CH 42.1

Feeling refreshed thanks to Ning Wan's e-mail, Fu Zheng collected all the evidence needed for Yao Fei and Yao Kang's case the very next day, and combed through all the little details with Lu Shan. Only then did he approach the factory. As expected, the negotiations went quite smoothly. It was illegal for them to have privately cremated Yao Kang's body to conceal his accidental death in the first place, so they panicked upon learning that the matter had been revealed. Fu Zheng negotiated aggressively and the compensation plan was settled that same morning. In addition to the funeral grant, the pension for dependents, and the one-time death grant provided by law, the factory also agreed to pay a considerable sum to Yao Fei for its fault in having concealed the matter.

When Fu Zheng returned to the community office from the factory, there was no one in the office. Chen Shuo had gone to the general office to hand over some leftover work, and Ning Wan was currently mediating a parking dispute in the community.

Fu Zheng looked at Ning Wan's empty desk. He had wanted her to see how efficiently he had handled the case. Most of the time, superiors were not aware of what employees do, and an employee must know the art of reporting. Fu Zheng could have called Lu Shan after Ning Wan returned, which would definitely have left a better impression on Ning Wan and make him stand out more compared with Chen Shuo, but after thinking about it, he decided not to.

A lawyer should do things not to get the approval of their superiors, but based on the interests of their clients. Lu Shan and Feifei had been staying in a hotel the last few days, anxiously waiting for any results. Every minute of delay for them was a torment.

Thinking no further, he immediately contacted Yao Fei's mother and told her the results of the negotiation. "The compensation has been processed. Obtaining the money requires you to sign a settlement agreement with the other party, and I already have the agreement on hand. Come and sign when you can, and you will receive the rest of the money within five business days. Also, I fought for your hotel expenses to be comped. They will pay for that as well, so remember to ask for the receipt when you check out."

Lu Shan obviously hadn't expected things to be resolved so quickly. When she was once again able to speak, her voice was choked up. "Thank you, Lawyer Fu… thank you. Are you free right now? I'll bring Feifei over immediately."

"Yes."

Lu Shan and Feifei's hotel wasn't far from the community office, so it wasn't long before she appeared, red-eyed, in the door with Feifei in tow. Before Fu Zheng could say anything, the two of them fell on their knees--

"Lawyer Fu, we can't thank you enough. I looked up other cases of compensation for work-related deaths online. It takes most people half a year to get anything. I never expected you to help Feifei and I get the money so soon."

Fu Zheng helped her up, but tears were running down Lu Shan's cheeks. "I've been so stressed these last few days for fear that this matter will just be glossed over. I'm just an ordinary person with no higher education. I don't know anything about the law, and I don't have the money to afford a lawyer. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have gotten any money from the factory at all."

She wiped her tears, took out a red envelope from her handbag and stuffed it into Fu Zheng's hand. "The compensation money hasn't been paid out yet, but this is from me. I can't let you work for nothing. Really, thank you so much, please accept this little gift of gratitude..."

Naturally, Fu Zheng refused the red envelope and made her take it back. "Keep it and buy something for Feifei. He and I were fated to have our paths cross from the moment he knocked on the door of my house." Fu Zheng crouched down to look at Feifei. "In the end we're both people who lived in the same home, aren't we?"

After having returned the red envelope, Fu Zheng then explained the current situation in detail before producing the settlement agreement. "I've already read through this agreement. There is no issue with it. The amount you're going to get is above the bottom line amount you asked me for. If you have no further questions, go ahead and sign here along with Feifei."

Lu Shan expressed a thousand thanks, nodded, and signed.

But just as Feifei was signing, he suddenly paused.

"Sign quickly, Feifei," Lu Shan said, a little anxious. "Don't waste Lawyer Fu's time."

The pen in Feifei's hand had stopped moving entirely. He looked up at his mother and asked, "Mommy, after signing this can we still live in the house that Daddy bought? Can we live there? "

"That isn't our house." Lu Shan's eyes were red, but her voice was decisive. "Feifei, your daddy faked it. Didn't you hear what Mommy told you? He never bought the house. He lied to us both saying that he did. Your daddy wasn't a good man, because he falsely claimed to own someone else's house! Lawyer Fu's house!"

Having said that, Lu Shan gave Fu Zheng a grateful, guilty look. "It's fortunate that Mr. Fu was willing to defend our rights despite the past. Don't say those words again. The house isn't ours! Your daddy was a liar!"

Lu Shan had obviously spoken to Feifei about Yao Kang earlier, but a child's world wasn't complicated. No matter how bad Yao Kang was, in the eyes of a child, their parents were always naturally to be trusted, their memories to be beautified. Even now, Feifei was obviously unable to accept his father's deception. After Lu Shan scolded him, tears began to drip from his eyes and he began to cry.

"Mommy, will I never see Daddy again?"

Though Lu Shan felt distressed to see her son crying so hard, Yao Kang was dead, and life must go on. She herself, as a woman, felt both sympathy and resentment for Yao Kang in her heart. If from the start he could have lived a good life and never gambled, the whole family would still be living together blissfully with both house and job, yet...

She felt that she couldn't allow Feifei to keep wallowing in the past. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Feifei, don't call for your daddy anymore. He doesn't deserve to be your daddy. He didn't do what a daddy should have done at all. If it hadn't been for him, our family would still have been together. If he hadn't gambled…"

Wiping away his tears, Feifei kept weeping, "But Daddy said he would change…"

Lu Shan hated iron for not being steel. "Why are you being so unreasonable? Your daddy never changed! He lied when he said he would stop gambling! You lied to stop gambling. Everything was a lie! He lied about that house, too. It'll be almost the same with or without him, so let's live a good life together in the future. Don't think about him again! Let's look forward!"

"But I don't have a Daddy… Mommy, I don't have a Daddy anymore."

The feelings of children are the most sincere, and their minds the purest. Even if their parents were ordinary people who were reprimanded at work or incompetent, even if they couldn't cook or were terrible parents, even if they were nothing but trouble like Yao Kang, a father who had lied, gambled, and never brought in any money, in the eyes of a child like Feifei he was still the best and most trustworthy man in the world.

Although Lu Shan had said harsh words, inside her heart was breaking for her son. When she watched him weep, she couldn't help but shed tears with him. "It's okay, it's okay. Mommy will still be here for you. Your mommy is a superwoman who will be both your mother and your father. When you grow up, you'll understand that your father hadn't treated you well. So don't be so sad..."

The case was complete, and it was a perfect ending. Mother and son had received their due, and all expenses would be borne by the factory. For a case he had picked up as a free agent, Fu Zheng had actually spent a lot of time on it, more than the time he spent dealing with his usual big acquisitions.

But Fu Zheng didn't feel like he had finished just because the case could come to a close here.

"Ms. Lu, in the process of negotiating with the factory I actually collected some belongings left behind by Feifei's father," he said, opening a drawer and giving Lu Shan a bag. "Here are the change of clothes he left in the factory and his diary, which I asked for from the colleagues who were close to him before his death."

After Yao Kang's accident and private cremation, the corrupt personnel manager had had people destroy everything Yao Kang had left behind. However, a number of Yao Kang's work friends couldn't bear to watch. They had secretly hidden what was left in his locker, and this preserved evidence had become one of the most powerful things to prove that he was a worker there.

"Although the diary is private, for the negotiation with the factory and and the application for work-related injury recompense, I had to skim through it to find a record of Yao Kang being sent on a business trip and to prove that the accident was a result of a work-related injury."

He looked at Lu Shan. "Although Yao Kang did indeed do a number of foolish things and lied about the house, I still think you should probably read his diary."

……

Ning Wan had been temporarily called out by Director Ji to deal with a parking dispute. Thankfully, the affair was a simple one and soon handled. Thinking about how there was no one currently manning the office since Fu Zheng was out handling Feifei's case and Chen Shuo was back at the main office, she hurried back. Only when she got back did she find that not only had Fu Zheng gotten back already, but he had also seemed to have very efficiently solved Feifei's case. Walking up to the door, she saw Lu Shan and Feifei signing, and soon after, Feifei sobbing inconsolably about how much he missed his father.

Ning Wan's heart broke for the child, but Fu Zheng was currently handling the matter very methodically, and she didn't want to interrupt. In addition, she felt like it was a very inopportune time for her to barge in while Lu Shan and Feifei were grieving, especially since not only was Feifei crying, but Lu Shan was currently in a very awkward position. Rushing in would not only interrupt their emotions, but also embarrass them further.

Therefore, Ning Wan simply leaned against the doorframe outside in silence, quietly waiting for the people inside to regain control of their emotions before going in.

But unexpectedly, though the case was clearly closed and Fu Zheng had already handed over Yao Kang's belongings and diary to Lu Shan, he obviously wasn't done yet.

Ning Wan didn't know what was written in Yao Kang's diary, but Lu Shan's hands were shaking while she was holding the open book. Her head was bowed and she wasn't speaking, but Ning Wan could see clearly that she was in tears. They were dripping into the diary, making great wet blotches on the paper.

On ordinary days, Fu Zheng was a reserved and cold-natured man. However, the gaze he was currently using to look at Lu Shan and Feifei was very gentle. "Besides the diary, I've actually also done something quite superfluous."

From the drawer, he took out a recording pen. "These are the things I also asked about while I was investigating and collecting the evidence. As part of it, I interviewed the colleagues that Yao Kang was close to before his death."

When he had finished speaking, he pressed play. There was a noisy background sound, and then a recorded voice rang out in the office.