Faced with this unexpected gift, Qian Heng reminded himself that the most valuable trait for a successful legal professional, in the face of anything, was composure! Untangle the threads, and find the truth!
He stared at the box of condoms, lost in thought…
Slowly, a theory began to take shape in his mind —
Cheng Yao liked him!
She really did have inappropriate feelings for him!!!
Once he framed it that way, everything suddenly made sense to Qian Heng — all the tangled clues unraveled cleanly to reveal the truth.
Who would have guessed — Cheng Yao seemed so well-behaved most of the time, yet when it came to matters of the heart, she was this wild.
And it was only now that Qian Heng understood why he’d felt so off all day. He must have unconsciously sensed the danger from the way she’d been looking at him with that clingy gaze, even before her fiery confession — some instinct had picked up on the warning signs, which was why he’d been so restless.
As for why he was restless — obviously, because he had no idea how to turn her down.
Office romances were deeply unprofessional! Completely unreliable! Absolutely not allowed!
But Cheng Yao was the associate on his own team — if he rejected such a wildly bold confession outright, wouldn’t it crush her confidence and self-esteem? What if she couldn’t handle the blow and quit on the spot?
If she got rejected, felt humiliated, and stormed off, wouldn’t all the effort he’d put into training her go to waste? And hadn’t she just agreed to clean his villa for a month? If he rejected her now, no more cleaning, and probably no more home-cooked meals either.
This was troublesome.
Qian Heng found himself, for a moment, deeply vexed.
When Qian Heng walked over, face grim, Cheng Yao was in the middle of stuffing a macaron into her mouth.
“Cheng Yao, come here.”
Seeing his serious expression, Cheng Yao nearly choked on her macaron. Trembling, she followed him to the staircase, away from the living room and the rest of their colleagues.
“Is it the prenuptial agreement? Did I revise it wrong?”
Qian Heng pressed his lips together tightly. “No. It’s something more serious. I believe you know exactly what.”
Cheng Yao’s heart lurched. She’d been so careful, so stealthy — how had he found out?!
“I’m sorry, boss!” She was ready to drop to her knees and confess on the spot. “That succulent plant of yours — its roots had actually already rotted by the time I brought it home. I tried to save it for ages, but it just wouldn’t recover. I didn’t want you to be upset, so the one I gave back to you was actually one I bought myself as a replacement. I thought it looked similar enough that you wouldn’t notice — who knew you’d have such sharp eyes…”
“What?!” Qian Heng’s voice shot up, thick with astonishment. “My original succulent is dead?!”
“…”
Cheng Yao could have cried. It turned out that wasn’t even what he’d wanted to confront her about! He hadn’t known at all! She’d confessed for nothing!
For secretly swapping out the succulent and deceiving her boss, Cheng Yao got scolded standing up for a full three minutes. By the time it was over, she’d completely forgotten to ask what he’d actually called her over for.
Qian Heng seemed to have forgotten too, because Cheng Yao heard him ask, somewhat unnaturally —
“You didn’t sleep well last night, did you?”
“Huh?” Cheng Yao touched her own face — her dark circles must really be that bad. She nodded, not suspecting a thing. “Yeah, I didn’t sleep well.” The floor heating had broken, after all. So cold.
“You wore that dress on purpose, didn’t you?”
Cheng Yao nodded. He could even tell that?
Qian Heng looked at her, his expression shifting unreadably. After a moment of silence, he said, with a certain weight —
“Cheng Yao, I’m not just against marriage. I’m also against having children.”
Cheng Yao: ???
Did his aversion to marriage and kids mean he expected the same from his subordinates??
Surely not…
Just as Cheng Yao was puzzling over the meaning of his words as if deciphering an imperial edict, weighing whether she should reassure him that marriage and kids wouldn’t affect her work in the future, Qian Heng abruptly changed the subject.
He glanced at her, then quickly looked away, his eyelashes fluttering slightly. “Your gift — were you serious about it?”
At the mention of the gift, Cheng Yao perked right up, nodding vigorously to show her sincerity. “Yes! I picked it out carefully for you, boss! I hope you like it!”
She added, “Besides the gift box, I also baked you a cake with my own hands! I brought it over earlier and put it in the fridge with Bao Rui. I was hoping it could be dessert after dinner, but then Wu Par ordered those fancy pastries, so my cake looks a little shabby next to a French pastry chef’s work. Still! My feelings for you, boss, are all baked into that cake!”
Unfortunately, this enthusiastic declaration got absolutely no reaction out of Qian Heng. He simply gave her a strangely subtle glance, then looked away again.
“I didn’t expect it — you seem so scatterbrained usually, but when it counts, you keep your feelings well hidden.”
Cheng Yao blinked, then realized — Qian Heng must think that she hadn’t shown much enthusiastic loyalty to her boss on a daily basis, and it was only now, through this carefully prepared, handmade birthday gift, that he’d seen her deep devotion to him!
This was exactly the moment to lay the flattery on thick!
Cheng Yao didn’t hesitate. “Boss, some things — even if I don’t say them out loud, and you can’t always tell from how I act — they’ve actually taken root in my heart for a long time. I just waited for the right moment, your birthday, to show it. Haven’t you heard the saying? Silent as the rain that nourishes — some feelings are just like that…”
Qian Heng went completely silent after hearing this.
After a long pause, Cheng Yao heard his voice again — still calm, though she couldn’t tell if it was her imagination, but there seemed to be the faintest tremor at the edge of that calm.
“Cheng Yao, not everything in this world works out the way you want it to.”
“And not everything you put effort into will get a response, or pay off.”
Cheng Yao looked up and met his gaze. For some reason, there was a trace of pity in his eyes, and when she tried to look more closely, Qian Heng turned his head away, avoiding her stare.
What on earth was going on?
Cheng Yao felt both confused and uneasy — it was nearly year-end, and Qian Heng was suddenly acting so profound and mysterious, like something unfortunate was about to happen to her.
Was he trying to find an excuse to dock her year-end bonus?!
Or was it because she’d secretly swapped out the succulent, and he was planning to take back some perk he’d promised her?!
Just as Cheng Yao, thoroughly unable to read his angle, was trembling with anxiety, Qian Heng spoke again.
This time, the topic leap was even bigger.
He cleared his throat, his voice noticeably unnatural. “Back in school, you weren’t very good at Legal Logic, were you?”
Huh?? He even knew that?? Cheng Yao’s legal logic course had been taught entirely in English, using imported American textbooks, and since her English wasn’t great, she’d been lost throughout the whole course. Her grades in it really hadn’t been good.
“Boss, did you look at my transcript?” Cheng Yao said, a little anxious. “My grade in that class wasn’t high, it did drag down my GPA, but I didn’t falsify anything the way some people do. The transcript and resume I gave the firm were completely real…”
Qian Heng said nothing. He just pressed his lips together tightly, then nodded, his expression unreadable.
“Mm. You really weren’t good at it. Wanting to have a baby, yet using protection at the same time — that’s a contradiction, logically inconsistent.”
Cheng Yao: ???
Had he seen her reading that novel, “The Domineering CEO’s Runaway Bride,” on the plane during her last business trip to City B, out of boredom? That male lead was exactly the type who says “give me a baby” one day and “take the pill, I don’t want any lingering complications” the next — a whirlwind lunatic of a character. If Qin Qin hadn’t insisted it got good after the first third, Cheng Yao never would have made it past Ni Ye You Jin Tian – Chapter five.
“If you’ve got time, stop thinking about this kind of nonsense. Even as a woman, you should still have ambition.”
Cheng Yao thought despairingly — so Qian Heng really had seen her reading that novel…
Qian Heng glanced at her, then added, with a certain reserve, “I have a lot of respect for ambitious women.”
Oh, great… Cheng Yao thought, next time I’ll read classic court rulings instead…
Having said his piece, Qian Heng shot her a glare and walked off.
Cheng Yao watched his retreating back, utterly bewildered. She was fairly sure her own legal logic was just fine — it was Qian Heng’s logic that might be failing, because tonight’s little speech had been completely disjointed and nonsensical!
Oh well, oh well — he’s twenty-eight now, no point arguing with him.
After a moment of self-comforting mental victory, Cheng Yao happily went off to join Bao Rui for some gaming.
But she hadn’t been playing long before Tan Ying came over, phone in hand, wearing a gossipy expression, and interrupted them both.
Looking mysterious, glancing around like a secret agent making contact, she lowered her voice. “Wang Lu and Li Menglei are dating.”
Bao Rui was shocked. “Really? Didn’t Wang Lu just break up recently? Isn’t she two years older than Li Menglei? I remember him telling me he wasn’t into younger-guy-older-girl relationships.”
Tan Ying rolled her eyes at him. “Haven’t you heard the saying — the ones who protest too much about being homophobic are often secretly gay themselves? Same logic — the ones who claim to hate age-gap relationships secretly love them deep down.”
Both Bao Rui and Cheng Yao expressed disbelief.
“Huh? What’s with those faces?” Tan Ying got worked up. “I have solid evidence, okay? Both of you pull out your phones and look at the group email Sister Zhu just sent.”
Cheng Yao dutifully checked her inbox and saw that not long ago, Sister Zhu had sent a notice about lawyer etiquette and dress-code training. And shortly after, she’d sent another notice about a lecture on balancing lawyers’ personal relationships and their work.
Bao Rui looked skeptical. “That training notice is a bit random, sure, but what does it have to do with Li Menglei and Wang Lu?”
Tan Ying opened the email. “Look, this lecture on balancing personal relationships and work — the attachment has a brief outline of the lecture content.”
“So?”
“When has any lecture ever come with an outline attached before?” Tan Ying said, brimming with confidence. “You two are lawyers, aren’t you? You can’t afford to overlook any unusual detail! I, future star partner Tan, had a flash of inspiration and thought something was off! So I traced it back and studied the outline carefully!”
“And it turns out — you won’t believe it! Look at this outline: ‘One, the drawbacks of lawyers dating within the same profession; Two, the drawbacks of lawyers dating colleagues at the same firm; Three, the drawbacks of lawyers dating across seniority levels; Four, how lawyers should handle the awkwardness after a confession gets rejected; Five, the golden first three years for new lawyers building their careers.'”
Tan Ying finished reading and rapped her knuckles on the table. “See? This lecture is clearly targeted at specific colleagues. I was worried I might be wrong at first, so I went and confirmed it with Sister Zhu. Sure enough — Sister Zhu said this lecture had never been planned before at all. Qian Par suddenly called her over today, in the middle of his birthday party, and told her to arrange it for next week — he even dictated the outline himself, on the spot.”
Bao Rui looked convinced now, a doubtful expression crossing his face.
Tan Ying pressed her advantage. “Think about it — when has Qian Par ever cared about lectures and training before? And suddenly arranging this exact topic at his own birthday party? He must have caught something today! He must have discovered an office romance at the firm!”
Cheng Yao couldn’t help chiming in. “But that doesn’t prove it’s Wang Lu and Li Menglei specifically — it could be someone else.”
“Have you started dating recently?”
Cheng Yao shook her head. “No. Work has completely drained me.”
“Right, so think about it — the single women at our firm right now, there’s only three: you, me, and Wang Lu, who just broke up. Neither you nor I are dating anyone, so it has to be Wang Lu. As for the men — Wu Par’s relationship status is a mystery, but I think his heart already belongs to someone, so pass on him. That leaves only Li Menglei among the currently single men! Could Qian Par be dating someone? Impossible! Because he’s eternally in love with his money! So there’s only one suspect left!”
Tan Ying looked like she was about to spell out “the culprit is Li Menglei” across her forehead.
Cheng Yao glanced over at Li Menglei and Wang Lu, who were playing cards together nearby, and thought that no matter how she looked at it, there was no spark between them. She still wasn’t convinced. “It doesn’t have to be a single person dating someone, though — what if it’s someone married having an affair, like Bao Rui?”
“Cheng Yao, don’t talk nonsense!” Bao Rui was the first to jump up. “Years back, we had a lawyer at the firm who cheated, and his wife and the mistress both came to the office to fight it out. Qian Par was so fed up that, even though it was never written into any formal rule, if a lawyer at the firm is caught having an affair with solid evidence, they basically get fired on the spot.”
Fair enough. Cheng Yao glanced again at Li Menglei and Wang Lu — they’d been avoiding each other so carefully, and yet Qian Heng had still caught on. She felt a bit sorry for them. “But our firm doesn’t actually have a rule against office romances, does it? Why go to all this trouble arranging a whole lecture just to hint at some couple?”
“No idea,” Tan Ying admitted, also puzzled. “I always heard Qian Par didn’t care about office romances before, as long as it didn’t affect work.”
Bao Rui leaned in and lowered his voice. “I think I know why.” He glanced furtively at Qian Heng, who was chatting with Wu Jun nearby, his face expressionless. “I heard that blind date of Qian Par’s fell through.”
Tan Ying got excited. “What?!”
“Reliable source, it definitely fell through,” Bao Rui said sympathetically. “It’s not easy being Qian Par. Twenty-eight years old and still a virgin — keep this up and by thirty he’ll be able to cast spells. Maybe he’s lonely too, wants someone to be with, but reality’s just cruel. Now that he’s souring on office romances, it kind of makes sense — his own love life’s a mess, and he has to watch some couple flirting right under his nose at the office. Doesn’t that just make him feel even more pathetic by comparison? He’s got to crack down and split them up!”
“…”
Cheng Yao didn’t quite believe Qian Heng was really like that, but after being talked at by Tan Ying and Bao Rui, she found herself starting to have doubts too.
After all, Qian Heng really had been acting strange today — that whole nonsensical, disjointed speech he’d given her earlier, and he had admitted before that he was quite satisfied with his blind date. Could it really be that the date had failed and the blow had left him acting so out of character?
Before Cheng Yao could fully process it, her phone buzzed.
She looked down — a message from Qian Heng.
“I hope you can control where you’re looking.”
“You’ve snuck a look at me six times in the last ten minutes.”
Cheng Yao: ???
While Tan Ying had been gossiping, she had, admittedly, glanced at Qian Heng a few times without thinking — but six times in ten minutes? And wait — if he wasn’t looking at her, how did he know how many times she’d looked at him??? Was he secretly scheming up more reasons to dock her year-end bonus?!