Chapter 57 A very obedient t, almost abstinent...

In the early morning, before sunrise, a light drizzle began to fall in Paris.

The window by the bedside wasn't closed properly the night before, and rain was pouring down on it. Jiang Nuanyu squinted as she opened her eyes.

Because of the rain, the light in the room was much dimmer than usual at this time. Thinking it was still early, she turned over, intending to continue sleeping.

She had barely closed her eyes again when the alarm clock suddenly went off, startling Jiang Nuanyu.

Caught off guard, she was startled by the sound, her heart pounding. After stopping the call, she glanced at the time—it really was time to get up.

She put her phone face down, covered her face with her hand, and rubbed her groggy head.

I had insomnia last night, and even drinking alcohol didn't help.

Jiang Nuanyu had barely slept all night. She lay on the bed for another half a minute, sighed, and got up with a groggy head.

As she stepped out of the elevator and reached the entrance of her building, Jiang Nuanyu felt a sudden pang in her heart when she saw the open space between the hedges outside.

The stone slabs were wet, raindrops splashed on them, bursting into countless tiny water droplets, vaguely reflecting fragmented light, cold and desolate.

A fine mist of rain drifted through the air and touched her skin, the coolness seeping into her very being. Jiang Nuanyu closed her sore eyes, opened her umbrella, and stepped into the rain.

*

It's four subway stops from Jiang Nuanyu's home to the magazine office. Just as she emerged from the subway station, the rain was about to stop, and a sliver of sunlight struggled to pierce through the large swaths of gray clouds.

Jiang Nuanyu glanced at the not-so-blinding light, took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and walked towards the magazine office.

After going upstairs, she put her things down at her workstation, grabbed her laptop and a cup of coffee, and went to the other side of the office area for a meeting.

The corner of the floor-to-ceiling window is furnished with a combination of low tables and sofas, decorated in a sophisticated manner, making it look like a coffee shop at first glance.

But this is where the editors of Chaleur hold their group meetings.

Jiang Nuanyu was the second person to arrive in the group. The person who arrived earlier was Cui Mark—the Korean colleague who loved to speak French.

"Bonjour!"

As expected, upon seeing Jiang Nuanyu, Cui Mark greeted her in French.

"Morning~"

Jiang Nuanyu smiled and subtly responded to him in English.

She put her coffee down on the table and sat down diagonally opposite Mark.

This position is the furthest from Mark Trey in a straight line, so if any colleague comes along later, she won't have a chance to talk to Mark Trey.

In Paris, despite social obligations, Jiang Nuanyu really didn't want to bring up any topics with Cui Mark, nor did she really want to talk to him.

This is not because she is arrogant and unapproachable, nor is it because she is intentionally targeting Mark Choi. In fact, from a certain perspective, the truth is quite the opposite.

In the beginning of her life in a foreign country, Jiang Nuanyu tried her best to adapt to everything around her. Whenever she was suddenly surrounded by languages ​​that were not her own, the feeling of being in a foreign land became particularly strong.

During her welcoming ceremony, Mark Tse spoke a few words of Chinese to her.

Despite her less-than-perfect pronunciation, Jiang Nuanyu still felt a natural affinity for her Asian colleague.

Reality, however, poured cold water on her.

When Jiang Nuanyu first arrived in Paris, her French was far from sufficient for communication at work. However, the official working language of the international edition of Chaleur is English, so theoretically, Jiang Nuanyu's poor French shouldn't directly affect her professional abilities.

Although most of the colleagues at Chaleur are French, they all adhere to the rules at work and no one voluntarily uses French.

Only Mark Trey was different.

Although he arrived at Chaleur only six months earlier than Jiang Nuanyu, he had already lived in France for nearly ten years before that, and his French level was almost the same as that of the locals, so he had no communication pressure.

As a newcomer, Jiang Nuanyu felt awkward making demands of her colleagues and could only try her best to cope. She had to overcome the language barrier while trying to integrate into and take control of the new environment, which significantly increased the difficulty of her work.

Gradually, Jiang Nuanyu couldn't help but develop subtle negative feelings towards the person who started this situation. After all, it wasn't her fault, yet she had to bear the consequences.

If the language problem was merely unintentional on Cui Mark's part, and would naturally resolve itself as Jiang Nuanyu's French improves, then there's no need to worry excessively.

In actual work, Cui Mark's constant nitpicking and questioning of her was enough to make Jiang Nuanyu feel completely disgusted and wary of him, to the point that she had no intention of saying a word to him except to maintain the most basic politeness.

Once all team members were in place, the meeting officially began.

The senior editor leading Jiang Nuanyu's topic selection team was a French woman named Lino.

Lino is in her thirties, with shoulder-length straight golden-brown hair. Her style of doing things is just like her appearance: clean, efficient, and elegant.

Compared to the editor-in-chief or editorial director, Lino has more decision-making power in specific topic selection and daily management, so Jiang Nuanyu prefers to call her "boss" in private.

One of the topics at Monday's meeting was creative exchange. Each person took turns proposing their own topic, explaining their intentions, ideas, and innovative points. After a group discussion, Lino decided whether to adopt it for the next round of the process.

As soon as Jiang Nuanyu finished her explanation, Cui Mark, sitting diagonally opposite her, immediately raised an objection: "Using olfactory imagery from modern poetry to analyze perfume, isn't that a bit unorthodox?"

Jiang Nuanyu looked up at him, her eyes cold yet calm.

Mark Tse chuckled and said, "It feels too obscure, like something an academic journal would write, not like a feature article in a fashion magazine. Right?" He looked at everyone.

The crowd remained silent, not daring to interrupt this hothead.

Regarding Jiang Nuanyu's choice of topics, Cui Mark either thinks, like today, that the direction is too niche and doesn't fit the magazine's tone; or he says that the designer Jiang Nuanyu chose isn't famous enough; or he directly points out various difficulties in implementing the plan.

In short, he always has something to say about any type of topic.

Coincidentally, the next idea he proposed always had a striking resemblance to the ideas Jiang Nuanyu had previously rejected.

Other colleagues may not have noticed this, but Jiang Nuanyu, as the person involved, was keenly aware of it every time.

Jiang Nuanyu felt somewhat annoyed by Cui Mark's unreasonable questioning. However, Cui Mark's tone was not sharp, and was even quite friendly, so she couldn't lash out.

She had no intention of lashing out, but simply laid out her prepared response: "Many high-end niche perfume brands and independent perfumers have publicly stated that their inspiration for creation comes from images in literary works. For example, Proust's theory of unconscious memory in 'In Search of Lost Time'."

“We did a feature on ‘olfactory memory’ in the magazine at the beginning of the year, and there was a lot of discussion at the time.” Jiang Nuanyu looked at Cui Mark and met his gaze. “So I think that being a specialist doesn’t mean you don’t have an audience. This direction isn’t exactly niche.”

Lino nodded slowly to the side. When Tremark saw this, he didn't say anything more, spread his hands, and shrugged indifferently.

That topic was put aside for now. At this moment, another colleague raised another question to Jiang Nuanyu, and Jiang Nuanyu shifted her focus to discuss it with everyone.

After the round ended, Jiang Nuanyu saved the file and glanced at Cui Mark on the other side.

She knew he did it on purpose.

Mark Trey's goal was to create the impression that her story selection was always questioned, and for a fashion editor, the importance of story selection ability is beyond doubt.

Therefore, Jiang Nuanyu couldn't ignore this, but she really didn't have any way to suppress Cui Mark. She could only anticipate, guard against, and consider countermeasures in advance during the preparation stage of each topic selection. As the saying goes, one must be strong to forge iron.

Fortunately, Cui Mark's questioning tactics were limited to a few points and weren't particularly sophisticated. Jiang Nuanyu didn't find them too difficult to deal with; it just took a little more time and caused her some annoyance.

After everyone finished sharing, Lino opened another folder and said, "Of the several topics that everyone has suggested in the past two weeks, I've decided to pursue these two: one is Eva's 'Natural Gemstones,' and the other is Nora's 'A Different Kind of White Shirt,' which she suggested last week."

As soon as Lino finished speaking, Jiang Nuanyu felt much more relaxed, and the frustration she had felt from being troubled by Cui Mark vanished.

The French and international editions of *Chaleur* have nearly ten thematic groups of varying sizes, each consisting of four or five to eight or nine people. With many editors and numerous topics, the magazine's space in each issue is limited.

This marks the third consecutive time that Jiang Nuanyu's topic has been adopted. Compared to the initial fruitless attempts after the topic selection meetings, her work in Paris seems to be gradually getting on track.

This round of discussions focused more on concrete implementation. Jiang Nuanyu's chosen topic was filmed on a small island off the west coast of the Netherlands.

Jiang Nuanyu stumbled upon this place in a magazine. The island in the picture lacked the complexity of the city and the deliberate artificial decoration. At first glance, she felt that it was a perfect match for the theme of the white shirt.

However, after discussion, Lino changed the filming location to mainland France, specifically the Val Blanc resort in Annecy.

Upon hearing this decision, Jiang Nuanyu didn't react much. She simply recorded Linuo's arrangements on her laptop and added notes to the relevant documents.

From the initial proposal to the final completion of the project, adjustments are inevitable, and she doesn't mind being modified. Furthermore, she had seen the location Linuo ultimately chose on social media and had some recollection of it, so she felt that alternatives were acceptable.

But then Lino said, "I'd like Jules to follow up on the implementation of this project."

Jiang Nuanyu's typing fingers paused slightly.

Lino turned a page and looked up at Jiang Nuanyu: "Nora, do you have any objections? You proposed the topic, and I think it needs your approval."

Other colleagues turned their attention to Jiang Nuanyu, and Cui Mark also glanced up at her without making a sound.

Ignoring these gazes, Jiang Nuanyu showed almost no sign of thinking as she said to Linuo, "I agree, no objections."

Lino explained, “I fully approve of your topic, but you’ve only been in Paris for less than six months, so you might be a little lacking in terms of mobilizing brand resources and coordinating interpersonal networks. Of course, I’m not questioning your execution ability, but from the perspective of overall efficiency, I think Jules is a more suitable candidate.”

“I understand.” Jiang Nuanyu looked at Linuo and said sincerely, “I’m glad my topic was adopted.”

Lino smiled: "Thank you for your generosity, Nora."

Jiang Nuanyu smiled and then turned to Zhu Er, saying, "If there's anything I can do to help, I'm willing to cooperate fully. Besides the existing outline of the project, I can also send you all the preliminary materials in a package if you need them."

“Thank you so much! I would really appreciate the thought process.” Jules also said frankly, “Nora, your topic is fantastic, and I will do my best to make it as perfect as possible.”

"Okay." Jiang Nuanyu nodded and smiled.

Work was arranged naturally, and projects were handed over naturally. Lino felt no guilt for handing the project over to Jules, Jules felt no unease about taking over Jiang Nuanyu's work, other colleagues did not feel uncomfortable about potential conflicts, and team morale was not affected at all.

Among them, Jiang Nuanyu seems to be the one who made the greatest contribution but was the only one who suffered losses.

She unconsciously touched the computer touchpad, the cursor on the screen tracing the notes she had just made for the project's launch.

She spent nearly half a month preparing for this topic, even while battling a cold for a few days, researching countless materials and browsing numerous websites, accumulating hundreds of pages of notes. It's impossible not to feel regret and disappointment at handing it over so easily. But she didn't let those feelings linger for long.

While she believes that it is important to strive for topics and maintain a strong presence in the workplace, she also believes that a balance between work and rest is equally important.

Even though she lost an opportunity to prove her ability to plan a complete project, at least her topic selection skills were recognized; with Jules taking over, the project can be implemented faster and better, and she can also free up her time to do other things.

It's true that there's competition among colleagues, but cooperation is equally indispensable to her.

Jiang Nuanyu traced the cursor, her gaze finally settling on the filming location chosen by Linuo—the Valbranche Resort.

As Lino just mentioned, the magazine had filmed there more than once before, and had a harmonious relationship with the relevant personnel, resulting in pleasant and smooth cooperation. The resort's standards and style also perfectly matched the magazine's. Compared to going to a small island in the Netherlands, this was a more commercially viable option with a higher cost-benefit ratio.

Suddenly, Jiang Nuanyu remembered that Liang Qi knew the editor-in-chief of Chaleur.

She glanced around at everyone, licked her lips, moved the laptop on her lap slightly closer to her, and after confirming that the people next to her couldn't see the screen, she opened a webpage and searched for "Walbranche Resort".

Opening the resort's official website, the copyright information at the bottom of the page indeed shows the words "Powered by YunJing Corporate".

Jiang Nuanyu suddenly realized.

The world at the top of the pyramid is indeed small.

Having worked at Chaleur for several months, she hadn't yet had a private conversation with the bald but stylish editor-in-chief, but she roughly understood that compared to Ji Meng, who focused on both content and connections, the current editor-in-chief seemed to prioritize maintaining commercial resources.

In that light, she should have realized long ago that Chaleur and Yun Jing might have business dealings. Did her surprised reaction at dinner last night make her seem silly and slow-witted?

Jiang Nuanyu tried hard to recall Liang Qi's expression and reaction in those few seconds, and as she thought about it, her thoughts were completely occupied by him.

Yesterday's dinner was the first time they had eaten alone.

She thought about how he spoke; his mouth never moved exaggeratedly, drawing all attention to his clear, bright eyes.

She imagined him eating, pursing his lips and gently moving his chin, completely unpretentious yet strangely well-behaved. Actually, she really wanted to... tease him.

As she thought of him, her heart began to beat faster without her realizing it.

But then she thought of yesterday's parting, and her heart fluttered into heartache.

She wondered where he might be right now—whether he was at the airport, on his return flight, or still dealing with work.

Even though she knew it was wrong, she still considered the possibility of them meeting again.

Thinking about her relationship with Liang Qi, Jiang Nuanyu felt a deep sense of loneliness and suffocation.

“J'adore Monaco!”

Suddenly, the sound of Cui Mark speaking French reached Jiang Nuanyu's ears, abruptly pulling her back to reality.

The meeting had ended sometime earlier, and everyone was now chatting casually afterward. Mark Trey was praising his last trip to Monaco, saying he was lucky to have caught the F1 Grand Prix and so on.

Jiang Nuanyu closed her laptop and guiltily took a sip of her coffee.

Fortunately, the last part of the meeting didn't concern her much, so no one probably noticed that she was daydreaming.

*

Over the next few days, even though she knew her phone wasn't on silent and there was no way she would miss any calls, Jiang Nuanyu would still unlock the screen every now and then to take a look.

She checked the phone card in Beijing several times to make sure it was not out of service due to unpaid bills and that it could be dialed.

When she had nothing to do, she checked her bills from the past few months and found no outstanding fees.

Every time she returns home and passes by the entrance of her building, Jiang Nuanyu feels a wave of sadness washing over her.

Sunday night was perhaps just a dream, a dream she had already woken up from but still longed to return to. In the real world, she and Liang Qi would not have a future together.

Everything seems unchanged.

The only difference was that she couldn't sleep again.

-----------------------

A note from the author:

Ginger vs. Mark Choi, round 1!

1:0