Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Lin Yao had always been a do-er. She started searching for homes online that morning, and she found a new place that same day.
Her new home was in Chaoyang Neighborhood Community, not that far from Yanzhili Neighborhood.
From the name of the neighborhood, one could tell that these were old homes from the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, the name was spot on, but the location was good, transportation was convenient, and the facilities were fully equipped. The most important thing to Lin Yao was safety, safety, and safety!
In Lin Yao’s eyes, the small two-bedroom apartment structure was also pretty good. One large bedroom and one small bedroom faced south, and there was even a small kitchen, which meant that she could cook at home!
The only thing that dissatisfied her was the cost of the rent. The rent for this small two-bedroom apartment was more than four times, nearly five times, the cost of her original room in East City. The payment method was more demanding. No matter how she bargained, the landlord only agreed that she would pay one month’s rent as a deposit, and three months’ worth of rent in advance.
Although she had allegedly been given a special deal as a young girl who came to work in Hangzhou from another province, her new rent was almost all of her salary.
Lin Yao didn’t intend to live in this apartment by herself. She planned to live in a small room by herself, and then rent out the large room.
After Jiang Mingshu found out, she immediately declared that she would move in after a while and share the cost of rent with her, but Lin Yao didn’t take her seriously.
With Jiang Mingshu’s income, she could certainly afford the large room, but all aspects of the Yanzhili Neighborhood were she lived exceeded the Chaoyang neighborhood community. Besides, the dormitory provided by Orlando had free water, electricity, and rent.
Excuse me, but who would give up such a good free dormitory and come to share an old, small apartment with her?
Lin Yao posted the rental information on the Internet over Jiang Mingshu’s protest. How long it would take to rent out the large room was up to fate.
Lin Yao found her new residence on Saturday and moved into her new home on Sunday with little luggage.
The Chaoyang neighborhood community was surrounded by a circle of aged trees, like a high wall. It effectively isolated the buildings from the noise and dust from the road outside and the construction site.
The paths in the Chaoyang community were narrow and the parking spaces were limited, but all cars were parked in order.
Because it was a weekend and the weather was exceptionally nice, Lin Yao found that the several plazas of various sizes in the neighborhood were bustling with activity. In one glance, one could see several pregnant women, a couple of novice parents pushing strollers, toddlers who were learning to walk, and elderly people walking on crutches.
Everyone got together to chitchat about their household affairs, and bursts of laughter rang out from time to time.
Every household’s balcony was covered with quilts and winter clothes, and some of them even had homemade cured meat, sausages, sauced duck, and such hanging on the corner outside the balcony. Liveliness was bustling everywhere.
Lin Yao loved the atmosphere here. Moving from East City to the Chaoyang Neighborhood Community was like climbing back into the world of humans for her.
Since her new apartment had been vacated for some time, Lin Yao put a lot of effort into cleaning it up, and only when night arrived did she finally finish tidying up the place.
******
On Monday morning, Lin Yao got up early. The moment after she finished washing and returned to the bedroom, she saw the warm morning sun shining on the window of her small room. At that moment, she felt that all her efforts were worth it.
She took a photo of herself on her phone as a memory.
The face in the photo was slightly pale and appeared somewhat dispirited, but her lips were curled up, her eyes were bright, and there was the slightest reflection of the sun in her eyes, showing her hopefulness for the future.
Only after going to work by bus did Lin Yao find out that, even though life was a lot more convenient after moving to the Chaoyang neighborhood community, transportation wasn’t really as convenient as it was in East City.
Chaoyang neighborhood technically wasn’t actually a neighborhood, but rather a general term for a large community consisting of a total of ten neighborhoods from Chaoyang District 1 to Chaoyang District 9, plus Chaoyang Xinyuan. There were too many working people in this area, and everyone went to work at practically the same time, so when the bus arrived at Chaoyang District, everyone would be packed in like canned sardines, and Lin Yao was a small sardine that had to put in a lot of effort to squeeze into the can.
The bus driver repeatedly said in the speaker, “Everyone, walk inside further, walk inside further.”
The passengers kept complaining, “We can’t squeeze in any further, wait for the next one.”
Lin Yao actually didn’t want to join the bandwagon, but she didn’t know when the next bus would arrive, and by the looks of this situation, the next bus would probably be just as crowded as this one.
She didn’t want to be late, so all she could do was squeeze inward.
No handrail? It was alright, it didn’t matter whether she gripped the handrail or not, it was impossible to fall in this crowd.
Her bag was squeezed into other people’s arms? It was alright, her entire body was in other people’s arms anyway.
Everyone was squished into each other at the moment anyway, and bodies were firmly pressed together so much that it was difficult to turn around, let alone move.
The bus driver kept shouting in a loud voice, “Squeeze in, squeeze in further! it’s time to close the door!”
Lin Yao heard someone whispering with dissatisfaction, “I don’t understand. This bus isn’t a rubber car. Can it become longer and wider just by squeezing harder?”
The people beside her roared with laughter.
The people who took the bus seemed to have one thing in common. Before getting on the bus, no matter how crowded the bus was, they hoped that the people on the bus could squeeze and squeeze so that they could squeeze onto the bus, too. After they got on the bus, they didn’t want the people behind them to squeeze in any further, and couldn’t understand why on earth people still wanted to get on the bus when it was already so crowded?
“Whoop—clank!” The bus door closed heavily, and the bus slowly started.
Since the entire Chaoyang neighborhood was a residential area, for the next few bus stops, there were still more people getting on the bus than getting off.
Lin Yao took the bus to Huancheng East Road, which was a bit far from the Yueyang Building, but very close to Tianfeng Company. In other words, in the future, every time she commuted to work, she would pass by Tianfeng company.
“Xiao Lin! Xiao Lin!”
Lin Yao was about to walk forward when she suddenly heard someone calling her.
She took off her earbuds and turned around to find her former colleague Liu Yingjie greeting her.
“Brother Yingjie.”
“Is that really you?” Perhaps he had run after her, because Liu Yingjie’s pale face appeared flushed as he said, “I remembered that you didn’t take this bus, so I thought I had been mistaken when I saw you.”
Lin Yao shrugged nonchalantly. “I moved, and now I live in the Chaoyang neighborhood community.”
Liu Yingjie’s eyes showed a trace of joy as he asked, “Chaoyang neighborhood community? I live there too!”
Lin Yao smiled with pursed lips. “Is that so? What a coincidence.”
When she was in Tianfeng Company, Liu Yingjie and Shan Jie were kind to her, but since she had been fired, they had lost touch.
Nowadays, even when she encountered them on the bus or on the streets, there seemed to be nothing to talk about, no reason to chat.
Liu Yingjie sensed her indifference, and the joy in his eyes faded away. “Where are you working right now?”
Lin Yao raised her hand and stroked the hair that was disheveled by the wind, and replied succinctly, “Just in the Yueyang Building.”
Tianfeng Company was engaged in the wholesale of mechanical products, so it was basically an industry rival of Lingyun Industry. But, Tianfeng Company targeted the domestic market, while Lingyun Industry only targeted international markets, so there was little chance for their paths to cross.
“That’s close, there’s a chance…”
Liu Yingjie originally wanted to say that she had a chance to come back and visit, but that proposal was obviously not quite appropriate. He smiled and changed the topic, “After you left, the vice president hired three people to take over your work, but the three of them can’t handle your job even working overtime every day. Everyone was curious how you handled those jobs so easily by yourself in.”
What? Her work alone required three people to take over after her?
Lin Yao remembered how busy she was when she first entered Tianfeng Company. No matter how careful she was, there was always data that didn’t match up. She had racked her brains for a long time searching to find her pace.
Things became simple afterwards, her work efficiency continued to improve, and in the end, she worked so efficiently that she had practically nothing to do all day.
It wasn’t because the job itself was easy, so after replacing her with new people, it is indeed possible that even three people won’t be enough to handle it.
Lin Yao didn’t know why, but the anxious feeling inside her chest had lessened considerably, and she smiled slightly. “There are three new employees in Tianfeng Company? That means that business must be going well!”
Liu Yingjie burst out laughing. “What business is going well? We’re all just mindlessly busying ourselves. Are you in a hurry to go to work? I’ll let you go, but let’s keep in touch.”
“Uh-huh, let’s keep in touch.”
Lin Yao smiled and waved her hand, then quickly walked toward the Yueyang Building.