Chapter 77: One day, I’ll be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Qian Heng.

After Bao Rui’s little interlude, Cheng Yao sat down. She took a deep breath before beginning to flip through the materials for her next case.

The party in this case of hers was named Lin Fengjuan, 25 years old—only one year older than Cheng Yao. Initially she had gone to the legal aid center under the Lawyers Association for consultation. The staff found that she met the circumstances for legal aid, so they helped her apply for it, which led to the case being assigned to Cheng Yao.

However, the registration materials from the legal aid center were rather concise. One could only learn that Lin Fengjuan’s parents were both migrant workers, the family was in difficult circumstances, Lin Fengjuan had married one year ago, given birth to a child two months ago, and divorced one month ago.

Then half a month ago, during a physical examination, the child was found to have a severe heart condition requiring surgery. She had no money at all for the surgical fees. After scraping together quite a bit of money from various places and even launching an online crowdfunding campaign, the daily expenses for nursing an infant with heart disease were still very high. With no other choice, Lin Fengjuan demanded to sue the child’s father for child support.

Cheng Yao simply finished looking at the materials and felt this case was actually very simple. Even after divorce, the child’s biological father was not thereby exempted from the obligation to support the child and still had to pay the corresponding child support. Although this was a legal provision that was very simple and straightforward, in practice many people refused to pay child support after divorce. At times like that, urging was useless, and one could only resort to the law, finally relying on the court for compulsory enforcement.

Cheng Yao thought that what she needed to help Lin Fengjuan do this time was prepare the lawsuit materials, then sue the child’s father in one go. If the other party was dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment and wanted a second instance, she would accompany them all the way. Finally, after the judgment took effect, she would apply for compulsory enforcement.

Without delay, Cheng Yao immediately contacted the other party according to Lin Fengjuan’s number on the materials and arranged to meet her at a quiet, petty-bourgeois café downstairs.

Half an hour later, Lin Fengjuan arrived.

Although only 25 years old, Lin Fengjuan as a whole gave people a very weathered feeling and looked considerably older than her actual age. Her skin was slightly peeling—clearly she had no time to take proper care of herself. Under her eyes was also a deep, heavy darkness. A pair of eyes carried hopeless pain and exhaustion. Yet from the foundation of her features and brows, one could tell that if she took proper care of herself and lived without worries, she should have been a beauty.

Looking at the elegant environment and high-end furnishings inside the café, she momentarily twisted her old coat, a bit awkward. “I came out in a hurry and didn’t have time to change clothes.” She subconsciously covered a stain on her chest. “And the baby accidentally spit up milk on me.”

Cheng Yao smiled at her and indicated for her to sit. “Sit. With a small child it’s definitely all chaotic. You’re in the breastfeeding period so you shouldn’t drink coffee. I ordered you a cup of fresh taro barley hot milk.” After speaking, Cheng Yao called the waiter over again and poured Lin Fengjuan another cup of hot water.

Lin Fengjuan’s emotions slowly calmed down. She took her seat, drank a sip of hot milk, and finally took the initiative to speak to Cheng Yao. “You are…? Are you Lawyer Cheng’s assistant?” She was a bit embarrassed. “I heard the lawyer who took my case is surnamed Cheng.”

“I am Cheng Yao.” As she spoke, Cheng Yao handed over her business card. “For your case, I will be fully responsible and will do my utmost to fight for as much child support as possible for you.”

Although Cheng Yao was wearing formal attire and performed very professionally, after hearing that she was Cheng Yao, disappointment, worry, and dejection still appeared on Lin Fengjuan’s face.

“You’re so young…” She lowered her head and touched Cheng Yao’s business card. “You look even younger than me. I’m 25. You look like you just graduated.”

Cheng Yao was just about to explain when she heard Lin Fengjuan sigh. “But still, thank you for being willing to take this kind of unpaid case of mine. Legal aid is free to begin with. I can’t expect some big lawyer to represent me either. Those people’s every minute is valuable.”

Cheng Yao smiled, not embarrassed. “Although in the legal profession, the older one looks, the more seniority one seems to have and the more reassuring one seems, using age to identify whether a lawyer is professional is actually not very appropriate.”

Li Mengting’s case was currently proceeding in an orderly manner according to her method and approach, and everything so far was just as she had expected. This gave Cheng Yao full confidence. Her eyes were bright and serious as she looked at Lin Fengjuan without arrogance or inferiority. “Young lawyers also have the advantages of young lawyers. We have more abundant energy, and our thinking and brains are more flexible. We might be able to open new paths in handling cases, and we’re also more willing than senior lawyers to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into one case.”

Lin Fengjuan was a bit embarrassed. She nodded awkwardly.

“I’ve already looked at the case information you registered at the legal aid center. It’s relatively simple, but to clarify the train of thought, what I need to help you represent is a child support dispute, right?” Cheng Yao took out the prepared list of materials. “Then the originals in these forms still need you to provide them—for example, the divorce certificate with your ex-husband, the child’s birth certificate, your household registers…”

Before Cheng Yao could finish, Lin Fengjuan interrupted her with an embarrassed expression. “I… for this child of mine… I won’t ask the ex-husband for child support.”

Cheng Yao paused. “Why?” She was a bit puzzled. “Then whom are you preparing to sue for this child support?”

“Ask… ask the child’s biological father…”

During the breastfeeding period the male party cannot propose divorce. Therefore, a divorce during the breastfeeding period is either proposed by the female party or agreed upon through negotiation by both parties. When Cheng Yao had first received Lin Fengjuan’s simple case materials, she had been curious why she divorced just one month after the child was born—what reason made Lin Fengjuan actively propose divorce or agree to divorce.

This mystery was finally answered now.

It turned out this child was not her ex-husband’s.

Lin Fengjuan’s face turned red and then green. Clearly, having an affair during marriage and giving birth to someone else’s child—she herself also felt embarrassed.

Cheng Yao gave her some time to calm her emotions before carefully choosing her words and continuing to ask, “So what is the situation with the child’s biological father?”

Lin Fengjuan tightly bit her lip. The rims of her eyes slowly turned red. “This is all my fault.” At this point she couldn’t help sobbing. “A-Min and I actually had pretty good feelings originally. We met after starting work, dated for three years before getting married. His temper was good, and he treated me very well. If… if only there hadn’t been that high school classmate reunion.”

Through her intermittent narration, Cheng Yao finally understood the whole sequence of events.

Not long after Lin Fengjuan and her ex-husband A-Min’s wedding, her high school classmates held a reunion. Almost the entire class went to this reunion. Lin Fengjuan didn’t think much of it and happily attended as well. She had originally been pretty in high school—the class flower. Now newly married and spoiled by A-Min, her brows and eyes were full of happiness, and her whole person glowed radiantly. At the high school classmate reunion she was even more the center of attention. And the one most enthusiastic toward her was none other than her high school first love, Lu Jian.

“Everyone toasted me wishing me a happy newlywed life, taking turns to toast me. I was very happy that day and drank them all. I didn’t expect that in the end I drank too much and became a bit unclear in mind.” Lin Fengjuan hesitated. “Later I don’t know how, but everyone left, and only Lu Jian was left to send me off.”

At this point Lin Fengjuan’s gaze was full of evasion. She briefly seemed to want to erase this period of history. “Later I also don’t know how, but when I next came to, I… I was already in a hotel with Lu Jian and had had relations…”

Although she rather artistically pushed away the responsibility, making it seem as if she truly had been unclear in mind and had no fault, from her expression and body language Cheng Yao could also know that she was probably, at the high school classmate reunion, under the stimulation of alcohol, reigniting sparks with her former first love Lu Jian. The two of them reminisced about the beauty of the past with each other, and thus in a half-push half-yield manner crossed the line and had relations.

Lin Fengjuan kept emphasizing, “After sobering up I regretted it. A-Min treated me very well. Me doing this was truly sorry to him. But that night with Lu Jian was truly just a mistake of being possessed. In my heart there was only A-Min. I wanted to live a good life with A-Min and didn’t want any entanglement with Lu Jian.”

“So you concealed that one night’s matter and didn’t tell A-Min?”

“Mm.” Lin Fengjuan nodded awkwardly. “Really, just that one time. I only made a mistake that one time. Lu Jian at the time was also talking marriage with his girlfriend and didn’t want any long-term development with me either. We both knew clearly in our hearts that that night was just a small interlude and wouldn’t affect each other’s marriages. So I thought, if it was just this one time, although it was wrong, not telling A-Min was instead a kind of protection for our marriage.”

How was this any kind of protection? Cheng Yao really wanted to say that the moment you, under the influence of alcohol, decided to have a spring breeze with Lu Jian, there was already no respect for this marriage in your eyes.

Does cheating once—only physical cheating, while still loving the husband in spirit, and not divorcing because of the cheating—count as protecting the marriage and not affecting the marriage?

Although she didn’t agree inside, Cheng Yao still listened professionally and patiently to Lin Fengjuan’s narration.

“After that I didn’t even send a WeChat to Lu Jian. We completely cut off contact like that. A-Min also didn’t suspect. Gradually I also forgot that incident. Before this, A-Min’s career had already improved a bit. We had been preparing to have a child.” At this point Lin Fengjuan covered her face and cried. “I just didn’t expect that a little over a month after the classmate reunion, I tested positive for pregnancy.”

Cheng Yao handed Lin Fengjuan a tissue.

By this point in her speaking, Lin Fengjuan’s emotions were already slightly out of control. “I was actually very uneasy at the time. That time with Lu Jian, because we drank too much, we also… also didn’t take safety measures. Calculating the timing, I was actually a bit afraid in my heart. But… but I thought, what if it was A-Min’s? After all, I only had that one time with Lu Jian. How could it be such a coincidence…”

Lin Fengjuan twisted her fingers tightly. “Besides, at the beginning I didn’t think much. I only felt my body was unwell, dizzy, sleepy, and with acid rising in my stomach. At the time when I went to the hospital for examination, A-Min accompanied me. He was also there when the pregnancy was confirmed. I couldn’t hide it… When he heard I was pregnant, he directly happily picked me up and spun a circle in the air. I… I really had no reason to tell him to abort the child.”

Lin Fengjuan might not know that from the moment she took the first wrong step, she was destined to be wrong step after step. Cheng Yao hadn’t expected that what she had originally thought was a very simple child support dispute case actually had such a tortuous plot.

“So you held a lucky mentality and kept the child?”

Lin Fengjuan nodded with a sob. “A-Min liked this child so much. I thought heaven would definitely help me. It would definitely be his child.”

Placing hope in heaven—this was truly ethereal and illusory.

“After the child was born, because it was a boy and looked like me, A-Min also didn’t feel anything was wrong. I was also very happy. The child stopped crying the moment A-Min held him. I felt it must be his child.”

“So how did your ex-husband discover the child wasn’t his?”

“When the hospital did examinations after the child was born, they checked the blood type, and it didn’t match A-Min’s.” Lin Fengjuan said with difficulty. “After this, A-Min never returned home again and never came to see me and the child again. He completely seemed like a different person.”

Lin Fengjuan cried tears. “After this our two families completely fell out. A-Min proposed divorce to me and told me that for me to put this kind of green hat on him, even the court would grant a divorce. I myself also felt guilty in my heart and knew the two of us were over, so I agreed to a negotiated divorce with him.”

“I just didn’t expect that after the divorce I would discover the child actually had congenital heart disease, and it was very severe, requiring surgery. Postoperative care is also very expensive.” When Lin Fengjuan spoke of the child, reluctance appeared in her eyes. “Although I was at fault, the child isn’t at fault. He’s so small and so cute. I can’t just let the child be gone like this. But I’m still on maternity leave right now, and my basic salary isn’t high either. After maternity leave ends, I’m afraid I’ll have to resign in order to take care of the child. My parents’ health isn’t good either. The family has no source of income. When divorcing A-Min I was at fault so I basically left with nothing. Now if I want to properly treat the child’s illness later, I also can’t keep relying on kind-hearted people donating through crowdfunding…”

“So you want to ask Lu Jian for child support?”

Lin Fengjuan nodded. “The child is indeed his, and his family circumstances are very good…”

“Have you talked about this matter with Lu Jian?”

When Cheng Yao asked this, the helpless and painful expression on Lin Fengjuan’s face deepened. “I contacted Lu Jian on WeChat, but only then discovered that at some point he had already blacklisted me long ago. I don’t know if he changed his phone number either. When I call him he doesn’t answer, and the text messages I left him also get no reply. I don’t even know where he works or lives. With no other way, I could only think of suing.”

Cheng Yao seized the key point. “Litigation is after all a matter that consumes a great deal of energy and time. By the time the litigation process is finished, it might already be a year, yet the child’s support fees can’t wait that long. The sooner the better. If negotiation can succeed, that would be best. How about this—you give me Lu Jian’s contact information. I’ll call him.”

After obtaining the number, Cheng Yao immediately called Lu Jian on the spot.

Almost quickly, Lu Jian answered. “Hello?”

It seemed he hadn’t changed his phone number—he just wasn’t answering Lin Fengjuan’s calls…

Cheng Yao immediately briefly informed the other party of the causes and consequences of the matter. However, Lu Jian was completely uncooperative. “I’ve already said it’s impossible! Impossible! I’m about to get married. I don’t want my fiancée to see Lin Fengjuan’s WeChat and cause any complications, so I blacklisted her long ago. At the beginning those text messages I also thought were just some joke Lin Fengjuan was making out of boredom, and I already ignored her! I didn’t expect that even after all this she still wants to cling to me! Is there no end?! If you keep harassing me like this I’ll call the police!”

Before the other party could hang up, Cheng Yao said with a hard attitude, “If you do not actively and proactively cooperate in handling this matter, I will represent my client in directly sending a lawyer’s letter to the human resources department and legal department of your workplace. At that time you’ll know whether we are deliberate harassment or legitimate rights protection.”

Although this was only Cheng Yao’s feint, upon hearing this sentence Lu Jian’s attitude indeed softened somewhat. Although extremely unwilling, he finally agreed to Cheng Yao’s request to meet.

Without delay, Cheng Yao arranged to meet the other party directly today. She sent the address of the café where she and Lin Fengjuan were to Lu Jian.

Lu Jian was quite close to the café. Ten minutes later, he arrived looking unsightly and travel-worn. Although this person was a bit oily and powdered, he was tall with long legs and had a very regular face. According to current standards, he counted as a handsome guy.

Only Cheng Yao, used to looking at Qian Heng’s face, had long been immune to this kind of “common rouge and vulgar powder.” She objectively evaluated internally that this temperament was simply a hundred thousand eight thousand miles inferior to Qian Heng’s.

While evaluating in her heart, Cheng Yao’s hands were not idle either. She skillfully and secretly turned on the recording pen.

The moment he sat down, Lu Jian glanced at his watch, quite impatient. “I only have ten minutes. Whatever it is, hurry up and say it.”

Lin Fengjuan was provoked by this attitude of his and immediately raised her voice. “Hanhan is also your child! He’s lying in the hospital right now waiting for money to save his life. He’s a life! Is he only worth your ten minutes?”

Lu Jian also became annoyed. “Lin Fengjuan, did you give birth to a child and lose your brain along with it? I heard that as soon as you gave birth to a son with heart disease you started asking other classmates about my family circumstances. Finding that my family has money, you prepared to blackmail me? Dream on. This kind of ‘unexpectedly becoming a father’ matter—I absolutely will not acknowledge it. You giving birth to a sick child and then being abandoned by your husband is very miserable, but you can’t spit blood on people either. What do you mean ‘my child’? What does it have to do with me?”

“It is yours.” Lin Fengjuan’s eyes were about to split. “It’s not my ex-husband’s, so it must be yours. The timing and everything also match up.”

“Yes, I did have relations with you.” Lu Jian admitted quite readily, only his tone was full of mockery. “But who knows whether you also had relations with other people?”

“You!” Lin Fengjuan was so angry she choked. “Besides my ex-husband, I’ve only had relations with you! If it’s not his child, of course it’s yours!”

“Of course you can say that. If the child hadn’t been discovered not to be your ex-husband’s, you could still continue saying to him that you’ve only ever slept with him in your whole life, right?” Lu Jian didn’t take it seriously. “You could have relations with me and put a green hat on your husband when you were only newly married. A woman as casual as you—who knows exactly how many green hats you’ve put on your husband? Looking at you saying it’s my child, it’s just because I’m the one with the best family circumstances among these men, right!”

Only at this moment did Lin Fengjuan realize a man’s cruelty.

She remembered very clearly how, after she was slightly tipsy, Lu Jian had held her and coaxed her with soft, gentle words, saying she was his eternal first love, his eternal white moonlight, and he only hated that upon reuniting she was already married to another man—otherwise he would have snatched her back no matter what. Saying his current girlfriend was merely the product of a family alliance marriage, and in his heart there was only her. Every love word Lu Jian had spoken back then was still vivid in her mind. She remembered how he had coaxed her, saying he wanted to reminisce and relive the past with her one last time. After that came kissing, caressing, and then, and then everything went out of control.

After the child was discovered by A-Min not to be biological, Lin Fengjuan had regretted it—regretted that she hadn’t insisted on secretly aborting the child back then, so it wouldn’t have been discovered. Yet only now did she truly regret from the bottom of her heart—regretted that she had wrongly believed Lu Jian’s honeyed words back then and betrayed A-Min.

This despicable man Lu Jian was now actually thoroughly splashing dirty water onto her.

Lin Fengjuan’s eyes turned red. “Since you feel I’m a woman who can be taken by any man, and the child can’t possibly be yours, then just go with me directly for a paternity test. If the paternity test shows the child isn’t yours, I’ll apologize without a second word and never entangle you again from then on!”

“Why should I do a paternity test?” Lu Jian also became annoyed. “First, you can’t prove that the two of us did anything. Second, you even less can prove when anything happened. Honestly, I’m really not familiar with you. Before the classmate reunion we hadn’t contacted even once. Why should I do a paternity test with your child? Moreover, if I do a paternity test, how will other people look at me once they know? Even if it has nothing to do with you, I’ll still be made out to have a relationship. You don’t want face, but I still have to be a person!”

After speaking, Lu Jian no longer had the patience to continue talking. He pulled out a stack of cash from his bag and flung it in front of Lin Fengjuan. “Take this three thousand yuan. Consider it my compensation for that night with you. From now on we’re even.”

“I… I’ll go to court and apply for you to do a paternity test…”

Lu Jian snorted with a laugh. He looked at Cheng Yao, his eyes full of undisguised disdain and contempt. “Hasn’t your lawyer told you? Even the court cannot force someone to do a paternity test. If I refuse, you simply can’t do a paternity test. Lin Fengjuan, I advise you to stop while you can. If you really dare find people to make trouble at my workplace, I, Lu Jian, absolutely have the ability to make you unable to get off the tiger once you’ve mounted it.”

After speaking, Lu Jian no longer looked at Lin Fengjuan. He glanced at his watch, then impatiently picked up his bag and left. Only Lin Fengjuan was left staring blankly at the money on the table.

Regarding Lu Jian’s behavior, Cheng Yao was simply dumbfounded. Saying this kind of thing was equivalent to indirectly implying that he was using these three thousand yuan to buy one night with Lin Fengjuan, wasn’t it? How was this any different from treating someone as a prostitute?

What Cheng Yao could see, Lin Fengjuan as the party involved naturally also understood clearly. Only she did not jump up and smash this cash back onto Lu Jian’s face and tell him to get lost. Only after Lu Jian’s figure completely disappeared did Lin Fengjuan tremblingly put that three thousand yuan into her bag.

A bowl of rice can defeat a hero. When a person faces extreme real-life difficulties, she has no qualification to talk about self-respect and principles.

Cheng Yao knew that Lin Fengjuan needed money. She needed a lot of money in order to properly save her son Hanhan.

After putting away the money, under extreme awkwardness and shame she covered her face and wept. “Lawyer Cheng, I… I really need money.”

Cheng Yao patted the hand she had placed on the table. “I understand. You don’t need to feel embarrassed. I am your representing lawyer. I will do everything in my power to protect your interests and stand on your side.”

Lin Fengjuan looked at Cheng Yao almost as if seeking rescue. “Lawyer Cheng, is what Lu Jian said true? Is it true that even if we go sue, the court cannot force Lu Jian to do a paternity test with Hanhan?”

“It is indeed like that.”

Lin Fengjuan said dejectedly, “Then… then what else can be done?”

Cheng Yao smiled and showed the recording pen. “At least just now he admitted that he had relations with you. This shows that no matter what, there is a probability Hanhan is his child. Although the court cannot force a paternity test, in a situation where the evidence indicates the child may be his, if he insists on refusing the paternity test, then he must bear the consequences of being unable to provide evidence. If we can find other evidence chains—for example, the time you checked into the hotel used to infer whether the child’s birth time matches, his blood type, and whether the child has any genetic features consistent with Lu Jian, and so on.”

Cheng Yao said unhurriedly and calmly, “In short, I will help you find all these related pieces of evidence and then submit them to the court. As long as the evidence chain is strong enough, even if Lu Jian refuses the paternity test, the court can still infer that a parent-child relationship exists.”

Hearing this, Lin Fengjuan’s eyes lit up. She seemed to have reignited hope. Completely changing her earlier suspicion of Cheng Yao, she sincerely thanked her. “Thank you, Lawyer Cheng! Truly thank you!” As she spoke, she pulled out a portion of the cash from just now from her bag, wanting to stuff it into Cheng Yao’s hands. “I know you don’t get paid for taking this kind of case of mine. This… this is a little token of my appreciation!”

Cheng Yao politely pushed the money back. “We have case-handling subsidies.” She thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled. “I also have a private subsidy.” Under Lin Fengjuan’s puzzled gaze she added, “In short, I’m not short of money. You don’t need to worry. A case with a ten-million subject amount is a case, and a legal aid case is also a case. All parties to cases are equally important in my heart. I will do everything I can and should do.”

Cheng Yao looked at Lin Fengjuan. “So you just do what you should do. Your baby is still waiting for you at home. I’ll help you call a taxi. If there’s anything later I’ll contact you at the first opportunity.”

After seeing Lin Fengjuan off, Cheng Yao organized her current train of thought and information a bit more, then returned to Junheng.

Although Lin Fengjuan’s case was only a legal aid case, it was by no means the smooth plain she had previously anticipated. How to prove the parent-child relationship under the circumstance that Lu Jian did not cooperate was still a challenge.

Yet although the case had difficulty, Cheng Yao’s heart was filled with a sense of satisfaction.

This was the first time after separating from Qian Heng that she independently faced a party and completely independently thought through the case-handling approach. Surprisingly, in a short time she had adapted to circumstances and gained a bit of clarity. For a moment even Cheng Yao herself felt a bit proud of herself. Those times she had spent flipping through classic cases, seriously listening to colleagues’ discussions, and modestly seeking advice had not been wasted.

Some efforts may not show results in the short term, but one day there will be a return.

Cheng Yao had always remembered the writer Gladwell’s sentence—

“The reason the geniuses in people’s eyes are extraordinary is not because their natural talent is superior, but because they have paid continuous, unceasing effort. Ten thousand hours of tempering is the necessary condition for anyone to go from ordinary to world-class master.”

As long as she kept working hard, as long as she spent ten thousand hours, or even twenty thousand hours, she would definitely firmly but slowly reach Qian Heng. One day she would definitely be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Qian Heng.