Chapter 21 (1/2)
Xiao Qiu has grown up and is now ready toworld This path that she’s on will soonherself to forget But first, we’ll see hoell Xiao Qiu fares in the real world
[Chapter 21]
On July 1st, I took the written translation exa Fir district It filled the entire eleventh and twelfth floors Behind the building was a large golf course The air was clean and fresh, the surroundings were beautiful, and there were rarely any cars It was the office location of ht so The were as many as fifty people who took the written exam with me I heard that there were more than a hundred who applied and everyone here were chosen through the first round where human resources decided the outcome by our resumes They actually only needed two translators, so one can iine that the competition was intense The written exaru able to finish I barely finished, but I couldn’t guarantee the quality of it When I ca Normal University asked me, “That ‘霜皮溜雨四十围，黛色参天两千尺’, how did you translate it?”
“The rifish-blue hues, high up into the sky, two thousand feet above” I said
She looked at fish-blue? Isn’t it just blackness?”
“Umber-black (黛色) is not completely black (黑色) Umber-black is a nature black (青黑), which means it’s blueblack” [This is one out of theto attempt to correct the author’s translation]
“Then why don’t you use blueblack, and instead used kingfish-blue?”
I didn’t answer and chuckled
“I understand now,” she said, “you’re showing off, right? Mmm, I more or less translated it the sainal lexeme”
“The best part about classical Chinese poems is their antithesis, so I tried not to alter the lexeme as much as possible I prefer literal translations”
We walked down the long hallway together She suddenly said, “Don’t you think that this exae? First, we had to translate a tender document Then, we had to translate classical Chinese We’re not taking an exaht?”
I put up ree The person who came up with the exa exanal at hed I turned around and saw a youngbehindat um, “This student, are you also here to take the exanored
Our eyes follow hierate “” sound, pretending to be infatuated, “Who was that hed
Even though the ti, I had already become immune to all other handsome men I had been so madly in love with him that I frequently turned on the la face
The next day, the company called to notify me and nine others to participate in a one-on-one oral exa suit When I ith Li Chuan, I would frequently get pointers fro at it Plus, I spent several years working at the café and chatting with the foreign custoood, but Jiu Tong was very satisfied with lish Two days later, with the last three competitors, I went to see their CEO, Xiao Guan
While I wasn’t too familiar with the translator world, but I had still heard of the name Xiao Guan He was born into an acadelish Departraduated from the University of Oxford and hisTheir naer, Xiao Guan worked in the foreign branch of the nation’s newspaper for a long time as a translator Afterwards, he founded a company, this one I heard that business went smoothly and after a few years, it was built up Of course besides translation service, with the backing of his uncle, a huge Hong Kong business man, he also stepped into real estate and other invest had twenty-seven branches around the country He had an extre track record and was na entrepreneurs” in this city
When I saw Xiao Guan for the first tiuy who stared at ht He had a sharp, calant manner about him He had a scholarly look about hi said, he did business in a cultured and refined way
“You are Xie Xiao Qiu” He said slohile sitting in an executive chair, “Professor Feng made two calls to me to recommend you”
I didn’t know about this I had only told Professor Feng that I was applying for Jiu Tong in passing As expected, he was a good old fellow, helpingthat the exa inside how h the back door”
“Professor Feng spoke very highly of you, but he also warned h you s What exactly those shortcos were, he wouldn’t say But he did say I would know after just looking at you”
I knew that the Xiao fa tih the Cultural Revolution hand in hand Feng Jing Er had been calling Xiao Guan, Ge Ge, since she was a child
“I don’t have s” I said, “You will definitely be able to tolerate s”
He stood up from his office chair and walked to theand sized me up, “Has anyone told you what clothes you should wear to an interview?”
I was dressed casually In fact, I had just recently bought this htly-colored When paired with the woolen long skirt, I looked a lot like Sanht that my outfit was in accordance with the Boheht Actually, for the past two days I had worn a normal suit It was just that this time, since I had to compete with the final students from famous schools and my qualifications and achieveht of this haphazard plan to beat out the others through surprise
“Mr wang from human resources says that the main job of this position is written translation and everything is to be completed on a computer Basically, there is no need to come face to face with clients Plus,” I bit my lip, “I only have one suit that I wear every tiet tired of it if you see it everyday?”
He probably thought that my explanation was pretty true, so he dropped the subject
“Also, why do you have so s in your ear? It looks so troublesome even to me Do you really not think the by ability or looks? That thought rised to my throat and I had to s it down My reply was brief and to the point, “Fate has been unfavorable to me in recent years My life has been full of trouble andthe metal of the five phases” [Five phases of Chinese philosophy: Wood, fire, earth, ht that he could finally spare u an interview”
“I was nervous”
“You, nervous?” He said stoically, “You were the first to turn in your exaht?”
The comment hit upon my sore spot The exam paper that day clearly stated that there were 120 minutes for the exah I knew I had many imperfect answers To my surprise, the others all said that they weren’t done yet and refused to turn in their papers In the end, the exaed on for more than ten minutes
“I merely turned the test in on time”
I hated myself I clearly had a proble he said?
“Okay,” he looked at his watch and said, “besides these, what are your other shortcos?”
“There’s no , “the four re differ very little in terms of education and achievements We can choose whichever one of you and it’ll be fine We will naturally choose someone who is easy to associate with”
“I’m extremely easy to associate with” I said, “I swear, besides my odd clothes, I am loved by all”
“Uh-huh” He nodded, strolled back to his chair, sat down, and drew a mark on my file with a pen, “You can start work tomorrow We have just received a few contracts recently The English departlish nalish translator orks here is required to have an English name especially those whose pinyin name contains X or Q”
I was XXQ (Xie Xiao Qiu)
“Xiao Qiu isn’t too hard for foreigners, is it?” I hid a subtle implication in this
“It won’t do” He was resolute
“Then, please give one to me”
“Annie, how is that?”
“Okay” How fake sounding He ht as well have called me Annie baby (Chinese author)
My office was on the eleventh floor, nulish departirl who ca Yu Lian Even though there were only two of us in the office, we faced the s The walls were soundproof, but one side was co, everyone outside can see
Tang Yu Lian wasn’t too tall Her features were very exquisite I thought it had a bit of Annie Yi to it
I joked with her, “Hey, are you Annie Yi’s younger sister?”
She laughed, exposing her spotless white teeth and the tiny dimples in her cheeks, “I hate Annie Yi Everyone says I look like her Every tis”
“You’re prettier than Annie Yi” I turned onwas really exhausting That Chief Xiao can really speak I wanted to go to the bathroo his serious face, I was scared to go It was really tor” She complained
“Me too I kind of wanted to put on headphones and listen to ht, that director of the English departirlfriend You must do well, otherwise she’ll tell on you to hiotten here, how do you know?”
“My classossips
“Class and rich, and accoirlfriends before, all who voluntarily threw themselves at him Even the current one, Director Tao Xin Ru, chased after hio Chief Xiao had stoh Tao Jie Jie isn’t Cantonese, she studied how to h, hopefully it’s not a one sided love”