After dinner, Xu Huaisong called Liu Mao to confirm whether the colleague handling Zhou Jun’s case was still at the firm. Getting an affirmative answer, he drove over.

Liu Mao turned around and passed the news along — and throughout the open-plan office, lawyers who had been stretching and gathering their things to head home all froze in unison, as though fate itself had them by the throat.

The first one, who had just switched off his desk lamp, promptly switched it back on. “Just remembered I’ve got a document I haven’t sent yet. You all go ahead.”

Right behind him, someone who had just shut their laptop slapped their forehead. “Goodness, my memory — I left a report unfinished.” And sat back down.

In an instant, the entire office rippled and settled like grass in a passing wind.

One minute later, everything had returned to the same orderly state it had been in half an hour prior — only the rapid clatter of keyboards and the brisk rustle of turning pages had taken on a noticeably more passionate energy.

Liu Mao, standing at the doorway with his bag, let out a sigh and went back to his office.

The two young women at the front desk bustled into action.

“What do you think Xu Huaisong likes to drink?”

“Coffee, probably?”

“Espresso? Americano? Latte? Mocha?”

“Preparing one of each is foolproof. Why are you so worked up?”

“Oh please — you must not have been here the last time he came back to the country, were you? Once you’ve seen him in person, you wouldn’t be this calm either!”

Half an hour later, the person himself appeared.

The two of them stood at attention, ready to greet him with a perfect eight-tooth smile — but they had barely gotten to four teeth before their expressions locked in place.

There at the firm’s main entrance, their Xu Huaisong was coming in with swift, purposeful strides — holding a girl’s hand.

The girl he was holding wasn’t looking where she was going at all, her head tilted toward him as she talked, smiling. When they reached the steps, he gave her hand a firm tug and said: “Watch your feet when you walk.”

The girl pursed her lips and pulled her hand free from his, with just a hint of someone who knows they’re in the wrong but refuses to admit it, muttering: “Watch my feet… What’s even the point of you holding my hand then?”

And then the two front desk staff watched as their Xu Huaisong smiled and reclaimed the girl’s hand, saying: “Then I’ll watch.”

Not even four teeth left between them. They pulled themselves together with some effort and managed to restore neutral expressions just in time, saying in unison as Xu Huaisong and Ruan Yu passed the reception desk: “Welcome, Xu Huaisong!”

Xu Huaisong stopped and said to them: “Send someone to my car to get the late-night snacks and share them around.”

They quickly agreed. Only after he had left the lobby did their faces fall. “The greatest distance in the world is when your heart falls for someone one moment, and breaks the next…”

“Here I am having prepared espresso, Americano, latte, and mocha for him, and he shows up and delivers a load of second-hand affection for someone else instead…”

The two of them clutched each other and let out a muffled wail.

Ruan Yu, who had just turned up the staircase, caught the faint sound, glanced back toward the lobby, and asked: “What’s the matter with them?”

Xu Huaisong considered this for a moment, then smiled with an unreadable air. “Probably just very happy about the late-night snacks.”

The two of them went up to the second floor open-plan office. Xu Huaisong brought Ruan Yu to stand at the doorway for a look inside.

A cluster of people immediately stood. “Xu Huaisong.”

He gave them a nod, then turned to explain to her: “This is the open-plan office area. The conference room is upstairs.”

Ruan Yu acknowledged the various looks directed her way with a nod, then tugged lightly at Xu Huaisong’s cuff, urging him to move along.

He glanced down at her hand, smiled, and turned to head upstairs, asking as they went: “Should I find you a rest room, or would you rather come to the conference room with me?”

“Conference room.”

Xu Huaisong nodded.

By the time they arrived, Liu Mao, Chen Hui, and another female lawyer were already waiting inside. After brief greetings, an assistant came in bearing coffee.

Ruan Yu saw this and glanced at Xu Huaisong with something visibly held back.

He caught her look. The hand reaching for a cup paused, and he waved it off. “Just plain water for me, please.”

Liu Mao looked from Ruan Yu to Xu Huaisong. “So you’ve finally decided to take care of your stomach.”

Xu Huaisong sent a sharp look his way. “What’s a civil lawyer doing here anyway?”

“Oh? Well, what’s someone who never even passed the bar doing here—”

Xu Huaisong’s expression darkened. Liu Mao stopped himself immediately, sparing him the dignity of not finishing the sentence.

Ruan Yu pressed her lips together, tilted her head back, and fixed her gaze on the ceiling to smother a laugh.

Once the water arrived, everyone got down to business.

The criminal lawyer handling the case was named Zhang Ling — she appeared to be in her early forties, with a sharp, capable manner about her.

Ruan Yu heard Chen Hui address her as “Sister Zhang” and thought it over — she was fairly certain this was the female lawyer who had run into trouble at the construction site on the day of Xu Huaisong’s second return to the country, causing Chen Hui to rush off and leave them to make their own way to the firm.

Zhang Ling handed Xu Huaisong a stack of documents. “I put this together after meeting with the client — have a look first.” Then she turned to Chen Hui: “Xiao Chen, walk us through the details.”

Chen Hui moved to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and began writing key information as he spoke. “According to the client’s account, he was not present at the scene when the victim was killed. Approximately twenty minutes before the incident, he and the victim had gotten into a verbal argument while he was driving, which caused him to pull over on the mountain road and get out to clear his head.”

“What caused the argument?” Xu Huaisong asked.

“The victim was going through his phone in the car and found several suggestive messages — seemingly evidence of an affair.”

“Did the affair actually occur?”

“It did.” Chen Hui nodded. “According to the client, it happened once, a month prior — an impulsive, alcohol-fueled act on his part following a fierce argument with the victim. He cut off contact with the other party immediately afterward, making it a one-night stand. However, the other person continued to reach out from time to time.”

Xu Huaisong nodded. “Continue with what happened at the time.”

“The client states that after he got out of the car, the victim got out too, and what had been a verbal altercation escalated into a physical one. The skin found under her fingernails was scraped from his forearm during that struggle.”

“After that, the victim issued a threat — told him she would ‘find a way to make him regret this’ — then got back in the car and drove away.”

“Fifty minutes later, the client, still by the side of the road, received a call from the victim’s father. It turned out that the victim’s father, after receiving a distress call from his daughter and being unable to reach her again, had filed a police report during that window and managed to obtain the client’s phone number through various channels.”

“The victim’s father was extremely agitated and confronted him immediately, demanding to know what he had done to his daughter. Through the conversation, the client learned that half an hour earlier, the victim had called her father for help, saying: ‘Zhou Jun, let go of me.’ His immediate instinct was to connect this to the earlier threat — that she would find a way to make him regret it — and he mistakenly assumed she was behind some kind of scheme.”

“So he called the victim’s phone. The call was answered by the police, who had already arrived at the scene of the incident. From the sound of sirens, he deduced that something had indeed happened to her. It was also during that chaotic phone call that he faintly heard someone say: ‘The dashcam chip is missing — there’s a claw hammer here.’“

“The client ended the call abruptly. Putting everything together, he suspected the victim had used her own death as a way to get back at him, and planned to pin her death on him using the skin under her fingernails, the fingerprints on the claw hammer, and that distress call. So he went into hiding, and in the middle of the night, with no other option, borrowed a phone from a roadside stall vendor to reach out to you, Xu Huaisong, and Ms. Ruan for help.”

Xu Huaisong’s brow furrowed. “What led him to such a firm conviction that this was the victim’s retaliation? A single threatening remark alone wouldn’t be enough to reach that conclusion.”

“Correct — that’s the key issue in this case.” Chen Hui nodded. “According to the client’s statement, the reason he was so certain is that the victim had engaged in similar behavior before.”

“During that argument a month ago, before they parted on bad terms, the victim issued the same kind of threat — and she did follow through by posting photos of a self-inflicted wrist cut to her social media. It ultimately turned out to be a minor stunt to frighten him, but it left a lasting impression.”

“That’s evidence in the client’s favor. Is the post still up?” Xu Huaisong asked immediately.

“It was deleted — but there may be witnesses, or it may be recoverable.”

“What progress has the police made?”

“No second suspect has been identified so far. The police are inclined to believe the suspect altered the true sequence of events. Their theory is that the victim driving away represents a relatively safe action, and that the fatal incident was more likely to have occurred during the physical altercation the client described.”

Ruan Yu frowned at that.

Xu Huaisong caught the change in her expression and said: “What is it? If you have a view, say it.”

She gave a quiet “ah.” “It’s just — the reasoning that ‘driving away is relatively safe’ seems logically sound, but it doesn’t quite hold up emotionally. In most circumstances, yes, the person behind the wheel has the advantage — but in this particular case, you have to account for the fact that the driver was a woman who had just found out her boyfriend had been unfaithful.”

Xu Huaisong nodded. “Go on.”

“Based on what Zhou Jun described, I get the sense the victim was someone with a quick temper — prone to acting on impulse. Someone like that, driving off in a fit of rage — how far could she really have gotten? If I were her, knowing my boyfriend had…”

Xu Huaisong cleared his throat, eyebrows raised with a questioning look.

An otherwise quite serious atmosphere suddenly turned peculiar. Liu Mao let out a stifled snort.

Ruan Yu smoothed her fringe and cleared her throat. “What I mean is — under those circumstances, the victim may have driven a short distance before hitting the brakes and pulling over to try to calm herself down. What if the incident happened after she stopped the car?”

Zhang Ling nodded. “I think that’s a valid theory.”

Xu Huaisong gave a quiet acknowledgment as well. Setting aside the fact that she had used herself as the example — the reasoning was genuinely worth taking seriously.

Zhang Ling continued: “That’s the full picture of what we know at this stage. Further investigation and evidence gathering will have to wait until the case moves into the prosecution phase, roughly a month from now.”

Xu Huaisong nodded, working through the documents with her to discuss the finer details — until, just before ten o’clock, he noticed Ruan Yu cover a yawn with her hand. He closed the file. “It’s getting late. Let’s leave it here for tonight. Good work, everyone.”

Zhang Ling and Chen Hui headed downstairs together.

When the two of them reappeared, the lawyers in the open-plan office below looked as though they had been granted a reprieve.

Someone remarked: “Not bad at all — wrapped up before ten. I expected, knowing Xu Huaisong’s hours, you’d be at it until the middle of the night.”

Chen Hui gathered his materials and clicked his tongue. “Shows what you know. Ever heard of the weakest-link principle? Xu Huaisong’s natural stopping point is the dead of night — but Ms. Ruan was getting tired, so naturally you follow the girlfriend’s schedule.”

Someone let out a sharp sound of surprise. “Was that actually his girlfriend just now?”

“Hold on — why does that surname sound so familiar? Didn’t our firm take on a client with the surname Ruan not too long ago?”

“Now that you mention it — I think I have seen her before. I thought she looked familiar just now.”

“How does this work? Lawyers and clients end up together? How is it that in all my years here, handling all these cases, not a single one has led anywhere for me?”

“Well, take a look at the kinds of cases you handle — all divorces.”

“Think Xu Huaisong would share some tips on how to get together with a client?”

“Knowing Xu Huaisong’s whole detached, emotionally unavailable vibe, I’d bet the girl was the one who threw herself at him relentlessly.”

Xu Huaisong and Ruan Yu came downstairs just in time to catch that last remark.

Ruan Yu hadn’t quite reacted yet when Xu Huaisong — who had been about to continue down — went quiet for a moment, released her hand, and turned to walk into the open-plan office.

The cluster of gossips instantly transformed into a row of straight-faced professionals. “Xu Huaisong!”

He gave a quiet acknowledgment, stood in silence by the doorway for a long moment — long enough that everyone was beginning to brace for him to snap at them over their idle chatter — and then smiled.

“First,” he said, “on the foundation of fully fulfilling one’s professional duties and obligations, a lawyer may, in non-critical moments, reasonably accommodate a client’s requests.”

Everyone exchanged puzzled looks, thoroughly lost.

Xu Huaisong continued at a composed, unhurried pace. “Second, one may leverage case discussions — using professional matters as a pretext to arrange additional meetings with a client. Meal times are recommended.”

Someone made a low sound of realization, understanding now what exactly he was answering.

“Third, one may occasionally be less than truthful. For example, in order to send a colleague away from outside a client’s building, one might instruct said colleague to receive an urgent call — ostensibly about a problem at the firm — and then, with that handled, proceed entirely naturally to enter the client’s home alone to discuss the matter.”

Someone started clapping — no one was quite sure who it was — and the open-plan office erupted in applause. “Xu Huaisong — masterful!”

He gave them a nod and smiled. “Get off work at a reasonable hour.” With that, he turned around — and found Ruan Yu standing by the staircase with an expression that hovered right on the edge of tears.

He took her hand and walked her downstairs. “What’s wrong? Upset to learn I deliberately sent Chen Hui away and tricked you back then?”

“That part doesn’t matter anymore…” Ruan Yu shook her head, lips pressed together unhappily. “I don’t care about being talked about by people I don’t know — they work under you, so your reputation matters more. Why did you have to go and…”

Why did he have to go out of his way to set the record straight about who had pursued whom, just to protect her dignity?

Xu Huaisong smiled and gave the tip of her nose a light flick. “I wanted to.”

Author’s note: I leap into the air and deliver a devastating strike of adoration!

Lawyer A: Is this still the Xu Huaisong we know?

Lawyer B: Having a split personality at such a young age…