The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 25.3 - Joined Pulses (3)

After lunch, she brought the information that He Feifei needed over to the Domestic News and Editing Department.

"I heard your team director recommended you for foreign assignment. Hey, doing pretty good, Jǐ Yi. Where are you planning on going?" He Feifei flipped through the information, then tossed it onto her document rack and grabbed Jǐ Yi's hand. "Just don't go to Syria."

"I turned it down," Jǐ Yi stated. "Don't want to go abroad."

"Oh, oh." He Feifei instantly comprehended. "This is a sign that happy wedding news is just around the corner."

The words were spoken so lightly, but people nearby still heard them. These were all people with whom Jǐ Yi was well acquainted from her internship term, and immediately they moved in closer and pressed her with more questions. Jǐ Yi was embarrassed with all their queries, but alas, He Feifei just had to feel that she was Jǐ Yi and Jì Chengyang's matchmaker, and every time this matter was brought up, she was especially enthused. Several times, Jǐ Yi tried to stop her, but they were all to no avail.

That foreign correspondent speaker series that the newspaper had organized had been very well received. Moreover, everyone had used all their various connections in order to contact those guest speakers, and they had chosen the list of speakers together. Naturally, then, they could not be any more familiar with Jì Chengyang's background and curriculum vitae. Now when they heard it was him, they were all extremely surprised. And so, amidst all sorts of nosy grilling and cross-examination from everyone, Jǐ Yi hurriedly fled from there.

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Leaving the Domestic News and Editing Department, she followed the wooden staircase all the way downstairs. Suddenly, her footsteps halted.

That figure not far away, clad in a suit and tie and leather shoes, with his back facing her...

She had never seen him dressed in a suit before and almost thought she had mistaken someone else for him.

Jì Chengyang stood there, conversing with three of her colleagues from the newspaper agency. English, French, Spanish, Cantonese, and other languages were all intermixed in this conversation. These four people were in the midst of enthusiastic discussion, the rhythm of the dialogue fast-moving, and there were absolutely no barriers in communication between them whatsoever.

She had chatted before with the foreign-nationality co-worker in her own department. Jǐ Yi's major in her studies was English while Spanish was her minor, but the other party's mother tongue was French and his English was very weak. He did know a few phrases of Chinese, though, and hence, when the two of them communicated, all different languages would be randomly interspersed throughout the exchange. A simple conversation between them seemed like a second-rate quarrel that was frustratingly stifling...

In this aspect, she, as a language major, was actually not even as good as the one with a doctorate in philosophy.

Jǐ Yi wrinkled the end of her nose, not feeling abashed about this in the least.

Standing on the stairs, she secretly observed him for a while, but he detected her. Jì Chengyang called her over and introduced her to those several people. Although they all were in the same workplace, their newspaper's Beijing head office alone had eleven administrative departments and ten news editing and publishing departments, as well as several thousand employees. It was not feasible for even people in the human resources department to be familiar with the faces of every single person.

It was only after Jì Chengyang made the introductions that everyone learned that this young girl was also their colleague here at the newspaper agency. As a result, after only just escaping from the Domestic News and Editing Department's besiegement, pursuit, and attempts to cut off her way, she was here being "surrounded and spectated" once more.