Working Together at Midnight

***

Happily chatting during the whole ride, Yu Dong soon arrived at the entrance of her apartment complex.

Xia Feng was on the day shift today, but the hospital’s schedule was often irregular. During day shifts he would usually come home after 11:00 p.m., but it seemed that he had just arrived, as the lights were on when Yu Dong opened the front door.

“How come you were out?”

The apartment had two rooms and a living room, but the living room was very spacious, so Xia Feng created a small study space near the balcony, and was currently sitting behind his desk frowning when she came in.

“Why are you still awake when it’s so late?” Yu Dong was also surprised to see Xia Feng.

“Where did you go?” Xia Feng put down the file in his hand, and his voice was full of worry. “It’s not safe for a girl to be out so late.”

Yu Dong bent down to change slippers and answered, “I just got off work! I rode a direct bus, so it’s safe.”

“Got off work? What kind of job did you get, ending so late?”

Yu Dong finally remembered that she never talked with Xia Feng about her work, so she poured herself a glass of water, sat opposite Xia Feng and said, “I’ve totally forgotten to tell you. I studied broadcasting and hosting in university, and now I’m a DJ on the radio. I’m in charge of a midnight program, so I finish so late.”

“The downtown radio and television station?”

“Un.” Yu Dong nodded.

“It’s still unsafe for you to be out so late, you should take the car.” Xia Feng thought about it.

“That would be nice, but I don’t have a driver’s license!” Of course she had one in the past, but unfortunately, she hasn’t taken the test yet.

“Rest assured, I’m friendly with the night bus driver, and riding a bus isn’t much different to a car.”

Xia Feng frowned, still worried, but didn’t know what else to say. In the end, he could only say: “Then go learn and get your driver’s license, and when you get it, you can drive to work.”

“What about you?”

“My dad has another car, I can just drive that one!” Xia Feng said.

Yu Dong nodded, finding that other people worrying about her felt quite good. Seeing Xia Feng look back down to his papers, she became curious:

“You still have work tomorrow, why are you staying up so late?”

“I have a conference later in the afternoon. Since it’s been pretty hectic with mom being hospitalized, I never got around to sorting my documents.” Xia Feng explained while looking through his files. “You go ahead and sleep first.”

“Are you translating them?” Yu Dong sees the files in Xia Feng’s hands are in Chinese, but the printer next to him was printing out English text.

“Yes. There are a few experts from America coming tomorrow, and I wanted to translate some key information into English.” Xia Feng was busy and didn’t raise his head.

Seeing a dozen pages spread out, Yu Dong blinked and asked: “Do you want my help? My English is good, and I can sleep during the day.”

Xia Feng looked up at Yu Dong in surprise, while Yu Dong smiled and then went into her room to get her notebook. When she returned, she directly took 5 pages and started translating.

Xia Feng saw that Yu Dong truly wanted to help, and didn’t talk further. It was no problem just going through and rechecking the pages.

In the middle of translating, Yu Dong saw many medical terms she wasn’t familiar with and ended up asking Xia Feng about these words. He took a look and in the end handed Yu Dong a printed list of common nouns.

When morning dawned, they finally managed to finish translating all of Xia Feng’s documents. Yu Dong printed out her pages, handing it to Xia Feng and said, “Check them first, I’ll fix any problems you find.”

Xia Feng took a glance and found that Yu Dong translated the pages very well. He looked up to see her looking a little tired and couldn’t help but feel guilty: “It’s fine, go to sleep first, I can do the rest.”

After thinking about it, Yu Dong nodded, confident about her work and said, “I put the electronic version on my laptop. Just use it directly later, I’ll be going to bed first.”

“You’ve worked hard, and…thank you!”

Yu Dong who had stood up with both hands on the table, found that their faces were quite close, the small desk between them only making the small distance.

At this moment, the sun was shining through the balcony, caressing Xia Feng’s temples as he looked up at her, and warming Yu Dong’s face.

Maybe it was the sunshine that dazzled her eyes, or Yu Dong was just too sleepy. She leaned down and kissed Xia Feng on the bridge of his nose, bidding him goodnight, and went back into her room to sleep.