In the end, Qian Heng never finished all the dishes — because Cheng Yao didn’t give him the chance. She pressed her lips together and raced to finish off most of the food before he could get to it. And more fortunately still, a call from Huang Ran saved Qian Heng completely. After more than an hour of deep, face-to-face conversation, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had finally reached a resolution.
“Lawyer Qian, I really don’t know what to say.” Huang Ran, whose makeup had been immaculate when she arrived, now had it completely smeared from crying, her eyes and nose swollen and red, her expression full of grief — but the hatred and hostility in her eyes were gone.
Cheng Yao and Qian Heng hurried back to the hospital and found exactly this scene waiting for them.
Huang Ran grabbed Qian Heng’s hand. “Thank you — thank you for convincing me to come see Linli.” She couldn’t help wiping away another tear as she said it.
Cheng Yao looked toward Chen Linli, still weak and sitting in the hospital bed — she’d clearly been crying too. She looked at Cheng Yao and actually tried to get up from the bed to bow to her.
“Lawyer Cheng, thank you — thank you for giving me and my mother-in-law this chance to really talk, thank you for resolving this case the way you did.”
……
After Cheng Yao and Qian Heng left, Huang Ran and Chen Linli had, for the first time, a deep and honest conversation, just the two of them.
At first, this meeting had Huang Ran still holding herself at a distance, still nursing her resentment. But she hadn’t expected that the moment Chen Linli saw her, she wouldn’t say a single word about the division of Kaili, wouldn’t even mention it — she just lay there in her hospital bed, and the tears started falling immediately.
In the end, she was just like Huang Ran herself — someone who had lost a son, and beyond her son, a husband too. Whatever grievances or misunderstandings there had been before, in this moment, Huang Ran suddenly felt none of it mattered anymore. The two of them were simply two equally unfortunate women in this world.
The two women, without exchanging a single word, sat there together, silently crying.
Though neither had spoken a word yet, in that moment, deep down, Huang Ran had already reconciled with Chen Linli.
This was the woman her son had loved most in life, and she really had, in that moment of crisis, chosen to save her son first even at the cost of her own safety — so why should she keep making things hard for her? She herself was consumed with grief over losing her son and grandson — surely Chen Linli felt no less than that.
The two of them cried silently together for half an hour, and only after that did Chen Linli wipe her tears and finally speak.
……
There had never been any deep-seated hatred between this mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Chen Linli was a candid person, and once things were out in the open, the conversation flowed remarkably smoothly. After hearing Chen Linli explain her true motives for not wanting Kaili divided up, Huang Ran agreed to the general direction of the estate division plan almost without hesitation.
Of that hour and a half together, half an hour had been spent crying, half an hour discussing Kaili, and the remaining half hour, the two wounded women simply drew warmth from each other, like huddling around the same fire, reminiscing about the person they’d both loved so deeply.
“Kai could actually be quite childish sometimes. I once promised to buy him cotton candy and forgot, and he was upset with me about it for ages.”
“That child was stubborn like that as a kid too — though with you, he toned that temper down quite a bit.”
……
Now, though the two women still weren’t completely close, there was the same sincerity on both their faces.
“Lawyer Cheng, Lawyer Qian, thank you both. We’re not going forward with the second-instance lawsuit — we want to settle.” Genuine gratitude was written all over Chen Linli’s face. “You two are the best lawyers I’ve ever met — the most professional, and the most humane. You’re the best example of what this profession should be.”
By the time Chen Linli and Huang Ran had walked Cheng Yao and Qian Heng all the way out of the hospital, Cheng Yao still felt a bit dazed. “The case… it’s really just over, like that?”
Qian Heng glanced at her, feeling more than a little shaken himself. It was hard for him to imagine that a case where both parties had been so bitterly, mortally opposed to each other could actually end in something this warm. Huang Ran had agreed not to divide up the Kaili equity, and Chen Linli would compensate her share with the remaining property and cash instead. The two sides had reached agreement on the broad strokes, leaving Qian Heng and Cheng Yao to simply negotiate the specific division — it wasn’t wrong to say the case was essentially settled.
Of all the family cases Qian Heng had ever handled, this was the first one to end this gently, this warmly.
For the first time, Qian Heng found himself reflecting on whether, beyond pure professionalism, he should carry a bit more compassion and humanity into his work — see cases with a gentler eye?
The fact that two people could come together in this vast world to form a family was, in itself, an extraordinary stroke of fortune, and the reason for building that family was usually love. So shouldn’t it be possible, even when that family had to come apart, to preserve some dignity in the process?
Qian Heng’s parents’ marriage hadn’t been unhappy, but he’d always felt that kind of old-fashioned marriage was hard to replicate in today’s chaotic, ever-shifting society. That was why, before meeting Cheng Yao, he’d never once considered marriage, let alone starting a family — he’d simply watched, cool and detached, as his clients’ relationships came together and fell apart.
But now, for the first time, he found himself uncertain. If he’d met Cheng Yao earlier, if he’d understood family and marriage with more respect earlier, could the outcomes of many of the cases he’d handled have turned out differently too?
For the first time, he began to truly face his own heart, to seriously consider what Cheng Yao had said — the equality she sought, the kind of love and marriage she wanted…
Lost in his tangled thoughts, Qian Heng followed Cheng Yao out of the hospital, and then he suddenly heard her voice, full of delight.
“It’s snowing!” She pulled out her phone to take a picture, looking exactly like she had back in Kyoto.
The memory of that trip to Japan swept over Qian Heng without warning, and he found himself utterly unable to hold back — he simply stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Cheng Yao from behind.
“Cheng Yao, I can’t be without you.”
Cheng Yao found herself enveloped in Qian Heng’s embrace, his scent all around her. Even with the cold wind swirling with snowflakes around them, for a moment, in his arms, all she could feel was the warmth of summer.
Qian Heng tightened the embrace. “Don’t fall for anyone else.” His voice was low. “Don’t fall for Gu Beiqing.”
“I’ll get jealous.”
It wasn’t that Cheng Yao didn’t want to linger in that warmth, but she stayed rational and composed enough to pull herself out of Qian Heng’s arms anyway.
“Qian Heng, what’s between us has nothing to do with anyone else. Whether I like someone else or not isn’t up to you either.” Cheng Yao lowered her gaze and checked the time. “I have to go — I made plans with my senior classmate for a late-night snack.”
“…”
For the first time, Qian Heng had resorted to using his looks as leverage, throwing all pride to the wind, practically trying to win her back through sheer physical charm — only to be humiliatingly rejected.
He stood there in the wind, watching Cheng Yao walk away, looking calmer on the surface even as turmoil raged within. At one point, Qian Heng even briefly considered the feasibility of hiring a hitman to take care of Gu Beiqing…
Wu Jun was at home watering his plants when he got the call from Qian Heng.
The voice on the other end was cool. “Hey, are you home?”
Wu Jun, remembering how heartlessly Qian Heng had used him and tossed him aside last time, went on high alert. “I’m not home!”
“Oh, I see. I had a whole box of king crab flown in fresh, was going to bring it over for you — guess never mind since you’re not home.”
“I’m home! I’m home!” Wu Jun immediately changed his tune. “I misspoke just now!”
Fifteen minutes later, sure enough, Qian Heng showed up at Wu Jun’s apartment door. No small talk — he walked straight in.
“I need to ask you something.”
Wu Jun was on the verge of tears. “Where’s my king crab?” he demanded. “Did you lie to me again?”
Qian Heng answered with total conviction. “Didn’t your checkup last year show high uric acid? Cut back on seafood, it’s good for you.”
“…”
“Anyway, let’s talk about my problem first.”
Wu Jun slumped, dejected. If there was one road he’d walked the longest in his life, it was probably falling for Qian Heng’s tricks over and over. “What is it?”
“A friend of mine just got dumped.”
“Qian Heng, when you’re asking for advice, you’re supposed to be honest, you know that?” Wu Jun exploded. “At this point, still going with ‘a friend of mine’? Do you think I’m an idiot? Everyone at Qianheng knows about you and Cheng Yao by now! And to think you were the one who warned me not to take advantage of an attractive subordinate, made it sound so righteous, and here you were making your move on Cheng Yao behind everyone’s back the whole time! Beast! Hypocrite! Shameless!”
“…” Qian Heng looked a bit embarrassed, his voice sounding unnatural, though his expression still managed to stay righteous somehow. “Anyway, that’s the gist of it.”
He quickly recovered his composure and gave Wu Jun a brief summary of the situation. “But now she won’t get back together with me.” Qian Heng sounded genuinely confused. “She says I’m too full of myself, that things between us aren’t equal enough.”
Wu Jun nearly burst out laughing on the spot. “Good for Cheng Yao! Avenged me at last! Qian Heng, look at you now, huh?”
Qian Heng’s expression darkened. “I came here to consult you, not to be mocked by you.”
Wu Jun teased him a bit more before finally offering some genuine advice. “You need to let go of that sense of superiority you’ve got buried deep down. It’s fine that she doesn’t want to get back together right now — you’re both still single, so just go court her properly all over again! You need to show her you’re sincere, that you really do love her — if you keep being too reserved about it, she’ll only feel a tenth of how much you actually love her, and naturally she’ll think you don’t love her enough, or that your love is too self-centered.”
Qian Heng said, resolute. “Even if she weren’t single, I’d still steal her away from whoever it was.”
“As long as you’ve got that mindset, go for it! When it comes to the woman you love, what man cares about saving face? Launch a full campaign, try every tactic in the book, and if none of that works, just wear her down through sheer persistence. You two already have history together — you can’t possibly fail at this, can you?”
“Does it really have to come to that? Wearing someone down through sheer persistence really isn’t my style…”
“So how exactly does one wear someone down through persistence?” He paused, tilting his head. “I have no experience with this.”
Wu Jun slapped his thigh. “Now you’ve come to the right person — I’m very experienced in this area!” He launched into an instructional tone. “The key to wearing someone down isn’t about being annoying, showing up to bug them constantly. It’s about finding the right opportunities — not too deliberate, but the kind that keep putting you in front of them, so they see you constantly, and ideally, they start seeking you out themselves. That way, you gradually take over all their free time, bit by bit, like an invasion, slowly eating away at their territory — like the frog-in-boiling-water thing, and by the time they realize it, it’s already too late to escape your grasp!”
……
After listening to Wu Jun’s whole speech, Qian Heng fell into deep thought.
What kind of opportunity could be not too deliberate, and yet keep him constantly in Cheng Yao’s private time…
As Qian Heng walked along, still working through his strategy, he noticed — Wu Jun’s neighborhood had a lot of stray cats — a small orange cat rummaging through a trash can right in front of him.
Qian Heng stared at the orange cat for a moment, and then, suddenly, inspiration struck.
“Wu Jun, come downstairs.”
Wu Jun: ??
Qian Heng, perfectly composed. “Bring a box. Help me catch a stray cat.”
……
Cheng Yao and Gu Beiqing had just finished their late-night snack and gotten back home when they got a call from Qian Heng.
Cheng Yao answered, a bit irritated. “Work stuff is fine to talk about, but no personal matters.”
Of course she’d be irritated — she still hadn’t recovered from that condescending, macho-man speech he’d given her that afternoon.
“Cheng Yao, I need a favor.”
Qian Heng’s voice sounded genuinely earnest. “It’s like this — I found an injured stray cat in my neighborhood, it looks like it might not make it. I don’t really know how to handle this, could you help me out?”
Cheng Yao had loved animals ever since she’d taken care of Vader Tyrant for Qin Qin — the moment she heard Qian Heng had found an injured stray cat, she didn’t hesitate. “Where are you? I’ll come right over.”
Not long after, Cheng Yao arrived at Qian Heng’s villa.
The winter night was bitterly cold, and yet Qian Heng stood at the door wearing nothing but a thin suit, cradling the cat in his arms, craning his neck as he watched for her — if the cat in his arms had been swapped for a baby, the whole scene could have easily passed for an abandoned husband, waiting bitterly with his child for a wife who’d left him.
Cheng Yao shook off the ridiculous thought running through her head. “How’s the cat doing? Let me take a look? Where’s it hurt?”
But before Cheng Yao could even touch the cat, it suddenly went wild in Qian Heng’s arms and swiped at him twice with its claws.
Cheng Yao looked a bit surprised. “Didn’t you say this cat was about to die? Looks pretty lively to me.” She looked at the cat, still twisting and struggling to break free from Qian Heng’s arms. “And it looks pretty feral too, in good shape overall. How did you even catch it?”
Qian Heng didn’t answer, just lifted his hand. “It broke the skin.”
Without thinking twice, Cheng Yao grabbed his hand to check, her voice full of urgent worry. “It’s bleeding, this is a stray cat — you need to get a rabies shot.”
Qian Heng, still perfectly composed, spoke with great solemnity. “Never mind me, let’s save the cat first.”
His hand really was in bad shape, several scratches drawing blood. Cheng Yao tried to hold herself together, but looking at the wound, she couldn’t help a dull ache in her chest, like she’d been struck gently.
She set down the pet carrier she’d bought on the way. “Get the cat in there first.”
Qian Heng obediently stuffed the hissing, clawing orange cat into the carrier. “Let’s go, there’s a pet clinic not too far from here—”
But before he could finish, Cheng Yao had already grabbed his hand and, without any room for argument, pulled him straight toward the car. “Rabies shot first.”
“No need…”
“Not up for discussion.”
Qian Heng still wasn’t cooperating. “You have twenty-four hours to get it, it’s fine.”
Cheng Yao gave up trying to reason with him. She stared straight into his eyes. “Do you still want to marry me?”
Qian Heng pressed his lips together and said nothing.
“If you do, then get the rabies shot first.”
And so, Cheng Yao, carrying the pet carrier, hauled Qian Heng around, back and forth, until she finally watched him get his wound cleaned and get his first rabies shot.
Only once all that was done did Cheng Yao feel a weight lift off her chest, and only then did she take Qian Heng and the cat to the animal hospital.
“The cat’s in good health overall, though it’s pretty heavy — well, they say nine out of ten orange cats are chubby. It’s got fleas, so we’ll do external deworming, a rabies shot, and for stray cats, it’s best to train them to eat cat food. Also, I’d recommend getting it neutered…”
The vet was quite patient, giving Cheng Yao and Qian Heng plenty of instructions, though before they left, he seemed a little curious. “How did you two manage to catch this thing, though? It’s pretty fierce.”
Qian Heng shot the vet a venomous glare. “We didn’t catch it. We found it.”
But the male vet, completely oblivious to the hint in Qian Heng’s glare, said without a shred of tact, “A wild stray cat like this wouldn’t just let itself be picked up — they’re extremely wary, they’ll claw you the second you get close. You’d need at least two people to catch something like this, minimum.”
“…”
Cheng Yao frowned slightly, and looked suspiciously at Qian Heng, who, for his part, looked utterly composed, meeting her gaze head-on without flinching.
“You caught it, didn’t you?”
“Mm.”
“It’s this fierce — how would it just let you pick it up?”
“I found it. That’s all.”
But even without Qian Heng admitting it, from his unnatural tone and the faint red creeping up his ears, Cheng Yao already had her answer.
“You deliberately went and caught this cat, didn’t you?”
Qian Heng stiffened his neck. “No.”
“So you did.”
“…”
“Qian Heng.”
“Fine, I caught it.” Qian Heng looked at the cat in the carrier. “It’s cold out, and it’s out there wandering around alone, and I’m at home wandering around alone too — seemed like a good match. I took one look and knew — going to spend the rest of my life with this one.”
“…”
Qian Heng’s voice was dry and cold, and at first listen it sounded like there wasn’t much emotion behind it — but the more you thought about it, every word seemed loaded with intense accusation.
“It’s a good thing too, isn’t it? Weren’t you the one who was unmarried and childless before? A lot of unmarried, childless people like keeping a cat or a dog around for company. Cats and dogs are affectionate too, and you don’t have to worry about them the way you would with a kid. It’s not bad, really.”
“Cheng Yao, I’ve already decided I’m not staying childless.”
Cheng Yao shoved the carrier into Qian Heng’s hands. “This kind of decision about your whole future — you’d better think it through carefully. Who knows, maybe in a bit you’ll decide staying childless was better after all, seeing as you held onto that principle for so many years. Keep the cat, you two can keep each other company. I’m heading home.”
Cheng Yao had just turned around when her hand was caught.
“I brought you back some pineapple cakes from my business trip to Taiwan, the ones you like.”
“Hm?”
Qian Heng’s voice sounded a bit unnatural. “Want to come by my place and have some?”
“No thanks.” Cheng Yao smiled. “I just had a late-night snack with my senior classmate, I’m already really full.”
With that, Cheng Yao waved and briskly walked off.
Not long after Cheng Yao got home and had just finished showering, someone knocked on her door.
She opened it, and there, to her astonishment, was Qian Heng, carrying the pet carrier with the cat, looking travel-worn but perfectly composed.
“My place lost power.”
“Water’s out too.”
“And the gas got cut off.”
Qian Heng stiffened his neck and announced, completely deadpan, “So I’ll be staying here tonight.”
As if worried Cheng Yao might object, he pressed on before she could get a word in. “I’m not staying at a hotel — there was just a news story about how even five-star hotels don’t do a proper job with cleaning, unsanitary.” He turned his head slightly. “And legally speaking, I’m still the registered tenant paying rent on this place. You have no right to kick me out. Under the circumstances, it’s entirely reasonable for me to stay here.”
Cheng Yao leaned against the door, looking at him, and had to admit — he really was, technically, the legal tenant.
She had no choice but to step aside and let him in. “Your villa surely won’t still have the power, water, and gas all out again tomorrow, will it?”
Qian Heng said, perfectly serious, “Tomorrow it’ll still be out.”
“And the day after, it should be back to normal, right?”
“The day after is uncertain too.”
……
Cheng Yao was so exasperated she nearly laughed. She hadn’t expected Qian Heng could be this shameless about it, with such a straight face. “It’s fine, tomorrow I’ll get a car to take you back to your villa, check whether it’s really still out, and if the pipes are broken, I can help fix those too while I’m at it.”
“You don’t need to fix it.” Qian Heng’s tone was a bit unnatural. “From now on, you won’t need to fix pipes at all.” He glanced up at her. “I’ll do it.”
“Your precious hands know how to fix pipes?”
“I can sign up for a plumbing training course. There’s nothing in this world I can’t do. Fixing pipes — I can master that too, better than anyone.”
“…”
Back when Qian Heng had first asked to get back together, Cheng Yao’s heart had still been smarting from that pervasive sense of superiority of his, and she’d approached the whole thing with some skepticism.
Had this man really thought it through? Really understood what he was doing? Was saying he wanted to get married and have kids not just some impulsive, half-thought-out decision?
But no amount of calculation on Cheng Yao’s part could have prepared her for just how shameless Qian Heng could be.
Qian Heng still looked outwardly composed, but the way his gaze followed her everywhere, the tense, watchful posture, and the anxious eagerness to please that he couldn’t quite manage — all of it was already leaking through, bit by bit.
He still thought he was being clever, hiding it all, without realizing that the effort itself only made it more obvious.
Way too obvious.
Really, way too obvious.
Qian Heng looked like an actor handed the most mortifyingly awkward script imaginable, and yet still trying his best to perform it professionally, clinging to the last shreds of his dignity with such transparently pathetic excuses.
Cheng Yao felt an odd mix of amusement and exasperation.
Even now, still trying to put on airs? Where was his self-awareness as a suitor? If you’re not single, then who is?!
She didn’t bother with Qian Heng any further, just glanced at him and, as if he weren’t even there, picked up her phone and answered Gu Beiqing’s call. “Hey, senior. Tomorrow morning? Sure, I’m free — it’s the weekend anyway, let’s go grab brunch. Sure, come pick me up here.”
Let’s see if that doesn’t drive him crazy.