasn’t involved in design or client communication – essentially, he was just a craftsman.

Although the income was enough to maintain his lifestyle then, when Luo Jingyu thought about the future, he still wanted to earn more. When he couldn’t get pressed flower orders, he had to make other things to sell, like scented candles, handmade soap, and jewelry made from shrink plastic. Chen Liang helped him sell at night markets, Mao Mao helped with the online store, and bit by bit, he could earn some money.

Later, he met Fang Xu, who had run many businesses and operated multiple online stores.

He recognized Luo Jingyu’s skill with pressed flowers and invited him to collaborate. Luo Jingyu agreed, and “Little Fish’s Pressed Flower Workshop” online store was born. Fang Xu said he chose this name because Luo Jingyu was the core of the store.

After partnering with Fang Xu, there was a period when Luo Jingyu felt very satisfied. At least he could now take orders himself, design his own pieces, and had someone helping him with orders. His income visibly increased.

He followed Fang Xu’s advice, designing all sorts of flashy accessories priced from one hundred to several hundred yuan. Each time they opened for orders, the volume was large, exhausting Luo Jingyu.

He tried discussing with Fang Xu about possibly helping him connect with exhibitions, fashion shows, and high-end ready-to-wear studios for custom work, just like his teacher did. He was confident that with his skill level, he could handle it.

These jobs weren’t easy to get and required a lot of marketing effort. Luo Jingyu thought that with Fang Xu’s business ability and connections, he could find a way to break into this market.

Fang Xu didn’t refuse outright, just said such opportunities were rare and he would keep an eye out. But in three years, Luo Jingyu had never received any major orders through Fang Xu, though he had participated in several exhibitions through his teacher.

His teacher was named Xu Qingyan, a graceful woman in her forties living in Shanghai. Among professional pressed flower artists in China, her skill level was very high. She went to Japan every year for advanced study, taught students in China, had published books, and when she appeared at exhibitions, everyone called her Teacher Xu.

Luo Jingyu envied this. In China’s pressed flower circles, he remained unknown. While many hanfu enthusiasts knew about “Little Fish’s Pressed Flower Workshop” and liked buying accessories there, they only dealt with Fang Xu – no one knew about Luo Jingyu.

After organizing all the boxes, Luo Jingyu sat down in a chair and typed to show Fang Xu: [Do you want to count?]

Fang Xu waved his hand: “No need, you’ve never made a mistake. They’re all boxed up, why should I open each one to check?”

Luo Jingyu nodded and typed again: [What about that cherry blossom tree, any news?]

Fang Xu put down his phone, smacked his lips, and shook his head: “I gave them a quote, but they haven’t contacted me since.”

Luo Jingyu: [How much did you quote?]

Fang Xu raised an eyebrow: “What’s this about? Don’t you trust me? Yes, I quoted high, but definitely within a reasonable range.”

Luo Jingyu didn’t quite believe him and still asked: [How much?]

Fang Xu said: “180,000!”

180,000 was indeed within a reasonable range. Luo Jingyu stopped typing, thinking this order probably wouldn’t work out.

He felt very discouraged. Although making a cherry blossom tree wasn’t high-end work, but rather a laborious task, he hadn’t heard of such an order in the industry before. If they could get it, it would add to his portfolio.

Thinking carefully, who would spend money on a handmade pressed flower tree? A fake artificial cherry blossom tree only cost a few thousand yuan, while using pressed flowers, no matter who made it, would cost over a hundred thousand. Comparing the cost-effectiveness, it would make the client seem foolish.

Fang Xu drank his tea and said: “I think they were just playing around, asking casually. Don’t take it to heart. Once you start an order like this, you won’t have time for anything else!”

Luo Jingyu watched him finish speaking, then turned away with a dark expression.

With the year-end approaching, Fang Xu wanted to discuss the new year’s plans with Luo Jingyu – how to schedule order periods, when Luo Jingyu would go for advanced training, and whether they could expand their business scope.

After a few minutes of one person speaking and the other typing on his phone, when Luo Jingyu typed [What did you say? Say it again] once more, Fang Xu became impatient and waved his hand saying: “Forget it, forget it, I’ll just chat with you on WeChat when I get back. Can you even read lips?”

Luo Jingyu pressed his lips together, his eyes dark, feeling very hurt.

Lip reading wasn’t so magical. Normal people’s spoken word order differed from written language, and while Luo Jingyu knew pinyin and could grasp key words from clear, short lip movements to understand their meaning, when sentences got longer and words multiplied, especially abstract adjectives, idioms, or homophonic words with different meanings and forms, his vocabulary wasn’t large enough to understand through lip movements alone.

Fang Xu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He had just asked one question about a single topic: “Are you a goldfish? Didn’t I tell you about this last time?”

Luo Jingyu had foolishly typed back: [Whale? That’s what my username means, what’s the connection?]

Fang Xu laughed so hard he slapped his thigh, almost crying with laughter, saying: “Luo Little Fish, you’re really a treasure!”

Unfortunately, Luo Jingyu didn’t understand what “treasure” meant either. The word he thought of was “fiery,” which seemed to describe temperament, but he didn’t understand – he felt his temperament was very good, not fiery at all.

The two of them were talking past each other, unable to communicate. So Fang Xu didn’t stay long, taking all the boxes and leaving Luo Jingyu’s home.

The house was once again left with just Luo Jingyu.

Over these years, he had mostly been alone, staying in a world that was forever quiet and soundless. He was long used to it.

The good mood he had earlier because of Egg teacher was easily ruined after meeting with Fang Xu. Luo Jingyu sat blankly in the chair for a while, then saw the clean empty bowl on his workbench. Thinking of that person, his eyes curved slightly, and he picked up his phone to send her a WeChat message.

[Big Fish]: Egg teacher, good afternoon, have you thought about what you want to eat tonight?

She replied quickly.

[Egg Pudding]: I’ve thought carefully and decided to give you the power to decide the menu. This way there will be surprises – I’ll eat whatever you make!

[Big Fish]: Then is there anything you don’t like to eat?

[Egg Pudding]: I don’t like river shrimp, and river fish with lots of bones.

[Big Fish]: Then what do you like eating most?

[Egg Pudding]: Eggs!!! [smirk]

[Big Fish]: [surprised][surprised] But there’s not a single egg in your house!

[Egg Pudding]: Oh come on, eggs are everywhere, even the corner store sells tea eggs! [shy]

She had a point… Luo Jingyu smiled.

[Big Fish]: I understand, what time do you get off work?

[Egg Pudding]: 5:30, I’ll definitely be home before 6! I’ll message you when I get home, okay?

[Big Fish]: Okay, see you tonight [happy]

Thinking about seeing Egg teacher tonight, cooking for her, eating with her, and helping her assemble the cabinet, Luo Jingyu’s mood improved again.

He thought, that cabinet seemed bigger than a shoe cabinet, could he take longer to install it? Should he deliberately work slowly? That way he could spend more time with Egg teacher.

But these were just thoughts. Luo Jingyu quickly rejected this idea, feeling he was being too bad. Egg teacher trusted him so much, how could he deceive her like this?

In the afternoon, Luo Jingyu went to the supermarket to buy ingredients, getting bamboo shoots and a piece of marbled meat. When he got home, he started chopping meat patties.

He hadn’t bought pre-made, machine-ground meat patties, knowing hand-chopped ones would taste better.

This dish of steamed eggs with meat patties was Luo Mingsung’s specialty, made slightly differently from others. He would add diced bamboo shoots and shrimp paste to the meat patties. Fortunately, Luo Jingyu had asked Egg teacher – she didn’t like river shrimp, otherwise he would have bought shrimp according to his family recipe.

While he was concentrating on chopping meat, the small light bulb in the kitchen lit up. Seeing this, Luo Jingyu went to open the door, first looking through the peephole. There was no one there, but just as he was puzzled, the small light bulb above the front door lit up again.

Luo Jingyu opened the door directly, and a small figure suddenly jumped out from behind it.

He watched the other person’s mouth moving in what seemed to be excited speech, but couldn’t be startled by any sound. He just froze for a moment, then pointed at the person and drew a question mark in the air with his right hand.

The visitor was Gu Xinchi, the ten-year-old boy who lived in room 1501.

Gu Xinchi had a bulging backpack and looked up at Luo Jingyu, saying loudly: “Brother Little Fish, my dad’s on a business trip, and mom’s working overtime tonight. She wants me to go to grandma’s house for dinner, but I don’t want to. I told her I’d come eat at your place, is that okay?”

The little boy spoke clearly, and Luo Jingyu could understand every sentence. Besides, this wasn’t his first time coming here for dinner.

However…

Luo Jingyu sighed, patted Gu Xinchi’s head, and stepped aside to let him in.

—

At 6 o’clock, there was a knock on Zhan Xi’s door. She excitedly ran to open it, surprised to find Luo Jingyu had brought along a little tag-along.

“You’re…” Zhan Xi couldn’t remember the little boy’s name, though she remembered his pretty face.

“Sister Zhan!” Gu Xinchi was very excited, “This is awesome! So we’re eating at your place!”

“Huh?” Zhan Xi looked questioningly at Luo Jingyu.

Luo Jingyu smiled helplessly, grabbed Gu Xinchi’s head to turn him towards himself, first pointed at him, then at his own mouth, and finally at Zhan Xi. Gu Xinchi immediately understood and introduced himself again, explaining why he had come along for dinner like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

Zhan Xi quickly invited them in. Luo Jingyu was very thoughtful, having brought down Gu Xinchi’s slippers.

Gu Xinchi dropped his backpack, his attention drawn to the glass vase on the dining table: “Oh? Are these fresh flowers or pressed flowers?” He touched the petals and turned to ask Zhan Xi, “Sister Zhan, did Brother Little Fish make these?”

Zhan Xi smiled and said: “Yes, he gave them to me.”

Gu Xinchi pouted: “Why won’t he give me any? I want to give a pressed flower to Mo Yuxuan too, but Brother Little Fish won’t make any for me! So stingy!”

Luo Jingyu was looking down changing his shoes and didn’t see him speaking. Zhan Xi tugged his sleeve, and when he looked at her, she asked: “Why won’t you make flowers for Little Chi?”

Luo Jingyu’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the flower on the table. He smiled and made a hand sign: right thumb and index finger pinched into a small circle, other three fingers bent to the palm, the whole hand shaking slightly up and down several times.

Zhan Xi asked: “What does that mean?”

Luo Jingyu typed to show her: [Very expensive.]

Zhan Xi burst out laughing with a “puff” and tried copying his gesture. Luo Jingyu gave her a thumbs up, and Zhan Xi was very happy: “I learned another sign language phrase, this is good! Very expensive!”

The two males entered the house. Since they weren’t going out, Luo Jingyu wore a navy blue tracksuit and carried an eco-friendly bag. Zhan Xi knew he must have prepared many dishes again.

Gu Xinchi was a studious little friend. After arriving at Luo Jingyu’s house, he had been doing homework, and now he continued working at the dining table.

Luo Jingyu and Zhan Xi left him alone. They went to the kitchen together, where Luo Jingyu washed his hands and naturally put on an apron. He touched Zhan Xi’s arm and then stood with his back to her. Zhan Xi held back a smile as she helped tie his apron strings, and then he started cooking.

That day, Zhan Xi had prepared some fruit to serve Luo Jingyu – cherries, mandarin oranges, and regular oranges.

She washed a bowl of cherries and put them on the dining table for Gu Xinchi to eat, then brought an orange into the kitchen. She tapped Luo Jingyu’s back, and when he turned around, she made a cutting gesture, asking: “Do you prefer it sliced, or juiced?”

Luo Jingyu blinked at the orange and made two gestures: first, both hands with fingers slightly curved, fingertips facing each other, palms down, moving from top to bottom to make a “circle”; the second was simpler, right hand with fingers pointing up, thumb still, other four fingers bending twice.

Zhan Xi watched very carefully, then said: “Don’t tell me! Let me guess.”

Luo Jingyu nodded with a smile. Zhan Xi put down the orange and tried repeating the two gestures while thinking about them. This kind of guessing was actually very difficult, but she could guess what kind of answer Little Fish would give based on his personality. Taking a brave guess, she said: “Either is fine?”

“Clap!” Luo Jingyu clapped once, pointed at Zhan Xi, and gave her another thumbs up.

“I got it right?” Zhan Xi was truly delighted. She raised her five fingers upward, kept her thumb still, and bent the other four fingers several times, then asked, “Is this ‘okay’?”

Luo Jingyu nodded, then put his right hand’s five fingers together against his forehead, turned toward Zhan Xi while spreading his fingers, and finally pointed at her.

Zhan Xi asked: “Are you praising me for being smart?”

Ah! Luo Jingyu was completely impressed by Egg teacher’s clever mind. He smiled, showing a row of white teeth, nodded heavily, and didn’t forget to give a thumbs up.

Zhan Xi smiled even more brightly than him, happily picking up the orange and saying: “Then I’ll juice it for you! I have a juicer!”

While Luo Jingyu cooked in the kitchen, Zhan Xi made juice in the living room. After finishing, she sat beside Gu Xinchi and looked at the little boy’s homework.

Her little nephew Weiwei was only in first grade, and his textbooks and homework were too simple. Fourth-grader Gu Xinchi was different – he had English homework, and math was much harder too.

Seeing Zhan Xi flipping through his homework, Gu Xinchi quickly opened an English worksheet and asked her: “Sister Zhan, what’s the answer to this question? I asked Brother Little Fish earlier, but he didn’t know.”

Thinking of Little Fish’s poor Chinese language skills, Zhan Xi laughed: “Huh? You asked Brother Little Fish? He can’t hear, his Chinese isn’t good, his English probably isn’t either – aren’t you bullying him?”

Gu Xinchi panicked at being accused: “I wasn’t bullying him!”

“When interacting with your Brother Little Fish, you need to learn to be considerate of his difficulties,” Zhan Xi rested her chin in her hand, looking at Gu Xinchi. “Come on, which question? I’ll explain it to you.”

Gu Xinchi pointed out the question to Zhan Xi, then asked uncertainly: “Sister Zhan, are you Brother Little Fish’s girlfriend?”

“Huh? No,” Zhan Xi smiled and asked, “Why do you ask that?”

Gu Xinchi said: “Then why does he come to your place to cook? He was preparing tonight’s dinner at home this afternoon, chopping meat patties for so long, bang bang bang, like he was demolishing the house! I was starving but he wouldn’t cook, saying he had to come to the eighth floor to cook.”

Zhan Xi was speechless for a moment. She looked toward the kitchen at the man’s back and answered Gu Xinchi: “We arranged it yesterday. He’s here to help me assemble a cabinet.”

“Oh.” Kids will be kids – he quickly lost interest and shyly said to Zhan Xi: “Sister Zhan, you’re really pretty. Has anyone ever told you that? You’re even prettier than my art teacher! And she’s the prettiest teacher in our grade!”

“Isn’t that a bit exaggerated?” Zhan Xi ruffled his hair, “Quick, do your homework. We’ll eat soon.”

Luo Jingyu had prepared all the side dishes in the afternoon, so cooking went quickly. After half an hour, three dishes and a soup were placed on the dining table – steamed eggs with meat patties, cucumber with chicken breast, ham bits with sweet peas, and mushroom pork rib soup.

Zhan Xi and Gu Xinchi sat side by side, both swallowing saliva. Seeing their hungry expressions, Luo Jingyu lightly brushed Zhan Xi’s sweater sleeve. When she looked up at him, he made gestures for serving and eating rice.

Gu Xinchi jumped up: “I’ll serve the rice!”

Zhan Xi didn’t stop him, going to pour the fresh orange juice instead.

After putting three glasses on the table, Gu Xinchi looked at his disposable paper cup, then at Zhan Xi and Luo Jingyu’s glasses, and was dumbfounded. He asked: “Why do I get a paper cup? Why does Brother Little Fish get a mug?”

Zhan Xi felt a bit uncomfortable. She had gotten two mugs free with toothpaste – one she used for brushing teeth, and she had already prepared the other one for Luo Jingyu.

Luo Jingyu looked at the white mug in front of him. It was ordinary, with the toothpaste brand’s logo printed on it. Seeing Gu Xinchi’s unhappy face, he picked up the mug to trade with him.

Zhan Xi: “?”

She blocked his hand. Luo Jingyu looked up at her, and Zhan Xi said: “Too much drink isn’t good for children, they’ll get cavities! A paper cup is enough. This cup is yours. In the future… you can recognize this cup, we’re used to not sharing cups in our home.”

Gu Xinchi looked confused: “Isn’t this fresh-squeezed orange juice? Can that cause cavities?”

Zhan Xi glared at him: “Fresh-squeezed still has sugar!”

Luo Jingyu no longer cared about their conversation. His right hand gripped the mug handle, his left palm against the mug’s body, as if he never wanted to let go of this cup.

The meal was lively with Gu Xinchi present. He chattered away to Zhan Xi about school matters, and surprisingly, she could keep up the conversation well. Luo Jingyu sat across from them, able to see both their faces, casually “listening” to whatever he could catch.

While eating from their bowls, it wasn’t convenient to use phones, so he didn’t “speak” at all from start to finish, just eating quietly, quietly “listening.”

Zhan Xi was already thoroughly impressed by Luo Jingyu’s cooking skills, especially that bowl of steamed eggs with meat patties – so much more delicious than the company cafeteria! The meat patties had bamboo shoot bits that were fragrant and chewy, and the eggs on top were infused with meat flavor. Zhan Xi ate two eggs, Gu Xinchi ate one, and they competed to mix their rice with the meat juice while Luo Jingyu took a sip of orange juice, head lowered, silently smiling.

After dinner, Zhan Xi finished washing the dishes. Since Gu Xinchi didn’t want to do more homework, Zhan Xi gave him her tablet to play with, not allowing him to watch short videos, only cartoons on video websites.

Gu Xinchi sat on the sofa with a bowl of cherries watching “Nezha,” while Zhan Xi stayed by Luo Jingyu’s side, sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching him assemble the cabinet.

He looked very charming when working, focused and confident, those beautiful hands seeming magical – they could do anything! Sometimes he would check the instructions, and occasionally look toward Zhan Xi, only to find she was watching him too.

Whenever this happened, a smile would spread across Luo Jingyu’s lips, and Zhan Xi would smile too. The two of them grinning like idiots together, in silent stillness, yet the atmosphere wasn’t awkward at all.

Halfway through the assembly, Luo Jingyu made a drinking gesture to Zhan Xi, who immediately poured him a glass of water, using his white mug.

Luo Jingyu bent his thumb to “say” thank you to her, and Zhan Xi asked: “You haven’t taught me how to say ‘you’re welcome’ yet, have you?”

Luo Jingyu handed her the cup, made the universally known “no” gesture by waving his right hand side to side, then put both hands parallel, palms up, both hands making small side-to-side movements.

Zhan Xi asked: “Is that ‘you’re welcome’?”

Luo Jingyu nodded and took back the cup from her hands to continue drinking.

Zhan Xi practiced by herself, first doing “thank you,” then “you’re welcome.” Luo Jingyu watched her movements, gave a thumbs up for “very good,” and made the “smart” hand sign again. Zhan Xi felt her face turning red and covered her mouth, giggling “hee hee hee.”

For some reason, her smile reminded Luo Jingyu of Fang Xu – this morning, Fang Xu had laughed just as happily.

Among Luo Jingyu’s few hearing friends, none had ever offered to learn sign language. Not Fang Xu, not Xu Qingyan, not even the most curious little Gu Xinchi. Luo Jingyu didn’t know what motivated Zhan Xi, nor where he got the courage to keep showing her sign language again and again.

He gradually stopped smiling, put down his cup, and typed a line for Zhan Xi to see: [Do you find me annoying when you’re with me? If you don’t want to know sign language, I can type instead.]

After reading this, Zhan Xi looked at him in confusion, not understanding why he suddenly had such thoughts. Luo Jingyu took back his phone, kept his eyes down for a while, then finally looked up at Zhan Xi again, his eyes no longer as bright as before.

Zhan Xi had been waiting for him to look up. She spoke without making a sound, not wanting the little boy on the sofa to hear, as long as Luo Jingyu could understand.

She tilted her head and said: “Little Fish, I’ve never found you annoying, and I’m very interested in sign language. I want to chat with you better, want to understand you more. So, I’ll definitely learn sign language, it just needs some time. I am the clever Egg teacher after all!”