Assistant Architect

Chapter 50: Puzzle

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After being cut off by Fu Xinhui, Zhang Siyi thought about the many details related to Gu Yu in the past five months from the depths of his memory.

At the beginning, from when he first saw Gu Yu’s eccentric eyes at the coffee shop, to his unqualified interview notice, to getting a cactus, to the strange feeling of being touched late at night, and also the tape measure gift on my Birthday....

The more Zhang Siyi thinks, the more chaotic his heart is. However, all these peculiar thoughts percolating in his head were smashed into a knot that could not be understood after seeing his girlfriend on Christmas Day.

Zhang Siyi thought: “If Gu Yu has inexpressible intentions like Fu Xinhui said, then why does he have a girlfriend? Maybe I’m thinking too much? It’s just the fate of being a high school alumnus so that makes me a little special to him.... yes. That’s what it is!”

However, once he adjusted his thoughts and denied there was anything more, Zhang Siyi noticed a sense of loss that he didn’t want to admit.

Ah, ah, ah ...!

Tormented by self-entanglement for two nights and two days, Zhang Siyi woke up Monday morning dead as a corpse. Looking at the mirror with two panda eyes, Zhang Siyi decided that he had to stop thinking about it. He hung his head and convinced himself: “Zhang Siyi you big idiot. Listen, Gu Yu is just your boss. He does not have special feelings for you. Do not make up stuff otherwise you will be laughed at!”

After brainwashing himself, Zhang Siyi finally settled down. When he arrived at the company, he went straight to the dining area and gave himself a shot of super-bitter espresso. His mind recovered from the fog and he felt resurrected.

On the way to his desk, he happened to run into the oncoming Gu Yu. Zhang Siyi nodded to the other side and subconsciously kept the normal distance between the straight man and the straight man

Back at his seat, Zhang Siyi took a deep breath with a mad heart, and was about to start drawing. Opposite of him Bi Lele suddenly spoke out: “Hey! Did you notice two people missing from B Group from the previous day’s annual meeting? I heard they were leaving.”

Zhang Siyi curiously raised his ears: “Hmm? Who left the job?”

Bi Lele reported two names. One is Canadian with an architecture masters that had been working more than half a year earlier than Zhang Siyi, and the other was the foreigner Tom!

Yuan Zhicheng said: “When someone is persuaded to leave at the end of the year, it is in fact, being fired.”

“Why would they be fired?” Zhang Siyi was shocked. He had not been in contact with the Canadian so he didn’t know the persons’ level, however he knew Tom from the Z-City project. His designs were great!

Bi Lele said: “It is not clear. There are many reasons like the talent is repeated or the company doesn’t think you are suitable. The people in B Group should make the final choice. Here, for example, Tom, he can’t understand Chinese. Even if the design is done well, it is a big problem to communicate with colleagues. Every time there is a project group meeting or our study meeting, he has to translate it to understand. It’s okay once or twice, but all the time makes it difficult. In the end, he can only sit there silly. Since he can’t integrate, he can only be eliminated.”

Hearing thus, Zhang Siyi was upset. Although he did not have communication problems, Tom’s ability to draw analysis pictures was much better than him. Yes, the two people who were persuaded by the company to leave have similarities with Zhang Siyi, and both of them are better than him to some extent. Can he not panic? To tell you the truth, these days near the new year, he went to work a little absent-minded unlike the first two months where he was so focused and serious. Will one day Gu Yu call him into his office and tell him: Zhang Siyi, you are not suitable to work here....

No! Zhang Siyi hugged his head. He once again realized his inferiority. Compared to thinking about whether Gu Yu had any special thoughts on him, it is better to think about how to work hard!

Zhu Hongzhen raised his hand and wiped his sweat. It seems to be a little scared: “But at the end of the year, isn’t that too unkind? Don’t they ever let anyone have a good year?”

Bi Lele said: “It’s all like this. The surname Li who left last year, do you remember? I asked him about the specific situation. He said that the company also sent him a year-end award and a notice. They gave him one-month salary. Also, it is convenient for him because he can start preparing for a new job in advance. Many companies open their doors at the end of the year to deduct the year-end awards, and don’t talk much more morally. Nothing is good. Besides, the annual meeting isn’t mandatory to participate. If you know that you will be fired, what kind of annual meeting will you attend, is it not grief?”

Yuan Zhicheng spoke for the hearts of the people: “Well, let’s get to work, too.”

Also feeling the pressure, Zhang Siyi started CAD, and began drawing more toilets, and more parking lots. In the afternoon, he suddenly received a message from Gu Yu telling him to come to his office.

After being nervous all morning, suddenly seeing such a sentence, Zhang Siyi could only feel terrified. “Boss, are you looking for me?” Under the stress, Zhang Siyi no longer thought about his confused feelings.

He sat down uncomfortably and quietly comforted himself. At the annual meeting, Gu Yu also encouraged him to have fun and get recharged to become an excellent working hard employee next year. Would he get fired now? Except for the small cactus, he did not make too many mistakes, right? Amitabha, the Buddha bless, all goes well!

“What are you thinking about? Your expression is so dignified.” Gu Yu looked at him with a funny look.

Zhang Siyi: “...no, nothing.”

Gu Yu put away his smile and gave him a piece of information. He was straightforward and said: “The company has just received a government office building design project in the city of C. There is a week and a half from the Chinese New Year for you and Lu Qiao to come up with preliminary plans. When they are finished, we will go to C-Ciity to report and they will select one of your plans for development.

Zhang Siyi was a little unprepared for this unexpected task. He was still worried that he would be fired. As a result, Gu Yu directly gave him a project. This is the first time he has been working on a project alone in six months! He previously worked on a small project with Du Rui to make a single apartment plan. At most, he was only there to provide support.

Even under the pressure of this new task, Zhang Siyi is both excited and flustered.

Only ten days away from the New Year – what pressure! Even though he is feeling worried about doing the job well, Zhang Siyi is very excited about this opportunity: “When is the time to discuss the preliminary plan?”

As if he had some doubts about whether he had given this task to him, Gu Yu dismissed Zhang Siyi with a glance: “With only limited project work for half a year, I will arrange it myself, then let you know.”

Zhang Siyi: “...”

Back to the seat, Zhang Siyi double-clicked on the icon for Lu Qiao and messaged him: “Qiao Mei, Boss let us do the office building plan. Do you know of it?”

Lu Qiao: “Yes! Auntie! I just received the information! The time for battle is here!”

Zhang Siyi: “...”

Lu Qiao: “Although you are a few months younger than me, I will not show mercy!”

Zhang Siyi: “Come on! Who is afraid of who!”

Lu Qiao: “Don’t die!”

Zhang Siyi was encouraged by the other side and quickly began to view the project materials.

C-City is a county-level city. It has only developed to the city-level scale in the past year. Therefore, the economy is relatively backward. The office building base is located between the government road of the new development zone and the main road of another city, which is just the corner position.

The job specifics include a row of buildings with commercial space, post office and a distinguished government building with three entrances. In addition to an above ground parking lot with fifty spaces, the officials want the new building to be the tallest in order for it to stand out as a landmark building.

Zhang Siyi estimated the volume of the office building and found that the total building area demand was only over 3,000 square feet. How can this be built? Three hundred squares and one floor to build ten floors? Zhang Siyi’s eyes twitched, and he could already imagine a thin and long matchstick standing on the ground.

He wanted to study the surrounding environment. As a result, when he opened the base drawing, he was a bit worried. The CAD-based map provided by the local government has only the main road. Apart from the sporadic buildings, there is nothing. The designated building site and the surrounding plots are blank.

Is this a wasteland? They want to build banks, a post office, and commercial offices on barren land? Are they are going to open up a wasteland? This is too damn ridiculous!

Not only empty, but the designated area is still very large. Zhang Siyi has calculated that even if the office building of more than 3,000 square meters is fully paved according to the first-floor area, it only takes up a small corner of the base area.

Zhang Siyi does not believe this! He rushed to his computer to open a satellite map on the Internet and planned to look at the specific situation on the real elevation map. However, even more horrible things happened – Zhang Siyi entered the name of the place and the road name, but found nothing! Shit, does this land even exist?

He was scared to find the location of the C-city. With a little bit of comparison to the CAD-based map and the satellite one, he finally found it. Due to the rapid development of the city in the past year, it turned out that the road system on the map has not been updated, so the search function cannot be found at all!

After successfully positioning the map, Zhang Siyi loosened a small breath, but soon found the next problem – the map is too vague. He can’t tell the topography of the land. He can’t see what was already built. There is only vague farmland and houses near the beach at the water. Anything that can be seen faintly on the satellite map aren’t shown on the map from the local government.

The first independent project in his career and Zhang Siyi experienced successive forces to derail him.