The evening breeze blew slowly as the charity gala unfolded under the starry night sky.
Holding his trays up high, a waiter walked freely between the prominent figures of the business world. When he stooped, a long and slender hand gracefully reached out to lift a glass of champagne.
The woman withdrew her hand and spoke calmly to the person next to her. The night breeze brushed against the soft, white collar of her blouse, caressing her serene face and drifting through her jet-black hair.
Her eyes were lowered, her raven-black lashes hidden behind gold-rimmed glasses, concealing the calm ripples in her eyes, like a Buddha who wouldn’t move his feet even when if the sky fell.
The next moment, a new guest arrived at the gala.
Someone greeted them with a smile.
The people around her also looked in that direction.
“Oh, it’s President Shen and the chairman’s wife.”
These words floated into her ear.
President Shen, full name Shen Wenxin, was the CEO of a well-known jewelry company. She was also her archnemesis. Because of certain reasons, the two of them had been at odds with each other ever since their school days, a rivalry that had smoldered and flared into adulthood.
Their animosity had even become well-known in the industry, but there was no business conflict between the two parties, and any disagreements were kept behind closed doors. Whenever they were forced to appear in the same space, the most they ever did was silently glare at one another across the hall.
The chairman’s wife was Shen Wenxin’s stepmother, Jin Hanshuang.
As Lu Yunshu sipped her champagne, she gazed in the direction of Shen Wenxin. Seeing this, the people around her fell silent, exchanging glances but saying nothing.
Look, they thought, she’s glaring again.
But while they believed she was displaying her animosity for Shen Wenxin, Lu Yunshu was actually staring at Shen Wenxin’s stepmother, Jin Hanshuang.
With her tall and fair figure wrapped in a simple one-shoulder red gown, Jin Hanshuang resembled a rose blooming in flames, radiant and dazzling. Her stylish curls bounced as she walked, drawing people’s attention.
But when they couldn’t help and look again, they would realize she was adorned with many exquisite, expensive pieces of jewelry. She stood beside her stepdaughter Shen Wenxin, talking and laughing.
Shen Wenxin was also beautiful, with a neat haircut and refined features. Standing next to each other, you could almost believe they were sisters.
It wasn’t a far-fetched guess.
After all, Jin Hanshuang was only thirty-four years old this year—just seven years older than her stepdaughter, Shen Wenxin.
She was also seven years older than Lu Yunshu.
They were only seven years apart, so why think of them as mother and daughter?
They should be more like sisters.
Lu Yunshu set her glass down, remaining silent.
Last year, Jin Hanshuang’s husband passed away.
He died of illness, an unpredictable fate.
So now Jin Hanshuang was…single.
Or perhaps not.
After all, Jin Hanshuang might have a secret lover—a lover of the same gender as her.
This was Jin Hanshuang’s secret.
Lu Yunshu knew this secret, because she had once witnessed Jin Hanshuang kissing her lover.
She was in high school at the time. When Jin Hanshuang discovered that Lu Yunshu had discovered her secret, her first reaction had been surprise. She calmly asked her lover to leave, then approached the young Lu Yunshu.
She asked softly, “Good child, you won’t tell anyone, will you?”
And so Lu Yunshu had kept the secret, never telling it to another soul.
As she grew older, she learned more things about Jin Hanshuang. For example, Jin Hanshuang was rumored to have had many lovers. It sounded very flamboyant, but Jin Hanshuang had the charm to get away with it. She was so attractive and alluring that as long as she didn’t kill or burn people, she could do anything.
What’s more, her husband didn’t care. They lived their own separate lives, indifferent to each other’s affairs, maintaining a facade of harmony.
Lu Yunshu had once found such a marriage foundation confounding, but she never asked the people involved. That’s because…she and Jin Hanshuang were not very familiar with each other.
They would greet each other when they met, but their interactions were even fewer than her encounters with Shen Wenxin. Thanks to bad luck, she had always been put in the same class as Shen Wenxin, forced to see her day in and day out.
This was Lu Yunshu’s greatest regret. She wished more than anyone to become acquainted with Jin Hanshuang.
Because she, too, had a secret.
Lu Yunshu’s gaze silently returned to Jin Hanshuang.
The lights were bright, but they couldn’t overwhelm Jin Hanshuang’s brilliance. When Jin Hanshuang smiled, the whole world seemed to become her backdrop.
…She was so beautiful.
Lu Yunshu kept silent as she gently traced the rim of her slender highball glass.
Soon, she noticed that the people who had been chatting with Jin Hanshuang and her stepdaughter had left, and there was a vacant space beside them.
In that instant, courage surged in Lu Yunshu’s heart. She collected two glasses of juice from a waiter’s tray and politely nodded to the people around her. “Excuse me for a moment.”
She walked straight toward Jin Hanshuang.
Shen Wenxin, who had just finished chatting with the others, turned to see her archnemesis walking toward her with two glasses of juice. Then, right in front of her, Lu Yunshu handed one of the glasses to her stepmother.
“Good evening.”
She was gentle and respectful towards Jin Hanshuang. Meanwhile, she only cast a sidelong glance at Shen Wenxin, as if to say “Oh, you’re still here?”
Shen Wenxin thought, Tsk.
Wearing a warm smile, Jin Hanshuang took the glass from Lu Yunshu. Her tone was soft and pleasant. “Oh, thank you~”
Shen Wenxin cut straight to the chase. “What can I do for you, President Lu?”
“Nothing.” Lu Yunshu looked at Jin Hanshuang with a disciplined expression. “I just wanted to say hello to Jin jiejie[1].”
She had often greeted Jin Hanshuang in the past, always with a polite and restrained manner, like a well-behaved child. And she only liked to call Jin Hanshuang “jiejie,” not anything else.
Jin Hanshuang was used to it.
She responded with a smile, “Very good~”
Her relationship with Lu Yunshu had not been affected by Lu Yunshu’s bad blood with her stepdaughter.
Jin Hanshuang turned to Shen Wenxin and asked, “Do you want anything to drink? Wine or…?”
She shook the juice in her hand.
Shen Wenxin glanced in another direction. “Wine.”
She shifted her stance. “I’ll go get something myself.”
When Lu Yunshu and Jin Hanshuang were left alone, Lu Yunshu took the initiative to start a conversation. “How have you been?”
Jin Hanshuang wore an easy smile. “Oh, very well. What could be wrong with me?”
She was aware of the tension between Shen Wenxin and Lu Yunshu, but she didn’t let it affect her conversation with Lu Yunshu. To her, Shen Wenxin and Lu Yunshu were just kids. Their conflicts were a bit immature, but they didn’t impact others.
So Jin Hanshuang was comfortable chatting with Lu Yunshu, whom she considered a passing acquaintance. But most importantly, Lu Yunshu was so good to her. Unlike the others who called her “Mrs. Shen,” Lu Yunshu always called her “jiejie.”
Meanwhile, Lu Yunshu enjoyed listening to Jin Hanshuang speak. Her voice was mature and gentle, with a soft, affectionate tone that made her seem cute…and charming.
After taking a sip of juice, Jin Hanshuang heard Lu Yunshu, who was seven years younger than herself, suddenly ask, “Have you had a girlfriend recently?”
She couldn’t help but look at Lu Yunshu.
Lu Yunshu had long been aware of Jin Hanshuang’s sexual orientation. When Lu Yunshu first found out about it, Jin Hanshuang did not deny it. Jin Hanshuang had always been very forthright about her sexual orientation, a trait that had not changed over the years.
She smiled, her voice just as alluring. “Nope, I don’t.”
Her lips curled into a sly smile, her eyes gleaming with a mix of mischief and allure. She teased, “What’s this? Are you trying to pursue jiejie?”
Lu Yunshu recognized the joking nature of the words lingering in the air but maintained her serious expression, deciding to strike while the stick was still there[2].
She responded with a straight face, “Yes. May I?”
Jin Hanshuang’s smile widened even more.
The older woman gently patted Lu Yunshu’s arm, the sort of loving tap from an elder or an auntie. “You kiddo, learning to joke around, huh?”
“…?”
Jin Hanshuang noticed someone unfamiliar approaching them. She guessed they were after Lu Yunshu, so she said, “Alright, I won’t tease you anymore. Someone’s looking for you, so you should go do your thing.”
With that, Jin Hanshuang left to find her stepdaughter, obviously not taking Lu Yunshu’s serious request to heart.
Lu Yunshu watched Jin Hanshuang leave, the pair of eyes hidden behind her lenses cloudy and somber as if burdened with a thousand unspoken words.
Yes…
Her secret was Jin Hanshuang.
They began to meet more frequently in the outside world, like places where Jin Hanshuang enjoyed visiting.
One afternoon, Jin Hanshuang and her friend were chatting at their favorite café, enjoying tea, when she saw Lu Yunshu again.
Lu Yunshu was at the counter ordering two Americanos. When she turned around, their eyes met, and Lu Yunshu smiled at Jin Hanshuang before turning back to speak with the cashier.
A short while later, Jin Hanshuang saw the waiter coming over with two desserts—her favorite kinds. One was for her, and the other was for her friend.
Jin Hanshuang instinctively looked toward the counter, but Lu Yunshu had already left. Her phone buzzed with two WeChat messages from Lu Yunshu:
[Good afternoon.]
[Enjoy your meal.]
She was as polite as ever.
Jin Hanshuang thanked her and set her phone aside. Then her friend’s teasing voice floated into her ear, “Why does your Shen family’s mortal enemy keep treating you to food?”
She picked up her fork, smiling lazily. “What are you talking about? She also treated you.”
Her friend laughed. “I’m not familiar with her. Besides, didn’t you always say she was well-mannered? But if she’s treating you and not me, it seems a bit rude, doesn’t it? So it’s like she’s thinking of me as an add-on.
“But then again, is it okay for you to eat the food she sent?”
Jin Hanshuang asked, “Why wouldn’t it be? Is she going to poison me?”
“I mean, would Wenxin be upset if she found out?”
“Upset? Over this? My family’s Wenxin isn’t that petty.”
“Oh—then have you thought about what Lu Yunshu’s intentions might be?”
Jin Hanshuang glanced over at her friend, resting her chin in her hand. “Just speak plainly. Don’t play games.”
Her friend laughed. “I’m just curious why she keeps treating you. And she always picks the things you like. Is she asking you for something or…”
The friend raised an eyebrow, clearly enjoying the gossip.
It wasn’t just once or twice. Every time they encountered Lu Yunshu, she would always treat them to something, and the items would always match Jin Hanshuang’s tastes.
This child was so intriguing that Du Mengyin couldn’t help but overthink it.
Jin Hanshuang took a small bite of her dessert, smiling carelessly. “She’s just being polite, that’s all. She doesn’t know what I like to eat, but the staff here does.”
There was no need for complicated explanations. Lu Yunshu just needed to pay and ask the staff to bring out the desserts she liked most. She wasn’t important enough to Lu Yushu to warrant any overthinking, so why act so narcissistic?
“Don’t let your imagination run wild,” Jin Hanshuang said, cutting off Du Mengying’s thoughts. “That child is a serious person.”
A gentle, well-mannered person. Someone who had no ulterior motives toward her.
Du Mengying shrugged. “Okay, okay.”
At the doorway to the same café, Jin Hanshuang and Lu Yunshu met again. This time, Jin Hanshuang had come by herself, and Lu Yunshu didn’t greet her via WeChat.
“Good afternoon.”
Still as polite as ever.
Seeing Lu Yunshu heading into the café, Jin Hanshuang turned to follow, a slight smile playing on her lips.
“After all the times President Lu has treated me,” she said lightly, “I think it’s my turn to treat President Lu.”
Lu Yunshu did not refuse, nodding softly.
After packing up their coffee, they walked out of the café. Their cars were parked in the same place, so they headed in the same direction.
As they walked past the rows of glass windows and metal frames, their reflections appeared together. Jin Hanshuang glanced at their reflections and saw the person walking beside her: Her long black hair cascading over her shoulders, her elegant gold-rimmed glasses perched on her nose, and her neat blue shirt tucked into black suit pants. At that moment, Lu Yunshu exuded an air of maturity and grace.
“Our President Lu has a truly distinguished appearance.”
With her refined demeanor, she seemed aloof and distant when she didn’t speak, as if out of reach. Sometimes, the colder someone seemed, the more attractive they were. If there was a little contrast…it would be irresistible.
Jin Hanshuang put a halt to her wandering thoughts. Now was not the time to be thinking such things.
Lu Yunshu watched as Jin Hanshuang turned her head and gave her a relaxed smile. The smile lingered in her eyes, adding a gentle warmth to her expression.
“Is our beautiful President Lu in a relationship? Does she have a boyfriend?”
“No.” Lu Yunshu’s answer was decisive. “I don’t like men, I like women.”
Her straightforwardness left Jin Hanshuang stunned.
A closet door was kicked open right in front of her.
So frank, so fearless. Far more direct than some of the people she knew.
Jin Hanshuang couldn’t help but think about her friend’s words. She looked at this younger person from head to toe and asked, “Come to think of it, why has President Lu been treating me to tea so often lately? Is it because…”
The slow tone tugged at Lu Yunshu’s heartstrings.
—Did she find out?
—What would her reaction be?
—Would she reject me?
Jin Hanshuang’s lips opened and closed as the tension in Lu Yunshu’s chest quickened with anticipation. She prepared herself to hear the answer—
“Is there anything you need help with?”
Lu Yunshu: “?”
Jin Hanshuang cradled her face with one hand. She said in distress, “But I don’t know how I can help you. I don’t understand your work, and it’s not convenient for me to know.”
After thinking long and hard, she asked, “Could it be…a relationship problem?”
Jin Hanshuang had dated many women and courted many lovers, so it was true that she had more experience in matters of the heart.
But someone like Lu Yunshu…
Would such a person really be troubled by love?
Jin Hanshuang couldn’t help but glance at Lu Yunshu twice. She didn’t know whether she had hit the mark, or if her guess had been out of left field. Meanwhile, the younger woman had fallen silent, her eyebrows furrowing lightly together.
Seeing this, Jin Hanshuang smiled and waved her hand. “Oh, I’m just guessing. Don’t take it to heart.”
She turned to leave.
At this moment, someone suddenly grabbed her hand.
She twisted back to look at the person behind her, only to see that other person gazing back at her with utmost sincerity.
Lu Yunshu said, “You’re right.”
Jin Hanshuang blinked twice, slowly.
A small plan sprouted into existence in Lu Yunshu’s mind.
She looked at the person in front of her, her grip tightening slightly. “I like someone. I like her very much. But she doesn’t seem to acknowledge my existence. So I want to pursue her, express my feelings, and win her love. I hope that one day she can see me, and I hope on that day, she will like me too.”
A gust of wind blew toward them, lifting both their ink-black hair and dispersing the sounds around them.
“But I have no experience in love, and I don’t know how to pursue her affections.”
As if pushed by the wind, Lu Yunshu took a step closer to Jin Hanshuang.
Jin Hanshuang saw Lu Yunshu’s serious gaze through her lens, her expression solemn and innocent.
Lu Yunshu’s voice reached her ears, sounding sincere and distressed, somewhat pitiful—
“Jiejie, help me please…”
The translator (AmEricaNo) has something to say:
It’s always a special feeling to start a new project!
Since I’ll be going back to school for the fall semester, we’ll be returning to weekly updates on Saturday at 8:00 am EST.
As always, please consider supporting 热到昏厥 by buying the official chapters on jjwxc. If you aren’t familiar with the jjwxc system, here’s a guide for how to navigate the site by shokotranslates: [Link]
Unfortunately, I won’t have a comfortable backlog for Jiejie, Help Me Please like I did with Didn’t Expect That, Did You? so I’ll try my best to not miss any updates and ask for leave if there are any emergencies.
Please consider supporting me on Ko-fi. Not only will you be helping me run this silly little website, but you’ll even earn extra chapters. There’s also a special treat for Ko-fi supporters, which is related to the reason why I don’t have a backlog for Jiejie, Help Me Please.
You can read about it here: [Link] 👀
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys Jiejie, Help Me Please!
The author (热到昏厥) has something to say:
It’s here, it’s here, I’m back with a new story!
This novel won’t be very long, I’m aiming to finish it within 200,000 words~
If you’re interested, please feel free to bookmark it and leave plenty of comments to give me feedback~
In any case, every night at 9 PM, come and check out our President Lu’s thousands of schemes. Don’t miss it!
[1] 姐姐 (jiějiě) or “older sister,” a term of endearment for young women older than yourself. By using this instead of Jin Hanshuang’s marital title “沈太太” “shěn tàitài” or “Mrs. Shen,” Lu Yunshu is distancing Jin Hanshuang from her late husband. In addition, notice how she doesn’t use “阿姨” (āyí) or “auntie,” which is a more appropriate form of endearment for women who are married, matronly, or significantly older than yourself.
[2] “打蛇随棍上” (dǎ shé suí gùn shàng) or “if you hit a snake with a stick, it might climb up,” is a Chinese idiom that is somewhat similar to “if you give someone an inch, they might take a mile.”
Thank you for translating!