Assistant Architect

Chapter 14: Member

Chapter 14: Member

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“Why?” Zhang Siyi wiped his mouth and said, “Yesterday he criticized you so severely. He is not gentle so how does that make him perfect?”

Not only that, he also is always giving Zhang Siyi a hard time. Isolation by way of no help from his colleagues, ridicule, can’t chat to friends.... Maybe the guy has no friends at all!

Despite getting along well in a short period of time, Zhang Siyi can list a bunch of grievances. The illusion of “good and generous” has long since disappeared. With such a hard and unforgiving boss, Zhang Si Yi doesn’t understand why Gi Yu is so popular with girls. Well, aside from his looks and professional ability.

Du Rui immediately retorted: “I did not do well so he is indeed qualified to criticize me.” There is the public Boss Gu Yu and the private Gu Yu. Even though young people spend time out at night, he can’t live that way. Being a director has many responsibilities. He is very polite to his subordinates. but privately he is very gentle and considerate person.

...... Mild? Considerate? pppftt! Is she talking about the same person?

Originally, Zhang Siyi used such adjectives to describe Gu Yu, but now it will never be. He also thinks that Du Rui is confused by Gu Yu’s performances as he was at the beginning.

Zhang Siyi flat mouth: “Anyway, I think he is sometimes overbearing.”

Du Rui became unhappy after hearing Zhang Siyi harsh words. The atmosphere between them became strained and in defense Du Rui suddenly said. “I didn’t have such a good predecessor to work under at my old job, you can’t even see the blessing before you...” She paused. A look of envy flashed in her eyes, “He even gave you his cactus!”

Zhang Siyi: “......” Can the cactus tell us anything? It’s not made of gold!

This topic let the atmosphere take a sharp turn and the chatting stopped. Du Rui stood up holding her cup of coffee: “Well, let’s hurry back and finish drawing otherwise so we can report to Gu Yu.”

Shit! Reminding him of his responsibilities, Zhang Siyi also stood up and was anxious and go back to work.

When Zhang Siyi worked overtime at 10 o’clock that night, he completed the task assigned by Gu Yu before he got off work, but this is not the end of his hardship.

After one months, almost every day, he painted the building’s core functions and various other details. He had to create so many bathroom designs that he couldn’t think anything else but toilet measurements. It’s like an occupational hazard.

There was this one time, at a restaurant with Fu Xinhui, where Zhang Siyi went to use the bathroom. The internal separation was very unique, so he felt compelled to measure all the toilet proportions in the room for a long time. The people who went in and out of the bathroom looked at him as strangely. After returning, Fu Xinhui also laughed at him. The dishes were already cold.

Just when Zhang Siyi had enough of drawing toilets, the human resource department informed him that Gu Yu passed his probationary period. When Zhang Si Yi learned the “good news”, he felt so excited. Earlier that day, when Zhang Siyi first arrived at the company, he received a message from Gu Yu: “Don’t leave after work. We will have a meal together.”

Accustomed to Gu Yu’s orders every time there is a task, Zhang Si Yi instinctively rose from his desk. He did not expect to see such an invitation.

He returned an “Oh” word, and he felt happy after a long while.

Gu Yu told him to eat together. Is it to celebrate his new staff member status? The days of painting toilets and stairs are over? Ah ha-ha! Grappling with his past treatment, Zhang Siyi doesn’t know if he wants to forgive Gu Yu. Although, being invited to dinner.... Zhang Siyi’s attitude softens.

Zhu Hongzhen suddenly said, “Auntie Four, you know about tonight’s dinner?””

“AHA? Zhang Si Yi’s mood suddenly fell from the clouds!

Had his intention been made clear from the start, Zhang Siyi wouldn’t have been hurting all day! Feeling depressed, he turned around to see Gu Yu came out from the office and greeted everyone to eat. The people in the group were noisy and excited to go downstairs to gather.

Autumn comes at the end of September and with it, cooler temperatures. Outside the group gathers to hail a taxi. Zhang Siyi was mixed in the crowd, and his eyes swept to Gu Yu, and suddenly he could not move his eyes. He is wearing an indigo blue sweater and black slim jeans. With hands in his pockets, and long legs, he looks like purple bamboo... A rare specimen.

The man was standing slightly to the side and did not interrupt his subordinates while they chattered and laughed. With eyes smiling, Gu Xiao radiated a unique quietness that would not make people feel pressured, but also, would not make people feel ignored.

The dinner venue was set at a Cantonese restaurant three kilometers away from the company. The group of people called three cars to bring them to the restaurant. Zhang Siyi got in first followed by Zhu Hongzhen, Bi Lele and last was Yuan Zhicheng. Gu Yu leaned in and carefully told Yuan Zhicheng the location of the restaurant then let them leave.

When the car started, Zhang Siyi saw two other cars coming. Another group of people took the second taxi, and some girls including Du Rui got into the third car along with Gu Yu.

Zhang Siyi turned around and there was a feeling of sorrow in his heart, and he did not know where it came from. He asked Zhu Hongzhen, “Why are you having dinner today?”

Zhu Hongzhen: “At the end of every month we have a company dinner.”

Zhang Siyi was shocked: “Every month Guo takes the department out for dinner!? For a large group of people, Isn’t that just too much?”

Zhu Hongzhen laughed: “It’s not a treat. It’s the class fee.”

Zhang Si Yi is a bit blindfold: “What class meeting fee?””

Bi Lele laughed and said: “It is the funds for the activities in the group. We all call them “Class membership fees.”

Zhang Siyi suddenly remembered the 500-dollar salary deduction. He asked, “Does the company give us the class membership fee?”

“No, it’s what we earned ourselves,” Bi Lele explained. “After the company’s quarterly benefits are met, one percent of the extra design fee is spent on activities. For example, the company requires the annual performance to be 10 million. The average is 2.5 million per quarter, and we have done 3 million jobs, of which 500,000 percent are counted as activities for this quarter, including employee travel and out-of-school study benefits.”

Zhang Siyi: “The trough, 10 million a year! Can our company earn so much?”

Bi Lele looked at Zhang Siyi as if he was looking at Xiaobai: “One million is less than in the past. When the industry situation was better, 20 million was easy to earn. Don’t forget there isn’t much support and our projects are on the smaller side.”

Zhu Hongzhen: “To make a contract you need pretty good connections and our company design fees are higher.”

Yuan Zhicheng, who is sitting in the vice-passenger seat, also turned around to comfort Zhang Siyi: “Although it is not very good now, but we can still eat at dinner, rest assured.”

Zhang Siyi: “...”

However, since there are so many class fees, why should Gu Yu also deduct his poor five hundred wages? Zhang Siyi feels slighted again!

Zhang Siyi could not help but be curious: “Hey, do you know how much Boss is paid?”

Zhu Hongzhen: “I’m not sure, but my classmate’s father is a chief architect. His annual income is about 5 to 600,000. Some other higher-ranking people make more than one million.

Zhang Siyi is excited – Who says that building can’t make money! A lot of money! (¥¥)

Bi Lele turned back and whispered: “I have listened to the group B people to discuss the annual salary of child labor, it seems to be 350,000, I think the work is almost the same.”

Zhu Hongzhen nodded: “It is high for someone as young as Gu Yu.”

Zhang Siyi glared at his fingers and thought that Jiang Hai and Fu Xinhui would not work for so little wages. So little money, it hurts: “Then our salary is bad?”

Bi Lele turned a blind eye: “What do we have to complain? We are new. A senior told me that one needs more than 8 years to even think about it. Maybe years ago, it was not like it is now.”

Zhu Hongzhen: “That is, nowadays, the graduates of the architecture department have a lot of graduates, and they are mostly cheap laborers. But the elite talents of the industry are hard to find. After all, the transfer rate is too high and there are too few who can persist.”

Bi Lele: “I heard that when the boss just became the Director, there was a real estate company in Shenzhen who offered a million yuan to recruit him as a design consultant, but he refused.”

Zhu Hongzhen: “How do you hear about so much?

Listening to colleagues talk about those high-income architects, Zhang Siyi has been speechless, why is the gap between people so much!

With the distraction of conversation, time passed quickly. In what felt like an instant, all 11 people arrived at the Cantonese restaurant. After the group of people were seated, several male colleagues were clamoring for a drink. Beer and wine were passed around and the atmosphere quickly became lively.

Everyone should respect the director as usual, but it is not a coincidence that Gu Yu’s cell phone suddenly rang. He smiled and pointed to Zhang Siyi’s direction: “Be good. I will go out and take my call.”

Zhang Siyi: “...”

When Gu Yu left, Zhang Siyi became the target of his colleagues and could not hide. Now that he has been with the company for a months’ time, he isn’t treated like and outsider. Plus, he is the only international student in Group A”.

Everyone laughed and laughed. When Gu Yu came back from his phone call, Zhang Siyi already drank several rounds. Hot faced, he had been teased mercilessly. He felt Gu Yu was intentionally making him angry. Head full of wine, Zhang Siyi stood up and pretended to be respectful: “Gu, thank you for this past month, teaching me so many things, here is a toast.”

Gu Yu felt touched. He happily picked up the glass and smiled: “Thank you, as long as you are obedient and eager to learn, I will be able to teach you more in the future.”

Zhang Siyi: “...”

The two men dried up the wine. When Zhang Siyi was seated, he listened to Gu Yu say to everyone: “Oh yes, I almost forgot, Zhang Siyi just became a full staff member, so everyone can make another toast.”

Zhang Siyi:“......”

The crowd immediately and enthusiastically raised a glass: “Congratulations! Welcome to Group A!”

Zhang Siyi is starting to feel overwhelmed so it’s getting harder to drink each round. He just wants to take a break, but Gu Yu raised his glass for another toast, smiled at him and said, “In fact, Zhang Siyi especially took five hundred dollars from his probation period salary to let everyone eat, so half of this meal is his invitation. So, everyone can have another drink.”

The crowd was shocked and happy, and they raised their glasses: “Come here, thank you Zhang Siyi! Thank you, Boss! Thank you, four!”

Zhang Siyi: “............” Oh, my God! You have a grudge against me, don’t you?