11. Ambiguity is a sin
Yu Chuanbei scratched his head in bewilderment and said, "I can't really say what you did wrong, but I'm definitely hurt!" "I can't even maintain my own self-respect, so how can I possibly compensate for your vulnerability?" Ling Ling stood up, spreading her hands helplessly. Unable to persuade her, Yu Chuanbei resorted to a snarl: "I don't care. Just don't yell at me anymore!" "I'm not even sure I'll be alive tomorrow, so how can I possibly keep my promise to you the day after tomorrow? What if I go back on my word and yell at you again?" Ling Ling teased him. "Then... I'll just have to endure it," Yu Chuanbei said childishly. Ling Ling chuckled at his amusement. "Your logic is like a diplomat's—always protesting, never accepted; always shouting, never getting noticed." "The way you approach a relationship with a woman is like engaging in international politics!" "Wow, you're an expert!" Ling Ling's appreciative smile was ferocious. "Hey, not all astrophysicists have traveled to space to see aliens!" Yu Chuanbei finished, and the two of them giggled face to face. At that moment, a passerby, A, came running over to buy a painting. He was holding a passerby, B, who was a dog. Yu Chuanbei suddenly became interested and bumped her shoulder, motioning for her to wait. Then he jumped into the stall and flirted with customers. The young man said weakly, "Don't say anything. I'm not here to negotiate, I'm here to pick up the goods. I buy Lingling's paintings in sets." Yu Chuanbei was completely stunned when he heard this. Lingling couldn't help laughing at him. She turned around, picked up a wrapped still life oil painting, and handed it to the dog walker, only to hear him whisper, "Lingling, is this your new hire? Very cheap, right?" "Hey, I don't mind if you keep your voice down when you say bad things about me!" Yu Chuanbei said unhappily, crossing his arms. The dog walker walked away angrily. Yu Chuanbei immediately adjusted his composure and posed a flurry of questions: "Did you paint all these paintings?" Ling Ling nodded nonchalantly. He looked around. Paintings of varying styles were spread across the curtains and on the floor, each one seemingly imbued with a distinct emotion: joy, sorrow, anger, and tranquility. Each painting, gathered together, reflected the multifaceted Ling Ling, allowing him to trace her brushstrokes but never fathom her thoughts. "Girl, how much potential do you possess that I'm unaware of?" Yu Chuanbei asked with a smile, his heart filled with a sense of relief. "Are you referring to the essential survival skills required of an Ioser?" Ling Ling wasn't at all absorbed in his sentiments...
Yu Chuanbei scratched his head in confusion and said, "I can't really tell you what you did wrong, but I'm hurt anyway!"
"I can't even maintain my own self-esteem, how can I make up for your vulnerability?" Ling Ling stood up and spread her hands helplessly.
Yu Chuanbei couldn't persuade her, so he just started to act like a spoiled brat: "I don't care, but you can't yell at me anymore!"
"I'm not sure if I'll still be alive tomorrow, so how can I keep your promise for the day after tomorrow? What if I break my promise and yell at you in the future?" Ling Ling teased him deliberately.
"Then... then I can only bear it." Yu Chuanbei said childishly.
Ling Ling burst out laughing at his amusement. "Your logic is like a diplomat's—always protesting, never accepted; always clamoring, never paid attention."
"The idea of interacting with women is like engaging in international politics!"
"Oh, you're an expert!" Ling Ling's appreciative smile was ferocious.
"Hey, not all astrophysicists have traveled to space and seen aliens!"
After Yu Chuanbei said this, the two of them giggled at each other.
At this time, a passerby named A came over to buy a painting. He was holding a passerby named B, who was a dog.
Yu Chuanbei suddenly became interested, bumped her shoulder, motioned her to watch, then jumped into the painting stall and greeted customers in a coquettish manner.
The young man said weakly, "Don't say more. I'm not here to negotiate, I'm here to pick up the goods. I always buy Lingling's paintings in sets."
When Yu Chuanbei heard this, he was completely stunned.
Seeing him like this, Ling Ling couldn't help but laugh. She turned around, picked up a wrapped still life oil painting, and handed it to the dog walker. The boy whispered, "Ling Ling, is this your new hire? Pretty cheap, right?"
"Hey, I don't mind you keeping your voice down when you say bad things about me!" Yu Chuanbei said unhappily, crossing his arms over his chest.
The dog-walker left angrily.
Yu Chuanbei immediately adjusted his mood and asked a lot of questions: "Did you draw all the paintings here?"
Ling Ling nodded disapprovingly.
He looked around. Paintings of varying styles were spread across the curtains and on the floor. Each painting seemed imbued with a distinct emotion: joy, sorrow, anger, and tranquility. Each painting, gathered together, reflected each other's multifaceted spirit, allowing him to trace the tip of her brush, but unable to fathom her thoughts.
"Girl, how much potential do you have that I don't know about?" Yu Chuanbei asked her with a smile, but the doubt in his heart made his chest feel broad.
"Are you referring to the essential survival skills required of an Ioser?" Ling Ling was completely unmoved by his sentiments. She was packing up her paintings and preparing to close the stall.
Yu Chuanbei stroked the frame of a painting of a green lawn, still lost in his own fantasy: "How about we go on a trip together? To a place like this, you can also collect folk songs."
"My painting relies solely on my imagination. It's not like photography, which requires me to go out and travel. Besides, I don't have the money to afford high-end entertainment like traveling."
"I invite you to go."
"I don't want to owe you anything."
Yu Chuanbei was about to retort when he was interrupted by the noisy ringing of his cell phone.
After listening to the caller's words, he flew into a rage: "I'm about to board my flight tomorrow, and now you're telling me the translator can't make it? I've been following this project for so long, the client's president has been invited, and there are only 18 hours left. Where am I supposed to find someone who speaks German?"
When Ling Ling heard his words, she looked at him furiously and paused what she was doing.
Yu Chuanbei suppressed his anger, tried to keep calm, and arranged a temporary solution for the other party.
After he hung up the phone and sighed with his hands on his waist, Ling Ling slowly spoke.
"That tricky thing you just had... maybe I can help you."
"I need a suitable person to assist me in business negotiations. The most important thing is that he must know German." He still looked bitter and resentful.
"I can."
"Business negotiations?"
"No, it's German."
"Then why didn't you say it just now!" he asked happily.
"Because I don't want you to owe me anything either."
Her calm expression was refreshing.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ling Ling went to Sichuan with Yu Chuanbei's team to discuss the project with the Germans.
Throughout the trip, Ling Ling impressed Yu Chuanbei once again. Her conversations with the Germans went beyond business-like rapport, reaching a level where she could "converse and laugh with Chivas."
Since Ling Ling started living in the same house with Yu Chuanbei's rookie female assistant, she also knew a lot of gossip about him.
Yu Chuanbei, a Beijing native, comes from a scholarly family. He received his undergraduate degree in Hong Kong and his master's degree in the United States. He is a young man in the company and possesses the key qualities of an excellent man, especially being single and without scandals.
In a woman's world, getting to know a man's information is so simple and crude.
When a man and a woman meet and get to know each other, the person who introduces them to each other can have an indelible influence. Ling Ling knew that all the messages she had about Yu Chuanbei were about other women expressing their admiration and flirtation with him. She concluded from the bottom of her heart that he was a central air-conditioning type of man, providing warmth daily and leaving unfinished feelings everywhere. Thus, her favorability towards him was locked in—it couldn't rise any higher.
However, Yu Chuanbei was immersed in the joy of fighting side by side with Ling Ling. He felt that this was a gift from God since she refused to work at Ever.
Every morning, whenever he saw her appear in front of him, he would feel happy inside and couldn't help but smile; at night, when he had to rush to work on a plan, as long as she showed signs of fatigue, he would notify everyone to finish work as soon as possible, and then he would run back to complete the rest of the work.
But Ling Ling deliberately kept her distance from him. She was the dictator of her own emotional world, dictating life and death at the slightest disagreement. She told herself: A man like Yu Chuanbei might be admired with her eyes, but she must resist him with her heart. She silently emphasized the words "this kind of man" in boldface size 2.
To this end, she would ignore the hot drink he offered her when the air conditioner was turned up too high, avoid his admiring gaze, and go back to her room and fall asleep when he invited her to dinner alone.
No one is born unromantic. It all depends on whether you can solve the equation of man A and woman B.
Finally, the German boss was sent off perfectly. She will return to Beijing tomorrow. Ling Ling once again rejected Yu Chuanbei's invitation and returned to the hotel room to sleep, waiting for the dawn to repeat itself in the same old routine.
"Are you awake?"
Early in the morning, Ling Ling, who was sleeping soundly, was awakened by a call from Yu Chuanbei.
"I wasn't asleep yet. I was woken up by someone."
She lay on the bed and complained.
Yu Chuanbei on the other end of the phone smiled hoarsely, and from the sound of his voice one could even feel his eyes curving.
"Let me take you somewhere," he said.
"The airport?" she asked.
"If I don't tell you where to go, will you come with me?"
"No," she answered decisively. But after hearing the long silence from his end, she felt a little sorry for him, so she changed her mind and said, "Unless we can go to the airport on the way."
He smiled hoarsely again, "Then I'll wait for you at the door of your room." He said quickly, and this time there felt an intense ambiguity.
Ling Ling quickly dressed and packed her bags. When she opened the door, she saw Yu Chuanbei already waiting for her. The corridor was different, but he was surrounded by the same gentle glow. She vaguely remembered the unfinished painting, shook her head, and forced herself to forget it immediately. She was extremely self-disciplined in relationships and would not engage in ambiguous relationships that would lead to no results.
Yu Chuanbei naturally took the suitcase from her hand and led her to an SUV parked in front of the hotel.
"Where did the car come from?"
"Rented."
"Where are the others?"
"They've already left on the morning flight. We'll leave in the evening. If you have any questions, let's ask them together in the car. This will also avoid the embarrassment caused by your deliberate alienation when we are alone." Yu Chuanbei smiled kindly, but Ling Ling fell into another kind of embarrassment.
She got into the car stiffly, pretending to be calm, thinking to herself how nice it is to be an adult who can act, to be able to be excited inside but calm in expression.
"Why is your German so good? Have you lived in Germany before?" Fortunately, after a brief and uncomfortable silence, Yu Chuanbei picked a less intense topic of conversation.
"No, I just lived with the Germans."
Upon hearing Ling Ling's answer, Yu Chuanbei was really shocked. He couldn't help but look at her, and the steering wheel in his hand shook.
Ling Ling quickly added: "I'm talking about my mother."
Author's Note
Liu Qiu
author
04-16
"Please Say You Love Me in My Time Zone" has been gaining momentum lately! Thank you all for your support. I'm still begging for your votes, comments, and tweets to keep me going! I'm almost at 30,000 words for the Nan Luo spinoff, and as long as you're here, I'll keep pushing!
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