CH 11

Translator’s Notes: I debated with myself a lot on the R rated parts due to the classic translation problem of faithfulness vs. equivalence. The problem is that I can translate accurately using the author’s exact words, but it simply doesn’t sound very good because things aren’t normally described that way romantically or sexually in English. As a writer myself, it makes me cringe to put together sentences that sound so unappealing and awkward. For example, I’ve read thousands of books and whether we’re talking about Chaucer or modern YA literature, I have never, ever come across a description of slippery tongues in kissing. (On that note, I also thought the imagery of the two corpses lying next to each other is just about as unsexy as it gets, but it was the author’s intent when she broke the fourth wall to talk about how sex scenes in novels are usually written, so my hands are tied.) Anyway, my compromise is that I’ve used slightly more translator’s discretion on some of the descriptions that sound so unpleasant in English.

If you’re listening to the audiobook on Ximalaya, some R rated sentences are skipped. Also, sorry for the longer wait this time, it takes me longer to translate than you might expect because I go back and try to proofread/revise before posting. If I’m going to spend the time to translate this book, I want to at least do a decent job!

Preview: If Yuan Shuai walked out of the room at this time, he would never come back again, and her Yuan Yuan-gege would never be found again.

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Jiang Jun knocked hard on Yuan Shuai’s door, but Yuan Shuai wouldn’t open it. Jiang Jun pulled out the spare key, unlocked the door, and saw that only a single wall lamp was lit in the house. Yuan Shuai was sitting on the sofa in the living room, holding a pillow, his face solemn. Jiang Jun was a little scared and ran over to tug at him. Yuan Shuai turned his head to look at Jiang Jun with a completely unfamiliar expression.

“Du and I, we…” Jiang Jun wanted to explain, but couldn’t figure out where to start.

“You don’t need to explain anything to me, and I’m not qualified to hear your explanation,” Yuan Shuai interrupted her. “Who am I to you anyway? You don’t need to explain it to me, be with whomever you want to be with.”

“Yuan Yuan-gege, I…” Jiang Jun didn’t know what to say. She reached out to hug him, but Yuan Shuai frowned and avoided her, walking into the bedroom without looking back. He slammed the door and locked it with a click.

She stood at the door of his room, wanting to knock but not daring to. She waited for a long time for him to come out but he didn’t, so all she could do was go back to her own room, where she sat on the floor to wake up. Everything that happened tonight had caught her off guard and she had been unable to ward off any of it.

She simply went to the bathroom to take a shower and rinsed herself with cold water over and over again, trying to regain her sanity and clear her mind. Her body was numbed little by little, but her thoughts were still in a total mess.

“Zhong Jiang Jun, you’re ruthless!” Yuan Shuai suddenly kicked open the bathroom door and rushed in. Before Jiang Jun could turn her head, she was hugged from behind, and a tingling pain came from her neck. His bite was really hard. It hurt, it really did hurt. Jiang Jun raised her head and let him bite.

When Yuan Shuai tired of biting and let go, he rested his chin on her collarbone, breathing hard.

Jiang Jun turned her head to look, while Yuan Shuai also looked back at her, and the two of them stood like this in a stalemate, dripping with cold water, neither speaking nor moving.

“It’s too cold, you’ll catch a cold.” Yuan Shuai took the lead in regaining his composure. He let go of her, turned off the shower, and picked up a bath towel to wrap around her naked body. Then he carried her out of the bathroom and put her on the bed.

Jiang Jun unashamedly let him use the towel to wipe off the water droplets on her body. He went over every part and every inch of her skin. Yuan Shuai remained expressionless and his gaze didn’t have the desire of a man looking at a woman. He was utterly cold.

Jiang Jun was a little desperate. If he didn’t love her, why had he looked at her like that? Why had he said things like “let’s be together” to her?” Why kiss her?

“Don’t go, stay with me for a while!” Seeing that he was about to leave, Jiang Jun tugged at his arm and softly pleaded for him to stay. She was scared, truly scared, and her instinct told her that if Yuan Shuai walked out of the room at this time, he would never come back again, and her Yuan Yuan-gege would never be found again.

“I’m tired, I’m really tired. What exactly do you take me for?” Yuan Shuai sat on the side of the bed, turning his face away from her.

Jiang Jun didn’t know how to answer his question, but fortunately, Yuan Shuai stayed. Her Yuan Yuan-gege had never refused any of her requests. They lay embracing each other on the bed in the bedroom, Yuan Shuai’s face pressed against her chest, the warm liquid slowly seeping into her skin, drop by drop, down her pores and running along her blood vessels, scalding her heart and making it quiver. A cluster of flames uncontrollably burst out of her heart.

Jiang Jun rolled over and pushed down Yuan Shuai, eagerly searching for his lips. Yuan Shuai paused for a moment and then immediately reversed their positions, his limbs powerfully locking Jiang Jun in place completely, his tongue tightly tangling with hers, and his hands fervently roaming across her body, from top to bottom, and from outside to inside. Jiang Jun arched her body and accepted his visit, entwining their bodies together. She wrapped her arms around his neck and softly called out, “Yuan Yuan-gege.”

Yuan Shuai kissed her, licking and tasting her lips. They were so close now, they were meant to be together. Her body was so warm and her softness with his hardness was a perfect fit. She wrapped herself around him like a vine, letting him claim her, moaning like a kitten. Yuan Shuai began to move slowly and rhythmically, taking her to the ultimate bliss together. In that moment, Jiang Jun felt herself leaving the world, and brilliant fireworks burst from her lower body.

In novels, all the heroines faint after the climax, and the biggest advantage of such writing is to avoid embarrassment. But Jiang Jun didn’t lose consciousness and instead lay flat on her back stiffly, not daring to move. Of course Yuan Shuai wouldn’t faint either, so they were like two corpses lying stiffly side-by-side on the bed.

“Are we still acting as if it never happened?” Yuan Shuai finally said. “Leaving no trace behind after the spring dream?”

Seeing that Jiang Jun remained silent, Yuan Shuai rolled over and pressed her down, his expression complicated. “Do you want me to take responsibility?”

Was this even human speech?

“Get out!” Jiang Jun kicked him out of bed with all her strength.

Yuan Shuai let out an “Ow” and reached out his arm to show that he had something to say. “Then can I ask you to take responsibility for me?”

“You’re crazy.” Jiang Jun threw a pillow down, thought about it, and then threw down the blanket too. She pulled up the sheets for herself to keep out the cold. “Let me ask you, what really happened between us that night?”

Yuan Shuaijing was quiet for a while, and then spoke with the tone of being wronged, “You want to dominate me, I didn’t let you, and then you tore my shirt in a rage.”

“Then what was the matter with the bed sheets and paper towels? And also, why wasn’t I wearing anything?”

Yuan Shuai was even more aggrieved. “Later, I thought I’d better just humor you, but then you threw up.”

What was all this! Jiang Jun climbed to the edge of the bed and lowered her head to look at him. “Do you think it’s possible for us to last if we’re good?”

Yuan Shuai stood up, pushed her aside and lay back down beside her. He wrapped the two in the blankets before he said, “Do you feel that there’s any difference between how we were before, other than having sex, and how we are now?”

Jiang Jun thought about it and agreed. They had already taken this step anyway, so why bring up the matter of whether it was love or not. Knowing that they were in each other’s hearts was enough anyway. She lifted her arms to put them around Yuan Shuai’s neck. “How about the two of us just be good then, we’re not good people but we’re not harming others, just count it as a domestic sale.”

Yuan Shuai pursed his lips and nodded vigorously. “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”

Half-dreaming and half-awake, Jiang Jun asked in a daze, “Then what if I were to say, just pretend it never happened?”

Yuan Shuai’s voice was very sober, “I’ll leave, I’ll go somewhere far away, and I’ll never see you again in this lifetime.”

Just thinking about it made her feel sad, and warm tears welled out of Jiang Jun’s eyes. She sniffled, burrowed into his arms, and reached out to wrap her arms around his neck. “Don’t go anywhere, let’s both live well.”

That night, Jiang Jun slept very peacefully, but Yuan Shuai slept extremely restlessly. He hugged Jiang Jun and woke up from time to time, always afraid that the woman in his arms would disappear.

Others all call her Juno and in Hong Kong’s financial circles, there is no Jiang Jun, only Juno. She is Lei Du’s right-hand man and GT’s many attempts poach her with offers of higher pay were all rejected. She has a beautiful face, exceptional business ability, a straightforward character, and extensive contacts. She has no relatives, no close male friends, and no close female friends. People in the circle call her the Queen of IBD in private.

But for Yuan Shuai, Juno is a completely unfamiliar woman. He looked down at Jiang Jun, who was sleeping in his arms, caressed her arm, and asked himself, “Did I do something wrong?”

When he first met Jiang Jun, she was just a little girl living in the Garden of Eden her family had built for her. She called him her brother and they grew up together. Later, he fell in love with Jiang Jun, while Jiang Jun fell in love with another man. Yuan Shuai couldn’t stop her from loving others, so he hated Jiang Jun, hated the man she loved, and hated their love.

Back then, Jiang Jun didn’t want wings or a crown, she only wanted to be Eve. Unfortunately, the man she liked was not her Adam, and Jiang Jun’s family would not allow her to deviate. Yuan Shuai watched coldly as her family destroyed her Garden of Eden, while he personally cut apart her love. At that time, he was looking forward immensely to the moment Jiang Jun fell from the clouds and became a fairy or a demon. This was the punishment for her betrayal, and only then could he take her away.

As he expected, Jiang Jun left her family home for the United States and had never returned to this day. When Jiang Jun had been at her loneliest and most helpless, he had appeared in her life, though at the time she had still hated him and completely ignored him. Yuan Shuai waited patiently for one year, two years, three years; he had just wanted to let Jiang Jun know who it was who would accompany her to the end. He had thought about giving up, and had thought about leaving, but every grievance and feeling of discontent disappeared at the sound of Yuan Yuan-gege, vanishing like smoke in thin air.

He encouraged Jiang Jun to enter his work circle, asking his old colleagues to take care of her. In the past, she had always said that she wanted to open a restaurant and be the boss, so he invested most of his money to open the restaurant of her dreams.

Yuan Shuai was familiar with every preference in Jiang Jun’s life and the only thing that fell outside of the plan was that she had chosen MH after coming to Hong Kong at the end of her internship, and had entered the most competitive and cutthroat department. He disapproved of her choice because no newcomer could pass Du’s hellish test; the man’s performance requirements were difficult to achieve even for veterans who had worked for more than three years. In a world-class investment bank, there was no humanity, only interests, and they all knew it well to get to this position. At GT, he could help the woman that he loves to slowly adapt, but why would Du? Perhaps in one month or even less, his darling would be kicked out of MH by the “digital machine,” and when the time came he would comfort her as before, encourage her, and let her not be hurt in any way under his own wings.

Jiang Jun, who was new to MH, only slept for three or four hours a day, and would yell as she was dreaming, “Du, you bastard.”

Yuan Shuai knew that she was the kind of person who wouldn’t shed a tear until she saw the coffin herself, so he never tried to persuade her to give up.

But he really didn’t expect that Jiang Jun’s body would contain so much potential, and it was even more unexpected for Du to uncharacteristically indulge and shield her. His momentary blunder as Young Master Yuan had actually created a woman named Juno, and the most terrifying thing was that he had almost given her up to someone else.

Men had always been favored over women in their world. Women’s sensibility and frailty make it difficult to adapt to the financial battlefield, which follows the law of the jungle where the weak are prey to the strong. The few who are able to get ahead are mostly engaged in the back-end technical level, or are so tough that it’s impossible to equate them with women. Jiang Jun is beautiful, smart and capable, and her style is feminine; the wind sweeping through her skirt naturally makes lascivious people ready to make a move. When the man who wanted her as a mistress offered a price as high as a mansion in Zhong Ban Shan, the name Juno became suggestive and erotic when mentioned by her colleagues. Fortunately, Jiang Jun was clever and took the initiative to start with female clients who were the heads of their households, and she also became very familiar with the wives and confidants of a large number of powerful men, so she avoided these crises in a thrilling manner.

It could be said that Yuan Shuai suffered in order to help open doors for her, and he devoted his best efforts to this labor of love. Du also secretly laid down his capital, paving the way for her and clearing the obstacles, which brought her to her current position. Jiang Jun herself probably didn’t know how many people’s bitter tears were behind her success and only treated her life as a good one, thinking that she had the face of the head wife, which made people afraid to be malicious.

The current Jiang Jun is not the same as before. Her status in the Asia-Pacific circle is as high as the sun at noon and she is the well-known queen of IBD. When discussing business, she rarely went to the client’s office, instead either accompanying them to play golf or to go fishing. Sometimes the contract was made at the gaming table, or during the dinner arranged by the wife. When the male clients talked about this capable and beautiful banker, they both loved and hated her. They loved her for helping them make money, and hated her for only doing business and no romance. When colleagues talked about Juno, there was a consensus: this woman could only be looked up to as a legend, and she was exclusively Du’s, no one else could touch her.

Yuan Shuai hugged Jiang Jun, wondering how to let people know that she was his, had always been his, and had nothing at all to do with Du. Suddenly, he thought of an important problem: She did such a thing with him, but didn’t even ask why. Yuan Shuai had fantasized about making love with her countless times, the passionate version, the gentle and tender version, and in the scene she would ask him, “Do you love me?” He would kiss her on the forehead and say, “Don’t talk nonsense, can anyone else love you more than I do?” Now the fantasy had become a reality, but she hadn’t even said anything. Was he, Young Master Yuan, actually supposed to lie in her arms like a woman and ask, “Do you love me?” It was very possible that Jiang Jun would tactfully say that she didn’t know, and then how would that end? Was he supposed to be aloof and say, “If you don’t love me, don’t make love to me?” He was stupid!

Thinking of this, Yuan Shuai angrily bit Jiang Jun’s ear, and as she dreamed, she discontentedly pinched his thigh. This girl has always been vengeful and petty, and he continued to torment her earlobe.

“Do you know why I named you Juno in the first place?” Yuan Shuai asked quietly, still holding onto her earlobe.

“Damn you!” Jiang Jun was so pestered by him that she couldn’t sleep. She simply stretched out an arm, fumbled for a long time, and finally twisted his ear.

“You said that I was born in the Year of the Pig and I also loved to sleep, so I was called Juno. I regret it so much now, it sounds so ugly, pig…*” She imitated her grandmother’s Southern dialect and said her English name. [T/N* Pig is zhu, which sounds like the Ju in Juno]

Yuan Shuai burst out laughing and rubbed her cheeks hard. “Silly girl, this is the name of a goddess!”

“I don’t care, whoever likes it can have it!” She ignored him and turned over to sleep.

Yuan Shuai closed his eyes, hugged her, and fell into a deep sleep. Time passed by them, returning to that sunny afternoon when he had followed his grandfather through the red wall and saw Jiang Jun.

She was sitting alone in the garden on the fake mountain, with a thin braid, holding a doll, and looking at him curiously.

Jiang Jun said, “Are you the grandson of my great aunt? Then are you my brother?”

He said, “My great aunt is sick. Will you come to my house in the future? I’ll let my grandma be your grandma.”

She held the doll and said, “Then we’ll play house together in the future, okay? You’ll be the father, I’ll be the mother, and this is our baby.”

She called Yuan Shuai Yuan Yuan-gege and she was his unrelated sister.

Yuan Shuai’s English name is Zeus and Juno is Zeus’s sister and wife in mythology.

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T/N: The last few lines are from Ch. 12 of the ebook but as I mentioned before, the ebook seems to have randomly chopped up the author’s original chaptering and they really belong here.

Next chapter: Yuan Shuai really likes to bite (lol), they are too cute together, and is Jiang Jun ever going to figure out her feelings?