When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Having not been home for many days, Yun Li opened the window for ventilation and immediately began tidying up the place. Upon inspecting the refrigerator, she found a few mangoes left over from making crepe rolls; having sat for so long, they were already starting to go bad.

The decision to go to Deng Chuqi's place had been made too hastily. Although they had returned home later to fetch her a change of clothes, she hadn't had the presence of mind to think about this batch of fruit at the time.

Yun Li took them all out, placed them on the kitchen counter, and stared at them.

Fu Shize had just asked her earlier where those crepe rolls were bought. Thinking about it now, could it be that he suddenly turned patient and offered her advice because of the crepe rolls she made?

Even though her original intention had been to ask if he had any objections to her working at EAW.

Regardless of the reason, however.

Yun Li's heart, which had been anxious all the way, finally settled back into its proper place.

At the very least, this proved that he didn't dislike her, nor was he disgusted by the possibility that she might end up working at the same company as him.

Every time she ran into Fu Shize, Yun Li's mood would go on a roller coaster ride. Yet it wasn't entirely a bad thing.

She would be dealt a heavy blow by a single action of his and sink into despair.

And then she would be revived from the ashes and pull herself together just because of a single sentence from him.

It was like a can of carbonated drink that had lost its fizz, only to be shaken violently and effortlessly begin to fizz and bubble thousands of times over, rising one by one.

With a dazed expression, she suddenly curved the corners of her lips after a long while.

Recovering her senses, Yun Li decided to throw these mangoes away and grabbed a trash bag. Remembering Fu Shize's final words, she paused, and with every single mango she tossed in, she muttered a word: "Suitable..."

Suitable.

Unsuitable.

Suitable.

There was one left.

Yun Li tossed it into the bag and repeated it without blinking: "Suitable."

When Xia Congsheng sent her the WeChat contact card for EAW's HR and Yun Li tried to add it to her contacts, she was surprised to discover that the person was already in her list.

——It was He Jiameng, the person who had handed over work to her some time ago.

"......"

Yun Li tapped open her Moments.

She discovered that during this period, He Jiameng had indeed posted a few recruitment advertisements in her Moments, which matched the materials Xia Congsheng sent her. The role that best matched her major was an R&D position in the technical department. Since she didn't have the habit of browsing Moments, she hadn't noticed it all along.

After hesitating for a long time, she sent her a WeChat message: [Jiameng, are you an HR at EAW?]

He Jiameng replied very quickly: [No.]

He Jiameng: [I'm the general manager's secretary. The HR department has been quite busy lately, so I was temporarily transferred to help out. But I only screen resumes and schedule times.]

He Jiameng: [What's up?]

With their roles shifted, Yun Li didn't quite know how to broach the subject. She rephrased her words back and forth and briefly explained her purpose.

Although surprised, He Jiameng's reaction wasn't too intense. She had Yun Li send over her resume and asked a few questions. Not long after, she notified her of the official interview time.

Once the process was complete, He Jiameng left her with a cliffhanger: [You might even run into an acquaintance that day.]

He Jiameng: [See you then, then!]

Yun Li was somewhat puzzled, but didn't ask further.

She figured that since she had indeed seen quite a few staff members when she previously went to EAW, it was only natural that she might run into someone she recognized. But an "acquaintance" should mean literally zero people.

......

After interviewing at a few companies sequentially, it wasn't until the day of her interview at EAW that Yun Li understood the meaning of those words.

Turns out this "acquaintance" didn't mean a "familiar person," but rather meant a "peer." Besides her, two other interviewers—a man and a woman—had arrived at the same time slot.

The woman was Du Gefei, the one who had tried to get Fu Shize's WeChat from Xu Qingsong at the KTV and failed.

They were assigned to wait in one of the office rooms.

Du Gefei recognized her too and took the initiative to say hello: "Hi, you're here for the interview too?"

Yun Li nodded awkwardly.

Seeing this, the man beside them asked curiously: "Do you guys know each other?"

Du Gefei didn't tell the truth, casually tossing out an excuse to brush it off.

Then, the two of them started chatting back and forth. During the conversation, the man even mentioned Yun Li a couple of times, trying to get her to join the topic, but seeing that she had little interest, he eventually gave up.

Shortly after, Du Gefei made a joke that sounded half-true and half-false: "Other people don't want to bother with you, so stop disturbing her."

"......"

Ever since the day her interview was confirmed, Yun Li had searched the internet every day for questions that might be asked during the interview and sought a lot of experience from Deng Chuqi. Her mood remained in a state of suspended anxiety.

Whenever she encountered similar situations, Yun Li's reaction was always like this.

Including when she agreed to EAW's store-review invitation earlier, she had also experienced anxiety for a period of time.

Yun Li's on-the-spot reactions were very poor, even worse under the gaze of strangers. She often failed to process things quickly, and very obvious questions would slip her mind in that split second.

She had only managed to rank at the bottom during her graduate school re-examination.

This was also why many people, upon first meeting Yun Li, felt that she was difficult to get along with.

She wasn't skilled at handling small talk with strangers, and coupled with her sharp and defined eyebrows, when she looked at people without emotion, she appeared stern and hard to approach. Her brief and conversation-closing replies made her seem even more overly cold.

Yun Li lowered her head without offering an explanation.

Yet because of those words, the courage she had just mustered deflated a bit more.

She inexplicably felt like backing out.

Yun Li was scheduled as the very last interviewee.

The interviewer was a woman in her thirties named Fang Yuning. Her short hair was neatly trimmed, she wore thin-rimmed glasses, and the natural downward curve of her lips gave her a capable yet unsmilingly majestic appearance.

However, having only a single interviewer also lessened Yun Li's sense of tension.

Back when she went to the South Wuhu Institute of Technology for her re-examination, there had been five or six professors sitting there. Walking in and seeing that setup had instantly emptied Yun Li's mind. Her only thought in that instant was that this trip had been a complete waste.

The interview lasted for about twenty minutes.

Fang Yuning nodded, organizing her materials: "That's about it. Do you have any questions for me?"

This was one of the questions Yun Li had looked up beforehand, and most answers suggested it was best not to say "no questions," nor should she ask something so profound that the interviewer couldn't answer it.

Yun Li feigned contemplation and then asked a few common, official questions.

Upon concluding, Fang Yuning stated that the second-round interview results would be released within three days and told her to go back and wait for notification.

Yun Li's mood didn't lighten up because of this; she still felt heavy, softly murmured her thanks, and left.

Heading outside and walking forward along the corridor, she saw He Jiameng chatting and laughing with a colleague in the workspace area. Catching sight of her coming out with her peripheral vision, He Jiameng turned and greeted her: "Over?"

Yun Li nodded.

He Jiameng asked curiously: "Teacher Xianyun, I saw on your resume that you just enrolled this year. How did you suddenly decide to come work at EAW?"

After deliberating for a long time, Yun Li slowly said: "Well... our advisor is very hands-off and doesn't manage us usually. There aren't many classes for graduate students either."

A few days before school started, her senior schoolmates had pulled her into a small group chat and warned her about the massive pitfalls of this laboratory—such as the advisor practicing extreme laissez-faire with his students, meaning she'd better cozy up to other advisors the moment she entered school and audit other people's group meetings if she wanted any hope of graduating.

Yun Li felt she had used up all the luck of her lifetime just passing the re-examination to get into Nan University. Asking her to butter up other advisors and shamelessly crash other people's meetings on top of that was too much.

Logically she told herself she needed to do it, but in practice, Yun Li kept dragging her feet, repeatedly sending emails to her advisor in an attempt to awaken the conscience and pedagogical ethics buried deep inside him.

Over a month into the semester, she had only seen her advisor once, and that was two weeks after the term began.

After sending numerous unanswered emails to her advisor—Zhang Tianqi, a figure who had once caused a sensation in both the scientific research and industrial worlds—he finally invited her to sit in his lab and chat about her development.

Yun Li thought she had finally seen the clouds part to reveal the sun, so she earnestly prepared a research proposal to bring along.

Call it a laboratory, but Zhang Tianqi's office had already been converted by him into a recreational retirement lounge.

The room was spotlessly clean; the bookshelves were filled with writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, and various calligraphy and painting supplies were spread across the desktop, leaving only a tiny corner for a laptop to maintain communication with the outside world.

Yun Li showed him her research proposal. Zhang Tianqi finished reading it in five seconds, heaped lavish praise upon Yun Li, and then directly cut to the chase: "Little girl is quite good. I have a friend over at Cambridge, how about you go spend some time in his lab?"

She hadn't expected Zhang Tianqi to give her such a great opportunity; she had also heard of many graduate students going abroad for a half-year exchange before returning, so Yun Li put on a grateful smile, yet worried that Zhang Tianqi might think half a year was too long.

"Teacher, then I'll apply to the department for the exchange program later. I heard previously that we can go for half a year, I wonder what you think..."

"Half a year?" Zhang Tianqi directly interrupted her, looking perplexed, "Why wouldn't you stay the full three years?"

Three years?

Yun Li's mind went blank, leaving only her lips moving slightly: "Oh, then my thesis here..."

Zhang Tianqi: "You'll write your thesis over there." He paused for a moment, "Translated into Chinese, it will count as your thesis here."

Yun Li's smile froze: "Then my research topic..."

Zhang Tianqi: "Oh, just discuss that with the folks at Cambridge; you don't need to let me know."

Yun Li: "......"

No matter how she looked at it, it seemed completely unreliable. Zhang Tianqi himself acted as if he had forgotten the whole thing and never proactively looked for her again.

Seeing her advisor looking amicable and amiable during enrollment, Yun Li never expected things to be this full of traps, leaving her the only one whose life hadn't fallen on track while everyone else's had, worrying every single day with no fixed place to stay.

With no other choice, she had to follow what her senior schoolmates said and head out for an internship early.

Rousing herself from her memories, Yun Li added a reason she had thought of before coming: "Plus, my self-control isn't very good; my schedule gets all topsy-turvy when I film videos. Finding an internship can make my lifestyle more regular."

"Oh, oh." He Jiameng indicated she understood and began gossiping with her: "Did Du Gefei say anything to you inside just now?"

"No."

"A while ago, she somehow found out that Fu Shize works here, so she went straight to my boss and said she wanted to come for an interview." He Jiameng complained, "Her hidden motive for this interview was clearly not about the job, so my boss dumped this trouble right onto me, but it wouldn't look good if I didn't even let her come in for the interview."

Yun Li let out an "ah."

"Right after she came out, she asked me where Fu Shize was, and I said I didn't know." He Jiameng said, "She asked if he didn't come to work today. I told her he did. Then she left."

Yun Li instinctively looked around her surroundings and indeed didn't see Fu Shize anywhere. Feeling it would be ungrateful not to say anything more, she forced out a sentence: "She acts like she's here to inspect the work."

He Jiameng was amused by her: "Thinking about it that way, she really does."

Not wanting to linger here, Yun Li used the excuse of fearing she would disrupt their work to say goodbye and walked outside. Stepping out of the office and just pulling out her phone, her ringtone rang.

It was a call from her mother, Yang Fang.

Finding an empty corner on the basement level, Yun Li answered: "Mom."

When Yun Li called home a couple of days ago, she had casually mentioned that she had an interview today. Now that Yang Fang was calling, as expected, it was to check on how her interview went.

Yun Li was in low spirits: "Seemed not very good, I don't know either."

"It's nothing, all of this is social experience and requires accumulation." Yang Fang comforted her, "Regardless of whether there's a good result this time, you'll gain something from it."

Before she could reply, Yun Yongchang's voice suddenly blasted from the other end: "This brat is introverted by nature anyway, can't even speak properly with strangers, yet she insisted on running off by herself to somewhere as far as Nanhu, thinking it's all fun and games, right? Regretting it now, are you?"

Yun Li was stung by those words.

Whoosh.

An anonymous burst of anger welled up.

She didn't know when it started, but being introverted seemed to have become a derogatory term.

Clearly a normal word, but when heard from others' mouths, it made her feel as though the speaker was implying she was bad at socializing, poor with words, unsociable, and unaccommodating. Whenever someone used that word to describe her, Yun Li felt resistant and unable to accept it calmly.

It was as if it had become a flaw she didn't want people to notice or mention.

Yun Yongchang's attitude was also his habitual tactic. He had always been stubborn, and making him admit a mistake was harder than ascending to heaven, whether toward his wife or his children. This comment sounded like he was scolding Yun Li, but in reality, it was a way to force her to back down and accept this step-down he offered.

In the past, Yun Li didn't want to argue with him for too long, so she always went along with his wishes.

But this time she had no such intention whatsoever.

Yun Li tried her best to keep her tone calm and level: "Mm, it's not a big deal either. If this company doesn't want me, I'll submit my resume to the next one."

Yun Yongchang's tone grew even fiercer: "What kind of nonsense is that! Has Xifu lost the capacity to accommodate your highness or something?"

Yun Li: "I didn't say that."

Yun Yongchang: "Then book a plane ticket and come back right now!"

Yun Li: "I won't."

The atmosphere stagnated in a stalemate.

A moment later, Yun Yongchang said coldly: "Fine, if you don't come back now, don't ever come back again."

Yun Li's anger instead ignited right along with it: "So what if I'm studying and working in another city?"

Yun Yongchang didn't speak.

"I never said I wouldn't go back for the rest of my life. Every time I try to talk things over with you properly, when have you ever actually listened?" Yun Li's eyes turned red, and her voice choked up uncontrollably, "What else do you know how to say besides these kinds of things?"

Subsequently, the sound of Yang Fang trying to mediate came from the other side: "Why do the two of you start bickering the moment you talk..."

Yun Li pressed the back of her hand against her eyes, blurted out "I'm going to eat" and hung up the phone.

After composing herself where she stood, Yun Li took a puff out of her bag to touch up her makeup and then put on a face mask. Sure that no remaining emotions could be seen, she returned to the first floor via the fire escape.

Walking out of this door led straight to EAW's main entrance.

Yun Li glanced over there casually and saw Fu Shize and Du Gefei standing in front, talking about something. Her mood right now was abysmal, and she had zero heart to worry about anything else, so she turned around, intending to head toward the exit.

The next moment, Du Gefei suddenly called out to her: "Xi- Xianyun! Where are you going? Why aren't you coming over?"

Yun Li was bewildered: "What?"

"Didn't you just ask me to help you get this handsome guy's WeChat?" Du Gefei walked over, grabbed her arm, and said intimately, "He thought I was the one asking, which made it so awkward for me."

"......"

Yun Li understood.

So she failed to get the WeChat and felt humiliated, wanting to shift the blame onto her instead.

Before she could speak, Fu Shize asked indifferently: "You want it?"

Yun Li followed those words to look at him.

Fu Shize was wearing a light-colored shirt and black suit trousers today, with an employee badge hanging on his chest. He looked as though he had just finished fixing something; his hands were smudged with a bit of dust, and he was carrying a tool kit.

At this moment, he stood quietly in place, waiting for her response.

Du Gefei chimed in ahead of her: "Yeah, she was just too shy to say it."

Fu Shize lowered his gaze, as if deep in thought, making no extra movements. After a few seconds, he met her eyes again and asked nonchalantly: "Didn't I already give it to you?”