Chapter 11
Tang Xue was like a newly hatched chick who took a week to adapt to the new environment. Just as she became more familiar with her new lifestyle, she was hauled off in a bus to a military base a hundred kilometres away from school.
They had to mandatorily spend a month in this place that was miles away from civilization. The one month stay coincided with the National Day Golden Week[1]. This meant that students were going to spend the week long holiday celebrating their country’s birthday carrying out military training.
The very thought of this could move one to weep large tears.
……
Xia Menghuan that la.s.s had exceptional acting skills. During training, with a pale face, she would often weakly sway and fall towards the ground before being allowed to rest at a corner. Tang Xue also tried this once but was exposed by the military instructor and sentenced to run additional laps. After that incident, she gave up resisting and carried out all a.s.signed tasks with no further complaints.
A month later, Tang Xue ended the military training just in time to welcome the weekend. As a result, she headed home.
She was with Liao Zhenyu. The two stepped out of the train station and Tang Xue gave her father a call. “Dad, where are you?”
“I’m at Exit 1. Are you guys here yet?”
“Yup, we’re at Exit 1 too……” As she spoke, Tang Xue saw her father heading towards her with a phone in his hand. She cheerfully waved to him.
Princ.i.p.al Tang ignored her gesture and stepped past her.
Tang Xue: ???
Over the phone, Princ.i.p.al Tang was still sceptical. “I don’t see you at all. Have you gone to the wrong exit?”
“Dad……” Behind him, Tang Xue faintly called out.
Princ.i.p.al Tang promptly turned. Upon seeing Tang Xue, his mouth fell open. A look of astonishment appeared on his face and he immediately burst into laughter, “Hahahahahaha!”
Tang Xue: = =
Princ.i.p.al Tang remarked, “How did you become so dark? Oh my heavens, I can’t even recognize you anymore. You guys actually went
to mine coals instead of going for military training, didn’t you? ……”
Tang Xue was depressed. “I know I became darker. Stop reminding me!”
“Alright alright, I’m sorry, it’s daddy’s fault. I’ll stop reminding you” Princ.i.p.al Tang held back his laughter and appeased Tang Xue while leading them to the parking lot.
On the way there, Liao Zhenyu and Tang Xue went to the washroom. Princ.i.p.al Tang waited outside and eagerly gave his wife a call. “I’ve picked them up. We’ll be home in a while. Come back home earlier. You need to see how dark she’s become. I walked past her earlier and didn’t recognize her at all. She looks just like a stowaway from Africa[2]…… tsk tsk tsk, it’s like an egg becoming a century egg! Eh ——” Princ.i.p.al Tang was still chatting enthusiastically when he turned and saw his dear daughter standing there to catch him red handed.
Tang Xue stared impa.s.sively at her father.
Princ.i.p.al Tang was somewhat embarra.s.sed. He feebly rea.s.sured her, “It’s perfectly fine. You look slimmer with a tan……”
In an especially innocent tone, Tang Xue deliberately shouted towards the phone, “Daddy, that lady just now seems to be going in the same direction as us! Do you want to give her a ride? It’s the one that you said was really pretty and even added on WeChat[3]! Have you already forgotten?” After saying this, she merrily stepped into the washroom. Head over to teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com if translator’s notes are missing or if you simply want to read without ads.
Princ.i.p.al Tang was left to fend for himself. “Wife, I didn’t! Don’t listen to her nonsense! You have to believe me, I’m not that kind of person……”
……
Tang Xue’s weekend at home could be summed up as two days of non-stop feasting. Unfortunately, time pa.s.ses especially fast when one enjoys themselves. It was only a few meals before Tang Xue had to pack her bags and haul her a.s.s back to school.
Her mother stuffed lots of food into her luggage and handed her a 2000 dollars red envelope.
“Get yourself some good skincare,”
skincare,” Mrs Tang instructed.
Tang Xue: ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ Based on the fact that you’re my mom, I shall graciously accept it.
On the high speed rail back to Rain City, Tang Xue received a strange text.
Tang Xue:
Congratulations on being shortlisted by RCU Ice Skating Rink.
Job t.i.tle: Athlete a.s.sistant
Job Type: Part-time
Please report to the first floor office located at the East Wing of the ice skating rink with your ID in the upcoming week on either Monday to Wednesday, 9:00 – 18:00. Failure to report will void this job offer.
Athlete a.s.sistant? Athlete a.s.sistant?
What the heck was that?
She was still baffled over this when Liao Zhenyu let out a low cheer beside her, “Boss, I received the shortlist message! I’ve been selected by the ice rink!”
Tang Xue took his phone and glanced at the message. Their text content was basically the same, with the only difference being the job t.i.tle. His job t.i.tle was “ice rink crew”, which was a perfectly average position that one could expect of a casual part-time job.
On learning that Tang Xue was a.s.signed to be an athlete a.s.sistant, Liao Zhenyu said, “That’s nothing unexpected. RCU has quite a few athletes doing ice related sports. For example, there’s the speed skating team, the figure skating team, and also the ice hockey team. I suppose you’ll just be going around running errands for them.”
Tang Xue thought that this was quite plausible.
After returning to dorm, she found out that Xia Menghuan was shortlisted as well. The next day, the three of them headed to the ice rink during lunch to confirm the job offer. Both Xia Menghuan and Liao Zhenyu were ice rink crews and could leave after filling in their personal details and signing their names.
Tang Xue was the only one who was retained.
Ma Xiaoshan made a call. Shortly after, a man came to the office. The man looked to be in his thirties, was of medium build and slightly plump. He had clear skin and wore gla.s.ses, overall giving off a very warm and friendly vibe.
“h.e.l.lo,
friendly vibe.
“h.e.l.lo, you must be Tang Xue?” He immediately asked after stepping into the office.
“Ah? I am. You are…?”
“Let me introduce myself. I’m the manager of our school hockey team. My surname is Wu and you can address me as Manager Wu.”
“How do you do, Manager Wu.” Without batting an eyelid, Tang Xue calmly greeted him. However, she started to hold certain reservations. Why did the school ice hockey team have a manager? It felt like a professional sports team instead……
Manager Wu seemed to have guessed her thoughts. He pushed up his gla.s.ses and smiled. “You might not know what’s going on so let me briefly explain it to you. Since last year, RCU and Dauntless Dragon Ice Hockey Club have partnered to establish a new operational model of an ice hockey team sustained by both school and business. This model have proven to be quite successful. I was originally stationed in the headquarters but was transferred over this year to better manage the RCU ice hockey team.”
“Uh huh.”
“The RCU ice hockey team has nurtured its own star athletes. We wanted to a.s.sist them in a manner that doesn’t disrupt them and hence kept the recruitment of athlete a.s.sistants a secret that wasn’t disclosed to public. After several rounds of selection, we felt that you’re very suitable for this position. First, you have past experience with ice sports. From your personal statement, it can be seen that you’re a meticulous and attentive person who applied to work at the ice rink with no ulterior motives. In addition……” Manager Wu explained the reasons for shortlisting her in detail, drastically stroking her ego in the process.
Finally, Manager Wu asked, “Do you still have any questions?”
“Just to clarify, am I able to ice skate for free?”
Manager Wu smiled good-naturedly. “Of course.”
Then, Manager Wu pa.s.sed Tang Xue a contract. The contract seemed quite inconsequential. Tang Xue read through the terms and felt that everything was in place. Her hourly pay was also twice as high as Liao Zhenyu’s. She was ecstatic and decisivelyecstatic and decisively signed her name.
After the contract was signed, Manager Wu said that he would bring Tang Xue to meet her a.s.signed athlete, the “star” of the school team. Manager Wu gentlemanly opened the door for Tang Xue. As she walked in front, Tang Xue did not see that behind her, Manager Wu was furtively wiping the sweat off his brows.
Manager Wu fished out his phone, bent his head and texted: My dear ancestor[4], we’re heading up.
Quickly, there was a reply. “Mm.”
Originally translated at teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Head there for extra content or to leave feedback and comments on the novel translation.Translator’s Notes:
[1] The National Day Golden Week, 黄金周 (huáng jīn zhōu), refers to an annual one week national holiday during October in celebration of China’s National Day. There is another Golden Week during January/February for Chinese Lunar New Year.
“These national holidays were first started by the government for the PRC’s National Day in 1999 and are primarily intended to help expand the domestic tourism market and improve the national standard of living, as well as allowing people to make long-distance family visits. The Golden Weeks are consequently periods of greatly heightened travel activity.” – Source: Wikipedia
[2] Not the author but I’m pretty sure that the author didn’t mean to imply anything derogatory besides emphasizing how dark TX has became. I sincerely apologize if any of you felt uncomfortable at this.
[3] WeChat is a Chinese messaging app that is probably more similar to Line than WhatsApp and Telegram. Besides messaging, there are a lot more functions such as payment services, a personal wall/profile page that you can share content on, and profiles of other people or businesses that you can follow. You can even send others virtual red envelopes.
[4] Original phrase is 祖宗 (zǔ zōng). It’s used to address another person respectfully but in a more joking tone. For instance, between friends when you have a favour to ask or from a person to another whom they’re beholden to. I added a “my dear” to make it sound less formal.