Traditional festivals were interspersed with many traditional customs.
Especially on the occasion of bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new.
Before New Year’s Eve, an essential family activity was the big spring clean-up, with profound meaning – sweeping away all the bad luck of the past year.
Chen Jinyao had been busy until 3 p.m., barely getting the kitchen cleaned up. She was already exhausted. She closed her eyes and leaned against the refrigerator, pressing her waist repeatedly when she got a moment of rest. After a while, she lazily opened her eyes, her gaze staying on the two people busy in the living room, mostly lingering on Yan Cheng who was bent over wiping the table legs with a rag. Her eyes couldn’t hide the surprise.
Through a few days of covert observation, she really hadn’t expected her sister to have such great ability to already make the famously prodigal young master Yan Cheng, who could get everything with a snap of his fingers in the imperial capital, so obedient.
It could be said that she and Yan Cheng were both driven like ducks onto shelves by Chen Jinyao to provide free labor this day. After working almost the whole day, her pent-up resentment had gradually overflowed. Unexpectedly, Yan Cheng could still bury his head and work hard in such a carefree manner.
“……” Her gaze towards Chen Jinyao was full of admiration.
When did the Yan family, when speaking of Yan Cheng to outsiders, not start with “useless”? But now, from what Chen Jinyao saw wide-eyed, he was almost no different from an otaku1, completely inconsistent with the rumors.
After tidying up her area of responsibility and resting for a while to regain some spirit, Chen Jinyao suddenly felt like chatting. There was a high chair at the bar. She went over and poured herself a glass of water, “Brother-in-law, I see you at home almost every day. Do you not manage your bar?”
Erguan (T/N: the bar) had reopened with some changes in its business model. As usual, business was even better than before.
“Someone is managing it for me,” Yan Cheng looked up. When the bar was brought up, his pitch-black pupils seemed to contain starlight. “I’m only a major shareholder of Erguan.”
So he didn’t need to soak there every day, indulging in paper drunkenness and gold intoxication2, while lowering his status to manage some trivial matters of indulging urban men and women.
Especially now during the Spring Festival holiday, he would of course also take time off for himself.
In a sense, Yan Cheng was a hedonist.
Of course, before that, he would give himself the capital to enjoy himself. His and Chen Jinyao’s life philosophies actually had significant differences. Chen Jinyao valued getting involved in everything, and took pleasure in busying herself and working hard. The life state she pursued and the direction he was heading were not the same. She probably leaned more towards self-fulfillment.
But he didn’t know if it was because they had been together for a long time. Yan Cheng discovered that he had gradually become closer to Chen Jinyao’s way of life.
Silent for a moment.
It was still Yan Cheng who picked up the topic again.
He remembered he had said before that after Erguan reopened, he would have Chen Jinyao go support the scene as Erguan’s boss’s wife.
As a bar, Erguan’s essence still could not change the phenomenon of women soliciting men and men picking women. Yan Cheng was handsome and rich. Clueless girls would still stick to him one after another, holding the aim of fishing a rich husband.
This was also the reason why boss Yan Cheng did not go to Erguan often now.
Yan Cheng straightened up. His words followed the topic brought up by Chen Jinyao and were addressed to Chen Jinyao, but his deep eyes stared straight into Chen Jinyao’s eyes. His eyelashes lifted slightly. “Want to go see Erguan? If you want, I’ll take you both in a few days.”
Upon hearing this, Chen Jinyao frowned and pouted, just about to refute something, but was interrupted by the eager Chen Jinyao, “Okay, okay!”
The place the rich second generation young businessmen and merchants of the imperial capital’s upper class loved to go the most.
It would be a waste of life not to go experience it.
Chen Jinyao was still young after all, curious and bold enough.
In this aspect, she was much better than her sister who had a mentality as an elder, whose face showed disapproval and seemed timid. Chen Jinyao felt that it was no problem for her to go, but bringing Chen Jinyao along, she hesitated a little.
Yan Cheng’s eyes narrowed. Seeing what she was thinking, he arched his brows smiling, “What are you afraid of? Erguan is a proper bar.”
When their eyes met, Chen Jinyao spread her hands innocently.
Her pitch-black eyes seemed to say “Who was the one that got shut down?”
“……” Yan Cheng was rendered speechless. He ground his teeth. He walked over to Chen Jinyao and bent down, lowering his voice, “Afraid I’ll sell you sisters off?”
Chen Jinyao leaned on her hand pondering. After quite a while, she finally smiled and seemingly teased, “Afraid.”
The floor-to-ceiling windows were wiped clean, reflecting the interior of the living room.
Yan Cheng helplessly lowered his eyelashes, chuckling softly.
The two’s interactions were natural and intimate.
Chen Jinyao watched from the side, unable to help sighing again.
She guessed that even couples who truly married for love probably couldn’t achieve such overt “honey dripping from their mouths”.
As someone in a long-distance relationship from her boyfriend, she was very envious.
“A classmate from our class went to Erguan to work part-time and bragged about it when he came back,” Chen Jinyao subtly observed on all sides, knowing that the one who was currently gritting her teeth and refusing to budge was her sister. She wanted to stimulate her sister in other ways.
So that her sister could loosen up and not be so stiff.
What she said was also true. Many of Erguan’s private rooms could not be entered just with money. So experiencing it once through a part-time job and seeing the second generations’ dealings was really something for them to brag about.
Although such behavior was not good, it operated on the same principle as rarity making something precious.
“Pfft.” Yan Cheng laughed, “It’s just a bar, not that shady.”
After a pause, he lazily added, “If you’re happy go brag too, say Erguan was opened by your brother-in-law.”
Chen Jinyao laughed loudly, feeling this was feasible.
The two sang and got along so well, making the person in the middle helpless.
In the end, left with no choice, she agreed to going to Erguan once before Chen Jinyao started school.
Another week’s cold air came.
Even with sunshine it was useless.
The temperature in the imperial capital dropped again. Pedestrians on the street were fully armed, especially at night after sunset, being fully armed was still useless against the cold.
At night, Chen Jinyao burrowed into bed early.
Holding her phone, she talked about her knowledge and feelings with her boyfriend.
Chen Jinyao: ?Being able to make marriage like this, my sister is still awesome.?
Luo Xiao: ?Your brother-in-law should get credit too.?
Chen Jinyao: ?…………………………Mm.?
Luo Xiao: ?Do you know, it’s said online that there’s a kind of marriage that’s an operational model discussed between the couple.?
Maintaining an enviable superficial relationship, but privately lacking love.
Staring at these words on the screen, Chen Jinyao was stunned for a moment.
——————————————-
The two weeks of Spring Festival holiday flew by in a flash.
In the end, Chen Jinyao was unable to make the trip to Erguan. Because her boyfriend came to the imperial capital early, lust took the lead. Where else would she remember to go to Erguan?
Once her boyfriend arrived, she packed up and moved out of Yan Cheng’s place bouncing around. Before leaving, she bowed at a ninety degree angle to thank the couple for taking good care of her and feeding her fat.
Chen Jinyao smiled helplessly and told her to come play whenever she was free.
“It’s close anyway,” Chen Jinyao held the arm of Yan Cheng beside her. “Bring your boyfriend too next time. I’ll check him out for you.”
“No, no need.”
……
Later, when Yan Cheng recalled this matter again, it was a few days later, just after Lantern Festival. He had Chen Jinyao call and ask Chen Jinyao.
The reply was: “No need, I’ll go with Luo Xiao if there’s a chance.”
It carried a tone of ‘I have a generation gap with you, we can’t play together’.
After hanging up, she casually shoved the phone in her pocket.
Chen Jinyao arched her brows and lightly said, “She’s not going.”
“Then you go, boss’s wife,” Yan Cheng looked down at her, reaching out to tuck back her messy hair. “Hmm?”
The nasal hum was sexy, carrying a hint of allure, deliberately seducing.
Chen Jinyao leaned lazily on the pillow. Slowly the corners of her lips curved up, “Okay.”
The holiday was already over. The clinic had also resumed its regular work hours. Her “okay” redemption date was limited to weekends.
These were of course clear to Yan Cheng too. He just said to let him know whenever she had time. Anyway he had time whenever.
“I’m really envious of you,” Chen Jinyao casually said.
“What’s there to envy, you haven’t seen me when I’m working.”
Chen Jinyao perfunctorily, “Tsk tsk tsk, you’re so impressive.”
“……” He was too lazy to bother with her.
The phone in his pocket suddenly buzzed, interrupting their idle chat.
They looked at each other.
Yan Cheng nodded slightly, signaling for her to check the message first.
Chen Jinyao twisted and turned, groping for her phone in all kinds of awkward postures. The more she tried to take it out, the more she couldn’t. Her brows locked, a little impatient.
At this time, it was instead Yan Cheng who helped her. He half pressed her into the sofa. His big palm slid down her arm, winter home clothes were always worn close-fitting. Although thick, the moment of being touched could still be felt.
She shivered. Amusing Yan Cheng into chuckling lowly.
Until he fished out the phone and handed it to her, looking at her as if smiling but not.
“……” He was really extremely irritating!
Chen Jinyao rolled her eyes at him, then lowered her head to fiddle with the phone.
The WeChat message was from her student Ji Xiao.
Chen Jinyao really didn’t expect there to be follow up with this customer.
She arched her brows, unlocked it, and glanced down at the content.
Classmate Ji Xiao: ?Sister Chen, I still want to get my teeth straightened, but it’ll have to be after some time.?
Classmate Ji Xiao: ?Probably in a month.?
Chen Jinyao collected herself for quite a while before typing: ?Okay!?
“My business that fell through came back to life,” she said.
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