“But she never told us that!”

Cheng Yao was quite shocked, and yet she noticed that Qian Heng, sitting beside her, remained perfectly calm.

“To be precise, Xu Jun’s depression was caused by Bai Xingmeng in the first place,” Gu Beiqing said, lowering his head. “In this marriage, he was deceived, in constant pain, and had to endure Bai Xingmeng’s cutting sarcasm and verbal attacks on top of it, along with heavy work pressure with no outlet for his emotions. That’s how it developed into depression.”

“But, but Bai Xingmeng said she was the one who was deceived in this marriage! She was the one who suffered the sarcasm and verbal abuse—even domestic violence!”

Gu Beiqing looked somewhat indignant. “She really is a famous actress—what superb acting. Does she even have the nerve to romanticize herself like that? Did she show you any evidence? I doubt she could produce any. I, on the other hand, have the timeline of Xu Jun’s depression diagnosis, corroboration from his psychiatrist, and the chat logs between Xu Jun and Bai Xingmeng—and in those, Bai Xingmeng is far from innocent. Her language was vicious, she loved using insulting terms, calling Xu Jun a coward, a worthless piece of trash, telling him to go die at the drop of a hat.”

Cheng Yao was truly, genuinely shocked. Was the Bai Xingmeng that Gu Beiqing described really the same person she had come to know?

Qian Heng, who had stayed silent this whole time, finally spoke up, turning to Cheng Yao. “When exactly did Bai Xingmeng say she was the victim in this marriage? I don’t recall that at all.”

Cheng Yao stammered a little. “It was just the two of us—after a meeting, when she stayed behind alone with me in the conference room to confirm the litigation evidence. That’s when.”

Gu Beiqing had found the root of the problem now. “So you’ve believed all along that Bai Xingmeng was the victim in this marriage?”

Ashamed as she was, Cheng Yao nodded. “That’s why I agreed to help her, to stop Xu Jun from harassing her.”

“That’s not what happened at all. That Weibo post Xu Jun made before he died was true—it wasn’t some deathbed slander against his ex-wife that Bai Xingmeng had somehow orchestrated.”

Gu Beiqing sighed. “It started with Bai Xingmeng disguising herself as gentle, generous, and virtuous to get close to Xu Jun. Xu Jun, an engineering type who’d never dated before, fell head over heels immediately, utterly devoted to Bai Xingmeng, thinking he’d found his soulmate. But it turned out, later, that what Bai Xingmeng was really interested in wasn’t him—it was his company. Because at the time, the industry was predicting that Tuantuan Online would eventually go public, with great prospects. He later realized that Bai Xingmeng cared far more about the company than about him.”

“Then after the marriage, reality set in. First, Xu Jun wasn’t the sole shareholder of Tuantuan Online—he wasn’t as wealthy as she’d imagined. Second, at the time, Tuantuan Online’s listing seemed nowhere in sight, and as the CEO of a cash-strapped startup, Xu Jun was actually living quite frugally, with no way to fund the kind of extravagant lifestyle Bai Xingmeng wanted. So her true colors came out, and she flipped her attitude toward Xu Jun completely, rushing to get a divorce.” Qian Heng swirled the glass in his hand. “Am I right?”

Gu Beiqing looked somewhat surprised, then nodded—what Qian Heng had described matched the truth to the letter.

“Did you investigate this too?”

Qian Heng gave a look that seemed to say, did this really require investigation? “There was no need to investigate at all. Same old story, far too clichéd. I’ve handled at least five cases just like it—not a shred of originality in any of them.”

“…”

“So, does that mean it’s also a lie that Xu Jun used constant scandal-mongering to boost buzz for Tuantuan Online, leaking his own relationship for publicity?”

Gu Beiqing nodded at Cheng Yao. “That was all Bai Xingmeng’s own idea, her own doing. Xu Jun was a startup founder with an engineering background—where would he have access to that kind of entertainment industry marketing resources? Well, they were married, after all, and while Bai Xingmeng was initially disappointed to find out he wasn’t as rich as she’d thought, she also considered whether she could help boost Tuantuan Online, take a gamble on the IPO. But in the end, the gossip-stoking she arranged herself didn’t do much to help the listing at all, and she had no patience to waste her youth waiting around for Xu Jun, so she filed for divorce quickly after.”

At this world-upending revelation, Qian Heng’s expression remained placid, as if it were simply how things should have been all along.

Gu Beiqing sighed. “If there’s any problem with Xu Jun’s conduct in this marriage, it’s that during the divorce he manipulated his finances to look like a loss and hid assets. As the victim of the marriage, not wanting to hand over money to an ex-wife who’d tormented and humiliated him to the core—that’s understandable emotionally, but the law shows no such sympathy.”

Cheng Yao had no idea how to describe what she was feeling right now.

She’d thought that Bai Xingmeng’s move to dump the blame on her in that statement had simply been about avoiding the fallout from Xu Jun’s death, afraid it would hurt her career and popularity. Despicable, but understandable in a way—yet she’d still believed Bai Xingmeng had been the one wronged in the marriage.

She hadn’t expected that everything Bai Xingmeng had told her, from beginning to end, had been false.

Bai Xingmeng wasn’t innocent at all—she was, if anything, deeply calculating. She’d first used a sob story to get close to Cheng Yao.

Knowing full well that Xu Jun had depression, knowing full well what the listing meant to him, and never actually intending to accept a settlement at all, she’d still had her attorney give Xu Jun false hope, letting him keep revising his settlement offer, dragging things out, letting him suffer over and over, feeding him hope only to slowly grind him down.

A marriage of less than a year was still long enough to understand a person. Perhaps from the very start, Bai Xingmeng had anticipated that Xu Jun might break down emotionally, which was why, in the end, she’d used Cheng Yao’s hands to keep her own clean.

But had she anticipated that he would take his own life?

Cheng Yao didn’t know, and didn’t dare guess at another person’s heart.

She could only be certain of one thing: Bai Xingmeng had never been the victim in this marriage—she was the perpetrator.

Her own mistake had been assuming, from the outset, that a woman was always the weaker, wronged party in a marriage.

Gu Beiqing sighed. “He was too naive about love.”

“Not naive—too clever for his own good,” Qian Heng said, glancing at Gu Beiqing. “He can’t really be called a complete victim either. He’s a man with money and resources—even if he’d never dated before, do you think all his experience in business was for nothing? Do you think he didn’t understand the saying that nothing falls from the sky for free? Why would a glamorous celebrity suddenly fall for him at first sight? You think he had no idea what was going on in his own mind?”

“He obviously knew exactly what Bai Xingmeng was up to, exactly what mindset she approached him with. But what about him? Didn’t he have his own designs on her too?” Qian Heng gave a short laugh. “He simply overestimated himself, too confident, thinking that with his own abilities he could have it both ways—get Bai Xingmeng’s beauty and body, and absorb her influence too, and ride it all the way to take Tuantuan Online public.”

“When he first pursued Bai Xingmeng, he spent lavishly—clearly beyond what he could actually afford at the time—borrowing heavily from all over just to win her over with money. Only he never expected his own abilities to fall short, and Bai Xingmeng turned out not to be some naive, easily fooled woman—she could cut her losses decisively. In the end, he couldn’t pull it off.” Qian Heng raised his eyebrows slightly. “This whole business of him faking wealth to court her—not only did Bai Xingmeng bring it up in court when she first filed for divorce, entertainment tabloids also dutifully documented how ‘lavish’ Xu Jun had been back then. But most people interpreted that as Xu Jun being so ‘deeply devoted’ to Bai Xingmeng that he’d spend a fortune to pursue her. Think about it more deeply, though—isn’t Bai Xingmeng, in that sense, also a victim?”

Gu Beiqing looked displeased. “She’s so materialistic—how can she be called a victim? Even if Xu Jun schemed against her, it was her own skewed values, wanting to take a shortcut by marrying a rich businessman, that got her into this. Doesn’t she deserve it? On this point, I don’t think she’s innocent at all.”

But Qian Heng disagreed. He glanced at Gu Beiqing. “I don’t think she deserved it. Everyone has different values and standards for choosing a partner. Bai Xingmeng didn’t steal or rob anyone, didn’t do anything morally reprehensible—she just wanted to marry a wealthy man. There’s nothing to condemn about that. It’s like you—would you want to marry a woman who’s ugly, has a bad figure, and is stupid?”

“…”

Qian Heng smiled. “Put yourself in her shoes—if you wanted a beautiful wife, and some ugly woman got plastic surgery to become beautiful and tricked you into marrying her, and after you’d had a litter of ugly kids together you found out the truth, wouldn’t you feel like you’d been scammed? That’s exactly the feeling Bai Xingmeng must have had when she found out, after the wedding, that Xu Jun didn’t actually have money.”

Gu Beiqing was momentarily at a loss for words.

“And as for Xu Jun—he wasn’t exactly a saint either. He exploited the difference in how marriage registration is recognized domestically versus abroad, setting up a company before the wedding so that Bai Xingmeng would mistakenly believe it was joint marital property—she put in both effort and connections, only to end up with nothing to show for it. Not to mention how he manipulated his assets to look like losses during the divorce. If we’re scoring how much each of them contributed to driving Xu Jun to his death, giving Bai Xingmeng an 8, then Xu Jun’s own scheming before and during the marriage would earn at least a 7.5. Not far apart at all.”

Qian Heng’s analysis was so sharp that Gu Beiqing had to admit it was far more accurate than his own. Bai Xingmeng and Xu Jun—neither of them was an easy mark; it was simply two calculating people colliding, both ending up losers.

Qian Heng gave Gu Beiqing not the slightest bit of face, smiling at his leisure. “You see, you and our Cheng Yao here aren’t so different in some respects. Divorce cases—do you really still believe there’s always one victim and one perpetrator? In marriage, it’s rarely so clear-cut who’s right and who’s wrong. More often than not, both sides are at fault. Both victim and perpetrator at once.”

Gu Beiqing’s face had gone dark, practically black with anger. Though not as senior as Qian Heng, Gu Beiqing was still an accomplished attorney with an excellent record and study-abroad experience at a top school…

But Qian Heng paid no mind at all to his temper. He swept a glance over Cheng Yao, then over Gu Beiqing. “So you see, if you tutor him for the bar exam, he’ll only score 360 at best. But if you have me tutor you, 400 is the floor, no lower.”

“…”

The atmosphere grew a bit awkward for a moment. Cheng Yao thought it over and finally broke the silence. “But why would Bai Xingmeng do this?”

Qian Heng raised his eyebrows, every cell in his body seeming to radiate contempt for the sheer stupidity of the question, and said, with characteristic sparing words, “For profit, obviously.”

“Then why go after Xu Jun so ruthlessly? If it were about money, Xu Jun had already agreed to a settlement generous enough to satisfy her—and given how desperate his company was to go public, she could have even pushed for a higher share than a court ruling would normally give, and gotten her psychological payback against him too. Why would she choose to drive him to his death?” Cheng Yao simply couldn’t understand it. “From what I saw, Xu Jun even still held out hope for a settlement earlier on—that suggests their divorce hadn’t been so bitterly all-or-nothing to begin with. Bai Xingmeng going this far now, even if the blame lands on me, what benefit could that possibly bring her? Pure revenge?”

Qian Heng glanced at Cheng Yao. “Who do you think you are? Detective Conan? Cheng Yao, you’re just a lawyer. Don’t go worrying over things that aren’t your business. People’s hearts are complicated. When you don’t have the ability to guess a client’s real intentions, you shouldn’t try. The reason Bai Xingmeng could do this is because whatever benefit she gains from it far outweighs the negative fallout from Xu Jun’s suicide. As for what that benefit is, you just don’t know yet. But time will tell.”

“If this information could be made public, it could clear Cheng Yao’s name from what she’s been dragged into,” Gu Beiqing coughed, steering the conversation back on track, sounding a bit conflicted. “But I’m not Xu Jun or one of his relatives, and I’m not a party to this matter. Based on my position and my professional ethics, I can’t make this public—especially those chat log screenshots and other evidence, which fall under confidentiality agreements. All I can tell you is that Bai Xingmeng bears undeniable responsibility for the failure of this marriage and for Xu Jun’s death.”

“There’s no need for you to make it public. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Then wasn’t the reason you asked me out tonight to discuss a solution?”

Qian Heng looked at him as if the question were absurd. “I need to discuss a solution with you? Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about my professional abilities?”

“…”

“So, is that everything you wanted to ask me tonight?”

“That’s it,” Qian Heng said, glancing at Gu Beiqing’s glass. “Since you’ve finished your drink, you can go now.”

Gu Beiqing looked utterly baffled. “You’re not even going to make small talk before kicking me out? We’re at least colleagues in the same field—no interest in keeping up appearances in case we cross paths again someday?”

“We had appearances to keep up in the first place?”

“…”

Qian Heng continued, shamelessly. “Besides, I need to discuss some internal firm matters with my employee next. Not appropriate for outsiders to be present.” He added, with zero sincerity, “Unless you’re interested in joining Junheng and coming to work under me?”

“…”

In the end, Gu Beiqing tossed a “let’s meet another time” at Cheng Yao and stormed off, his face dark as thunder.

Cheng Yao wasn’t foolish—she thanked Qian Heng almost the moment Gu Beiqing was gone.

“Thank you, boss.”

Qian Heng took a sip of his drink and looked at Cheng Yao. “Thank me for what?”

“Thank you for letting me know that, even though I made mistakes in Bai Xingmeng’s case, they don’t deserve death as a consequence. It wasn’t me who pushed Xu Jun toward his tragedy. I feel so much better now.”

Before this, there had been a hurdle in Cheng Yao’s mind she couldn’t get past—she’d felt guilty and self-blaming, convinced it was somehow all her fault that things had ended so tragically.

She’d assumed Qian Heng had brought her out for a drink to comfort and console her with words, never imagining he’d take an entirely different approach and dismantle her psychological burden this directly.

“You’re overthinking it,” Qian Heng said, turning his head away somewhat awkwardly, his voice still maintaining its cool, aloof tone. “The reason I invited Gu Beiqing out was purely to tell you where you went most wrong in this case.”

Cheng Yao looked up, a little lost.

“What do you think the truth of this case is now?”

“Before, I only listened to Bai Xingmeng’s side and was completely deceived. Now that I’ve heard both sides, I’ve got the full picture.”

Qian Heng’s expression seemed to say of course you’d say that. He gave Cheng Yao a look of disdain. “I spelled out so much for you, thinking you’d finally get it, and I forgot one thing—there are differences between people, and I shouldn’t judge your understanding by my own.”

“…”

“Cheng Yao, do you think you’ve now grasped the basic facts of Bai Xingmeng’s case? Who’s right, who’s wrong, who was the victim, who was the perpetrator?”

Afraid of giving the wrong answer and getting mocked again, Cheng Yao wisely chose to stay quiet.

“Cheng Yao, I want you to remember something. In cases—especially family law cases—there is sometimes more than one truth.”

“Why?”

“The definition of truth is too broad. Factual truth, legal truth, and the truth as you perceive it—these three alone aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

Qian Heng lightly pressed his fingers to his brow, his lashes trembling faintly as his eyes moved while he spoke, his thin lips parting—his handsome profile was, in that moment, genuinely heart-fluttering, the scene almost romantic. And yet what came out of Qian Heng’s mouth was entirely a matter-of-fact discussion of the case…

“In this case, the truth as you perceived it carried your bias that women are always exploited, always victimized in marriage—so you believed Bai Xingmeng was the weaker party. The factual truth is nearly the opposite of what you believed: aside from both of them scheming against each other when entering the marriage, Bai Xingmeng held the dominant, stronger position for most of this marriage—at the very least, she was no helpless victim. And the legal truth? Does the law support whoever happened to be right? The legal truth, based on the evidence, will only find that Bai Xingmeng received less than her fair share due to Xu Jun’s concealment of assets during the divorce. On that point, she is the victim.”

“In family law cases, especially marriage cases, as the representing attorney for one side, you naturally only hear the facts from your own client’s perspective—and some of that has been processed and distorted. You have no way of learning the truth of a marriage from just one person’s account, so you shouldn’t jump to conclusions or assume your own client is so pitiable, that representing this client is somehow you fighting for justice.”

Qian Heng lightly brushed back a stray strand of hair from his forehead, his gaze drifting idly into the distance. “What you need to do is stay neutral and objective, always.”

Cheng Yao was stunned for a moment, and then a wave of warmth and gratitude washed over her.

Qian Heng wasn’t her first boss, but he was the only one who had ever been willing to tell her these things.