Les Interprètes

Translator: QueenAng3l

Editor: Liliywho

This chapter IS still being edited so forgive the mistakes. I will update with the fully edited chapter.

Qiao Fei

Someone grabbed my shoulder. I saw Cheng Jia Yang in front of me.

I’ve never seen this side of him. His eyes were wide open with fury, his face contorted with rage. He looked at me ferociously, “Qiao Fei, you’re living very well.”

He clamped my arms, his fingers embedded into my flesh. I tried to shake him off, but we were at the campus playground so I couldn’t act presumptuously. I said in a low voice, “Cheng Jia Yang, let go of me.”

While seated in his car, Liu Gong Zi simultaneously commanded Jia Yang to do the same. At this, Jia Yang remembered the other subject to vent his anger at and punched Liu Gong Zi straight in the face. At that moment, I wanted to escape from Jia Yang’s grasp, but he only clenched me tighter, completely thwarting my efforts to break free.

Liu Gong Zi got out of his car, blood streaming down his nostrils. He held onto Jia Yang’s other arm, “I bothered your woman so I deserved that, but let her go.”

“Who do you think you are?!” Jia Yang shook him off and threw another punch.

Liu Gong Zi blocked with his left hand while he thrusted his right hand hard into Jia Yang’s stomach. Jia Yang hugged me tighter, but his body doubled over in pain.

“Let her go.” Liu said, his hand already shaped into a fist, ready for his next move.

Jia Yang reciprocated by punching back twice with one hand. His eyes were wide open as he fully took in the situation. Fresh blood stained his face, the red merging with the droplets of rain that fell onto his face. Despite this, he continued to clutch me relentlessly.

I caught Liu Gong Zi’s returning punch, “Please leave.”

He looked at me.

“Please leave.”

Liu grabbed his nose and spat out the blood in his mouth onto the ground before returning to his car. As the engine started, he rolled down the window and looked at Jia Yang and me, “Fei Fei, look at him. Why not consider my suggestion some more?”

This man had incited so much chaos, even to the extent that I thought everything was suddenly humorous. Who did I even bother? Why can’t I just live a quiet life?

“Please leave.”

Liu Gong Zi sped off, puddles of water splashing behind his car.

Finally, it was just Jia Yang and me in the torrential rain. I could feel the coldness of my drenched clothing against my bare flesh, and my mind and body were just as cold.

My downcast eyes stared at the green gra.s.s, which were splattered with Jia Yang’s blood.

His hands still clutched mine tightly.

I knelt down and looked at him, the blood on his face contrasting with his pale complexion. It was shocking.

“Okay, please let go of my hand.”

“No.” He firmly replied.

This guy didn’t even know how to fight, much less fighting with one hand against Prince Liu. He had already suffered to this degree, but he was still as stubborn as ever.

I asked, “What do you want?”

“Come with me.”

“To where?”

“Go back.”

“Nevermind, Cheng Jia Yang.” I said, “That isn’t my place.”

“You had something to tell me.”

“There’s still time in the future. Today, it’s too chaotic, we’re the same. Look, this is inside of my school, no matter how much you look down on me, at least leave me some of my reputation. I still have to stay here for another year.”

I felt his hand gradually loosen.

My arm was finally freed. I looked at my arm and saw his red handprint on it.

I stood up and slowly left.

Leaving the playground, I heard Cheng Jia Yang hoa.r.s.ely shout, “Qiao Fei!”

One the May 1st holiday, I smoked, figuring out and understanding many things.

How good this man being to me, would make a person feel moved, but I felt more and more pressure.

I know we should have a long talk, but I wanted to find the right time. I wanted to explain things clearly to Cheng Jia Yang.

When I had finally found the right time, something else happened. I was finally hit.

The first day after the break, the dean, Professor w.a.n.g, told me to go down to his office. I thought it was to arrange my partic.i.p.ation in the National French Speech compet.i.tion. I brought my written ma.n.u.script to find him.

They were discussing our recent discoveries. The advisors were there too.

The Director saw me and didn’t look too happy.

I sat down on the sofa. The advisor pointed towards the chair across from the desk and said to me, “Qiao Fei, you sit here.”

When I was wondering what had happened, they placed a fax in front of me.

It was written in No. 2 bold characters, and clearly said that I had been in the nightclub “Allure” the previous year. It was sharp-tongued, and the language overwhelmed people, to the extent that one would ask “could this be tolerated”. In the end, who was it that hated me so much?

Director said, “Qiao Fei, I always thought that you were a good student……”

My mind went blank.

The person wanted to harm me but not kill me.

He had only sent a fax, not hard evidence. I would be discredited enough, but would not be removed from the school.

Director said, “ Of course we can’t hear only one side of the story. But Qiao Fei, you have to be careful from now on. Oh, the speech contest. Don’t prepare for it yet. The teachers will make this decision, even if it’s an accident, please understand.”

Of course I understood. If there is a scandal, it will be seen as a taboo in the school. How could I go to a national compet.i.tion on behalf of the school?

I saluted the Director, thanked him, and left his office.

I found the nearest corner and gave Cheng Jia Yang a call, “Come now, I want to see you.”

An hour later, we met at the coffee shop.

I arrived first. When he came in from outside, his forehead was glistening with sweat, a bandaid on the corner of his eye.

Cheng Jia Yang sat across from me. He loosened his tie out of habit. He looked at me. He was thin, his face pale. A pale face made a person pitiful.

My heart felt sore and softened in this moment.

Cheng Jia Yang

“Are you better?” Fei asked me.

“Yeah.”

She put her hand on the table, slender fingers, transparent fingernails.

“I was waiting for your phone call.” I said.

“Jia Yang, something happened today.”

I looked up at her.

“Someone faxed Professor w.a.n.g and told him that last year I had been working at the counter at Allure.”

I was shocked speechless this time.

“I’ve been having a lot of bad days recently.” She continued, “I haven’t bothered anyone, and now people think of me this way. Cheng Jia Yang, let’s break up.”

She finally said that to me.

A few days ago it was raining very hard outside. And I returned to the main street lodge building alone, physically and mentally tired, feeling unbearably embarra.s.sed.

When I was facing the mirror and cleaning my injury, I thought about who had made me this way, and started to hate this woman. Resenting her and her increasingly erratic and unpredictable temper. Resenting her living alone and still being comfortable. Resenting how just after a few days of separation, she had already caught the eyes of a new man. I remembered the “att.i.tude” problem Jia Ming had brought up, which made me feel more and more wronged. What did she even see me as?

However Fei’s encounter made me shocked. Who would do such a thing to harm her?

She was mad at me and finally decided to break up.

However, it’s hard to say that she wasn’t longing for an excuse to get rid of me.

I lit a cigarette. The possibility scared me. I looked at her face. She always had a healthy complexion, vibrant and thriving. This initially made me angry. Compared to me leaving a few times without telling her, this made me feel more wronged.

“What did you put me as?” I asked.

She briefly pondered, “Jia Yang, there won’t be anyone who will be as good to me as you are. But I feel too much pressure being with you. Regarding many aspects. Family, background, the thing you call ‘birth’, as well as money. These are all things I can’t avoid. There’s also your friends. I fearfully face every single one of them. I was overwhelmed. What do I put you as? Jia Yang, you are like an expensive gift that I can’t afford. When I’m with you, I feel so happy I forget about everything else, so there is retribution. I forgot my own ‘origin’.”

The tears I was holding back, streamed down my face. I heard myself say, “Did I do something wrong? Why are you being like this towards me? I will stop all of that and make you happy. Whenever I say ‘birth’, I’m referring to Xu Dong. If I knew that this phrase was so personal to you, I would never say it even if I was tortured. I know you don’t like meeting my friends, so in the future, don’t meet them. If you don’t like me talking about money, I won’t bring it up in the future……”

She put her hands on top of mine, “Jia Yang, it isn’t your fault this time. It’s because we’re too different, like water and oil, never being able to become one. Separating now is better than resenting each other later. You have been good to me and I will never forget that. You will find a good girl in the future, and I will have an ordinary person like myself. We will have lives that fit us.”

When she said this, I suddenly realized the utter hopelessness of having a future together, and my tears burst like a flood.

She came around the table and put my head in her arms.

Qiao Fei

Jia Yang cried like a little child.

I hugged him, only feeling his thin frame.

I remembered the money, opportunities, luck, joy, and physical pleasure he gave me. I also remembered the pain he gave me.

I thought about my dependence towards him and his dependence towards me.

This hopeless feeling was very complex, I wanted to leave quickly, as an instinct to protect myself.

I consoled myself and told myself that Jia Yang was good to me. I have already used my body and stripped my flesh and blood for him (gave him everything).

But not before long, I placed some of the blame on him.