Assistant Architect

Chapter 7

Assistant Architect by Xi He Qing Ling

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Chapter 7: Task

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Zhang Siyi thought to himself and repeated a mantra, patience andperseverance…. 500 isn’t really that much. It's not even enough to buy a pairof jeans. He doesn’t want to be so stingy, but he can’t help but feel wrongedby the deductions in his salary. He must keep in mind at this stage, it isabout learning and getting experience. Zhang Siyi continues to convincehimself: When the trial salary is only 4,500, the salary is not the keypoint… the salary is not the focus…not the focus…

Zhu Hongzhen saw Zhang Siyi and wanted to ask him where he went and what hehad for lunch, but hesitated for a moment then called out: “Are you calledZhang Wei? I forgot.”

Zhu Hongzhen: “Your name is not very easy to remember. Do you have anickname?”

Zhang Siyi: “English name? I used Daniel while I was in the UK.”

Zhu Hongzhen read it over and said: “That’s worse than your Chinesename.”

Sitting across from them, Bi Lele said: "Since your name is a homophone, Yisihow about Aunt Four?”

Zhu Hongzhen: “poof!"

Zhang Siyi broke down and said, ” Why should I be called and aunt. I’ma man?"

Bi Lele turned a white-eye: “we have a man nicknamed” Joesister.”"

Zhu Hongzhen: “Child labor group also has a woman, nicknamed Cool Brother.Ah, don’t worry about these details, I think the Aunt Four suits you justfine."

Zhang Siyi: "……"

“And as you can see in this circle, you happen to be the fourth tocome, it is appropriate to call you 'fourth aunt'."

Yuan Zhicheng, who was diagonally opposite, looked up and said quietly:“Fourth Aunt is good.”

Zhang Siyi couldn’t stop it. Several people on the side chanted“fourth aunt, fourth aunt”. He was a little annoyed. He didn’t wantthe nickname Aunt Four. He just came to the company and, just like that, hisname was changed. Once they set up his computer station, the chance to protestwas mercilessly stripped from him.

The office computer has an internal LAN. In order to prevent the outflow ofresources, communication and file transfer between colleagues need to bethrough internal communication software. The form is somewhat similar to QQ,and all employees’ address books are visible, making it clear at a glance.

Zhang Siyi curiously studied for a while and found that the architecturaldesign division had indeed been subdivided into three groups, namely, the Gu Yugroup (a), the Child Labor Group (b) and the Choi Group (c). His name was inGroup A.

“Piggy, who is this Cui Gong?” The first two Zhang Siyi knew, butthe last one he hadn’t heard of.

Zhu Hongzhen: “Oh, you mean Mr. Choi in Group C?” He is a teacherat the J University School of Architecture on the other side of school. Hisspecialty is ancient Chinese architecture design and Borderless department C isequivalent to his personal studio.

Zhang Siyi understands that there are indeed well-known building teachersin China who have their own personal studios, and many teachers will choose tocooperate with design institutes and design companies.

Zhang Siyi carefully looked at the names listed in his company email. Whenhe saw the words “Gu Yu”, he was reminded of his 500-salarydeduction, and felt depressed. Unconsciously, he double clicked to open thedialog box. Almost at the same second, a sentence popped up in the dialog box –“Come to my office.”

Zhang Si Yi practically jumped out of his seat. He froze for severalseconds and double checked that this was a coincidence and not something heneglected to see.

He did not dare delay replied with “ok”. With apprehension, hestood up and went to Gu Yu’s office.

He lightly knocked on the frosted glass door, and after hearing“please enter” inside, Zhang Siyi pushed the door open and walkedinside.

Even though the room is less than ten square feet there is a large designtable in the middle with an iMac, laptop, printer, and stack of materialsneatly stacked in the corner of the table. Next to it, is a pen holder filledwith all kinds of markers, color lead, architectural pens and a measurementscale.

Director Gu sat facing him while behind him was a full bookshelf. Theshelves were not only full of professional books, but there also were large andsmall models in the empty spaces.

Zhang Siyi did not know how to describe it. He was thinking that maybe hewould voice his complaints about his salary deductions so, his mood was alittle anxious, before he came in. The stress of university and job hunting previouslymade him doubt himself, however, all the negative feeling dissipated whenfacing the director in his work space. His inner anxiety transformed intoexcitement. When looking at everything in the office related to architecture,his past heartfelt yearning has awakened and become like an instinct, rekindlinghis obsession making it hard to let go.

Gu Yu pointed to the chair opposite his desk and let him sit down.

Zhang Siyi took a deep breath. At first glance, there was a block ofcalligraphy works on the blank wall to the left. After seeing the words“Zhuge Liang" on the book, he involuntarily calmed down.

“How is it going? Are you getting more familiar with the environmentyet?” Gu Yu asked.

“Almost.” Well, don’t think about salary anymore. The most urgenttask is to stay through the trial period! Zhang Siyi made up his mind.

Gu Yu handed a piece of printing paper to him: “This is an officebuilding in the city of s. You look at it first. There are three people in thegroup who are doing this project. The styling and external details have beendecided on. Pointing to another plan illustration, this is the functionalpartition and outline of the building.”

Zhang Siyi took a glance at the plan, dumbfounded…… it’s huge!

“What kind of drawing software do you usually use? Is the computer setup? Is the software installed for you?” Gu Yu asked.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense with the rhythm of Gu Yu's dialogue.Zhang Siyi quickly said: "I use ArchiCAD."

Gu Yu nodded: “ArchiCAD plug-in causes problems sometimes whentransferring files. Lu Qiao was having issues when he was working on portionsof the plan. You will have to learn the other software we use in theoffice.”

Zhang Siyi: “Oh…”

Zhang Siyi isn’t familiar with the other software, so he is unsure how longit will take to render a picture.

Gu Yu: “You will draw a draft of this section here, then show mebefore the work day is over.”

Zhang Siyi: “…”

Holding the reference materials, he returned to his seat. Zhang Siyi hasbeen living in such a relaxed state that he hasn’t wrapped his mind around hiswork yet. Not only does he need to learn new software in the afternoon, but also,he has to a make a draft of such a big building. Mom! Who will kill him!

“Did Boss give you a task?” Zhu Hongzhen asked with a smirk.

“Well…” The task was huge. Zhang Siyi didn’t dare to delay. Hequickly opened the address book and looked for Lu Qiao. “Little pig, whois Lu Qiao?”

“It’s him,” Zhu Hongzhen pointed to the thin and small figure notfar away. “The one in blue clothes, don’t you see?”

As he was saying, he was already paged on the internet: “Is thisfourth aunt?”"

Zhang Siyi： "……"

Zhang Siyi: “How do you know the nicknamethey just gave me?”

Lu Qiao: “You are the newcomer, right?Someone in the group inquired about you, Lele has already publicized it.”

Zhang Siyi: “…”

Lu Qiao: “There are three big rotten girlsin the group. Handsome boys won’t escape their claws.”

Zhang Siyi: “[Cry]”

Lu Qiao: “Brother, let’s accept it, Iunderstand your pain ~~ “

… But why did he read the smell ofschadenfreude from the other side’s big wavy line? ！

After a few words, Lu Qiao quickly brought thetopic back to the task on hand: “The boss asked me to send you the information of the d city officebuilding. Did you will receive it?”

Zhang Siyi received a large package of projectmaterials, and by the way asked: “What about the software? Is it true Ihave to use this?”

Lu Qiao: “Hey, don’t you know? This is adomestic building software developed based on the ad platform. Most of thedomestic construction projects use this.”

Zhang Siyi: “OK. Is it hard to learn?”

Lu Qiao: “It's easy to learn! Super simple!You will learn in ten minutes!”

Zhang Siyi was relieved. Thanks, I cut thecomputer to the Indos system. With the help of Zhu Hongzhen, I found thislegendary “super simple” software. Little did he know, “super-simple”was not super simple. He struggled for two hours and repeatedly harassed LuQiao several times before figuring it out.

When he introduced the electronic map into thedesign, at five o’clock, it was already close to the days out.  – super simple my ass!

The cell phone in his trouser pocket buzzed.Zhang Siyi reached for it and saw that Fu Xinhui sent him a message.

Zhang Siyi quickly replied with “good”,thinking that the draft of the toilet and staircase will be finished soon.

But not long after, Zhang Siyi found that heoverestimated himself.

During his undergraduate studies, he was exposedto small buildings of several hundred square meters. The largest one was thestudent activity center that was designed when he graduated. The total area wasno more than 3,000. Now that Gu Yu gave him a ten-story office building, he wasso stupid that he didn’t know where to start.

Seeing that it was almost time to get off work,his had a sinking feeling in his stomach. His hadn’t made much progress on theassigned task.

“Little pig, I was handed a draftingassignment and needed to hand it in before I go, but what if it's not finishedby the end of the work hours?”

Zhu Hong Zhen said of course:“Overtime.”

Zhang Siyi: “…”

Just then, a familiar voice suddenly sounded frombehind: “How is the drawing going?”

Zhang Siyi stunned, turned around to see Gu Yu,who was quietly standing there. Gu Yu looked at Zhang Siyi’s computer screen,only to see a few toilets arranged in a mess, and a few irregular stairs, andsaid: “What is this?”

Zhang Siyi's cold sweat ran down, and he said:"I, I'm getting used to the software."

Gu Yu in thought did not speak for 5 seconds thenspoke. “Continue”, he said, then left.

Zhang Siyi saw that Gu's back disappear throughthe doors at the entrance of the firm, and dared to ask, "Did he just leave forthe day?"

Zhu Hongzhen: “Ah? No way. Didn’t he tellyou to show him the picture?"

Zhang Siyi: “I just watched him go out. He'snot leaving work?”

He also thought he was fortunate if Gu Yu leftwork already. He wanted to slip away for a while to have dinner with hisfriends. He could finish the work at home and bring the completed task back.

But Zhu Hongzhen gave him a fatal blow:“Maybe he went to the restroom. The boss will definitely be back.”

Zhang Siyi: “Why?”

Zhu Hongzhen looked happy: “He is the onlyboss I have ever seen to accompany his subordinates to work overtime. If youhave tasks in your hands, he will stay with you until you finish.”

Zhang Siyi: “………” Help!

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