Because of her sympathy for Bai Xingmeng, Cheng Yao threw herself fully into the case. Last night she worked overtime preparing the filing materials, and first thing this morning, she sent the complete set of documents to Qian Heng for review.
Sharp-tongued as he was, when it came to work, Qian Heng was extremely responsible. Cheng Yao soon received his email reply — the complaint she had drafted had been fully revised in tracked-changes mode, with brief annotations explaining the reasons for each edit.
Cheng Yao worked so efficiently that she managed to deliver the filing materials to the court that very day.
But the moment she got back from the courthouse, she ran into an unexpected visitor right at Junheng’s front entrance —
Dong Min.
The last time they’d met, Dong Min had been all haughty airs, dressed to the nines. Today, though, her face was pale and her eyes red and swollen, with none of her earlier bravado. She didn’t even spare Cheng Yao a glance as Cheng Yao walked toward her — she seemed consumed by something more urgent, and Cheng Yao only caught a glimpse of her hurrying through Junheng’s front doors, her expression wretched, her skirt flashing past.
“Qian Heng! Where’s Qian Heng! I’m looking for Qian Heng!”
The receptionist tried to intercept her. “Miss Dong, do you have an appointment? If not…”
But Dong Min paid no attention at all. Her eyes brimmed with tears, her lips trembling. “No, I need to see Qian Heng right now. I need to know exactly what’s going on!”
“Cheng Yao!”
Just as Dong Min was at her most helpless, she spotted Cheng Yao standing behind her. Normally suspicious of everything, Dong Min didn’t even pause to wonder why Cheng Yao was at Junheng — she simply rushed forward and grabbed Cheng Yao’s hand. “If you’re here, then Qian Heng must be here too. Please, let me see him. I really have something important…”
Dong Min’s commotion in the main office area drew quite a bit of attention — a few other lawyers were already poking their heads out to look.
Cheng Yao was in a bind. “Attorney Qian really isn’t here right now — he went out to court this morning…”
Never mind that he was actually out — even if he weren’t, he’d certainly have ordered her to intercept Dong Min. Cheng Yao broke into a cold sweat; if she failed to stop her, there was no telling what Qian Heng would do to her.
As if on cue, the moment those words left her mouth, Qian Heng walked in through the front door. It seemed the hearing had gone smoothly, wrapping up this early.
Qian Heng frowned, about to snap at the crowd gathered by the entrance, when his gaze landed, unguarded, right on Cheng Yao’s eyes.
Cheng Yao was making wild faces at him, like some clumsy undercover agent trying to signal danger ahead. And the instant Dong Min also spotted Qian Heng, an expression of tragic, heroic despair flashed across Cheng Yao’s face.
Qian Heng’s mood suddenly brightened. Her expressions were quite rich, he thought — rather entertaining.
Compared to Qian Heng’s calm, Dong Min grew far more agitated, raising her voice. “Qian Heng!”
Just as Cheng Yao braced for Qian Heng to shoot her a “you failed at your job” death glare, he did something unexpected — he didn’t avoid Dong Min at all.
It was just that his attitude, though direct, was utterly cold. “Your father’s case — I can’t discuss it with you. There’s no need for you to come find me.”
Dong Min grew desperate. “That’s my father! Why can’t I know?”
“Because my client is him, not his daughter. I protect his interests, his privacy — not yours.”
“What exactly is going on, Qian Heng, tell me clearly. Why would my father suddenly sue for divorce from my mother? They’ve always been so loving! This doesn’t make any sense! It’s not possible! Just a week ago he said he was going to take her back to the place they first met next month for her birthday! Isn’t there some mistake here?”
“That’s not a question you should be asking me. I’m only your father’s representing attorney — you should ask your father.” Faced with Dong Min’s tearful expression, Qian Heng remained utterly unmoved. He merely raised his arm to check his watch. “Cheng Yao, if Miss Dong has no business to discuss with us, see her out. We’re a law firm, not a set for some over-the-top family melodrama.”
Having said that, Qian Heng swept his gaze across the main office area. “Whoever still has their head up thinks their workload isn’t full enough?”
The moment those words left his mouth, Li Menglei, Wang Lu, Tan Ying, and the rest of them all uniformly buried the heads they had slightly raised to watch the gossip.
Qian Heng snorted and returned to his office.
Qian Heng could afford to be self-indulgent, but Cheng Yao could not.
The moment Qian Heng walked off, Dong Min broke down in tears. The mess Qian Heng had left behind would inevitably fall to Cheng Yao to clean up.
So as not to disturb her colleagues’ work, Cheng Yao could only comfort Dong Min while leading her to a nearby bubble tea shop.
Between comforting and coaxing, Cheng Yao finally pieced together the whole story.
Dong Min’s father and mother had met at thirteen, fallen in love at fifteen — childhood sweethearts — married at twenty-two, and started a business together at twenty-three. Both of them were sharp-minded, and working in the same direction with a stroke of good timing, they had spotted the enormous potential of the Chinese fast-food industry. What began as a small family-style restaurant grew, step by step, into something bigger and stronger — through the early exploratory phase, the introduction of standardized operations, and the cultivation of brand reputation, and finally through bringing in venture capital for capitalization — until their jointly founded Zhenwei Catering Management Co., Ltd. had leapt from a sole proprietorship into a corporate group, with nearly seven hundred franchise locations nationwide, spread across almost every major city in the country.
“I know Qian Heng is a famous family law attorney. My dad first went to him years ago to set up a family trust. After that, for years, there was no other reason for them to work together. When he recently started reaching out to Qian Heng again, I was a bit wary too, since Qian Heng’s most famous specialty is handling divorce cases. But my dad said he wanted to hire him as a corporate family affairs consultant for the company, to protect the company’s equity and interests from being harmed if a shareholder ran into a family dispute — to safeguard the legitimate interests of both the company and the individual shareholders.” Dong Min’s voice caught. “Right now my parents are the majority shareholders of Zhenwei Catering, but there are several other shareholders too. My dad said one of them might be heading toward a divorce soon, and he was worried that person’s marital situation could affect the company’s equity, so he wanted to bring on a corporate family affairs consultant. So all these days, he’s been in contact with Qian Heng, and I never thought twice about it…”
Dong Min was right — a corporate family affairs attorney wouldn’t be serving any single shareholder’s personal interest, but would combine the interests of the shareholders and the company, providing a whole suite of legal services covering divorce property division, inheritance, marriage, and balancing interests within family businesses.
But clearly, Dong Shan had lied to Dong Min. His reaching out to Qian Heng had nothing to do with hiring him as some corporate family affairs consultant…
“I never imagined that my dad wanted to hire Qian Heng as his personal lawyer. I was even happily asking my dad every day when he could get Qian Heng to come by, so I’d have more chances to see him. I never expected — he really did hire him, just to file for divorce from my mom!”
At this point, Dong Min rubbed at her eyes again, tears welling up slightly. “My parents have never really argued. These past two years they’ve been so loving, taking two international trips together every year. Do you know how hard it was for them to be together? My mom’s family had money, my dad was a poor kid back then, my grandparents didn’t approve, and my mom married him anyway without taking a cent from them, and they fought their way together to where they are now. Anyone can see how real their feelings are!”
Dong Min’s emotions were running high — her father’s sudden divorce filing had hit her like an unforeseen blow, and for her mother, Jiang Wenxiu, it was an even more unbearable disaster. The moment Jiang Wenxiu received the court summons, her world spun and her breath caught in her throat — she collapsed on the spot and was now still lying in a hospital bed.
Cheng Yao spent a good while comforting Dong Min until she finally calmed down, wiped her tears, and left to visit her mother at the hospital.
But when Cheng Yao returned to the office, Dong Min’s helpless, tear-streaked face still lingered in her mind. Parents divorcing was always painful for the children — no matter how domineering that “child” might be, no matter how old that “child” had grown.
Cheng Yao had actually met Dong Shan once before, when he’d come to discuss a case with Qian Heng. She remembered what he looked like — a kind, honest-seeming man. Despite his staggering net worth, he dressed plainly, with gentle eyes, the kind of person who seemed easy to get along with.
She especially remembered the time she’d walked into the conference room to bring Qian Heng some materials, and Dong Shan had been earnestly asking Qian Heng if he could join him and his daughter for a meal sometime. Here was a man old enough to be Qian Heng’s elder, with an enormous fortune, and yet he was speaking so humbly, all for the sake of his daughter — he must have loved her so much to do that.
But now — now…
“I’ve sent Dong Min off. Can I ask — why exactly did her father suddenly decide to divorce her mother?” Cheng Yao finally couldn’t help herself. After delivering a legal opinion letter that needed Qian Heng’s signature into his office, she paused, then asked the question weighing on her mind. “He must have some hidden reason, right? Like a terminal illness or something?”
Qian Heng glanced at Cheng Yao, his voice flat. “A terminal illness — so, to spare his wife the grief of watching him waste away, he decides to use the most extreme method possible to make her hate him instead, so that she can move on and forget him for the rest of her life, and maybe even find happiness again.”
Cheng Yao’s eyes lit up. “Is that really it?!”
“Cheng Yao, you’ve been reading too many novels.” Qian Heng scoffed. “What other hidden reasons could there possibly be for a divorce? It’s simply that the love is gone, that he doesn’t want to keep going. When a man doesn’t want to marry you, or wants to divorce you, there’s no hidden reason — the ‘hidden reason’ is just the fig leaf they use to dress themselves up.”
“But Dong Shan loves Dong Min so much, he doesn’t even care about saving face for her sake — how could he possibly get divorced? How could he let Dong Min suffer like this?”
“Loving your daughter deeply and not loving your spouse aren’t contradictory.” Qian Heng rubbed his temple. “We men are very complicated.” He glanced at Cheng Yao. “Take you, for instance — do you know what I’m thinking right now?”
Cheng Yao shook her head, very honestly.
“I’m thinking — could you do me a favor. Turn left right now, walk out the door, and close it behind you. Stop wasting my time.”
“…”