First-Class Lawyer

It wasn’t the first day that Gu Yan was seeing him play dumb; he was already used to it.

“It has an uncommon taste.” He sampled a bit. Though the glass had been left out for a while, over-aerating the liquor, it still tasted good. 

Yan Suizhi shut his eyes, hummed, looking like he wanted to go back to sleep.

After a moment, he said, seemingly conversationally, “I rather like the taste of this gin. When it first enters the mouth, it has a subtle note of cardamom. I always thought that it was also complexed with an even lighter golden moonflower flavour, which peters into cranberry and sweet melon. The aftertaste is rather cloying on its own, but it’s perfect when you add a slice of lemon to it. Can you taste it?”

“…”

This guy’s tongue probably had a life of its own. 

Lawyer Gu, who had only casually taken a sip just now, took another one.

Yan Suizhi had eyes growing on the back of his head. “Don’t bother sneaking another sip; I know that you didn’t properly attend your wine appreciation class back in the day.”

In Maze University, everyone had to take a compulsory elective in their junior year called Wine Appreciation. It was probably setting a foundation, prepping students for their future of pretentious bullshit.

Students were delighted to attend this class. Every week, they didn’t have to bring anything but their own wine glass set, lining their empty glasses on the table upon entering the classroom, drinking various wines in various glasses.

They could drink seven types of wine every lesson. Of course, each only just covered the bottom of the glass, giving them just a sample.

They sometimes got to taste excellent wine and sometimes ones that were hard to put into words. This mixed bag of surprises and scares was especially appealing to young students.

But Gu Yan had never been too interested in wine. Furthermore, he was particularly busy during that period and missed a lot of the lessons, many of which happened to be under Yan Suizhi’s purview.

Naturally, it wasn’t that he couldn’t appreciate wine; he just couldn’t taste as many layers as Yan Suizhi had described. 

It was the same for those who properly attended the class back then. Some students were able to perceive several distinctive flavours in the wine, whereas it was merely ‘good wine’ and ‘bad wine’ to others.

Gu Yan probably belonged to the latter category.

He compared what he tasted to Yan Suizhi’s, concluding, “You’re too picky.”

Without even opening his eyes, Yan Suizhi reached up to lightly scratch Gu Yan’s jaw. “Nonsense.” 

Gu Yan let him. “Why do you like this taste?”

“Pa gfwlcvr wf bo atf ogjugjcmf bo ws ujgvfc,” Tjc Velhtl rjlv, atfc mbggfmafv, “Ktf ujgvfc bo ws mtlivtbbv tbwf. Ktfgf kfgf ibcu-nlcfv wbbcoibkfgr mgffqlcu bc atf kjiir, mjgvjwbw mgffqlcu bc atf ugbecv, jr kfii jr mgjcyfgglfr, tlylrmer, jc jqqif agff, jcv j qjamt bo rkffa wfibcr. Ktfgf kfgf jirb vgs ubivfc ililfr jcv aeyfgbrf… jcv wjcs wbgf. Ktf afwqfgjaegf kjr gfueijafv atgbeutbea atf sfjg, rb la jikjsr ibbxfv nfgs nlygjca. P aglfv ab gfmgfjaf atja ujgvfc ja ws bkc qijmf ijafg, yeslcu wjcs qijca njglfalfr ogbw Xjb Olc… tf’r atf bcf ktb rfca sbeg ijwq qlcfr bnfg.”

“Did you succeed?” Gu Yan set the gin on the nightstand, adjusting his posture slightly, letting Yan Suizhi rest more comfortably.

Yan Suizhi said candidly, “After meeting me, he stopped selling young plant varieties, feeling that selling them was equivalent to sending them to their deaths. He said that it pained his heart to look at my garden.” 

“…”

“You’re actually laughing?”

Gu Yan denied, “I didn’t.”

The corners of Yan Suizhi’s lips curled upwards. “Don’t deny it, your chest moved.” 

Thunder abruptly clapped outside, shaking the window panes, followed by even heavier rain.

“I used to dislike this weather,” Yan Suizhi suddenly said.

After finishing this subject, he conveniently started to talk about something else.

Gu Yan glanced over at him, but he could only see the dark crown of Yan Suizhi’s head from his angle. 

In spite of being unable to see his expression, he could tell from the tone that Yan Suizhi was very relaxed. It was just as he had assured last night—whatever he recalled or saw, be it interesting or uninteresting, even if it was just a fresh flower growing on the roadside, he could tell Gu Yan about it.

Gu Yan’s mood suddenly turned for the better.

To be precise, he was already in a fairly good mood, but it now turned even better.

The two sips of gin he’d just drank slowly perfused through his body. It was clearly an amount too small to be worth mentioning, yet it inexplicably made one feel tipsy. 

He shut his eyes as well, going along with Yan Suizhi’s words, asking, “Why didn’t you like it?”

Yan Suizhi laughed softly. “In my adolescence, I was very lazy and didn’t like to sweat. During the holidays, I’d only either be painting or reading in the garden. Doesn’t it rain a lot in the summer? The type that came without warning. I’d get miserably drenched every time. And I was also at the age where I had the prideful temper of a young master. I’d die before admitting that I didn’t check the forecast and forgot to set up an umbrella. My mother liked to tease me, always saying that her favourite thing about rain storms was drinking tea in the house, watching me madly dash from the garden.”

“After they passed away, I’d also look out from the window on stormy days. But it was insipid. My mood would be poor, and usually it was the bad luck of whoever that looked for me at that time.” Yan Suizhi’s lips upturned at the corners. “Under normal circumstances, on days with such weather, I’d stay in my office or at home and drink a bit of this type of gin, lest I send too many people storming off in anger.”

“Was that why you poured a glass?” Gu Yan said. 

Yan Suizhi clicked his tongue. “Focus on the main point. Why do you keep circling back to this glass of gin.”

“What’s the main point?”

“The point is that my bias against terrible weather is going to change in the future,” Yan Suizhi said.

“Why?” 

Yan Suizhi, “Because the last two times that I’ve run into weather like this, my waist wasn’t too comfortable. You tell me, do you have any vested interest in this type of weather?”

Gu Yan, “…”

The distinguished Lawyer Gu was silent for a long time. Unable to find any argument to defend himself, he could only work hard to correct this one-sided impression in the future.

However, speaking of rainstorms, he also made a rare mention of his past. “When I was young, I used to get a headache whenever it rained.” 

“Really? Why’s that?” Yan Suizhi could vaguely remember the kid-version of Gu Yan from back then, and when he heard this, he deliberately shrunk this Gu Yan down in his head. The mental image tickled him.

“My grandfather was worried that I’d dash out into the rain like an idiot, rolling in the mud before coming back. So, whenever it rained, he’d hand me books of legal code and get me to memorise them in order.” Gu Yan’s voice when speaking of it now still carried a mild hint of helplessness.

Yan Suizhi, “How old were you then?”

Gu Yan, “About five or six.” 

“…Are you his biological grandson? Just three books—Alliance Commercial Law, the Civil Code, and the Statutes on Criminal Law—stacked together would be taller than you, no?” Yan Suizhi began to wildly slander again.

Lawyer Gu fell silent for a moment, but was ultimately unable to stop himself from shooting back at his teacher-cum-partner, “With all due respect, that’s probably your height at five or six, not mine.”

Yan Suizhi whipped his head over to glare at him, but Gu Yan swiftly blocked his eyes.

The torrential rain outside deepened the tranquillity of the room. 

This seemed to be their first time resting this intimately together, casually chatting about matters of no real importance, sprinkled with bickering and laughter.

Eventually, the wisps of drowsiness curled over them again, quickly lulling the two, who were leaning against each other, back to sleep.

Before falling asleep, Yan Suizhi mumbled, “Gu Yan, when there’s time, come with me to Helan. I’ll take you to visit my parents.”

Gu Yan hummed in assent, responding, “And my grandfather.” 

—

This supposed catch-up on sleep ended up being only about an hour more for Gu Yan.

At around ten in the morning, he and Yan Suizhi were already sitting on the sofa in the living room, accompanied by Joe, who was also awake. He stretched from side to side, dark eye bags hanging down to his cheeks, then sprawled back onto the sofa like a corpse.

“Why torture yourself when you’re so tired?” Yan Suizhi set a freshly brewed cup of coffee in front of Joe and took a glass of milk for himself. He picked the plushest chair and sat himself down in a rather elegant posture, not showing the slightest sign of discomfort in his waist. 

Young Master Joe lay facing the ceiling for a long time before eventually enacting a corpse reanimating into a zombie. He sat up, rubbed his face, and downed the cup of coffee. “Every muscle in my body is reminding me that I can’t be undisciplined.”

If he lost his figure, then how could he lug Ke Jin around?

Or so Young Master Joe said on the inside.

He had a bit of breakfast and turned on the exercise bike. Having learnt from past lessons, Joe was now avoiding treadmills. He sat on the exercise bike without holding the handles, going through his smart device as he pedalled. 

“I dragged my sis into a conversation that lasted until three in the morning. ‘Course, I didn’t let her know anything she shouldn’t.” Joe opened a page with handwriting that was as illegible as a zombie talisman. “We discussed a whole bunch of stuff. It might be rather detailed stuff; it’s quite messy. I don’t know if you can still remember them, Dean Yan.”

He looked like he was getting a migraine as he spoke, sighing, “…Frankly, we also didn’t know where best to go in from.”

Yan Suizhi glanced at Gu Yan, then smiled at Joe, asking, “If you really don’t know where to start, then, if you don’t mind, you can try talking about what you and your sister believed your father has done and what raised your doubts. This way, it’ll also be easier for me to find any relevant details in the medical case. Naturally, you can choose to say only a portion and keep some to yourself.”

Joe gave a start. 

His expression turned conflicted for a moment, but it gradually eased as he looked towards Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi. “You’re right. It would be much easier to do that.”

He had been having a headache all night because the medical case that Yan Suizhi had fought was considered a downstream case. It was challenging to swim upwards against the current; more so, it was impossible to start without giving Yan Suizhi context. However, flipping it around, it would be much easier to move from upstream to downstream instead.

“If it’s anyone else, I would’ve turned heel and left by now. But since it’s you guys… I can be at ease,” Joe said.