Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore!

Lu Ji asked for the phone number of the person in charge then he let his assistant take charge of the fruit production and marketing cooperation project with the town. After asking the (film)director if there was nothing else to do, he took Zhou Chenxi back to the inn first.

 

The rain was so heavy that a disposable raincoat was no longer enough to keep out from the rain, so Lu Ji simply held an umbrella and went back to the inn with Zhou Chenxi.

 

The extra umbrella needed to be left for others so Lu Ji didn’t ask for more. It was already very crowded for two men to share one umbrella, as the result, when Zhou Chenxi arrived at the inn, he found out that he hadn’t been caught in the rain but instead, it was Lu Ji’s other shoulder that was soaked through.

 

Zhou Chenxi’s mood was somewhat complicated.

 

He remembered the essays he had written as a child.

 

Papa, Mama / grandfather, grandmother / teacher, and so on, usually the elders would selflessly leave half of their shoulders out of the umbrella when they sent him home.

 

Zhou Chenxi suddenly felt that the way Lu Ji looked at himself had become ‘loving'[慈爱]. 

 

  [慈爱 cí ài : love / devotion (to children) / affection, esp. towards children]

 

I can’t believe someone actually looked like they came out of a primary school essay!

 

        No way! 

 

Zhou Chenxi shook his head.

 

Resolutely, he couldn’t easily change Lu Ji’s image in his mind!

 

Soon Zhou Chenxi didn’t have time to think about anything else, as he developed a fever when he arrived at the inn.

 

He thought he could just take a cup of cold medicine, but after taking the medicine and lying down in the room for a while, Zhou Chenxi’s entire body began to feel weak,his whole body was floating like he was floating on the surface of the sea.

 

It was still raining outside, “pi pi pa pa”, but he couldn’t hear anything else.

 

“Yes, it’s here. Sorry to trouble you.”

 

In a daze, Zhou Chenxi heard a low voice ringing outside the door. Then the door was opened and two men walked in, one after the other.

 

Lu Ji stopped by the door and said to the doctor, “It should be a fever from the rain just now. It originally didn’t seem that serious. He has been like this since we came back from the village office building.”

 

Lu Ji’s tone was slightly annoyed.

 

The doctor asked, “Have he taken any medicine?”

 

Lu Ji: ” He has taken a pack of cold medicine.”

 

The doctor came over, listened to Zhou Chenxi’s heartbeat, and took his temperature: “37 degrees 5, a low fever. I’ll prescribe some medicine. If it rises again later, he’ll need to go to the hospital.”

 

Lu Ji politely said, “Thanks a lot.”

 

The doctor had been invited by the town’s health centre and happened to be coming here to visit a patient at home.

 

Lu Ji said, “I’ll call a car to take you back.”

 

“No need,” the doctor said, “I have a few more houses to go in a while, so you can call me if you need anything.”

 

He had heard before that this was a crew that had come to the old village to film a variety show, and said to Lu Ji, “I heard that you went up to the mountains today to pick up the children. Help us promote our ‘Little Mist (Xiao Wu) Village’! It’s still a great place to visit.”

 

This small village had a very cute name, Little Mist Village. The town which was a dozen kilometres away from the small village was called Little Mist Town.

 

Lu Ji nodded,politely escorted the doctor out and handed him an umbrella.

 

The sky outside was basically clear, and the rest of the program crew were probably already on their way back. Lu Ji took out the mobile phone he had asked the program crew to return earlier and dialed, “Is the Lu family’s personal doctor on his way?”

 

“Already on his way,” the secretary said respectfully, “He’s booked the nearest flight with Special Assistant Zhong. They will probably arrive at Little Mist Village around nine o’clock in the evening.”

 

Lu Ji responded, “Tell Special Assistant Zhong to bring the person directly to the inn. By the way, send a copy of the preliminary contract for the fruit marketing partnership to my email.”

 

When he woke up again, it was already dark outside. Zhou Chenxi opened his mouth and found that his throat was a little dry, but his head was not so faint anymore. He touched his forehead, the fever seemed to have gone down.

 

Zhou Chenxi stood up and walked out onto the balcony to look around.

 

There were voices talking downstairs, it must have been the rest of the program crew returning.

 

Zhou Chenxi turned his back as he was about to go to bed and lay down for a while longer when he suddenly heard a man next to him say, ” You are awake?”

 

Zhou Chenxi was startled for a moment.

Only then did he realize that it was Lu Ji, who was sitting on the balcony next door, with his laptop in his hand.

 

In his sleep, he vaguely remembered that Lu Ji had brought him the town doctor and some pills for him to swallow.

 

Zhou Chenxi was so confused that he swallowed it in a half-asleep state.Later, fearing that he might choke, Lu Ji gave him water. Even the temperature of the water was just right, not too cold and not too hot either.

 

Director Lu really knows how to take care of people.

 

Zhou Chenxi suddenly thought to himself, No wonder,he said earlier: “Because I had to be independent so I learnt to take care of myself”. Suddenly he felt that he had a glimpse of Lu Ji’s heart indistinctly.

 

Maybe it was just an illusion!

 

Zhou Chenxi was overwhelmed again in his heart. ‘To be kind to your enemies is to be cruel to yourself’, he definitely couldn’t let his guard down!

 

Lu Ji put down his computer, walked over and asked, ” Do you feel better?”

 

Zhou Chenxi nodded, “Much better.” It was just that his voice sounded a little hoarse.

 

Lu Ji paused, “The doctor in town is too busy so I’ve asked my assistant to bring a personal doctor over. He’ll be here later, if there’s anything you can go find him.”

 

Lu Ji looked at his watch and asked again, “Are you hungry? Do you want me to cook you a bowl of congee?”

 

Only then did Zhou Chenxi realize that it was already past eight in the evening: “No need! I’m used to colds, I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.” Zhou Chenxi waved his hand, although he hadn’t eaten lunch and dinner, he didn’t have any appetite at all.

 

“By the way,” Zhou Chenxi suddenly noticed the key word, “your personal doctor?”

 

Lu Ji nodded, “I’m afraid of any accidents, it’s safer to call another doctor to take a look.”

 

Was his bad luck constitution already entered so deeply into people’s hearts?

 

[深入人心 (shēn rù rén xīn) : to enter deeply into people’s hearts / to have a real impact on the people (idiom)]

 

Zhou Chenxi was a little depressed, thinking that if he had any problems, it would indeed have an impact on the program team as well, so he said, “Thank you la.”

 

He coughed a bit after saying that.

 

Zhou Chenxi wanted to go back to bed, so Lu Ji didn’t say anything. He turned around and went back to his room.

 

A few moments later, there was another knock on the door. Zhou Chenxi went over to open the door. He found that it was a staff member, saying that Mr. Lu had made snow pear soup and asked him to drink it while it was still hot.

snow pear soup

See pic:

 

Zhou Chenxi was surprised, therefore he asked where Lu Ji had gone.The staff member said he had taken his assistant to the office building to talk about cooperation in poverty alleviation. He had also called his personal doctor, who was staying at the inn next door and could be called if anything happened.

 

Zhou Chenxi carried the snow pear soup back to his room and took a sip in silence.

 

In fact, as a golden-daddy, Lu Ji treated the guests on the show quite well.

 

[The same term for it in English is sugar daddy. The difference is golden daddy could be used more broadly and doesn’t always mean derogatively as sugar daddy.]

 

The next day, at noon, the recording of the first session of the show was about to end so everyone packed their things and went back.The next recording session would be in a new location.

 

The crew had booked the return flights for each of the guests.As everyone had work to do so everyone had a different route. Zhou Chenxi asked the show’s staff and learned that Luo Xinghe was going to audition for a new production. After he was sure that he would be on a different flight from him, he happily carried his luggage to the airport.

 

Although Lu Ji had the same destination as him, he had also left early.

 

The president was so busy that Zhou Chenxi was not surprised at all.

 

When he got off the plane at the airport in H City, Zhou Chenxi pushed his suitcase out and saw that the butler was waiting for him at the pick-up point holding a lighted sign.

 

Zhou Chenxi took a good look at the light signboard and found that it read: ‘Chen Chen’ please fly with ease, ‘Chen Fans’ will always be with you.

 

Zhou Chenxi looked around and saw that no one was paying attention, so he hurriedly went over and took the sign out of his hand: “Butler Chang, what are you doing? You’ll be laughed at for doing this!”

 

Butler Chang was all beaming and said, “The older young master asked me to order it, saying that is what fans do when they pick up their idol on a plane.”

 

“Those are real fans. You’ll be taken as an ‘imposter‘ by others like that!”

 

[The original words for ‘imposter’ here is 作托, which I can’t find the English word for it. Basically it means to pretend to be the consumers to help sell their own products (including those related to their own interests), or to attack other competitors’ products. Simply put, they are people who work with the seller to help to set off prices.]

 

Zhou Chenxi was a little ashamed,carrying the lamp sign and thought to himself ‘Hey, this family is sure enough, still let him worry!’

 

It was already evening when he returned home in the car sent by the housekeeper.

 

Luckily, nothing happened on the way.

 

Zhou Mingxuan came back early in the evening.Probably because he had heard that Zhou Chenxi was coming home so he had purposely rushed back home early.

 

The two sat at the long dining table and ate, while the housekeeper brought out the dishes that had been cooked in the kitchen.

 

Zhou Mingxuan put a chicken leg in Zhou Chenxi’s bowl, “Mom and Dad are coming back.”

 

Zhou Chenxi’s whole body stiffened, he heard Zhou Mingxuan say, “They heard that you had taken another variety show job. They thought they couldn’t leave you alone, so they wanted to arrange something for you to do.”

 

Zhou Chenxi: “…..” Didn’t he say that he had already talked to his parents?

 

Zhou Mingxuan said again, “I told them that you’ve grown up and have the right to choose what you want to do, so if we keep blindly tying you down and preventing you, on the contrary, you’ll only become ‘rebellious‘.”

 

[The original word for ‘rebellious’ is actually this; 逆反心理 nì fǎn xīn lǐ: reverse psychology]

 

Zhou Chenxi nodded approvingly while he continued to nibble on the chicken leg with relief.

 

Zhou Mingxuan: “So I let her take the next best thing and arrange for you to do something a little easier and less strenuous to do.”

 

Zhou Chenxi pricked up his ears again, feeling that Zhou Mingxuan’s next sentence was not a good one.

 

Sure enough, Zhou Mingxuan let out a sigh and said in a meaningful and heartfelt words tone, “It’s almost time for you to talk about marriage.I’ll have someone pick out some suitable candidates and print out a few photos.If you have time, take a look and see if there is someone you like.”

 

Zhou Chenxi choked for a moment: “Ge (Big brother), are you the one who is looking or am I the one who is looking for it?”

 

Zhou Mingxuan: “….You are the one who is looking for it.”

 

“Life is more than just what you see before your eyes. (生活不止眼前的苟且) ” Zhou Chenxi lamented.

 

Zhou Mingxuan looked up at him:“？？”

 

“There is still you, Ge, I pressured you to go on a matchmaking urgently!”

 

[ the matchmaking here, if you familiar with the japanese term which is an omiai/miai ; an arranged date to evaluate a proposed marriage partner]

 

Zhou Chenxi grabbed the chicken leg and said,”Ge, next time can you talk all at once? Besides, we’re both single dogs to the other end of the world, ‘Green beans are stewed hot and slow, But why do you boil me in such a haste!’.”

 

Zhou Mingxuan: “….”

 

The author has something to say:

Xi(兮) : My life is really tough! 

 

[我太难辽 : life is so hard/ it’s so difficult to be me! ]

 

~~~~

Translator’s Notes: [sorry for a lot if it]

 

[生活不止眼前的苟且/ Life is more than just what you see in front of your eyes,

This is actually a famous song title sing by Shu Wei, released on 2016 in China]

 

[Note on : Talk all at once

The original is “说话大喘气” to describe someone who expresses just half meaning when he is speaking, as if he was out of breath. It makes his words sound odd or scary. Sometimes, it causes listeners to puff or pant too.]

 

Notes on:

‘Green beans are stewed hot and slow, But why do you boil me in such a haste!’.”

 

The phrases are taken from the poem “Seven Step Poems” by Cao Zhi, a poet from Wei Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period.

 

The story behind the poem is that the poet Cao Zhi here is ordered by his big brother, who is the Emperor at that time, to finish writing a poem in the time of walking seven paces, or he will be killed, however, even in such a limited, Cao Zhi managed to work out a masterpiece where he compared himself to beans being boiled in a pod, and indicate his brother is just like the beanstalk burning underneath.

 

Here is the translated poem:

 

(Following is one version translated by Mr.汪榕培)

 

zhǔ dòu rán dòu qí

煮豆燃豆萁，

dòu zài fǔ zhōng qì

豆在釜中泣。

běn shì tóng gēn shēng

本是同根生，

xiāng jiān hé tài jí

相煎何太急？

 

Green beans are stewed hot and slow;

Fermented beans have a different taste.

The stalks are burning hard below;

The beans are moaning in the pot sad-faced.

Out of the selfsame root both of us grow,

But why do you boil me in such a haste!