CH 43.1

He wasn't sure if it was just his own imagination, but Fu Zheng felt like Ning Wan had been secretly watching him recently. However, every time he looked up, she had already turned her head away, as if everything was just his own illusion.

But despite that, Fu Zheng was very satisfied with how things currently were. He was still using the identity of the mysterious senior partner to communicate with Ning Wan via email every day. Her case analysis was becoming more and more sophisticated, and the sincere thanks and near-reverence in her emails were overflowing. Meanwhile, as a community lawyer, Fu Zheng had also begun feeling like he was getting more on the right track nowadays. He had mastered the secret of community work in a very short time, and whether it be phone consultation or in person, he was now more adept than Fellow Daoist Chen Shuo.

Old ginger was still spicier, Fu Zheng thought, not without a little pride. Anyway, he was a partner. Even if he was handling petty little cases, his ability to learn and master was better than Chen Shuo's.

Taking advantage of his momentum, Fu Zheng took charge of several in-person consultation cases and mediated several more while balancing the law and human emotions, including disputes over property fees, disputes between a household and their nanny, disputes over house leasing, and even a dispute over the breakup of a cohabiting couple. To cut a long story short, under his management all of them were successfully solved according to the law.

He was so capable. When Ning Wan learned the truth in the future, she would certainly admire him for being able to handle both high-flying cases and community cases. With him as a reference, Chen Shuo would pale in comparison.

Unfortunately this backfired. Thanks to his rush to work on these cases, it was inevitable that Fu Zheng would be out a lot investigating, collecting evidence, or checking in with his clients. When he finally solved his last case and returned to the office, he found out that something was wrong--

"Ning Wan, what do you think of my analysis and thinking in this case?"

"What about this one? Do you think there's a problem with how I handled things?"

"In the dispute just now about custody of the child after an extramarital affair, I think that..."

"Ning Wan, here is some milk tea and pudding I just bought. It's your favorite flavor."

"Ning Wan, I just met with Director Ji. He gave me two movie tickets for tonight. We can't waste them, are you free to go watch the movie with me tonight?"

……

Fu Zheng felt like he couldn't breathe. While he had been running around outside in the wind and rain, taking care of cases, he had instead given Chen Shuo a chance to be alone with Ning Wan. Since he had taken away all the work and left Chen Shuo with nothing to do, the man had simply let go of his inhibitions and pursued an office romance right under his nose!

"Tonight... let me take a look." Ning Wan, however, wasn't aware of what Fu Zheng was thinking. She checked her schedule. "I was going to have dinner with Xiao Li tonight…" In the middle of her sentence, the phone rang. Ning Wan glanced at it and said apologetically to Chen Shuo, "Let me answer the phone first, we can talk later."

She ran out to answer the phone, leaving only Fu Zheng and Chen Shuo in the office.

Fu Zheng had thought that Chen Shuo would be ready to compete with him through their own professional abilities in a fair and square manner. He hadn't expected the fellow to be a chicken thief! Unable to suppress him at work, he had taken advantage of his absence.

He shouldn't be arguing with a childish fellow like this, or take the initiative to speak to him. It would be degrading to his taste. But before Fu Zheng realized it he had already opened his mouth--

"Isn't Ning Wan your Senior Sister? Why are you calling her by her first name now?" Fortunately, Fu Zheng's voice and expression were calm and his expression was calm as he glanced at Chen Shuo. "I've always heard you call Ning Wan 'Senior Sister'. It's quite odd to hear her suddenly become 'Ning Wan'."

'Ning Wan', 'Ning Wan', all day every day calling out 'Ning Wan', you must think you know Ning Wan so well?

Chen Shuo stopped his work and looked up at Fu Zheng. His expression hadn't changed, but it was still somehow quite brilliant and a little provocative. "Although we may not have been in the same class, we are only half a year apart, unlike Lawyer Fu, who is quite senior to Ning Wan in age. Besides, we have been quite good friends since high school. I thought about it, and felt like it wasn't necessary to distantly call her 'Senior Sister' all the time."

"Anyway, if you really want to bring seniority into it... even though you may be older and have known Ning Wan for much less time, shouldn't you be calling her 'Teacher Ning', Lawyer Fu? I haven't seen you calling her that at all." Chen Shuo then smiled. "Well, of course, I understand why you don't. After all, it's a tad embarrassing for a man of thirty like you to call a girl in her twenties 'Teacher'."

“……”

Age was an indisputable fact. Up against this topic, Fu Zheng had absolutely no arguments in his favour. He could only bite his lip and glare at Chen Shuo.

"I'm back." At that moment, Ning Wan returned from answering the phone. She smiled at Chen Shuo. "What movie ticket was it you said?"

Chen Shuo immediately put on a gentle smile. "'Those Few Years of Devotion'".

Almost as soon as Chen Shuo said that, Fu Zheng picked up his phone, pretended to return a message, and actually looked up the movie.

He wouldn't have known if he hadn't checked, but now that he had, there was a subtle movement in Fu Zheng's heart.

'Those Few Years of Devotion' was a recently released film with a good reputation. It told the story of a pair of neighbors whose feelings had been ambiguous ever since the high school. Together they grew up, took part in each other's lives, and at long last a love story came to be. Interestingly, in addition to focusing on youthful nostalgia and foolish first love, this little romance also incorporated an older woman and a younger man, along with the rather popular and novel element of an office romance. There was three years difference neighbours, and to pursue the heroine, the protagonist had chosen the same major and entered the same industry...

Fu Zheng scrolled down to the reviews--

"It invites the watcher to fall in love!"

"I watched it with my childhood friend. We were originally just best friends and buddies, and I had never considered them in any other light, but the movie brought us together."

"The people who watched this movie with me just decided to get married!"

……

Who knew if this bunch of comments were left by an actual audience member or if they were bought by film marketing, but it was all quite unpleasant to Fu Zheng's eye.

This fellow Chen Shuo who never handled business properly turned out to be quite scheming in certain areas after all. However, Ning Wan obviously had absolutely no idea. She was still torn. "The name sounds quite artistic, but it's rare that Xiao Li isn't working overtime, so I wanted to have dinner with her tonight…"

Chen Shuo stoked the fire a little. "There's always another dinner, I'll treat both you and Shao Lili to food next time. If the movie tickets don't get used tonight, they'll expire, and if you don't go, wouldn't it be a waste of a ticket? Also, I was careless and without checking with you I booked a dinner table for two at a restaurant. It's a Michelin, and very popular, so I did it through a booking agent. And now it tells me that I can't cancel, or I won't get a refund... I've already checked with all my other friends except for you, but they're all working overtime, and I don't know who else would go with me... "

After he said all this, Ning Wan opened her mouth, looking as though she was about the agree...

And right at this moment, Fu Zheng opened his mouth too--

"I'll go."

He pursed his lips and spoke very concisely, interrupting Chen Shuo's murderous glare, "It just so happens that I'm quite interested in this movie. Since you have a free ticket and can't find anyone else to go along, I'll go with you."

"Awesome!" Ning Wan exclaimed, delighted. "Then I'll confirm with Xiao Li. It's so hard to catch her on a day that she isn't working overtime, if I miss this evening who knows how long it'll take to see her again. If you go with Chen Shuo, Fu Zheng, then we won't waste the movie tickets. Anyway, you two are pretty close. You can swap health tips again while you're out, have a meal together, talk about your feelings! Chen Shuo, if you have any issues at work, tell Fu Zheng! "

“……”

Fu Zheng looked relaxed1. Chen Shuo gnashed his teeth.