Originally Jing Yang hadn"t wanted to open this many branches of his restaurant in such a short amount of time. Zhao Bocheng had helped him take back all of the stores that had originally belonged to the Lu family, but he still didn"t want to open his restaurants on the bustling streets.
Those previous disciples of Lu Deyuan who had been chased away by Zheng Jianlin, after they found out that Zheng De Ji no longer existed and that Lu De Ji had once again revived, all came back to seek refuge with Jing Yang. They wanted to continue to serve as chefs in Lu De Ji. Some of them had opened restaurants themselves and earned quite a bit, and in order to come work for him, they had turned their own restaurants over to others. These people had culinary talent, and also had feelings for Lu De Ji. In any case Jing Yang also needed more help, so if he let them stay he also benefited.
Therefore Jing Yang sold those storefronts that were on the bustling streets and in different cities, he chose over ten locations that had peaceful and quiet environments and other special appeal, and opened over ten branch restaurants in succession.
Jing Yang and Zhao Bocheng had lived together for over a year, but in these two to three years Jing Yang was especially busy, so the real amount of time that they could spend together was very little. For this Zhao Bocheng had many complaints, so he arranged for two people to go over to help him, and not let him do everything by himself.
The business of the branch restaurants were all on the right track, the managers were Chen Rui and the people arranged by Zhao Bocheng, and the kitchens were staffed by those disciples of Lu Deyuan. Jing Yang"s personal work became much more relaxed, and he didn"t need to keep on running back and forth between all of his branch restaurants, so he had more time to cultivate feelings with Zhao Bocheng.
Sometimes Jing Yang would go home early, finish making dinner, and wait for Zhao Bocheng to come back to eat together. Every time Zhao Bocheng returned home and saw the picture of Jing Yang just placing the dishes on the table, he would always feel especially satisfied in his heart. In the past he had always thought that he was working for the Zhao family, that he had been born to take over the family business, he had never thought before that these kinds of interactions that most people might feel to be very ordinary would make him feel so blessed. Now he had just found out that when he was together with his lover, the more common and warm occurrences, would even more let him feel happiness. This was the type of feeling that he wanted to have.
After Jing Yang washed up he reclined on the bed reading books. Zhao Bocheng came out from the bathroom and got on the bed to hold him in his arms, lifting his chin to give him a deep kiss. Jing Yang responded warmly, throwing his book to the side, he embraced his neck and returned the kiss.
Doing it only once a night absolutely would not satisfy Zhao Bocheng, usually the first time was merely the appetizer, and then there would be the main course, the soup dish, and the desserts. Sometimes Jing Yang had been tossed too ruthlessly, and so in the intermittent resting times he couldn"t resist biting him to vent his anger. But his muscles were too strong, the texture was too hard, if he bit too much it would be bad for his teeth, and the effect was also not big. So Jing Yang could only change tactics, and when he no longer wanted to continue, he had to throw a tantrum or beg for mercy, calling that he was tired or sore was most useful. Calling to the point of becoming soft-hearted, he would no longer have the heart to keep tormenting him.
The aftertaste of the pa.s.sion hadn"t yet faded, Jing Yang powerlessly sprawled on Zhao Bocheng"s chest. Zhao Bocheng"s one sentence made him suddenly lift his head, he thought that he had heard wrong. "What did you say?”
"Next month my grandfather will have his big 80th birthday, I want to bring you to go together.”
"You want to bring me to go congratulate your grandfather together? Are you trying to deliberately not let these elderly men have a good birthday?" His relationship with Zhao Bocheng, the Zhao family basically all were aware, even though they had not gone public, but they also had not deliberately concealed it. This matter couldn"t be considered to be some sort of secret.
"I"ve already told my grandfather, he also agreed." Zhao Bocheng"s parents had died early, as the Zhao family"s eldest son"s eldest son, he had been personally taken care of by his grandfather. As the Zhao family"s heir, he had taken control of the Zhao family corporation long ago, his grandfather was only nominally the chairman, and in reality he long ago stopped paying attention to the business matters, and also couldn"t control his matters.
"He agreed?" Jing Yang was doubtful. "What did he agree to? Was it for me to accompany you to go home to give birthday wishes, or was it agreeing to our relationship?”
"He agreed to all of them." Zhao Bocheng rubbed his hair.
"How"s that possible?" Jing Yang gazed at him in amazement, they were both men, an elderly person who was almost 80 years old, how could he accept this kind of relationship so easily.
"How is it not possible, I naturally have my own methods.”
"You shouldn"t have made some kind of deal with him ba?" Jing Yang guessed. "For example you would still get married and have a child, and that maintaining this kind of relationship with me wouldn"t affect the Zhao family corporation"s business.”
"You"re overthinking it." Zhao Bocheng patted his b.u.t.t, pressed down on him and kissed him.
Jing Yang pushed him away a little. "I"ll first tell you clearly, if you"re still going to get married and have a child, I will absolutely not continue to maintain the current relationship with you, you also should never go and find me again. If you have relationships with other people, and still want to continue to come entangle me, I will do whatever it takes to escape from you, even if it means leaving this world.”
"I won"t give you that opportunity!" Zhao Bocheng forcefully blocked his mouth.
When Jing Yang accompanied Zhao Bocheng to go to the Zhao home, the Zhao family people all behaved very normally, and on the day of the Zhao old master"s birthday, Zhao Bocheng constantly kept him by his side. All of the guests could sense Zhao Bocheng"s att.i.tude, and even though they felt astonished in their hearts, on the surface they still showed flattering manners.
Jing Yang"s days actually became increasingly relaxed and contented, Zhao Bocheng helped him keep off everything, troubles naturally wouldn"t be able to find him.
One day he was idle and boredly wandering the streets, a group of plainclothes bodyguards following behind him at an appropriate distance. On the side of the street, he saw a familiar face and stopped his steps, looking at the person busying himself at a small cart.
Zheng Junming raised his head, and also just happened to see Jing Yang, he fl.u.s.teredly wanted to put back on the face mask that was hanging on his ear, but he had already been discovered, so even if he put the mask back on it would still be useless. So he could only freeze there and look at him face to face.
Jing Yang had been living too well these past several years, and his affections with Zhao Bocheng were getting increasingly strong, he had almost quickly forgotten the Zheng two father and son. Zheng Jianlin was in the prison, and under Zhao Bocheng"s "care," his days would definitely not be comfortable. This Zheng Junming actually started selling jian bing on the street, it should be because he could not find any other work.
How their family three people were doing now, no longer had the least bit of relationship with him, he had already satisfied Lu Jingyu"s wishes, and had already gained his own love. As long as his feelings with Zhao Bocheng didn"t change, then his life could be considered as very perfect, and he had no relationship with how other people were doing.
A black limo stopped at the curb, and the bodyguard sitting in the front got off to open the door. Zhao Bocheng came down from the car. "What you are doing standing there?”
Jing Yang turned his head. "How did you come? Didn’t you have a meeting at your company?”
"Right now I"m going to be going overseas for business, you come together." Zhao Bocheng pulled his hand and climbed back on the car.
Zhao Bocheng"s possessive desire was become increasingly powerful, he wished that he could keep him by his side at all times. This was not his first time going overseas with him, he had already become used to it, and he didn"t feel like resisting.
Zheng Junming saw the two people holding hands onto the car and leaving, his heart was very sour and bitter. One of them was the person he had once viewed as an enemy, one of them was the person he once strove to be close to, these two people now behaved very intimately, with one glance you would know that their relationship was not general. Lu Jingyu had gotten everything he had wanted, yet he had gotten in such dire straits like this. With a miserable expression, he raised his head to look at the sky, why was this world so unfair to him, why did he have to come to this world.
~
In the past Jing Yang never believed that there would be a love that would not weaken over a lifetime. In this life Zhao Bocheng was very good to him, extremely good to him, they loved each other very much, but he still felt that this love would still slowly dissipate with the pa.s.sing of time.
Until the two people slowly grew older, and their love for each other was still just as strong as before, Jing Yang just believed, there existed a love that would not change just because of the pa.s.sing of time.
Even though Zhao Bocheng had turned into a dashing old man, he was still that overbearing and powerful. Under his wing, Jing Yang peacefully led a smooth and steady life, the years basically didn"t leave any traces on his face.
During this life, Zhao Bocheng very rarely promised Jing Yang anything, but he used actual actions and a lifetime to prove his love for Jing Yang.
As mortals, their lives would inevitably fade away one day, Jing Yang felt that his life had already reached its end, this was his first time not willing to leave.
Jing Yang had a conjecture, this world may not be limited to just his one foreign soul. He had used many different methods to test Zhao Bocheng, but evidence showed that Zhao Bocheng did not have any memories besides those of this world. He had no way to prove whether or not his guess was correct, and even more had no way to determine whether he would be able to meet him again in the next life.
Jing Yang lay in Zhao Bocheng"s arms, his breath gradually weakened, and reluctantly said, "I can"t bear to leave you…" This was his first world not feeling lonely, his first world experiencing love and being loved, this kind of feeling once experienced, would make people unable to give it up. He didn"t want to continue being lonely in one world after another, he didn"t want to only leave behind the memories. He had finally loved someone after so much difficulty, he was afraid that he would never be able to love anyone else.
"Don"t worry." Zhao Bocheng lowered his head to kiss his eyes, he had done this action countless times, every single time he would still feel emotional, like he was kissing his soul. "Even time and s.p.a.ce will not be able to separate us, in the next life, I will definitely find you.”
Jing Yang smiled, but his eyes were moist. "You must remember your words, you can"t deceive me.”
"I will absolutely not deceive you.”
Jing Yang"s soul and system left the body and the world at the same time, in that instant, he felt that he had received an amount of power, but this power was very quickly absorbed by the system. The system seemed to have gotten stronger, but he was still the same as before.
Hades had said, as long as every life he lived perfectly, he would be able to become a G.o.d, but the power that he received was not his own, he started to slightly doubt the authenticity of these words.
Before he accomplished all of his tasks, he had no way to return to the underworld and also couldn"t see Hades, so he had no way to personally ask him what was happening now. So he could only continue to go on to the next world.
This was the shortest chapter yet, though still 1.5 hours, 1:30 pm – 3 pm. Slightly less than 3k characters, to 2.3k words. No translator notes, for the first time as well.
Well it’s over guys. The first arc is done. I feel satisfied and a little nostalgic. Truly, translating quick wear is like translating short individual books. We will be transitioning to an entirely new arc: the ancient China dynasty. Naturally the next chapter is the introduction of the MC’s tragic past life, so it’s going to be a longer one. I’ll see you there.
Edit: I’m back with an update on 10/13, almost a month after I finished translating this chapter. Thanks to my previous work at adding 9 chapters to my backlog, I was able to finish posting Arc 1 based on my usual schedule. However, I have gone around 3 weeks without translating, partly bc of getting especially busy with school (in the middle of exams) and bc I’ve been religiously watching Idol Producer. So there might be a brief hiatus at this point since I only have 3 chapters translated in Arc 2. Probably around 2 weeks, I think. Once I get another free couple of days and translate another few chapters, I’ll be able to start the ball rolling again for Arc 2. I’ll see you soon.
(speaking of Idol Producer, gotta support the best singer zhangjing check out his rap of china performance and the absolute best ship it’s like an entertainment circle BL IRL)