Before Sun Miaohan left, Ruan Yu told her to cut all ties with Huan Shi completely.

She nodded and said she understood, stepped out the door, then turned back: “Sister, there’s actually something I find a bit strange…”

“Hm?”

“The alarm didn’t go off for very long last night — the building management explained the whole misunderstanding fairly quickly. But before any of that, he had already rushed out and driven away. Why would he leave so easily like that?”

Ruan Yu shook her head to indicate she didn’t know, and glanced back at Xu Huaisong. Right at that moment, Sun Miaohan’s phone rang.

She hadn’t been on the call for long before her eyes went red. Holding the phone, she said: “Auntie, I really don’t want to file a report… Just let it go — it won’t do any good…”

A sharp voice came through from the other end, carrying a hint of a regional accent: “What kind of world is this, where someone gets wronged and can’t even go to the police? You just wait — the officers will be at your place shortly. You tell them everything, and get that man thrown in jail!”

Sun Miaohan hung up, drew a deep breath, and held back her tears as she said: “Sister, I need to go upstairs. My aunt back home found out and was furious — she filed a report on my behalf.”

Ruan Yu patted her on the shoulder and watched her step into the elevator, then turned around to find Xu Huaisong sitting on the sofa, pressing his fingers to his temples. She walked over. “Is the situation very complicated?”

“Based on what you described last night — she showed no resistance within the range of the elevator camera. As for what happened after they entered the apartment, with only a verbal statement to go on, it would be extremely difficult to even get a case filed. If the police get involved and summon the parties concerned, but ultimately can’t file charges — what do you think Wei Jin would do afterward?”

Ruan Yu pressed her lips together and said nothing.

As cruel as it was to say, that was the reality of it.

In Wei Jin’s hands, a girl like Sun Miaohan was certainly not an isolated case — and the vast majority of them had probably chosen to let things go quietly rather than throw an egg at a stone wall.

After all, someone like Wei Jin had been used to doing whatever he pleased for so long that he wouldn’t have given a girl or two a second thought under ordinary circumstances. In the wake of something like this, if Sun Miaohan left because she “couldn’t handle it,” he would probably forget she existed before too long.

But once the matter escalated, and he was provoked without being able to be brought to justice through proper legal means, the situation would become very difficult to resolve.

Xu Huaisong closed his eyes. “You crossed paths with Wei Jin last night. Once the police are involved, you’ll inevitably be drawn in as well — and the smoke alarm incident might even get exposed. Sun Miaohan can leave, but your relationship with Huan Shi is bound by a contract. What are you going to do?”

People always had their own interests at heart.

As a lawyer, if Sun Miaohan decided to fight for her rights, he could offer support. But as a boyfriend, he didn’t want Ruan Yu wading into these murky waters.

Xu Huaisong pressed his fingers to his temple. “I’ll go up to the fifteenth floor and take stock of the situation.”

When Ruan Yu and Xu Huaisong arrived at the fifteenth floor, Fang Zhen and another officer were questioning Sun Miaohan, a police dog tethered at the door.

Taking in the scene, Ruan Yu murmured: “Why did they bring a police dog?”

Xu Huaisong shook his head to indicate he didn’t know.

Fang Zhen looked up at the two of them in surprise. The other officer’s jaw dropped outright: “Oh — Ms. Ruan, Mr. Xu — we meet again!”

Ruan Yu pressed a hand to her forehead. She didn’t know what karmic connection she’d developed to keep running into crime scenes like this.

Seeing her gaze drift repeatedly toward the police dog, he explained: “There’s been a misunderstanding — the person who filed the report said the suspect fled the scene after the incident, so we thought we might need tracking.”

Sun Miaohan looked apologetic: “I’m sorry — my aunt didn’t have a clear picture of the details…”

After giving a brief account of what had happened, she then relayed the straightforward sequence of events to the two officers.

After Fang Zhen listened, he went through the details once more with Ruan Yu, then asked to confirm which objects Wei Jin had touched the previous night.

Sun Miaohan walked into the kitchen to get the trash and came back out: “I already cleaned up the broken glass and the torn pillow stuffing — it’s all in here…” At that, the police dog at the door suddenly began barking wildly, lunging toward her.

She jumped in fright and cried out, dropping the garbage bag.

Both officers rushed over — one to calm the dog, one to check the bag.

Fang Zhen pulled on gloves and bent down to carefully sort through the contents, asking: “Is there any blood in there?”

Sun Miaohan was badly shaken, stumbling over her words: “No — no, there isn’t…!”

The police dog kept barking and wouldn’t stop. Fang Zhen turned and said: “Let Xinxin come over and smell it.”

The other officer unclipped the dog’s leash.

The dog called Xinxin immediately bounded forward, nose working over the contents of the garbage bag, and finally nuzzled out a cigarette butt.

The two officers exchanged a glance.

Fang Zhen asked Sun Miaohan: “Is this a cigarette you smoked?”

She shook her head in surprise: “No — I don’t smoke. It was him…”

Xu Huaisong’s brow creased slightly. He stepped forward: “Miss Sun said that Mr. Wei left hurriedly when he heard the alarm go off last night?”

Sun Miaohan nodded, then looked down at the cigarette butt, and glanced over at Ruan Yu in bewilderment, not understanding what connection the two things could possibly have.

Seeing all three men in the room go serious at once, Ruan Yu didn’t dare make a sound. After a moment, she watched Fang Zhen place the cigarette butt in an evidence bag and tell his colleague: “Send it to the narcotics identification center.”

Sun Miaohan inhaled sharply in shock.

Fang Zhen asked: “Miss Sun, do you have any knowledge of Mr. Wei’s habits in this regard?”

She shook her head, eyes wide, then paused and said softly: “I only remember that last night, he was smoking this cigarette while he…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence and looked toward Ruan Yu — the only other woman in the room — as though searching for help.

Ruan Yu picked it up: “I heard from a friend that Mr. Wei apparently has certain unpleasant inclinations in that area…”

“It cannot be ruled out that he uses narcotics to enhance stimulation and heighten physical sensation.” Xu Huaisong took over with an unchanged expression. “Officer Fang, if possible, I would strongly urge the police to give full consideration to the physical safety of the parties involved. I would not recommend approaching this case from the angle of sexual assault and summoning Mr. Wei directly.”

Fang Zhen nodded: “If the identification results match our suspicion, we’ll apply for a covert investigation.”

Once the conversation on the fifteenth floor concluded, Xu Huaisong had Ruan Yu contact the Cen Family.

Upon hearing that they intended to reopen the investigation into the old plagiarism matter, Cen Rongzhen invited the two of them to the company.

The Cen Family had started in real estate and grown from there into an enterprise that was, without question, vast in scale — with investments spanning gaming, tourism, film, and countless other industries.

When the two of them arrived, Cen Rongzhen was still in the middle of a senior leadership meeting. He received them only after finishing.

Xu Huaisong came straight to the point: he wanted to verify the records of Cen Sisi’s purchases of online comment manipulation and trending topic slots.

Out of remorse, Cen Rongzhen had maintained a stance of full cooperation throughout the matter. He had his secretary bring the relevant materials and said: “Attorney Xu, these are the only records I’ve been able to confirm. I suspect they may be incomplete.”

Xu Huaisong went through the materials, then after a brief pause said: “Mr. Cen, these may in fact be the complete records.”

“What does Attorney Xu mean by that?”

“I owe you an apology — this was my oversight.”

The truth had actually been stated in that recorded phone call some time ago. Cen Sisi had said she had only hired a small batch of comment manipulators as a test, and had no idea why things had spiraled so completely out of control, shooting straight onto the trending charts.

At the time, both he and Liu Mao had assumed this was the defendant’s excuse. In their rush to restore Ruan Yu’s reputation, they had moved too quickly and failed to consider other possibilities — thereby letting the true architect behind the scenes slip away.

After leaving the Cen Group, Xu Huaisong drove the whole way in silence.

Ruan Yu looked at him: “It’s all right — you’ve said it yourself, lawyers aren’t gods. Discovering it now isn’t too late. The question is, what do we do next…”

“The offenses Wei Jin has committed over the years are certainly not limited to one or two, but he’s long been practiced at exploiting gaps in the law. Charges of attempted sexual assault or illegal drug possession would barely inconvenience him — let alone something as trivial as purchasing trending topic slots.”

True. Setting aside the fact that Ruan Yu’s current relationship with Huan Shi made it unsuitable to push things too far — even if a lawsuit were filed, what would a payout mean to someone like him?

“So we just watch him keep getting away with it?”

Xu Huaisong shook his head: “To strike a snake, you aim for its vital point. The reason I asked the police to apply for a covert investigation was precisely to find his. Someone like him almost certainly has a dirty history — drugs always have a supply chain. If we can prove it’s not merely illegal possession, but illegal transport or even trafficking, then no matter how powerful his backers are, they won’t be able to shield him.”

Ruan Yu nodded.

“The downside is that if the investor is taken down, the progress of your film will be affected as well. It may very likely face the risk of falling apart entirely.”

“That’s nothing — ridding the world of someone like him matters more than anything!”

Looking at her with her heroic air, Xu Huaisong smiled. After a moment, he said: “You asked me before, didn’t you — about what I went to see Li Shican about that day?”

Ruan Yu shot him a sideways glance: “You’re finally willing to talk about it?”

“At the time I didn’t have a full picture of what Huan Shi was planning, but I had always had misgivings about Li Shican being selected as the male lead: why him, of all people.”

“He had been a recurring subject of public discussion. I suspected Huan Shi might be planning to dig into your relationship with him — and Cen Sisi’s — in the lead-up to the film’s release, using it to drum up buzz. So that day, I discussed a preemptive contingency plan with him.”

“What kind of plan?”

Xu Huaisong curved his lips slightly: “Given how things stand with Wei Jin now, it probably won’t be needed.”

“So you’re not going to say?”

“Right.”

Ruan Yu drew a long breath and puffed out her cheeks: “Then you shouldn’t have brought it up at all!”

The light had just turned red. Xu Huaisong freed one hand and ruffled her hair: “I’ll be able to stay in the country for just over a month this time. Besides following up on the police investigation into Wei Jin’s background, my main focus is handling Zhou Jun’s case — the rest of the time I can spend with you.”

Ruan Yu let out a low hum: “And your legal qualification exam? This is the first year of the reform — they’ve adjusted the question formats entirely, and you just happened to be caught in the middle of it.”

Xu Huaisong faltered slightly: “I’m studying for it.”

“Tsk, how unfortunate. Maybe skip the whole relationship thing and focus on your practice questions. If you don’t pass, you can’t take cases. If you can’t take cases, you’re unemployed, and then I’ll have to support you on my manuscript fees.”

Xu Huaisong’s hand shifted, sliding up toward her forehead — the unmistakable advance of someone about to flick her on the head.

She pulled her neck back: “Oh no, a lawyer committing a crime!”

Xu Huaisong laughed out loud and switched the motion to a gentle press of his thumb against her forehead.

Ruan Yu took his hand in both of hers and held it in her palm. “You just said — after a month you’re leaving again?”

“More or less.”

She made a small sound of acknowledgment, let go of his hand, pulled out her phone, and quietly searched: Materials required for passport application and what to note.

By the time they got home, Ruan Yu had a rough sense of what she needed to do, and immediately began urging Xu Huaisong to study.

Xu Huaisong let himself be dragged over to sit on the sofa, eyeing the pile of books on the coffee table — Constitutional Law, Civil Law, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Economic Law, International Law — without saying a word.

Ruan Yu flipped through a few of them with genuine interest, murmuring: “I’ve stared at the character for ‘law’ so many times I can barely recognize it anymore… How about we start with a practice test set?”

“Sure.”

She opened a copy of Legal Qualification Exam: Seventy-Day Sprint Papers, noted the blank pages inside, and asked: “Pick a number from one to ten.”

“Seven.”

She flipped to the seventh set, handed him a pen, and opened the timer on her phone: “All right — Set Seven, Paper Three. Begin. I’m timing you.”

Xu Huaisong exhaled, and started working. Half an hour in, frowning, he reached toward the Commercial Law textbook.

Ruan Yu stopped him immediately: “Excuse me? You’re looking at the book while doing a practice test? Who’s going to let you look during the real exam?”

Xu Huaisong said, not with full conviction: “The legal system here is so different from the American one — I haven’t memorized Commercial Law yet.”

“A practice test measures your current actual level. If you don’t know something, you don’t know it — what’s there to avoid?”

Xu Huaisong bit down and pulled his hand back, continuing with the questions.

Ruan Yu patted his hair: “Score above ninety and there’s a reward.”

Xu Huaisong turned his head: “What kind of reward?”

“I’ll tell you after the exam.”

Xu Huaisong lowered his eyes and decided to bury himself in guessing.

Three short and one long, pick the longest; three long and one short, pick the shortest; two short and two long, pick B; when they’re all mixed up, pick C.

Near the end, Ruan Yu heard him beginning to cough frequently.

“Throat bothering you?”

“Mm.”

“I’ll go get you a glass of water then.”

She said this, stood up, and left.

Xu Huaisong quickly flipped to the answer section at the back of the booklet, searching for Set Seven, Paper Three — when he suddenly heard a cool, unhurried voice: “Mr. Xu.”

He froze. He looked up.

Ruan Yu stood leaning against the kitchen doorway, holding an empty glass, watching him: “I knew it. I should tell you — after graduating from the Chinese Literature department, I took the teaching qualification exam. Students like you who cheat? I can see right through them.”

Author’s Note: Huaisong: This is too hard — ninety points is too hard…