CH 216

Qixi 2019

The sun shone resplendently over De Carma’s Fa Wang district. The golden moonflowers in Maze University were in full bloom, and the law school’s auditorium was situated in that garden. 

Unable to turn down the school and a certain someone’s grand invitation, the distinguished Lawyer Gu became the law school’s guest lecturer. During the close of each academic year, in the few weeks between the end of May to the start of June, he would come by to teach a few classes.

There was not a single empty seat in the large auditorium, but not all were law school students—there were also some who’d come to watch the hype mixed among them, such as the boy on the rightmost seat of the last row. He was from the school of fine arts next door, and was helping his friend to reserve a seat. But, in the end, his friend didn’t turn up; the law school’s dean did.

With eyes curved into a smile, the dean asked politely, “Would you mind moving a seat in?”

The young student didn’t dare mind. 

He couldn’t wrap his head around why the dean would drop by to listen to a guest lecturer. He only knew that ever since the dean took a seat next to him, the frequency that the lecturer’s line of sight swept over this side stepped up noticeably.

Under twofold pressure, this fine arts student sat as straight as a steel bar, not daring to get distracted for even a second. He endured a full three-hour law baptism, even jotting down notes.

– Edited by snoflakesun

Birthday 2021

By chance, Maze University’s annual guest speaker series ended on the 24th. Gu Yan, representing Southcross, didn’t return to the law firm after his lecture, but went to wait at the dean’s office. He and Yan Suizhi had pushed away invitations to the customary afterparty, booking two tickets to an evening theatre performance.

Around this day every year, presents from students, the faculty, and the university would be piled high on the dean’s office desk. They were virtually indistinguishable from each other, either flowers bouquets with attached well-wishes on cards, or official commemorative gifts—and most of them would be anonymous (primarily out of fear that they’d be ‘kindly’ invited to a one-on-one quality education session with the dean if their presents were deemed too over-the-top). 

Sure enough, when Gu Yan stepped into the office, the desk was stacked.

Some students had placed their presents in haste, and the ones at the fringes were on the verge of falling off the table. Gu Yan hung his coat and went over to tidy them.

An assortment of people had come to this year’s guest speaker series, and so, atypical items that wouldn’t have appeared in the past were mixed amidst the typical gifts 

For example, roses (the card attached to one of the stalks had a heart shape drawn on it as well as a gender-unknown lipstick mark); 

Mbg fzjwqif, Njifcalcf’r Gjs rqfmlji mtbmbijafr (Xe Tjc tjv cba j mief ktlmt ‘ecmbcrmlbcjyif’ rabgf kbeiv rajga ofralnlalfr tjio j wbcat yfobgf atf jmaeji vjaf; akb ybzfr tjv remt bycbzlber qjmxjulcu vfrluc atja atfs ygbeuta nlrmfgji qjlc ab tlr rluta);

Ccv, obg fzjwqif, mbcofrrlbc ifaafgr, atf ijcuejuf qjrrlbcjaf jcv atf qgbrf ecyglvifv, lc bqfc vlrgfujgv bo atf ijk. (Yea bo tlr rfio-gfragjlca, Xe Tjc cjaegjiis kbeivc’a ajxf ifuji jmalbc jujlcra atfw, fnfc atbeut atf rfcvfgr tjv qijmfv atf mjgvr rwjmx lc atf wlvvif bo atf ajyif, ilxf atfs kfgf jogjlv atja atfs kbeivc’a yf cbalmfv.)

The distinguished Lawyer Gu did a rough mental estimation; if the fevered fantasies in the cards were acted out on, the sentence would start from three years in prison.

And what was most crude was that they’d even left methods of contact at the end of the cards. (Gu Yan, “…”) 

In view of the relationship endorsed by the Civil Affairs Bureau between him and the dean, he decided to take care of this hideous mess of things on the table 

Therefore, when Dean Yan entered the office after wrapping up social niceties ten minutes later, what was left for him was a perfectly clean and tidy desk.

There were only three items on the table:

An exquisite greeting card embossed by the school’s logo, on which was written: The School of Law wishes you a happy birthday. We hope that you will like the present. 

The ‘present’ pressing the card down was an inky green glass cup, with nourishing herbal tea inside. There was also a mound of health tablets good for the stomach and liver next to that.

Yan Suizhi turned his head to look at the sofa, where a certain lawyer was reading case files on his photon computer’s holographic screen, completely straight-faced.

The dean knocked on the table.

Lawyer Gu looked up from the ‘hundred and one pressing affairs’ that he was attending to. 

The dean pointed at the cup. “What’s this?”

Lawyer Gu, “Ginseng wolfberry tea.”

The dean, “Who sent it?”

Lawyer Gu lifted his chin towards the birthday card. “Well-wishes to you from the students of the law school.” 

The dean, “…”

Which law student would dare to send medicine as a birthday gift???

In any case, Gu Yan certainly would.

And so, the typical and atypical presents on this night disappeared without a trace, foreordaining that only one person could receive the dean’s kindly, one-on-one attention  

– Edited by snoflakesun

Valentine’s 2022 

Throughout the year, De Carma saw two main types of spacecraft coming in and out of Port Newsa.

The first was the space shuttle, which was speedy and had short routes. They didn’t dally around, designed to be perfect for fast-paced business travel.

The other was the spaceship, which, relative to the space shuttle, went at a more leisurely pace and had more romantic routes. Comfort was the key here. It was even fitted with suites, and thus it was definitely more suited for vacation travel.

As busy bees who took business trips more often than having meals, Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan once believed they’d be nailed to the space shuttle until their deaths. Never did they ever expect they would receive an invitation to an alliance legal conference, with the venue being a spaceship. 

In the words of the esteemed Dean Yan, he suspected the organisers had gone crazy from overworking, which was why they would use the conference as an excuse to enjoy slow-paced travel on a spaceship.

The talks lasted the whole week, coincidentally wrapping up on the afternoon of February 13. Thereafter was free time to kick back and relax on the recreational facilities on board.

According to the original plan, they were scheduled to dock at De Carma’s Port Newsa on the afternoon of the fourteenth. Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan made their private arrangements after that. They booked theatre tickets and reserved seats at a restaurant with exceptional food and ambience, even making a custom wine order from Cherry Estate to savour for supper after heading home.

In any case, this relaxing and eventful plan collapsed due to unexpected circumstances. 

When alerts blared across the spaceship, the half-awake dean was in the midst of washing up, whilst Gu Yan was fastening the buttons of his shirt and checking the notification screen by the suite door.

Yan Suizhi’s muffled voice carried over. “What happened? Why do the alarms sound so panicky?”

Gu Yan browsed the service announcements, saying, “The spaceship’s arrival at the port will be delayed.”

Yan Suizhi, “Delayed?” 

“Mn. An unidentified object is obstructing the flight path.” Gu Yan scrolled down the announcements and surmised, “It’s purportedly space debris; they’ve contacted the channel authorities for clean-up.”

“Did they say how long it’d take?”

“There are three civilian long-distance space shuttles and a space shuttle used by the security tower ahead of us.” Gu Yan replied. “By conservative estimate, it’d take a day and a half.”

“Is that what the announcement said?” 

“Yes.”

“Who are they fooling?” Yan Suizhi tapped on the depth of his rich experience and declared, “Wanna bet? I wager it’d be at least three days before we can get off the ship.”

Gu Yan didn’t want to, because his similarly rich experience told him it would indeed take at least three days. However, he paid lip service, giving a certain dean a token show of respect, “What are we betting on?”

There were two—utterly needless if you ask him—wine receptions tomorrow which Mr Adams was adamant for him to attend. So this worked out nicely. 

Lawyer Gu sent the service announcement to Adams, concisely declined all upcoming social engagements, and blocked the garrulous senior manager for the next three days.

Then, he calmly cancelled the theatre tickets, restaurant booking, and Cherry Estate’s wine delivery service, before removing the smart device from his finger.

He returned to the bathroom door and kissed the person, just about to come out, back in.

Since, by force majeure, all their plans bit the dust, he could only recompense for them in other ways. 

In short, whatever it was that obstructed their flight, Gu Yan only had heartfelt gratitude.

On the other hand, a certain dean’s words ultimately proved to be tragically poetic. He clearly won the wager, yet inexplicably ended up paying the price and was indeed unable to get off the ship (read: bed) for three days.