Moonlight Variations

Chu Li’s weekend was spent sprawled out on the bed like a corpse playing games.

On Monday, she forcibly found the energy to go to work.

In the afternoon there was a regular meeting. Chu Li realised that the week of torture had passed, instead there was a new round of blows coming. In the meeting on Monday, Head editor Yu Yao assigned the tasks for the Moonlight Magazine June issue and the new comer Chu Li and a half new comer Xiao Niao were assigned the Front piece assignment–

The front piece was on the front of the magazine, in the front cover was the ghostly thing that was on the front cover before the contents page. The theme of the front piece changed according to the theme of the issue and the content within the magazine. Sometimes there were pre-launch advertisements for new books, special discussions on some of the hot topics, otherwise it was simply to plan for a new topic and fill in with interesting content.

For the monthly issue of June, the theme was “Childhood”, Yu Yao wanted the editors in the department to find a few writers to write a few childhood stories to draw in readers–

Chu Li: “What exactly is the front piece?”

Lao Miao: “Think for yourself.”

Chu Li: “Which writers should I go and find?”

Lao Miao: “Think for yourself.”

Chu Li: “What is the purpose of the front piece?”

Lao Miao: “I also do not know. This sort of thing doesn’t really catch the interest of a lot of readers but most magazines have it so we should also have it anyway.”

Chu Li: “……”

………huh? No way, others have it so we must have it too? Other magazines gave editors 5000 yuan end of year bonuses, why don’t you learn this from them too?

Throughout the entire meeting, the more Chu Li listened the more bewildered she became.

Before the meeting was to be adjourned, Yu Yao probably couldn’t keep on watching Lao Miao’s dead pig that’s not afraid of hot water attitude so she kindly reminded her that since she was working with Xiao Niao she could ask her any questions or they could both discuss things….after listening to what Yu Yao had to say, Chu Li nodded reflexively without much suspicion–
(TN: Dead pig that’s not afraid of hot water: Basically being very fearless)

For many years Chu Li could summarise that for this thing called “human nature” she still carried many unrealistic fantasies, this type of stupidity had no medicine.

A few days later.

[The Ghost Behind You: Ah L has disappeared, ah, are okay?]

[Monkey Invited Water Army: Hanging Emoji ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿(◡︵◡)]

[The Ghost Behind You: Ah, then let’s talk about something happier, when working in this industry you can get to know a lot of writers, don’t you feel super happy? Remember when we used to chase after Zhou Chuan and Jiang Yu Cheng for follow up books, you can even talk to Zhou Chuan! And you have gone to his house! Ah! Getting a signature wouldn’t be a problem either right? I’m so jealous!]

[Monkey Invited Water Army: When working in this line of work you encounter crazies and there is a greater probability of getting hit by lightning in comparison to getting to know a writer… At this moment the only signatures that I have from Zhou Chuan are on the contracts stamped with official seals, I need to hand those in next Monday so there is no chance that I can frame them above my headboard.]

[The Ghost Behind You: Ah? How tragic….then what about other writers? Who else have you gotten to know? What are those Dada’s like?]

(TN: Dada 大大 is an internet term that readers in China use to refer to their favourite writers)

Chu Li “…….”

In the face of her good friend’s questioning she sighed and settled into her seat, she rolled her eyes and looked at the ceiling: A’Gui (nickname) has asked a key question, what about the other writers……………..

She really hoped that she could get to know a few.

All she could do was pray to God and ask the Buddha for help.

The front piece project that Chu Li had to do was not very smooth, first of all there was no remuneration for writing this thing, to get a writer to do this for free would be purely based on whether the relationship between the editor and writer were strong enough…..

The new comerChu Li was the first to arrive, there wasn’t a single author she was familiar with.

After working on the project for a few days she was still on square one, Chu Li didn’t even manage to invite a single writer. She simply wasn’t familiar with any writers, the only big named writer that she was familiar with was her little white lotus. It wasn’t that she didn’t consider asking for his help but once she thought of the night before her employment where she secretly, in a lofty manner stated her ambition to help the writer publish books. As a result the book had not been published and yet she had to secretly kneel crying for his help, how awkward.

After thinking about it, Chu Li gave up in the end. She had tried to go find Zhou Chuan– now in hindsight she had probably had eaten the heart of a bear and the guts of a leopard because the conversation was like this–

(T/N: Heart of a bear and guts of a leopard means to be very brave and courageous.)

[Monkey Invited Water Army: Laoshi, it’s like this, can you help me with something. The June edition of the frontal piece project that we are preparing for is based around the topic of “Childhood”. We are inviting writers to talk about their memories from their younger years and interesting things like that….and there will be a total of three pages, on my end I only need about one thousand words or so. If it is convenient, could you write an article?]

[Monkey Invited Water Army: I’m begging you Laoshi!]

[Monkey Invited Water Army: 800 words are also fine!]

[Monkey Invited Water Army: Just think of it as writing a Gao Kao composition piece! It won’t take you twenty minutes!]

(T/N: Gao Kao composition pieces are writing exams where your composition ie. Writing skills are assessed)

[Monkey Invited Water Army: ………………..what about this, I’ll write one myself and just use your name, will this be okay? It’s just like “The sky doesn’t keep traces of flying birds, but bird shit shows that they had been there–Zhou Chuan” like this?]

[Zhou Chuan: ? ]

At this time, Chu Li’s shattering chatter ended when the reply from the gentle and warm as jade Zhou Chuan was only an indifferent and mocking “?”. However the Chu Li that sat in front of the computer was so angry that she wanted to shove her head into the fish tank at the door!

It was at this moment, Comrade A Gui ruthlessly stabbed her where it hurt. At this time Chu Li couldn’t help but have to face this bloody and unforgettable past….this time, as she thought, she couldn’t sit still. Since it was nearly lunch time, she swiftly stood up from her spot and sat down next to Xiao Niao. At that time Xiao Niao happened to be chatting with someone, with an overly cute expression. When she noticed that someone had come over she quickly closed the chat window, and turned her head to face Chu Li with a cute smile: “Why did you come over?”

Chu Li didn’t put her sneaky actions to heart and pulled the chair next to Xiao Niao over as she asked: “Have you found any writers yet? What exactly is this frontal piece project about ah? Can I write my own thing and leave the name Zhou Chuan in the end?”

Xiao Niao: “Haven’t found any, I also do not know how to do it, and no you can’t.

Chu Li: “…”

She swallowed the complaints she had into her stomach, she rubbed at her headache: “These few days I asked a few writers, everyone probably thought I was crazy, since they didn’t reply then they rejected me, without any writer’s remuneration to motivate them who would be so kind to engage in charity?”

Xiao Niao’s reply was very unexpected, with her face full of innocence: “I also do not know what to do ah, I am also a new comer….however in the past there have been many issues done before, so there should be other methods right?”

Chu Li considered this and sighed, in her heart she prepared herself that should worse come to worst she would thicken her skin to ask Yu Yao or Lao Miao if they could use their name to go find a few of the previous writers who wrote for “Moonlight”….

(TN: Using someone else’s name is like using their status and connections… Sorta)

This could also be a method, with this conclusion she stood up to go buy lunch, after leaving the office she walked to the end of the walkway before turning to the bathroom instead—

After responding to the call of nature she stood up to press the flush button but she suddenly heard the click of high heels from outside, Chu Li subconsciously took back the hand that was going to press the flush button.

The people that came in were Xiao Niao and A’Xiang.

Chu Li hesitated and didn’t come out to greet them, rather she retreated step by step and while conveniently hearing them come in one after the other. The tap at the sink was opened and the within the sound of rushing water A’Xiang’s voice could be heard saying” “Xiao Niao, it’s good of you to not tell Chu Li about Lao Miao contacting Su Heng and There are Hippos Every Year, right?”

(TN: “There are Hippos Every Year” is a writer I think….strange pen name right?)

Chu Li paused for a moment.

After a while the sound of rushing water stopped, and Xiao Niao’s voice could be heard– the tone was seemingly innocent: “Ay, Lao Miao helped me find the writers, so it wasn’t me who found them, why should I tell her?”

A’Xiang: “Aren’t you both working together on the project? What if Chu Li thought that you guys couldn’t find authors and found a whole bunch of other writers, when the time comes it would be awkward to arrange the…..”

A’Xiang had only spoken part of the way before Xiao Niao started to laugh. While she laughed she said: “Finding a lot of writers is good then, did you think that the three pages are equally divided according to the number of authors? Hahah, at that time she will probably find some unknown transparent author that is suppressed every year. Seven or eight of those will be a pretty picture!”

A’Xiang looked at the Xiao Niao that was bent over laughing and wavered for a moment: “…..that’s not too good right?”

Xiao Niao stopped laughing and glanced at A’Xiang through the mirror and plainly said: “Then go help her.”

A’Xiang immediately stopped talking.

Xiao Niao grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and rubbed her hands before scrunching it up into a ball before tossing it into the bin: “Lao Miao helped me find writers but didn’t help Chu Li, his intentions are quite obvious….”

“What intentions?” A’Xiang asked.

Xiao Niao fixed up her hair: “You should know that Yuan Yue is trying to get listed so they need to increase the valuation before recruiting more employees. In most cases for this situation, regardless of whether the company succeeds or fails, in the end there would be mass layoffs.

A’Xiang: “Really?”

Xiao Niao made a light mmmmh sound, that tone was very strange in comparison to her innocuous attitude in the office: “Therefore, everything is about first come first served right. How can I allow certain people who came in last to be ahead? Besides, our magazine editorial department already has me as the new comer which is enough, what’s more she hasn’t done a very good job, she is currently relying on the contract with Zhou Chuan as an excuse to be lazy. From the beginning I don’t know why the head editor in chief asked for Chu Li, for goodness sake why not just let her go to [Xing Gui]?”

As Xiao Niao spoke, her lips tilted up into a smile again, she pulled A’Xiang along as they walked out while asking what she wanted for lunch intimately….

“I want to eat ice cream, why don’t you treat me to ice cream then, A’Xiang?”

When the sounds of their footsteps and conversation faded– from the second cubical there was finally the sound of the toilet flushing. For a long time, Chu Li’s face was expressionless as she walked out of the cubicle to stand in front of the mirror. She fixed up her lipstick and used some powder on her nose and some blush.

After she finished fixing her makeup she looked at the person in the mirror, her complexion didn’t look too good.

She took out her phone to look for someone to complain to, except that she found out that the person that she was looking for was not on her friends list which agitated her already messy heart. Chu Li wrinkled her brow before finding [The Ghost Behind You] and sending a message–

[Monkey Invited Water Army: My God ah! Refreshed!!!! It seems that I have experienced the said office bullying!!!]

[The Ghost Behind You: Question Mark Face]

……..

Fifteen Minutes Later

Chu Li carried her lunch over to the office, and when she passed by the fish tank she suddenly realised that there was something wrong and quickly walked back–a tank of parrot fish swam around leisurely. Chu Li bent at the waist while scrutinising the fish for half the day before finally finding what was wrong…she conveniently blocked Lao Li to ask: “Hey Lao Li, where did the fish that Editor in Chief Yu put in last week go?”

Lao Li: “I don’t know, Parrot fish ate it maybe, those types of fish eat everything right?”

Chu Li: “Ah?”

Xiao Niao picked up her lunch and laughed as she stood: “These Parrot fish moved in from the Moonlight Editorial department and have always lived well without the street sweeper fish!”

Chu Li: “?”

Looking at her reflection on the fish tank, Chu Li paused for a moment before straightening up to look at Xiao Niao–perhaps her expressionless appearance was so frightening that it made her pause however it was very quick. Chu Li quickly smiled while silently squeezing the plastic bag. She lowered her head, using a softer tone she said: “Oh, then this street sweeper fish has been a little bit wronged then.”

Xiao Niao stared at her for a while, making sure that her face was still expressionless before releasing a breath and walking back to her computer.

Chu Li carried her lunch back to her spot, enduring the impulsive need to ram the 10.80 yuan tray of food on someone’s head. She placed the expensive lunch tray on her desk, maintaining her calm she opened her computer. She even wanted to order some SAW (a horror movie) to suppress the burning rage and evil qi…..

Then she found someone who sent themselves to death’s door——-

Dididididididi

[System Notification] [“Disappearing L Jun” wants to add you as a friend, Confirm?]

Additional Message: Pretty Lady, Online romance?

Chu Li: “………………………….”

Ugly rejection.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Xixi’s Lil Theatre:

CL: Someone sent themselves up to get beaten *evilly rubbing hands*
ZC: *Quiver’s in fear from scary qi before quickly turning off computer and flees* I’ll come back when she won’t kill me
CL: …Online Dating my ass!!!