Boys of Ice and Fire

Get Down to Work

Ethan couldn’t fall asleep instantly. Normally, he would have to linger for half an hour before he lost consciousness altogether. And within those thirty minutes, he would fantasize in his mind about a romance with the boy that he felt closest to, visualizing all the details in a dramatic way. And for that nap, that boy was, of course, Shaun.

But he couldn’t cram much into this nap today. For one thing, he had a grilling morning with all the orientation, first encounter with Shaun, meeting Zoe and Rosie, etc. For another, he had known too little about Shaun, except for that scanty information he could garner on the Internet, to formulate a well-structured story with adequate substance about him and Shaun.

So he only thought about what it would be like if he had been at the same college with Shaun in Anhui Province, about how they would join the activity groups together or meet for the first time in an elective class, before he fell into the abyss of sleep .

When he woke up, it was almost 2 o’clock PM. He got back to his seat in time, waiting for any work arrangements Shaun or Zoe might have for him. But no one came. So he opened the official website of Monkey Education to get a general picture of what the company was like.

On the web page was a lot of basic information and functions, such as links to the introduction of its products, the OA system for employees, and some personal information about Ethan himself, listed on the upper right side, concerning his position (animation script writer), days at Monkey Education (Day 001), a profile image, etc.

Ethan really liked the Monkey Education logo now as his profile image, as well as some animation characters on the banner of the website, including Zack the Zebra, the character for his project Zebra Oral English. It was a cute little zebra drawn in a cartoonist style.

Ethan tried to take a screen shot that included both Zack the zebra on the banner and the Monkey Education logo, but while he was moving his mouse to make the exact screen shot with subtle precision, a voice suddenly sounded from behind him.

“ Have you set up the Enterprise Wechat yet?”

Ethan craned his neck to see Shaun standing close behind him, as close as less than an inch, breathing down on him with a voice that bordered on sternness. Ethan freaked out! Is taking a screen shot of the company logo and animation character illegal in this company? Why so serious??? But that was only a strong inner voice. Ethan’s true answer only came out weak, humble and flimsy.

“No. Not yet,” said Ethan, filled with fear. “But I’ll do it now, right now.” Ethan gave Shaun a polite nod, and turned to download and set up Enterprise Wechat according to the guidelines on the little exquisite brochure he got at the orientation.

“I’ll send you the work arrangements,” said Shaun. “After you set up and log onto Enterprise Wechat.” Then he stalked off, as assuredly yet quietly as he had come.

Doesn’t he ever produce a noise? Is he a ghost? Ethan wanted to share this with a colleague, but he was new to this place and there was no one he trusted enough to gossip about the idiosyncrasies of the group leader with. So he got back to setting up the Enterprise Wechat.

After this was done, he found that the Enterprise Wechat was as user-friendly as the normal version of Wechat. Only the general color design had changed from green to white. Also, the logo of Wechat indicated two people conversing. But the logo of Enterprise Wechat indicates four people holding hands to form a circle, a metaphor for cooperation at the workplace.

But Shaun soon snapped out of his analysis of the logos of the personal and enterprise versions of Wechat when he received a message from Shaun. This was the first time he learned anything about Shaun on the internet. His profile image was the angry face of a tabby cat, wearing a shabby dirty brown human headband over its head. In the lower right corner of his profile image was a little flag of China.

Before he read Shaun’s messages, Ethan made a brief analysis of Shaun based on his profile image. He must be a person who was into animals, specifically cats! What a man with a loving heart. But, Oh My God! This could be a cat given to him as a gift by his girlfriend! I hope that is not the truth. And last but not least, he must be a patriot, fervent about his nationality and motherland. Alright. So far, so good.

Ethan still had a job to do ( normally you would have to pass a six-month try-out period in a Internet company to be a formal employee), so he opened Shaun’s messages and read:

Teacher Ethan Lo, welcome to the Group of Interactive Content at Zebra Oral English. You will be appointed to write scripts for the animation films for the S2 Level (Kids at the age between 4-5).

Click on the following link and you will see the related materials that you can familiarize yourself with beforehand. This week you will follow Zoe to get through all the processes. Next week, you will be writing the scripts on your own.

Ethan got into a panic when he saw the words “on your own”. He had always been a dependent person. But he regained his confidence soon, remembering what an old man he was now and how he had to take things independently.

“Alright.” Ethan replied to Shaun, tersely.