Translator: Blues

Editor: Shem

In fact, it was about 40 minutes before Gu Xiao came back. It was already more than half an hour off work time.

Half of the company's workers who did not need to work overtime had already left and a half of those who had spontaneously left behind also began to pack things up, including Zhu Hongzhen and Bi Lele. In the end, there were only a handful of people who had to work overtime, such as the members of the D City office building project team.

Of course, Zhang Si Yi didn’t have to work overtime, only if he drew the core tube before getting off work.

The phone in his trousers' pocket kept shaking, each of his friends were about to go to the agreement place at the same time. And they lively shared the real-time location in the WeChat discussion group.

As the protagonist of the party, Zhang Si Yi couldn't go and he didn't dare to go.

In the interview this morning, he also vowed to the Gu Xiao to ensure that he could work overtime. So the first night to sneak out wasn't just like courting death, right?!

Before Gu Xiao came back, Zhang Si Yi even though he might have been fooled. That maybe the other person was already gone.

He was so impatient that he discharged men’s toilets, women's toilets and sent messages to the group of friends. He said that he would add work shift later, it was estimated that he would be a little late. He didn't know if this message was to comfort his anxious classmates or to comfort himself, because he was not sure what time to add in his heart.

Until Gu Xiao reappeared, Zhang Si Yi’s unease was only slightly dissipated, he also sped up the drawing process.

When Gu Xiao passed by him, he also stopped to see his screen with special care.

Zhang Si Yi was very nervous, he didn't know whether he drew correctly or not, but he thought that at least he still stayed here. Such a good performance should be worthy of recognition, right?

Gu Xiao looked at his drawing for half a minute, there was no comment, in the end, he only said: "When you are hungry, you can go downstairs and buy something to eat. When you finish the painting, zoom in at 1:50, print it out to the office and find me."

Zhang Si Yi: “…” wu wu, he didn’t want to eat, he wanted to hurriedly finish the drawing and leave!

(T/N: wu wu is an onomatopoeia of whining or crying)

It took another half an hour before Zhang Si Yi could finally finish the drawing at almost seven o'clock.

He printed the drawing according to Gu Xiao's words, then excitedly went to find Gu Xiao, thinking that it wouldn't be too late to get off work and looking for his friends.

But he soon discovered that he was too naïve.

Gu Shi was sitting in front of a computer and browsing Archdaily, he had a cup of steaming tea on his hand. When he saw Zhang Siyi came in, he whispered a sentence “sit” and took a scale and a pencil from the pen holder.

Gu Xiao glanced at the drawings like a teacher preparing to criticize the homework.

“Lu Qiao didn’t send the information to you? Didn’t you see how many people use this building?” Gu Xiao asked.

Zhang Si Yi foolishly let out an “ah” sound. He just wanted to draw quickly, so he didn't even think about how many people in this building had anything to do with the toilet.

Gu Xiao used pencils to lightly point the drawing, and explained: "According to the regulations in the «Architectural Design Code», men’s toilets are less than 100 people and per 25 people are required to set 1 squat position. When there are more than 100 people, an additional 50 people will be added and 1 squat position, the number of urinals are the same as that of a squat toilet; a female toilet…”

“…” He didn’t understand the code completely!

"The details of the project clearly stated that the total flow of people in this building is 2,000 on average. About 120 people are on each floor, so no more than six will be added together." Gu Xiao said slowly, and said, "Take a look at what you drew, the male toilet 8 in squat positions and the female toilet 10 in squat positions, add up to 18.” Gu Xiao glanced up at him and said in a serious manner, “I think the designer who can draw so many squats is either suffering from frequent urination or being particularly generous.”

"……"(=皿=)

"And," Gu Xiao paused, took a scale and conveniently compared the drawing, then raised his eyebrows, "The toilet interior compartment door is 500 wide? Are you drawing a squat for kindergarten kids?"

Zhang Si Yi: “…”

Gu Xiao glanced at the stairs and asked, “Haven’t you learned how high a step on a normal staircase is when you go to school?”

Zhang Si Yi asked nervously: “150?”

"The staircase height of the home improvement is between 180-200 and public spaces are between 130-160." Gu Xiao accurately stated the specific range while using a pencil to circle the stairs on the map. Then he asked a rhetorical question, "3.2 meter high floor, you drew 28 steps, how high is each step?"

He didn't wait for Zhang Si Yi to answer, he took three stacks of thick books directly from the bookshelf and pointed to the thickness of the stack: “At this height, do you want people to keep falling when they climb the stairs?”

Zhang Si Yi would like to refute that Tiangzhen’s software had an automatic stair plug-in and this was the default parameter. He was defrauded by the software ah! TAT

“So you didn’t look at the overview document that Lu Qiao sent to you?” Gu Xiao said sharply.

Zhang Si Yi was speechless in the moment —yes, Gu Xiao was right, he was already confused and anxious to finish the drawing. Therefore, under the panic there were too many mistakes.

Gu Xiao pointed out several problems, his tone did not have much ups and downs. His voice was calm as if he was saying: “How much is today’s cabbage?”, “How much is the pork?”, but the lethality of these words for Zhang Si Yi was like a ninja’s flying knife, sent out to hit a target and then blood appeared on the knife!

And Gu Xiao was not like Zhang Si Yi's ex-girlfriend, criticizing someone with a strong personal feeling and making themselves feel unreasonable. Gu Xiao's criticism was so logical and reasonable, simply impeccable.

After being criticized, Zhang Si Yi was already bruised and battered.

But Zhang Siyi also had a slight grief in his heart, why did Gu Xiao clearly saw so many problems when he just came back half an hour ago without mentioning it. He had to wait until he drew a good one to pick it up slowly. Was he deliberately making things difficult?

Just then, Gu Xiao's phone on the table suddenly rang, he glanced at the screen. This time, to not avoid suspicion, he took it directly in front of Zhang Si Yi.

Zhang Si Yi finally managed to breathe a sigh of relief. He thought for a moment about how to make amends to his friends while quietly listening to Gu Xiao who was talking on the phone.

"…Sorry, I’m still in the company." Gu Xiao whispered, his tone was just like Zhang Si Yi when he was criticized. However, people could hear a hint of gentleness.

Zhang Si Yi secretly guessed who was on the phone? Could it be senior’s girlfriend?

“You eat by yourself. I have already eaten.” Gu Xiao said again.

Zhang Si Yi: When did you eat? The forty minutes before when you get out of work?

“The fast food in the company downstairs,” Gu Xiao lowered his head, his long eyelashes covered his dark eyes again. “Well, I will pay more attention to myself."

As he listened to the phone call, he continued to look at Zhang Si Yi’s drawings and single-handedly outlined all the problems he had just mentioned in the blank space.

“There is no urgent matter,” Gu Xiao glanced at Zhang Si Yi and said, “A young guy just came to the company, I'm helping him do some 'after-school(work) tutoring'."

“…” Zhang Si Yi suddenly felt embarrassed. In order for Gu Xiao to accompany him to work overtime, he had to release a pigeon to his girlfriend (in case they were). But he still thought about going with the tide with his friends.

“Okay, I’ll call you later.”

Gu Xiao hung up the phone, stared at Zhang Si Yi, quickly switched to work mode and continued to criticize: "The minimum size of the toilet door and the ergonomic scale are the things that you should have learned in the first year you studied architecture. It is also the basic knowledge that a designer must have. There must be basic common sense. Domestic rules and regulations that you don’t understand I can comprehend, but you must at least have a sense of reviewing the specifications before designing it.”

At this time, Zhang Siyi had been ashamed and wishing to dig a hole to bury himself. He himself began to doubt how he graduated.

Looking at the dumb as a wooden chicken Zhang Si Yi, Gu Xiao seemed to be afraid to attack him too much, sighed and pushed back the already annotated drawing to him. He then said: “Go, correct these problems.”

“…” so he still had to finish the drawing to get off work? TAT

Zhang Si Yi took the drawings, returned to his seat and saw that Lu Qiao sent a message to him: "Fourth Aunt, you are still here? I am going to get off work."

Zhang Si Yi: "I’m drawing the core tube."

Lu Qiao: “Isn't that thing very simple? You are still drawing it?”

Zhang Si Yi: “…”

Zhang Si Yi: “It’s hard for me!” TAT

Lu Qiao: “The core tube is complicated when it comes into contact, but it’s very simple after you know how to do it. Well, the boss is also quite strict, you can go home when you finish drawing it. Come on."

Lu Qiao: “By the way, there are free cookies in the dining area and if you are hungry you can go and get some.”

Zhang Si Yi felt moved, he said: “Thank you!”

After Lu Qiao left, he was almost alone in the office. Zhang Si Yi took out his phone, but didn't dare to look at the message record in WeChat. He was afraid that his friends were disappointed, even more afraid of being discovered by Gu Xiao, so he only quickly sent a message to Fu Xinhui: “I’m still working overtime. You eat first, don’t wait for me!”

After sending the text message, he simply turned off the phone and focused on changing the drawing.

On the first day of work, the boss's criticism, the concerns of his colleagues, the waiting of his classmates and the loneliness in the office, let Zhang Si Yi had all sorts of feelings welled up in his heart.

While he was drawing, he began to reflect on what was he doing when he was studying? Why did it feel so busy, but like nothing was good?

Maybe he shouldn't have gone online so much? Maybe he shouldn’t have gone often clubbing with Fu Xinhui? or watching American movie and cartoons should have been less…

If he spent all that time studying, would it be a different situation today?

He was very uncomfortable. This kind of discomfort was quite different from the emptiness and loneliness after breaking up with his ex-girlfriend. It was a kind of annoyance of digging his heart and lungs, it was to hate iron for not becoming steel for himself.

After that he reworked it twice, continuously drawing until 8:45, Gu Xiao only reluctantly nodded and let him go.

When he walked out of the office building, it was almost 9 o’clock in the evening.

Zhang Si Yi took a deep breath, the tortured dying cells felt the call of freedom and gradually stood up restlessly.

After the phone was restarted, a red dot appeared on the screen—missed calls, unread messages, and hundreds of unread WeChat messages.

Zhang Si Yi braced himself to call Fu Xinhui. As soon as he connected, he heard a loud roar: "Zhang Si Yi, where the hell are you?!"

“Oh, well, I… just got off work,” Zhang Si Yi shrunk his shoulders and cautiously said to please, “I, I’m coming to you now?”

Fu Xinhui: "Come, screw you! We’re almost out of here! Do you know how many calls I’ve just made? "

Zhang Si Yi wanted to cry but had no tears: “…Don’t, I really just got off work. I’m sorry.”

He vaguely heard the voice of Su Yuan and Ren Mengyu coming from the other side of the phone, they seemed to be a bit anxious.

“You don’t go. At least let me see you, I'll treat you to eat a skewer on the roadside!” Zhang Si Yi rushed to catch a taxi, anxious to remedy the situation.

Fu Xinhui ruthlessly said, “It was already late! Su Yuan lives in the New East District, so she’s going to catch the last train."

• ArchDaily is a weblog covering
  

  architectural news, projects, products, events, interviews and competitions, opinion pieces, among others, catering to architects, designers and other interested parties.

• Bruised and battered – thoroughly worn down
• Release a pigeon – To stand up someone, one doesn't keep his/her promise. In ancient times, people mailed letters by pigeons. One time, two people agreed to write letters to each other, but one of them sent a pigeon without letters. Then another people said: “Why did you just send the pigeon? And you haven’t kept your promise.” So the phrase is used with the meaning that one hasn’t kept his/her promises.
• Go with the tide – Move along with the prevailing forces, accept the prevailing trend, as in Rather than striking out in new directions, I tend to go with the flow
• dumb as a wooden chicken – dumbstruck
• to hate iron for not becoming steel – To feel resentful towards someone for failing to meet expectations and impatient to see improvement.

Translation’s corner:

Blues: yes, I finished translating chapter 8. I am excited to translate chapter 9 because the infamous ‘cactus’ will make it’s debut XD

Anon: I am scared to ask what cactus is.

Shem: it was really a cactus XD

Blues: yes, surprisingly it’s really a cactus.