Ever since morning, Qian Heng’s left eyelid had been twitching nonstop.
Did a twitching left eye mean bad luck or good fortune coming? He wasn’t quite sure.
“Qian Heng! There’s a bar association event this Saturday…”
Of course, the moment Wu Jun sauntered into his office with a flirtatious swagger, a glint of scheming mischief in his peach-blossom eyes, Qian Heng finally knew for certain —
Left eye. Definitely bad luck.
He didn’t even look up. “Not going. No time.”
Wu Jun was entirely unfazed by Qian Heng’s reaction. He smiled. “I know you have zero interest in any event that doesn’t make money, but this time Chairman Zhang of the bar association specifically named you. We’re still under their jurisdiction after all — are you really going to refuse them even this much face? Do you still want Junheng to make the Top Ten Firms in City A list at year end?”
Qian Heng did look up at that, frowning, his tone icy. “Not a habit.”
“Of course not — I love you too much to let you go out and make a spectacle of yourself normally, don’t I? Haven’t I blocked everything I could block for you?”
“What time Saturday?”
“Saturday, nine in the morning to three in the afternoon. The association’s covering lunch.” Wu Jun patted Qian Heng’s shoulder. “Saves you from ordering takeout at home all weekend.”
Qian Heng, thinking of Cheng Yao’s delicious cooking, replied without thinking, “I haven’t been eating takeout lately.”
“Huh? What?”
Qian Heng pressed his lips together. “Nothing.” He looked up at Wu Jun. “So what exactly is this bar association event?”
Wu Jun scratched his head, stammering a bit awkwardly. “It’s just an event about spiritual and cultural development for contemporary young lawyers. A little meeting, some mingling with other young lawyers — think of it as relaxation.”
Qian Heng looked puzzled. “Why would Chairman Zhang specifically want me for something like this?”
Wu Jun cleared his throat. “Maybe Chairman Zhang thinks you have good pull and status.” He looked away. “Also, each firm needs to send one male and one female lawyer. Chairman Zhang specifically requested you for the men, but the female lawyer hasn’t been decided yet. Who do you think should go?”
“You decide.”
“Among our female lawyers, Qian Hui and Li Meng are already married, Tian Sihe and Wang Lu both have boyfriends. The single ones left are Cheng Yao and Tan Ying, but I heard Tan Ying just broke up recently, so she probably needs time to recover emotionally. So I think it should be Cheng Yao.”
Qian Heng looked confused. “It’s just an event about spiritual and cultural development — why does the person need to be single?”
Wu Jun laughed sheepishly. “Well, you see, the married ones have families now, so of course they want to spend the weekend with their kids and husbands. The ones with boyfriends naturally want to go on dates. The one who just broke up needs space and time to feel better on her own. But the single one — her schedule’s totally free, so of course she should go to something like this.”
Qian Heng listened, and though he found the logic a bit odd, he couldn’t find a flaw in it, so he nodded in agreement with the arrangement.
“I’ll go tell Cheng Yao then.”
Qian Heng said, unruffled, “No need. I’ll do it.”
Wu Jun looked puzzled. “You usually hate doing these kinds of notification tasks. Why are you jumping at it today?”
“To keep you from corrupting the new hire.”
“Aren’t you always trying to get Cheng Yao to quit? Why would you care if she gets corrupted?”
“If she gets corrupted, even after she’s eventually fired, it’ll still reflect badly on Junheng’s image out there.”
“…”
After Cheng Yao submitted Bai Xingmeng’s case to the court, all that remained for her, as the lawyer, was to wait for the court to accept the case and set a hearing date. So Cheng Yao suddenly found herself with free time — after all of Qian Heng’s various forms of torment, she found she wasn’t quite used to being idle, so she proactively picked up a guide to Supreme Court marriage-court precedent cases to study, knowing her foundation was weak and her experience thin.
Today was Friday, and tomorrow would be the weekend. Leaving work, Cheng Yao felt both fulfilled and cheerful — this weekend, she planned to relax properly and sleep in.
Tonight Qian Heng had a client meeting and wouldn’t be eating at home, so Cheng Yao went home in high spirits, happily ate dinner alone, and was just settling in to enjoy her Friday evening when Qian Heng came home.
“Cheng Yao. Nine tomorrow morning, representing the firm at the bar association’s young lawyers’ spiritual and cultural development seminar.”
It was technically a soft form of “overtime” on a Saturday, but Qian Heng said it with such confidence that Cheng Yao blinked before finding her footing to object. “Why does it have to be me?”
Just because I’m the new hire? But my spiritual and cultural development is already excellent! I don’t think there’s any need for further development! Cheng Yao grumbled internally, glancing at Qian Heng — actually, you’re the one who really needs some spiritual and cultural development.
“It’s not about picking on you for being new.” Qian Heng glanced at Cheng Yao. “I’m going too.”
Cheng Yao was about to give Qian Heng a rare thumbs-up for this bit of equal treatment, when she heard him give a soft laugh and continue —
“Nine tomorrow morning to three in the afternoon. I normally never bring a female lawyer to these bar association events. You’re in luck.”
“What?” Cheng Yao stared, dumbfounded. Then explain to me — how exactly is this good luck? Stuck on a Saturday with no escape from her boss’s clutches? That’s luck??
Qian Heng gave a short laugh. “Me bringing you to an event is basically announcing that you’re a lawyer on my team — that’s an endorsement for your future job hunting. Do you know how sought-after the lawyers who leave my team are at other firms?”
What’s there to be proud of! Qian Heng, you should really reflect on why the lawyers you personally train keep getting poached or jumping ship!
Cheng Yao held it in, but couldn’t quite stop herself. She said tactfully, “Doesn’t it make you a little sad, after all those lawyers you personally trained ended up leaving? Isn’t that basically training up competitors for other firms?”
“What kind of contract did you sign when you joined Junheng?”
“An employment contract.”
Qian Heng looked at Cheng Yao like she was a hopeless student. “We just have a labor employment relationship. It’s a business arrangement — what’s there to feel about? As for competitors, they’d have to be good enough first.” Then he looked her over again. “Someone like you, for instance — if another firm poached you, that wouldn’t be called ‘stealing talent,’ it’d be called ‘taking over a mess.'”
“…”
Fine, fine — bide her time, Cheng Yao consoled herself. Before you become powerful, just endure it, Cheng Yao. Once you make it big, Qian Heng so much as looking at you the wrong way will be a capital offense!
The bar association seminar started at nine, so Cheng Yao’s Saturday sleep-in was scrapped, but at least she got to ride in Qian Heng’s car. The two of them, dressed in professional attire, made it to the association smoothly.
But once they arrived at the venue, Cheng Yao started feeling like something was off…
First, the venue didn’t look like a seminar space at all. Second, the other attending lawyers were all dressed casually — yet even though it was supposedly just a spiritual and cultural development seminar, everyone, men and women alike, had clearly dressed up carefully. Qian Heng, being a man, didn’t look too out of place in formal wear, but Cheng Yao stuck out like a sore thumb…
If her initial unease had been mild, then the moment she looked up and saw the banner reading “City A Young Lawyers’ Social Mixer,” things started looking quite alarming…
Worse still, hanging on the wall beneath that banner was a poster with a big heart painted on it, with a line of text —
“Take the initiative, say goodbye to being single, let loose and embrace prosperity together.”
Below that line was an even more striking slogan —
“Getting legally married is the duty of every eligible young person.”
…
This was — this was damn well a matchmaking mixer for single young lawyers!!!
At that moment, all Cheng Yao wanted was to turn and confront Qian Heng — why had he picked her for this bar-association-run matchmaking event pretending to be about “spiritual development”!
Before Cheng Yao could say anything, Qian Heng had already caught on. His face darkened, and without a word he pulled out his phone and called Wu Jun.
Wu Jun’s voice was still groggy, clearly having just been woken from his sleep-in. “What’s up?”
“Young lawyers’ spiritual and cultural development?”
“Heh heh…”
“Wu Jun, explain to me how a spiritual and cultural development seminar turned into a singles’ mixer.”
Wu Jun was still laughing. “Well that’s on you — solving the singles problem is one of the most important spiritual-cultural development topics for young lawyers right now!”
“…”
“Qian Heng, our country’s population is aging — it’s a matter of life and death at this point. As an ambitious young man, you naturally need to take on your social responsibility: get married for the country, have kids for the country, and even have a second kid for the country. Your whole anti-marriage stance is a dangerous ideology — of course you need to attend this mixer and get your thinking straightened out, elevate your spirit a bit.”
Qian Heng said, expressionless, “Wu Jun, your year-end bonus is gone.”
“No, no, no!” Wu Jun begged. “Fine, I really had no choice — Chairman Zhang pushed hard for you to attend. You’re currently the highest-earning single male lawyer in City A, the best-looking, with the thickest head of hair. Female lawyers usually aren’t interested in these kinds of events, but this time, when Chairman Zhang was promoting the mixer, he dropped your name early, and the female lawyers signed up in droves — so we couldn’t very well not have you show up in the end.”
“That’s false advertising.”
“All right, all right, just sacrifice yourself for the firm this once. I’ll treat you to dinner later! I’m going back to sleep. Bye!”
Cheng Yao stood nearby during the call and got the general picture. This time she couldn’t blame Qian Heng — like her, he was a victim too.
But victim or not, when both the firm and the governing bar association had spoken, even though Qian Heng’s face was as sour as a rock in an outhouse pit, he had no choice but to comply.
Sure enough, the one organizing the event was an enthusiastic older lady from the bar association. As emcee, her voice was loud and clear, well-suited to the role.
“Hello, fellow lawyers! Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend our bar association’s mixer. Today’s event has two parts — indoor activities first, and outdoor activities after lunch. We’re about to start the indoor portion now. Each firm has sent one male and one female lawyer, so our male-to-female ratio works out perfectly one to one.”
The older lady smiled, looking around. “We want to give everyone a chance to get to know each other, so in the next segment, each male lawyer will have three minutes to chat with each female lawyer. In those three minutes, you two can speed up getting to know each other — ask about views on love, standards for choosing a partner, even discuss legal cases and see if your values align, all of that’s fine. When the three minutes are up, our timekeeper will let you know, and everyone rotates forward automatically to the next person, and so on. Once everyone’s gone around, any lawyers interested in continuing to talk can chat privately on their own afterward.”
Cheng Yao snuck a glance at Qian Heng beside her. As the event format was explained, his face grew darker and darker…
Still, it had to be admitted — sour expression or not, Qian Heng’s looks were simply too striking. Among the crowd of male lawyers, he could genuinely be described with words like “heavenly, unmatched grace.” At a glance, with his handsome features and imposing build, he looked exactly like a male lead wrapped in plot armor, as if some low-budget drama had spent its entire lighting budget on him alone, leaving all the male supporting cast looking dull and shabby standing next to him.
Sure enough, a few of the shorter male lawyers were quietly inching away from Qian Heng, but as the public enemy of men everywhere, his popularity and buzz among the women only rose to match, following some sort of conservation of energy. Even standing beside him, Cheng Yao could feel the gazes the female lawyers were casting toward Qian Heng — many of them clearly eager to make a move.
Though he carried the nickname of the industry’s “poison,” most people hadn’t actually interacted with Qian Heng, and always figured “poison” was probably somewhat exaggerated.
Cheng Yao sighed inwardly. Oh, you poor souls, you’re all far too naive! Qian Heng would soon teach them all the meaning of “you can know a face but never a heart.” A good-looking face doesn’t mean a good heart! Poison really is poison!
“All right, next, could the male and female lawyers please stand facing each other in two rows and take your seats in order — we’re about to begin!”
Cheng Yao didn’t want to face Qian Heng directly, so she darted diagonally away from him. Standing opposite Qian Heng, meanwhile, was a female lawyer with elaborate makeup — she’d clearly come prepared, in a fitted red dress that flattered her figure, black stiletto heels, big loose curls, exuding charm with every glance — obviously an outgoing, bold personality.
“Hi, what kind of legal work do you do?”
Across from Cheng Yao was a shy male lawyer who gave an awkward smile and found a topic. Cheng Yao smiled back amicably, and the two exchanged questions and answers.
Unfortunately, the male lawyer was too introverted, and Cheng Yao quickly ran out of things to say with him. The two of them exchanged awkward glances until — thankfully — the star performer next door, Qian Heng, saved them from the awkwardness…
Compared to the blandness of Cheng Yao’s pairing, Qian Heng’s group was far more turbulent underneath the surface.
Cheng Yao and the male lawyer, with impressive tacit understanding, eavesdropped shamelessly on Qian Heng’s group.
“Attorney Qian, what type of girl do you like?”
“90, 60, 90.”
“What?”
“Measurements.”
“…”
“Besides appearance, what else do you look for in a girl?”
“A pretty face too.”
“…”
“Oh, and obedient.”
“Besides these physical things, is there nothing else?”
“She has to be a virgin.”
“What else?”
“Sensible, knows how to see the bigger picture. A man out in the world — especially a successful one like me — inevitably has to play along with things sometimes, and sometimes can’t help but make the kinds of mistakes men make. At those times, she needs to understand me, and reflect carefully on why I made that mistake — look for the reason in herself. Did she not maintain her figure well enough? Did she not take care of her face? Did she fail to attend to my emotional needs in time?”
Cheng Yao snuck a peek at the woman in the red dress — sure enough, all her earlier warmth and fire had drained from her face, replaced with an expression like she was constipated.
Ah, Cheng Yao thought sympathetically, of all the people to fall for, why fall for our Five-Poison Cult Leader — aren’t you just asking to feed yourself poison and misery for nothing?