On the first day of the training, the person in charge took them on a tour of the headquarters' factory and office area. This training was not only for people from Jiangcheng branch, but also for people from other branches.
The first three days were mostly spent learning about the brand. It wasn't until later that I officially met the amazing designers at headquarters, most of whom were foreigners. Jiang Jianhuan had interned in such an environment before, so she adapted quickly.
There are some differences in the habits of designers at home and abroad. They are generally more picky, rigorous and demanding, and they have a lot of trouble when they encounter designers with strange tempers, such as Weiwei, who Jiang Jianhuan used to work with.
Tang Qing was overwhelmed. On her first day, she was severely berated by a British designer for simply picking up the wrong piece of fabric in front of countless people. She went back to the hotel and burst into tears.
Jiang Jianhuan comforted her for a long time before Tang Qing finally wiped away her tears and calmed down. In comparison, Bob, the famous designer who mentored Jiang Jianhuan, was much kinder and taught her a lot throughout the day, for which Jiang Jianhuan was very grateful.
My days are packed with training, but evenings are mostly free. Compared to China, the workload in the UK is about the same, but overtime is generally less common. People here try to improve their efficiency and won't sacrifice their personal time unless absolutely necessary.
Jiang Jianhuan didn't want to waste this rare training opportunity, so even though most people had already left work in the evening, she still stayed in the office, trying to learn as much as possible.
One evening, Bob rushed over and was quite surprised to find the light on at her desk. Jiang Jianhuan explained to him that she was looking at some documents, and a look of astonishment flashed in his eyes.
Since that incident, Bob has been much more patient with her, almost to the point of sharing all his knowledge with her.
Even the smallest thing, I would explain it to her in detail.
For Jiang Jianhuan, time flew by. A week had passed in the blink of an eye, the training was already halfway over, and the date of his return to China was fast approaching.
For Su Mo, however, time was incredibly difficult to endure; she didn't know how much time had passed, only a week had gone by.
I miss you a little.
He carefully sent those few words. Jiang Jianhuan's gaze was fixed on them, her fingertips tracing the phone screen.
"I'll be back soon."
Su Mo replied with a photo.
On the calendar on the table, the day she returned to China was marked in big red.
Accompanied by a soft sigh.
"Eight days left."
Disappointment and sadness were clearly visible beneath the surface. Jiang Jianhuan wanted to lighten the mood, so she flipped through a few pages in the photo album, found a self-made animated emoticon, and sent it to him.
It was her back as she ran with her arms outstretched. Two seconds later, the scene switched to Su Mo crouching on the ground, catching a little girl who was rushing towards him.
It was probably taken by fans at an awards ceremony. He was still wearing a baseball cap and glasses, holding a little girl in his arms, with a gentle and doting smile on his lips.
The entire animated emoji also features several large, colorful cartoon characters floating above it.
[Husband, hug me!]
After sending it, Jiang Jianhuan suddenly felt a pang of shame. This was sent to her by Zhao Zhao, and she'd heard it had spread throughout their entire fandom, though of course, the female protagonist in each of the back views was different.
Zhao Zhao sent her a picture of his back. Jiang Jianhuan's first reaction upon seeing it was a mixture of admiration, speechlessness, and a slight urge to laugh. She was utterly impressed by the sheer power of online fans. Truly, there's nothing they can't do.
However, after a few seconds, Jiang Jianhuan hesitated and typed in the chat box with Jiang Zhao.
How was this done?
Ahhhhh, she wants it too!!!
Jiang Jianhuan had already used this set of emojis to exchange countless memes with Zhao Zhao in private, without the slightest sense of shame. However, now he was facing the very person behind those memes...
Forget it, maybe we should just withdraw it.
Jiang Jianhuan reacted quickly, clicking "undo" in the final few seconds. Only a line of gray text remained in the dialog box; the eye-catching GIF was gone. She breathed a slight sigh of relief.
I saw it.
Almost simultaneously, Su Mo sent a message, and Jiang Jianhuan's expression froze.
[...]
【oh.】
She replied expressionlessly.
Su Mo replied with a photo.
He sat on the white carpet, bathed in warm sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him, falling on the corners of his eyes and brows. He smiled brightly at the camera.
She has beautiful, clean, and elegant features.
The whole scene looked like a meticulously edited, beautiful poster. But Jiang Jianhuan knew that Su Mo always used only the phone's original camera, and specifically the Apple front-facing camera, which was notoriously bad for selfies.
I'll be able to hold you soon.
Jiang Jianhuan skipped over that line of text, opened the photo, lingered on the smile on his lips for a long time, and finally pressed save.
Jiang Jianhuan didn't take this little incident to heart. She was busy organizing her notes from the past few days and quickly put the conversation between the two of them out of her mind.
Two days later, in the evening, she received a message on her phone.
It's a room number, and a picture of the view from the hotel balcony.
It's the same thing Jiang Jianhuan sees every morning when she wakes up.
She stared in disbelief at what Su Mo had sent, her heart pounding.
It was just past the time to leave work, and Jiang Jianhuan suspected that Su Mo had sent the message right at the last minute. Even so, she quickly tidied her desk and got up to go home.
"So early today?" her colleague asked in surprise in English. After all, Jiang Jianhuan had been there for several days and was always the last one to leave; almost no one knew how long she worked.
"Yes, I have something to do, I'll be going now, goodbye." Jiang Jianhuan replied quickly in English, and before she finished speaking, she had already disappeared through the door with her bag.
Half an hour later, she arrived at her hotel. Her room was on the sixth floor, and the room number Su Mo had given her was 609, which happened to be next door.