Chapter 120

Chapter 120

After Jiang Zisen went to Li City to start his retirement life, the younger generation of Jiang Zisen's family who had been living in the Jiang residence also bought their own places and moved out, and the Jiang residence settled back into silence.

The house had been lively for a while, then returned to calm. When Jiang Yicen came back from the restaurant and saw no one around, he felt a little hollow inside. Worried Nan Shuyi might get jealous, he quietly kept his feelings in check and got over it in two days, and then he was fine.

However, he soon became busy.

The Yongjiang Restaurant was now running smoothly. The head chef had surprised him in many good ways, Jiang Xingchen was gradually getting the hang of the business, and with a professional team brought on board, everything was going off without a hitch. The restaurant was getting rave reviews, had plenty of customers, and welcomed diners from all over the country daily. They also hosted plenty of high-end banquets, and the restaurant was pulling in serious money.

In his spare time, he checked on the former Jiang family businesses. Some of them still hadn't been bought back, but that could wait.

For now, he was setting up his own company.

Nan Shuyi was all for it. In the future, he'd be buying back more and more Jiang family businesses, and Jiang Yicen needed his own company.

Once Nan Shuyi learned that the Yutu cosmetics brand they'd bought was created by the third Miss of the Jiang family, he agreed to fold that company into Jiang Yicen's new one.

So Jiang Yicen's company was half Nan Shuyi's too—still shared marital property.

One evening, after dinner, the two were walking on the treadmill to digest. Jiang Yicen suddenly cracked a joke with Nan Shuyi.

"If we ever fall out of love, we'll never be able to settle our accounts."

Nan Shuyi didn't like the sound of that. He was still on the treadmill but immediately shut it off.

He walked over to Jiang Yicen, his face expressionless. "Jiang Yicen, you can't say stuff like that. I'm angry. I'm never leaving you. Even when we die, we'll be buried in the same grave."

Jiang Yicen rarely saw him this angry, and found it kind of amusing, and tried to explain: "I was just kidding—"

Nan Shuyi was completely serious. "Not even as a joke, got it? From now on, you're never allowed to have thoughts like that. No assumptions, no hypotheticals, nothing."

He'd heard from the older generation that saying certain things too often could make them come true—it was called word magic. Anyway, at that moment, he believed in superstition.

Jiang Yicen said, "Alright, I won't say it again."

Nan Shuyi then told Jiang Yicen something he'd already arranged: "I already bought our burial plot. That's where we're going to be buried."

Jiang Yicen was at a loss for words for a moment. Nan Shuyi's feelings for him ran deeper than he'd ever imagined.

He stopped the treadmill and stood in front of Nan Shuyi.

His body was warm from the workout. He didn't hug Nan Shuyi, just looked him straight in the eye.

"Nan Shuyi, have I ever told you something?"

Nan Shuyi was still stewing over what he'd said earlier. "What?"

Jiang Yicen saw the sweat on his forehead from being so worked up, held his face in his hands, and said, "I've always been with you, determined to hold your hand and grow old with you. I've never thought about anything else." He was honest, telling Nan Shuyi, "It's just that right after we first got married, I thought that if there was no possibility of us developing feelings, and if you had someone you liked, divorce would be fine too. But I never thought about it again after that. I just focused on making you fall for me. As you know, we came together naturally."

The pent-up frustration in Nan Shuyi's chest dissipated instantly.

He had to admit that at first, he hadn't thought that far ahead. Everything had just followed its natural course. He was impressed by Jiang Yicen's intelligence and wit, gradually paying more attention to him and falling for him. Of course, when he initially agreed to marry him, he was somewhat drawn to his unique temperament—it could be considered love at first sight, though he hadn't realized it at the time.

Nan Shuyi: "I see. Then have I told you?"

Jiang Yicen: "Hmm, go ahead."

Nan Shuyi: "I love you very much."

Jiang Yicen: "Thank you for loving me."

This was one of the countless times Nan Shuyi had said "I love you" to him, and the gym session was also checked off as a success.

·

Not long after, Jiang Yicen's new company opened quietly. The office was in the building behind the Yongjiang Restaurant. Nan Shuyi told him that the company would only grow bigger, so he directly rented an entire building and merged Shiyi and Fuyu into it.

Jiang Yicen's former assistant from Nanyuan came along. The most pleasant surprise was that after Nan Shuyi gradually took over the management of the Nanyuan Group, he preferred his own assistant, Tang Li. Assistant An's position had become somewhat awkward. Nan Shuyi didn't want it to be that way and had even discussed with Nan Anru whether to arrange a comparable position for him—essentially a promotion. In the end, it was Jiang Yicen who made the suggestion.

He took time to visit Nanyuan and sit with Nan Anru for a while, wanting to ask Assistant An to come work for him. Nan Shuyi had his own team, so he wanted to build his own as well. He really liked Assistant An and wanted him to come help.

Nan Anru was even happier to see his daughter-in-law poaching talent, as it also solved a headache for him. Assistant An was excellent, but he was Nan Anru's personal assistant. Nan Shuyi found it awkward to use him, always mindful of the old man. But working under Jiang Yicen was different—it was a pure superior-subordinate relationship, not tied to the father-son dynamics of the Nan family.

Assistant An and Jiang Yicen got along well too. They often had aligned ideas. In business, Nan Shuyi was aggressive and brooked no dissent, but Jiang Yicen was different—he was willing to listen to all opinions, and so was Assistant An.

When Nan Anru brought up the matter with Assistant An, he immediately nodded in agreement.

So, Jiang Yicen had a capable right-hand man as soon as his company opened.

On the day the company launched, congratulatory flower baskets lined up in a long row on the first floor. Those that arrived later couldn't fit and had to be moved upstairs.

The company adopted the original name of the Jiang family: Ruixin Company.

From its very opening, the company showed signs of moving toward a conglomerate structure.

Jiang Yicen still had his mind on his fabric shop. He didn't do fabric trading anymore but switched to custom-made garments.

The most famous fabric in Lincheng was silk, but there were many new woven fabrics now. He found quite a few veteran artisans—all experienced people, though they kept a low profile. He gave each master a branding upgrade, determined to bring back those lost techniques from the past and let everyone wear the most beautiful custom cheongsams and other garments. Many shops nowadays touted "new Chinese-style" clothing, but what he wanted to do was different.

How to promote Ruixin custom tailoring?

The Yongjiang Restaurant was the best promotional platform.

The Yongjiang Restaurant now had a huge exhibition hall. He placed the exquisite works of the master craftsmen he had invited in one section of the hall, specifically introducing the craftsmanship of cheongsams from the last century—which master inherited which tailor shop, which celebrities their ancestors had served. Even the frog buttons were displayed in a full row. The exhibition content was completely authentic, clearly high-end custom work.

Who dined at the Yongjiang Restaurant? People who certainly weren't short on money. A piece of high-end custom clothing might cost about the same as a single meal at the restaurant.

When diners saw the exquisite cheongsams, combined with the celebrity appeal of the last century—those singers and stars had already passed away, making them even more commemorative—they would buy one even if they didn't wear it, just to try it on.

The ladies really couldn't walk past without stopping to look.

Jiang Yicen also had some playful slogans posted in the cheongsam exhibition area, such as: "Cheongsams and Yongjiang Restaurant are a perfect match," "Ruixin Custom, tailored for Eastern women," "Have you cosplayed as a Republic of China movie star today?" and so on.

Later, many female influencers who came for the traffic would wear custom Ruixin cheongsams when they visited.

After all the promotion, Ruixin Custom, which had just opened, became a hit again. Curious netizens did some digging and found that the boss behind this company was the same person as the owner of the Yongjiang Restaurant. Everyone was dying of curiosity.

So young and so full of ideas—was he trying to become the richest man in Lincheng before turning thirty?

After that, Jiang Yicen ventured into the food industry, launching holiday foods tied to the Yongjiang Restaurant—zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival, Qiqiao fruits for the Qixi Festival, mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Every holiday brought new products, and they even had winter-cured meats exclusive to the restaurant. The prices weren't cheap, but many netizens were drawn by novelty. If it tasted good, they'd definitely buy again!

In this way, Jiang Yicen also boosted the pig farm business of Jiang Yuan's descendants. Within less than six months, his pork factory had expanded threefold.

Having put effort into food, he naturally wanted to add something special to beverages as well. The Jiang family used to have a distillery that sold well, but young people nowadays didn't care for baijiu. So Jiang Yicen converted the old liquor into fruit wine—first brewing their own base liquor, then using it to steep fruit wine. This fruit wine was initially offered exclusively to the Yongjiang Restaurant. Once added to the menu, it became extremely popular with women and many young professionals.

Back then, the Jiao family had been anxious about Miss Jiao's marriage. Later, she met her ideal match and specifically booked a banquet at the Yongjiang Restaurant for their wedding.

This fruit wine was also her favorite. During the banquet, the fruit wine became the centerpiece—everyone loved it, and even the children dipped their chopsticks in to taste it.

Likewise, someone who attended Miss Jiao's wedding posted a video of the banquet drinks, intending to show off that they'd been invited to the Jiao family's wedding and flex their connections. Unexpectedly, a food blogger who had visited Yongjiang Restaurant and tried this fruit wine once found it sold out on their second visit, and wrote a few hundred words below the video gushing about the wine.

This blogger was a gourmet, and netizens figured a fruit wine he couldn't get out of his head had to be amazing.

Although the products from Yongjiang Restaurant weren't explicitly labeled as limited edition, their production volume was indeed low. With more customers wanting them, they turned into limited-time, limited-quantity items.

But that was exactly the effect Jiang Yicen wanted.

Yongjiang Restaurant's entire operation ran through his company. Although the newly established company wasn't very famous, its products were in high demand and hard to get.

As the company's performance soared, he realized, almost without noticing, that he'd been in the modern era for three years, and he was about to turn twenty-five.

A twenty-fifth birthday wasn't particularly special, but at twenty-five, Jiang Yicen had already earned the title of National Outstanding Young Entrepreneur.

Nan Anru and Jiang Zisen put their heads together and decided this birthday was a big deal, so both families would throw him a grand birthday banquet.

Only Nan Shuyi was sulking, since he'd already planned how to celebrate Jiang Yicen's birthday.

He stormed into Jiang Yicen's office, pouting.

"Baby, how could they steal my thunder?"

Jiang Yicen had been glued to the computer lately and his eyesight had gotten a bit blurry, so he wore glasses. Seeing Nan Shuyi storm in furiously, he took them off.

He looked confused, unaware of what was happening: "What's wrong?" He'd been so busy lately that he didn't even remember his birthday was approaching.

Nan Shuyi snorted, "My dad and your grandnephew want to throw you a twenty-fifth birthday banquet and won't let me get involved. I'd already arranged everything."

Jiang Yicen propped his chin on his hand, looking at the aggrieved Nan Shuyi: "So how does my big brother want to celebrate my birthday?"

Nan Shuyi sat on his desk, pinched his chin, and leaned down to kiss him: "Not telling you."