Chapter 63#
Jiang Qin’s nature is like this: when all the heavy responsibilities are on him, and everyone would be doomed without him, he can stand up and shoulder all the problems, calm, reliable, and resolute; but once Jin Yan appears, his deep-seated “housewife” instinct immediately kicks in, and he shamefully shrinks back.
Returning to the accounting firm is definitely out of the question—they wouldn’t dare hire him, a dignified major shareholder of the entertainment industry; he won’t go to Shi Xing Entertainment either—he has enjoyed enough of the fun of dragging department managers over for lectures, and now feels it’s better to be “the man behind the scenes.”
“The man behind the scenes” reads novels and plays games at home all day. To fake the illusion of working hard in front of Jin Yan, he immediately runs to pretend to guide Li Meng in chess as soon as he hears the door open every day. Li Meng, silly and unaware that he has become a shield, habitually wags his tail upon seeing Jiang Qin, gets fed some chocolates, and leaves satisfied.
After a week of this, Li Meng successfully defeated Kim Dae-sung and advanced to the semi-finals; watching TV, Jiang Qin shamelessly said, “This is all my credit.”
Jin Yan deeply agreed, saying yes, yes… then suddenly realized and asked tangledly, “When are you coming to work at Shi Xing Entertainment?”
“What are you thinking! Is your son’s competition not more important than your broken company?”
Jin Yan: “…”
Thus, “the man behind the scenes” remains an immortal legend, his noble, cold, mysterious, and calm image forever circulating in Shi Xing Entertainment.
There is no “housewife” in this world who doesn’t like the kitchen. Jiang Qin, bored to death, also started experimenting with recipes. Every day when Jin Yan comes home, he can eat sweet and sour fish, braised pork, fried tenderloin, pan-fried steak, eight-treasure tofu, chicken with mushrooms, eight-treasure glutinous rice balls, seasonal fruit soup… He tells everyone he meets: “I am living a life like a god now!” Then he bought a pile of sexy aprons as a reward, only to be slapped by Jiang Qin until his nose bled all over the floor.
As the saying goes, a typical happy family should be: the wife likes to cook fish, the child likes to eat fish, and the husband likes to fish; here we have to change it a bit, Jin Yan’s family is the wife likes to cook, the child likes to eat, and the husband likes sexy aprons; so it is also a joyful (and sexual) happy family.
Jiang Qin’s “housewife” attribute is also reflected in his love for home decoration—Jin Yan finally understands Fang Yuan’s feelings back then, thinking he has walked into another dimension every night he comes home!
During that time, Jiang Qin was obsessed with the metal style and remodeled the living room into a mix of stainless steel plates and white tiles, which looked very cold and inorganic. As soon as CEO Jin entered the door, he felt that the maiden heart deep in his soul was hurt, and asked in fear and trepidation: “Where did you hang our pink-bordered group photo in the living room?”
“It doesn’t match the overall style, so I hung it in the study.”
“How can you do that?! Then people won’t immediately discover that we are a family of three as soon as they enter!”
“…Wake up.”
Later, Jiang Qin took a fancy to the Douban small fresh and simple home style, had distressed wood-colored wallpaper pasted, bought a floral fabric sofa, and placed a row of tinkling crystal wind chimes under the curtains. Jin Yan was stunned for three seconds after returning home, turned his head and said numbly: “Sorry, I went to the wrong place.”
Jiang Qin closed the door expressionlessly.
“No, no, no, I was joking—!” Jin Yan screamed desperately against the door: “Wifey, I was wrong—! Let me in—! I’ll move all the flower pots from the rooftop down for you to keep at home tomorrow, okay? Don’t abandon me and run away with a gigolo!”
“…Wake up.”
Jiang Qin tossed and turned three or five times a day, and later Jin Yan became calm. Although he still minded where the family of three photo was placed (“It can be hung at the door as a demon-revealing mirror,” Jiang Qin said); he had become accustomed to the Rubik’s Cube-like changes in the living room.
The important thing is that after a year of separation and cold war, they finally returned to the good times of their honeymoon, eating whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted… For this reason, Li Meng was thrown out of the house by his tail and swept to the H City Go Institute with a broom.
This lewd couple is clingy every day, feeding each other bite by bite during meals, holding hands on the street, simply blinding pedestrians’ eyes. Duan Hanzhi met them once on the street and called Guan Feng: “Don’t you think we should call the police to arrest them?”
“…On what charge?”
“The crime of blinding the public’s dog eyes.”
What’s shameful is that this pair of adulterers is also very eye-catching. Needless to say, Jiang Qin has facial features comparable to a print model. For Jin Yan to successfully seduce Comrade Jiang, a thirty-year permanent member of the Appearance Association, a handsome face and a body that emits male hormones at any time are indispensable. The H City Entertainment News even followed them and took photos, with the headline: “Shi Xing Entertainment’s Dual CEOs Hold Hands Shopping Without Avoidance!” The subtitle was: “Golden Boy and Jade Son, Twenty Years of Unchanged Affection, Building an Entertainment Empire from Scratch!”
“Feelings have changed,” Jiang Qin protested seriously to the tabloid reporter: “Everyone knows he and Xu—um…”
“Feelings haven’t changed, feelings haven’t changed,” Jin Yan covered Jiang Qin’s mouth desperately while smiling broadly: “Yesterday he took a package to hook up with the delivery guy downstairs and I didn’t mind. The day before yesterday, that beauty named Lisa in their company borrowed five yuan from him under the pretext of parking. Three days ago, he insisted on going downstairs shirtless to buy cigarettes, causing me to chase after him and roll from the fifth floor to the third floor, almost breaking two front teeth. Four days ago, because the flower pot color was wrong, he forced me to drive across H City for a full fifty kilometers to change the flower pot, actually just because the flower shop guy looked like Brad Pitt… I have never minded these things!!”
So the two sent the reporter away harmoniously and affectionately, then turned around and started accusing each other:
“I just wanted to change position last night, why were you twisting and turning!”
“Because it hurts, you bastard!”
“Why would it hurt? I was obviously so gentle and patient!”
“Patient my ass, try it yourself!”
“…”
“…”
After a while, Jin Yan ended his imagination and affirmed: “It just won’t hurt. Say, did you fall for that delivery gigolo downstairs?”
“…” Jiang Qin said angrily: “Fine! To tell you the truth! Actually, you’ve gained weight recently and crushed me so hard I couldn’t breathe! Go lose weight, you bastard!”
…
Ten seconds later, Jiang Qin looked at the rolling dust in front of him and the figure running away in tears in the distance, realizing that he had poked Jin Yan’s G-spot again.
“Why does a thirty-eight-year-old man care so much about his figure…” Jiang Qin said depressedly, “If you have the ability, keep your six-pack abs until you are eighty…”
Little student Li Meng was packed and thrown into the Go Institute to fend for himself, thus avoiding the mental pollution of the couple, and is currently still as pure as a little sheep.
In the semi-finals of the Huashuo Cup Bilateral Confrontation Match, he ground down the top master of the younger generation in South Korea with his endgame skills, finally winning by eight and a half points in the endgame, achieving fame as a teenager in one fell swoop, and becoming the lowest-ranked player in history to reach the finals in the bilateral event.
In the final, he met a mentor-level figure from the National Go Institute. In the middle game fight, he lost a large dragon due to a failed ko fight and entered the endgame with an absolute disadvantage; the endgame battle was simply tragic. Li Meng, as the weaker side, fought fiercely and resolutely for two full days, until the afternoon of the third day before the game was sealed, fighting to the last drop of blood.
When the points were finally counted, it was discovered that Li Meng, who had almost completely collapsed in the middle game, actually pulled back three stones from the 9-dan senior in the endgame—this boy who had just turned sixteen, his terrifying endgame ability simply left people dumbfounded.
Li Meng, 3-dan, finally won the first trophy in his career worth recording in history—the runner-up of the Huashuo Cup China-Korea Bilateral Confrontation Match. After the game, everyone was worried that he would cry, because after all, the loss was too miserable, and ordinary children would find it hard to bear at this point; but Li Meng sniffled, ran outside the venue to ask Tashi for a candy, and returned smacking his lips, back to normal.
That day Jin Yan went to pick him up, worrying about his son’s psychological state all the way, wondering if he should order ice cream cake delivery to comfort his delicate soul. As a result, when he got home, he found that Jiang Qin hadn’t prepared anything, but set up a chess board in the study and reviewed the game with Li Meng for a whole night.
Tashi held the little sheep and guarded outside the study calmly. Jin Yan, however, was a silly father, running in to peek every now and then to see if his poor son was crying.
Finally, Jiang Qin couldn’t stand it anymore: “Can you guard quietly outside like Tashi? Isn’t it annoying to keep running in!”
Jin Yan said righteously: “I’m here to deliver tissues! Afraid Li Meng will wipe his snot on the tablecloth!”
Jiang Qin: “…”
Just as Jiang Qin was about to beat CEO Jin up and throw him out, his phone suddenly rang. It was Mother Jiang, who had been calling frequently recently to ask about her golden grandson. Although the old lady didn’t understand Go, she watched TV and specially prepared some words like “don’t be arrogant in victory or discouraged in defeat” to comfort Li Meng; who knew that Li Meng had a carefree personality, was sad for two minutes after the game, and forgot everything after eating candy, and was now extremely happy.
Mother Jiang felt a bit lost instead, rambling to Jiang Qin that it was very hard today, worrying about the golden grandson’s game all the way back from the hospital, only to find out he still lost after getting home…
Jiang Qin asked in confusion: “What did you go to the hospital for?”
“To deliver food to your aunt—sigh, your cousin is sick. Your aunt has been going to the hospital to see him these days…”
“Fang Yuan is sick?”
“Yeah, heard it’s pneumonia or something else? I’m not sure either. If you have time, visit your relatives more, don’t just stay in H City all day without coming home…”
Jin Yan pricked up his ears to listen to the phone call. After listening, he looked at Jiang Qin’s expression and felt that he was the one who really wanted to cry.
A hand patted his shoulder. Looking back, he saw Tashi expressionlessly handing him a tissue.
“Cry if you want to,” Li Meng said seriously, “Don’t wipe your snot on the tablecloth.”
Jin Yan: “…”
“What do you two mean!” Jin Yan was furious: “Do I look that pitiful?! I’m not afraid of a love rival showing weakness or anything!”