My Iridescent Dream - Chapter 7

After collecting myself, I finally drove to the site.

Yellow earth billowed through the air. A massive concrete pump truck roared, and the air smelled chokingly of cement and dust.

Nalan Tumi and I put on hard hats and went to the main building’s second floor.

I immediately spotted the misplaced embedded fixtures for the curtain wall.

Squatting down, I took out my tape measure and checked.

I glanced at Nalan Tumi. “The drawings.”

She handed them over at once.

The drawings specified an elevation of +12.45, but the poured floor was at +12.48.

I put away my tape and looked at the site supervisor. “Three centimeters out.”

He smiled. “A three-centimeter discrepancy is normal, isn’t it?”

With an old hand like this, if you didn’t spell it out, he’d keep playing dumb.

“Three centimeters means the aluminum honeycomb panels outside won’t fit.”

“What do we do, then? We can’t just smash the concrete, can we? Or change the dimensions of every aluminum panel?”

I looked at him.

“Now you know to ask questions. What were you doing before?”

“Engineer Jun, there are so many things happening here every day. I can’t watch every detail for you. Cut me some slack. If you want the concrete broken out, say the word. I’ll get someone on it.”

I exhaled through my nose.

“No need. Weld a five-millimeter steel shim to the embedded fixture to level it, but make the shim wedge-shaped.”

I took a marker from my bag and sketched the connection detail directly on the rough concrete wall. A worker leaned in, lit a cigarette, and said, “I get that drawing. Fine, we’ll do it that way.”

He blew smoke straight into Nalan Tumi’s face.

Caught off guard, she inhaled a lungful of secondhand smoke and began coughing violently.

I pulled her behind me. “There are ladies here. Don’t smoke.”

“Oh, ladies, is it? So what? Can’t smoke around ladies? I’ve got ladies at home. I smoke all the same, and they don’t complain.”

I snatched his cigarette, threw it down, and ground it out.

His expression changed instantly.

Before he could charge at me, a voice cut in. “That’s enough, Zhang. You have bronchitis and you’re still smoking? Watch it, or I’ll tell your wife and let her deal with you.”

The worker called Zhang immediately lost his menace, blustering to cover it. “Tell her! Go on! You’re the only one with a mouth!”

A tall woman in work clothes approached. Several sturdy middle-aged women followed her, also in work clothes and hard hats, dusty from a long stint on site.

Zhang behaved much better as soon as they arrived.

The woman stopped in front of him. A head taller, she looked down at him with the same mild smile. “Don’t smoke. She’s looking out for you.”

He clicked his tongue.

Still resentful, Zhang glared at me.

Unhurriedly, I pulled a cigarette pack from the supervisor’s shirt pocket, opened it, and offered Zhang two.

“As long as you don’t smoke in front of ladies, I don’t care where you do it. And I won’t tell your wife.”

Zhang brightened at once and left with his cigarettes.

The supervisor frowned. “Engineer Jun, you…”

I tossed the pack back. “Can’t spare two cigarettes?”

“…Fine.”

I turned to the woman who’d helped us. “Mo Qingzhi. I didn’t expect to find you here. Weren’t you working on that big project in the south of the city? How do you have time for this little site?”

“The bosses are kind enough to give us work. We’re just making a living.”

Mo Qingzhi looked at Nalan Tumi. “A new assistant? Did your old one leave?”

“She went home for New Year and fell into a ravine. Her leg still hasn’t healed.”

“Oh no…”

“Don’t worry. We’re treating it as a workplace injury. I’ll find her another position when she comes back.”

“You’re a good boss, Engineer Jun. We’ve still got work to finish. We’d better go.”

“Mo Qingzhi,” I called. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Smiling, she waved and led the women away.

We worked on site until evening.

The workers headed off to dinner. I took Nalan Tumi back to the office.

She hadn’t prepared dinner, so we went to the company cafeteria after all.

She’d brought an extra insulated box and packed it full.

Obviously, it was for Ma Zhiming.

I watched her without comment.

I thought I was rather a bad person.

I knew that with Ma Zhiming’s personality, he and Nalan Tumi could never last.

And I was deliberately speeding up the process.

Because I had so little patience.

Eyes lowered, I ate quietly.

When she returned and saw I’d half finished, she said apologetically, “Sorry, Engineer Jun. I was getting Ma Zhiming’s food. I’ll eat quickly. Could you wait for me?”

I smiled softly. “It’s fine. Work’s over. Do what you need to.”

Her eyes widened. “Didn’t you say I had to be on call twenty-four hours a day?”

“On call doesn’t mean you have to be beside me all twenty-four hours. You can be on call at home. I’ll contact you if I need anything.”

“Oh, I see.”

She relaxed.

—

After dinner, she went home.

I watched her walk away.

I could have driven her.

But I didn’t offer.

Why would I personally deliver her back to someone else?

The harder her road back to Ma Zhiming, the better.