At 7:30 in the evening, Qin Moling went to Zhong Yanyue’s birthday party.

Qin Xing was also there, “Older brother, sister-in-law didn’t come with you?”

He didn’t know about the dispute between Jian Hang and Zhong Yanfei.

Qin Moling took a glass of red wine and said, “She will come when it’s your birthday.”

“She really must! If sister-in-law doesn’t come, you don’t have to go anymore.”

Qin Moling didn’t scold him, only said ‘hmm’. Qin Xing had known right away that his cousin would cave in.

Qin Moling went to find Zhong Yanyue, chatted with her for a while, and drank half a glass of wine.

Zhong Yanyue wanted to cut a piece of cake for him, “This year’s cake is different from the previous years. Try it.”

Qin Moling declined, “You don’t have to bother for me, I won’t eat.” He drank all the red wine in his cup, “You guys have fun, I’m going ahead.”

“Don’t you want to play a little longer?”

“I made a plans with Jian Hang for dinner.”

Zhong Yanyue didn’t encourage him to stay any more. Although she didn’t like Jian Hang, she never expressed it in front of Qin Moling, nor did she say a single mean word about Jian Hang.

It was not worth losing Qin Moling as a friend because of what happened in the past.

“Then go back quickly,” she urged.

Qin Moling only stayed at the birthday party for twenty minutes, exchanged a few words with familiar people, and then left in a hurry.

… …

At this time, Jian Hang was still in Yinlin Capital and hasn’t gone home yet.

The rest of the team talked while going to the bathroom that the boss probably wouldn’t work overtime tonight. The boss was dressed so grandly—it looked like she had a date!

However, at eight o’clock in the evening, Jian Hang still hadn’t left the company yet.

Another half hour passed, an alarm in her phone rang. The name of the alarm was: Beware of sudden death due to excessive overtime work.

Jian Hang moved her hand to turn off the alarm, cleared the table, and dutifully went home.

While waiting for the elevator, Jian Hang took out her mobile phone to scroll through her circle of friends and came across three updates from Qin Xing: they were all photos of his friends celebrating someone’s birthday.

She had nothing to do, so she clicked on it. The birthday girl tonight was Zhong Yanyue.

In one of the the birthday celebration photos, she saw Qin Moling’s figure.

It turned out that he didn’t have a business event tonight. He went to attend Zhong Yanyue’s birthday party…

She has no good feelings for the Zhong sisters, especially Zhong Yanfei, but Zhong Yanyue was Qin Moling’s friend, and it was right that he should go over to his friend’s birthday. Jian Hang also had friends of the opposite sex, like Tan Feng.

If Tan Feng was celebrating his birthday tonight, she would also definitely be there as long as she was free.

Thinking of matters logically like this, the vague and unclear emotions stifling her heart were slowly digested.

… …

When she arrived at the villa, she parked the car and went out carrying her coat and bags.

As soon as she entered the house, another car came into the yard.

She didn’t expect him to come back so early.

Just as Jian Hang reached the stairs, Qin Moling came in the front door, and his eyes fell on her.

Jian Hang realized belatedly that she was not wearing her coat when she get out of the car, so he could now see her dress in full.

Qin Moling looked at the slim-fitting long dress on her body. Her makeup today was also different from usual. She must have dressed up specially for dinner tonight.

But because of him, the date was canceled, leaving her preparations in vain.

Thinking about it now, she probably said she would just make plans with him for another night because she was worried that two hours would not be enough for him to deal with matters. She simply canceled their plans so that he could socialize in peace.

He found himself explaining, “It’s Zhong Yanyue’s birthday today. She told me about it before, but I forgot.”

Jian Hang smiled, “It’s okay.” She was the one who canceled tonight’s plans.

Qin Moling suddenly wanted to make up for the missed date and asked her, “Are you free tomorrow night?”

Jian Hang stepped on the stairs and said, “I’m going on a business trip tomorrow morning for the Wanyue Group project.”

Qin Moling looked at her straight back and said, “Then when you come back from your business trip, we will go out to eat together.”

She didn’t even know when she would come back from her business trip. This business trip would require her to stay in Suzhou City for a month or two.

Jian Hang simply said, “Let’s talk about it then.”

… …

Back in the bedroom, Jian Hang stood in front of the mirror and looked at the nearly 200,000 yuan dress she was wearing. She didn’t even get to eat. The dress would go back in the bottom of the trunk.

She started packing her luggage for a business trip tomorrow.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

The next morning.

Before seven o’clock, the driver picked up Lin Xiao, then drove to pick up Jian Hang at her villa. He would then take them both to the high-speed rail station.

Jian Hang would be taking Lin Xiao with her on this business trip. Such a large merger and acquisition project would give him a lot of experience.

The car couldn’t enter the villa, so Lin Xiao called Jian Hang, “Boss, we’re here. We can’t get into the villa. We’ll wait for you at the gate.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in five minutes.” Jian Hang pushed her suitcase out of the bedroom.

There were a lot of things in the suitcase, and it was quite heavy. She planned to take the indoor elevator downstairs.

Before hanging up, Lin Xiao said, “I brought you breakfast.”

“Thank you.” Jian Hang went into the elevator with her luggage.

Downstairs, Qin Moling had just sat down at the dining table. Aunt Geng brought some tea eggs over. 

Yesterday, Qin Moling peeled tea eggs for Jian Hang. She saw it, and so she simply put the plate close to Qin Moling today. .

Aunt Geng did not stay in the dining room but returned to the kitchen to continue with her work.

Qin Moling looked at the tea eggs on the plate. He had already pampered her twice. But she was going on a business trip, and he didn’t know when she would come back.

He reached out to take the tea egg and took the initiative to peel it.

“Morning,” Jian Hang greeted him as usual.

Qin Moling turned his head to look at her. Jian Hang was standing in the area between the living room and dining room, putting on a coat.

“Not having breakfast?” he asked.

Jian Hang said, “My colleagues brought me breakfast. I’m leaving now.” She picked up her luggage and headed towards the door.

Qin Moling looked at the peeled tea egg on the plate. Jian Hang hadn’t seen it when he peeled the shell just now.

He doesn’t like hard-boiled eggs and only eats soft-boiled eggs.

Today, he took the peeled tea egg and ate it himself.

The sound of exquisite high-heeled shoes and the crisp sound of luggage wheels rolling gradually faded away.

… …

Ever since Jian Hang left for a business trip, the villa was deserted. Aunt Geng didn’t even have any motivation to cook.

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

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Chapter 29.1 — Duty
Chapter 29.2 — Duty
Chapter 29.3 — Duty