Boys of Ice and Fire

The Rotten Lychee

Ethan began to type away on his computer, immersing himself in the creative process (almost in a standing position this time, because he had begun to feel a tingling feeling in his right leg, caused by LDH.), and came up with an outline within just a few hours. With a few adjustments based on the suggestion of Zoe, Ethan sent the file to Jojo for a preliminary check. But when Ethan followed Zoe’s direction and found Jojo’s seat, he realized Jojo was seated right across a small aisle from Shaun, back to back!

“Hi, I got us an outline,” said Ethan. “Would you like to have a look?”

“No problem.” Jojo stopped what she was doing and opened the Office Word file sent by Ethan. Even though she was checking Ethan’s outline and not looking at Ethan, Jojo seemed to always wear that gentle smile. Such a sweet girl she is! Ethan took an immediate liking to Jojo.

And while Jojo was reading through Ethan’s outline, Ethan craned his head to look at what Shaun was doing. As usual, he was sticking out his neck like a turtle and typing on his computer, dealing with something like an Excel form. Ethan guessed that’s what team leaders did, managing a lot of stuff.

On a sudden impulse, Ethan wanted to strike up a conversation with Shaun, to learn more about him, just stuff outside work. Then he spotted several lychees on the table. It must be the free snacks described in the brochure he got from orientation. So he acted surprised to see the fruit on Shaun’s desk, with widened eyes.

“Oh, what good lychees!” said Ethan, trying to sound as casual as possible. “Can I have one?”

Shaun seemed surprised that Ethan was trying to get closer to him, because he said something more about lychee.

“Of course,” said Shaun. “Take it. Take as many as you need.” He says this as if the lychees on the table were bound to be given out. But he didn’t stop there.

“Where is your home town, Ethan?” Shaun’s question immediately followed his generous offer to give the lychee. Ethan was stunned for a moment, then he regained his wits.

“Jiangxi Province.” said Ethan.

Jiangxi was a province bordering on Anhui Province, where Shaun came from.

“Then we are from the same area.” said Shaun, as blandly as ever.

Ethan was speechless. How the hell are Jiangxi and Anhui the same? Isn’t Shaun a little bit too eager to build an alliance with his group members? But Ethan was saved from replying, because Jojo had finished reading the outline and called Ethan out.

“Teacher Lo.” said Jojo, using the title Teacher before his name, as many colleagues did in this online education company. “I think your outline is cool. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”

“Cool.” Ethan had turned back to face Jojo. He felt lucky that Jojo was not hard to deal with. Deep down, Ethan knew that this outline was merely a reproduction of Zoe’s outline for the previous but similar lesson. In the first task, Joey, the American boy, proposed some weird autumn and winter events like raking leaves , but his parents told him these were not sports events. So, on the second task, they asked the teacher for the right events, and finally held a successful sports meeting. But Ethan wanted to make no improvements for the moment. He was so hungry.

“There’s another issue, Teacher Lo,” said Jojo.

Ethan got a panic. He was afraid there would be a lot of revisions to do now.

“Can you use this online collaborating website,” said Jojo. “I can teach you how to use it.”

Ethan found what Jojo suggested was a website called Shimo. Everyone could edit the same file on it, making comments and suggestions, so that colleagues didn’t have to send files back and forth. It was the first time Ethan had known this way of work, so he felt uncomfortable with it in the first place. But Jojo guided him through all the details about how to use it, and Ethan accepted this way of work in a minute! What a good girl Jojo felt like!

Ethan returned to his seat happily, with Shaun’s lychee. But when he peeled it off and took a bite, he found it had a sour taste that indicated it had been rotten... Oh my god! Doesn’t Shaun ever clean out the fruits or snacks on his desk? What a dirty lousy straight guy he is! Stealthily, Ethan threw the lychee into the dustbin just at the foot of his desk, and decided to call it a day.

However, it was only 18 o’clock, and he could get off at only 19. If he waited till 19 and took the subway home, it would be almost 21 when he arrived home. If he had his dinner after 21, it would worsen his condition of gastric ulcer. So Ethan decided to have dinner at the company now, and then get back home.

Just as Ethan wondered where to have dinner, he found Zoe was not in her seat. Then his phone buzzed. It was a message from Zoe, sent via Entrepreneur Wechat.

[Zoe: I’m now in the food court having my dinner. It’s gonna take a long time. Tell him I’m in the bathroom if Shaun wants me. I don’t want him to think I’m wasting time having dinner here, encroaching on work time.]

Ethan was dumbfounded. How can she be so quick at dealing with the dinner issue? Then he replied.

[Ethan: No problem. But I’m afraid I can’t keep an eye on Shaun for you. I’m now coming down to the food court to have dinner with you!]