Assistant Architect

Assistant Architect by Xi He Qing Ling

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In orderto keep the Revolutionary United Front, Zhang Si Yi can only help keep hersecret.

He justhappened to see part of a page of an opened book. There was a man pushinganother to the wall to bite his neck, blushing with a quickening heartbeat…Zhang Siyi hurriedly closed the book and felt goosebumps all over. He couldn'tlook at his mom. He especially does not want her to visit. What will she thinkwhen she sees him living with Heartless Han and his dog? Is his mother going tothink he's gay!

Since hereturned to his hometown, Zhang Siyi took pictures of the high-speed railwaystation and Ningcheng on the road. A local friend contacted him that night andpolitely asked him to go out and have a few drinks.

When hevisited between his semesters in England, he mainly stayed at home with hisparents and didn't have much time for socializing. Most invitations were madeby excuses and only wanted to see how Zhang Siyi, the small hair, grew up. Hehad one childhood friend, Shen Hao, whose family also knew Zhang Siyi's family.

Shen Haofamily and Zhang Siyi’s family have a little friendship. Shen Hao’s fatherworked with Zhang Siyi's father in the early days. Although he is now in adifferent department, he has always had contact.

The boys werein the same kindergarten and elementary school. His father insisted that ZhangSiyi only go to public schools, so after he graduated from junior high school,Shen Wei was sent to a private school. Under pressure, Zhang Siyi was admittedto Ningwai.

To put itbluntly, Shen Hao is “defective”. When he was in college, he didn’teven have an undergraduate course of study. After that, his father paid for himto enter a pheasant university in a nearby city. It sounds like a collegegraduate, but in fact, it is just a specialist qualification.

However,apart from the academic qualifications, Shen Dao is a very worthy friend. Hejust doesn’t like to read books, but he has a lot of ideas. He is very cleverand humorous. Zhang Siyi especially loved to play with him as kids. In the pastfew years, Zhang Siyi has also been in contact with Shen Hao intermittently.

The nextafternoon, the two met at the small bar. When Shen Yan met Zhang Siyi, heeagerly came up to him with a light punch and then grabbed the brother’sshoulder. He was excited: “Zhang Dagongzi!”

Zhang Siyiturned around and elbowed his friend: “I haven't seen you in over a year,you are so different!”

Lastsummer, when Zhang Siyi was still a student, he came back and saw each other. Hisfriend has changed since then with his tanned and rough skin. He still has ahippie smile, but he now feels like a young person in society.

Shen Hao: “Iam different from your white-faced, scholar background. I have mixed up insociety for almost two years. I'm full of wind and sun, old!”

After theysat down, they ordered some beer and skewers. Zhang Siyi saw him place a BMW carkey on the table. He was surprised: “BMW, wear Zegna. Shit! How are you sorich now?”

Shen Yuproudly said: “I am working in architecture.”

"Hey!"Zhang Siyi squirted a beer and wiped his mouth. "You didn't go for a financialmajor at the Patriotic Economic and Trade University? When did you switch toarchitecture?"

Shen Haosmiled: “Isn’t this to because of you. When I was studying for a fewyears, my dad was getting on my ass everyday telling me how great and diligentyou were, that I needed to learn from you. So, when you went abroad to studyarchitecture, he thought there had to be a future in the field."

Zhang Siyiinwardly groaned. He asked: “You tell me clearly; what building are youdoing?”

Shen Haodrank a big swig of beer and said: “Do construction contractingprojects.”

ZhangSiyi: “What is that? Say it simply!

Shen Hao:“It’s the contractor.”

ZhangSiyi: “…”

Shen Hao puthis beer to the side and said: “Don’t underestimate me in this line. I'lltell you. I make a lot of money. These last two years I've worked on threeprojects and earned this amount." He stretched out his palm with five fingersopen,” this number!"

Zhang Siyian eyebrow: “50,000?"

Shen Haostared with eyes and forced the five fingers toward Zhang Si Yi to join.

ZhangSiyi: “Your lying! It’s not half a million, is it?"

Shen Haoslapped the table: “Eh? It’s five million! Five million!”

Zhang Siyiis shocked speechless: “Really, it's that much? Don’t bullshit me!"

Shen Haohurriedly said: “I'm not bluffing. I'm your friend! I got my car and myhouse!"

Zhang Siyiis both envious and instinctively unwilling to believe it. He is curious:“What do you do? What foundation is needed?”

Shen Haowaved his hand: “The contractor recruits' people to work and managesthem."

Zhang Siyiraised his eyebrows: “That sounds to simple. Why Isn't everyone able tomake a fortune?”

Shen Xiaosmiled: “Of course it's not simple! It's about opportunity and to behonest, the first project is based on my father’s relationship…”

Zhang Siyifound the real reason. He nodded "uh huh".

Shen Haocontinued: “My father has a friend named, Uncle Cao, who is in theconstruction business. He saw me idle after graduation and asked me to help himwith a favor. After a while I started learning from him about the overallprocess; where to find people to work, where to buy materials etc… It's gettingmore difficult because of the expense. Migrant workers are paid 2000 now."

Zhang Siyiinterrupted: “The three projects earned 5 million and paying workers 2000is still expensive?”

Shen Hoasaid: “The whole market situation is like this. Others only give onethousand or fifteen thousand. I pay two thousand. It's good!”

Zhang Siyiis speechless.

Shen Hoaalso pointed his finger to him: “A project might have fifty people, with 12hours a day working shifts. Sometimes the project must go through two shiftsday and night which is equivalent to double the labor. Monthly expenditure willbe a dozen or two hundred thousand. This doesn't guarantee that the workerswon't try to drag out the time!"

ZhangSiyi: “Wait, twelve hours a day? Isn't the legal working time eighthours?”

Shen Haolooked at him like an idiot: “Which line of work is only eight hours? Don’ttell me that you don’t work overtime, huh, huh.”

The last“huh huh” was a great irony to Zhang Siyi, and Zhang Siyi was soangry that he couldn’t refute anything. He did work overtime often and he even spentthe night!

Shen Haoignored his scowl and continued: “In any case, artificially, you can’tmake any money. The main profits are from materials. You must understand thebuilding materials market. The construction unit will give you a total amountof money for each project. If you save money, the rest of the profits areyours.”

Zhang Siyiand squinted at him: “Don't use cheap, black market stuff!"

Shen Haosaid: “I am not the kind of person who has no conscience!”

Zhang Siyislowly nodded his head and asked: “You have no foundation in construction.How can you be a supervisor? What if there is a problem?”

Shen Haodoesn’t care: “Pay the Supervisor consultant to help look at it!”

“That'syour solution? “Zhang Siyi wasn't sure he heard right. What if theSupervisor consultant is a liar? What if Shen Hao was fooled by someone elseand didn’t know? What if something went wrong in the construction process?Who’s in charge? Is it a Shen Hao or a construction consultant or anengineering company? Even though Zhang Siyi had a thousand question, he didn'task. He didn't want to crush Shen Hao's enthusiasm.

Shen Hao:"Don't worry. I have learned a lot in these past two years. I've worked in theindustry with Uncle Coa as well as others. My dad is always promoting me, and Iget contacted often. Hey! It's so much more interesting working in society.Studying was suffocating!"

Shen Haograbbed the car key and shook his hand, proud: “You see the results! MyBMW and lake view apartment are paid for and I didn't even spend a penny frommy family."

ZhangSiyi: “…”

Zhang Siyi feels like hehas a stomach ache. For more than a decade, one type of belief has beeninstilled into Zhang Siyi mind. In order to succeed in the future, you muststudy hard and do well. However, the reality is different. Right in front ofhim is a person who never studied and yet, he has already surpassed Zhang Siyifinancially! It is too difficult to admit that the other person is better thanhimself. In particular, hisfriend has easily done what Zhang Siyi has always wanted to do. He does notspend a penny from home, starts from scratch, is rich and wealthy, and proveshis strength in front of his father.

Just then,Shen Hao smiled and asked, “What about you? Well, how are you doing in thebig city?"

He knowshis friend doesn't mean anything by his questions, but to Zhang Siyi, it feelslike he is pouring lemon juice over paper cuts. Depressed, he responded: "Idon't earn as much money as you. I'm a hard-working drawing dog. I work at anoffice with a monthly salary less then then six thousand most of which goes torent so I can only eat dirt."

He also wants to brag infront of Shen like a bulging, fat man, but in the face of a local tyrant whohas reached 2.5 million a year, the gap is too big. He feels like a salted fish;lifeless and dried.

Shen Shen's heart was dark,and the surface was surprised: "Really? Haicheng's salary is so low?"

Is he really not pokingfun at Zhang Siyi's expense? He inwardly sighs. In fact, it is not low. He is athousand dollars more than Jiang Hai!

Shen Hao's family wasconvinced he would always follow in Zhang Siyi's shadow. In Shen Hao father'smouth, Zhang Father's son was "a child of other people's family". Somewhere inhis heart he wanted the serf to turn over and become the master. Feeling giddywith happiness, he's got his wish!

They have been friends for a long time. Shen Haowants to earnestly help his friend out and says: "You are in the big city nowbut can return in Ningcheng and work with me! I'm picking up relatively smallprojects now, but with more experience I will be able to pick up biggerprojects that pay even more. I have the money to connect with people and youare an architect with professional knowledge. When I hire you, I will give youa share of the profits and make sure you can also earn a golden pot in a fewyears."

After hearing his friend's proposal, Zhang Siyi feltmoved. How could he not? One hundred fifty thousand a year! He doesn't thinkeven Gu Yu's annual salary is a fraction of it!

He is thankful for his friend's olive branch, butZhang Siyi doesn't feel comfortable. If he doesn't use the skills, he graduateduniversity with, what were all those years studying architecture for?

Zhang Siyi bit his teeth: “Thanks, but I'mlearning design and I don't know what to do with construction, so I don't thinkI can help you right now. Maybe later when I learn more, we will be able towork together on a project. I'll will immediately come to you!"

Shen Hao:“Good deal!”

After that, the two of them talked about thefriends of the past few years. Many of them were peers with similar familybackgrounds who grew up in the district.

Shen Hao: “Remember that Song Xiao? She isgetting married at the end of the year.”

Zhang Siyi: “Theone who always has a runny nose in elementary school? So fast!”

Laughing, ShenHao said: “Well, when I was a child, I teased her and pulled her braids. Ididn't expect her to get married so soon. At 18, she has changed a lot. She isquite beautiful now. If I had earned my 5 million earlier, she would be mywife!"

ZhangSiyi: “Ha-ha-ha!”

Shen Hao: “She may not know that you havereturned to China. Are you coming back for the New Year? I will let her know,and we can go out for drinks!"

Zhang Siyiexcited way: “Good!”

Shen Hao:“By the way, if you go to the wedding don't forget a gift.”

Zhang Siyidoesn't know the current trend and asks: "Usually how much do people give?"

Shen Hao:” I estimate about one thousand six-eight hundred."

There areso many sleeper grooves! Zhang Siyi expenditures greatly exceed his currentincome and he is still expected to pay 1600-1800 for a wedding gift? But beforehe could express his inner shock, he listened to Shen Hao: “I earn a lot, soI gave 10,000.”“Poof …” ZhangSiyi felt like he had a huge hole in his chest.