Assistant Architect

Assistant Architect by Xi He Qing Ling

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“Sisi! What are you doing here?” The young man was pleasantlysurprised.

Zhang Siyi was startled for a minute and was silent. He was searchingthrough his memories for the name of the person standing before him. “BrotherTian?” The youth eagerly grabbed him and rubbed his head and patted hisshoulder. Since the other person grew so tall, he felt like a baby chick, lostin the other person's arms. However, Zhang Siyi is also excited to see an oldneighbor who he hasn't seen for more than ten years.

This young man's full name is He Chengtian and like Shen Yu and Qu Xiao,they are all childhood friends who grew up with Zhang Siyi.

His sister, He Xueying, is also Zhang Siyi's age. Even though He Chengtianis six years older and didn't directly play with the younger children, growingup, the families often played with one another, so the younger kids also calledHe Chengtian 'Brother.'

In Zhang Siyi's memory, He Chengtian was tall and bold. As if he was themaster of the area, he always had a group of boys following him around. ZhangSiyi had the privilege of playing a few role-playing games with the older boys.The good-looking boys played the Red-Army and everyone else played the Army-of-the-Rising-Sun.He Chengtian was always the leader of the Red-Army.

As for Zhang Siyi, Shen Hao, and He Xueying, they were naturally unable toparticipate in the war so they would play the part of helpless civilians. Theirrole was to get captured by the Army-of-the-Rising-Sun and then wait for theRed-Army to rescue them.

After being locked up, they would have to wait until rescue. Sometimes theyhad to wait less than thirty minutes, but other times it was over an hour.Being immersed in the game, they huddled together with their hands and feettied up feeling tense. Once they heard the Red-Army yell for rescue, the moodquickly changed from restlessness into excitement. Often the young kids wouldplay the part and would kick and struggle while calling out "Brother Tian, helpus!", "Save us!"

Naturally, if the Hero rescued them right away, the game would end, so theboys often devised different scenarios to extend the game time and make it morefun. In order to make the rescue by the Red-Army more dramatic and heroic, itwas necessary to vilify the Army-of-the-Rising-Sun. Thus, they would pick oneor two innocent civilians and threaten their lives. Zhang Siyi remembers atthis part of the game, almost always, the Army-of-the-Rising-Sun would pick HeChengtian's sister, He Xueying to play the victim.

Once, Zhang Siyi and He Xueying were selected tobe the victims and together. They had to kneel in front of the Red-Army with aplastic gun to their heads and listened to threats: "If you step any closeryour people will perish!"

As the Hero, He Chengtian would rush in andshout: "For the victory of the revolution!" and the boys would all start toshout: "Brothers rush", "Go! Go! Go!". Of course, at this time the boys in theArmy-of-the-Rising-Sun would do everything in their power to prevent the Hero's.Even though the kneeling victims would always die, Zhang Siyi thought theanticipation of being rescued was very exciting. In the end, He Chengtian wouldalways triumph over the Army-of-the-Rising-Sun and the last remaining survivorwould get rescued.

Thinking about it, Zhang Siyi is a little bitsurprised at how vividly he can recall his play-time memories. Those types ofgames seem rather stupid to him now. Since He Chengtian was also a very goodstudent, he was the first role-model Zhang Siyi looked up to as child and itleft a deep impression on him.

Unfortunately, in the year of Zhang Siyi'selementary school graduation, the He family moved away to start a business. Inthe following years, Zhang Siyi's father was promoted and the Zhang familymoved twice. Therefore, in addition to Shen Hao, Zhang Siyi almost lost contactwith all of his childhood friends.

Giving Zhang Siyi a noogie, He Chengtian laughedand asked: “How can you still be the same after so many years?"

Zhang Siyi broke free from He Chengtian’s arm andtried to fix his ruffled hair. He smiled and said: “Which hasn’t changed?My mom said yesterday that I am now fat with big and getting uglier."

He Chengtian laughed and asked: “How areyour Mother and Father? What are you doing now?"

Since they have known each other since childhood,Zhang Siyi didn't hide his family background from him: "Well, my father isstill the same and to a certain extent, can't be promoted further. Anyways, hecontinues to negotiate with the other officials and every night he drinks histea. Last year my Mother was promoted to chief doctor. She doesn't have thenight shift anymore so that's positive, however, the hospital is always sobusy, so it's not like she has less work."

He nodded and smiled and said, “Your familyis still so low-key. Don't say that I don't understand."

Zhang Siyi looked around and asked: “Whatabout your sister? Why haven't I seen her?”

He Jian shook his head: “She did not come,do not know what she thought, as a child I see clearly and seedlings play verywell, this seedling married to her call, she did not want to come at all.”Recently we do not happen to go back to Ningcheng family visit, my mother saidat least a neighbor, let me do representative come to participate.

He wasthe day shook his head: “she did not come, do not know what she thought,when I saw that I was playing well with the seedlings, the seedlings married tocall her, she did not want to come at all. "Recently we don’t just go back tothe new year to visit relatives, my mother said that the bad neighbor, let meas a representative to participate in."

He Chengtian shook his head: “Since theyplayed together all the time as children, I was surprised to hear that mysister didn't want to come when Qu Xiao called about the wedding. When I cameback to the city to visit relatives, my mother thought I should come to thewedding at least since we grew up in the same neighborhood."

Going back to Ningcheng to visit relatives? Theydon't live here anymore? Zhang Siyi wanted to ask him about it and was about toask, but before he could, He Chengtian said: "My sister asked about you a fewdays ago. I didn't know if you would be here since its been so many years."

Having just experienced Qu Xiao forgetting abouthim, how can his heart not be moved when he heard that He Xueying, a youngwoman, remembered him? He is a young man after all! If he had known Qu Xiao wasgoing to forget about him, Zhang Siyi, like He Xueying, wouldn't have come tothe reception.

He Chengtian asked: “What about you? I saw Mouselast year. He said that you went abroad to study. Have you graduated andreturned now? Where are you working?”

“I recently graduated and I'm now back inChina.” A little embarrassed, Zhang Siyi smiled and quickly took thisopportunity to give a business card to He Chengtian. While taking is from hispocket and handing it to him, Zhang Siyi said: "I'm working in Haicheng now."

Not reading the card, He Chengtian was surprisedwhen he heard the location of Zhang Siyi's workplace: “You are also inHaicheng? After my sister went to high school, our family moved. Now I live inthe central district. Where is your office building located?”

Upon hearing where he lived, Zhang Siyi's jawdropped. Considering the houses in the central district are worth tens ofmillions, it seems his family is doing astronomically well!

“The company I work for is also in thedowntown area!” Zhang Siyi replied.

When He Chengtian looked at the business card heseemed puzzled then asked: “Are you also engaged in construction? Is thisnot the same as Mouse.?

Mouse is the nickname for their friend Shen Hao.Zhang Siyi felt depressed. He studied architectural design. Its not the same asa contractor in construction! And he was clearly studying architecture earlier.

When Zhang Siyi hurriedly explained thedifference between the work that he does and Shen Hao's type of work, HeChengtian nodded. "Now that you explained, I understand! In fact, one of myclassmates is now a professional in Haicheng working in architectural design."

Zhang Siyi curiously asked: “Who?”

“You probably don't know him, but…" HeChengtian paused to think, "But not necessarily. This classmate is verylegendary. He was the top student for the school entrance exam."

Zhang Siyi's mouth twitched: “… You’re nottalking about Gu Yu, are you?

Stunned, He Chengtian asked: “How doyou know him?”

Zhang Siyi pointed to his business card: “GuYu is a design director of Borderless. I work directly under him."

Again shocked, He Chengtian glanced at ZhangSiyi's business card and said: "This world is too small!"

Zhang Siyi nodded vigorously. The circumstancesfelt so mysterious: “Were you his classmate?"

He Chengtian explained: "Yes. Three years in highschool". He squinted his eyes. He casually mentioned his past and didn't expectold feelings to swell up. Since he learned that Gu Yu is Zhang Siyi boss, hecouldn't help vent some bitterness: "Those three years with Gu Yu was mynightmare!"

Hearing He Chengtian talk about Gu Yu, he piquedZhang Siyi interest: "Oh? Why's that?"

He Chengtian sneered and said: “Why's that?His grades were too good. He was always number one. Even on very difficultexams, his score would throw off the rest of the class's grades. While he wouldcontinue to get a perfect score, the second place was behind by twenty tothirty points! Sometimes, I think he isn't a person at all!"

Zhang Siyi remembered when he was in high schoolthe teacher also repeatedly boasted about the top exam student from the school.In fact, he slowly got used to being far from the top model student. He triedto comfort He Chengtian.

In a very hateful tone, He Chengtian said: “That'sbecause you haven't had to compete with him directly. You only listened tostories and have no idea how terrible the feeling of being second all the timeis. Fuck! I was that second-place student no matter how hard I tried. He wasalways so calm and relaxed and never seemed to try. God damn it! "

"……" Thewords of Zhang Siyi’s mother echoed in his head — don’t compare yourself tothose that are blessed by God. (=_=)

Breathing slowly and methodically, He Chengtiantried to calm his grumpy mood: "At that time, I was being very naïve to be soobsessed over my scores. Everyone knows the results of the rankings don'trepresent everything. But every time I think about it, I still feel…… Well,you may not know much about that feeling. After all, before I ran into Gu Yu, Icould say I was the number one student and never had any competition. Becauseof him, after finishing my senior exam, I went abroad.

Hearing He Chengtian explain, Zhang Siyiinstinctively shuddered. In fact, he knows quite well his friend's feelings ofbeing overpowered. He also experienced the kind of pressure Gu Yu exudes fromhis knowledge base. It makes Zhang Siyi feel inadequate.

He Chengtian looked to Zhang Siyi and inquired:“My former classmate is now part of the construction industry. How is hegetting along?"

Zhang Siyi is not sure if there is some meaningbehind 'how'……

He Chengtian bluntly asked: “Do you know howmuch he gets paid?”

“Oh…” Zhang Siyi promised Gu Yu hewould not reveal his income, but the person in front of him was the mostadmired role model of his childhood. They probably won't have contact with oneanother in the future, so Zhang Siyi thought if he reports a high income, thenGu Yu won't be so disgraced. Zhang Siyi took a moment in thought then said: "Iheard his annual income was more than eight-hundred-thousand." Zhang Siyi completelydid not expect He Chengtian's reaction.

Laughing He Chengtian said: “Only eight-hundred-thousand!It seems he isn't that great after all!"

Zhang Siyi: “……” Fuck! More than eight-hundred-thousand is not good? What the hell!? What is wrong with this society? Is money really that easy!?

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