Assistant Architect

Chapter 24: Transfer

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The autumn rain fell in the night and the morning was cool again. Out of the door, Zhang Siyi was chilled by the oncoming cold wind. Shivering, he shrunk his neck down for warmth.

When he arrived at the company, he bought two hot buns at the convenience store downstairs. He couldn’t wait to go upstairs, so he started eating it. While taking a bite, Zhang Siyi looked up and saw a familiar figure and followed him with his eyes.

Surrounded by the same scarf as the day of the business trip, Gu Yu was sitting alone by the side of the flower bed not far away, holding a cup of coffee in his hand, looking at the ground motionless. He looks like a statue in its environment. Zhang Siyi couldn’t see his expression, but the gesture made him feel that Gu Yu was lonely.

He can’t help but think of what happened yesterday. Yes, Gu Yu, as their boss, leads a team of ten people. Naturally, they can’t show real emotions in front of them, but if they encounter such a result, anyone will feel depressed, right? With his calmness and maturity, it’s easy to forget how young Gu Yu is. He is only twenty-eight years old which is two years younger than Child Labor. In the group of architects, he is very young.

For an outsider, perhaps he didn’t seem so stoic and instead would see his dazed, fragile state.

——Just like now.

This kind of Gu Yu is even more heartwarming and exciting.

To change his inexplicable mood, Zhang Siyi shook his head and took a bite of his hot bun then went to go upstairs to his desk.

After about five or six minutes, Gu Yu also came up. His face is still so calm, how can he pack away his emotions? Near his desk, he saw him encountered Child Laborer who was going to pour hot water. The two also laughed and said hello, as if nothing happened. Thinking of this morning’s scene, Zhang Siyi had mixed feelings. When he was finished with his parking lot, he went to get it approved.

In Gu Yu’s office, Zhang Siyi saw him looking over the Daffodil plan with a furrowed brow. He was probably thinking about ways to implement B Group’s plan.

“Boss, do you really think Child Labor group’s plan is okay?” Zhang Siyi could not help but speak.

Gu Yu looked up at him, set down the design plans and said indifferently: “Some things can’t be judged by good or bad. They can only say that their group’s plan to bid for the project is more likely to win and thus will more likely bring benefits to the company.”

Zhang Siyi muttered: “But I do not think the project can be built after winning.””

Gu Yu glanced at his first draft of the plan, said: “Then wait for the time to find a way, and strive to make the impossible possible.”

” Zhang Siyi: “...”

Gu Yu smiled and said: “This is the first time you have participated in such a large project. Its natural to have some mixed feelings in your heart but remember that the members of B Group aren’t our enemies. Even though our plan wasn’t chosen, B Group is representing Borderless and their design can win the honor.”

When Gu Yu says something so concise, Zhang Siyi cannot refute his manner. However, who was that guy downstairs in a daze? He can’t believe Gu Yu is acting like nothing is wrong.

Gu Yu saw the picture he had drawn. This time he didn’t have much to say about it. He made a few comments then arranged for Zhang Siyi to draw something else.

Before sending him out, Gu Yu suddenly smiled and said to Zhang Siyi: ” I am quite happy that you are thinking about the actual construction of the project in the city of Z. It seems the business trip was a success.”

Zhang Siyi: “...”

Is this a compliment? Was he praised by Gu Yu? Seeing him smile dispelled the gloom in Zhang Siyi’s mood. Oh, well, he will admit that the Daffodil is also pretty good.

It happened to be the last day of October. At three o’clock in the afternoon, the company’s security guard came in suddenly carrying a large box shouting: “Everyone come and get one!” The office is buzzing, and everyone is asking what kind of festival it is today and what activities are there to engage in. Zhang Siyi reacts: “Isn’t it Halloween?”

Sure enough, after a while, Gu Yu sent a message to everyone: “Halloween activities for two hours. Everyone in the design department can take a break and make a jack-o-lantern. The best three pumpkins will receive a 1000 cash bonus each”.

Zhang Siyi: “I am going! Is there such a good thing as free money?”

Eager to get started, people got up to grab a good pumpkin to carve. Zhu Hongzhen joyfully took a big pumpkin and brought it back to the seat. Zhang Siyi quickly grabbed a well-proportioned, small, round pumpkin.

Even though B Group has a lot of work to do on their flower plan, they couldn’t resist in the activities and grabbed pumpkins. While A group missed out on yesterdays’ design plan, they don’t want to lose to B Group pumpkin carving skills. They are eager to redeem themselves.

Zhang Siyi glanced around at his competition. To his left, Zhu Hongzhen was wasting so much time digging out such a large pumpkin he had to spend time walking back and forth to the trash bin to throw out pumpkin guts. Looking across, Bi Lele’s pumpkin with a fatter top then the bottom, is going to be hard to carve. Diagonally, Yuan Zhicheng is carving out a boring face on the pumpkin. Spending time abroad, Zhang Siyi celebrated Halloween with friends thus making him a veteran of pumpkin carving!

He opened the top of the pumpkin first then carefully emptied the pumpkin guts. After. He used a pencil to draw the outline of the face on the pumpkin skin. To stand out from among everyone else, Zhang Siyi did not do a traditional jack-o-lantern. Instead, he created a face that looked crazy and violent. Then cut out your eyes and mouth in detail ... Finally put in the candle, finish!

In less than an hour, Zhang Siyi’s breathed a sign of satisfaction, then got up to see what the others are doing. Zhu Hongzhen’s pumpkin was so big, his arm was tired from pulling out the pumpkin insides. A lot of time had passed, so he wasn’t sure he would be able to finish in the 2-hour time limit. Yuan Zhicheng looked pissed. He accidentally cut off a fang on the pumpkin, leaving the mouth looking like it was leaking. It was rather funny. It seems his talent to draw didn’t extend beyond paper. He pinched the broken tooth, and even planned to use double-sided tape to stick it. Zhang Siyi called out: “Look for a toothpick!”

Yuan Zhicheng: “...”

Zhang Siyi went around again and saw some people still searching for tutorials on the Internet. Some people did not know how to carve it properly so the whole pumpkin had been broken. Zhang Siyi secretly laughed and laughed. Hahaha what!? It seems he will get a thousand dollars in prize money tonight!

Walking back to his seat, Zhang Siyi caught a glimpse of Gu Yu standing at his desk, holding the pumpkin lantern he has already done, and inspecting it with great interest.

Seeing him coming back, Gu Yu also smiled and praised: “It is very cute. It’s well crafted.”

For the second time today, Gu Yu praised him. Zhang Siyi felt elated: “You aren’t making one?”

Gu Yu: “I don’t want to take the 1000 bonus away from everyone else. Besides by the looks of it, I may have not won it anyway.”

Oh, my God, did Zhang Siyi just hear Gu Yu admission that he isn’t all powerful!? ...... Although, it is just making a jack-o- lantern. Zhang Siyi feels that this is more than a thousand dollars in prize money!

There is still time, Zhang Siyi also carved a few words on the bottom of the pumpkin –

Zsy

2014.10.31

Soon two hours passed, everyone took their pumpkins to the conference room where they were assigned a number for the content then lit the candle.

When the lights were turned off, thirty pumpkin faces reveal strange expressions. Some of the jack-o-lanterns had angry faces, some were smiling, some were crazy. There were pumpkin faces whose expression were so funny, people laughed out loud.

Out of all the pumpkins, Zhang Si Yi was most conspicuous. His carving really had a genuine life-like expression. Bi Lele pointed at Zhang Siyi’s pumpkin and laughed wildly: “Ah Bahahaha! Is this your inner feelings?”

Zhang Siyi: “...... Hey!”

Bi Lele pointed to Zhu Hongzhen and asked: “pig, why did you only dig two eyes? “At first glance, I thought a pig’s nose!” (oo)

Zhu Hongzhen wants to cry without tears: “My pumpkin was too big! I didn’t have enough time to finish!”

Seeing Yuan Zhicheng’s pumpkin, Bi Lele laughed again: “Ha ha, leaking teeth! Good!”

Yuan Zhicheng replied faintly: “You are not what you are, a face of zombies.”

Bi Lele: “.........”

In the final vote, Zhang Siyi undoubtedly was one of the top three. Gu Yu held three red envelopes with the prize money in his hand and gave them to the three winners.

In Group A, two people won the prize and the crowd around them noisily asked for a treat: “How about Oden! At least KFC! KFC is too cheap! Pizza Hut Pizza Hut! Want Seafood Supreme Pizza! Why don’t you go out and eat? I want to eat Chongqing hotpot!”

Unexpected wealth has not been in the palm of Zhang Siyi’s hand for long. After the awards were given out, people started to deal with their pumpkins. Some jack-o-lanterns were trashed, while others were brought back to their respective desks.

Zhang Siyi had done this before, and he didn’t put it in his heart. He wanted to deal with it. He saw Gu Yu standing there, bending his waist and taking a cell phone photo of the pumpkin lantern he made.

“... Do you like it?” Zhang Siyi walked over and blurted out: “Do you want it? I’ll give it to you!”

Gu Yu froze stunned, raised his head to look at him. For a moment Zhang Siyi felt silly for offering it to him. A pumpkin isn’t rare and won’t last more then another week. Maybe he just wanted a picture since a jack-o-lantern isn’t really something to collect. He felt embarrassed.

But Gu Xiao looked at him for a moment, unexpectedly smiled: “Hmmm.” for a while, and then said: “Okay.” He reached out for it and held the pumpkin in his hand. He said, “I will accept it.”

Zhang Siyi: “.........”

Just when everyone was preparing to go to the restaurant, the Chief suddenly appeared and signaled to Gu Yu and Child Labor with a serious expression. The Chief is a man who looks like he is fifty years old. His hair is completely white. He seems to be a person who is not angry and self-defeating. Usually, the dragon is not seen at the end. Everyone was quiet, and they dared not make a restaurant trip in front of their leader. They went back to their seats.

Zhang Siyi asked Bi Lele: “Is there another big project?”

Bi Lele shrugged: “I don’t know.”

After a while Gu Yu and Child Labor returned and called everyone in their groups for a project meeting about the Z City new district plan.

Zhang Siyi thought nervously, did something happen again?

Everyone gathered in the conference room. Child labor got up to speak but instead suddenly sighed looking helpless and turned to Gu Yu: “You address them. I need to go out for a while.”

Gu Xiao nodded, when she left the conference room, he calmly said “The Board of Directors received some information pertaining to the project and learned that the Design Institute and one other firm are also doing a flower themed design so now an urgent decision is being made to reelect the representative of Borderless for further refinement.” It was all rather unbelievable. Everyone started talking at once.

If the proposals are too similar, the unique factor for creative plans cease to exist then it weakens the initial design plan and therefore will less likely be chosen to build. If the collision of ideas is an accident then it isn’t an issue, but if it wasn’t then they could pull out plagiarism and disqualify another’s proposal. They have to wonder if the information was leaked somehow. After all, they weren’t working in a closed environment. In this age of network information and with such a large project team, its not hard to wonder.

In any case, with the concept of a flower as the dominant creative design works, once there is a similar appearance, the two in the bidding and competition must kill both, not to mention that there are now three of them are using the “City Flower” element. In this way, the reelection of Group A’s proposal will highlight the advantages of value and implementation instead of a fancy solution.

However, before the general bidding, the plans of the design institutes or design companies are supposed to be in a confidential state. Zhang Siyi whispered to Bi Lele: “How do the higher-ups know what other companies have done?”

Bi Lele: “It may be that our means of learning is deeper. It’s mysterious...”

Zhang Siyi’s eyes twitched and asked: “Which design institute holds the most weight?”

Bi Lele: “The biggest design institute in Beijing. The firm’s strength is crushing. Borderless has encountered them three times and failed all three.”

Zhu Hongzhen sighed: “No wonder they have to scrap B group’s plan. It’s a pity.”

Zhang Siyi pinched the fat on Zhu Hongzhen’s arm: “Are you not one of our Group A!

Zhu Hongzhen:“...... Auntie, don’t be so fierce. “

Although it is a pity, in Zhang Siyi’s heart he is very excited. After all, he has always recognized the plan of Group A.

Gu Xiao waited for them to discuss and quite down before continuing: “We were all caught off guard buy this news. Tong Heyi needs a few minutes, so I am here to announce this matter. Let’s acknowledge the efforts of B Group staff. You have done a great job with the plan. I hope you can cheer up as soon as possible and give the new plan your time and effort. With some adjustments and refinement, we can move forward. Gu Yu’s tone also carries a hint of pity, and the people in group b are also silent, and Zhang Siyi is embarrassed to be happy.

Gu Yu looked at the members of group a and said seriously: “The next step is your mission. Although this opportunity has come, I don’t want you to have doubts about the plan. If you do, you must believe that It’s the best of our own. Of course, no matter what kind of results we produce, we couldn’t have done it without the efforts of the competitive stimulus with B Group. No matter who’s the plan it is, we are all representing Borderless together. Since there is not much time, everyone must work overtime starting this evening.”

Just after being temporarily called away by the director, Zhang Siyi didn’t have time to give Gu Yu the pumpkin, but now the pumpkin lantern is placed in Gu Yu’s hand. To some extent the fierce mood that they both exude seem similar.

Peng nodded: “Boss Gu rest assured, we understand. Let’s take a moment to let the members readjust. The job will be handed over and new arrangements will be made.” After the meeting, Zhang Siyi clenched his fist. He had never looked forward to overtime work as he did today! Ji Feiyu used the fastest speed possible to transfer the plan and assign the various tasks among the members. He was given 100,000 square meters of residential blocks to design.

How the fuck does one do that? (#°Д°) Stunned, he heard a voice calling: “Zhang Siyi, you come over.”

Zhang Siyi took the drawing and went into the office of Gu Yu and sat down.