Chapter 30: Part 2 —“I fear the roar of the lioness from the east side of the river, how would I dare to live at a plush house with a concubine?”

Translator: Barb

Editor: Chiyo

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Jiang Jingchuan was the CEO, if he worked overtime, his secretary and assistant would also stay. When Su Yan came to the Jiang Company, Jiang Jingchuan’s secretary, Lin Da, was rendered dumbstruck for a moment but then quickly rushed out to receive her. Su Yan handed one of the boxes to her and said with a smile: “I asked the kitchen to make many crystal dumplings for you. Thank you for all your hard work.”

Lin Da was overwhelmed by this unexpected favor. She accepted it and quickly thanked her. As she watched Su Yan walk over to Jiang Jingchuan’s office, she sighed inwardly,  Mrs. Jiang was such a beautiful person, like a pearl, her character was perfect and without fault, who would dare to go to Jiang Jingchuan in the future in her presence?

When Su Yan entered carrying the lunchbox, Jiang Jingchuan was immersed in his work. On hearing the sound of the door opening, he subconsciously frowned, how could the assistant be so ignorant? Did he not even know how to knock?

As a result, when he looked up to see that the person was Su Yan, he was stunned.

Su Yan raised the lunchbox in her hand and spoke softly, “Will you not help me carry this lunchbox? My hand aches.”

Jiang Jingchuan quickly snapped back to reality, and hurriedly got up. But in the process, he ended up bumping his leg against the corner of the desk. His eyebrows scrunched up in deep pain, yet his movements didn’t slow down at all. He walked around the desk and reached towards Su Yan. He took the heavy lunchbox from Su Yan and asked as he walked over to the side table: “Why did you come?”

“Because I wanted to.” Su Yan intentionally twisted Jiang Jingchuan’s words as she lightly hmphed.

Jiang Jingchuan helped her sit down, his face couldn’t hide his smile, “You didn’t tell me you were coming, I wasn’t prepared.”

As he opened the lunch box’s lid, Su Yan proudly lifted her chin, “What if you were concealing your concubine in a golden house^[1]? What do I do then? Therefore, I must definitely take advantage of when you are unaware to come over.”

Jiang Jingchuan appeared to stroke his chin seriously, “I fear the roar of a lioness from the east side of the river^[2], how would I dare to live at a plush house with a concubine.”

Su Yan was only pulling his leg but after hearing his words, she couldn’t bear his teasing smile, and pinched his elbow while scolding him jokingly: “You are also the east side lion^[3]!”

“I originally planned to make my assistant get me a boxed lunch, but this is even better.” Jiang Jingchuan was a workaholic. It was a common occurrence for him to work till wee hours of the morning. Due to being so busy, he wasn’t very particular about food. As long as it could fill his stomach, it was the same as a full course meal.  

Upon seeing the rich and plentiful dishes which were also his favorites, for a while, Jiang Jingchuan felt very touched. The housekeeper coming to deliver food versus his wife coming to deliver food, naturally didn’t have the same feeling. Jiang Jingchuan didn’t feel like working anymore.

Su Yan uncapped the thermos, stopped Jiang Jingchuan before he could eat and warmly said: “First drink this hot soup then eat, it will be good for your stomach. This is the bitter gourd and spare ribs hot soup stewed by the nursemaid, it is said to relieve the internal heat and detoxify the body, it is suitable to drink on this hot day.”

Jiang Jingchuan heeding her advice, put down the chopsticks, and accepted the bowl of soup from Su Yan to drink. After many sips he asked: “Have you eaten yet?”

“I had already eaten before coming here. Drink slowly, nobody is snatching it from you.” Seeing Jiang Jingchuan drinking the soup somewhat hurriedly, Su Yan reminded him.

As she uttered those lines, she felt stunned at herself. Looking at the appearance of Jiang Jingchuan while drinking soup and eating, she thought that unexpectedly they got along quite well like an ordinary couple.

Outside, the hard working secretaries and the assistants were going to eat the little dimsums brought by Su Yan. Lin Da was leaning at the entrance of the tea room, while the lunch box was being heated. The colleague standing beside her sighed with emotion and whispered: “The Boss’s wife is truly an upright person. Unexpectedly did not forget to make us a lunch box, I am sold.”

Although there weren’t many crystal dumplings and everyone could only eat a few,  this filled their hearts with a favorable impression regarding Su Yan.

Another colleague whispered: “Without maintaining your EQ and IQ, you think you can easily marry into a rich and influential family with only your looks? It always pays to learn more, that's for sure.”

“It’s a pity that we don’t have such good looking families as these people, nor is our EQ that high. Don’t want to talk about it, so sad.” Lin Da drank the coffee in one gulp before putting down the glass and stretching herself, “We have no choice but to be busy as a dog everyday. Depending on our salary so we won’t go hungry or die. What about other people? They buy buy buy every day and dress beautifully. They can go wherever they want. Oh God, would I still have a place if I go to Mt. Tiantai^[4] now?”

“If comparing money with money, money could still be tossed out but it was worse when comparing a person to another person.”

Finally ending with such a sentence, everybody gazed helplessly at each other and returned to their work in office with heads hung down.

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“I met Mr. Lu at the parking lot. I have not told you yet, but two days ago, did I not go shopping with Jingjing? At that time I came across her fellow classmate. Two years ago I had met her once, that time I had helped her out of a trouble which was as easy as lifting a finger. I never expected her to still remember it, and just now I found out that she was Lu Yang’s younger sister.” Su Yan wanted to tell Jiang Jingchuan of this matter because Lu Yang was not your average man on the street. If it was beneficial to the Jiang Company, she would tell Jiang Jingchuan everything, letting him have many advantages.

This kind of lucrative relationship between men was like twisted roots and gnarled branches^[5], she did not know what kind of thoughts Lu Yang harboured.

Jiang Jingchuan was surprised, “What a coincidence? Lu Yang didn’t tell me. What else did he say?”

“He said his uncle and aunt wanted to invite me to dinner, presumably wishing for me to show up. What do you think?” Lu Yang was different from other people, after taking over the family property and resources from his maternal grandfather’s hands, he expanded his influence in A city. Such a person himself took the initiative to talk to her and even invited her for a meal due to such a small matter. It would be a wonder if he was not hiding some dirt.  

Su Yan did not even need to think, Lu Yang had just come to power, his foundation was still unstable, and it also seems that Venerable Sir Chen’s son and grandson did not lack in using any underhanded tactics to bring him down. At such a time, he was still in the mood to invite her to a dinner?

How can one rise early without any benefits? It was only left to see whether or not Jiang Jingchuan was willing to form a relation with Lu Yang.

Jiang Jingchuan carefully thought it over, as a matter of fact, he wasn’t at all against that idea of maintaining a good relationship with Lu Yang. First of all: Lu Yang's moral character was good, he had also worked together with him in the past and had a friendly relation. Secondly: the Chen family behind Lu Yang was also not bad. Anyway it wouldn't be a bad thing to have more of such friends. Since Lu Yang wanted to build good personal relations with the Jiang corporation, he couldn’t ignore it. Thinking so, Jiang Jingchuan spoke: “Lu Yang isn’t a bad person. It’s just having a meal. Besides, it’s his younger sister’s friendship with you. Don’t think too much of it.”

Su Yan’s heart felt clear after hearing those words and felt confident on handling this matter. She was not going to show how business was conducted to Jiang Jingchuan, it was not like she even had the ability to do so. Since he had already said so, then she would accept the dinner invitation.

“If it doesn’t affect you then I will.” Su Yan added one more line.

Jiang Jingchuan felt a bit moved. On one side, he felt that Su Yan wasn’t stupid, and knew enough to tell this sort of matter to him, her intuition was also very sharp. On the other side, Su Yan, listening to these kinds of words, felt that she was pretty sensible. He should know that it was much better to have an intelligent and sensible wife than a beautiful wife.

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Barb Notes:

1.To conceal your concubine in a golden house- Just as the words suggest, this idiom means to live with one's youg concubine in a plush house.

2.The roar of a lioness from the east side of the river- An idiom whichi usually refers to someone's wife who is dominating and has a temper or shrewish wife.

3.The east side lion- Here she means to say that he is pretty shrewd himself.

4.Mount Tiantai- It is a Buddhist holy mountain in Zhejiang.

5.Twisted roots and gnarled branches - An idiom which means something very complicated.