Chapter 81 Qian Heng, whose one minute is worth RMB 166.66∞, is furious

No matter how Qian Heng hinted, Bao Rui remained completely single-minded and failed to catch on. In the end he grandly played the third wheel.

During the meal he completely ignored Qian Heng’s death glare. After drinking a bit of wine he began talking nonstop, sharing his recent case-handling insights.

One meal ultimately became his one-man performance. Fortunately he was still quite tactful. “Hahaha, if Tan Ying weren’t on a business trip today and we’d called her along, it would have been a team gathering.” He scratched his head. “Tonight was really enjoyable. Qian Par, no matter what, give me a chance to treat this time! Let me treat!”

“No need. You’re going home to work overtime tonight. There’s no need for you to spend the money.”

“…”

Yet Bao Rui insisted on bringing up exactly what shouldn’t be brought up. “Eh? By the way, Qian Par, didn’t you say Cheng Yao had work to report to you? How come she never reported anything? Looking at it, why does your expression keep getting more serious? Coming back from City B this time—was it really not some urgent matter? You don’t need to force a smile and still accompany us for a meal for our sake…”

Cheng Yao simply couldn’t bear to look. Bao Rui, I think you’d better eat a good meal before setting off on the road.

Only the slow Bao Rui naturally couldn’t imagine what awaited him in the future. He was still a bit tipsy and scratched his head. “Tonight I really have to thank Qian Par. Not only treating me and Cheng Yao to a meal, but later also sending us home on the way. Qian Par, you’re truly the best boss I’ve ever met!”

Qian Heng coldly glanced at Bao Rui and paid the bill with a black face.

Bao Rui’s plan to treat was extinguished, but he subconsciously remembered something. He flipped through his pockets, then flipped through his briefcase, and suddenly his expression turned bad. “Where’s my wallet? How is my wallet gone?”

At this Bao Rui completely sobered up. He flipped through the pockets of his pants and clothes again and still saw no shadow of the wallet. Now he was a bit anxious. “It’s over, it’s over. In this wallet of mine there’s also the amulet my wife gave me. She specially went to pray for it for me. If she finds out I lost it, she’ll definitely kill me.”

For a moment Bao Rui was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. “Let me think. When was the last time I saw my wallet…”

He thought for a moment and finally suddenly understood. “I know! I most likely forgot it in the courtroom when I was in court in City B today!” Bao Rui looked at Qian Heng. “Qian Par, you remember, right? Before the court session I still went to buy a bottle of mineral water. Later when the trial was about to start I was in a hurry. I didn’t have time to put the wallet back in my bag and just tossed it onto the counsel’s table.”

Qian Heng clearly hadn’t paid attention to such detailed things. Yet Bao Rui didn’t care at all. He urgently pulled out his phone and began checking tomorrow’s flights. “Looking at it, tomorrow I still have to fly to City B once more, go ask today’s presiding judge and clerk. If it really doesn’t work then I’ll have to retrieve today’s trial recording to see whether I put it on the counsel’s table…”

The speaker was unintentional; the listener was intentional.

Cheng Yao almost in an instant seized something. Her eyes completely lit up. She couldn’t help forcefully grabbing Bao Rui and said excitedly, “Oh my god, Bao Rui, you’re truly a genius! How did I not think of it! The trial scene—there are all recordings! Every move in the trial has recordings! This is the court’s official recording. It’s the most authoritative recording!”

Bao Rui didn’t understand. “Ah?”

Cheng Yao, however, couldn’t care about anything else. She hurriedly packed her things. “For Lin Fengjuan’s legal aid case I have a new approach. The trial is in a few days. I must go confirm something right away and then replan this case. Sorry, I’m leaving first!”

After speaking she apologetically and hurriedly glanced at Qian Heng before turning and leaving.

Bao Rui still hadn’t completely entered the state. “Eh? How did she just leave like that? What did I just say that gave her sudden enlightenment?”

Gazing at Cheng Yao’s departing back, Qian Heng pressed his lips together and said nothing. For the first time in his life he experienced a kind of taste of having eaten an unripe lemon, the heart so sour it felt astringent.

Didn’t she say she missed him? As a result he, the proper partner of Junheng, whose one minute converts to 166.66… yuan, the proper boyfriend who specially rushed back from a business trip in City B, was right in front of her—yet Cheng Yao actually didn’t even look a few more times and ran off for the case?!

After Cheng Yao left, Bao Rui felt extremely uneasy, because Qian Heng’s expression was clearly becoming more and more serious.

As a result before he could open his mouth to ask, Qian Heng first opened his honored mouth. He looked at Bao Rui, his face looking as if a storm was about to arrive. “Thinking of a new approach for the case, versus having… having arranged a time with me to report work—which is more important?”

“Is there even a need to say!” Bao Rui said fawningly. “Of course reporting work to you, Qian Par, is more important! Listening to the gentleman’s words is better than reading ten years of books. With this time, after reporting to you, if you slightly give a pointer, wouldn’t the case-handling approach come out? This young Cheng Yao clearly doesn’t understand things.”

“But Qian Par, you have to admit, when she first came to our team she was timid and shrinking, extremely green. I still thought she wouldn’t last a few days before crying and resigning, then being struck so hard she’d never want to do work related to law again in this lifetime. I didn’t expect she actually persevered. Now when she works she more and more looks the part.” Bao Rui’s head was a bit dizzy and his speech became even more careless without thinking. “But you have to admit, Cheng Yao is actually quite good-looking. Especially the way she focuses on work—truly quite charming…”

Qian Heng dangerously glanced at Bao Rui, then stared in the direction Cheng Yao had left, tightly pressing his lips and saying nothing.

Bao Rui, however, suspected nothing. His drunkenness rose. His walking began to drift and his tongue began to thicken. “Qian… Qian Par, I’m a bit dizzy. How about we go. I’ll trouble you to send me home on the way, haha.”

Bao Rui’s sentence “You’re the best boss I’ve met in this lifetime” hadn’t even had the chance to leave his mouth when he saw Qian Heng raise his hand to look at his watch and say without the slightest sincerity—

“Oh, I suddenly have to go somewhere else. It’s no longer on the way to your home. Take a taxi back yourself.”

“…”

After Cheng Yao returned home she began entering the case database to look up cases. Because of Bao Rui’s words, the blocked train of thought in her heart suddenly saw light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps Lin Fengjuan’s this case could use the trial recordings to open a new path.

Only how exactly to operate it…

Cheng Yao thought about it and finally made a decision. She called her older sister Cheng Xi. “Jie, I have a case that ran into Deng Ming. Now the case has fallen into a deadlock. He forged evidence and is again using those disgusting underhanded methods from before wanting to influence the judgment.”

Cheng Xi had suffered thoroughly at Deng Ming’s hands. The moment she heard the other party’s name she almost became a bit anxious. “Yaoyao, don’t take this case. Regarding this person Deng Ming I have the most right to speak. He can turn black into white and white into black. He fundamentally doesn’t handle matters according to the law. You running into him has little chance of winning. I’m afraid he’ll still make some small moves against you. Let’s not take this case…”

“Jie, I have a way.” Cheng Yao was very calm. “Only this way needs to obtain your consent and authorization.”

In Cheng Xi’s astonishment Cheng Yao simply explained her idea. Although Cheng Xi was very surprised, she nodded to indicate agreement. “I’m fine. Reputation, to me, was already looked upon lightly when Deng Ming smeared me online during the divorce. If using my name to handle these things can let you seek justice for your client, then go ahead and do it.”

Although Cheng Xi on the other end of the phone couldn’t see, Cheng Yao still forcefully nodded. “Jie, I will definitely win this case.”

Cheng Xi’s voice was soft and gentle. She sounded as if she had already let go of this past marriage, yet Cheng Yao knew she hadn’t.

The wounds suffered, the falls taken—how could the pain be so easily forgotten?

Once a person becomes absorbed in busy with one matter, they will discover time passes especially quickly. This week Qian Heng was held up by that case in City B, while Cheng Yao also completely threw her whole heart into Lin Fengjuan’s case.

Time suddenly jumped to the day of the trial for Lin Fengjuan’s case against Lu Jian for confirmation of parent-child relationship and child support dispute.

Cheng Yao deliberately went early. As expected, Lu Jian and Deng Ming also arrived. The two sat on one side, speaking and laughing in low voices. Lu Jian’s expression was even more relaxed and indifferent, a picture of leisure. Clearly he already held victory in the bag for this case.

Ten minutes before the trial was about to start, Deng Ming stood up as if preparing to go to the restroom.

Cheng Yao pressed her lips together and also stood up, closely following behind him out of the courtroom. She followed step by step behind Deng Ming. When he was about to turn a corner, Cheng Yao caught up to him.

Deng Ming looked back somewhat in surprise. After clearly seeing it was Cheng Yao, he then hummed with a laugh carrying a bit of self-satisfaction and contempt. “Cheng Yao, did you deliberately choose this case to confront me in order to avenge your older sister? Unfortunately you’re too green. This case—you are certain to lose without doubt.”

Cheng Yao bit her lip. Her gaze was wandering and somewhat difficult to speak, as if wanting to say something yet hesitating. She looked at Deng Ming as if uneasy and, lowering her posture in a pleading manner, called out one sentence: “Brother-in-law…”

This long-unused form of address indeed made Deng Ming pause.

Before catching up to Deng Ming, Cheng Yao had forcefully rubbed her cheeks. At this moment her face looked flushed red all over. Combined with her awkward and hesitant expression, she rendered that emotion of being undecided and at a loss when encountering major matters very realistically.

Facing Deng Ming’s puzzled and probing gaze, Cheng Yao opened her mouth as if she had finally gathered courage. “I… I did indeed see that Lu Jian’s lawyer was you before taking this case. But I… I actually didn’t want to take revenge on you.” At this point Cheng Yao’s voice became even more careful and pleading. “I know that if I went to find you on ordinary days you definitely wouldn’t see me, so I took this case. I… I wanted to beg you—can you go see my older sister…”

Regarding this completely unexpected development, Deng Ming indeed raised an eyebrow. “Hm?”

Cheng Yao bit her lip and said with difficulty, “My older sister… although my older sister has been divorced from you for a period of time, she still can’t walk out of it. Last month she still tried to commit suicide with sleeping pills once. Fortunately it was discovered in time and she was sent to have her stomach pumped. Yet even in her dazed state she was still calling your name.”

At this point Cheng Yao lowered her head and truly wiped tears. Like a dutiful younger sister she worked hard to suppress the dissatisfaction and anger toward Deng Ming in her heart. Yet for the sake of her older sister who, even after encountering a scumbag, still couldn’t forget the old feelings, she could only awkwardly and embarrassedly reverse roles and beg the scumbag former brother-in-law for help.

“You actually weren’t good to her at all. You did those excessive things and hurt her so much. I will never forgive you even in death. But who told my older sister she keeps thinking too much and even now still thinks of your previous goodness, thinks of the matters from when you were dating in university.” Cheng Yao’s tone was full of restrained hatred that iron wouldn’t become steel. “Although her life was saved because the rescue was timely, her whole person is very depressed and decadent, with almost no desire to live. Therefore her recovery is very poor. Her whole person has become thin to the point of losing shape. We’ve tried many methods and nothing worked. She only wants to see you.”

Cheng Yao bit her lip. “So can I beg you, based on the previous sentiment, to go see her? Just ten minutes is fine. If you’re busy, five minutes is also fine. As long as you appear once and tell her to be a bit stronger, giving her a bit of hope is enough…”

After Deng Ming finished listening to these, a somewhat difficult yet understanding smile appeared on his face, as if all of this was only natural, as if it was due to his charm that even after doing so many disgusting things, Cheng Xi would indeed still be unable to forget him.

Deng Ming’s expression was full of self-satisfaction. Cheng Yao had seen this kind of expression not a few times on Qian Heng. Only for some reason, the same posture on Qian Heng only made people feel convinced and completely fitting, while placed on Deng Ming it only made people feel affected and nauseating.

The nauseating party himself, however, remained unaware. He smiled pityingly. “I didn’t expect it was like this. No wonder you would take this kind of case. Legal aid—no money, and the parties generally have especially low social levels, no culture, all low-end population. Besides, running into me, you will absolutely lose. Now I understand.”

“Although my divorce with Cheng Xi back then was quite a big fuss, I naturally also hope she can properly turn the page and start a new life.” Deng Ming’s words sounded high-sounding, yet the tone had not much sincerity. “But I already have a new family now. Besides, I not only have a wife but also a child. Even if my current wife is willing to understand me going to visit my ex-wife, if the child finds out it would also be difficult to explain. Besides, I recently also took on a legal variety talk show program. Afterward the media’s attention on me probably won’t be small either. This kind of matter of me going to visit my ex-wife—I’m very worried it will be made a big deal of by people with ulterior motives. That would be no good for either me or Cheng Xi.”

This series of words was truly seamless. If an uninformed third party heard it, they would probably only feel that Deng Ming was a model ex-husband who was affectionate and righteous, parting ways amicably so each could find happiness.

When Deng Ming was smearing Cheng Xi during the divorce, Cheng Yao had always been unable to understand what made the originally refined and gentle-looking Deng Ming become like that. Yet with the accumulation of work experience, her anger and incomprehension toward Deng Ming had by now also faded.

Why pursue the reason for his change? Some people are simply born bad. This is the malice and selfishness in their bones.

Yet on the surface Cheng Yao still had to endure the nausea and deal with Deng Ming hypocritically. She could only continue pleading. “Brother-in-law… really, I beg you. Otherwise older sister truly doesn’t know what she will do…” Cheng Yao looked tearful. “I know that in this case facing you I will absolutely lose, but I still took this certain-to-lose case, not afraid of adding a bad record and influence to my practicing résumé, purely just to see you, hoping you can…”

Deng Ming glanced at his watch, clearly having no more patience to continue listening to Cheng Yao. He smiled hypocritically and with difficulty. “Cheng Yao, only this matter I truly can’t help with. But I can also understand your thinking. After all these years you’ve also called me brother-in-law once. As repayment, today’s this lawsuit I will let you lose not so badly.”

“Brother-in-law…”

This time Deng Ming no longer paid attention to Cheng Yao’s request. He turned and prepared to leave stylishly.

Cheng Yao immediately stepped forward and grabbed the corner of his clothes. “Brother-in-law, don’t refuse in one breath. Can you consider it again? Older sister and you were each other’s first loves back then and also had beautiful memories…”

“Cheng Yao, don’t entangle anymore! Otherwise later in court don’t blame me for being ruthless.” Deng Ming’s voice already carried faint signs of anger.

Only then did Cheng Yao seem frightened by his aura and withdraw her hand.

After Deng Ming left, Cheng Yao collected the bitterly pleading expression on her face. She calmly walked to the automatic vending machine in the court corridor and bought two bottles of drinks—one a can of coffee, the other a can of black tea.

After buying them she adjusted her expression and again returned to the necessary path back to the courtroom.

Not long after, Deng Ming indeed came around from the restroom position at the end of the path. Seeing Cheng Yao still waiting on the road, a fleeting impatience appeared on his face. “I’ve already said no.”

Cheng Yao held the two bottles of drinks and, ignoring Deng Ming’s disdainful and superior gaze, braced herself and went up to meet him. “No, it’s not that, Brother-in-law. I… I just overstepped earlier and wanted to apologize to you. Older sister’s matter indeed can’t force you to go see her. But… later in court, can I beg you to show some mercy…” Cheng Yao said pitifully. “When I took this case I didn’t think much—I only wanted to see you. But if I lose too badly, my boss will definitely scold me. Recently the firm also said they want to cut staff. I’m a newcomer and also don’t have much experience…”

At this point Cheng Yao timidly held out the two bottles of drinks in her hands. “Brother-in-law… don’t be angry. I…” She glanced at the drinks in her hands. “I originally wanted to buy you a cup of Starbucks, but there’s no shop nearby, so I could only buy canned drinks. You… you as a great person don’t remember the faults of small people. Just consider it my apology.”

Deng Ming at the beginning naturally refused. Yet Cheng Yao blocked his path and soft-soaped him. “I know Brother-in-law’s status in the legal circle. In the future I’ll also be mixing in this circle. Everyone raises their heads and doesn’t see each other, lowers their heads and sees each other. I still ask Brother-in-law to look after me a bit at times…”

Deng Ming squinted at Cheng Yao. She was indeed still the same as before—like a child who hadn’t grown up. The moment she encountered matters she became excessively emotional to the point of being impulsive, acted without thinking, and did whatever came to mind. Compared to a lawyer like himself she was simply like a quail whose feathers in the wings hadn’t even fully grown. Having only worked a few years, she chose this case opposing him for the sake of her older sister. Hmph, Deng Ming thought, truly no brains.

But although previously she was impetuous and heartless, now that she had become a lawyer she at least knew to try to get close to an industry big shot like himself. She knew that even if she detested him because of her older sister, for the sake of her own future she still had to maintain good relations with him.

Deng Ming looked at the two bottles of drinks in Cheng Yao’s hands, not without pride in his heart. No matter how much she hated him back then, no matter what fierce words she said about dealing with him—without ability, wasn’t it still just empty talk? Now in the face of reality, what could she do? Wasn’t she still only able to lower her head, admit fault, and seek reconciliation?

Deng Ming sneered as he looked at Cheng Yao. The self-satisfaction in his heart expanded to the extreme.

When divorcing back then, Cheng Xi’s temperament was soft and she didn’t come out to dispute. Instead it was Cheng Yao who jumped up and down, even came to his law firm to hang banners and hand out leaflets cursing him. And now?

Hmph.

Deng Ming deliberately paused for a long time before mercifully and with pity taking the drinks from Cheng Yao. “Why did you buy two bottles?”

“I… I didn’t know whether Brother-in-law likes coffee or black tea, so I bought both.”

“Oh, I like coffee. I never drink black tea.”

Cheng Yao hurriedly also stuffed the black tea into Deng Ming’s arms. “This one, Brother-in-law, you take it too. If you don’t drink it, giving it to your party is also fine. This is my first time independently appearing in court. Right now I’m so nervous I’m nauseous. Not to mention black tea—I can’t even drink water…” At this point Cheng Yao carefully raised her head and glanced at Deng Ming again. “So Brother-in-law, later in court…”

Deng Ming hummed with a laugh. “Fine, I know.”

Cheng Yao looked overjoyed and repeatedly thanked him. “Thank you, Brother-in-law!”

Near the trial time, the trial judge, clerk, both parties, and counsel all arrived punctually.

Cheng Yao sat in the plaintiff’s counsel seat and watched as Deng Ming opposite her relaxedly opened the can of coffee, then casually handed the can of black tea to Lu Jian.

These two people clearly believed victory was in the bag. They talked and laughed. Lu Jian heard Deng Ming say something and laughed again. He held the black tea in his hand but did not open it.

Finally the time arrived. The presiding judge declared the court in session.

Everything proceeded in an orderly manner according to the trial process.

Lin Fengjuan’s face was deathly pale, her expression withered. She almost numbly experienced this trial. Although Cheng Yao had told her before the trial not to be anxious, how could she not be anxious? In the current trial Cheng Yao had fundamentally not raised any new viewpoints or approaches!

And forming a sharp contrast with Lin Fengjuan, Lu Jian’s expression almost became more and more bright and radiant as the trial proceeded. He finally picked up the can of black tea by his side, pulled open the pop-top lid, and calmly and composedly drank a sip.

And ultimately this trial, just like the development during the pre-trial exchange of evidence, took a sharp turn for the worse for Lin Fengjuan. The appraisal results of Lu Jian’s medical record materials and physical examination reports that Cheng Yao had previously raised, naturally after Lu Jian and Deng Ming’s operations, showed that they were truly issued by the relevant hospital.

Almost without suspense, the first-instance judgment: Lin Fengjuan lost.