CH 91

Ms Fizz could feel an abnormally tense atmosphere in Lawyer Gu’s office when she stepped through the door.

She glanced towards the spacious desk. Gu Yan was drinking water from a cup, leaning against the edge, his other hand holding the remote for the door, which he placed to one side. He circled around the desk and sat behind it, asking Fizz, “What is it?” 

“Nothing much,” Fizz unconsciously shook her head, pointing to the side, “I’m looking for Ruan Ye.”

Gu Yan raised his hand in a gentlemanly manner, gesturing for her to do as she pleased.

So Fizz looked towards the intern desk. Yan Suizhi was seated behind it, holding a piece of holographic paper, smiling at her. “My apologies, Ms Fizz. I only just saw the document you sent over.”

“Eh?” Fizz was puzzled. “Why are you wearing your mask again? When I saw you in Lawyer Dane’s office just now, I remember that you seemed to have taken it off?” 

The esteemed Professor Yan never batted an eyelid when spouting bull. “I sneezed a few times in succession earlier, so I put it on again. After all, our Teacher Gu spent a night recuperating from his fever; it wouldn’t do him any good for him to fall sick again because of me.”

Due to his lips being covered behind the mask, his voice was stifled. Combined with the slight huskiness of a cold, it sounded even more gentle than usual.

Fizz, who hadn’t overthought it in the first place, was so convinced by his reasoning that she nodded her head, enlightened. “Oh, I see, that does make sense. After all, once the door is closed in a confined area like the office, it’s easy to catch germs even with very little contact.”

“…”

The two immaculately-dressed people, who had had excessive contact with each other just now, looked at the documents in front of them without a flicker in their expressions. In some senses, their likeness was traceable to the same origin.

“Ah, so, speaking of, have you pretty much read the document I sent you?” Fizz pointed at the holographic paper in Yan Suizhi’s hands. “The Legal Aid Bureau gave you additional incentive payment on top of the payment for the commission. After all, it’s rather delightful for an intern lawyer to perform so well. You’re fantastic.”

“Thank you.”

In actuality, Yan Suizhi had only made a show out of holding the document for the longest time without actually reading anything. But he swiftly skimmed through it as he listened to Fizz speak. “So I only need to sign here to confirm it?” 

“Yeah,” Ms Fizz laughed jovially, just as though she was the one receiving the remuneration. “Check if you’ve received these two transactions on your asset card. If you have, then simply sign your name.”

Yan Suizhi had already gotten a taste of Ms Fizz’s transfer efficiency on his first day at Southcross. So he didn’t even check his asset card, directly lifting a pen to sign at the end of the document.

But before his pen touched the paper…

Lawyer Gu coughed. 

Ms Fizz, “???”

Gu Yan’s face was calm, flipping a page of his document over with nary a lift of his head. “It’s nothing. My throat was dry.”

“Cough earlier next time…”

This was what Yan Suizhi had randomly quipped and tossed blame on when he almost signed the wrong name before. He didn’t expect Gu Yan to actually keep it in mind, even going along with it with a straight face. 

Yan Suizhi signed the alias ‘Ruan Ye’ with a grandiose flourish, the corners of his lips involuntarily cocking up.

He really was obtuse, he thought. In the past, he only got a kick out of riling Student Gu up; why hadn’t he realised how amusing it was when he was obedient?

Fizz chortled in delight. “With the way you’re going, you won’t have to worry about your rental for the next half-year anymore.”

“Ktja’r agef. Dea P vbc’a tjnf ab wbnf ab j cfk jqjgawfca jcswbgf.” Tjc Velhtl vlvc’a iloa tlr tfjv flatfg, rjslcu atja klat atf eawbra cjaegjicfrr. 

“Ct? Tbe’gf cba wbnlcu?”

Ktfs ilnfv lc atf rjwf nliij mbwweclas jcv kfgf regf ab gec lcab fjmt batfg. Dfrlvfr, atfgf kjrc’a jcs cffv ab tlvf atlr. Tjc Velhtl’r fsfr vjgafv ab Xe Tjc, atfc tf yilcxfv ja Mlhh, rjslcu pbxlcuis, “P abbx jvnjcajuf bo Xe Tjc’r kfjx klii ogbw atf ofnfg ijra cluta jcv mbjzfv tlw lcab ibbrfclcu eq. Lf gfiemajcais jugffv ab ifa wf rajs lc atf iboa obg j ktlif wbgf.”

“Really?” Ms Fizz was delighted for him for a moment, then she sighed, wringing her hands. “Is Gu so amendable when feverish? If I knew this, I would have tried it back when I couldn’t afford a villa; maybe I could have bagged myself a handsome housemate as well.”

Her regret looked almost genuine. 

Yan Suizhi nodded with a smile, “Yeah.”

“…”

Lawyer Gu’s face was frigid.

Someone was clearly kissing him two minutes ago, yet in the blink of an eye, started ganging up with others to make fun of him. 

Bastard thing.

“The signed document has been sent to your photon computer. Is there anything else?” Yan Suizhi asked.

Fizz nodded. “There’s one more thing. The firm plans to hold a dinner party for the interns on Saturday.”

“Dinner party?” 

“Yeah. Actually, there were plans for this two days ago, but they only finally got it formally knocked out just now.” Fizz said, “On one hand, everyone agrees that this present batch of interns is very promising to have achieved such outstanding results in such a short time. They’re mainly referring to you, by the way. On the other hand, Miss Freida got a scare just now and the managers didn’t want any students to have unpleasant memories of Southcross. So, this doubles as a form of pacifying.”

She paused. Then, with a face teeming with gossip, she said, “To tell the truth, this is because the two of you avoided the last ass-kissing social. Those partners and executives didn’t get to meet you and are now dying with curiosity.”

Partners and executives?

Yan Suizhi glanced at Gu Yan. Coincidentally, Gu Yan also glanced over. 

Previously, they had felt that there were possibly some people involved with the explosion case from Southcross Law Firm. In light of this, it was hard to determine if this dinner had been prompted by simple curiosity or if it was complexed by anything else.

“Okay, I understand,” Yan Suizhi said.

Fizz had come over primarily to tell them this. After that, she turned to leave.

However, as she passed by Gu Yan’s office desk, the clicks of her high heels suddenly halted. she stared at the evergreen bamboo like she had seen a ghost. “Huh? Oh my lord, how did it get to this state? This is the venerable doyen of our law firm! Who did it?” 

Lawyer Gu placidly said, “Who do you think?”

A potted plant that had spent many years happy and healthy and green had suddenly wilted to death at the very arrival of a certain person. It was self-evident who did it.

Fizz was suddenly struck with divine inspiration. She recalled the indescribable tension, like streaks of electricity, in the room when she just entered, and duly exercised her powers of association. “Oh—So the reason why the door only opened until I knocked for so long just now was that…”

Lawyer Gu was silent for a moment, then lightly picked up the direction she was heading in. “…I was disciplining this intern for drowning my potted plant.” 

“Ah, no wonder!”

Yan Suizhi, “…”

Young missy, are you stupid?

— 

Despite Southcross Law Firm’s efforts to suppress it, news of Lawyer Dane being harassed through an express delivery made its way to media outlets and was one of the trending topics on the internet the next day. However, the buzz surrounding it was still not on par with news about the viral contagion.

Several senior managers spent the day throwing tantrums in the office, hunting down public relations as they roared, “Who the hell didn’t keep a lid on their tongues?!”

This caused the atmosphere in the law firm to crackle with high tension, as if a fire would potentially break out at any word that was out-of-place.

The irascibility of the senior managers wasn’t ungrounded. After all, there were just some impetuous people without any brains who would easily develop a mood to play copycat. At first, they might only curse a few sentences when they read articles about the Elderly Bobblehead case, but after seeing the news about the harassment, some might suddenly have an eureka moment, going “Oh! I can do that too!” 

For three consecutive days after that, the mail that the firm received was manifold its usual volume. At first, they were still plainly addressed to Dane, but they started shooting blindly afterwards, even addressing some to Hobbes, Ivy, Moore, and others. Even Fizz and Gu Yan weren’t spared; it was a challenge to do anything about it.

This escalated to the point that Southcross Law Firm had to start rejecting all express mail and get the police involved.

Under normal circumstances, the lawyers at Southcross Law Firm worked independently. If anyone took on a case, there wasn’t any involvement or interference from other lawyers, at most only casually mentioning a word or two about it in conversation. But after a few chaotic days of this, the entire firm, from the managers to the interns, were all paying close attention to Dane’s Elderly Bobblehead case.

Even Hobbes, who was being quarantined in Spring Ivy Hospital, specially dialled over to his intern, Luke, to inquire on the situation at the firm. 

This aside, many old cases with similar controversial points were brought up with increasing frequency.

“Which is why I refuse to ever take a case like this even at knife-point.” At lunch, Luke vowed solemnly as he poked at the creamy mushroom sauce on his plate.

From the moment each of them got caught up in their work, this group of interns rarely found the chance to come together for a meal. It was more often that they were out-of-office on business, settled a quick meal alone, or they followed their teachers for meals with their clients. This was the case for Yan Suizhi over the past three days, wherein every meal was with Gu Yan.

In the past, it was common for Gu Yan to skip a meal or two when work got hectic. Now, in order to accommodate Yan Suizhi’s appetite, he also began eating more regularly, which was good for him as well. 

However, he got pulled away by a senior manager for some other business at noon today, so Yan Suizhi sat at a table with the few interns again.

Similarly, Anna was acting contrary to her usual easygoing nature today. “Same, I’m not touching these.”

Yan Suizhi wasn’t surprised by their reactions. There were many lawyers in the alliance who would do this, only taking on safe cases to avoid getting into hot water. This was also a possible and acceptable route they could take.

And Freida, who had received the greatest fright from this, had been very taciturn during the past three days. She quietly ate a few bites before pushing her plate away, saying sullenly, “I’ve been thinking recently…”  

“About what?” Luke asked.

“Thinking if I want to continue,” Freida said. “I’m kind of considering… giving the prosecutor’s office or the courthouses a go.”

In general, the internship after graduation would largely pave one’s future career track and progression. But this wasn’t the case for everyone. There were some who did an internship in the courthouses for a while but ultimately decided to enter a law firm. There were also some, like Freida, who, after spending a while in a law firm, would change their mind and decide to go to the prosecutor’s office or the courts.

After reassuring her, someone mentioned, “The case that the dean worked on in his twenties was dug up. Have you guys seen it?” 

Everyone at the table nodded. “Yeah.”

They were different from Gu Yan. To them, Yan Suizhi was their former dean. Their respect and admiration was given from a polite distance, and bluntly put, he was pretty much a stranger to them. They wouldn’t think about whether their ideologies aligned nor would they be affected by it.

They might not even contemplate what Yan Suizhi’s ideologies were; their brief discussion about them was through a six-feet-thick filter—

“Speak no ill of the dead. The dean was a great man.” 

Speak no ill of the dead…

Yan Suizhi, “…”

“I never thought that the dean was also scolded when he was young.”

“What do you mean by when he was young…” 

“Psh, nah, I’m referring to when he was a young bloke just out of university.”

“Why does it sound so weird to hear Dean Yan being called a young bloke?”

“Um… young and inexperienced?”

Yan Suizhi, “…” 

“I suddenly feel inspired again.” Luke, the little fool, said this.

“What are you talking about?”

“I can probably take a controversial case every once in a while, as long as I don’t get sent a bomb. Look here, even though the dean was scolded, he still became a First-Class Lawyer. So maybe I can still make it even if I also get scolded in the future?”

Yan Suizhi, “…” 

It had to be said—after they finished discussing Yan Suizhi, everyone’s gloom was swept away and they turned lively again. However, Yan Suizhi knew that this was only temporary. When they would actually come across such cases in the future, they would still have to properly tackle the dilemma again.

Perhaps someone would become the second Gu Yan, or perhaps someone would become the second Ke Jin. Or, perhaps they would forge their own path. (Or perhaps they would be neither.)

On the way back to the firm from lunch, Luke suddenly asked Yan Suizhi, “What’s with you?”

Yan Suizhi gave a start. “Hm?” 

Although the little fool was a goof, his concern for his friend was very real. He said, “Were you also scared by the express delivery? Or those articles? You seem a little absent-minded to me.”

“Do I?” Yan Suizhi raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah,” Luke said. “When we were eating just now, you kept wiping your hands with an antibacterial tissue as you zoned out. I watched you for a while, and you probably had wiped your ten fingers over and over for about five minutes.”

“…” 

Yan Suizhi blanked, then he said, between laughter and tears, “I was just finding a little something to do with my hands.”