When Jian Hang arrived in Suzhou City, she was busy until midnight every day, with endless meetings and endless problems that she had to solve and coordinate. By the time she got back to the hotel, she fell asleep the moment her head hit the the pillow. She simply had no time to think about anything else.

On the fifth day after arriving in Suzhou, she received a call from Tan Feng.

Tan Feng asked with a smile, “Tonight or tomorrow night, if you are free, let’s have a meal together.” The last time he wanted to treat her, she was hospitalized, and the meal has been postponed until now.

They met at Teacher Jian’s house that day, but Qin Moling was nearby, so it was not easy for him to talk to Jian Hang alone.

Jian Hang stood in front of the hotel window, with a wide view of Suzhou City’s night scene.

She apologized, “I’m in Suzhou City. I’ll invite you when I get back.”

“Has Wanyue’s merger and acquisition project been won?”

“Yeah.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you, so I will be the one treating you to dinner when I get back.”

Tan Feng smiled and said, “It’s all the same. I happen to be going to Shanghai this week, I’ll stop by Suzhou City to see you. I know the inside story of the company Wanyue wants to acquire, and I know their intricate connections. Let me tell you some details about the relationship.”

He heard that in order to win this project, Jian Hang went through a tortuous process and things were made deliberately difficult for her by Zhong Yanfei.

If it weren’t for him, Jian Hang wouldn’t have had to suffer this.

At first, Zhong Yanyue suspected that he proposed breaking up with her because of Jian Hang. Even though he explained it, at that time Zhong Yanyue was so emotional and irrational that she didn’t believe him at all.

He couldn’t help Jian Hang with anything else. All he could do was get her some inside information about the acquired company.

… …

On Saturday, Tan Feng arrived in Suzhou.

He had booked a restaurant for their lunch in advance. The restaurant was near Jian Hang’s hotel, just a five-minute walk away.

Jian Hang didn’t have a good rest last night. Even though she carefully put on makeup, she couldn’t hide the fatigue under her eyes.

Tan Feng saw that she was not in good spirits and asked with concern, “Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”

“My stomach hurt all night long.” She finally fell asleep for two hours just before dawn, and she didn’t dare to eat breakfast when she woke up. She was busy all morning, and it was inevitable that she would be tired.

Jian Hang picked up the water glass and drank a few sips of warm water.

She pointed to the red wine next to her, “I can’t drink with you today.”

“Your health is important, and I’m not an outsider.” Tan Feng brought her glass of red wine towards him, “Did you have any entertainment last night?”

“Yeah, everyone from the client’s side and the project team went. I couldn’t turn it down.”

“Didn’t anyone block wine for you?”

“Lin Xiao helped to block it.” Jian Hang put down the water glass, “I only drank two tael of baijiu and my stomach hurt until midnight. I took medicine when I returned to the hotel.”

Taking medicine didn’t work very well. She was not familiar with Suzhou and really didn’t want to get up and go to the hospital. She had to wait until dawn to get better.

Tan Feng could not believe that her stomach hurt after just two tael of baijiu. She had been fine after drinking a catty of baijiu before.

He poured warm water in her cup and said, “Your stomach hurts just by drinking this much.”

Jian Hang nodded, knowing that there was something wrong with her stomach.

But there were some social events that she couldn’t refuse to attend, so how could she stay away from alcohol?

Tan Feng was quiet for a moment and asked her, “Have you ever thought about changing careers?”

Jian Hang paused. Tan Feng’s question was so sudden that she didn’t know how to answer it.

Tan Feng verbalized what was in her heart, “You think about it when your stomach hurts unbearably, but then you forget about it when it stops hurting, right?”

Jian Hang smiled, “Don’t expose me like this.”

As Tan Feng said, when she was sweating in pain, she thought about quitting her job and changing to a relatively easier job, where she didn’t have to work overtime day and night, fly around all the time, or socialize with so many people.

When others invite her, she could still refuse and avoid drinking. But when she needed to entertain others or ask for help from others, how could she avoid drinking alcohol?

Tan Feng had no status to advise her to change careers or resign, so he stopped at that point.

“Take care of yourself and don’t let Teacher Jian worry,” he warned.

“I know.” Jian Hang turned to ask, “What about you? What are your plans after resigning?”

Tan Jie lightly touched the edge of the table with his elbows and clasped his hands, “I don’t think too much about it for now. I’ll  rest for a couple of months. After enough rest, I can pick it up again slowly.”

Jian Hang was not at all worried about his future development. There were many venture capital institutions who wanted to poach him.

When the food arrived, the two of them chatted while eating, all related to this acquisition project.

After chatting about business, Jian Hang asked him what his plans were for the next few months of rest, “Aren’t you going on vacation?”

“I do have that plan. I haven’t decided where to go yet.” His cousin has recently broken up and wanted to travel to relax. His aunt was worried about her daughter going out alone and Tan Feng happened to be free. He hasn’t been out to play for several years, so he planned to travel for a bit with his cousin.

After lunch, Tan Feng went to the high-speed rail station, and she rushed back to the company being acquired to continue her work.

She didn’t go back to the hotel until half past ten in the evening.

Her stomach was still feeling vaguely uncomfortable, so Jian Hang found some medicine, picked out a few pills and took them.

Leaning on the sofa, Jian Hang summarized today’s work, checked for any omissions, and fell asleep without meaning to.

When she woke up again, it was already two o’clock in the morning.

Jian Hang looked at her phone and found no other messages except those relating to work.

She put her phone aside, took her pajamas and went to take a shower.

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

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T/N: The story is based in Beijing, and Suzhou City is over 4 hours away by bullet train, quite near the other mega-city, Shanghai.   

When c-novels say characters drink ‘white wine’, that’s usually not the white wine from grapes—like Chardonnay. It’s baijiu (literally ‘white liquor’), a clear alcohol like the Japanese sochou or Korean soju but much, much more potent. It runs about 40-50% apv—higher than most commercial vodka. Beer is generally 5% apv and red wine 12% apv.

Baijiu is drunk using small cups. Volume varies but each cup would contain more than a single shot glass would. So you can imagine downing 2 or 3 shots of tequila in one go. And sometimes a character would say ‘I’ll punish myself with 3 cups’… 😳

1 tael is about 50 grams (it’s complicated haha) and 1 catty is about 500 gram.

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