The Epoch of Miyu

Ji Feng's comment struck Xu Miyu like a physical blow to the head, leaving her feeling dizzy and lightheaded.

Receiving affirmation from someone perpetually critical was a peculiar joy, humming with subtle vibrations.

Beside them, Xue Rui was equally startled by Ji Feng's unexpected turn. He had never witnessed Ji Feng bestow such "lingering aftertaste" praise upon any home cook. Even renowned chefs usually faced his relentless criticism.

Driven by shock and curiosity, Xue Rui stealthily reached for chopsticks on the table, dipped them into the food container to snag a slice of braised beef, and slipped it into his mouth with practiced nonchalance...

His eyes instantly widened with delight.

No wonder Ji Feng had offered such astonishing praise—it was extraordinarily delicious!

After that first taste, Xue Rui couldn't stop himself. While Ji Feng questioned Xu Miyu about her seasoning blend, he swiftly stole slice after slice from the container.

When only a few pieces remained, he attempted another theft but was abruptly thwarted by Ji Feng's sharp slap on his hand.

"Enough already? A couple slices should suffice. Do you truly think me blind?" Ji Feng's voice was icy.

Reluctantly lowering the chopsticks, Xue Rui licked his lips with lingering desire before turning to Xu Miyu with a thumbs-up.

"Heavens, Mi Yu, your stewed meat surpasses even Chef Chen's!"

Ji Feng mocked from the side: "One bite of food and you're groveling with changed honorifics. Where's your dignity?"

Xu Miyu initially froze at Xue Rui's sudden shift in address, then dipped her head with a shy smile.

Xue Rui continued his undignished flattery over the food: "Save me, Mi Yu! I'm dying to know how you made this stewed meat! With skills like this, you should open a shop!" His tone was utterly sincere.

Xu Miyu smiled faintly, inwardly shaking her head.

For people like Ji Feng and Xue Rui, opening a shop might be a simple two-word affair. But for ordinary folks like her, it was far from easy—setting aside location hunting, storefront selection, and business registration, she lacked even the startup capital. Moreover, her stewed meat wasn't suited for commercial operations.

"Actually, I make handmade stewed meat without counting costs—solely to bring joy to those around me. If I were to sell meat made with this much time, effort, and premium ingredients, factoring in labor, materials, and other expenses, I'd have to charge astronomical prices just to break even. Not even the most gullible customer would pay that," she explained, her laughter bubbling up.

"And truthfully, there's no secret recipe. I just exercise more patience at every cooking step than others might. Anyone could achieve the same flavor through repeated experimentation. Frankly, it lacks unique competitive edge, so relying on it for business isn't practical. I'm perfectly content knowing it brings happiness to my loved ones!" Xu Miyu elaborated calmly to Xue Rui.

Xue Rui found her measured speech strangely soothing, leaving him feeling profoundly tranquil and at ease.Yet the nitpicking king beside him was anything but serene, and he was being particularly troublesome. He saw Ji Feng raise his eyebrows high as he asked Xu Miyu, "So with all that talk, are you implying that you spent a lot of money, put in great effort, spared no expense, and went through considerable trouble to make this stewed meat? Xue Rui, later, calculate the cost of the stewed meat plus interest and settle it with her."

Upon hearing Ji Feng's words, Xu Miyu hurriedly waved her hands in a fluster. "No, no, Mr. Ji, that's not what I meant! I wasn't trying to emphasize how expensive it was or how much care and effort I put into making it, and I absolutely wasn't trying to ask you for money—definitely not! I just wanted to show a little gratitude because... because I wanted to thank you for stepping in to help yesterday! And... and for some other things."

Ji Feng raised his eyebrows again and immediately refuted Xu Miyu's explanation. "I didn't have time to step in and help you. It was your mother who disturbed me yesterday."

Xu Miyu was momentarily taken aback but then saw through Ji Feng's awkwardness and couldn't help but smile.

She smiled with her eyes lowered, the corners of her lips curved upward, and her long eyelashes fluttering slightly. When she smiled, she looked different from usual, carrying a unique charm that was strikingly beautiful and caught people's attention.

Xue Rui watched Xu Miyu's smiling expression and suddenly felt a pang of emotion. Although this sister was thirty, if she smiled more often, many younger girls couldn't compare to her appeal. She could easily captivate quite a few men.

As he withdrew his gaze, he accidentally glanced sideways and caught Ji Feng's expression. He was also watching Xu Miyu's smile.

Noticed by Xue Rui's glance, Ji Feng narrowed his eyes slightly and averted his gaze.

Then he picked up the last few slices of stewed meat and ate them slowly and deliberately.

As he ate, his mind unexpectedly flashed back to Xu Miyu's smile under the fireworks that night.

Her smile was truly somewhat unique, strikingly bright. That night, it was hard to say whether the fireworks had illuminated her smile or her smile had made the fireworks exceptionally beautiful.

At this thought, his hand holding the chopsticks paused, and he unconsciously stopped chewing the stewed meat.

He had found the fireworks that night particularly beautiful, so much so that he later had Xue Rui set off a few more displays on the terrace, hoping to relive the dazzling beauty of the sparks blooming in the sky. But the subsequent displays always seemed to lack something.

So, could it be that what was missing was her smile?

After finishing breakfast, Ji Feng instructed Xue Rui to go to the company and fetch some documents for him.

He told Xue Rui, "I can't be bothered to go out today. Bring the documents back, and I'll work from here."

After Xue Rui left, Ji Feng sat on the sofa and began reading news on his tablet.

Xu Miyu stood three meters away from the sofa, unsure of what to do. Leaving seemed inappropriate, but staying rooted there wasn't right either. She considered asking Ji Feng if he needed some hot tea or something but was afraid of disturbing him.

Her feelings toward the man before her were extremely complicated—so much so that she had no idea how to face him.

In the past, he had intensely disliked and despised her, and he made no effort to hide it. Yet, at the peak of his aversion toward her, they had ended up in an intimate encounter by sheer coincidence...

After that, she could sense that he was utterly disgusted, wishing he could never lay eyes on her again for all eternity. He had ordered her never to appear before him again and forbidden her from coming up to the penthouse.But after that, at some unknown point, beyond his usual disdain and disgust for her, beyond his consistently icy indifference and reluctance to speak, he had actually been willing to jolt her awake with harsh words; and then, somehow, he had even saved her from the crisis of Feng Kaixin trying to fire her; and even allowed her back into the top-floor suite where he had once forbidden her from ever appearing again.

When exactly had these seemingly imperceptible shifts begun?

Xu Miyu thought back carefully and realized it seemed to have started after Ji Feng learned about her divorce. Li Kunlun had mentioned that he had brought the news of her divorce to the top floor. From that moment on, she noticed that alongside his disdain and disgust, Ji Feng had also begun to extend small, unprecedented gestures of assistance toward her.

But why would her divorce cause his attitude toward her to change?

Xu Miyu was self-aware enough to know that this shift had absolutely nothing to do with Ji Feng taking a romantic interest in her—he would never have been angry at her for having a husband, nor would he have changed his attitude upon learning she was single again, as if he now had a chance.

She was a divorced, older woman, an ordinary person at the base of the pyramid, while Ji Feng, who demanded perfection in everything, lived high up at the pinnacle. She thought it was far more likely for the Earth to be destroyed than for Ji Feng to ever take a liking to her.

So why her divorce had prompted a change in Ji Feng’s attitude was something she still couldn’t figure out.

Suddenly, a cool, faint voice reached her ears.

“Xu Miyu.”

Xu Miyu snapped back to attention, responded quickly, and hurriedly asked Ji Feng what he needed.

Ji Feng glanced up at her, not rushing to give an order but instead asking, “What were you thinking about that it took me calling your name three times for you to respond?”

Xu Miyu pressed her lips together slightly before replying, “I was thinking about how to thank you, aside from the stewed meat.”

Ji Feng raised an eyebrow at her words.

“I told you, I wasn’t helping you yesterday. Your mother was disturbing me. If it’s about that, there’s no need for you to thank me,” he said indifferently.

“No, it’s not just about yesterday,” Xu Miyu replied hastily, her tone growing more urgent. “I also want to thank you for waking me up with your harsh words in the heavy rain that day. No one has ever jolted me awake like that before.”

She paused, clasping her hands together, fingers twisting nervously, her heart racing. Yet she mustered the courage to express what she had been meaning to say."My... my personality since childhood might seem a bit weak to outsiders. I've always desperately wanted my family's affection and approval, and to get these, I constantly fulfilled their various demands, gradually turning into unconditional compromise. I actually... I actually wanted to break free too, to escape that dysfunctional family environment. But having grown up in that environment, I didn't know how to get out. My ex-husband also expressed dissatisfaction with this situation—he was unhappy about my family's increasingly excessive demands—but he never told me what I should actually do when facing this phenomenon, when trapped in this environment... He just kept complaining while still accompanying me in meeting my family's various demands... Then he said he couldn't take it anymore, had an affair, and we divorced... But even until right before the divorce, he still never told me what I should do. At that time he even said he could continue meeting my family's demands with me, as long as I didn't divorce him."

Xu Miyu paused to catch her breath, her eyes lowered, not daring to look at Ji Feng's face. She was afraid that if she saw his expression, she wouldn't have the courage to continue.

"But that day in the heavy rain, you showed me what I should do. You made me understand that I need to be stronger, that I should dare to refuse unreasonable demands, dare to say no; that I should dare to cut ties with families not worth holding onto; you also made me understand that people should love themselves more!"

At this point, Xu Miyu was slightly breathless and emotional.

She couldn't help but lift her head to look at Ji Feng's face.

Thank goodness, there was no disgust or impatience on Ji Feng's face. Thank goodness, he was just leaning on the sofa, looking up at her calmly as he listened to her account.

Xu Miyu regained the courage to continue expressing her thoughts.

"It's not that I don't want to live well, nor that I'm willingly degrading myself in such a family environment, content to be drained by my family for life. I just didn't know how to make things better. I wanted to save myself too, but no one ever gave me a hand!" She paused, catching her breath, and thanked Ji Feng emotionally, "Thank you, Mr. Ji. I know you look down on me and dislike me, but it was precisely your disdain and dislike that gave me that helping hand!"

Having spoken so fluently, her courage gradually grew. The more she spoke, the bolder she became: "Although you've been very harsh with me, and you wouldn't admit to helping me, nor would you stoop to helping me. But your disdain for me actually helped me save myself—it made me understand how detestable my former cowardly, unresisting self really was... Mr. Ji, thank you for letting me see myself clearly!"

Xu Miyu had finally said everything she wanted to say. She tried to calm her slight panting and control her emotions. But some blood still rushed uncontrollably to her head, making her cheeks slightly warm and flushed.

She felt embarrassed by her somewhat emotional outburst. And because after her long monologue, Ji Feng hadn't said a word, just sat there quietly watching her.

Suddenly he gestured for her to come closer.

"Come here."

Xu Miyu blushed slightly in confusion, but though she didn't understand why, she obediently walked over to his side, quietly awaiting his instructions.

Ji Feng sat on the sofa looking up at her and said very calmly: "I wasn't talking about you."

...Huh?Xu Miyu quickly turned her head and saw that it was Xue Rui who had returned. He was walking in through the doorway, carrying a stack of documents in his arms.

Her face instantly burned so hot she felt like she could boil herself alive. She immediately retreated to her original spot and stood properly, then thought with embarrassment—she had no idea how much of her monologue Xue Rui had overheard.

But upon further reflection, those were all her heartfelt words and sincere thoughts. Even if Xue Rui had heard them, what was there to be ashamed of?

With that thought, she gradually calmed down.

Xue Rui approached the sofa in response to Ji Feng's summons and handed the documents over to him.

Ji Feng lowered his head to flip through the documents, asking Xue Rui briefly about the company's situation.

Xu Miyu felt it was inappropriate for her to overhear these business matters and promptly tried to tactfully withdraw.

But as soon as she shifted her feet, before she could even turn around, Ji Feng—who had been looking down at the documents—spoke up again as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

"Stay where you are."

...Xu Miyu wasn't sure if he was talking to her this time.

"This time, I'm talking to you, Xu Miyu."

"..."

Xu Miyu quickly stood still.

Ji Feng lifted his head and looked at her, asking coldly and lazily, "Xu Miyu, did I say you could leave?"

Xu Miyu didn't know how to respond and bit her lips uncertainly.

Suddenly, a document flew toward her. She hurriedly caught it with both hands.

"Go to the study and translate this Thai document. I need it by 3 p.m.," Ji Feng instructed simply.

Xu Miyu was taken aback.

He really meant for her to translate a document when he said she was here to help? She had thought it was just an excuse to get her out of a tight spot...

She pinched the document—it was quite thick—and immediately felt a bit flustered.

"Only translate the main text. No need to translate the appendices."

Xu Miyu quickly flipped through it. Thank goodness, the main text was only a few pages; the rest were appendices.

She stood there and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?"

Xu Miyu quickly shook her head—no, she had heard; then, realizing shaking her head was wrong, she immediately nodded: "I heard you."

"Then why are you still standing there dumbly, performing a head-shaking and nodding show for me?"

"..."

Xu Miyu hurriedly clutched the document and rushed to the study.

After her figure disappeared, Xue Rui saw Ji Feng relax the deliberately stern and unapproachable demeanor he had just put on. He couldn't help but ask, "Boss, you're really having her translate a document?"

Without looking up, Ji Feng replied lazily, "Just giving her something to do. Otherwise, she'd just stand there idly, and it annoys me to see it."

Xue Rui wanted to say, "But she wasn't planning to just stand there idly—she was trying to leave, and you were the one who called her back."

Thinking of his generous salary, he restrained his tongue from foolishly stirring up trouble.

Suddenly, he heard Ji Feng ask, "Tell me, what kind of woman is she, really?"

Xue Rui was momentarily stunned. This was the first time Ji Feng had used such a tone to ask him a question, and it was to inquire about a woman.

"I think she's a woman who's always a bit different from what we expect—just when we think she's about to break and won't hold on, she not only endures but always brings unexpected reversals; when we think she's weak and unambitious, she's actually very resilient, able to endure hardship, and remarkably tenacious. And later, we realize that what we perceived as weakness and lack of ambition before was simply because no one had told her what she ought to do."

Xue Rui saw Ji Feng listening thoughtfully to his words.He suddenly couldn't suppress his restless tongue and asked something he'd been dying to know: "Boss, I dare to ask—when did you start relaxing your principles for her?"

Ji Feng seemed momentarily taken aback by the question. "Relaxing principles? For her?" He raised an eyebrow at Xue Rui and asked, "Have I relaxed any principles for her? I wasn't even aware of it myself."

His tongue was too eager to speak, and Xue Rui couldn't control it. So he braced himself and said in one breath: "Yes, you really have a consistent principle that even you might not have noticed! You usually look for people's flaws first. Once you find a flaw that makes you dislike or annoyed with someone, you'll treat them with contempt and indifference, and never bother with their affairs. I thought you'd treat Xu Miyu the same way, but so far, despite being annoyed with her, you've actually intervened in many of her matters. Yet it doesn't seem like you like her, because your annoyance with her has been clearly written on your face from start to finish." After pausing briefly, Xue Rui grew puzzled again. "So boss, why exactly do you keep getting involved in her affairs?"

Ji Feng also became puzzled by this question, so much so that he forgot to reprimand Xue Rui for gossiping about his private matters.

Yes, why exactly did he keep meddling in that woman's affairs?

Ji Feng thought seriously for a while about why he kept getting involved in Xu Miyu's matters.

He thought perhaps it was because this woman had managed to do something his mother never could.

His mother and she were in similar situations: husbands who cheated, themselves being full-time housewives.

On the surface, his mother appeared stronger, yet she couldn't escape her rotten marriage.

All his mother's strong protests were merely a facade—she never had the courage or resolve to take that step toward divorce.

Meanwhile, Xu Miyu seemed like a complete mess—weak and submissive, as if anyone could exploit her personality flaws to deceive or trample on her. Yet it was this seemingly insignificant woman who could decisively get divorced, regardless of consequences, without clinging to material comforts, unafraid of the hardships that might follow divorce.

There was one thing he thought Xue Rui was right about. She had resilience. When he usually looked at her, he felt she carried a detestable air of inferiority. But upon closer examination, that very quality was actually her resilience and endurance.

How many people in her position—having been ostracized and oppressed by everyone—would have long since retreated? Yet it was the seemingly weakest and most useless her who not only withstood that oppression decisively but often managed to strike back brilliantly—besides resilience, she unexpectedly possessed surprising intelligence.

Beneath her almost deceptive appearance of weakness and vulnerability, she actually knew how to leverage her strengths to secure the greatest benefits for herself.

And the most important point, the one that made him willing to expend energy and emotion to wake her up, was perhaps because he saw in her that she wasn't complacent or self-pitying. On the contrary, she had been actively trying to save and change herself—it was just that no one had taught her how. Whenever someone gave her a little guidance and direction, she could perform exceptionally well.She truly was like a single blade of green grass in the wilderness, resiliently resisting the fierce sandstorms, silently yet resolutely striving to win for herself even the faintest glimmer of life—a glimmer that might seem insignificant in the eyes of others. Yet to her, that faint glimmer held immense meaning; it was her very existence.

Upon reaching this point in his analysis, Ji Feng couldn’t help but shudder inwardly.

He had actually wasted so much energy analyzing someone with such glaring flaws.

He almost felt as though he had lost his senses.

He quickly stopped himself from continuing the analysis. He shouldn’t allow anyone to occupy too much of his thoughts—Xu Miyu was no exception, nor was anyone else, not even his future, outstanding, and perfect partner.

Growing up watching his mother had taught him one thing: letting one’s emotions be swayed or influenced by others was a foolish, dangerous, and deeply unsettling thing to do.

He halted his analysis at the right moment, looked up at Xue Rui, and said, “I need to correct you on one point: my principles and habits will not change for anyone.” He paused, a faint, ambiguous smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “However, after hearing your analysis of her just now, I might not dislike her as much as I did before.”

Xu Miyu was in the study translating the Thai document assigned to her by Ji Feng. The computer in the study was turned on, containing various internet-connected databases for her to look up information.

The document contained many unfamiliar and challenging professional business terms. Aside from the specialized sections, the rest of the sentences were relatively easy for her.

Knowing that the business terminology was the most critical part where errors couldn’t be tolerated, she patiently marked each professional term, looked them up one by one, and confirmed the most accurate translations.

She translated while cross-referencing the specialized vocabulary. Although the business processes were somewhat unclear and confusing to her, she had a good memory and retained the terms after looking them up once.

After translating the entire document, she realized it was a memorandum detailing Ji Feng’s plan to sell a property he had just purchased in Thailand to a Japanese buyer.

The property was an art exhibition gallery housing numerous collections.

These collections were listed in a simple table, with each piece corresponding to a physical photo and a name.

A few of the pieces had symbols marked after their names.

These symbols were clearly added by Ji Feng afterward.

The markings indicated that the corresponding pieces must have some distinctive features, but Xu Miyu couldn’t determine exactly what made them special.

She flipped to the appendix, where slightly more detailed descriptions of each piece were provided, including the production time, material, craftsmanship, meaning, value, and the artist’s name—though no further introduction was given about the artists.

Seeing that she still had time to spare, she decided to look up the artists of the marked pieces one by one.

In doing so, she made a discovery: the names of the artists of the marked pieces, when translated, were all Chinese names. Further verification through online databases confirmed that they were indeed Chinese.

Xu Miyu looked at these pieces, pondering the reason behind Ji Feng’s markings.

For the moment, she couldn’t figure it out.

She could have directly asked Ji Feng, but she was afraid of overstepping, as he had only assigned her to translate and not to comment on or interpret the content of the document.

Seeing that there was still some time before the deadline Ji Feng had set, she went ahead and looked up the artists of the pieces he hadn’t marked as well.

To her surprise, this additional search revealed something unexpected.

Just as she finished checking all the pieces, Xue Rui hurriedly knocked on the door and told her, "Mi Yu, bring the translated document and let’s go!"

Xu Miyu quickly packed the document, stood up, and asked, "Where to?"

Xue Rui was already too busy to be seen, leaving only his voice behind to answer her: "The executive lounge, Jifeng Pavilion. Boss Ji is about to meet a client there."

Xu Miyu thought it was likely the Japanese client interested in purchasing the gallery and its collections.

When Xu Miyu followed Ji Feng and Xue Rui to Jifeng Pavilion in the executive lounge, the business partner had not yet arrived.

Ji Feng took the translated document from Xu Miyu and began reviewing it. As he read, Xu Miyu felt extremely nervous, as if she were back in elementary school waiting for her teacher to grade her final exam.Ji Feng quickly scanned through the translated document. He looked up at Xu Miyu and asked, "Did you attend university?"

Xu Miyu nodded but immediately explained, "Not a prestigious one."

Ji Feng then asked, "Did you study finance or business?"

Xu Miyu quickly shook her head and asked anxiously, "Did I make any mistakes in the translation?"

Ji Feng raised his eyebrows. "No, you translated very well—so well that I thought you majored in this field."

He handed the document to Xue Rui, who also raised his eyebrows as he read through it.

"This is indeed very well translated!" He looked up at Xu Miyu and said, "Mi Yu, your translation is both professional and accurate. If you haven't studied finance or business, how did you manage to use such precise and specialized terminology?"

Xu Miyu vaguely sensed that the two were affirming her work.

Feeling both shy and happy from the recognition, she answered truthfully, "I didn’t dare to translate based on assumptions. I looked up and verified every professional term one by one."

Ji Feng turned to Xue Rui and asked, "Do you think it’s usable?"

After reading the last page, Xue Rui nodded solemnly. "Yes!"

Just then, there was a knock at the door—the Japanese client had arrived.

**

The Japanese client was a man in his early thirties, of average height, with the characteristic trait of bowing at a perfect right angle, common among Japanese people.

Ji Feng began discussing the property transfer with him in Japanese.

Xu Miyu listened quietly, thinking how fluent and pleasant Ji Feng’s Japanese sounded—his voice deep and magnetic. Back in school, she and her classmates would always get drowsy during Japanese listening exercises; the rapid, unintelligible chatter was more effective than any sleeping pill. But Xu Miyu thought that if the audio had been recorded by Ji Feng, she and her classmates would have listened with great enthusiasm. His Japanese voice was anything but sleep-inducing.

Suddenly, she heard them discussing a particular point: Ji Feng was telling the Japanese client that the exhibition hall would be transferred at the agreed-upon price as per the memorandum, and all the collections inside could be included as accessories. However, there was one condition: the twelve pieces he had marked, all created by Chinese people, were not part of the transaction. He intended to take them all back to China and donate them to a Chinese museum, allowing them to return to their homeland.

Hearing this, Xu Miyu finally understood Ji Feng’s intentions. On one hand, she admired his patriotism; on the other, she grew anxious—based on her research of all the collections in the study, there were more than twelve pieces that should be brought back to China.

As the two parties were about to reach an agreement, Xu Miyu quickly stood up to refill their tea. After serving the Japanese client, she returned to pour tea for Ji Feng. While pouring, she lowered her voice and said to him, "Mr. Ji, I just rechecked all the collections on the top floor, and I found that besides the twelve pieces you marked, there is actually one more created by a Chinese person. However, since he wasn’t Han Chinese, his name appears foreign, and his nationality was incorrectly recorded in the appendix. But I verified carefully through research—he was indeed Chinese." After refilling Ji Feng’s cup, she looked up at him and said, "Perhaps the number of pieces you should reclaim should be thirteen."After she finished speaking, she noticed Ji Feng tilting his head back and lifting his gaze, staring at her intently without blinking.

She suddenly felt inexplicably flustered under his stare and softly asked what was wrong.

Ji Feng twitched the corner of his mouth as if smiling, but upon closer inspection, there was no smile.

He asked Xu Miyu: "You understood what we were just saying? Besides Thai, you also know Japanese?"

Xu Miyu silently and slowly nodded once.

Ji Feng raised an eyebrow in surprise. Beside him, even Xue Rui also raised his eyebrows.

Then Xu Miyu saw clearly - this time Ji Feng truly smiled slightly.

"You really keep surprising people."

The Japanese client across from them, watching their back-and-forth conversation, couldn't help but curiously ask what had happened.

Ji Feng turned back to him and said with a smile: "She was correcting a small mistake I made earlier. The artifacts I'm bringing back to China aren't twelve pieces, but thirteen."

As his words fell, Xue Rui silently widened his eyes in shock.

This was the first time he had seen someone catch Ji Feng making a small mistake. It was also the first time he had heard Ji Feng voluntarily admit to his own error.

He couldn't help but turn to take another silent look at Xu Miyu.

This woman who initially appeared insignificant and humble truly was, as Ji Feng said, constantly full of surprises.