At Ranshan Building.

The entire laboratory on the second floor belonged to Ji Chaozhou alone. There were other perfumers working in the Ranshan Building but they were all on other floors.

Ranshan had special procurement channels for natural and synthetic fragrances, so the individual perfumers didn’t need to go looking for ordinary flowers.

It was only that Ji Chaozhou sometimes liked to go to the flower market, which was simply a process for him to clear his mind and possibly find inspiration.

Ji Chaozhou picked up the dark glass bottle containing a newly-prepared scent that had been stored away for two days. He poured it into a perfume bottle, sprayed it on the fragrance test paper, lowered his head and smelled the scent.

Too sweet.

Even after the top notes of this perfume evaporated, it would still be too sweet.

Ji Chaozhou put down the fragrance test paper and opened the perfume bottle.

When he mixed it, he thought the sweetness of the fragrance was just right; but now, only two days later, the taste suddenly became cloying.

Ji Chaozhou picked up his notes from the table and checked his formulation. There was no problem with the ratio. He added the right fixative. The perfume had evaporated stably and the smell should not have changed.

It should taste the same today as it did two days ago.

“knock-knock—”

Someone knocked on the door.

Ji Chaozhou looked up and saw one of the perfumers who worked on the third floor. She had been working in Ranshan for more than ten years.

While Yun Se helped take care of Ranshan, perfumers like her had been the ones tasked with developing new fragrances.

“This is my new perfume.” Tang Fanglu came in with the perfume. She wanted Ji Chaozhou to see if there was anything wrong with it.

The perfume industry has always been dominated by major foreign brands. Domestic perfumes had been languishing even back when Ranshan was born more than 20 years ago.

Yun Ran, the founder of Ranshan, created the first perfume in the name of Ranshan. It won various awards and the brand became famous in one fell swoop.

This fragrance was just like its name. It was light and delicate at first, slightly sweet and refreshing, and then the fragrance would gradually become stronger and spread all over the body.

Unlike ordinary perfumes with base, middle, and top notes, Ranshan only had base and top notes.

It was a pity that Yun Ran had only created this perfume in her life.

Even so, Ranshan has been able to stand firm for more than 20 years relying on this one scent, and has only returned to being a niche brand, but never left the perfumery scene.

Tang Fanglu has been working in Ranshan for more than ten years, and the new fragrances she created were lukewarm at best and could barely reach the level of a niche brand.

She originally thought that Ranshan would remain like this, but she didn’t expect that after Ji Chaozhou took over, a scent like Midu would bring Ranshan back into the perfume industry’s spotlight again.

Ji Chaozhou, after all, was worthy of being Yun Ran’s son, with a terrifyingly keen talent for perfumery.

“The base note is too grassy,” Ji Chaozhou interrupted Tang Fanglu’s distracted thoughts. “How about adding tonka beans? The proportion needs to be adjusted.”

Tang Fanglu wrote down the suggestions and was about to leave when Ji Chaozhou called for her to stay.

Ji Chaozhou handed the bottle of perfume he had just mixed to Tang Fanglu. “Smell this.”

Tang Fanglu took the bottle, picked up a piece of scent paper, sprayed it on, then lowered her head and smelled it carefully.

Her eyes lit up. “This fragrance… is beautiful. So sweet.”

It wasn’t the sweet fragrance of fruit, it’s a light, floral, honey fragrance—not exceedingly fragrant, but more like a hook, making people want to smell it again.

Tang Fanglu flicked the scent paper again, almost enjoying the fragrance rather than testing, and sighed in her heart: some people are simply born for fragrance-making, and their superb blending skills are far beyond that of ordinary people.

“Is this new fragrance ready to be launched?” Tang Fanglu asked excitedly. “It will definitely be popular.” 

“No,” Ji Chaozhou denied and reached out to take the perfume bottle back.

Tang Fanglu looked at him in astonishment as he put the perfume bottle into the discard box and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong with this fragrance…?”

Ji Chaozhou lowered his gaze, “It’s too sweet.”

For some reason, he suddenly remembered the slightly bitter scent of pomelo that he smelled wafting from Cheng Liu’s body last night.

The very ordinary, bitter fragrance of green pomelo had a strong presence—so much so that the smell still seemed to linger around Ji Chaozhou.

“I think this sweet scent is just right.” Tang Fanglu felt a little regretful for the bottle of perfume, “How about giving it to us perfumers to try first?”

Ji Chaozhou didn’t care about the discarded perfume and gave it to Tang Fanglu.

… …

After she left, he found a bottle of pomelo essence without thinking much about it and put a few drops into the test tube.

The fragrances used by Ranshan were all the best. This smell was purer than the one on Cheng Liu, but it was not what Ji Chaozhou wanted.

Did she… perhaps use other scents on her body?

Ji Chaozhou lowered his gaze and looked at the fingertips of his right hand that were still individually wrapped in gauze. His pale and cold face was a little distracted. With his sensitivity to scents, it was rare that he couldn’t tell the difference.

Ji Chaozhou stayed in Ranshan Laboratory until three o’clock in the afternoon but did not craft any scent.

The painful truth was: if one couldn’t distinguish the tastes, then one couldn’t possibly reproduce the same aroma.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

His new residence was not far from Ranshan Building; it could be reached by walking for half an hour.

Ji Chaozhou walked slowly along the roadside and passed an outdoor LED advertising screen. It was showing a segment of a talk show and his eyes couldn’t help but be attracted to it.

They were talking about Shenyin Technology.

Ji Chaozhou looked away, but the sound of the program continued to reach his ears. The host and guests all praised the founder for her genius.

Young, bold, and talented.

These words were used repeatedly.

It was completely different from the Cheng Liu who always seemed a bit strange in his impression.

Ji Chaozhou frowned, cleared all thoughts about Cheng Liu, and walked back to the villa in silence.

… …

As for Cheng Liu, she skipped work again. In the morning, she went back to her apartment to collect her things

She packed everything and moved them all to the villa, and temporarily hired a cleaning team.

By noon, the entire villa had a new look, and even the grass had been mowed.

Cheng Liu specially placed the scarecrow in the yard, and even planted some flowers and plants that Chaozhou seemed to like.

She took out her mobile phone and had a voice call with Wang Hongyang. “You said that we should be neither close nor distant. I tried it today. Is there any other way to promote our marriage as soon as possible?”

Wang Hongyang was lying on the sofa with his legs stretched out, and his feet couldn’t help but twitch when he heard this. He asked, “Do you want to get married?”

“If you fall in love but don’t get married, are you just being a hooligan?” Cheng Liu couldn’t hold it back and said generously, “When Chaozhou and I get married, you can also come as a witness.” 

“Ha!” Wang Hongyang sneered. “How come you fell in love with me but acted like a hooligan?”

“The past is over.” Cheng Liu reminded him, “Think of the golden plaque.”

Wang Hongyang scolded Cheng Liu furiously in his heart but could only say, “If you want to get married, you must first please his parents. After all, his dad will be your dad in the future.” 

“I see,” Cheng Liu suddenly understood. “His dad is my dad! I will definitely get along well with President Ji.”

If It’s Wrong, Then It’s Wrong translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: President Ji: Why do I suddenly have an ominous feeling?

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