The company had booked a few commercial vehicles. Ruan Xia, the receptionist, and the receptionist’s boyfriend were sitting in a row. She was truly the brightest light bulb, spoiling the couple’s romantic atmosphere.

  (T/N: Light bulb is chinese slang for third wheel.)

  The receptionist was quite a considerate coworker. She chatted with her the entire ride instead of talking with her boyfriend. “Our boss also came this time, but he’s not riding in the same batch of cars as us.”


  Ruan Xia was still quite curious about this nouveau riche boss that had lots of money, but not a lot of IQ. “Our boss came too? I’ve never seen him before.”


  Once she said these words, the receptionist was even more surprised than her. “You haven’t met the boss? How could that be possible?!”
……

  Why not?

  Seeing Ruan Xia’s puzzled look, the receptionist changed her words in a rush, “I was just surprised because you’ve been at the company for a month. I thought you would have met him by now.”


  “Aren’t there other people in the company that haven’t met the boss either? When did he drop by the office?” The phone in Ruan Xia’s hand vibrated. She looked down. It was a WeChat message from Song Tingshen.

  Song Tingshen: [Did I do something wrong?]

  Many adults were more comfortable discussing things on WeChat that they had a hard time talking about in person.

  Did Song Tingshen do something wrong?

  Ruan Xia didn’t know that answer to that, but she knew that they couldn’t continue on like this.

  Everyone had an innate consciousness of self-protection. She was the same. Right now, she was emotionally affected by Song Tingshen and in the stage where she indulge in fantasies. If she didn’t stop herself now, she was worried that she would fall for him while he calmly stood there watching her, unmoved.

  Just thinking about that made her think she was the heroine of a masochistic story.

  No, she didn’t want to be an abused heroine! She wanted to be the heroine of a self-indulgent, sweet story!

  Thinking of this, Ruan Xia replied in a way that she thought was very grim and unfeeling: [No.]

  She had been about to reply with “Nope”, but since she wanted to seem noble, cool, and elegant, she deleted the last two letters before sending.

  To her surprise, Song Tingshen replied back: [Really?]

  That idiot!

  Frustrated, Ruan Xia decided to ignore him and put her phone back into her bag. She was already being so obvious about it, but he actually believed that she wasn’t angry with him.

  Very well, they weren’t on the same wavelength. There was no reason to continue talking.

  Romance was truly pointless! She didn’t want to work on this relationship anymore! She would continue walking the original path as a winner in life! She had money, free time, and good looks! She had a cute, chubby son too. As for Song Tingshen, they could peacefully stay as roommates!

  —


  The company was very generous with the accommodations; it had reserved a few houses facing the sea for its employees. This generous spending was in line with Ruan Xia’s idea of what a stupid and rich boss would do. Standing on the second floor, one could see the sea in the distance.

  “The boss owns this house.” The receptionist was deeply moved. “I really envy rich people. They even have houses in vacation cities. They can come here whenever they feel like it. Unlike me, I won’t dare to come to an island during winter when the plane tickets, hotel rooms, and everything is expensive. If I come out to play in the winter season, a few months of salary will be gone.”


  In the past, Ruan Xia would have empathized with the receptionist’s words and have the right to talk about this too. But now, she didn’t.

  She didn’t want to say something to agree with the receptionist’s words either. After all, she was wearing brand name clothing and driving a luxury car every day. If she really talked with the receptionist about how life wasn’t easy these days and that she admired rich people too, the receptionist would probably find her insincere and too fake.

  Translator Ramblings: If I was Song Tingshen, I would feel confused why Ruan Xia is suddenly being passive aggressive. I wonder if this level of indirectness is normal in Chinese culture, so I find it unreasonable, but it would be fine for someone that grew up in China because they’re used to a culture that’s subtext-heavy.

  Fringe shared an example of not getting subtext with Chinese relatives. When Fringe was a kid, her aunt (“Aunt A”) gave her a shirt. Another aunt (“Aunt B”) told Fringe to ask Aunt A where she bought the shirt. When Fringe asked Aunt A, Aunt A immediately responded, is this size wrong? Which is what Aunt B wanted to know, but didn’t directly ask. That exchange is equally baffling to me. It wouldn’t even occur to me to take that question for anything beyond face value.

  Another way to look at it is, Ruan Xia is young and inexperienced with dating/romantic relationships, so she doesn’t understand the other party can’t read your mind. What do you guys think?