Love is Sweet – Chapter 21

Photo Fiasco 照片风波 (1/4)

Author: Qi Zi

Translated by: lovexsweet

Translator’s Note: Sorry for the long absence, this kind of fell off the to-do list for me, so it wasn’t until recently that I made enough time to come back to it. I did finally finish watching Love is Sweet though, and there are still some parts that I like more from the drama but parts I like more from the novel, too. The Jiang Jun in the novel is just…spicier, lol.

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Chapter teaser: Jiang Jun had been around the block before and she had a profound understanding of one-sided love. No matter how complicated and poignant the story, no matter how deep and pitiful the love, it would all fall apart in the end.

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According to the rules, newcomers have to go through a two-month assessment and pass it before they can officially join the IBD department. Du put Yin Zhe in a group with Johny, another newcomer who had somehow parachuted into the company without going through an interview. Jiang Jun chatted with Johny and felt that there was something wrong with him. After asking someone to check his background, she couldn’t help but sigh. Du was really inhumane for being so ruthless even to his own little brother.

Jiang Jun explained the work assignments to Yin Zhe and John. She saw them looking at each other in dismay and asked with amusement, “Is there a problem?”

Johny asked with the shrewdness that was characteristic of southerners, “We seem to have a much bigger workload than our colleagues. What if we can’t do it?”

Jiang Jun ignored him and just asked Yin Zhe, “What do you think?”

Yin Zhe met her gaze like a fighter, “No problem.”

“Good!” Jiang Jun nodded.

On that day, Jiang Jun entered Du’s office. Du, holding a cigar in his hand, knocked on the table. “Someone put in a complaint to me that you used your power for personal gain during the interview process, carried out your personal revenge, and deliberately turned away talented prospects with excellent grades. Please explain.”

Jiang Jun pretended to be very scared and patted her chest. “That’s so scary, someone who can do such a moronic thing is really talented, and I can’t afford to use her.” In fact, someone already tipped her off about this two days ago. Although the complaint letter from the public mailbox had already been disposed of, they still had to go through this scene.

Du looked at her teasingly. “There should be a best actress award at the MH year-end cocktail party, you’re guaranteed to win the trophy year after year.”

“Then you’re an international director and the award-winning blockbuster is ‘IBD Storm.’” Jiang exaggeratedly gave a long sigh. “Your brother is already being tortured to death by us. You really don’t feel bad about it?”

“Who told him to fall into your hands? You’re not using your position to avenge your personal grudges, are you?” Du squinted his eyes. “It’s really unlucky. It’s one thing to have an uncaring brother, but then the boss turned out to be an ex-girlfriend that he had hurt before. Tsk tsk, even if he doesn’t die, he’s lost half his life for sure.”

Jiang Jun sneered. “Du, you’re getting to be more and more like a human, but don’t go to extremes, MH has enough gossip.”

“Is it gossip? I don’t think so, this should be considered a family matter. Jay told me that you were his girlfriend and you broke up because of a misunderstanding. I really had to hold back since I wanted to start applauding. I don’t want you as a sister-in-law.”

“Shut up, Du. I already said not to bring this up anymore.” Jiang Jun stood up and walked out, but was stopped by Du.

 “I just want to say, just forget about the past and treat yourself better, okay?” He looked at Jiang Jun and his expression seemed to be sincere. “If you don’t want to work with Jay, then I’ll tell him to leave. I would rather have him go than have you be unhappy.”

Jiang Jun was astonished. “He’s your little brother! Not just some guy from your mom’s or dad’s side of the family.”

Du shrugged his shoulders indifferently. “So what? He’s just a stranger who’s a half blood-relation. I didn’t even know that such a person existed before. If he hadn’t had some skill, I would’ve told him to get lost a long time ago.”

“Thank you for your good intentions, but it’s the same for me, he’s no different than a stranger.”

“When are you going to be vulnerable for once?”

Jiang Jun raised her fist. “Do you want to see it? The way I show vulnerability is different from the way other people do.”

“Forget it, I won’t mess with you. You just said that you’re leaving early this afternoon, who are you going to meet?”

“My cousin.”

Du was stunned for a moment before he responded. “Didn’t he go to the mainland?”

“What, people aren’t allowed to come back to visit their relatives?” Jiang Jun stared down Du. “I took leave in advance, so don’t try to give me some rush job, I won’t accept it!”

Before noon, Jiang Jun received a text from Yuan Shuai: I changed my flight, will be home soon. Jiang Jun looked at the schedule and decided to put off some things and leave work now.

On the way back, she stopped by the Outside the City Gates restaurant to buy Yuan Shuai his favorite dishes. Thinking that the guy should have arrived at the house by now, she was in a very good mood. Jiang Jun hummed a little song and sat in the seat by the door waiting for the takeout.

Yin Zhe came in through the entrance and was surprised to see her. “Jiang Jun!”

Jiang Jun nodded at him.

“Here alone?” He walked over and sat down opposite Jiang Jun.

“Getting takeout.”

“Let’s eat together, my older brother will come over in a while.”

“No thanks.” Jiang Jun looked at her watch impatiently and thought, why is it so slow?

“Do you like my older brother?” Yin Zhe asked out of nowhere.

Jiang Jun took a sip of tea and pretended not to hear it.

Yin Zhe obliviously continued on. “Some people say that you’re my brother’s mistress, but I don’t believe it.”

Jiang Jun wondered to herself, how could this person still be so dumb after all these years? What was he saying so thoughtlessly? She stopped paying attention to Yin Zhe, picked up the food box brought by the waiter, and walked away.

When she got home, Yuan Shuai indeed was already back, and from the bathroom came the sound of his roar: “How much love can start over again…”

Jiang Jun knocked on the bathroom door. “Stop your racket, come out for dinner.”

Yuan Shuai opened the door, spreading hot air everywhere, and pulled Jiang Jun into the bathroom. He pressed her down against the door panel, lowering his head and asking fiercely, “What’s there to eat?”

Jiang Jun couldn’t help but laugh. “What do you want to eat?”

“Can I eat you?” Yuan Shuai’s fingertips rubbed her lips back and forth.

Jiang Jun opened her mouth to bite and Yuan Shuai didn’t try to avoid it, his other hand sliding under her clothes quickly and forcefully caressing her chest. “Little scamp, what were you up to while I was away?”

Jiang Jun stood up to him. “You’re the one on the cover of the magazine, a cheating couple!”

“Come on, let me kiss you.” 

“Get lost!” She grabbed at his private parts. Who didn’t know how to play the part of a hoodlum?

Yuan Shuai suffered the pain. “Ahh! Your sexual happiness for the rest of your life depends on it, would you really dare?”

“Hate you.  Let’s go eat, I’m starving to death.”

“Kiss it better?” Yuan Shuai leaned over and pouted his lips.

Jiang Jun held his face and kissed him deeply. “Go dress yourself, little kid Yuanyuan!”

The two of them ate as quickly as usual, and except for the occasional clash of cutlery, no one spoke

After eating, Yuan Shuai chose to wash the dishes. Jiang Jun wiped the table and went into the kitchen to help. “How are things on your side?”

“No problems, just waiting on the approval.” Yuan Shuai paused for a bit. “I don’t have to keep an eye on Beijing anymore.”

“That’s good, it’s not convenient for me to go over there all the time.”

“How are you doing?”

“Still the same, passing on the experience to the next generation.” Jiang Jun imitated the accent of Yuan Shuai’s grandfather. “Young people nowadays, they can’t bear any hardship. Remember back when we were fighting the war, the artillery shells were exploding next to us like we were playing with firecrackers. We would hear the sound and still rush forward.”

“You itching for a beating or what?” Yuan Shuai smiled and flicked water in her face. “Just yesterday my grandfather was telling me to act like a man and hurry up and have a baby. How about you quit your job and go home to take care of yourself, you can give birth next year, okay?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Being the mother of a child is the most important thing.” Yuan Shuai hugged her. “Jun’er, I’m afraid that in the future, my kid’s classmates will be calling me grandfather.”

Jiang Jun leaned quietly into his arms and did not answer.

Having not seen her for a week, Yuan Shuai was a little out of control, which made her a little sore. Jiang Jun bit his shoulder and gasped, “Don’t leave marks all over my body, it looks so ugly.”

Yuan Shuai bit her hard a few times. “I’ll do it if I want. You’re all mine, I can do whatever I like.”

Jiang Jun pinched him and Yuan Shuai slowed down, provocatively asking, “You don’t agree?”

It was shameless, teasing at such a critical time. She quickly said, “Hurry up.”

Yuan Shuai ignored her. “Say: you are my wife. Tell me that and we’ll continue.”

“You are my wife,” Jiang Jun cried and laughed at the same time. “‘You are my wife’* counts, right?” (T/N: Just like in English, the words for husband and wife are not the same so Jiang Jun is teasing him back)

“Little scamp, just you wait.” Yuan Shuai sped up his attack on her.

~

One night of indulgence led to Jiang Jun again having no face to see people. When she woke up in the morning, she rummaged through the closet to find a turtleneck. Afraid that it still wasn’t enough insurance, she sat in front of the mirror to apply concealer.

“Let’s go shopping tonight.” Yuan Shuai, contrary to expectations, appeared refreshed and alert. He sat besides her to watch her put on makeup. “What kind of rubbish is that? After applying it, it looks just like vitiligo.”

Jiang Jun glared at him irritably. “I really want to smack you.”

“What time can you get off work tonight?”

Jiang Jun thought about it. “Let’s go in the afternoon instead, that way we won’t meet people we know.”

Yuan Shuai bit her ear with dissatisfaction. “You really treat me as an adulterer.”

Not long after Jiang Jun arrived at the company, her secretary smiled and brought in a bouquet of white roses. “Juno, someone gave you flowers, want me to dispose of it the usual way?”

“Eh, just give me the card.” Jiang Jun flipped open the card, and only saw the two words written in flamboyant cursive calligraphy: an adulterer. She hurriedly shouted to the secretary who was about to leave, “Don’t take it away, hurry up and find me a vase, a pretty one.” The flowers were beautiful and her Yuan Shuai truly had good taste.

Sally came in to talk to her and when she entered the room, she pointed at the roses on the table and exaggeratedly waved her hands around. “It’s true, they said it was but I still didn’t believe it! Oh my goodness, you actually received flowers? Is it a man? Who is that amazing and capable?”

Jiang Jun snapped her notebook shut and looked up without any expression. “Do you think that I’m LES?”

“No, it’s only a feeling of coldness, haha.” Sally laughed nervously, “But who on earth is it? Who could have touched our queen’s mortal heart?”

“It’s a secret.” Jiang Jun fiddled with the delicate rose petals, her smile so sappy that it could kill someone.

“I can’t take it. Seriously speaking, did you really let those two newcomers get involved in the SLK project?”

Jiang Jun pursed her lips. “It’s not that I wanted to get them involved, it’s Du. You have to keep an eye on that Johny. As for Jay, see what you can do.”

These new employees are all the elites of the original mainland banks, with strong business skills, and Yin Zhe is the best among them. He quickly adapted to the intense pace of work and stood out from the crowd. He worked very hard and his dedication and effort was not any less than what Jiang Jun had back then herself. Jiang Jun felt that as an executive level leader, she should empathize with her subordinates, and kindly entreated him not to work so hard and to combine work and rest, but Yin Zhe said, “I’m fine, no problem.” It didn’t take long before Yin Zhe’s “no problem” became a big problem. The SLK Group’s project had a major mistake and despite Jiang Jun’s efforts to remedy the situation, it was to no avail. Du was furious and roared so loud that the whole work area shook.

“What the hell are they doing? What are you doing? Huh? You receive flowers every day, has it confused your brain and turned you into an idiot?” Du put both his hands on his desk and glowered at Jiang Jun, “Juno, I won’t interfere with your private life, but please don’t let it affect your work!”

Jiang Jun looked at Du coldly. “First of all, you have no right to interfere in my private life. Second, you know very well what caused the situation today. Third, I can’t control who wins and who loses, but you can’t touch my people.”

“Very well.” Du threw down a stack of papers in front of her. “You’re optimistic, you think that if you can settle the SLK side without a complaint being filed against Sally, then nothing’s the matter? It’s only a 500K loss, right, so you don’t feel like it’s a big deal?”

Jiang Jun glanced at the document. “I’m already dealing with this matter. Someone deliberately set this up behind the scene, it would be a wonder if this could have been avoided.” She thought about it and also said, “When you assigned Johny to Jay as a partner in the beginning, weren’t you waiting for exactly this day? I’d like to beat the spirit out of him. The timing is just right, I will kill three birds with one stone. It’s only 500K, I’ll make it up to them. Anyway, I’m the one who will play the bad guy, so what do you have to be angry about?”

“You…  Forget it, do it according to your logic. But SLK still needs someone to take responsibility, leaking trade secrets is not a trivial matter. You won’t be able to keep Sally. As for Johny, think of a way to make some noise and I will take care of the rest.  

Jiang Jun was a bit reluctant. “You can let Sally withdraw for vacation first, or have her be temporarily suspended.”

Du rapped on the table impatiently. “You still don’t think the situation is troublesome enough, do you?”

Jiang Jun knew that there was no turning back and felt extremely helpless.  “I understand, I’ll go tell her.”

“Juno, I’m sorry this time.”

Jiang Jun smiled bitterly. “I don’t blame you, it was my mistake.”

Sally handed all the information to Jiang Jun, choked up and said, “I’m sorry Juno, I caused you such a big problem. I originally even wanted to go to Beijing with you, am I terrible or what?”

Apart from giving a friend’s hug to the girl whom she has known for so many years, Jiang Jun didn’t say anything at all to comfort her. She handed Sally an envelope and sent the young woman away.

Jiang Jun spent two hours in self-reflection, sitting stiffly, smoking one cigarette after another.

They couldn’t touch Du, they couldn’t move themselves, but what about the others? The first one was Sally, who would be next? She doesn’t care about her salary, but what about the people who need their jobs to support their families and to pay rent?

The phone rang. Jiang Jun looked at the call, it was Yuan Shuai.

“My dear wife, what are you up to?”  

She felt exhausted and emotionally tired. She was only 30 years old, but she felt like an old lady in her state of mind. Jiang Jun was clear about the cruelty of the business world, but Sally’s departure still made her feel desolate and she grieved for the loss of one of her own kind.* (T/N: The author uses two different idioms here, one of which is “if the rabbit dies, the fox grieves,” meaning one feels bad for a kindred spirit, and all beings grieve for their fellow beings

“Yuanyuan-gege, I’m not happy.”

“Who’s been bullying my Junjun? I’ll exterminate them!” Yuan Shuai said in a vicious and malevolent tone.

“If revenge breeds revenge, will there ever be an end to it?*” (T/N: A Buddhist saying, similar to “an eye for an eye” idiom)

“By eradicating the family clan, you can have peace for a long time, it’s been like that from the ancient times to the present. It’s the same principle as clan execution and the nine familial exterminations*.”  (I’m probably not using the correct English terms for these concepts, but in ancient China, there were punishments that involved the execution of all of the criminal’s relatives, usually for high level crimes like treason or aiding the enemy.  Several generations would be killed as a way to avoid future trouble and/or consolidate power by eliminating the “roots” of the problem. Sounds familiar, right? I just described the starting plot of like 90% of historical and wuxia dramas!)

Just hearing about it made her hair stand on end. Jiang Jun frowned, “Why are you so ruthless?”

Yuan Shuai objected to her judgment. “If you’re not ruthless, you’re just waiting for others to be ruthless to you.”

“Jay and Johny are here,” the secretary informed Jiang Jun.

“I can’t talk to you anymore, I’m going to go ruthlessly ravage other people.”

“Silly girl, let’s eat out tonight, I’ll wait for you at Outside the City Gates.” 

Jiang Jun hung up the phone and felt that her energy was mostly restored.  If there had to be a fight to the death, then she would definitely accompany her people through it.

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T/N: A super huge thank you to everyone for all your comments. I can’t express how encouraging it is to know that there are people reading this translation, it makes me feel so much better about using my time for this rather than other hobbies or projects. I’ll do my best to update more frequently and consistently!