First-Class Lawyer

The last twenty-five minutes of their meeting felt like as long as an age, yet as short as a twinkling for Chen Zhang.

When the recording was being played, his eyes didn’t even blink. It was as if he had turned into stone, maintaining the same posture throughout. His bloodshot eyes were clouded with a shimmering watery sheen for a while, which gradually faded away due to how wide he was opening his eyes. 

It alternated back and forth like this many times, yet not a drop escaped from his eyes.

The recording ended with the nurse’s sporadic discontentment and complaint about him, as well as his mother’s repetitive explanation, “It’s not that he’s not coming, he’s just too busy. He’ll come when he’s done…”

To Chen Zhang, this explanation was more heart-wrenching than anything else. Yan Suizhi saw his eyelids twitch slightly, the watery sheen contained in his eyes flashing—

“Oy, time’s up!” The warden opened the door right on the dot, reminding the two of them that the visitation time was over with a little urgency in his voice. 

While the warden was talking, Yan Suizhi no longer looked at Chen Zhang; Chen Zhang quickly wiped his face with his sleeve and silently looked up again, his teeth clenched together.

The warden’s gaze was bewildered and curious. However, Chen Zhang didn’t give any space for response, standing up obediently and stiffly with his head down, ready to follow the warden out of the visiting room.

Yan Suizhi made good on his word, not asking him a single question. He simply kept the recording pen with a mild expression, dropping a familiar sentence to Chen Zhang. “I will still be here for tomorrow’s meeting.”

This time, Chen Zhang stayed silent for a long time before he finally gave a low reply. “Yeah.”

Then he turned his head and followed the warden out.

Chen Zhang’s rare cooperative response was promising. But perhaps Yan Suizhi was affected by the contents of the recording earlier; his expression was still very mild when he came out of the detention centre.

He usually wore a smile on his face, even when he was menacing people and being sarcastic to them. But once he kept aside his smile, his whole body would emanate a cold detachment. It always made people worry if he was unhappy, yet also dare not to ask, and they would only watch him from afar.

It was with this cold expression that he walked to the intersection, not even looking around before dropping his gaze to the screen of his smart device to book a taxi. 

The booking was just about to be sent when his smart device suddenly vibrated.

A new message had slid in right then.

Yan Suizhi minimised the taxi booking interface for now, clicking in to take a look.

From: Pettymint Essence 

Message: [Lift your head.]

Yan Suizhi, “???”

Lf ecmbcrmlberis iloafv tlr tfjv—

Ca atf bqfc-jlg rfjalcu bo atf mjof jmgbrr, j mfgajlc ijksfg atja kjr reqqbrfvis ‘bc j yerlcfrr aglq’ kjr cbk rfjafv lc j gjaajc mtjlg, atf ujhf tf vlgfmafv bnfg jr oglulv jr fnfg, ectegglfvis ajxlcu j rlq bo tlr mbooff. 

Tjc Velhtl yijcxfv obg j yfja, atfc rwlifv.

However, with the barest movement of his eye, he realised that Lawyer Gu wasn’t sitting there alone. There were two others seated at the same table as him, and it was even two… acquaintances.

It was those two from Honeycomb Media. The so-called reporters, Hersey and Bens.

The young reporter named Hersey left an okay impression on Yan Suizhi. At this time, as if he had done something humiliating and underhanded, he only glanced here once, then silently lowered his head, covering his forehead. As for the one called Bens, he was awkwardly smiling at him. 

It just so happened that he was sitting next to Gu Yan. The contrast between his bastardy bean-round face, next to Gu Yan’s cold face, was what people would term as a human tragedy.

Professor Yan mercilessly and unkindly said in his heart, ‘How much must he hate himself to pick such a seat…’

“Last night Fizz told me that you are on a business trip.” Yan Suizhi crossed the road and walked over to the table at the cafe, looking down his nose at Gu Yan. “A business trip out to a cafe?”

“I’m really here on business. There’s a case I previously took that’s being tied up in Zone 2. I have to go over and walk through the procedure, sign some papers.” Gu Yan raised his eyes. “However, Fizz has been complaining about you to me every day. At least for appearance’s sake, I feel there is a need for me to come and fulfill my disciplinary obligations as a teacher first.” 

Translation: although I don’t want to discipline you at all, to keep up appearances, I still have to condescend to put on a show along with you.

Yan Suizhi was caught between laughter and tears. “What blind accusations have Ms Fizz been making behind my back? Let me hear it.”

“Not submitting work logs, not filling out reimbursement forms, not following the rules.”

Yan Suizhi, “…” 

He could wager that the last one had been arbitrarily added by a certain someone. The tone was wholly different.

Hersey, whose head was originally hung down, involuntarily raised his head, silently watching these two go back and forth, a faint trace of envy leaking into his eyes.

He felt that this could be the ideal mentoring relationship that he had envisioned… um, it seemed a tad different still, but at least it was much better than what it was between him and Bens.

It could be that the presence of his gaze was too strong, Yan Suizhi glimpsed it out of the corner of his eyes, also clearly making out the little bit of envy in his gaze. 

Yan Suizhi, “…”

He felt that this young man could be misunderstanding something.

Anyway…

“And the two of you are here for…?” Yan Suizhi turned towards Hersey and Bens. His gaze swept over the professional camera Bens was tightly clutching in his hands and the basic version that Hersey awkwardly fiddled with. “Hm?” 

What’s with that hm…

Bens wiped his face like he had a toothache, grunting out, “I deeply apologise, we only came here to take a few pictures of you as a memento.”

Yan Suizhi glanced at Hersey’s expression, catching on. “Don’t use the word ‘us’. I think that on this occasion, there’s no need for you to play coy.”

Bens’ toothache worsened. He wiped his face, silently glaring at Yan Suizhi for a long time, then caved, saying, “I only wanted to take a few photos at first, but I didn’t take into account your willingness and some actual laws…” 

Yan Suizhi smiled.

This self-professed reporter had failed to make a deal and got flung aside when he tried to tail a car. Stifled with anger and shame, he probably wanted to make some trouble but ended up being hindered by Gu Yan midway, who gave him a good chat about legality.

Wasn’t there a saying in the alliance, that no one should mess with reputable lawyers? Because if you did, the lawyers would have ten thousand reasonable and legal ways to hang you dry.

This was likely the quality education that Gu Yan had indoctrinated into Bens. He immediately shrivelled up, letting the matter rest. 

After apologising, he felt that the attitude he showed was passable. So he turned his head and tentatively asked Gu Yan, “The photo backups…”

Gu Yan coldly replied, “I have no interest in the contents of your thousands of photos. But I need to keep a backup.”

Because the judge might be interested one day…

Bens supplemented the second half of the sentence for him, scaring himself to death. He silently shut his mouth and no longer mentioned the backups again. 

He didn’t manage to vent his anger in the slightest, even leaving behind evidence that could be used against him. His day couldn’t have gone worse. So when Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi said that they didn’t intend to keep them further, Bens dragged Hersey away without a single look back.

“How was the client that made you so nervous you wanted to puke?”

“…Speak properly,” said Yan Suizhi, peeved. “He hasn’t loosened his tongue yet, but this might not be so tomorrow.”

Featherlight, he breezed over it, which always made the listener feel a million times more at ease. 

“I’ll be heading back to the hotel now to take another look at the oral confessions.” Yan Suizhi asked him, “How about you?”

“Making a trip down to Zone 2.”

“Oh, you’re really on a business trip?”

Gu Yan, “…” 

Professor Yan looked at his expressionless face, receiving great pleasure from teasing this student. His eyes crinkled as he said, “Alright, jokes aside; how long are you going to Zone 2? Will you come back to Zone 3?”

Gu Yan looked at him for a moment. Then, he lowered his gaze and turned the cup in his hand, taking a small sip of coffee. “We’ll see.”

“As my teacher in name, don’t you intend to watch your intern’s court trial?” Yan Suizhi felt that Student Gu’s acting, unlike his, wasn’t up to par.

It was just a flippant question; he was already looking down and booking a taxi on his smart device. 

Soon, the taxi automatically stopped by the side of the road. The two of them got in the car, and soon the question of ‘spending money like a torrent’ and ‘terrifying asset balance’ arose from the car model that was booked, such that Yan Suizhi forgot Gu Yan hadn’t yet answered the question of whether he would watch the trial.

Yan Suizhi got the smart-driving car to bring Gu Yan to the port first.

Zone 2 and Zone 3 weren’t connected continents. Driving there wasn’t as quick as going by water. The passenger sea shuttle could reach the shore in five hours.

Before getting out of the car, Gu Yan seemed to remember something, telling Yan Suizhi to turn on the inter-device connection. 

“What are these two files that you’re transferring over?” Yan Suizhi was puzzled. “Why are they so big?”

“The photo backups from the cameras of the reporters,” Gu Yan said. “After all, you were the one they were targeting. It’s more appropriate to give you the right to decide how to handle them. If you don’t have any thoughts about it for the time being, just leave them be for now.”

Yan Suizhi readily accepted. While waiting for the files to finish transferring, he inadvertently thought back to the state of affairs between Hersey and Bens. He casually brought it up, “That mentor and apprentice… well, mentor and apprentice in a sense. Their ideologies are too different, it’s quite amusing to watch. They probably haven’t known each other for long.”

In a few years, they could end up going completely separate ways, never speaking with each other to their deathbeds. 

When he said this, Gu Yan didn’t respond.

The two smart devices dinged a short while later; the file transfer was complete.

When Gu Yan closed the screen, he suddenly spoke. “There was once a period of time that I felt our ideologies clashed as well.”

Yan Suizhi was briefly startled. As if remembering something, he uttered a soft “ah”’ a few seconds later. He smiled, and he asked, “What about now? Do they still clash?” 

Gu Yan sat quietly in the seat next to him. A moment later, he gripped the door handle and got out. Pressing his hand against the roof of the car, he bent over slightly to look inside, saying evenly, “We can talk about it another time. I won’t bring my luggage with me, help me book a room. I’ll go over tomorrow night.”