Chapter 54

Song Shishi’s English was learned when she was in college in her previous life.

She had no problem with normal spoken communication.

If she hadn’t been confident, she wouldn’t have agreed to Director Zhao’s request to participate in the assessment.

They were currently in an administrative building, and the assessment was in the conference room.

There were about three or four conference rooms along this corridor.

Song Shishi noticed that there was a man and a woman dressed similarly to her standing at the door of each conference room. They were formally dressed and looked nervous.

They were obviously translators who had come to take the assessment, just like her.

Director Zhao led her to the door of the conference room on the far right and waited. He gave her a few brief instructions and then left, saying that he would come back to pick her up after she finished the assessment.

The corridor was quiet for a moment.

Song Shishi, who had not been very nervous, couldn’t help but rub her hands in this atmosphere.

“Please enter the examination room.”

As a serious voice rang out, the door to the conference room in front of her was pulled open from the inside.

The conference room wasn’t big, but it was tidy.

There was a long table inside, and two examiners sat on the inside of the long table, looking at her with serious expressions.

Song Shishi clasped her hands in front of her, bowed slightly to the examiners politely, “Hello, examiners. I am Song Shishi, the candidate.”

“Please have a seat!” One of the examiners, a woman wearing a dark gray suit and a bob, gestured for her to sit down.

Song Shishi sat down opposite the examiners.

There was a document in front of her.

“This is the written test section.”

Song Shishi nodded and opened the document in front of her.

It was divided into several sections. The first section was the translation of political documents.

During this period, Song Shishi had consulted many English books related to politics in the library to prepare for this exam.

So this question wasn’t difficult for her.

The written test covered translations from various fields, which was a challenge for Song Shishi.

In addition to the content related to politics, there were also translations related to Chinese traditional culture and current events.

This involved some professional terms related to international affairs.

Fortunately, Song Shishi had done her homework, and with the memories from her previous life, her accuracy was very high.

During the assessment, she kept smiling.

She didn’t touch the English dictionary on the table.

This alone surprised the examiners.

After three hours of written test, Song Shishi quickly and accurately completed the translation.

“You can go and rest for a while. Come back here for the oral exam in an hour.” The female examiner got up and led Song Shishi out of the conference room.

“Okay, thank you.”

The door of the conference room closed behind her. She let out a sigh of relief.

She turned to look at the conference room next door. The other candidates seemed to be still taking the exam.

She glanced at the time on her watch. It was only four o’clock. Director Zhao probably wouldn’t be here so soon.

She went to the window by the corridor on the side and looked out. Tall palm trees came into view.

“Comrade, there’s an examination here. It’s not appropriate to stay here. Please leave.”

A deep male voice suddenly came from behind.

Song Shishi was startled and turned around to look at the person.

“It’s you?” She frowned, her expression displeased.

The man in front of her was tall and straight like a pine tree, wearing a well-tailored blue Zhongshan suit, without a single wrinkle.

He had neat short hair, and his bright and energetic eyes were directly looking at her.

The man seemed to realize this at this moment. He made a surprised expression, “Oh… you’re the one from the mall this morning…”

Before he finished speaking, he scratched the back of his head awkwardly and said with a smile, “I’m really sorry this morning. How about this, I’ll treat you to dinner as an apology. What do you say?”

He could see that the dress Song Shishi was wearing was not the two sets that he had bumped to the ground that morning.

Judging from the newness of the clothes, she had obviously bought a new set.

He felt really bad about it.

Since he had said this, Song Shishi couldn’t be rude anymore. But going to dinner with him was out of the question.

She had only met him twice, and they were no different from strangers. How could she leave with him casually?

“No need.”

The man didn’t mind. He smiled, “Then wait in the lobby downstairs. It’s not appropriate to stay here.”

Song Shishi nodded.

When she got to the lobby, she found that the man was still following her.

She stopped and turned around to ask, “Is there something else?”

“I forgot to introduce myself.” The man grinned sheepishly, then said seriously, “My name is Xie Youan. I’m in charge of…”

Song Shishi looked at the time on her watch and raised her hand to interrupt Xie Youan, “Excuse me, Comrade Xie. I have something to do. I’ll go upstairs first.”

She was so focused on talking to Xie Youan that she didn’t notice the time. She almost missed the oral exam.

Without waiting for Xie Youan to respond, she turned and ran upstairs.

As she reached the door of the conference room, the door opened from the inside.

The examiner inside saw her, was stunned for a second, and pointed to the other side of the corridor, “Comrade Song, the oral exam is in the large conference room over there. Go forward, and the first conference room is it.”

“Okay, thank you.”

She took a deep breath, adjusted her state, and then walked towards the large conference room.

Inside the large conference room, the other three candidates were already waiting. The examiners for the oral exam hadn’t arrived yet.

Hearing the noise at the door, the candidates turned to look, then looked away again. They didn’t mean to talk to each other.

Not long after Song Shishi sat down, three examiners entered the conference room with briefcases.

Her pupils couldn’t help but shrink.

It was him!

Because among the three examiners in front of her, Xie Youan was one of them, and he was standing in the middle.

She got up with the other candidates and bowed slightly to the examiners, showing respect.

During the oral exam, except for the initial time when Xie Youan entered the conference room and raised an eyebrow at her, he had a serious expression the whole time and didn’t show any other emotion.

She was secretly relieved that he was able to do this.

The oral exam went smoothly.

It was basically the examiners simulating situations that they would encounter in diplomacy. Sometimes they needed to translate Chinese into English, and sometimes they needed to translate English into Chinese.

Because foreigners speak very quickly, many words are omitted in their speech, which tests the translator’s skills.

In her previous life, Song Shishi had encountered a foreign teacher in college, so she didn’t find this particularly difficult.

What she found difficult was how to translate the Chinese representative’s remarks into English in a reasonable way, so as not to misinterpret their meaning.

This tested her vocabulary.

After the assessment, it was already dark outside.

Director Zhao had been waiting outside the conference room. When he saw her come out, he smiled and went forward, “You’ve worked hard. Let’s go. I’ll take you to dinner.”

It wasn’t until they got in the car that Director Zhao said that the leader of the Beijing library would also be having dinner with them.

“Is there anything I need to pay attention to?” Song Shishi was inexplicably nervous.

Director Zhao waved his hand, “Don’t be nervous. It’s just a casual dinner. Director Gong is a very nice person.”

“The document you translated last time was personally reviewed by Director Gong, and then sent up. He’s always admired you and has asked me several times to meet you.”

Since Director Zhao said so, Song Shishi could only agree.