After Being Scummed – Chapter 62
by Little PandaYou Really Do Like Her~
This birthday banquet with the employees finally came to a perfect end after Yin Bai cut the large cake and shared it with everyone.
Around five in the afternoon, Zhang Yu and a group of employees from Galaxy Group cleaned up all the trash that had appeared in Yin Bai’s home before finally leaving, thoroughly satisfied.
Before departing, as the agent for Galaxy Group, Jin Xiangyu made a special point of finding Yin Bai to take a photo together. After the picture was taken, Jin Xiangyu leaned down, hugged Yin Bai, and said with a smile in her ear, “BOSS, happy eighteenth birthday.”
Yin Bai raised a hand to pat her on the back, saying with a beaming smile, “Happy, happy!”
Jin Xiangyu held her for a moment before releasing her shoulders. She pulled a small gift box from her pocket and handed it to Yin Bai. “This year’s birthday gift. Same as always, given separately.”
Yin Bai hugged the gift, her eyes curving into crescents from her smile. “Thank you. When it’s your birthday next year, I’ll give you a big gift, too.”
Jin Xiangyu pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose. This person, who had always been meticulous, upright, and serious—more like a boss than Yin Bai herself—revealed an incredibly doting smile. “Then I’ll thank you in advance, BOSS.”
After speaking, Jin Xiangyu patted Yin Bai’s shoulder and whispered to her, “The wine at the BOSS’s birthday banquet today was very good, but everyone would be even happier if they could drink the BOSS’s happiness wine1 soon.”
Yin Bai looked up in astonishment, blinking at Jin Xiangyu. “Happiness wine? I don’t plan on getting married!” Marriage wasn’t some wonderful thing; she just wanted to be in love with Zuo Jingyou for a lifetime!
Jin Xiangyu froze for a moment, looking at Yin Bai in surprise. “Teacher Zuo is so wonderful, doesn’t the BOSS want to settle down with her?”
Yin Bai said with great surprise, “I have settled down. Aren’t we dating already?”
Jin Xiangyu sighed and said to Yin Bai with a heavy heart, “BOSS, you’re not young anymore. It’s time to consider establishing a family and a career2. You should really think carefully about marriage.”
With the earnestness of a grandmother’s bitter mouth and heart3, Jin Xiangyu fretted over Yin Bai’s lifelong matters before finally leaving with a sigh.
Yin Bai hugged her gift, watching Jin Xiangyu’s departing figure, her mind still unable to process it.
What did she mean, “not young anymore” and “should establish a family and a career”? She clearly wasn’t that old!
And what was that about “Teacher Zuo is so good, you should settle down soon”? Did she think she hadn’t considered this matter seriously? Do you have to get married just because you’re together?
Feudal, too feudal!
Although Yin Bai felt there was nothing wrong with Jin Xiangyu’s concern, she still found her to be overly traditional. She felt it would be very necessary in the future to hold a lecture on being a new-era woman within the company!
Marriage, what marriage? Isn’t being in love for a lifetime good enough?
Yin Bai hugged the gift in her hands, her brow tightly furrowed as she stared at Jin Xiangyu’s back.
When Zuo Jingyou walked over, she saw Yin Bai staring intently at Jin Xiangyu’s departing figure. She came to Yin Bai’s side, raised a hand to pat her shoulder, and asked nonchalantly, “What are you looking at? So engrossed?”
Yin Bai rubbed the gift in her hands and pursed her lips in thought for a moment. “I’m thinking about a very serious matter!”
Zuo Jingyou reached out and began pushing Yin Bai’s wheelchair toward the house, asking as she walked, “What matter could possibly have you thinking so intently?”
Yin Bai’s tone was extremely serious as she said, “Of course, it’s a major matter concerning our corporate culture.”
“Oh? Tell me about it?”
Yin Bai pursed her lips, thought for a moment, but then didn’t know how to explain it to Zuo Jingyou, so she just replied, “Later. I’ll tell you later when I’ve figured it out.”
Zuo Jingyou nodded and pushed Yin Bai into the villa. She lowered her gaze to the gift Yin Bai was holding and asked with a smile, “Was that just now from Assistant Jin?”
“Mm.”
Yin Bai nodded, and Zuo Jingyou suggested, “Want to open it and take a look right now?”
“Okay.”
As Yin Bai said this, she happily unwrapped the gift in her hands. Opening the box, she discovered a watch with a face the color of sapphire blue. It wasn’t overly luxurious, but it was clear that Jin Xiangyu had spent quite a bit of money.
Yin Bai took the watch out, looking at it from the left and then the right, a joyous light flowing in her eyes. She said happily, “It’s a watch this year, it’s so beautiful!”
Seeing how much she liked it, Zuo Jingyou’s lips curved up as she said, “Assistant Jin’s taste is quite good.”
Yin Bai nodded in agreement and commented, “Yes, her taste has always been good. The gifts she buys every year are always to my liking.”
To your liking?
Zuo Jingyou’s mood became just a little subtle. She pushed Yin Bai into the elevator and asked faintly, “After all, Assistant Jin has been by your side for many years, so of course she understands your preferences.”
Yin Bai, still completely oblivious, nodded and said, “Yeah, she’s known me for almost twelve years. She’s almost forty now~”
At this, Yin Bai felt a bit wistful. She thought back to the time before her grandmother passed away, when she helped her select a manager. Among a group of old cabbage stalks4, she had taken a fancy to Jin Xiangyu at first sight.
There was no other reason. Jin Xiangyu was good-looking and very capable, far more refreshing than the greasy middle-aged men.
Now, in the blink of an eye, she too had reached middle age.
Yin Bai felt a bit emotional. “She was only twenty-eight when I met her, young and beautiful, with no partner. Now she’s almost forty and still has no partner~”
“She really loves her work too much!”
At this point, Yin Bai had an epiphany. Instead of having Jin Xiangyu rush her into marriage, she should be the one to rush Jin Xiangyu to find a partner! Work is important, but life is just as important!
Just then, the elevator doors opened with a ding. Zuo Jingyou pushed Yin Bai out and, hearing her words, was a little surprised. “Assistant Jin doesn’t have a partner?”
“Nope~”
A rare gossipy impulse arose in Zuo Jingyou. “You mean to say, in all these years, she’s never had anyone she liked?”
Yin Bai pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “Not really… I heard her say that establishing an intimate relationship is a very difficult thing. Because the return on the same energy spent on a relationship isn’t necessarily as much as on work.”
“Compared to a person’s embrace, she prefers the feeling of money entering her account. To her, relationships are a true luxury.”
Jin Xiangyu was an illegitimate daughter5. When she was young, her mother had always lived with her outside the family home. Although her cheap father was wealthy, he wasn’t very attentive in raising his child. From a young age, she felt that money provided a greater sense of security than human emotions.
Yin Bai had Zuo Jingyou push her into the bedroom. Carefully closing the lid on the watch box, she said to Zuo Jingyou, “But I can understand her, so in the past, if there were any adult parties or similar events, I would take her out to have some fun and let her relax a bit.”
“Adult parties?”
Zuo Jingyou’s steps halted. She stopped Yin Bai’s wheelchair and looked down at her in shock. “You would actually attend that kind of party?”
Yin Bai tilted her head up to look at her face, blinking her eyes. It took a good while before she found her voice again. “Not me… It’s that I have several business partners who are a bit wild. Every time we discussed business, she would find a group of handsome men and beautiful women to keep company…”
At this point, Zuo Jingyou had completely forgotten about Jin Xiangyu. She looked down at Yin Bai’s beautiful face and asked with great curiosity, “Would you?”
Yin Bai blinked, an expression on her face that said, “What are you talking about?” She looked at Zuo Jingyou in astonishment and said, “How is that possible? I was with Xiao Nian back then, how could I possibly get involved in all those messy things!”
Oh… with Xiao Nian~
Why did those words sound so uncomfortable?
Zuo Jingyou resumed pushing Yin Bai forward, her eyes downcast as she said faintly, “I used to think you were more… simple…”
“But lately I’ve been thinking, for a child who grew up in your family circumstances, perhaps you’re the type who has seen a thousand sails yet still retains the heart of an innocent6, it’s hard to say~”
Yin Bai found that sentence strange. She couldn’t quite figure it out for a moment, so she thought and said, “In the first few years after I took over the family business, because I was afraid Jin Xiangyu couldn’t keep the old guard in line, I took her everywhere with me to hold the stage for her7, and saw quite a lot of things.”
“Some people deliberately tried to disgust me, but after Jin Xiangyu made the business even bigger, almost no one dared to do disgusting things in front of me anymore.”
From her fragments of speech8, Zuo Jingyou could roughly glimpse a corner of Yin Bai’s former life. She understood, then, why the Yin Bai of the past had such an iceberg face9.
After the two entered the collection room, Yin Bai had Zuo Jingyou push her to the second row of glass display cabinets. She opened a cabinet and placed the watch from Jin Xiangyu inside.
The sharp-eyed Zuo Jingyou saw that in the rows of gifts, there were necklaces, ties, fountain pens, and so on… and beneath every gift was a plaque with a year and date.
She watched as Yin Bai placed the watch on a stand marked with today’s date, and instantly understood that this was probably the cabinet used to store Jin Xiangyu’s gifts.
Zuo Jingyou raised a hand and rubbed Yin Bai’s ear, asking tentatively, “Is this for storing Assistant Jin’s gifts?”
“Mm.” Yin Bai nodded and said, “Because she gives me quite a few gifts every year, I put them all together.”
Although she would never wear these items, they were a token of someone else’s feelings for her, so of course she had to treasure them.
Not just Jin Xiangyu’s, but the gifts everyone gave her were all properly stored away in her collection room.
Zuo Jingyou played with Yin Bai’s ear and asked nonchalantly, “So besides Assistant Jin’s, are the gifts from other people also in here?”
Yin Bai nodded and replied, “Of course they’re all in here.”
So it’s not just Assistant Jin’s gifts that were saved~
Zuo Jingyou nodded, pressing her lips together. After a good while, a slow smile spread across her face. She looked down at Yin Bai and asked softly, “What about Xiao Nian? Xiao Nian’s gifts, do you still have them all?”
Although Zuo Jingyou was inexperienced, she understood that actively bringing up a current partner’s ex was not a good choice. Even if it was just teasing, unexpected things could happen.
Sure enough, upon hearing Zuo Jingyou say this, Yin Bai lowered her eyes, her tone unnatural as she said, “Hers aren’t here…”
Zuo Jingyou was a little surprised and asked, “Not here? Did you return them?”
Yin Bai pursed her lips, hesitating for a moment before saying, “No… They’re in a safe deposit box at the bank.”
She was afraid of an accident happening at home, so she had put every single gift from Xiao Nian, along with her other expensive collectibles, together in a safe deposit box at the bank.
Hearing this answer, Zuo Jingyou felt as if a fishbone were stuck in her throat10. She raised her hand, pinched Yin Bai’s neck, and said, like a sigh, “Yin Bai, you really do like her.”
If only they could have met a little sooner, just a little sooner… she would never, ever let go of someone who would treat every gift given to them as a treasure to be collected.
LP: Aww, Jingyou, don’t be sad~ Yin Bai only has you in her heart now~
Re-translated on July 09, 2025
Footnotes
- 喜酒 | xǐjiǔ | Literally “happiness wine.” This term refers to the wine served at a wedding, and by extension, the wedding banquet itself. To “drink someone’s wedding wine” means to attend their wedding.
- 成家立業 | chéng jiā lì yè | A common chengyu meaning to get married and start a career; the traditional markers of settling down as an adult.
- 苦口婆心 | kǔ kǒu pó xīn | A chengyu literally meaning “bitter mouth, grandmother’s heart.” It describes advising someone earnestly and repeatedly out of good intentions.
- 老菜帮子 | lǎo cài bāngzi | A slang term, literally “old cabbage stalks,” used to refer to old, stubborn, or useless people.
- 私生女 | sīshēngnǚ | A daughter born out of wedlock.
- 阅尽千帆仍有赤子之心 | yuè jìn qiān fān réng yǒu chì zǐ zhī xīn | A poetic phrase meaning to have experienced the wider world (seen a thousand sails) yet still maintain a pure, childlike, or innocent heart.
- 撐場子 | chēng chǎngzi | A colloquial phrase literally meaning “to prop up the stage/venue.” It means to provide support, lend prestige, or back someone up, especially in a public or confrontational setting.
- 只言片语 | zhīyán piànyǔ | A chengyu meaning “a word or two” or “scraps of conversation.”
- 冰山面孔 | bīngshān miànkǒng | Literally “iceberg face.” It describes a cold, expressionless, or emotionless face; a poker face.
- 如鲠在喉 | rú gěng zài hóu | A chengyu literally meaning “like a fishbone stuck in the throat.” It describes a deeply uncomfortable feeling that makes it difficult to speak.
Bank secure 😭😭