Chapter 563 - 562: TV Station
Over the summer vacation, Su Li’s skin tanned to a wheat color.
Su Li had interned at radio stations and newspaper offices before and felt she’d learned a great deal. However, she had never been this exhausted, nor had she ever learned so much, as she did this summer.
Ling Zhen and Yu Zhengqing had kept urging her to come intern. "We’ll definitely look out for you," they’d said. "We’ll make sure you have a great internship and learn a ton."
And Ling Zhen and Yu Zhengqing, true to their word, did exactly that.
When Su Li went to the TV station, she spent the first week learning about the various departments. As soon as she started going on assignments outside, she was, unsurprisingly, placed in their hands.
During his internship, Yu Zhengqing had shadowed Ling Zhen. After becoming a full-time employee, he started working independently, but since they were both reporters, they still frequently collaborated.
And once their colleagues learned that Yu Zhengqing was pursuing Ling Zhen, everyone, intentionally or not, would try to create opportunities for them to work together.
When Su Li first started running news stories with them, they happened to be in the middle of one such collaboration.
The other interns who started with Su Li were just there to watch and run some errands, but her two mentors were not like that.
They didn’t treat Su Li like an intern at all; they treated her like a colleague and had her do everything.
"Su Li, go over there and take photos..."
"Su Li, record the footage..."
"Su Li, go find out about this matter..."
"Su Li, go interview the friend of the person involved..."
After just three days with them, Su Li’s legs were about to break from all the running. She got significantly tanner, and she considered herself lucky if she could get back to the station by nightfall.
Meanwhile, the other interns had long since gone home to eat and rest.
This was only the beginning. For more than a month, Su Li was taken on assignments by either Yu Zhengqing or Ling Zhen, running all over the place with them, heading out no matter the sun, wind, or rain.
During the two weeks she wasn’t with them, whenever other senior reporters called on her, she wasn’t treated like a regular intern either. She didn’t know if Ling Zhen and Yu Zhengqing had said something, but she was given even more work than the other interns.
Thanks to what she knew of Ling Zhen and Yu Zhengqing from her past life, Su Li had always known that being a reporter was hard work, but she’d never imagined it could be *this* hard.
The fact that Su Li ran through two pairs of shoes in just over a month said it all.
She left early and came home late every day, sometimes not coming back at all. She was nearly worked to exhaustion.
Su Li was so busy she could barely find time to eat, let alone meticulously prepare every meal for Little Tang Mo like she used to.
It was a good day if she could pick Little Tang Mo up and take him home before ten at night.
Since Su Li couldn’t look after Little Tang Mo, he basically ended up living at Professor Mu’s house.
He had visited often before, but school took up much of his time. Now that Su Li was busy, Professor Mu and Mu Haoye actually thought it was a good thing—they could finally focus on their work.
The three of them spent all day, every day, either in the study, Professor Mu’s personal lab, or the laboratories and research rooms at Imperial University. Their days couldn’t have been more packed.
This opened the door to a whole new world for Little Tang Mo, and he became completely engrossed.
Mrs. Mu was already taking care of her father-in-law and her son. Now, with Little Tang Mo added to the mix, just getting the three of them to come out for meals was a daily struggle.
They would discuss things at the dinner table while eating, and their discussions often turned into heated debates. It took all of Mrs. Mu’s effort every day just to get the three of them to eat, drink, and rest properly.
Every night after work, Su Li would go pick up Little Tang Mo. He sometimes wouldn’t listen to Mrs. Mu, but whenever Su Li arrived, he would immediately stop what he was doing and go home with her, much to Mrs. Mu’s relief.
Once Little Tang Mo left, their little trio fell apart, and the other two would obediently head off to rest.
On the way home every night, Little Tang Mo would excitedly tell her about all the new things he’d learned, bubbling with enthusiasm as he recounted his day’s adventures. He was clearly happy every single day.
When they got home, Little Tang Mo would ask about her day. Unfortunately, Su Li was usually exhausted by then and would sometimes fall asleep while soaking her feet or even mid-sentence.
Wu Sheng was busy, and so was Su Li. The time they had to see each other dwindled even further.
Over the whole vacation, Su Li only managed to find one day to see Wu Sheng.
The other times, Wu Sheng would come looking for her, only for Su Li to fall asleep on his shoulder mid-conversation. Wu Sheng felt a complicated mix of helplessness and heartache.
’He’d even been jealous before, worried that Ling Zhen and Yu Zhengqing were giving me "special treatment." This turned out to be their "special treatment"...’
But he couldn’t do anything, because Su Li said it was all for her own good.
"I’m getting a head start on everything I’m supposed to learn during my official internship," she’d say. "This way, when I do come to the station to intern or work, I won’t need as much time to adjust and can dive right in."
Su Li was exhausted, but it was a welcome exhaustion. She didn’t even mind being tanned to a wheat color.
Little Tang Mo felt sorry for her, though. Whenever Su Li was too exhausted, he would insist she sleep in the on-duty room at the station.
On those nights, he would either sleep over with Mu Haoye or go with Wu Sheng to stay at the Wu Family home.
During the summer vacation, Tang Yuanxiao visited Little Tang Mo twice, and Wu Qihua came by several times.
In the end, Wu Qihua didn’t go to Wu Family Village. Instead, she used her free time to call Wu Sheng and have him bring Little Tang Mo home. She even brought meals to Su Li at the TV station a few times.
Time flew by, and it passed even faster when one was busy.
The summer vacation passed, marked by the gradual darkening of Su Li’s skin.
When the summer vacation ended, so too did Su Li’s successful internship at the TV station.
Before registration for the new semester began, Ling Zhen and Yu Zhengqing took Su Li out for a meal to reward her for all her hard work.
At the dinner table, Ling Zhen mercilessly mocked Su Li’s skin.
"Hahaha, this reminds me of my own internship! I was even darker than Su Li is now. And to think you told me not to kiss you in the future! Now, even if you begged me, I wouldn’t do it. Who’d want to kiss a piece of charcoal? Hahaha!"
Su Li was speechless.
Yu Zhengqing cleared his throat a few times, trying to suppress a smile. "Alright now, let’s eat."
Su Li remained silent.
’If you want to laugh, just laugh! Holding it in like that, aren’t you afraid you’ll give yourself an internal injury?’
Su Li didn’t want to talk to them anymore. She buried her head and ate, leaving the moment she finished, without a backward glance.
"Su Li, I’ll be waiting for you to come back for your official internship! Study hard, you’ll be back before you know it."
Ling Zhen added with a grin as Su Li left.
’I’m definitely going to be the very last person to do my official internship at the TV station!’ Su Li thought to herself.
The next day, Su Li went to school to register, officially becoming a junior.
Her classmates all commented on her skin, which had changed so much over the vacation that she looked like a different person.
Su Li didn’t feel like talking at all.
After collecting her new textbooks and catching up with her classmates, Su Li left campus. There were no classes on the first day, so after her class meeting, she went to look for Wu Dong.
Wu Sheng hadn’t returned to Wu Family Village, but Wu Dong had.
According to their original plan, Wu Dong should have been back two days ago. Whenever he returned from the village, he would always contact Wu Sheng and Su Li to give them things from home.
But this time, Wu Dong hadn’t shown up. Su Li decided to go look for him and see if he was at school.
When Su Li got there, she found Wu Dong still hadn’t arrived. Finding this odd, she found a phone booth and called Wu Sheng.
Wu Sheng wasn’t at the office; he was at home. He answered Su Li’s call and told her to come over.
Wu Dong was there. And he wasn’t alone—he had brought Wu Xia with him.