Assistant Architect by Xi He Qing Ling
Chapter 206: Old Four
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After a quick shower, Zhang Siyi returned to the bedroom to continue his work. Spreading out his portfolio images and application materials over the desk top, Zhang Siyi had taken over the writing table that Gu Yu normally used to practice calligraphy.
Assembling what he needed, he sent the first set of images to Su Yuan electronically. About half an hour later, Su Yuan emailed Zhang Siyi back and sent him a row of thumbs-up emojis. She expressed her surprise: "I really didn't expect your skills to improve so much. Several designs of yours are very well thought out with both maturity and your own style. It's a lot more material than those with portfolios that were specifically created for the application."
Bolstered with pride, Zhang Siyi was confidant, but still, he remained modest and said: “This is just the first edition. I threw these together in haste, neither thinking about their arrangement nor their layouts. With continued editing, I'll give them another layer of meaning by how I sequence them."
Su Yuan: “This is good. I think your personal statement should coordinate with the display of the portfolio.”
Zhang Siyi: “You mean, I shouldn't sequence them from best to worst? Is it better to leave them in chronological order?"
Su Yuan: “Yes. Hold on. There is too much to type so I'll open a voice chat with you."
Seeing the ining voice chat call, Zhang Siyi quickly looked around the room. Gu Yu was leaning on the bed reading, he turned his head to tell him: "Don't move and don't make a sound!"
The quietly reading Gu Yu: "…….."
As the video connected, Zhang Siyi adjusted the camera so that only his face could be seen.
Su Yuan’s voice came out over the loudspeaker: “Hey, can you hear me?”
Zhang Siyi was nervous: “Yes, I hear you."
Su Yuan didn’t find anything unusual about the situation. She talked to Zhang Siyi about her thoughts and suggestions. Even though he was worried about Gu Yu's presence in the room at first, Zhang Siyi quickly forgot about him as he became immersed in the conversation with Su Yuan.
Unknowingly, they spoke for more than an hour. Zhang Siyi had made some notes about what needed to be done. With Su Yuan's help, he knew the direction he needed to go with his application.
It wasn't until Zhang Siyi watched Su Yuan yawn over the video chat that he realized it was already midnight. He felt guilty for keeping her awake and thus, thanked her for the help and hung up the video call.
After ending the video call, Zhang Siyi breathed a sigh of relief. Eager to talk about his portfolio, he turned his head to hear Gu Yu opinions, but instead, he saw him leaning on the bed with a book in hand asleep.
Even though Zhang Siyi slowly and quietly approached the bed out of respect for his sleeping lover, Gu Yu was awakened by the movements. He slowly opened his eyes and whispered: "Did you finish talking?"
“Yeh." Zhang Siyi furrowed his brow slightly in concern: “You are tired so go to sleep first. “
Gu Yu said without hesitation: “I'm waiting for you.”
Zhang Siyi leaned over and covered Gu Yu shoulders with the quilt: "For the past several days, you have already helped me with my statement. Now it is time for me to write the essay on my own. Go to sleep."
Rarely has Gu Yu seen Zhang Siyi act so domineering. He sighed and closed the book: "All right."
As Gu Yu laid back down, feeling a little guilty, Zhang Siyi bent over to give him a kiss. Like an elder taking care of a child, he helped Gu Yu adjust the blankets around his body and tucked him into bed, making Gu Yu want to laugh.
Gu Yu reached out to caress his check: "Okay, go and write now. e back to bed soon.”
Zhang Siyi grabbed Gu Yu's hand and kissed him before turning off the bedside lamp. Returning to the desk, he turned on a small desk light before continuing his writing.
As the hours passed, Zhang Siyi dare not look back at Gu Yu for fear he would immediately want to join him in the warm bed. Although the figure behind him was asleep, Gu Yu was the source of his strength. Wanting to catch up with Gu Yu in a hurry, it made Zhang Siyi determined to work even harder and continue struggling forward.
Unbeknown to Zhang Siyi, Gu Yu wasn't sleeping all that well. He woke up several times during the night to watch Zhang Siyi sitting in front of the desk writing.
Not until the first vestiges of light in the nights' sky before the break of dawn, did Zhang Siyi stretch out his arms and body. Tired, he turned around to climb into bed.
Since he didn't want to wake Gu Yu up, he calmly got into bed and laid down next to Gu Yu with a small space between them.
Even so, Zhang Siyi felt Gu Yu snuggle close against his body and wrapped his limbs around Zhang Siyi. With the warmth emanating from his body, Gu Yu's embrace let Zhang Siyi feel relaxed and calm with a great sense of peace and fort.
Soon, he felt Gu Yu nibbling on his ear and kissing the side of his face. Gu Yu whispered: "It's not good to stay up all night until morning….. Do you still want to go into work today?"
Only half conscious, Zhang Siyi muttered a reply: "I have to work hard….. in order to catch up…. with you….." Fast asleep, he didn't know whether or not Gu Yu had said anything else to him.
Hours later, Zhang Siyi woke up to a clear, bright sky. The other side of the bed was empty. He touched his phone to check the time: 10:48am!
Seeing the time, Zhang Siyi sprung out of bed. Oh My God! Why didn’t his alarm clock go off? Why didn't Gu Yu call him? He's been absent from work all morning!
Getting dressed quickly, Zhang Siyi reached out for his phone in order to call Gu Yu. He saw a bunch of unread messages from Gu Yu waiting for him: "I turned off the alarm.
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