Chapter 51

Chapter 51

Republic of China Trainee (II)

Song Qi’s house... that won’t do.

As soon as Fang Qian’s words fell, Yu Manyi was already filled with panic. How could she possibly stay at Song Qi’s house? They weren’t family, not even really siblings, and had no other relationship. Although she had stayed there for one night before, that had been a temporary solution. This time, she was supposed to find a “place to stay”...

“That won’t work for me.”

Yu Manyi pulled herself out of her flurry of thoughts and turned her gaze to Song Qi, who had just spoken those four words.

His statement was short, firm, and not the least bit tactful. His expression was calm, leaning back in his chair with his hands on the table, his posture completely relaxed—there was no sign of any hesitation or awkwardness.

... Wait.

Her not staying was one thing, but Song Qi’s attitude about it was another. Yu Manyi glared at him for a while, realizing that he had no intention of explaining himself. She immediately looked away and, without hesitation, turned to Fang Qian:

“I can’t stay at his place!”

Fang Qian: “What’s the matter?”

Yu Manyi said firmly, “Because I’m a remnant of feudalism!”

“Feudal...” Fang Qian was momentarily speechless. She wondered where Yu Manyi had learned such a term. But seeing how determined both of them were, even though she had the intention to play matchmaker, she couldn’t disregard their personal wishes.

“Well, then... I’ll ask elsewhere,” she finally said.The conversation for the rest of the meal was just between Yu Manyi and Fang Qian, as she seemed determined to ignore Song Qi. After finishing, the three of them walked back to the school gate, where they saw Fang Qian off.

Watching her figure disappear, Song Qi turned to Yu Manyi and asked, “Shall I take you back to the hostel?”

“No need,” Yu Manyi immediately distanced herself from him, “We, the working class, live in places you, in your suit, would find beneath you.”

“I’m not going inside.”

“Anyway, you’re not welcome.”

It was only then that Song Qi began to reflect, realizing that perhaps his blunt “that won’t work for me” had angered Yu Manyi. He didn’t apologize but instead asked, “So, do you really want to live with me?”

Who asks someone like that?!

Yu Manyi ignored his question, standing at the tram station, full of indignation. When the tram arrived, she immediately jumped on and sat in the second-to-last row.

She turned her head and saw Song Qi standing by the window next to where she sat, innocently looking up at her. His left hand lifted the edge of his suit jacket and rested it on his waist, while his right hand raised and knocked on her window with his knuckles, “Knock knock knock.”

She refused to look at him, just like he hadn’t looked at her earlier. The tram “dinged” and started moving, and Yu Manyi crossed her arms, sulking in her seat. It seemed like things weren’t going to be good for a while.

Reuniting with old friends brought joy, but it was short-lived. Yu Manyi quickly began worrying about her livelihood again. As usual, she went to borrow a table from the innkeeper, then, on a notebook gifted by a dorm sister that had "Xiuhua Textile Factory" written on it, she began to jot down:

Remaining money: 16 yuan.Fengting Photography Studio, Background Artist: Rejected.

Dream Hua Daily, Illustrator: Rejected.

...

She flipped to the last page of the new job advertisement in the newspaper, still without success. Yu Manyi stared blankly at the notebook, unable to stop thinking about what Fang Qian had said: "Is it that you don't know how to fight for things?"

Yu Manyi felt that Fang Qian's words were harsh; she was always so dramatic. What she really meant was probably that Yu Manyi was not good at fighting for herself. She couldn’t express her strengths and didn’t dare to introduce herself more to the employers.

In contrast to her hesitation, there was someone like Jiang Yu. Being able to open a school in the bustling Shanghai surely involved a lot of meticulous calculations. After thinking for a moment, Yu Manyi closed the notebook, then ran out through the narrow door of the hostel.

She didn’t have any scheduled interviews for today; she was determined to see Jiang Yu.

However, life is full of obstacles, and as soon as Yu Manyi stepped through the gates of Jiang Yu’s school, she bumped into the teacher who had rejected her last time. The teacher looked her up and down with a displeased tone: “What are you doing here again? I told you, no one from Lu Yueting’s school!”

“I want to see Principal Jiang,” Yu Manyi said.

“There are so many who didn’t make it as teaching assistants. Do you think every one of them gets to see Principal Jiang?” The teacher said, incredulously, “Go on, I have other things to do.”

“They didn’t get in because their painting isn’t good enough,” Yu Manyi said firmly. “I’m good at painting. It’s not about my ability, it’s about the diploma. I want to see Principal Jiang!”

“Who said you’re good at painting?”

“You did!”

“…”The argument was still tense when suddenly, a little girl jumped and skipped down from upstairs. Yu Manyi turned her head and noticed that the child’s face looked very familiar, but she had grown much taller than the person in her mind. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and then the girl shouted, "The sister who was in the newspaper!"

"You two know each other?"

"Yes, we do."

The child skipped over and sized Yu Manyi up. Her tone was neither friendly nor as resistant as the interview teacher’s: "What are you doing here? Didn’t you learn to paint at Lu Yueting’s?"

"She came to apply for the teaching assistant position. After learning from Lu Yueting, she’s come here…"

The child obviously didn’t have the same rigid formalities as an adult, or maybe it was because they had interacted before. After sizing Yu Manyi up for a while, she said, "I’ll go tell Principal Jiang, see if she wants to meet you!"

With that, she ran upstairs with a "thump, thump, thump." Yu Manyi didn’t wait long before she saw the girl coming back down, shouting loudly, "Go to the principal’s office! She’s meeting guests right now, but she’ll come soon!"

The principal’s office was very quiet.

Yu Manyi had been to many companies and seen many offices in recent days. Shanghai was magnificent, and in some places, you could look up and see crystal domes, dazzling and overwhelming, making her feel humble and embarrassed. However, Jiang Yu’s office was different from the others. The curtains and furniture were all velvet, and the walls and cabinets displayed her own and her students’ artworks, just like the feeling she gave off.

But Yu Manyi already knew that she couldn’t trust the feelings others gave her. Jiang Yu only needed others to think she was gentle and elegant, but gentleness and elegance were a great deception. Things in this world were not achieved through gentleness and elegance.

So, although she really wanted the job, when Jiang Yu returned, Yu Manyi wore a cautious expression. She sat on the sofa, tense and reserved, watching as Jiang Yu entered wearing a dark-colored Xiangyun satin qipao, a pearl necklace around her neck, and her hair gently styled in a bun at the back.

Her voice was soft as she greeted Yu Manyi with a few words, then took out a stack of drawing paper from a cabinet. From it, she pulled out the one Yu Manyi had drawn during her interview.

Yu Manyi had not expected her to keep it."Teacher Luo has reviewed the works I interview with," Jiang Yu said, almost as if she could read Yu Manyi’s mind. "The school is just now looking for people. But this piece of yours, even if you're not holding Lu Principal's diploma, is still not up to par here."

"But Teacher Luo said..." That was when Yu Manyi realized the interviewer’s surname was Luo.

"Teacher Luo only looks at technique. What I look at is the consciousness in the work. You only learned technique from Lu Yueting, and what you draw is his style. You aren't as skilled as his other students, so why should I hire you instead of someone else?"

"Principal Jiang, what do you mean by 'consciousness'?"

"If you master the technique to its peak, the consciousness will naturally emerge from the tip of your brush," Jiang Yu said, her tone soft but firm. "But you're still not mastering the basic technique. But this isn't your fault..."

Jiang Yu’s tone shifted. It wasn’t scolding, but more like she was sympathizing with Yu Manyi.

"Lu Principal’s technique is already somewhat outdated. He became famous ten years ago, and after all these years of running his school, he’s still teaching the same techniques from a decade ago. In the commercial art industry, being out of date is the worst thing. Technique is just a tool, anyone can use it. In commercial art, what sells is content."

Yu Manyi felt like she saw a flash of a blade in Jiang Yu’s calm voice.

"He always thinks I learned his technique and that later artists took his business. But he never considered that he’s aging, and his art reflects the aesthetic of his age, with women in twisted postures and bound feet. But now, people's aesthetic of women is..."

Yu Manyi’s eyes drifted behind Jiang Yu, where she saw a month calendar image of a woman. The woman was young, with curly hair, wearing a deep V-neck shirt that exposed her chest, sitting on a pitch-black motorcycle.

There was also a set of four pictures, bolder than anything she had seen before: four girls, freshly showered, wearing bodysuits short enough to expose their thighs. For Yu Manyi, these images were very revealing, but the four girls posed confidently, without any awkwardness.

She remembered Lu Yueting’s paintings. His calendar images were also bright in color, but compared to the ones in Jiang Yu's office, they looked dull. His women often had stiff poses, as though they were manipulated into position, with hunched necks, like marionettes.

And these styles had been passed down to Yu Manyi's own brushstrokes. Her face flushed red.

After the redness, came frustration. She seemed to understand now why she had always struggled to find work. She wanted to draw, and there was nothing wrong with what she had learned, but her aesthetics were too outdated. She truly was... a remnant of feudalism.Yu Manyi became increasingly frustrated as she thought about it. All the determination she had when she came to see Jiang Yu had been completely crushed. But after this speech, Jiang Yu picked up her painting again and softly said, "Manyi, why did you learn to paint?"

Yu Manyi looked up in confusion.

Why did she learn to paint?

Naturally, it was to paint wrapping paper for people... no, it was to earn some money to make a living. But "making a living" sounded too low, so she wracked her brain for a moment and finally recalled the four words that Su Wen had told her.

"For... fame and success," she said.

These words were completely out of place with her dejected look, and Jiang Yu couldn't help but laugh. She shook her head and said, "Who taught you these words? You really have no insight. They must have accomplished nothing."

Yu Manyi was speechless.

Everything was wrong. The things she learned were wrong, even the pursuit of fame and success was wrong. She had never been so deeply discouraged before, biting her lip as she looked at Jiang Yu, vaguely recalling that Song Qi had made her angry and still hadn’t come to apologize—both her career and love life were at a standstill. She felt like such a failure!

She thought, if only she hadn’t escaped the Yu family.

This thought shocked her. She realized she had fallen into a trap: when a person has a way out, it's easy to avoid failure and pain, and instead turn to a path that is easier and requires less effort.

But that was actually the more expensive path, like a beautifully wrapped gift that must be paid for with one's future. She realized if she hadn't escaped the Yu family, she would have been married off to the north as someone’s fourth wife—thankfully, Manyi had already burned that escape route with fire.

Yu Manyi snapped out of her reverie and focused again on listening to Jiang Yu.

"...Although your painting still bears many traces of Lu Principal's influence, I can also tell that you have good potential. How about this? I have a path here that you might want to try."Jiang Yu found a piece of paper from her desk.

"This is the application form for a trainee position in the illustration department of the Commercial Press. I also passed the exam here. Although your technique is outdated for commercial art, it will still be stronger than other students when it comes to this exam. Furthermore, the examiners are not young anymore, and they won't mind Lu Yueting's style of painting."

"This... is this something I can..." Yu Manyi hesitated at the word "trainee" and asked, "Does it offer a salary?"

Her unguarded realism made Jiang Yu laugh.

"If you pass the exam, you'll get a stipend, similar to what workers earn," Jiang Yu said. "For the first two years, you'll also have teachers to guide you. They might even help clean up your old-fashioned aesthetic. But after they train you, you’ll have to work at the printing house for three years. As for the official salary... well, that depends on who you ask."

Jiang Yu seemed to think it was a low amount; otherwise, she wouldn’t have left the Commercial Press to study abroad and later opened her own school. However, Jiang Yu's idea of a small amount was likely a lot for Yu Manyi.

She immediately took the application form.

She thanked Jiang Yu for all her advice. In her mind, Jiang Yu’s image had become more multifaceted. Yu Manyi grabbed the form and left, but as she was about to push the door open, she suddenly turned around and asked, "Principal Jiang, you mentioned the courses at the printing house... Do you teach there?"

Jiang Yu had already returned to her desk. She lifted her head and smiled at Yu Manyi, "Yes, I do."

After leaving Jiang Yu's school, Yu Manyi went to a stall to eat wontons. She wanted to eat yellowfish wontons again, but they were too expensive for her to afford. She ordered a serving of pork wontons instead and took out the application form. She thought, if she passed the exam and became a trainee at the Commercial Press, the stipend would at least be enough to eat yellowfish wontons.

She had become very practical after all the setbacks. In the end, making a living was too lowly, and gaining fame and success was also lowly. So, she decided to be lowly all the way. She studied painting to be able to afford yellowfish wontons.

Yu Manyi took out a pen from her bag, eating as she wrote in her notebook:

"In three days, the application deadline. Bring a photo to Qipan Street."Seven days later, the exam at Qipan Street.

Just as she wrote this, a sudden noise reached her ears. Yu Manyi looked up and saw several burly men walk past her and enter the neighboring guesthouse. One of them shouted in a rough voice, "This person—have you seen her?!"

The wontons were hot, and she quickly swallowed them down, then tucked the money away. There was no soundproofing between the wonton stall and the guesthouse, so she could hear the man continue shouting, "Haven't seen her? You lot, go ask at the other guesthouse! You guys were hired by Boss Liu—if you can't find this runaway bride, no one gets to eat!"

"What’s going on?" an old woman beside her asked.

"Looking for a runaway bride," an elderly man replied, trembling. "They’ve been searching the area for days. I heard the owner’s a salt merchant named Liu... Liu Fengyan!"

Before he finished speaking, Yu Manyi’s porcelain spoon suddenly clattered back into her bowl.

Liu Fengyan...

The large characters on the marriage certificate, ink-black, but it felt as if they were bleeding.

Liu Fengyan...

Yu Manyi suddenly stood up, almost knocking over her unfinished bowl of wontons. She clutched her bag tightly, lowered her head, and, taking advantage of the fact that the men entering the guesthouse hadn’t come out yet, she rushed back to the guesthouse where she was staying.

She paid the rent on a weekly basis, and the owner had said it would be cheaper that way. Now, she begged the owner to refund her money. She was so anxious that her voice trembled, and the owner could only reluctantly and slowly process her request.

Watching the owner take his time writing in the account book, she didn’t have the strength to hurry him up. Instead, she spoke with a quiver in her voice, "Boss, if anyone comes asking for me in the next few days, could you say you haven’t seen me?"

"Who’s asking for you?" The boss hadn’t yet realized the seriousness of the situation. "That guy in the suit? Had an argument? Ha, that mouth of his, it’s better not to talk to him!"

"No, no, please, just don’t say you’ve seen me. Please, I beg you."Yu Manyi's voice was so urgent that the boss finally noticed something was wrong. He looked up and saw that she had tears in her eyes. He quickly sped up his movements, and finally, he wrapped a few coins in paper and handed them back, saying:

"Living in a place like this, everyone has their difficulties. Don’t worry, I haven’t seen you, and I haven’t heard your name."

She didn't have time to express her gratitude, just as she hadn't thanked the fabric shop owner before leaving Shaoxing. Yu Manyi forced the tears back, or else her vision would blur, making it hard to see the road ahead. She clutched her money, diploma, and clothes to her chest, and this time, there was an important piece of paper—the application form for the Commercial Printing Bureau.

She wrapped a bundle cloth someone had given her around her head like a scarf and rushed from the guesthouse to the street where Song Qi lived. The apartment still stood with its fashionable exterior, but this time, the old doorman was there, standing loyally and questioning every visitor’s purpose for entering.

Yu Manyi was afraid that someone might come looking for her on this street. She spoke with a quiver in her voice, almost on the verge of tears: "Could you please let me in? I’m looking for Song Qi, I’m looking for Song Qi!"

"Mr. Song hasn't returned yet," the old doorman changed his usual attitude today. "But he’ll be off work soon. Miss, please register first, and wait for him to come back…"

"Can I wait for him at the entrance?"

"This isn't in line with the rules. The residents here care about security. Everyone who comes in must…"

"I don’t want to stand on the street. Please let me in!"

"The street is fine, miss. You can go have coffee first."

Yu Manyi had never felt such clear, dreamlike fear before. Even when her family’s house burned down, she had stayed calm. She saw the man who had emerged from the fire and smoke, watching her from the night sky. He even began to form vague features…

She had burned her family’s house, but Liu Fengyan was still alive! Both of his engagement dowries had gone down the drain, and he had seen through Yu Manyi’s clumsy tricks. He was coming for her!

The doorman stopped her, strong for his age, blocking her from going any further. Suddenly, a shadow fell over her back. Yu Manyi felt a chill run down her spine, and all she could think about was that Liu Fengyan had discovered her whereabouts.

She squatted down, clutching her head, unsure if they would tie her up or throw her in a sack. However, the shadow paused for a moment, then moved to kneel in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder. The voice that spoke was unexpectedly gentle, "Manyi, what’s wrong?"Yu Manyi lifted her head, and a sharp, sour pain spread from deep in her throat. She grasped his hand that was resting on her shoulder, holding it tightly with all her strength, incoherently muttering, "Song Qi... Yu family... fire..."

His words of comfort were few and far between. He hadn't let her stay at his place, and the only thing he ever did was knock on her car window, looking helpless. Yet, in this moment, he instinctively stretched out his arm and offered her a space in his embrace, giving her some comfort and a moment of peace.

"Alright, alright," he said, his voice soft, though there was confusion in his tone, "I’m back."