Peninsula: My cheat code is unscientific

Chapter 158 Kang Cheol and Soo Yeon's Second Meeting
But she didn't think much of it and quickly sent over the address and time of a restaurant with a nice atmosphere.

Once she had settled things here, she immediately forwarded the message to Jiang Che.

Jiang Che replied almost instantly: 【Wow, our Yoona is amazing! You're so efficient!】

Looking at the word "wuli" on the screen, Yoona's lips unconsciously curled up, and her fingers flew across the keyboard as she typed:

[Who's yours? Pshaw! Disdain.jpg]

[Jiang Che: Let's go eat together later, just the two of us. *smirks*]

Yoona suppressed the urge to smile further and replied: 【Mm.】

[Jiang Che: Good night, get some rest.]

Yoona: Mm, goodnight.

The next morning, Jiang Che hummed an off-key tune as he served perfectly fried eggs and toasted bread to the table, clearly in a very good mood.

At this moment, Sunny, with messy hair and light dark circles under her eyes, rubbed her eyes and walked out. She plopped down at the table, grabbed a fork without any politeness, and glared at Jiang Che with annoyance.

"Good morning!" Jiang Che greeted with a bright smile, seemingly oblivious to the gloom on the other person's face.

"It's not good at all." Sunny forked a fried egg and stuffed it into her mouth, complaining indistinctly, her eyes darting towards Jiang Che like daggers.
"Tell me, what exactly did you want to tell me last night?"

Jiang Che chuckled inwardly at her resentful expression. He had only intended to tease her, but the aftereffects had been unexpected. If he had simply said:
"It's nothing, just kidding," he thought, guessing that the next thing he'd get was a fork instead of a glare. He quickly changed his tune, putting on a serious expression.
"Oh, that. I just wanted to tell you that I won't be home for dinner tonight."

Sunny paused in her chewing motion, then looked up in confusion:

"Huh? Where are you going?"

"Hmm... I'm going to meet Jessica Jung tonight using Yoona's appearance."

"What?!" Sunny's eyes widened instantly, all traces of sleepiness vanishing in a flash.
"Are you going to cause trouble again?"

"Oh dear, what trouble? I just went to see if there was any possibility that Jessica and Taeyeon could make up."

Upon hearing this reason, the shocked expression on Sunny's face instantly vanished, as if a toggle had been pressed. She said "Oh," and lowered her head again, forking her fried egg, as if the excited person from just now was not her.

"No...you've studied face-changing?" Jiang Che was a little taken aback by her sudden change of expression.
"Weren't you quite excited just now? How come you've calmed down all of a sudden?"

Sunny shrugged. "I thought it was something else, that's why I got so worked up. If it's this, there's no need to get so worked up. They can make up or stay the way they are, I have no problem with either of them, it's all OK."

She stuffed the last bite of fried egg into her mouth and mumbled as she added:
"However... just remember to share your firsthand information when you get back. I'd like to hear what kind of conversation you and Jessica have."

Jiang Che looked at her speechlessly:
"So what did you think it was about just now?"

Sunny swallowed the food in her mouth, a sly smile appearing on her face, and said teasingly:
"I thought... you were going to look for new members for your Pirate King career."

"Pfft—cough cough cough..." Jiang Che almost choked on his own saliva, staring incredulously at Sunny's astonishing words:
"Hey! Lee Soon-kyu! What are you thinking about all day?! Do you think I'm that kind of person?!"

Sunny looked at him with an expression that seemed to say, "Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about yourself?" and asked him leisurely:

"What kind of person do you think others would see someone who can openly and honestly declare their ambition to become the Pirate King without batting an eye?"

Jiang Che: "..." Well, he was speechless.

"Alright, alright, I'm going back to my room now," Jiang Che stood up and pointed to the dining table:
"Remember to wash the dishes."

Sunny pursed her lips at his rapidly disappearing figure and muttered to herself:
"They're certainly not being polite at all... Whose house is this anyway?"

In the evening, Kang Cheol, now transformed into Im Yoona, arrived early at the restaurant where he had arranged to meet Jessica Jung.

While waiting, he secretly considered his next strategy—to subtly reveal Taeyeon's unusual behavior and attract Soo-yeon's attention, without appearing too deliberate. Incidentally, he also planned to get back the 100 million won consultation fee he had previously paid.

As he was pondering this, the door to the private room opened. Jessica Jung appeared in the doorway, a hint of fatigue on her face, and hurried in.

Jiang Che immediately smiled warmly and waved his hand:
"Unnie, you're here."

Jessica Jung's gaze lingered on Yoona's face for two seconds before she nodded slightly, walked over, sat down opposite her, and placed her bag aside.
"Wait for a long time?"

"Oh, I just arrived too," Jiang Che replied obediently, noticing the other's dark circles, which were almost as bad as Sunny's that morning, and a look of concern appeared on his face.
"Unnie, did you not sleep well last night?"

Upon hearing this, Jessica Jung paused slightly. Could she really say that she had a dream in the middle of the night, in which Kim Tae-yeon was constantly appearing before her eyes with a silly, smiling face?

He kept spouting nonsense like "people change," did he somehow manage to wake her up? She would never say something like that, even if you killed her.

"Hmm," she mumbled, taking a sip of water from the glass on the table. "I dealt with some brand-related matters and slept a little late." She quickly changed the subject, picking up the menu.
"Did you order?"

"Not yet, it's up to you to decide, unnie. You know I can eat anything." Jiang Che played the role of a well-behaved younger sister, handing over the right to order.

Jessica Jung didn't refuse and quickly ordered several dishes that she and Yoona both liked. After the waiter left, she casually picked up a napkin to wipe her fingers, but her gaze fell on Kang Cheol's face, and she asked calmly:

"Why did you suddenly decide to ask me out to dinner today?"

She paused for a moment, then launched into a direct attack:

"So Taeyeon sent you?"

Holy crap! Does this woman not even have a wind-up animation before unleashing her ultimate move?!
Jiang Che inwardly cursed, this was nothing like the gradual progression he had envisioned! But on his face, he timely showed a worried expression and sighed softly:

"Well... not entirely."

He carefully chose his words and began his performance:

"Mainly, last night, in the middle of the night, Taeyeon unnie suddenly contacted me for some reason. She was a bit incoherent, saying that she ran into me yesterday and felt very confused. Then she told me a lot about the past."

He frowned slightly and continued to embellish the story: "Those words, if you didn't know better, would make you think that Taeyeon unnie had suddenly turned seventy or eighty and was reminiscing about her magnificent life. It made me feel a little uncomfortable just listening to them."

He carefully observed Jessica Jung's expression and saw that although she still had no expression, she did not interrupt him, which was obviously a good sign.

So he continued with concern:
“I don’t know exactly what happened between you two yesterday, but I felt that Taeyeon unnie’s emotions were really fluctuating. I was also a little worried about you… so I wanted to ask you to come out and see how things were going, and talk to you.”

He asked softly as a final question, "You two...didn't have a fight yesterday, did you?"

At this moment, Jiang Che perfectly portrayed the image of a well-behaved and sensible younger sister; he deserves an Oscar.

Jessica listened quietly, picked up her water glass and took another sip, cleverly using the glass to conceal the complex emotions that flashed across her eyes. When she put the glass down, her expression had returned to its usual coolness, and she explained:
"Me? What could possibly happen to me? Nothing's wrong at all, don't worry about me. We just happened to run into each other yesterday and chatted for a bit. We didn't argue, don't worry."

She chuckled softly.
"If I hadn't been busy with brand matters so late last night, I would definitely be the type to go to bed early and get up early, so how could I have dark circles under my eyes?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Che immediately adopted a relieved and obedient expression:

"That's good, as long as Unnie is alright."

After saying that, he adopted a strategy of retreating to advance. He stopped mentioning Kim Tae-yeon and instead picked up his phone from the table, swiping his fingers randomly on it.

Jiang Che was calculating in his mind:

"Let's take a gamble and see if this lady can't resist asking first. If she doesn't, we'll find a chance to steer the conversation back to her when the food arrives."

Jessica Jung, seeing Yoona suddenly quiet down and engrossed in her phone, couldn't resist asking casually:

"Has something happened to Taeyeon lately?"

Jiang Che silently snapped his fingers in his mind—Bingo! I knew I couldn't keep losing!
A perfectly timed look of confusion crossed his face as he put down his phone, as if trying to recall something:

"Hmm...it seems like nothing special happened to Taeyeon unnie, right? You know unnie, she tends to keep things to herself, so even if something does happen, she won't easily tell us."

He paused for a moment, then casually threw the question back at him:

"Unnie, what exactly did you two talk about yesterday? What made her say so many strange things in the middle of the night?"

Jessica Jung's eyes flickered, and after a moment's hesitation, as if struggling to find the right words, she finally spoke with a frown:
"Actually, there's nothing special about it. It's just that before, when she saw me, she would either take a detour, or if she couldn't avoid me, she would just give a perfunctory smile and not say a word. But yesterday..."

She paused for a moment, still finding it somewhat unbelievable:

"It was strange enough that she actually came over to greet me. But when I saw her talking to people from the brand, the way she seemed so at ease made it even more odd."

“Even…” Jessica Jung’s lips twitched slightly, as if she were contemplating an extremely absurd scene:
“She also told me that people change, and went on and on about a bunch of things I couldn’t understand… she was like a completely different person.”

Jiang Che immediately widened his eyes in agreement, looking utterly shocked:
"Huh?! Really? Now that you mention it, I also think Taeyeon unnie has been acting a little strange lately, but I can't quite put my finger on it!?"

Upon hearing this, Jessica Jung fell into a brief silence. After thinking for a long time, she still couldn't come up with a solution. Finally, she could only sigh and instruct Yoona:

"Never mind, I don't understand it either. Yoona, just keep an eye on her from now on. If she does anything unusual or says anything strange, just let me know."

Seeing the undisguised worry on Xiuyan's face, Jiang Che felt even more confident—this was clearly a sign that she cared. As long as she cared, there was room for maneuver later!

He knew when to stop while he was ahead. Now that he had figured out Jessica Jung's attitude, he had achieved his goal. He just needed to use Taeyeon's face to make his presence felt more.

So he obediently nodded in agreement:

"Yes, Arasso, don't worry, unnie, I'll be careful." Then, she abruptly changed the subject, steer the conversation towards Soo-yeon's brand business:

"Oh, let's not talk about Taeyeon unnie anymore. Unnie, let's talk about you! How have you been lately? Is everything going smoothly with your brand?"

When her own brand was mentioned, a faint shadow fell over Jessica Jung's expression. She paused for a moment, then said:

"It's... just so-so."

Seemingly feeling that this was too perfunctory, she paused and added:

"Market competition is much more brutal than I imagined, and there are all sorts of trivial matters that are very annoying." In particular, the subtle entanglement from Quan Ningyi was exhausting her, but she didn't want to tell "Yoona" about these troublesome things.

However, at this point, a thought suddenly struck Jessica Jung, and she remembered that the marketing plan Yoona had provided last time had indeed been quite effective. Could it be... that Yoona had brought up the brand because she had some new, brilliant idea?

This thought instantly brightened her previously somewhat dim eyes, and she pressed on, asking:
"Yoona, why are you asking this all of a sudden? Is it because... you have some new idea?"

Jiang Che chuckled inwardly and followed up smoothly:
"Hmm... I do have a few ideas, but they might not be very mature. Just listen to them casually, Unnie."

He cleared his throat and began to sell case studies from the future:

"I think we can collaborate with brands or IPs that seem completely unrelated to fashion, such as... anime? games? or even snacks and drinks? To create a sense of contrast and generate buzz."

Think about it, things you'd never normally think of coming together, suddenly a collaboration—doesn't that just sound intriguing and make you want to see what it's like?

Jessica Jung listened, her eyes growing brighter. Although the concept sounded somewhat far-fetched, upon closer examination, it gave her a sense of sudden enlightenment. She couldn't help but nod.
"That sounds very interesting."

Seeing Jessica Jung's positive response, Kang Cheol pressed his advantage:

"Of course, these are all marketing tactics; the product itself is what matters. As for the specific product designs... I can try to draw a few sketches for you to refer to, although they may be a bit abstract."

He changed the subject naturally, as if it were just a casual mention:
"By the way, unnie, speaking of this... that 100 million won consultation fee from last time..."

"Ah! Right!" Jessica Jung remembered the agreement, immediately picked up her phone, and did so decisively.
"What's your account number? I'll transfer the money to you now."

"Yes! Thank you, unnie!" Jiang Che's face instantly lit up with a bright smile, and he hurriedly gave her the bank card number that Yoona had given him earlier.

(End of this chapter)