Chapter 4 Recovery

  Gu Long stared at the words repeatedly, but he couldn't understand their meaning. Continue the task? What task was he supposed to continue? He really couldn't figure out what was going on, so he called Lin Qiaorou over, wanting to ask if she was playing a joke on him, although in his heart he knew that Lin Qiaorou wouldn't play such a joke.

  Lin Qiaoru took the note and looked at it for a while, still not understanding what it meant. She asked him if he had any colleagues who liked to play pranks on others, because she knew that Gu Longfei had several foreign colleagues who were casual by nature and sometimes played jokes to alleviate their loneliness in a foreign land.

  Ku Long thought for a moment and felt that Lin Qiaorou was right. The company he worked for was called "Lihe Yanghang", and the boss, Davis, was a Dutchman. With the opening of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River ports, Davis followed in the footsteps of many colonizers and came to China alone to make a living. Lihe Yanghang mainly engaged in import and export trade, purchasing tea leaves, tung oil, pig bristles, cowhide, etc. from China and selling them to various European countries, and then loading cotton yarn, cotton cloth, kerosene, matches, soap, iron nails, clocks, etc. from the Netherlands, earning a substantial profit.

  Lee and Yang's company, under the boss, had departments such as procurement, sales, coordination, translation, and public relations. The heads of each department were mostly Europeans, except for the head of the purchasing department, Zhuang Yingyue, who was Chinese. Davis' business was booming, and his wealth was increasing day by day, but his open-minded personality remained unchanged. Under his leadership, the entire company, from top to bottom, was harmonious and relaxed, giving the foreigners with a lively nature even more space to show off. When meeting with each other, Davis' high-level employees, including translator Gu Longfei, secretary Anna, and department heads, would first engage in some banter and laughter before discussing business or adjourning if there were no matters to discuss.

  Of course, Sam, the telegraph operator, was not included. When Gu Longfei entered Lihe Yanghang, Sam had already been there. Since seeing Sam for the first time, he hadn't seen him smile once. His face was pale and serious, and he rarely spoke a word all day. Gu Longfei had secretly asked Davis why Sam didn't get along with everyone else. Davis shook his head slightly and said that this person's personality was like that, and it wasn't worth forcing the issue. However, his wireless telegraphy skills were quite good, which meant he valued his strengths. What Gu Longfei couldn't understand was that their company mainly dealt with import and export trade, and they only had a few telegrams to send each year. They didn't need to set up a specialized translation department for such a small amount of business. Why spend so much money on it?

  Gǔ Lóng Fēi was holding Lín Qiǎo Rú's hand, feeling her hand was icy and soft. He asked: "Do you think it could be Willy?" Willy was also part of the translation group and was very close to Gǔ Lóng Fēi. Willy was a Dutchman in his thirties, always smiling like a 17 or 18-year-old kid. Once he ate some pickled vegetables brought by Gǔ Lóng Fēi and exclaimed they were delicious. Gǔ Lóng Fēi casually invited him to come home and try more dishes sometime. Willy took it seriously and kept asking when he could go, so Gǔ Lóng Fēi laughed and said "right away" and called Lín Qiǎo Rú to prepare in advance. After work, they brought Willy and Davis back home.

  Lin Qiaoru saw Will come home for a meal, often playing some tricks that could be seen through at a glance, and couldn't help but laugh and say pitifully, "These foreigners don't know how they grew up. We didn't deliberately make anything delicious, it was all just casual food, but he ate like a wolf, as if it were a delicacy."

  At this time, a fragrance wafted in, accompanied by Aunt Zhang's light footsteps and Fei Fei's chirping voice, all the way to the hall. Aunt Zhang brought a bowl of stewed chicken soup and placed it on the table, calling everyone to eat. Fei Fei followed closely behind Aunt Zhang, and when they were in the kitchen, Aunt Zhang had already torn off a piece of chicken wing for her, but she hadn't eaten enough. Now, seeing the ceramic bowl filled with chicken soup placed on the high eight-immortal table, she fetched her own small stool, stood up, and climbed onto the tall chair. Standing on the chair, leaning against the tabletop, stretching out her hands, but still unable to reach the soup bowl, she looked at her father, mother, and Aunt Zhang for help with pleading eyes.

  Ancient Dragon Flying saw the lovely appearance of his daughter, smiled and stood up, moved the soup bowl in front of her, broke off a chicken leg, put it in her bowl, pushed it to her, and said with a smile: "Come on, my little glutton, eat slowly and don't get burned!" His face full of love and tenderness, temporarily forgot about the annoying paper note.

  Zhang Auntie served everyone rice, while lovingly looking at Feifei and putting chicken meat into her bowl. She said: "Feifei, leave some for your dad, this chicken soup was stewed for him, he just got out of the hospital and needs to nourish his body!" Her words were like that, but her expression and tone didn't have any blame towards Feifei at all.

  Lin Qiaoru smiled and looked at Zhang Shu and her daughter, thinking in her heart that Zhang Shu was kind-hearted and very good to her family, especially when it came to treating Feifei, even better than she and her husband. She was a bit worried that if this continued, Feifei would be spoiled rotten. This problem could only be discussed with Gu Longfei when they were alone, to see if there was any way to solve it.

  Gu Long hadn't been home for many days, and when he saw that the house was spotless and everything was tidy, he secretly felt grateful to Zhang Shu. He also thought about how Zhang Shu lived alone and was lonely, but she loved Fei Fei so much. Why not let her move into his own home, so everyone could live together and it would be more lively? Moreover, the family needed an elderly person to enrich the family members and help with Fei Fei's growth. He opened his mouth, just about to express this idea in front of Zhang Shu, but found that Lin Qiao's eyebrows were slightly furrowed, sipping chicken soup with a small mouth, not knowing what she was thinking. So he closed his mouth, waiting until nighttime when it was just the two of them to speak again.

  Kulong flew back home and rested for a few days, his wound had healed, so he returned to work at the foreign firm. Boss Davis had already returned, seeing Kulong's recovery, he was very happy, although he had been in China for many years, he still couldn't speak Chinese, he thought Chinese was too difficult to learn, so he didn't want to spend more energy on it, so when dealing with other Chinese people, he needed an interpreter. His translation team consisted of two foreigners and two Chinese, but he thought Kulong was the best.

  Translation is not simply a matter of translating Chinese into a foreign language or vice versa, in a mechanical and rigid way that only conveys the general meaning. Some things related to culture, customs, and traditions are completely lost in translation. However, Gu Longfei was different. He had received a good traditional education and had done extensive research on European culture, so he had a good grasp of both Eastern and Western cultures. As a result, in his daily translation work, not only could he accurately convey the meaning of both sides, but also unexpectedly, he could turn some simple and dull language into rich, vivid, and meaningful expressions that were full of human feeling.

  Davis was very satisfied with Gu Longfei and valued him highly, treating him as a confidant. Even in some decision-making processes at the foreign firm, he would look for Gu Longfei to discuss matters, making Gu Longfei, a small translator, hold a significant position in the firm, causing the department heads in charge of various departments to be envious.

  When Davis saw Gu Longfei return, he asked about his health with concern and said that he could take a break for a while without deducting his salary during the sick leave. Davis not only paid Gu Longfei's full salary but also gave him an additional nutrition allowance, saying it was his personal intention. Gu Longfei did not refuse because he had known Davis for a long time and understood his temperament; if he didn't accept this time, Davis would be very unhappy. He could see that although Davis said to take more days off, his words revealed anxiety about wanting him to return to the firm as soon as possible. During these days when Gu Longfei was not in the firm, Davis had added a lot of trouble, so taking the nutrition allowance from Davis also made him feel at ease; after all, who let him be so favored?

  After Gu Longfei returned to the foreign firm, Davis was in a great mood. He said to several trusted subordinates: "Although Gu Longfei suffered unexpected injuries, God is with him and he escaped his life worries. Now, to celebrate his recovery, let's go hunting together! How about it? Do you have any physical problems?" He patted Gu Longfei's shoulder hard, not knowing if Gu Longfei's body could handle the trip. Davis was a hunting enthusiast and whenever he had free time and good weather, he had an urge to go hunting.

  "Great, I agree!" Francisco, the head of the sales department, was overjoyed when he heard this. He also loved going hunting, but had been too busy with work to go for a long time and had been itching to do so. He immediately cheered up.

  Fernando from the Planning Department, Zhuang Yingyue from the Procurement Department, and even Sam, the usually taciturn head of the Translation Group, all responded enthusiastically. The other three members of the translation group, Jinshan, Pete, Jack, and Secretary Anna, also agreed to participate in the hunting action.

  Kung Fu saw that everyone's enthusiasm was extremely high, and he didn't want to disappoint them, so he said to Davis: "Thank you for your kindness, my body has been fine for a long time, and I can travel at any time, just waiting for you to arrange the time!" He felt very moved in his heart when he saw that everyone was being so good to him, and he only hoped to meet everyone during hunting trips, so that he could repay their kindness.

  Will is about the same age as Gu Longfei, and often goes to his house for meals. He is very concerned about Gu Longfei and says: "I think it's better not to rush, let Gu's body recover a bit more before saying anything, after all, he was injured too severely!"