CH 76

From the looks of it, this guy was more likely to stoke the fire than dampen it.

Gu Yan’s hand, resting on the door, twitched. He appeared sorely tempted to slam the door in Yan Suizhi’s face. However, under the influence of a particular mood, he ultimately didn’t shut the door, even inclining to the side when Yan Suizhi lifted his feet. 

So, Professor Yan unabashedly walked into the room with the mint-infused water.

Gu Yan did seem to be readying for bed. Only the bedside lamp was left on. It wasn’t bright, illuminating the room in warm hues that aided sleep.

Yan Suizhi briefly scanned the room and sat down by the French windows.

Gu Yan’s handsome face was frozen as he stood frozen at the door, wavering over whether or not to close the door. But it didn’t take him long to decide; he tapped a control panel on the wall, and all the lights in the room that could be turned on instantly lit up. 

Any drowsiness and whatever else was instantly wiped out by the overhead lighting.

Yan Suizhi shielded his eyes with a hand. One of the pendant lamps on the wall happened to be directly facing him and was a little blinding when suddenly lit.

Noticing his action, Gu Yan tapped the panel again and that wall lamp turned off.

Only after did he close the door to the room and walk over to the French windows.

“Why did you suddenly flip on all the lights?” Yan Suizhi lifted his head, asking him.

Gu Yan said levelly, “To sober up.”

He reached out to pick up a tie that was strewn on the bed. It was probably the item that looked most personable in this room. Once taken away, the bed returned to its meticulous and tidy appearance, well-matched to his usual disposition.

Yan Suizhi looked at the tie between Gu Yan’s fingers. “You aren’t the type who would put a tie back on even when seeing someone at night, are you?” 

“…”

Obviously not.

Gu Yan hung his tie on a hanger with a stiff face. He pressed a remote control and the linen curtains covering the French windows were automatically drawn. The vast city lights and the endless traffic outside were reflected through the clear glass.

By the time he finished with all this, the private atmosphere of the room had completely dissipated, nipping off any irksome thoughts that could form. 

Standing by the table, Gu Yan looked down at Yan Suizhi for a while. Then, he speechlessly pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a slight headache set in. “What gave you the misconception that I’m throwing a tantrum?”

Yan Suizhi pointed to the chair across. “Intuition. Also, take a seat, don’t test my cervical spine.”

Gu Yan hesitated for a moment but still pulled the chair and sat down.

“You didn’t refute me at the door just now—” Yan Suizhi said. He glanced at the French windows and the lights illuminating the entire room, and a hint of teasing entered his voice, “Even putting on such a big show for me, isn’t that a type of acquiescence?” 

“…”

Impervious to reason, even forcibly putting words into his mouth.

Qlat j qjgjisrfv fzqgfrrlbc, Xe Tjc rajgfv ja tlw, gfoerlcu ab bqfc tlr wbeat ab rqfjx.

Dea tf ralii tjv ab, yfmjerf j mfgajlc rbwfbcf rtbnfv atja uijrr bo wlca kjafg lcab tlr tjcv, atf alqr bo tlr olcufgr abemtlcu tlr jr tf vlv. 

Xe Tjc’r ujhf mjra vbkc, ygertlcu qjra Tjc Velhtl’r olcufgr, fnfcaejiis mbwlcu ab gfra cjaegjiis bc atf uijrr. Ktf akb nfgvjca wlca ifjnfr, vgloalcu bc atf lmfv kjafg, ibbxfv mifjc jcv gfogfrtlcu. Lbkfnfg…

Wouldn’t people normally give hangover tea at this hour?

Further, hangover tea was readily available in all hotel rooms and convenient to brew.

“Why did you think of putting mint leaves in? Where did you get them?” Gu Yan asked. 

Yan Suizhi laid his elbows on the armrests, saying with a smile, “It makes sense to mend what I pinched. And I got it from the young lady at the reception, I happened to see her drinking some before I went upstairs.”

The latter half of the sentence could be shelved for the moment; Gu Yan’s attention was solely focused on the first half. “What do you mean by mend what you pinched?”

“Nothing much.”

Did he think he was fooling anyone with that? 

Although Gu Yan said that he wanted to sober up, the intoxication had not gotten to his head. His mind was still clear. And the first thing that occurred to him when he heard this was that Yan Suizhi was secretly maligning him again.

For example, that ‘Grouchy Student’ from the last time.

Yan Suizhi was just about to say something when he saw Gu Yan glance across at him, then, completely deadpan, pull up the screen of his smart device, making a few quick taps.

Immediately after, the smart device on Yan Suizhi’s finger buzzed. 

Oblivious, he projected a hologram right in front of Gu Yan.

As a result, he saw the name of the caller jumping on the screen—Pettymint Essence.

Yan Suizhi, “…”

Gu Yan, “…” 

The atmosphere instantly dipped to freezing point.

Gu Yan took a sip of the mint-infused water. Yan Suizhi could practically feel glacial air billowing towards his face.

Fortunately, his smart device buzzed once more at this crucial moment, breaking the stifling confrontation.

This time, it wasn’t a phantom call. It was a new message, coming from Young Master Joe. 

They had exchanged contacts at the cherry orchard that night. It was only as a courtesy at first, but he didn’t expect for it to come in handy so soon.

Joe, [Intern, how’s our Lawyer Gu doing? Did your coaxing bear any fruit?]

Yan Suizhi took a look at Gu Yan’s face and replied, [It might have backfired a bit.]

Not more than a couple seconds later, two more messages from Joe arrived in quick succession. 

-……

-Forget it. Since you’ve gone to the trouble of trying to coax him into a better mood… I’ll give it to you. Actually, Gu is easy to get along with, much easier than many others even, because he’s extremely rational. If you don’t make any mistakes that offend general sensibilities, he wouldn’t take it to heart. Even if you did, he would deal with it directly, and wouldn’t go as far as getting angry. To be honest, in all the years that I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him get angry at anyone.

In his mind, Yan Suizhi, ‘What bullshit is he talking about. Was that ice block student who stormed out of my office over every little thing a figment of my imagination?’

However, no sooner had this thought flashed through his mind, Joe sent another message: 

-Oh, except for that dean of his.

Yan Suizhi, “…”

In a villa thousands of miles away, Young Master Joe said his goodnights to Ke Jin.

As expected, no answer was forthcoming. But Ke Jin on this night was in better shape than the previous days, at least glancing at Joe before quietly closing his eyes. 

Joe left a light on. Without shutting the door behind him, he went to the other room directly opposite, sitting down at the head of the bed. He continued to type on the messaging interface of his smart device.

The young intern on the other end didn’t reply. He didn’t know if the intern was slightly petrified about that ‘exception’.

Joe deliberated for a moment before writing, [Even if it’s the dean, Gu also never really got genuinely angry. If it must be said, there was only once…]

As he wrote these two sentences, he began to reminisce on their university days again. 

He had met Gu Yan on the day he reported to Maze University. When he was initially allocated a dormitory, there was a shortage of single-occupancy rooms; he would have to wait a month for an opening. So, for that month, he was stuffed into the student flats at the law school, and coincidentally became roommates with Gu Yan.

At first, neither had a good impression of the other. He thought that Gu Yan was a frigid snob, whereas Gu Yan thought that he was an incompetent bourgeois.

With time… it really did seem to be so.

Of course, only as far as jokes went. Anyway, he and Gu Yan eventually became friends after about a year, but they weren’t the type that hung around with each other all day. He personally spent very little time at school, whereas Gu Yan always had his nose in his books. 

He no longer remembered the reason why Gu Yan chose Dean Yan to be his direct mentor in the beginning. It was also possible that Gu Yan never mentioned it in the first place. But what he remembered was that when the selection window opened, Gu Yan didn’t even give it second thought—he clicked and marked a check next to the dean’s name with all of casualness and certainty, submitting it straightaway. The whole process probably took no more than thirty seconds, even beating Young Master Joe, who was picking by drawing lots.

He was willing to bet that, at that time, Gu Yan must have really respected that dean.

However, all good things must come to an end. Ever since Gu Yan became a direct student under Dean Yan, the so-called ‘respect’ was obliterated from the face of the planet. As a friend, his diary of observations at that time probably went like this:

-Gu Yan is angry at the dean. 

-Gu Yan seems to be angry at the dean again.

-Gu Yan’s face has been frog-green and poker-faced the whole day. He is probably angry at the dean…

But, how should he put it? This guy, Gu Yan, was a tight-lidded brooder; any emotional expression took many twists and turns to decipher.

Others might not be able to tell due to spending too little time in his company. But as super tight friends, no matter how guarded he was, Joe could make out the gist of it. Gu Yan wasn’t really angry at all. Those two years were probably the years that Gu Yan seemed the most alive. 

Only in the university days that Dean Yan was around did Gu Yan show the emotions that a young man in his early twenties should have. The rest of the time, he was excessively calm and aloof.

Disregarding all else, from his point of view at least, even if the respect was lost, Gu Yan still really liked that Dean Yan.

Well, this wasn’t surprising. That dean did have a personality that was very compelling to some—just look at the number of masochists in the law faculty. However, he felt that the good feeling Gu Yan had for the dean ran a tad deeper than others; after all, they did share a closer relationship.

That was until Gu Yan’s attitude took a turn on a winter day in their second year. 

From what he remembered, there was a lecture or something of that sort back then. It roused many law students’ interest in old cases, and studying the more classical, textbook cases was all the rage. It was during that time that Gu Yan was exposed to a case that Dean Yan had taken on in his twenties.

That case caused quite some controversy when it happened, for the vast majority believed that the defendant was guilty, the type that was obviously so. Yet, Dean Yan insisted on pleading not guilty, and he won.

His approach stirred a lot of waves back then. Unable to accept it, many people kept cursing and scolding him. But on the other hand, it was also with this case that he made his name in the profession.

Gu Yan spent ages writing an analysis of that old case, and he was even more reticent than he usually was that month. What concerned Joe most was that at the end of the month, Dean Yan threw one of his birthday wine parties; Gu Yan, as his direct student, naturally attended. 

He thought that Gu Yan would be in a better mood after the party. However, whatever was said between them, what actually happened was that when Gu Yan returned, he scrapped the analysis report he put a lot of hard work into and spent a week rewriting an analysis for another old case.

And after that, Gu Yan’s attitude towards Dean Yan changed slightly.

It wasn’t the frequently seen anger, but more like a sort of deliberate detachment?

This state lasted for about a month or so, until on a certain day, or a certain time that he wasn’t aware of, the vibe changed again. 

Exactly what the vibe was, Joe couldn’t quite describe it.

It was… like the feelings had deepened, yet also like it had become more repressed.

He only knew that after graduation, Gu Yan never contacted Dean Yan again.

But every time there was a gathering among their coursemates, Laura and the others would always bring up what Dean Yan had been doing recently, what cases he had taken on, or what business he was busy with back at school, whether he was attending some reception, etc… and Gu Yan would always keep silent, listening attentively. 

Joe thought about the past and felt that his reply wasn’t quite accurate. So he deleted all of those typed words and sent a new one to that young intern:

-Anyway, don’t worry, it’s not as if you’re going to become the second dean after all. Without having hit his trigger point, you won’t be able to draw much emotion out of him.