Her stomach was hurting. It’s been doing so on and off for the past few days.

She felt uncomfortable even after eating some food.

She’s been taking medicine, but it didn’t seem to be getting better.

If it was Tan Feng who asked her if her stomach hurt, Jian Hang would not hesitate and tell the truth directly.

But it was Qin Moling who was asking, and he cared about her. She didn’t want him to worry.

To her family, she always reported only the good news and never the bad news.

[Well, I’ve had to work overtime a lot recently.]

Regarding the stomachache, she avoided the important and focused on the easy¹, [”So, no social activities.”]

Qin Moling equated ‘no social activities’ with the fact that she didn’t have to drink and so her stomach didn’t hurt. Qin Moling typed a few words, ‘You are busy. I won’t bother you anymore,’ but deleted them all before sending.

He said in a roundabout manner: [During dinner today, mom and dad talked about you, they said they didn’t know when you would be back from this business trip.]

Jian Zhongjun and Chen Yu did mention this, and he himself also wanted to know.

Jian Hang: [It’s still too early to say. This merger is more complicated than expected, and there are too many things that need to be coordinated.] The equity structure was complex, the ownership of patented technology was unclear, and the dispute was potentially huge.

Their work on the due diligence was doubled.

Jian Hang only told the truth, but in Qin Moling’s view, her answer was very official.

They were husband and wife, not colleagues, let alone a subordinate reporting to a superior.

She only said it was still too early to tell and didn’t mention when she would return.

If Jian Hang still minded that he went to Zhong Yanyue’s birthday party that night and asked to postpone the time for the date, causing the date to be cancelled outright—then he could apologize.

It was basically impossible for him to apologize to anyone else, and he had never apologized to anyone in his life.

But Jian Hang was different; she was his wife.

Qin Moling thought for a few seconds and decided to ask directly: [Still angry?]

Jian Hang was confused and sent [ , ]

She was going to type ‘?’, but her hand slipped and hit the comma instead.

Just as she was about to withdraw the message, Qin Moling replied with his own punctuation mark: [ . ]

Jian Hang: “…”

She laughed.

That ‘ , ’ made Qin Moling certain that his guess was correct: Jian Hang had really been unhappy that night but probably didn’t want him to know. So when he asked her if she was angry, she didn’t know how to reply, and she replied with a comma.

Qin Moling: [Sorry. Don’t be angry anymore.]

He added: [I will not cancel any of our appointments in the future. I will put your matters ahead of others.]

Jian Hang: “…”

She sighed again, really, what kind of rare species was this man?

In the beginning, she passed on him and wasn’t even willing to go on the blind date.

Later, he didn’t mention anything at all about her standing him up. He left them the door open and only said they would meet again when they had time.

In the end, the two of them got together, but they still barely saw each other.

This kind of marriage was really a bit contradictory from the beginning, and since neither of them could let go of their pride and posture, it was a bit difficult to manage it. 

But to get to this point, Jian Hang also felt that it was not as difficult as she had imagined.

At least, he would reflect on himself.

He was willing to protect her.

He would also apologize to her if he felt he was wrong.

Jian Hang explained: [It’s okay, I wasn’t really angry.]

It was true that at the time, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that he prioritized another woman over her.

But that feeling was only caused by possessiveness. Once a person understood and processed this, then the unseemly feelings would be eased.

Jian Hang added: [Going forward, you can continue to interact with your friends as you normally would. I myself also have friends of the opposite sex.]

When Qin Moling saw those words, he almost instinctively wanted to ask exactly who her friends of the opposite sex were.

But he was a reasonable man, and he couldn’t possibly ask that.

It was late, and she hadn’t finished her work yet. He ended the chat: [You are busy, call me if you need anything. If you need any internal information on the project, I will help you find it.]

As the project leader, Jian Hang had her own access, and Tan Feng also gave her some inside information, [The information you sent to my email last time was enough. Tan Feng also came over a few days ago and shared a lot.]

Qin Moling typed: [Is he there on a business trip?]

Before sending, he changed some of the more words: [Is Mr. Tan also on a business trip?]

Jian Hang: [No, he stopped by Suzhou City to talk to me about my project. There is competition among our peers, but we also often help each other.] She also helped Tan Feng when she could.

Not only Tan Feng; people from other organizations often helped each other out.

It was a world of both competition and cooperation.

In this way, the road can become wider for everyone to walk.

Qin Moling didn’t want to talk much about her work. [“Try not to trouble others.”]

He was her husband, she could ask him for anything. There was really no need to ask for help from outsiders.

[You’re busy. Go to bed early.]

Jian Hang: [Yeah, you too.]

Qin Moling looked at the display name in the chat box: Olivia

Like the name of a client.

He conveniently changed the display name to: Wife.

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

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Chapter 30.2 — Wedding Photos
Chapter 30.3 — Wedding Photos
Chapter 31.1 — Stay In The Same Room
Chapter 31.2 — Stay In The Same Room
Chapter 31.3 — Stay In The Same Room

FOOTNOTE:

1. avoided the important and focused on the easy. Idiom, saying something that’s not exactly a lie but could easily mislead and make things easier for yourself. ↩︎