On My Way - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 - So-Called Master and Apprentice

I got into the car. There was a young man in the back seat who greeted me as well, "My name is Yan Lei, I'm Cheng Xia's colleague."

"Hello, I'm Cheng Xia's childhood friend," I said, greeting him with a smile. "My name is Ren Dongxue."

He smiled slightly and said, "I've heard of you. You're the youngest project manager in your company over the past two years."

He had heard of me.

I sighed; that must mean he had also heard the rumors about me and Old Feng.

"And me, I'm Yu Shixuan." The 'Jelly' girl turned her head from the front seat and looked at me with blinking eyes. "Big sister, is Africa fun?"

"Traveling is actually quite nice. You shouldn't go to dangerous places like the Congo, but there is a lot of scenery worth seeing," I said. "If you ever have time to visit, I can be your guide!"

"That would be great!" she cheered. "Cheng Xia, let's go watch the animal migration then!"

Cheng Xia didn't say anything, and the car fell into silence.

A while later, my phone rang.

I answered it, spoke a few words, and then apologized to them, "I'm so sorry! Something urgent came up at the construction site, I have to go back. Cheng Xia, pull over."

Cheng Xia was stunned. He pulled over and asked, "Didn't we agree to go to the movies?"

I said, "You know how the construction site is. Can I notify the movie theater when something urgent comes up?"

His two colleagues were both amused by me.

Cheng Xia didn't smile. He said, "But we haven't seen each other for two weeks, and we already planned..."

I got out of the car and said, "Next time."

"Don't get out, I'll drive you..."

"Don't go to the trouble, my driver is coming to pick me up."

I got out regardless and stood on the side of the road. Cheng Xia followed me out, looking a bit at a loss, and said, "Can I take them home and then come back to find you?"

"Why come back for me?" I said. "With things as they are at this hour, I'll probably be sleeping at the construction site tonight."

The light in Cheng Xia's eyes extinguished instantly. He wanted to say something else, but a pair of headlights flashed past; it was my driver coming to pick me up.

I got into the car and waved at Cheng Xia, "See you!"

In the rearview mirror, Cheng Xia stood there in a daze for a long time.

I received a WeChat message from him. He said, "They are just my colleagues. We worked overtime together, and I was just giving them a ride on the way."

I replied, "I know."

But I also knew that the girl liked him.

She was clearly, in her own little-girl way, asserting her claim to him.

But I was no longer a little girl.

I wasn't afraid of engaging in petty romantic rivalry with any girl.

But there was no need. Long ago, I realized that the person I was racing against wasn't some beautiful girl, but Cheng Xia himself.

His privileged family background, his bright future, and the social class he occupied.

And him not choosing me had very little to do with me personally.

He simply, unconsciously, only chose girls who belonged to his own world.

Like this 'Jelly' girl, like his sparkling ex-girlfriend, and like the countless girls who brushed past us during his university years.

If I felt sad, it was only because the appearance of the 'Jelly' girl was like a sudden, heavy blow, making me realize with absolute clarity that I still didn't belong to the same world as them—even though I had struggled for so long.

The old me would have been exasperated, would have thrown a tantrum, and would have secretly waited for Cheng Xia to coax me, then self-deceptively told myself that I was very important to him and that I wasn't that different from them.

The current me only accepted reality.

After that day, Cheng Xia still shared things with me every day like he used to.

Cheng Xia: [A photo of a Christmas tree in front of a mall] The event seems very lively today.

Cheng Xia: ...Does every office have to order milk tea? I don't even like drinking it.

Cheng Xia: I caught a bit of a cold, my nose is stuffed.

I replied to them all with: "Hahaha."

I stopped chatting with him and stopped going out for meals together.

He acted as if he felt nothing unusual, still sending me these things, except occasionally when I refused to let him come to me after work, he would add: "It's fine, just wait until you're done with this busy period."

It won't get better, Cheng Xia.

This time, I had no time for sentimental mourning. The project had reached a critical stage, and I was harried every day handling all kinds of matters. Even when lying in bed, I would obsessively rethink things, worried about how I would handle it if something went wrong in a certain area.

The more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen.

It was the darkest day of my professional career, so terrifying that even over a decade later, it would still reappear in my nightmares.

The cause was that when the supervisor went to inspect the project, they discovered a section was unqualified.

This was a normal occurrence; you just had to hurry up and rectify it.

But after an inspection, it was discovered that the reason for the failure was that a key piece of data had been wrong from the very beginning. At first, you couldn't see any problems, but if we continued, it would not only pose safety hazards but also deviate from the entire blueprint.

This is a huge taboo in the construction industry.

Either we scrap everything done in the past month—and our schedule was already behind.

Or the original blueprint would be voided.

Both roads pointed to one result: We were finished.

I felt enveloped in a huge sense of absurdity; every step I took felt like walking on thin air.

Everyone was waiting for me in the office, and this time, there was no gloating.

Engineer Li stuttered his explanation: "Manager Ren, they thought I was too strict and didn't follow the construction plan I wrote... This is against the regulations..."

I turned my gaze to the construction worker nicknamed 'Tyrannosaurus'.

Technical matters were always handled by Engineer Li. Many people looked down on me and rarely communicated with me; Tyrannosaurus was one of them.

At this moment, he stood there, trembling. After trying to speak several times, he finally managed to say: "I really didn't mean to—my daughter is still in elementary school..."

With that, he wiped his eyes fiercely.

I didn't yell. I no longer had any energy to vent. I could only say, "If crying were useful, everyone would just cry every day. I'll go find a way. You all continue with whatever work you can still do."

When there's a problem, you have to solve it. This is the only way for the poor to survive in this world.

I went to the head office to find Old Feng.

This time, he wasn't reading the newspaper or practicing calligraphy. In front of everyone in the conference room, he threw a stack of materials at my face.

The sharp paper made my eyes sting, but I didn't dare move, standing there and letting him scold me.

Old Feng's only parting words were, "If the project cannot be completed, you will be responsible for all losses yourself, and the head office will certainly handle this strictly."

He was cutting ties with me.

So-called master and apprentice; we both knew in our hearts that he wouldn't protect me.

I wiped my face and said, "I understand. Please, give me some time."

When I left, I passed by the window and saw the vast sky; the clouds looked incredibly soft. I thought to myself, how wonderful it would be to just jump down.

But I didn't jump, so I had to find a way.

I went around the company, bowing and scraping, begging various departments for help, but they all avoided me. Only a female executive felt sorry for me and said, "Actually, this situation isn't rare. Your biggest problem is your lack of experience... I advise you to plead with Old Feng again. He definitely has a way to settle this."

I thanked her profusely and left.

With my qualifications, taking on this project was already a stretch. I was only suited to be an assistant doing odd jobs, but I wanted success too much. I thought, what if I gamble just once? What if I'm extra, extra careful? But human wisdom cannot defeat the will of heaven.

All gamblers eventually lose to the house, and I was no exception.

When I walked out of the company like a drenched dog, it was already night.

I took a taxi to Old Feng's house.

Old Feng, generally speaking, was a very upright man.

But people of his age just have this unfounded belief that the closest connection between a man and a woman must be physical intimacy.

After we were robbed in Africa, we had a drink together. He suddenly grabbed my hand and said, "Don't be afraid, you have a limitless future."

I smiled and said, "I'll take your auspicious words for it, Master."

"No, these aren't just auspicious words." He gripped my hand tighter and said, "You will certainly have a limitless future."

I looked at him. For a middle-aged man, he wasn't ugly; one could even call him cold and refined. His hand, clutching mine, was scorching hot and powerful.

These hands could give me everything I needed. I knew that only after sleeping with him would I be his true "insider."

He would use every resource to let me hold real power in the company, and then truly help him realize his ambitions and aspirations.

I slowly pulled my hand away and said, "I believe that to you, I am just like Juanjuan."

Juanjuan was his daughter. His wife was back in the country, the only daughter of an official family, but the two had been separated for several years.

I had already reached the building where Old Feng lived.

I knew he had a way to help me solve this. As long as the head office allocated some funds, I would have breathing room.

If I could complete this project, I would truly gain a firm foothold in the company. By then, no one would dare look down on me again.

The pain of swallowing my teeth and blood, the humiliation, and the insults those people had heaped upon me.

If I opened this door, everything would be over.

But at the very last moment, the face that appeared in my mind was Cheng Xia's.

Sixteen-year-old him, standing at the entrance of the farmers' market, looking at me with a bewildered expression. A great swath of light poured in from behind him, so bright it was blinding.

I slowly walked past Old Feng's door, went out to the street, and hailed a taxi.

"To 3 Xinghua Road," I said.

That was the address of the construction site.