Inside the private room on the second floor, there was lively chatter and laughter, and the smell of cigarette smoke was thick enough to choke a person.

Xiao Zhang opened the door and went in, this time to deliver supper to the people inside.

They were just at the end of a mahjong game.

Zhong Yanfei placed an order of liangpi noodles in front of Han Shuang and said, “Try it, it tastes amazing.”

Han Shuang finished smoking a cigarette and put out the butt. She was really hungry, and she hadn’t had a midnight snack like liangpi noodles for a long time.

She was smiling as she said, “Are these noodles made by a five-star chef?”

Zhong Yanfei smiled, “How did Ms. Han know? As you guessed, it really is liangpi noodles made by a five-star chef. We eat a lot of dishes now that I heard were all once developed by this chef.”

Han Shuang was knowledgeable about things and knew that Zhong Yanfei would not mention a chef without reason.

She took a bite of the noodles—it was worthy of the compliment ‘excellent flavor’, so she asked, willing to be led along, “Which hotel sells this liangpi?”

“The chef retired a long time ago and opened his own shop to sell liangpi noodles.” Zhong Yanfei bundled up her long, freely-flowing hair. She picked up her chopsticks to eat the noodles and continued chatting, “They also sell jianbing crepes. I’ve had them several times.” 

Listening to the words, Han Shuang knew that the chef’s jianbing crepes would also be delicious, “Share the address, I’ll try it too another day.”

Zhong Yanfei took her phone and immediately shared it, “I only found out about this shop recently. If the chef’s granddaughter hadn’t married Qin Moling, I wouldn’t have known about this store.”

Once again, Han Shuang knew that this chef was not simple, otherwise Zhong Yanfei wouldn’t have specifically mentioned that he turned out to be Jian Hang’s grandfather.

She smiled and said, “Grandpa is a great chef, Jian Hang is quite lucky.”

Zhong Yanfei agreed, “I really envy them. After all, no matter how dedicated they are to their jobs, it wouldn’t be the same as when they cook for their own family.”

She turned to Xiaozhang and asked, ” Is she still outside?”

Xiao Zhang replied, “Yes, she has been outside all this time and waiting.”

Zhong Yanfei raised her chin slightly, signaling Xiao Zhang to go out.

After Xiao Zhang closed the door, Han Shuang asked, “Who’s out there?”

Zhong Yanfei’s throat was dry from smoking just now. She took a few sips of water before speaking, “Oh, it’s Jian Hang. It’s because Jian Hang came here that I remembered that the liangpi noodles sold by her grandfather are delicious.”

Han Shuang smiled silently and lowered her head to continue eating.

Zhong Yanfei couldn’t figure out what Han Shuang’s smile meant and continued, “Jian Hang won one of our Wanyue Group’s merger and acquisition projects. We made an appointment to meet tonight. I said I still had to entertain important clients and asked her to go back first. But she insisted on waiting there.”

She picked up the wine glass at hand and toasted Han Shuang, “I have to thank Ms. Han for tonight. If you have anything you need me to do in the future, just ask.” 

She was using Han Shuang as a shield tonight; Han Shuang would definitely get it. Zhong Yanfei would rather control the scenario and tell her now. Han Shuang might lose her formidable temper if she found out about this matter later.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Han Shuang knew that someone was waiting for Zhong Yanfei outside, but she had thought it was an unimportant customer. She didn’t expect it to be Jian Hang.

She glanced at Zhong Yanfei and didn’t rush to get a glass of wine to toast her in return.

Zhong Yanfei had a good plan. She wanted to put Jian Hang in her place and used her as a shield.

Everyone knew that she was not easy to get along with, and that she didn’t bother to use tricks to make things difficult for anyone.

The table games she participated in naturally involved cooperation. Even if the Qin family knew that Jian Hang had been waiting outside the private room for several hours, it was hard to blame Zhong Yanfei. After all, Zhong Yanfei also wanted to curry favor with her, a big customer. It was human nature to take care of her own matters first and to have no time to take care of Jian Hang.

Han Shuang often took advantage of Zhong Yanfei in the past. Even if Zhong Yanfei knew it, she could only hold it in.

As adults playing in the arena of big business, even when taken advantage of by others they could not let their emotions get in the way—interests were always the paramount thing.

Therefore, whenever Han Shuang would take advantage of Zhong Yanfei and felt herself used against her will, she would still not show it on her face because the two families have to continue to cooperate.

Tonight, for once, she was the one taken advantage of by Zhong Yanfei.

However, Zhong Yanfei confessed to her in the end so Han Shuang was still made aware of the current state of affairs.

Earlier, Zhong Yanfei had also given her a big concession on the order price.

It could be regarded as compensation in disguise for her.

Prior to this, she had been wondering why Zhong Yanfei would give such a big discount on this year’s order. She only thought Zhong Yanfei must have some big favor that she needed to help with, but it turned out that it was such a small favor that could be done easily.

For her, it wasn’t even a small job; it was just sitting in a private room playing mahjong for fun.

Zhong Yanfei was afraid that she would be unhappy, so she explained again, “Ms. Han, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t planning on using you as a shield and then let you fend for yourself. You just pretend you didn’t know about certain things.” 

Well, it was true she really didn’t know that the person outside was Jian Hang.

Seeing that Zhong Yanfei had been trying to please her all night and also provided real benefits to her, Han Shuang’s unhappiness finally disappeared with the taste of the delicious liangpi noodles in her mouth.

She reluctantly gave Zhong Yanfei this advantage.

Marriage First, Love Later translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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Chapter 21.2 — Move to the Villa
Chapter 21.3 — Move to the Villa