Traffic wasn’t bad at this hour, and Lu Xun’s black Bentley quickly delivered Qian Wei to her destination. She gathered her things and was about to get out when, to her surprise, Lu Xun also made to get out of the car.
“Hm?”
Lu Xun’s expression was cold, nothing particularly readable on his face, his tone calm. “I haven’t eaten either. Since I’ve already driven you here, I might as well come along.”
“Oh! Sure.”
He’d said it so naturally that Qian Wei had already agreed before she even registered how strange it was. Wait—this is a blind date dinner, why are you coming along?! But Lu Xun was already walking ahead with total composure, and it would’ve been awkward to shoo him away at this point.
Forget it, Qian Wei thought, resigned. It wasn’t like she actually wanted the date to go anywhere anyway—one more person at the table wouldn’t hurt, might even keep things from getting awkward.
Unfortunately, she was completely wrong. Lu Xun somehow managed to turn the entire dinner into a job interview.
“You work in finance? What exactly do you do? The term ‘finance’ covers so much these days—I heard some illegal P2P lending scheme operators calling themselves finance professionals too.”
Zhou Qing blinked, then answered politely, “I work in the secondary market.”
Lu Xun took a sip of tea, only raising an eyebrow. “Ah, secondary market. Must keep you quite busy—five or six roadshows a day, staying up half the night writing research reports and briefing emails, early morning meetings first thing, and then coming back exhausted from a business trip only to get chewed out by your boss over stock price swings. Not an easy life.”
Zhou Qing smiled as well. “My work efficiency has always been solid, and I’m the type who needs consistent sleep to function properly, so I make sure to take care of my health—regular workouts and everything. I don’t sacrifice my personal life for work. My research reports have never had errors either. I was recruited from abroad at a premium salary, and my boss treats me quite well since he doesn’t want me jumping ship.”
Lu Xun pressed his lips together. “But working the secondary market, your phone must ring off the hook when things get busy—ringing loud enough your ears buzz afterward, I’d imagine. Are your ears holding up okay? Want me to recommend a home remedy? Good for protecting your hearing. You know how it is—you don’t notice it when you’re young, but by the time you hit your forties or fifties, you might end up half-deaf, having to shout to communicate.”
“I don’t generally give clients my personal number. Most calls go through my assistant.”
Somehow, Lu Xun seemed to have decided today was the day to lock horns with Zhou Qing. The two of them went back and forth, trading barbs, and even the usually oblivious Liu Shiyun could sense the tension crackling in the air. What was supposed to be a nice dinner turned into something resembling a business negotiation, the two men sparring through their words, one moment discussing valuations, the next discussing growth—leaving Qian Wei and Liu Shiyun to simply eat in bored silence.
After half an hour of verbal sparring, Lu Xun—being a lawyer, after all—came out slightly ahead. He offered a faint, satisfied smile, exchanged business cards with Zhou Qing, and the two arrived at a temporary truce. Perhaps riding the high of his small victory, Lu Xun quite naturally reached for the check.
Zhou Qing frowned. “This dinner was supposed to be my treat for Qian Wei. Let me pay.”
Qian Wei quickly waved her hands. “No, no, no, I left partway through, that’s on me. I should be the one paying.”
In the end, Lu Xun simply handed his card straight to the server, claiming ultimate victory in the battle over the bill. He shot Zhou Qing a casually satisfied glance and smiled. “I am, after all, Qian Wei’s boss. It’s only natural I’d cover this.”
The entire blind date dinner ended with Qian Wei barely having exchanged more than a few words with Zhou Qing, the whole thing devolving into a competitive showdown between two men flaunting their achievements—comparing careers, comparing income, comparing physiques—and in the end, even sparring over who got to pay the bill.
Liu Shiyun, who had watched the whole thing unfold, was completely floored. “Wherever there are men, there’s apparently a battlefield. Wow, I really didn’t realize men’s vanity and competitiveness and jealousy could run this deep. Terrifying.”
Perhaps because of Lu Xun’s involvement and all that friction, Zhou Qing never contacted Qian Wei again after that night…
Qian Wei didn’t think much of it, but Lu Xun, oddly enough, seemed quite invested. The next day at work, he strolled over to Qian Wei’s desk with a deliberately casual air, cleared his throat, and asked, “Did that secondary-market guy from last night contact you?”
The thing about Lu Xun was, once he decided someone was a rival, he wasn’t satisfied until he’d thoroughly crushed them. This time, Zhou Qing—a peer with an elite overseas education background and an impressively high salary—had apparently triggered his competitive streak, so much so that even after just one dinner, he was still keeping tabs on the guy.
“Nope, no contact.”
Lu Xun let out a light scoff through his nose, sounding quite dismissive. “I’ve never had much respect for people in finance. Always going on about marketing and ‘social’ this and that, talking a much better game than they can actually deliver. How much real technical skill do they even have? Especially the secondary-market ones—if a stock they recommended tanks, they’ll say you just bought at the wrong time; if a stock they didn’t recommend skyrockets, suddenly it’s a bubble and an unhealthy market. Talk out of both sides of their mouth, and somehow they’re always right.” Once he finished, he allowed himself a smug little tug at the corner of his mouth, the smile of someone claiming victory. “The reason I went last night was mainly as your boss, to vet him for you. Guys like that back down the second you actually see through them—not marriage material.” With that, he strode off looking rather pleased with himself.
Qian Wei stared at his retreating back, utterly baffled by the whole thing.
But soon enough, she had no time to dwell on it. As a newly added member of the Gaoke Electromechanical case team, there was a lot of catching up to do, on top of several breach-of-contract cases from her own long-term legal-advisory clients. Qian Wei quickly found herself fully absorbed in work.
It wasn’t until noon, when a few interns came by to invite her to lunch, that she finally set her work aside.
“Hey, listen, I’ve got some massive gossip!”
The girls chatted away over lunch, hopping from entertainment-world gossip to legal-world gossip, and eventually landed on their own firm.
“Apparently Lawyer Lu’s going on a blind date tomorrow night!”
The news landed like a bombshell, sending ripples through the group. The other girls all cried out in disbelief, and even Qian Wei couldn’t hold back—she froze on the spot for a moment.
“No way! Isn’t our Lawyer Lu supposed to be eternally indifferent to romance, only ever focused on work? I gossiped with one of the admin girls about it before—apparently several executive clients have tried setting him up before, with a listed company chairman’s daughter, even a deputy mayor’s niece, and someone even tried introducing him to some minor celebrity, but Lawyer Lu never even agreed to meet any of them! Said his heart wasn’t in it! Why the sudden blind date now?!”
“Please, times change. Lawyer Lu’s twenty-eight now, his career’s solid, everything’s on track. Men his age start wanting a family, it’s totally normal. He’s probably ready to settle down now!”
“I guess that makes sense… So who’s this mystery woman? What’s her deal?”
“I overheard it in the break room, you all have to keep this quiet, I don’t want Lawyer Lu to have me silenced! Apparently they’ve known each other for a long time—she’s been living abroad for years and just got back, and Lawyer Lu invited her himself, even said he’d missed her. I even know where they’re meeting—the Western restaurant at the Hyatt…”
The interns went on chattering about other things after that, but Qian Wei had already stopped listening. She hurriedly wrapped up lunch, slipped back to the conference room, and called Liu Shiyun.
“Which of our old classmates went abroad? Someone who’s just about to come back recently?”
Liu Shiyun sounded utterly lost. “Huh? I don’t think there was anyone like that. Mo Zixin was the one who stayed abroad the longest, but she came back ages ago.”
The two of them racked their brains for a while, but Qian Wei couldn’t pin down her potential rival. As they talked, she suddenly remembered Li Chongwen. “Oh right, when are you free? Let’s go visit Li Chongwen at the hospital!”
“Sure, except he was already discharged ages ago. He’s back at work.”
“Huh? Chemo finished that fast?”
“He never had stomach cancer in the first place! What chemo?! He’s totally fine!” Liu Shiyun said breezily. “But it’s not your fault you’re out of the loop, you were in a hospital bed for a week yourself. Li Chongwen had basically resigned himself to his fate, but the day we all went to visit him, Lu Xun thought something felt off. He asked around, wasn’t convinced someone so young would get stomach cancer, and got in touch with several specialists both in China and abroad to have Li Chongwen re-examined. Turns out it was a total misdiagnosis—just a peptic ulcer and gastric mucosal erosion, along with some mild internal bleeding. He switched hospitals, stayed a few more days, and he’s already discharged and back at the courthouse now. As for that private hospital that misdiagnosed him, it’s actually been in the news recently—turns out they’ve had several cases of misdiagnosis exposed. To boost revenue, that hospital apparently has a habit of exaggerating patients’ conditions to push them into ‘further examinations’ and expensive imported supplements. Li Chongwen’s already asked Lu Xun to help him handle the medical dispute, and quite a few other victims’ family members have reached out to Lu Xun too—they’re planning a class action lawsuit.”
“What??” Qian Wei was quite stunned. Even though the story had taken such a dramatic turn, thinking it over, she felt genuinely comforted—Li Chongwen was a good person, and given time, as a judge, even if he couldn’t single-handedly transform the practice of Chinese law, he could at least hand down plenty of precedent-setting rulings, contributing to the advancement of the legal system.
“Anyway, even though the misdiagnosis of stomach cancer left Li Chongwen depressed and under a lot of psychological pressure for a while, on the flip side, it actually turned out to be a good wake-up call for him. He doesn’t push himself as hard with overtime as he used to anymore, realizes health matters most. Also, I heard he’s gotten together with one of the junior clerks in his courtroom. Apparently love’s been treating him well, he’s put on some weight recently.”
“Oh?”
“You know, that junior clerk—you’ve met her, the one with bangs and long hair, real sweet-looking. Apparently when she heard he had stomach cancer, she cried her eyes out. That’s when he found out she’d secretly liked him for a long time. She visited him without fail every single day he was hospitalized, knew his stomach was bad, so she made him all sorts of congee. Later, once they found out it was a misdiagnosis, Li Chongwen confessed, and the two of them naturally ended up together.” Liu Shiyun laughed. “So if you want to go see Li Chongwen now, you’d better make an appointment first so you don’t interrupt the lovebirds.”
Qian Wei felt happy for him, but also couldn’t help letting out a wail of single-dog despair. “Why is everyone getting into relationships except me?! I’m the last one still standing on the road of eternal singlehood!” she grumbled indignantly. “Do you know what?! Even Lu Xun’s about to betray the singles’ alliance! He’s actually going on a blind date tomorrow night! Why can’t he notice the love that’s been sitting right under his nose, like Li Chongwen did? Why can’t he look at me?! I’ve kept him company through so many overtime nights, and now he’s just going to up and get himself a girlfriend? Not on my watch!”
Liu Shiyun’s voice turned wary. “Qian Wei, what exactly are you planning to do?”
“I know where his blind date is! I’m going to go sabotage it! I absolutely will not let him succeed! Lu Xun can only ever end his singlehood with me—otherwise he can just stay a lonely old bachelor forever!”
“Qian Wei, why don’t you just buy some kind of hex on Taobao instead, or one of those ‘change-of-heart’ talismans, the ‘love you for ten thousand years’ kind, and slip it into Lu Xun’s desk drawer? Honestly, that plan sounds more realistic…”
“Shut up!”