Chapter 98
All the lights in the mall were lit up, filling the sky with gold and blue.
Hundreds of shops, amusement facilities and large supermarkets had all been decorated and prepared, just waiting for the opening day tomorrow.
Mu Hanxia and Lu Zhang stood by the glass railing on the highest floor of the mall. Looking down, the whole mall seemed to be under their feet. Mu Hanxia found that she liked this feeling, viewing everything from up high.
Her thoughts wandered… Lin Mochen should enjoy that feeling even more than her.
Coincidentally, the man who was currently accompanying her also thought of Lin Mochen. His thoughts turned to that old rascal when he could see through the glass dome of the building they were in at the mall a few blocks away.
“Hmm ……” Lu Zhang said with a wry smile, “We’re so well-prepared, we’ll definitely be able to take out the Fengchen across the street tomorrow!”
Mu Hanxia smiled and said, “Not necessarily.”
Lu Zhang: “Didn’t you say you could finish it off?”
“I said within three months. With the lead time, only a little over two months have passed.” She continued, “It may take some time for the customers to switch over to this shop of ours, with its new model and Fengchen’s constant absolute dominance nearby. So if we open tomorrow, with a bit of luck, we’ll have an outstanding result. There’s also a large chance that the result will be mediocre. But that doesn’t matter, take your time, we’ll rely on word-of-mouth to grow. Within a month, there should be no problem overtaking Fengchen.”
–.
“Tomorrow, your performance will explode.” Lin Mochen commented.
In the shine of the street lights, Mu Hanxia looked at him in the driver’s seat, slightly stunned, then smiled: “Why do you think so? I even told someone today that tomorrow’s achievement would likely be mediocre. It will take time for word of mouth to spread, take hold and for the customer base to develop.”
Lin Mochen had been in a meeting at the company throughout today, so he was still in his suit, with only the tie undone and the collar of his shirt slightly open. His hand rested on the steering wheel, such a simple action, yet he looked calm and noble.
“Truthfully, the economy is sluggish, and consumers need to be stimulated. Your model satisfies the psychology that urbanites crave the most, and you’ve done a pretty good job of pre-promotion. Although the timing is a bit rushed, there should be no problem swiftly growing to twice the performance of Fang Yi’s general stores.”
Mu Hanxia: “Seriously? Though it’s my side of the shop, I’m not as optimistic as you are.”
“Seriously.” He gave her a sidelong glance, a hint of a smile in his eyes, “Of course, if this shop was run by me, using your ideas, the performance would be higher. Probably three times that of the general stores.”
A soft protest escaped her lips, but her intuition told her that if he could say it, he could do it.
Hearing this long-lost mantra of hers, Lin Mochen’s mood became inexplicably good. He stopped at the traffic light and turned his head to look at her, “You don’t believe my judgement? Want to bet?”
No longer the straightforward little girl she was back then, she looked at him calmly, “What do you want to bet on?”
He smiled quietly, “If tomorrow’s performance is not twice that of your normal shop, I lose. You can make the terms. If it exceeds, I win.”
“And then what?”
“You’ll accompany me on a trip to Japan for a few days.”
His words were spoken calmly, but they were like a stone thrown into the pool of her heart, creating a silent ripple. How could she not understand his thoughts?
She laughed a little and said, “What a nice thought. I’m only getting busier these days, where can I spare the time.”
He drove quietly for a while, then suddenly added, “If you can’t go, then let’s change the bet to something simpler.”
Mu Hanxia: “What?”
He kept his eyes ahead and said lightly, “If I win, you’ll call me ‘husband’.”
This time, she didn’t say anything, but after a while, her face got really hot.
–.
The opening day of Yuejia.
Lin Mochen was at Fengchen’s headquarters as usual, reading the investment and e-commerce reports submitted by his subordinates. He did not move around much, but Sun Zhi, who was in charge of the mall business, was a bit restless. He came to see Lin Mochen early in the morning after having a look around Yuejia.
“Business is too good! It’s almost completely packed!” He took a big sip of tea and sighed, “Director Lin, this shop is probably going to set their highest single shop performance record for the whole year.”
Lin Mochen raised his eyebrows slightly and just smiled.
Sun Zhi looked at his expression and spoke tentatively, “There’s something I don’t know if I should say. With this shop, of course, I hope that things will go smoothly for Mu Hanxia, and she will win. We’ve given in and given way, haven’t we? However, their model is so successful that it will certainly be replicated nationwide in the future. That will have an impact on our business, and competition is inevitable. What do we do then?”
Lin Mochen sat behind the boss’s desk and looked up at him, “What to do?”
Sun Zhi: “This means ……”
“Free competition, each according to their ability. Fengchen’s commercial real estate positioning is different from theirs, taking the high-end and sophisticated route. Their model is new, and there is still a gap between them and us in terms of investment and quality. In a normal competitive environment, Fengchen may even be a little better. Their high achievement is due to their distribution as well as her skill.” Lin Mochen remarked.
The big boss’ usual cold and arrogant tone was tinged with a bit of rare appreciation and doting – towards his own woman. However, Sun Zhi’s heart was relieved and grounded after hearing this. He smiled and said, “That’s good. Honestly, I was really afraid that you would love the beauty this time and really give away the whole commercial property piece. You are willing to give it up, but we are still more or less unable to do so.”
Lin Mochen smiled and replied, “How is that possible? I wouldn’t do that, and she doesn’t need me to.”
“That, that ……,” Sun Zhi started, “I’m afraid that if the interests of the two companies conflict, we men will be caught in the middle and be in a difficult position?”
“It won’t happen.” Lin Mochen said, “She won’t do anything that truly hurts my interests. Heh… you don’t know her. Although she may look a lot more calm and calculating than before, at heart, she is still the same straightforward, soft-hearted woman. The things that she couldn’t do before, she still can’t do now.”
On this day, the first Yuejia Mall under Fang Yi’s ownership was open until 10pm. The single-day turnover hit a new high for the year, reaching 220% of the highest performance of Fang Yi’s regular shops and almost tying the highest single-store performance of Fengshen Mall, gaining a complete victory.
This novel is soooo close to the end—I hope we haven’t forgotten this gem and will get a complete translation soon 🙏🥹
Thanks a lot to all the the translation teams that translated this novel. You all are well appreciated from the bottom of my heart. God bless all of you. Keep up the good works.
Thanks a ton for the support, really means a lot. It’s cos of readers like you we feel motivated to bring quality stuff… but should we falter, please be kind to us. God bless you too, thanks again.
Dear Translation Team,
Thank you for posting this new chapter, and for bring an end to my torture. I have been dying to read the verbal exchange between Lin Mo Chen and Mu Han Xia since this is a pivotal chapter, and the machine-translation site on the web does not do a good at all. Having said that, I realized how important your translation team is to us English readers because there is NO English edition of Ding Mo’s book. I’ve looked 🙁 But if I am wrong, please slap me with the correct website and I humbly “thank you”.
A most humble thank you to you too!!! This support is like chicken blood to us. We are Ding Mo fans ourselves so will try and bring as many books of hers as possible. In the mean while, pls do puruse her compilation of shorts: https://whimsicalreads.com/series/three-short-stories/
Should you have a book you’d like to read, let us know we will be more than happy to translate it… after all, we are first readers too!
Dear Translation team, thank you for doing a great job translating this beautiful story about love and the struggles in life. I’ve come to cherish these two main characters-Lin MoChen and Mu HanXia and I hope that you will continues to tell us their story. This is perhaps one of my favorite novels from Ding Mo and I really hope (pray) that you will finish translating this novel. Thank you.
Hey Chezzie,
Thanks a ton for your support!!! <3
Hello Reader,
Thank you for being here and all the support. It means a lot. And if you’ve made the extra effort to leave a comment, thank you again for it shows you care.
‘Don’t Turn From Summer’ got off to a rough start, and we are here making amends. After all, few have never faltered. That said, WR does not wish to make any excuses and takes full responsibility for quality and is in the process of righting it as we speak. The current chapter being one such attempt.
Each one is different as is their take on things. While we will love the work of the previous TL, we are well aware in the difference between our styles. So, while comparisons are inevitable, we implore you not to judge us too harshly for we too are striving to bring forth the best rendition of one of our favorite authors. But rest assured, you will have a good time reading it.
Disappointed!! What happened to the translation quality??? The previous translator had done such an amazing job and now what we have is just a poorly translated work!!! Look, I’m not trying to be mean, but this story is amazing, it has a certain depth to it. so please, please dont destroy it with lousy translations. If you cant hold a candle to the story then please drop it, someone else might be willing to translate better. I love this story, I am a huge fan of it and when i saw the update i was over the moon but what i got was an utter disappointment with poor translation. So please if you think you can’t do a better job or at least as good as the previous translator then please drop it so that someone will have a shot at it but please DO NOT destroy the story and take away its joy of reading with half-assed and lousy translations!!!
Tannie Bear, thank you. We hear you. As readers first and a translation site later, we understand where you’re coming from and appreciate your candidness. Only a good friend will tell you when your face is looking dirty, so sorry and thank you again. We think we deserve a chance at it, so please humor us while we right the wrong.