After Failing To Tame The Scumbag - Chapter 16

“What if I told you this wasn’t Photoshopped?”

“I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”

Three hours later, Yun Chuxiu took her seat in the reserved Western restaurant. She glanced at the wine glass on the table and politely moved it aside.

“But you came anyway,” Jiang Fanyin said, never one to listen to such dismissals. She smilingly ordered a beautifully colored drink from the waiter and arched an eyebrow. “Senior, where you’re sitting right now is only a few hundred meters from Ji Jin’s company… should we pack some dishes to send up to her?”

Though phrased as a question, Jiang Fanyin had already pushed the menu toward her, clearly intent on continuing to make a mockery of Ji Jin.

Yun Chuxiu frowned, losing the patience for pleasantries. “There’s no need. Neither of us likes Western food.”

Jiang Fanyin caught the subtext, the curve of her lips stiffening for a moment. She intentionally drawled a complaint: “Is Senior saying you don’t even want to share a single meal with me?”

“I am here to solve a problem,” Yun Chuxiu replied coldly, not even sparing a smile. “President Jiang, your ‘attentions’ lately have already begun to disturb the life I share with my partner.”

“Partner…?” Jiang Fanyin toyed with the word, seemingly finding it amusing. She spread her hands helplessly, her eyes full of feigned innocence. “I just wanted to pull the Senior I’ve long admired out of the mire. Isn’t it a bit harsh to lecture me like that?”

“If it weren’t for me, Senior might not have realized how two-faced she is.”

“I’ve already answered this,” Yun Chuxiu finally looked her in the eye, reiterating: “I don’t care about that.”

Jiang Fanyin was genuinely surprised this time. She had imagined many ways Yun Chuxiu might try to save face for Ji Jin, but she never considered one possibility: that it might actually be true.

But… how could it be?

“I remember that Senior used to be someone who couldn’t stand a grain of sand in her eye,” Jiang Fanyin paused, her lips curling into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Is it because there’s something special about Ji Jin?”

“She isn’t ‘sand,'” Yun Chuxiu sighed, tired of answering such questions. She countered helplessly, “As for what’s special… in your heart, are a partner and a stranger really held in the same position?”

Jiang Fanyin was at a loss for words. The steak she had just cut felt like a lump in her throat, she couldn’t swallow it and couldn’t spit it out.

“Where exactly did I lose?” Chew, chew. Jiang Fanyin fell silent for a long time, her cheeks bulging as she chewed, still feeling indignant. “Clearly, I was the one who saw Senior first, right? I’ve been watching you since the first moment I met you, practically witnessing you stumble your way up to the position you hold today.”

“I bet I know more about your journey than Ji Jin, your ‘bedfellow,’ does.”

Jiang Fanyin rested her chin on her crossed hands, her gaze burning as she looked at Yun Chuxiu, who seemed slightly off. Thinking the Senior was surprised by such intense attention, she continued: “Senior has had such a hard journey. There were several times I wanted to lend a hand even if it went against your wishes… how did you end up dead-set on a rock like Ji Jin?”

“Wait,” Yun Chuxiu finally caught the key point amidst the barrage of words. “Setting aside the utility of this ‘unusual attention’ for a moment,” she paused, a look of genuine confusion surfacing on her face, “how exactly did you deduce that… helping me would be against my wishes?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Jiang Fanyin said earnestly, believing they had reached a heart to heart moment. Her gaze softened. “Because Senior is the kind of person who would rather break than bend. Those second-generation rich kids who wanted to sponsor you were rejected before they even saw your face…”

“That was entirely because their demands were excessive,” Yun Chuxiu rubbed her temples, a frown creasing her brow at the memory of those miserable days. “Requesting I become a ‘canary’ in exchange for a scholarship touched my bottom line.”

Back then, those wealthy heirs were at their most arrogant, living in an age where they were used to exchanging money for everything. If they took a liking to something or someone they had to have it.

Yun Chuxiu had suffered plenty at their hands back then, which only added a “terrible buff” to an already difficult campus life. Some of those defensive habits had even persisted to this day.

Jiang Fanyin was stunned. Her poised, nostalgic air collapsed instantly. She awkwardly loosened her grip, looking like someone who had made a grave mistake, her voice growing much smaller. “I saw that you never softened, and you never replied to my messages… I thought you didn’t need help.”

Seeds grown in harsh environments often turn out tougher, that’s what her mother had taught her. She was told that no matter the circumstances, one should never use a high and mighty attitude to offer pity or treat others’ suffering lightly.

Jiang Fanyin had believed it, assuming Yun Chuxiu was the same. So, after her initial inquiries were rebuffed, she never thought to do more.

But now…

“I wouldn’t retreat, so there was no need to soften,” Yun Chuxiu said dismissively. “They liked to harass me; if I couldn’t fight them, I could at least hide.”

During that time, let alone showing her face in front of those people, she wouldn’t even look at her phone, often letting it run out of battery and die in her dorm.

Realizing this, Jiang Fanyin felt a surge of guilt. She opened her mouth and murmured, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“It’s fine. It’s in the past.”

Yun Chuxiu checked the time. From the moment she walked in, her tone hadn’t fluctuated much, like snow water half-melted, absorbing the surrounding heat but remaining cold to the bone.

She said, “There’s no need for excessive reminiscing. I only came to handle a potential future threat.”

“I won’t tell Ji Jin about that matter,” Jiang Fanyin’s mind was a mess. Her original convictions had crumbled, and her gaze toward Yun Chuxiu became complicated. After a moment of hesitation, she asked, “Do you mind if I ask one more thing?”

Having obtained the answer she wanted, Yun Chuxiu nodded graciously.

“Even if I said it, it wouldn’t really affect you, would it?” Jiang Fanyin was conflicted. She truly couldn’t understand why telling the truth hadn’t stung Ji Jin, but had made Yun Chuxiu react as if facing a formidable enemy. “If you hadn’t ‘reminded’ me back then, I wouldn’t have dared use this to try and invite you out.”

“Clearly… this would only make her feel more indebted to you. It might even help her overcome her psychological barriers.”

In her prediction, the one who should have come to beg for mercy was Ji Jin.

“I don’t want her debt,” Yun Chuxiu picked up her bag, having no intention of elaborating further. She simply stated, “To me, that is no different from ‘using kindness to force a return.'”

What is gained that way is a “sincerity” that must be guessed and verified over and over again.

Love is love.

She wanted her marriage to arrive within the bounds of pure love, not as a result of weights added to a scale to force an answer.

If she just wanted a piece of paper, for someone who knew Ji Jin as well as Yun Chuxiu did, it would be as easy as reaching into a pocket.

It simply wasn’t necessary.

Yun Chuxiu paid the bill first and left after a brief pause. The moment she stepped out the door, the sunlight hit her shoulders, bringing a wave of heat.

She instinctively tapped her phone, her goal clear, but stopped when her finger hovered over a noticeably empty space on the screen.

She could no longer monitor Ji Jin’s location. Yun Chuxiu withdrew her finger, the faint anxiety rising in her heart reaching a glaringly abnormal level.

But…

But.

Yun Chuxiu pulled her hand back, treating the phone like an evil object to be kept out of sight. Suppressing her selfish impulses, she stuffed it back into her bag.

Fortunately, the distance from the restaurant to Ji Jin’s company wasn’t far.

The receptionist had long since become familiar with Yun Chuxiu. Seeing her, she let out an exaggerated sigh of relief and said, “President Ji gave us strict instructions: if Miss Yun comes, we must notify her immediately.”

Yun Chuxiu’s expression softened slightly. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, she took the private elevator upstairs.

In the span of two minutes, the receptionist had notified the office. As soon as Yun Chuxiu stepped out of the elevator, she saw Ji Jin waiting by the open door. She was holding an uncapped fountain pen; her face looked okay, but she couldn’t hide the underlying exhaustion.

“Axu,” Ji Jin rubbed her brow and pointed toward the lounge. “Everything is ready, let’s head over.”

Yun Chuxiu nodded, handed her the insulated lunch box, and took a seat on the sofa first.

Ji Jin stared at the box, her expression darkening. She seemed to want to say something, but the words died on her lips.

Yun Chuxiu didn’t miss the hint of gloom in her eyes. “You don’t like it even before opening it?”

“No,” Ji Jin pursed her lips. The pale light in the room cast a cold shadow on her face. “…I just don’t really like Western food.”

Yun Chuxiu’s hand paused as she reached for a water glass. As if unaware of the testing nature of the remark, she replied calmly, “But I’m already hungry.”

Ji Jin: “…I’ve already prepared everything. I can have someone bring it up now.”

“Heh.”

The glass she had picked up was set back down, hitting the table with a sharp thud.

…Axu was unhappy.

Ji Jin instinctively wanted to apologize, but as soon as the thought arose, her hanging hand clenched into a tight fist.

The lunch box in her hand felt heavy.

Ji Jin felt resentful and a little aggrieved.

She wanted to use this temper to turn around and leave, to give Yun Chuxiu a lesson, yet she feared that if she truly left, the other woman would just sit there without trying to stop her.

The possibility of that happening was actually quite high.

Ji Jin’s mind became a chaotic mess again, vaguely splitting into two factions, the left side wrote Yun Chuxiu, and the right side wrote Yun Chuxiu as well.

…Pretending to know nothing isn’t so bad anyway, Axu wouldn’t actually betray me, she thought.

Yun Chuxiu looked up at her at the right moment. “Don’t you have anything to ask me?”

Ji Jin: “…”

Ji Jin closed her eyes: “…I do.”

She couldn’t help it. Unfortunately, the other person involved was Jiang Fanyin.

“I received a photo,” Ji Jin walked over, enlarging a message from an unknown sender on her phone and waving it before her eyes. Before she could even begin questioning, she offered a way out, preemptively blabbing like a machine gun, “This photo is very well-Photoshopped. If I didn’t know that many people can’t stand me and want to drive a wedge between us, I might have actually believed it.”

Yun Chuxiu let out a light laugh, took the phone to check the source of the message, and commented: “It looks like we’re about to kiss. How strange.”

Ji Jin visibly relaxed and chimed in: “I knew it…”

“Ji Jin,” before she could let her heart settle, Yun Chuxiu interrupted her, saying softly: “What if I told you this wasn’t Photoshopped?”