Li Chuan's Past Chapter 21

Chapter 21

On July 1st, I took the written translation exam of Jiu Tong’s for the first ti. Jiu Tong Firm was located in the Yong Kang building in Dongcheng district. It filled the entire eleventh and twelfth floors. Behind the building was a large golf course. The air was clean and fresh, the surroundings were beautiful, and there were rarely any cars. It was the office location of my dreams. And clearly, I was not the only one who thought so. The were as many as fifty people who took the written exam with . I heard that there were more than a hundred who applied and everyone here were chosen through the first round where human resources decided the outco by our resus. They actually only needed two translators, so one can imagine that the competition was intense. The written exam was particularly difficult. After the exam, many people grumbled about not being able to finish. I barely finished, but I couldn’t guarantee the quality of it. When I ca out, a girl from Beijing Normal University asked , “That ‘霜皮溜雨四十围，黛色参天两千尺’, how did you translate it?”

“The rimy bark, slippery with rain, is forty spans around. And kingfish-blue hues, high up into the sky, two thousand feet above.” I said.

She looked at and pursed up her lips in a smile, “Why did you use kingfish-blue? Isn’t it just blackness?”

“Umber-black (黛色) is not completely black (黑色). Umber-black is a nature black (青黑), which ans it’s blueblack.” [This is one out of the many places in the novel that I’m not even going to attempt to correct the author’s translation.]

“Then why don’t you use blueblack, and instead used kingfish-blue?”

I didn’t answer and chuckled.

“I understand now,” she said, “you’re showing off, right? Mmm, I more or less translated it the sa as you, but I didn’t completely abide by the original lexe.”

“The best part about classical Chinese poems is their antithesis, so I tried not to alter the lexe as much as possible. I prefer literal translations.”

We walked down the long hallway together. She suddenly said, “Don’t you think that this exam this ti was a bit strange? First, we had to translate a tender docunt. Then, we had to translate classical Chinese. We’re not taking an exam for a doctorate. It’s not worth it right?”

I put up my hand, “I solemnly agree. The person who ca up with the exam must be a sadist. I’ve never seen such a depressing exam.”

After saying this, I saw her stealthily signal at with her eyes and quietly coughed. I turned around and saw a young man, in a ironed suit, with a yellow tie, standing behind . He had a file in his hands and was looking at in a baffled way.

I said to him while chewing gum, “This student, are you also here to take the exam?”

He coldly said, “No.”

And then, he ignored and went directly into the elevator, disappearing.

Our eyes follow him as he left. That girl made an exaggerate “wow” sound, pretending to be infatuated, “Who was that man just now. He was so cool!”

I laughed.

Even though the ti I had with Li Chuan wasn’t very long, I had already beco immune to all other handso n. I had been so madly in love with him that I frequently turned on the lamp in the middle of the night to secretly look at his sleeping face.

The next day, the company called to notify and nine others to participate in a one-on-one oral exam. My spoken English has always been my strong suit. When I was with Li Chuan, I would frequently get pointers from him so I beca more and more strong at it. Plus, I spent several years working at the café and chatting with the foreign custors.

My written exam grade wasn’t actually that good, but Jiu Tong was very satisfied with my spoken English. Two days later, with the last three competitors, I went to see their CEO, Xiao Guan.

While I wasn’t too familiar with the translator world, but I had still heard of the na Xiao Guan. He was born into an academic family. His parents were both professors in the English Departnt of Beijing University. His father graduated from the University of Oxford and his mother was a older classmate of Professor Ping Jie Liang. Their nas often appeared in English course books. When he was younger, Xiao Guan worked in the foreign branch of the nation’s newspaper for a long ti as a translator. Afterwards, he founded a company, this one. I heard that business went smoothly and after a few years, it was built up. Of course besides translation service, with the backing of his uncle, a huge Hong Kong business man, he also stepped into real estate and other investnts. Currently Jiu Tong had twenty-seven branches around the country. He had an extrely outstanding track record and was nad one of the ten most outstanding “young entrepreneurs” in this city.

When I saw Xiao Guan for the first ti, I beca discouraged on the inside. So he was the guy who stared at behind yesterday. He looked to be twenty-eight. He had a sharp, calm, and elegant manner about him. He had a scholarly look about him, not like an entrepreneur. It was just as Professor Feng said, he did business in a cultured and refined way.

“You are Xie Xiao Qiu.” He said slowly while sitting in an executive chair, “Professor Feng made two calls to to recomnd you.”

I didn’t know about this. I had only told Professor Feng that I was applying for Jiu Tong in passing. As expected, he was a good old fellow, helping take of things wordlessly.

I looked at him, knowing that the exam had definitely been written by him. So I started calculating inside how much hope I still had. I said, “I inadvertently entered through the back door.”

“Professor Feng spoke very highly of you, but he also warned that even though you mastered the field, you had so shortcomings. What exactly those shortcomings were, he wouldn’t say. But he did say I would know after just looking at you.”

I knew that the Xiao family and the Feng family were long ti friends. The two families went through the Cultural Revolution hand in hand. Feng Jing Er had been calling Xiao Guan, Ge Ge, since she was a child.

“I don’t have much shortcomings.” I said, “You will definitely be able to tolerate my shortcomings.”

He stood up from his office chair and walked to the window and sized up, “Has anyone told you what clothes you should wear to an interview?”

I was dressed casually. In fact, I had just recently bought this most expensive set I own. It was a bit too brightly-colored. When paired with the woolen long skirt, I looked a lot like Sanmao. I thought that my outfit was in accordance with the Bohemian personality that I sought. Actually, for the past two days I had worn a normal suit. It was just that this ti, since I had to compete with the final students from famous schools and my qualifications and achievents did not stand out, I purposely thought of this haphazard plan to beat out the others through surprise.

“Mr. Wang from human resources says that the main job of this position is written translation and everything is to be completed on a computer. Basically, there is no need to co face to face with clients. Plus,” I bit my lip, “I only have one suit that I wear every ti. Wouldn’t you guys get tired of it if you see it everyday?”

He probably thought that my explanation was pretty true, so he dropped the subject.

“Also, why do you have so many earrings in your ear? It looks so troubleso even to . Do you really not think them troubleso?”

Are you choosing by ability or looks? That thought rised to my throat and I had to swallow it down. My reply was brief and to the point, “Fate has been unfavorable to in recent years. My life has been full of trouble and misfortune. So I found a fortune teller who said I was missing the tal of the five phases.” [Five phases of Chinese philosophy: Wood, fire, earth, tal, water.]

He was silent for a while. I thought that he could finally spare . Unexpectedly, he said, “Who told you that you could chew gum during an interview.”

“I was nervous.”

“You, nervous?” He said stoically, “You were the first to turn in your exam, right?”

The comnt hit upon my sore spot. The exam paper that day clearly stated that there were 120 minutes for the exam. I handed my exam in after that much ti even though I knew I had many imperfect answers. To my surprise, the others all said that they weren’t done yet and refused to turn in their papers. In the end, the exam period was dragged on for more than ten minutes.

“I rely turned the test in on ti.”

I hated myself. I clearly had a problem. Why did I contradict everything he said?

“Okay,” he looked at his watch and said, “besides these, what are your other shortcomings?”

“There’s no more.”

“You know,” he hesitated before saying, “the four remaining differ very little in terms of education and achievents. We can choose whichever one of you and it’ll be fine. We will naturally choose soone who is easy to associate with.”

“I’m extrely easy to associate with.” I said, “I swear, besides my odd clothes, I am loved by all.”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded, strolled back to his chair, sat down, and drew a mark on my file with a pen, “You can start work tomorrow. We have just received a few contracts recently. The English departnt is particularly lacking in people. Do you have an English na?”

“No.”

“Every English translator who works here is required to have an English na especially those whose pinyin na contains X or Q.”

I was XXQ. (Xie Xiao Qiu)

“Xiao Qiu isn’t too hard for foreigners, is it?” I hid a subtle implication in this.

“It won’t do.” He was resolute.

“Then, please give one to .”

“Annie, how is that?”

“Okay.” How fake sounding. He might as well have called Annie baby (Chinese author).

My office was on the eleventh floor, number 1107, in the English departnt. The person who shared the room with was another girl who ca into the company at the sa ti as , Tang Yu Lian. Even though there were only two of us in the office, we faced the windows. The walls were soundproof, but one side was completely glass. So no matter what you are doing, everyone outside can see.

Tang Yu Lian wasn’t too tall. Her features were very exquisite. I thought it had a bit of Annie Yi to it.

I joked with her, “Hey, are you Annie Yi’s younger sister?”

She laughed, exposing her spotless white teeth and the tiny dimples in her cheeks, “I hate Annie Yi. Everyone says I look like her. Every ti I go to karaoke, I’m forced to sing her songs.”

“You’re prettier than Annie Yi.” I turned on my computer. “Really.”

“The training this morning was really exhausting. That Chief Xiao can really speak. I wanted to go to the bathroom early on, but after seeing his serious face, I was scared to go. It was really tornting.” She complained.

“ too. I kind of wanted to put on headphones and listen to music. After thinking about it, I didn’t dare. Oh, that’s right, that director of the English departnt is really pretty.”

“She is Xiao Guan’s current girlfriend. You must do well, otherwise she’ll tell on you to him.”

“Current girlfriend?” I asked, “You’ve just gotten here, how do you know?”

“My classmate is in the French departnt and frequently gossips.

“Classmate Xiao Guan is both young and rich, and accomplished. He’s had countless girlfriends before, all who voluntarily threw themselves at him. Even the current one, Director Tao Xin Ru, chased after him. A few days ago Chief Xiao had stomach problems and had to be hospitalized. Even though Tao Jie Jie isn’t Cantonese, she studied how to make soup for him. Sigh, hopefully it’s not a one sided love.”

“No wonder I didn’t see you at noon for lunch. So you went to listen to gossip.” I laughed, “I have Nestle coffee. Why don’t you have a cup too.”

The educated all had a habit of taking a siesta, but Jiu Tong had a rule that there was only one hour for lunch at noon.

“Okay, okay, let’s start working.” She handed the pile of docunts in her hands to . “There are for you. You must finish them on ti, otherwise we’ll be breaking a contract.”

I didn’t sit down, and instead went directly to make two cups of coffee.

When I got back, I saw Tang Yu Lian typing at lightening speed on her computer. I fished out a huge Webster Dictionary from my bag and asked her, “You don’t need a dictionary?”

“I have the newest version of Jinshan Dictionary. My computer is filled with all kinds of translation software.”

I wanted to ask her to also make a copy. I thought about it and didn’t say anything. I shouldn’t so casually ask for help. She pointed to a usb on the table saying, “Here! It’s all in here, take it and install it. Whether you believe it or not, it’s pretty useful.”

“Thank you.”

She had a very small Sony laptop. I didn’t have a laptop. I only used the computers in the school’s computer room or at the internet cafe. My howork was always handwritten. That’s right, I was still in the era of manual labor. When I entered the company, I felt happy when I saw that everyone had a desktop and a 19 inch Dell monitor.

I opened the file and finally understood why that Xiao Guan would pose such maddening exam questions.

My main task was to translate the auctioning handbooks for several auctions. Everything on there was Chinese antiques: calligraphy, paintings, seals, furniture, jade artifacts, ancient bronze artifacts, etc. Every one of the items had a huge block of text explaining in detail the source of the object and the worth. Within the explanations, paragraphs cited strange and prominent ancient classical Chinese. It was unavoidable.

I couldn’t help but raise my head and ask, “Hey, Yu Lan, what are you translating?”

She was typing madly on her computer and without raising her head, said, “Tender docunts. Engineering tender docunts. You?”

“Auction handbooks. It’s so depressing.”

Tender docunt work was more commonly seen here. I had heard about it before, so when I was applying for the job, I especially looked over a whole bunch of engineering related vocab.

“Fortunately that work wasn’t assigned to ,” she said, “My classical Chinese is not good. I don’t even understand the Chinese, how could I translate it into English? I heard that these handbooks are first translated by the lower employees, then after that, the departnt director reviews them before handing them off to Chief Xiao to take another look. It’s clear how worried he is about them. All other docunts, like tender docunts and so on, are delivered after the director reviews them.”

I downed half a cup of coffee and took the first handbook into my hand. There were ten antique items. Bada Shanren’s drawings, Emperor Huizong’s painting of birds and flowers and so on. The first one was a set of jade seals of Emperor Qianlong. Every seal had inscriptions on all sides. I translated for a whole morning. I flipped through the original source, Hanyu Da Dictionary, Chinese classical dictionary, and the Lin Yu Tang’s online dictionary, over and over again before coming up with the translation for one part of it.

The contract said that it had to translated in 15 days. I had to finish within ten days and hand over the draft for examination.

In these ten days, I averaged only four hours of sleep. I was so strained that I didn’t even have the ti to take a shower. On the morning of the tenth day, I handed over an electronic and a hardcopy version to Director Tao Xin Ru of the English departnt. She spent a whole day proofreading it for and then had make corrections before handing it over to Xiao Guan to take a final look.

Tao Xin Ru didn’t change too much. She changed a so of my adjectives to sound even more ancient. She deserved the director title. She really did have the skills.

I delivered the draft to Xiao Guan. After an hour, he sent an email back with the first page containing lots of modifications on the terms and syntax.

Xiao Guan made a phone call over, “I’m only correcting the first page. Go research what problems there are yourself. And then, fix the rest of them before sending to again.”

I spend a whole night researching his corrections and then spent another whole day modifying the draft before sending him the third draft.

The third draft was quickly sent back. He made many changes on the second page I translated, and then said to follow the guidelines to fix the remaining pages.

I continued making changes until the day before the deadline. I had changed it five tis from beginning to end before he passed my draft.

The next day, when I saw him at lunch, my face was green.

“Do you understand my standards now?” He said, idly looking at .

“Your standard is perfect.” I answered listlessly.

“Your classical Chinese foundation is pretty good. Were you in the Chinese Departnt?”

“My father studied in the Chinese Departnt of Fudan University.”

“So that ans, you were taught at ho?”

“Not really, maybe just a little.”

He gazed at and eventually said a relatively gentle thing, “I’ll give you a day of vacation. Go ho and rest.”

“Will I still be paid.”

“There’s even a bonus.” He patted my shoulder unexpectedly, “Well done, Annie.”

I translated auction handbooks for a whole two months. Each ti, I had to change the drafts several tis. It felt like I was nearly on the brink of madness. The hardest was ceramics. To my surprise, inside, there was a lengthy introduction of the process of firing porcelain in the Song dynasty. I didn’t dare refuse to do them, but I was secretly grumbling to myself for days. Every ti I t with a difficult translation, I gloomily went downstairs to the trash bin by the back door to smoke.

When I turned my head, I would see Yu Lan still smoothly and easily translating tender docunts, contracts, and other routine docunts. It was quick and good, her hands continuously typed on the keyboard. The sound traveled to my ears.

After two months, things finally changed for the better for . I also started translating tender docunts and contracts. These docunts pertained to law and the requirent for the quality of translations were extrely high. Every detail had to be accurate. I translated it for two months and beca considerably familiar with the vocabulary. One day, Tao Xin Ru suddenly called to go to her office.

“Annie,” she indicated for to sit and said, “you’ve been doing very well in your job. Yesterday, Chief Xiao personally suggested to make you full-ti in advance. Starting from now, you are no longer on the trial period. Instead, you will receive all the benefits of a full-ti employee.”

I said, “Thank you for looking after , director.”

She hesitated before saying, “Chief Xiao has recently been discussing a large contract. A company needs to take a few of our translators to work in-house. The employee will still belong to Jiu Tong, but the salary will be paid by them. They need people urgently and gave us a high price. Of course, their standards for translators are very high. The reward given is equivalently impressive. Of course, we didn’t want to let our people go, so we suggested that, in a five day work week, three days will be over there and two days will be back here at headquarters. They didn’t agree because there were many trade secrets involved in the docunts that need to be translated. So they suggested that the translators stay with them for two years and are also required to sign a nondisclosure agreent.”

“Chief Xiao recomnded you from the English departnt.” She said insipidly, “I really hate to do this, but the company doesn’t want to ruin it’s reputation. Are you willing to go?”

“Uh-huh–”

“The pay over there is 1.7 tis more than here. You’ll have all the benefits the employees there have. Free lunches, expensed taxis, dical insurance, and ten days of vacation a year.”

For a young person who had just started working, Jiu Tong’s treatnt was already really good. They were really attractive conditions.

I was just about to say sothing before Tao Xin Ru continue, “Of course, we hope that, if you have ti, you will also take care of so work here. We might have so urgent translations that we’ll trouble you to do. There won’t be much. We’ll pay double the compensation. After all, you are still our employee. After two years, you don’t have to worry about your position, you can co back at any ti.”

I thought about it. I had just co. Even if I was extrely outstanding, I couldn’t already be at the point where I could represent the company. It was a cushy job and not one where one has to suffer. Everyone would compete for it. Why did the one to be seat have to be ?

“Are you willing to go?”

I nodded, “I am willing to comply with the headquarters’ arrangent.”

And then, I suddenly rembered a crucial question. How could I have not asked? “Oh, that’s right, what company is it?”

“A Swiss architecture company, CGP Architects. Their original English translator got married and went aboard with an F2 visa. Now the position is empty.”

I didn’t know if my face had any color left. I wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t get it out, “CGP Architects?”

“You’ve probably heard of it. CGP and four other architectural firms are all currently in the process of competing for a huge construction project in C city of Wenzhou. It involves planning for three vacation resorts, ten housing projects, and five villas.

“The boss of CGP is a foreigner?” I felt that my tone was trembling.

“It’s not.” Tao Xin Ru looked a little annoyed. Because I clearly appeared to be not too happy, she said, “The chairman is na Jian Hao Tian.”

Thank god.

“Then it’s settled. I will report back to Chief Xiao in a bit and you can co over to sign the contract.” She suddenly looked at in a aningful way, “I heard that Chief Xiao invited you to eat dinner at Fu Gui Villa last weekend?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because of the auction handbooks matter. He said that I did pretty well. It opened up a good relationship. As a result of it the auction company signed a long term contract with Jiu Tong. He hoped that I would continue to put effort into things regarding the auction company.”

That day, Xiao Guan invited to a al alone. After a few drinks, he said a few things he shouldn’t have that I played a deaf-mute to and dodged. Therefore, it was definitely cannot be said that Xiao Guan “strongly recomnded” to enter CGP.

“Mmm.” She looked at her watch and said, “You can leave.”