CH 1

Yuan Shuai put his arms around the unconscious Jiang Jun and fiercely kissed her flushed face a few times before whispering: “The spring night is worth a thousand dollars,* I have been waiting for all these years.”

[T/N*: Yuan Shuai directly quotes the first line of a poem called “Spring Night” by the classical poet Su Shi (died circa 1101). The poem is about how the spring night is all the more precious because of its brevity, but the term “spring night” has also come to mean the first time between lovers. This quote is a preview for the chapter and appears later in context.]

~ ~ ~

At 8:00 am Beijing time, the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened.

The TV set turned on at this fixed time and the news anchor used a clear voice to report a series of financial indices without emotion.

The sheets were a mess and Jiang Jun struggled to get out of bed, sitting up with her eyes closed and her hair disheveled.

Five minutes later, the alarm clock began to ring.

Jiang Jun rubbed her eyes, opened the covers, and ran into the bathroom barefoot.

Twenty minutes later, Jiang Jun walked out of the elevator. She carried a baby alligator leather handbag and wore a classy skirt and ponytail, ready to face the world.

The waitress in the coffee shop downstairs prepared her breakfast as usual. Jiang Jun smiled at her, took the paper bag and stuffed it into her bag, and strode towards the underground garage exit.

Yuan Shuai’s car was already waiting there. He was frowning as he talked on the phone with someone. He seemed to have not slept well last night, and his voice was full of anger. When he saw Jun Jiang coming, he yawned and leaned over to open the door of the passenger’s seat, and then flipped down the sun visor.

Jiang Jun had long been accustomed to Yuan Shuai’s quirk of having early morning conference calls. Though they often involved GT’s internal secrets, she had no intention of trying to avoid overhearing things. Actually, the back and forth dealings of the investment bank were typical and to her, it was just a different company name and a different protagonist. Even if it was serious discussion, Jiang Jun didn’t bother to listen. She put on the earphones and listened to the news while eating breakfast. The sweet and sour juice slid down from her mouth to her stomach, stimulating her internal organs. Jiang Jun yawned heavily, took a tissue and wiped her eyes, only then waking up completely.

Yuan Shuai freed his hand, pointing to the juice.

Jiang Jun put the straw in front of his lips, waited until he finished drinking, and then skillfully tore the bread into pieces and fed it to him little by little.

“What nonsense, just do as I said!” Yuan Shuai swallowed the food in his mouth forcefully, impatiently raising his voice and speaking faster. After a moment, he reassured the person on the other end. “Your idea is not bad, but the time is too short at the moment, and it isn’t as if you don’t know how much pressure this puts on me. After I helped you get so many resources before, you also have to be understanding toward me, you…”

Jiang Jun put the paper bag containing the trash under the seat and thought: slap once and then soothe twice, I don’t know which fool got duped. The other guy really ate it up. If this were her own boss, she would have risen up and started a revolution. She raised her hand to look at her watch, pulled open the mirror on the sun visor, and did her makeup.

Women are born artists and no matter what occasion or environment, they can “create” their faces whenever and wherever they want. At the red light, Jiang Jun put eyeliner on one eye and powder on her face, and as they passed through, she did the other eye and half of her face. Just as the car pulled into the special parking space, Jiang Jun pinned up the last strand of hair, looked in the mirror and smiled, becoming the standard beautiful female banker.

Seeing that she was about to get out of the car without saying anything, Yuan Shuai suddenly asked, “What’s the date today?”

Jiang Jun teased him, pretending to be ignorant, and replied: “November 2nd.”

Yuan Shuai lit a cigarette, glanced at her from the side, and reached out with his hand to push back in place the small amount of hair coming loose from her bun.

“Let’s go.” Jiang Jun took the trash and got out of the car, waving goodbye to Yuan Shuai. She stole the cigarette from his mouth, took a puff, and casually let out a smoke ring.

At 9 o’clock exactly, Jiang Jun, a famous iron lady in the investment banking circle, went directly into the boss’s office to report on her work. Recently, the negotiation of a project was stuck in a stalemate, going beyond the scheduled time for the project to move forward. Fortunately, she had sufficiently prepared to deal with it, or else she would have been scolded early in the morning, which was really unlucky.

Jiang Jun’s boss, Lei Du (in English), whose Chinese name is Du Lei, did not comment after listening to her explanation. He just pounded the table in extreme discontent and yelled at her two sick colleagues: “Nowadays young people really are so delicate, after working overtime just for a few days, they take sick leave. Back then, you worked so much more than they do, but weren’t you still active and energetic all day? Just tell them to leave. I don’t keep young masters1 around here.”

Jiang Jun also thought that, back then, no matter how miserable she had been under Du’s torture, she never forgot to exercise for forty minutes in Yuan Shuai’s gym every day. What she had studied was how to hit the sandbag. She still has the sandbag now, with a headshot of Du on it and the two big words “Silly X” written in red paint; just looking at it makes her feel relieved of anger.

“Why don’t you go pick a few more from last year’s newcomers?” Du instructed her, disgruntled. “It’s almost the end of the year, so don’t delay things.”

Jiang Jun was also annoyed. The few young guys recently recruited had good business abilities, but their physical fitness was really poor. Without even doing much work, they became pale, thin, and dispirited, as if she was a female ghost sucking people’s yang energy.

Although she is not a kind person, she wasn’t so evil as to fire employees right before the New Year, but Du couldn’t stand even the tiniest grain of sand in his eye. He was a landmark figure in the MH company, a boss who was powerful and influential in business and who didn’t hide his ambition. He spoke aggressively and was confident and domineering, as if everything was under his control. Within the business world, opinions of him were extremely polarized. Those who worshiped him put him above themselves as a god, and those who hated him wanted to hire someone to murder him first and then abuse his corpse some more.

Jiang Jun had been under Du’s command for many years. Outsiders saw her as his right-hand man, one that Du defends and indulges in every way. But Jiang Jun knew clearly in her heart that this guy was a typical banker, and he could turn his back on her at any time in a matter of minutes. The day she was no longer able to help him make money, she would be forced to leave and wouldn’t even get a portion of severance pay.

There is a classic movie that describes their line of work like this: it’s just a game, a game between elites.

Sometimes Jiang Jun really wants to ask Du, for the purpose of satisfying his desire for conquest, would he go as far as to makes himself into the King of Hell?

Once she returned to her own office, Jiang Jun threw herself into the chair, tilted her head back, and breathed a long sigh of relief.

Ammy, the secretary, came in with a cup of tea and set it down, but didn’t leave, looking pale.

The best in their profession know how to observe words and colors. Jiang Jun sat up straight and asked, “Tell me, what’s the matter?”

Ammy bluntly said: “I want to transfer departments.”

“Okay,” Jiang Jun nodded without needing to think it over. Everyone has their own ambitions, no need to force it.

“Sorry, I know that leaving right now is over the top, but this kind of work intensity…” Ammy’s eyes reddened.

“Just work well through this month.” Jiang Jun stood up and walked around the desk, patting Ammy’s shoulder affectionately and comforting her in a low voice. “It’s okay, ask the human resources department to choose a few people, the ones Du have approved of, to come here as soon as possible. You go choose them yourself, but don’t be tempted by looks and beauty, they must be physically strong and capable.”

Ammy gave her a look, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Don’t worry, I will choose the strongest one, someone able to carry you home.”

Jiang Jun glanced at the closed wooden door of the office, then lowered her voice and said, “Don’t tell anyone about your transfer yet, it’s almost the end of the year. The red envelope2 for this year is more than last year. There won’t be too much to do during this time, so think about which department you want to go to first, and let me know if you need me to come out and coordinate.”

“Thank you.”

Jiang Jun handed a tissue to the secretary who had been with her for almost two years. “I should be the one crying, okay? That’s enough, pretty girl, cover your little bunny eyes and when you return, people will think I’m so fierce. By the way, remember to help me get the serialized version of the morning paper. I made a bet with Rose for lunch that the heroine will walk with the ball.3”

Ammy laughed out loud, wiped her tears, and scolded: “Crazy girl! You really got it right.”

After Ammy left the office, Jiang Jun sighed and leaned on her desk, playing with a lighter. She turned it on, off, on, the flames starting and extinguishing, wavering and unstable.

Ammy was already the secretary who had worked by her side for the longest time. Jiang Jun was a notorious workaholic, capable of working overtime without sleep, and living like a fleshless robot. If she didn’t leave work, then naturally the secretary couldn’t leave, and how could any girl cope with that kind of workload? They were different from Jiang Jun. They wanted to date, fall in love, get married, and have a baby, but all these, to Jiang Jun, were extravagant hopes that she had given up on long ago.

Jiang Jun looked around her office, taking in the view inch by inch. This was her world, her territory, and the focus of her entire life. In reality, she was the one who was really pitiful. Her private life was so poor that she had nothing. The only thing she could grasp was just this.

Her cell phone rang, Jiang Jun glanced at the number. It was Yuan Shuai. What would he be calling her for at this time?

“Hey girl, what time do you get off work? Shall we go together?”

Jiang Jun lifted her hand to look at her watch and mocked him, “It’s not even noon yet, is GT bankrupt? So idle!”

“Don’t be a jinx,4 I have Yuan Xiaoye here, GT’s business is definitely booming. I’m just asking you… Hey, what day is it today?”

Jiang Jun held back a smile and replied: “Do you have Alzheimer’s? You’ve said it before, November 2, what’s up?”

The caller paused for a moment and then said, “There seems to be something going on today, what is it?”

Jiang Jun covered the microphone and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Think about it again.” Yuan Shuai was obviously in a bad mood, and his words carried a bit of resentment.

Jun Jiang stopped teasing him: “All right, you’re already an old geezer, but you’re still thinking about celebrating your birthday. I can go back early this afternoon, you can wait for me at home.”

Today is Yuan Shuai’s 33rd birthday, and also the 22nd anniversary of their acquaintance. Twenty-two years ago, Yuan Shuai, as the grandson of Jiang Jun’s grandmother Yuyi Jinlan, first met Jiang Jun. At that time, Jiang Jun was 7 years old and Yuan Shuai was 11 years old, which is the age of “You came on a bamboo horse, around the benches we played with the green plums, we lived together as neighbors, two children carefree and innocent.”5

After the afternoon meeting, Jiang Jun was somewhat absent-minded and rushed home, ignoring an invitation for a dinner party. As soon as she entered her house, she smelled the fragrance of the food and relaxed. Yuan Shuai, wearing an apron, poked his head out from the kitchen and asked, “Where’s the birthday present?”

Jiang Jun raised her eyebrows and asked, “What else is Young Master Yuan lacking? Everything is there, except trouble. How about I send you a couple of slaps for so you can be troubled for a while?”

Yuan Shuai scowled and fiercely raised his spatula to throw at her: “Stop talking nonsense, hurry up. If you don’t have a birthday present for me, then worry about me becoming upset.”

A recent popular TV series was being shown on TV, and the heroine was the star actress who had a scandalous affair with Yuan Shuai some time ago. Jiang Jun pointed at the TV: “What did your girl Jiao Didi give you?”

Yuan Shuai curled his lips disdainfully. “Who’s my girl? We only met a couple of times while socializing. She wants to be my family. But is the threshold of my old Yuan family house so easy to enter?”

“You show-off, come here quickly and make tomato and scrambled eggs, make it like this is a full banquet. Tonight, you clean up the kitchen.” Jiang Jun threw the car key from her pocket at him. The car was a SSC UltimateAero6 and it took her a lot of thought to buy it.

Yuan Shuai caught the key, nodded his head with great pleasure, took off his apron and tied it onto Jiang Jun. With a sweet expression, he said: “The beautiful woman gives a nice car, but also takes care of the meal, this life is really comfortable.”

Jiang Jun quickly stir-fried the food, and Yuan Shuai set up the table, the two collaborating with a tacit understanding from deep rapport. This is how they have been all these years. Ever since Jiang Jun came to Hong Kong, she had lived with Yuan Shuai. At first, she lived in his house. Later, she made money and bought a house next door to him. The waiters, security guards, and cleaners downstairs all thought they were a couple, but they really weren’t.

In terms of their blood relationship, they were not related. If you must go in terms of relatives, the grandmothers of the two were both great ladies of wealthy families. After joining the revolution, they were assigned to the medical team and became the hot-blooded female flowers of the army. Afterward, the two took a blood oath and became sisters. Jiang Jun called Yuan Shuai’s grandmother her aunt.

When it comes to love, it really doesn’t have to be said: those who have been childhood friends, even if they fall in love, are ill-fated. The two of them fell in love and broke up backwards and forwards, and the object of each of their affections even became a couple together. Sometimes when Jiang Jun thinks of this past, she always feels that God is really too humorous, how could he arrange such an objectionable scene between two opposite people?

Translator’s Notes:

[1 like the son of the lord/boss, implied to be spoiled.]

[2 basically a year end bonus given in the traditional red envelope]

[3 I don’t know the reference or slang here, but this is an illegal move in basketball known as traveling, where you carry the ball while walking instead of dribbling it.]

[4 a figure of speech, being a “crow’s beak” is a person who makes an unlucky remark]

[5. Another poem, from one of the most famous poets, Li Bai from the Tang Dynasty. The Ballad of Changgan is about childhood sweethearts and is also the origin of the idiom 青梅竹馬 qīngméizhúmǎ, lit. green plums and bamboo horses. I did a very rough translation, but you get the gist: childhood friends who later fall in love. You can find translations HERE & HERE ]

[6 Author specifically labeled this as a Ford car, but I looked it up and it’s a fancy race car that isn’t by Ford.]