Assistant Architect

Assistant Architect by Xi He Qing Ling

Chapter 181: Repayment

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Gu Yu asked: “They calledyou?”

Supposedly, Gu Yu didn’t know thatZhang Siyi was nearby. If Zhang Siyi hadn't seen Gu Yu being approached by manywomen, he wouldn't have known he was being targeted. However, now that the girlshave called and Zhang Siyi was the recipient of those calls, he ultimatelylearned about the many women that wanted to hook-up with Gu Yu. Did Gu Yudeliberately hand out his number to make him jealous?

Grinding his teeth, Zhang Siyi sourlysaid: “Yes. I think those people are interested in you. What are you goingto do?”

Gu Yu grinned and said: “Youdecide.”

“…….” Bastard! Gu Yu himself had caused the problemand instead of solving it, he passed the responsibility to Zhang Siyi!

Feeling a little resentful, Zhang Siyiwas about to retort but instead, his loud, growling stomach interrupted them.They glanced at each other at the same time. Gu Yu laughed out loud and pattedhis ass: "Let's get up and eat. Do you want to go out for steak?"

Zhang Siyi: “Forget it. I'mfeeling too lazy to go out."

“Shall I make some dumplings?" GuYu got up and saw Zhang Siyi hiding his head. He leaned over and kissed himthen said: "Put on your clothes."

“Hmm.” While on the bed, ZhangSiyi slid on a pair of pajama pants. When he got off the bed and stood up, hislegs buckled. He was reminded of how much he 'suffered'. Shit! Gu Yu was abeast. When next they fought, Zhang Siyi absolutely couldn't rely on thismethod to solve it!

As he reached the bottom of thestaircase, Zhang Siyi's legs buckled again. Fuck! Gu Yu hasn't even apologizedfor his rough treatment!

Fighting between each other was justtoo emotionally taxing and to some extent, physically exhausting as well. ZhangSiyi was even hungrier than he thought and as a result, he wolfed down deliciousdumplings and seaweed soup. It didn't matter whether or not he ate a steak.Even a simple meal became fine dining. What was truly important was the abilityto eat together while enjoying each other's presence.

After gorging himself on food, ZhangSiyi didn't want to move. Eventually, he brazenly put his chopsticks down andpushed his plate back. He supported his waist and slowly walked back upstairsto his own room. Gu Yu understood that Zhang Siyi was 'bearing the pain of happiness'and let him go back to his room alone to rest.

Burrowing into the blankets in bed,Zhang Siyi wrapped them around himself and hunkered down until his head wasonly showing. He took out his phone and wondered what he should tell Su Yuan.Of course, he didn't tell her about his true relationship with Gu Yu, butinformed her that the director could evaluate her portfolio and suggest acompany she could apply to that was suited her abilities.

Su Yuan didn't expect Zhang Siyi to takeher matter to heart, let alone make inquires on her behalf on the same day.Grateful, she thanked him sincerely and said she would prepare a collection ofwork as a soon as possible. Now that the issue was dealt with, Zhang Siyi feltrelieved. He checked in with his friend's group chat.

They began to chat around five o’clockin the early evening. After Zhang Siyi left, he noticed they hadn't stayed outfor very long. Ren Mengyu was asking the group what they thought of herboyfriend.

Jiang Hai: “Very good…..handsome, rich, and elegant.”

Tian Yujing echoed him: “Yes. Ithink you are a very well matched.”

Ren Mengyu listened very happily andmade a cute cartoon expression in the group.

What? Was Zhang Siyi the only personthat felt her boyfriend was stingy? More than two hundred worth of coffee andhe actually asked Zhang Siyi to pay. (T/N: 200 Yuan = ~ 28USD/26Euro)

Jiang Hai added: “But I feel heis a bit mysterious. When we had a lunch today, he didn’t say anything abouthimself.”

Inwardly, Zhang Siyi agreed with JiangHai's assessment. As they talked, Bai Rui only listened. If he wasn't so goodlooking, they wouldn't have even known Bai Rui existed.

Intuitively, it was difficult forZhang Siyi to draw a couple’s equal sign between Bai Rui and Ren Mengyu.

Unlike Tian Yujing, when Jiang Haifirst brought her to their apartment to meet, she left a very vivid impressionon Zhang Siyi. As for Bai Rui, he gave Zhang Siyi the feeling he was RenMengyu's wallet more than anything else. In addition, this wallet wanted ZhangSiyi to share the cost! (=_=)

“That’s how he is. When I’m withhim, he rarely mentions work because he says he doesn’t want to mix life andwork.” Ren Mengyu explained.

Jiang Hai: “Ah. That explains it."

Even though Ren Mengyu explained itclearly, Zhang Siyi wasn't convinced. During their lunch together, Bai Rui wasonly introduced as a boyfriend and never revealed anything about himself.Wasn't it normal to briefly introduce yourself by telling about their careerand position? All the information that the group knew about him was alreadyprovided by Ren Mengyu in private.

According the Ren Mengyu, in additionto having an extremely good background, he had his own company. Aren't theseall very good talking points? But, Bai Rui said nothing about it. Mulling itover, Zhang Siyi came up with two reasons for his behavior. One, he didn't wantthe group to get to know him, or two, he didn't want to further integratehimself into Ren Mengyu's life. Either way, it’s not the attitude that a normalboyfriend would have.

Bai Rai attitude reminded Zhang Siyiof Gu Yu because he also keeps a clear division between his work life andprivate life. In front of others, Gu Yu is quite the mysterious figure.

However, their similarities end there.Everything that Gu Yu has, his diary, friend's circle, daily life etc.…. waswillingly shown to Zhang Siyi without reservation. In front of Zhang Siyi, Gu Yu is a personwithout secrets. Therefore, when Ren Mengyu admitted her ignorance when it cameto Bai Rui life, Zhang Siyi felt that something about their relationship wasn'tquite right.

Although he really wanted to express afew concerns, he thought about what Gu Yu had told him before and decided itwasn't his place to say something. He wasn't an emotional expert and could bewrong. What's more, even if they could meet together again despite everyone'sbusy schedule, he didn't know if he would come in contact with Bai Rui in thefuture.

In addition, even though Zhang Siyi wanted tocomplain about Bai Rui stingy behavior, talking poorly about someone behindtheir back wasn't in good taste. Struggling with his ideals and not wanting tocause a problem, Zhang Siyi gave up his idea and simply sent a blessing in thegroup chat instead.

As he closed the group chat, he saw anextra red dot in his WeChat contacts. It usually means a user has requested himto be a friend. After he clicked on the dot, he was very surprised. The personwanting to add him as a friend was none other than Bai Rui!

Zhang Siyi was puzzled. Why does RenMeng's boyfriend want to add him as a friend? They weren't familiar with oneanother. One lunch together hardly counts as close enough to being calledfriends. Zhang Siyi hesitated. Does he accept or decline?. After all, his realfriend, Ren Mengyu, was the one with the relationship.

The avatar that Bai Rui used was anabstract art painting and his nickname was Vinci. Looking at it, Zhang Siyididn't know whether the choice was personal or was it related to his profession.He didn't particularly understand it, but that didn't matter since he had nointerest in knowing.

After verification, Bai Rui sent anexpression: [Smiles]

After acknowledgement, Zhang Siyi senta 'handshake' expression then wondered: "How do you know my social media page?"

Bai Rui returned with three words:“Oh, you guess.”

Eyes twitching, Zhang Siyi thought tohimself ….. Can't you just answer me! Why do I need to guess?

Being with Ren Mengyu, Zhang Siyisubconsciously eliminated the thought that Bai Rui was gay, but the literal toneof his three words really made Zhang Siyi suspicious. How can a straight mantalk to another man in that tone? Was Zhang Siyi a little girl? (=_=)

Thinking back to this afternoon, whenBai Rui produced his QR code for the payment from WeChat, did Zhang Siyi leaveany information behind? With his previous use of the app to transfer money, hewas only able to see a nickname and avatar. There wasn't a way to know theaccount name in order to make a friend request. Was the answer so simple to BaiRui's question; ask Ren Mengyu?….. Ah fuck!

Zhang Siyi bluntly asked: “Youdidn't ask Ren Mengyu, did you?"

Bai Rui replied with a transfer.[WeChat Transfer – ¥250.00] "For this afternoon's coffee."

Bai Rui added: “My girlfriend wasangry so I needed to return the coffee money back to you. [Smiles]”

Zhang Siyi: “…..”

Zhang Siyi: “No need. It was justa few cups of coffee."

Although Zhang Siyi thought Bai Ruiwas rather petty in the afternoon, Zhang Siyi didn't let Bai Rui's actionsbother him. However, unlike Zhang Siyi, this little matter made Ren Mengyu upset.As it turned out, now that she has fallen in love, Ren Mengyu turned into aspoiled princess.

Zhang Siyi thought Bai Rui had beeninstructed by his girlfriend and would therefore be forced to give it.

When Bai Rui read Zhang Siyi's messagehe wrote back: "Ok then."

It was unexpected. Zhang Siyi hadn'tmoved an inch when Zhang Siyi saw his reply. Zhang Siyi felt like he waspunched in the face. Didn't Bai Rui just say his girlfriend coaxed him? Why didhe give up?

Bai Rui quickly replied: “Alright,accept the payment and give it back. Otherwise, I have to wait for the systemto issue a refund and it takes more than twenty-four hours."

Zhang Siyi eye twitched. Fuck, whatthe hell! He can't wait twenty-fourhours?

He silently collected the money andthen issued a return of two hundred-fifty. However, he hasn't yet seen Bai Ruiaccept the payment.

Zhang Siyi had a bad feeling: "It'syour turn to confirm the payment."

Bai Rui: “Oh never mind. You cankeep the money. I won't accept yours.”

Zhang Siyi: “…….” Fuck! His original speech was a ruse! (#°Д°)

Zhang Siyi: “What? Why are youdoing this!" [Going Crazy]

Bai Rui: “[Smiles]”

In just a few minutes, Zhang Siyi’s wasunwillingly taken on a roller coaster ride. Clearly it was payback money, butit was being bounced around like a hot potato. Zhang Siyi felt like he wasbeing deceived and it made him feel very uncomfortable.

Even though Zhang Siyi was frantic toresolve the issue about the money, Bai Rui seemed to be completely indifferent.

He was so exasperated that he didn'tknow what to do to resolve the issue cleanly. Suddenly, he thought of asolution. "Ok. But, the six cups totaled only two-hundred-fifteen and nottwo-hundred-fifty. I can't keep the thirty-five extra that you gave me." Nomatter what, Zhang Siyi didn't want to take anything extraneous from Bai Rui.

Bai Rui replied: "Don't worry. Justthink of it as my gift to you." [Smiles]

Zhang Siyi: “……” What the Fuck! Why is he doing this!? It's so stupid! (╯‵□’)╯(┻━┻

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