Cheng Yao had assumed there wouldn’t be a response to Chen Linli’s case so quickly, but to her surprise, Qian Heng managed to win Huang Ran over in no time at all, persuading her to agree to meet Chen Linli. And true to his efficient nature, he arranged the meeting for that very evening.
When Qian Heng’s call came in, Cheng Yao and Gu Beiqing had just had their dishes served.
“Could we schedule it for tomorrow?” Cheng Yao said, a bit awkwardly. “I haven’t even started dinner yet — and more importantly, Chen Linli is still in the hospital, she probably can’t be discharged to go see Huang Ran tonight.”
Qian Heng’s voice was serious. “Tonight is the only time Huang Ran has free.”
Cheng Yao grew a bit anxious. “But given Chen Linli’s condition…”
“It’s fine, I’ll bring Huang Ran to the hospital to see her.” Qian Heng said calmly. “We should strike while the iron is hot on this. I’m worried that if Huang Ran sleeps on it, she might change her mind tomorrow and not even be willing to see Chen Linli anymore.”
Qian Heng’s reasoning was sound and well thought out. Cheng Yao considered it for only a moment before agreeing. “You’re right. In that case, let me check with Chen Linli — we’ll just meet at the hospital directly.”
After getting Chen Linli’s consent, Cheng Yao immediately gave Qian Heng the name of the hospital and the room number, then grabbed her bag without another word and got up to leave.
Gu Beiqing looked helplessly at his watch. “What’s with Qian Heng — this whole time working on Chen Linli’s case, there’s still plenty of time before the second-instance hearing, and I’ve never seen him move this fast on a case before. Choosing this exact moment to call…”
“His client wasn’t free at any other time,” Cheng Yao said with a smile. “Besides, when it comes to things like dinner, a lawyer should always put clients and work first. Making sacrifices for a case is only right.”
Gu Beiqing frowned. “Guess I was too quick to judge him. My first instinct was that he was doing this on purpose, just to stop you from having dinner…”
Cheng Yao said apologetically to Gu Beiqing, “If you’re free tonight, once I’ve handled this meeting, let’s go grab a late-night snack together.”
“No problem.” Gu Beiqing smiled gently. “Let’s go to that snack street, it’s lively over there.”
Cheng Yao rushed straight to the hospital without stopping. Of everyone, no one was more excited about the chance to talk things out with Huang Ran than Chen Linli herself.
The moment she heard the news, she struggled to sit up from her bed. “Lawyer Cheng, please, take me to see my mother-in-law.”
“No need. She and her lawyer will come here directly to see you.”
Chen Linli’s face was pale, but she forced herself to stay composed, tears welling in her eyes. “Actually, after the accident, I wanted to see my mother-in-law right away — it’s just that after Kai and Ran died, she blocked all my contact information. At one point she even thought I’d orchestrated it all to kill Kai and Ran for the money. Kai was her only child, and once he was gone, a few of her nieces and nephews started having ideas about her share of the money, stirring things up even more, painting me as some kind of monster and getting her to give a bunch of interviews to further their agenda — which only pushed us further from any reconciliation…”
“Anyway — thank you, Lawyer Cheng!”
“Don’t thank me yet. Whether this case turns out well really depends on how the conversation between you and your mother-in-law goes tonight. Even with a settlement, the division of the estate will still need to be negotiated.”
Cheng Yao still had some worry in her heart. Even though she’d already had Qian Heng pass along the accident video, statements from company employees about how loving the couple had been, chat logs between Chen Linli and Zhang Kai, and every other piece of evidence proving the depth of their affection, someone’s prejudice wasn’t always so easy to shake off.
And as if to confirm Cheng Yao’s suspicion, when Qian Heng arrived with Huang Ran, her hostility was still very much on display.
Qian Heng glanced at Cheng Yao, and the two of them stepped out of the room in perfect unspoken agreement, leaving the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law some privacy.
“What do you want to eat?”
Cheng Yao was following Qian Heng down the hospital corridor. She blinked, taken aback, and looked up at him.
Qian Heng looked a little uneasy. “Didn’t you say your dinner got interrupted because of me? I haven’t eaten either — let me treat you, as compensation.”
Cheng Yao instinctively glanced back toward the hospital room.
Qian Heng pressed his lips together. “They won’t be done talking anytime soon. There’s nothing decent to eat around this hospital anyway — we’ll just grab something quick, won’t take long.”
Ever since breaking up with Qian Heng, it wasn’t as though Cheng Yao hadn’t had her share of sad moments. Going from a couple back to being alone felt like an addict suddenly forced to go cold turkey — during that initial withdrawal, Cheng Yao had cried, had lost sleep. There’d been more than a few times when just hearing his voice had nearly made her stop caring about the whole marriage question, nearly made her want to run back to him.
But thankfully, since joining Golden Brick, the demanding work had thoroughly distracted her, and she’d deliberately thrown herself entirely into it, trying not to think about him. But now, facing Qian Heng again in person, Cheng Yao felt a tangled mix of longing, unease, anxiety, and hesitation all at once.
She wanted to see him and was also a little afraid to see him; wanted to talk to him and didn’t dare talk to him. Because she knew that too much time spent together, and she’d soften, wouldn’t be able to hold her ground, would want to abandon her own principles and go back to him.
“I want Sichuan food.”
Qian Heng couldn’t handle spicy food at all — even the mildly spiced versions were too much for him, and if he ever accidentally got a bite of something actually spicy, he’d chug three glasses of ice water. Cheng Yao figured ordering Sichuan food would be enough to make him back off. Having to deal with an ex through work was unavoidable, but there was no need to spend more time with him than necessary outside of that. Where Qian Heng was concerned, Cheng Yao didn’t trust herself very much.
To her surprise, though, he showed no reaction at all. “Oh, sure, let’s go.”
Cheng Yao blinked, stunned. “I’m planning to eat Sichuan food. Sichuan food!”
“Mm, I know.”
“…”
It wasn’t until Cheng Yao was actually sitting in the Sichuan restaurant, watching the man across from her calmly order dishes, that she still felt a bit dazed.
Qian Heng had actually come to eat Sichuan food with her?
“You…” Cheng Yao chose her words carefully. “I ate at this Sichuan restaurant a few days ago — the spice here is the real deal…”
Qian Heng lifted his eyes lazily. “Can Gu Beiqing handle spicy food?”
Cheng Yao, not quite understanding where this was going, answered instinctively. “He loves spicy food, can’t live without it.”
“Good.”
After hearing that, Qian Heng gave this strange, out-of-nowhere one-word response and nothing more.
With work matters set aside for now, the two of them sitting face to face like this, Cheng Yao instinctively tried to change the subject. “About Chen Linli’s case—”
But the moment she opened her mouth, Qian Heng cut her off. “Cheng Yao.” His expression looked a bit unnatural. “I didn’t ask to see you today to talk about work.”
For some reason, Cheng Yao felt like Qian Heng’s expression right now looked like someone about to march to their execution.
After a brief silence, Cheng Yao finally heard Qian Heng’s voice, sounding as though he were bracing himself for battle—
“Cheng Yao, I’m willing to get married.”
Cheng Yao blinked, then her expression cooled. “Whether or not you get a vasectomy has nothing to do with me.”
Qian Heng pressed his lips together. “I’ve already decided not to get a vasectomy.”
“What?”
“Because I want to have children with you.” Qian Heng paused. “What I mean is, I’m willing to get married.”
Cheng Yao: ??
Wait… wait a second?
Cheng Yao took a moment to process, staring wide-eyed at Qian Heng. “Weren’t you against marriage and having kids?”
The man responsible for all this didn’t even blink. “Oh, I changed my mind.”
“Didn’t you say that was your absolute bottom line, something you’d never budge on?”
“People need to push past their own limits sometimes in life, try new things — like taking on Sichuan food.” Qian Heng pressed his lips together. “I’ve thought it over. You’re right — superior genes and chromosomes need to be passed down, especially someone like me. If I stay unmarried and childless, that’s a real loss to the country. As an individual, one should feel some sense of responsibility toward society. I should be doing my part about the declining birth rate too. A person shouldn’t be so selfish.”
For someone who’d sworn a hundred times over that he’d never marry or have kids, and who cared this much about saving face, being forced to eat his own words this thoroughly was probably no small ordeal.
But listening to this pompous, thoroughly self-satisfied little speech, Cheng Yao felt her temper flare. “You don’t need to force yourself into anything for the sake of the country. In this life, the most important thing is to live freely, to be yourself. Besides, even if you had kids, you’d only have one or two — that’s a drop in the bucket for reshaping the world’s demographics either way, so there’s no need to worry about it so much. Qian Heng, you should really just go get that vasectomy.”
“…” Qian Heng was momentarily stumped, and after a pause, he looked at her. “If I get a vasectomy, then what happens to you?”
Cheng Yao smiled sweetly. “Me? I’ll just find someone else to have kids with.”
“Cheng. Yao.”
Qian Heng’s voice was practically gritted through his teeth, glaring at her fiercely. “You really are trying to be the death of me.”
“How am I upsetting you?” Cheng Yao glared right back. “Your genes really are top-notch, sure, but mine are only average — Liang Yiran and people like her are way better than me. If you want to have kids for the sake of the nation, to pass on the best genes, go find Liang Yiran instead.”
“I already know what Liang Yiran did to you. I’ve already dealt with it.”
The mention of Liang Yiran got Cheng Yao’s temper flaring again. “Whether or not you deal with the Liang Yiran situation doesn’t matter to me at all. Because every case I take on now proves my ability and my innocence. Some things, time will straighten out on its own. I’m still young, I’m not afraid to wait.”
Astonishingly, Qian Heng’s tone made it sound like he was the victim — this straight-shooting man, without a shred of self-preservation, actually accused her: “But you never told me any of it, so how was I supposed to find out what Liang Yiran did to you? You didn’t trust me nearly enough about this.”
“How was I supposed to tell you? In what capacity? A junior employee accusing a partner? What would you have even done with that? Who would you have believed?”
“I would always believe you unconditionally.”
That simple line still made Cheng Yao’s heart skip, unfairly, against her will. She avoided his gaze instinctively, covering it up. “Don’t try to sweet-talk your way out of this, and don’t act like the victim here — with Liang Yiran, you were the one who acted improperly from the very start.” Now that they’d broken up, Cheng Yao no longer held back. “I understand Qianheng needed new partners to grow, but you brought her into the firm — as my boyfriend at the time, couldn’t you have at least given me a heads up?”
Without a shred of self-preservation, Qian Heng actually said, with total conviction: “Why would I need to tell you about bringing Liang Yiran on?”
“…”
“You were my girlfriend, sure, but you weren’t a partner at the firm — I can’t possibly consult you about every hire or colleague I bring on, it wouldn’t make sense.” Qian Heng looked genuinely confused. “Should I have told you about hiring Wang Lu or Bao Rui too?”
“Wang Lu and Bao Rui are not the same as Liang Yiran!”
“Aren’t they all just ordinary colleagues?” Qian Heng said, as though it were self-evident. “Liang Yiran was a partner, sure, but to me, she was in the same category as Wang Lu and Bao Rui — why would her case need special notice to you?”
“What do you mean the same category? Did Wang Lu and Bao Rui ever confess their feelings to you?”
Cheng Yao was practically gritting her teeth in frustration. And this man still wanted to have kids with her? He could dream on!
“You put your own girlfriend under the supervision of a woman who once had a crush on you and even confessed to you, and you didn’t even keep an eye out for any funny business on her end? And now you need me to point that out to you?”
Faced with Cheng Yao’s accusation, Qian Heng still looked utterly baffled. “Who? Who had a crush on me? What confession?”
“Liang Yiran! Didn’t she chase after you in college, and even confess to you?”
Qian Heng’s face was suddenly a picture of sheer disbelief. “That actually happened?” A look of realization crossed his face. “No wonder she went after you like she had it out for you, like she’d been cursed or something — she actually confessed to me?”
“…”
Buddy, this level of obliviousness is not a good look. Twenty-eight years single and you really can’t blame society for that.
But Qian Heng didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with him at all — quite the opposite, he was still self-righteous about it. “Way too many people confessed to me in college — men included, not just women. There’s no way I could remember them all, and I wasn’t about to waste my time trying to. So Liang Yiran confessed to me too, huh?”
“…”
“I’m sorry — if I’d remembered Liang Yiran confessing to me, I would have told you before she joined Qianheng, and I definitely wouldn’t have let you transfer onto her team.”
“…”
Cheng Yao’s feelings were complicated. She wasn’t sure whether, if Liang Yiran ever heard this speech from Qian Heng, she’d keel over on the spot.
After a long silence, Qian Heng finally spoke again, his voice sounding somewhat sheepish. “I also wasn’t really getting married for the country’s sake.”
Cheng Yao said nothing, just watched him quietly.
Every color imaginable flashed across Qian Heng’s face. He looked like prey cornered by a lion, struggling for a few last seconds before finally, resignedly, giving up the fight. “I don’t care about the country or the world. I only care about you.”
Qian Heng pressed his lips together, clearly still trying to hold onto what little pride he had left. “Cheng Yao, after a lot of difficult soul-searching, I’ve decided to stop insisting on staying unmarried and childless.” His voice was calm but with a faint, nervous tremor beneath it, though his face still carried that unshakable, world-ending calm. “Maybe marriage isn’t as terrible as I imagined. Beyond the fighting and the friction, there’s also romance and love in it — just like with Chen Linli and Zhang Kai. I still think marriage and having kids are both extremely risky decisions, and honestly I still feel uneasy about it, but for you, I’m willing to take that risk. I’m willing to get married. I’m willing to have kids. I agree to whatever you want.”
“I’ve realized I can’t stand the thought of watching you be with someone else, marrying someone else, having kids with someone else. If getting married and having kids is something you’re bound to do eventually in life, then I want to be the one you do it with.” Qian Heng stared at her. “So Cheng Yao, let’s get back together.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine the kind of internal struggle and compromise it must have taken for Qian Heng to arrive at this decision, to change this much. That he’d go this far for her — Cheng Yao would be lying if she said she wasn’t moved. Except…
Except there was something in the certainty of Qian Heng’s tone, a faint undertone of superiority, that made Cheng Yao uncomfortable.
She really did want to get married and have children someday. But Cheng Yao wanted it to happen naturally, as something that came together on its own — something both people looked forward to happily, not the kind of anxious, risk-laden decision it clearly still was in Qian Heng’s mind, and certainly not a compromise made just to accommodate her.
Their breakup had, in fact, been over the disagreement about marriage and kids, but after the breakup, Cheng Yao had also taken time to reflect calmly on their relationship.
It had started as a relationship between a superior and a subordinate. However wonderful the process had been, the relationship between them had never been equal — it was just that the romance hadn’t lasted long enough for that imbalance to fully come to the surface.
Qian Heng really did love her deeply. But that love carried more than a little bit of condescending machismo mixed into it. He was too confident, too certain when it came to her, as if everything about her was permanently within his control.
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to get back together right now.”
Qian Heng blinked, thinking he’d misheard. “What?”
“Do you think that just because you now agree to marriage and kids, I’ll come running back to you whenever you want?” Cheng Yao arched an eyebrow gently, giving Qian Heng a beautiful, proud smile. “Well, I’m sorry to say, but you guessed wrong this time.” Cheng Yao said each word deliberately. “Qian Heng, did it ever occur to you that even if you want to get married and have kids now, that doesn’t mean I’d necessarily agree to it? Where did you get that idea? Read too many romance novels? Where the female lead just sits around waiting for the male lead to turn back around, no matter how many years it takes?”
Qian Heng’s brow furrowed, lips pressed tight, his expression darkening.
But the darker his face got, the more pleased Cheng Yao felt. “Qian Heng, get a grip.”
“…”
“As a man, you should remember your own words. Wasn’t marriage supposed to be the grave of love, according to you? And having kids was practically asking to ruin your own life?”
Qian Heng said, with difficulty, “My thinking back then just wasn’t mature enough.”
“Oh, I see, well — but even if you wanted to get married and have kids, no one would dare marry you anyway.” Cheng Yao blinked. “After all, you’re the kind of man where if the marriage ends in divorce, the other person wouldn’t get a cent, they’d probably end up owing you money instead — carrying a pregnancy, giving birth, raising a kid, all that hard work, and then losing custody in a divorce too. Might as well be free surrogacy. Who’d be foolish enough to marry you?”
Qian Heng gritted through it, his voice nearly humble. “Cheng Yao, I’m willing to sign a prenup, you set the terms — if we divorce, all the joint property goes to you, the kids too, whatever clauses you want to write, I’ll agree to it. As long as you’re willing to marry me, I’ll accept anything…”
Having said all that, Qian Heng pressed his lips together and looked at Cheng Yao, looking almost pitiful, like some conquered colony forced into surrendering territory and paying reparations to an invading power, with no ability to resist…
That expression, though, earned him no sympathy from Cheng Yao — quite the opposite, it stirred up her mischievous streak. “In that case, how about this — I’ve always felt like it’s a bit of a shame I’ve only ever dated you. There are so many men out there; besides your type, I should probably try some other flavors too, otherwise what was the point of this life?” she said. “If you really want to get married, fine — but I want an open relationship. And a one-sided one at that. After the wedding, you don’t get to control me. If I meet someone I’m into, I’ll date them too. Body or heart, one of the two is going to end up straying, most likely.”
Qian Heng’s face turned livid. “Are you being serious?”
Cheng Yao nodded. “Yep.”
“If I agree to that one condition, you’ll marry me?”
“That’s right.”
Qian Heng was an extremely proud man, someone who cared enormously about saving face — Cheng Yao knew there was no way he could accept such a humiliating condition. But to her surprise, after a moment of silence, Qian Heng actually nodded.
“I accept.”
Wait… wait a minute…
Qian Heng’s face was livid, tinged with a hint of despair. “It’s fine, I accept. After the marriage, I’ll hold myself to a high standard — keep my body in shape, keep my hairline where it is, make sure you only want me. That’ll be enough.”
“…”
Even though Qian Heng had somehow managed to accept even a condition this humiliating, and Cheng Yao ought to have been genuinely touched, she went ahead and shattered his illusions anyway.
“Sorry, I wasn’t actually asking for an open relationship. If we get married, I intend to take the marriage seriously.”
But before Qian Heng could feel any relief, Cheng Yao went on—
“I was just joking a second ago. Honestly, I’m quite satisfied with my life right now — dating, marriage, kids, none of them are necessities in life, just scenery along the way that happens naturally when the timing’s right. Dating is nice, but not dating also means more time to focus on work and career.” She glanced at Qian Heng. “You used to tell me not to rush into a relationship in the first couple years of my career — thinking back on it now, that was really good advice! These two years determine the direction of a career going forward. There’s always time to date, doesn’t matter who it’s with. But the opportunities during these early career years, once wasted, there’s no going back.”
“…”
“So even though I’ll definitely get married and have kids someday if I meet the right person, I’m not thinking about that right now at all. I think being single suits me just fine, and I love how focused and fulfilled work makes me feel!”
A look of blankness crossed Qian Heng’s face, as though he’d been hit too hard to process it. After a long while, he seemed to compose himself, and stared straight at Cheng Yao. “Is it Gu Beiqing?”
“Huh?”
Qian Heng’s expression turned murderous. “Has he been pursuing you lately? Are you interested in him? What’s so great about him?” he said angrily. “He’s not right for you!”
Though he didn’t say it outright, his expression practically had “the only one right for you is me” flashing across it like a subtitle.
But Qian Heng had no idea that this sense of superiority of his only made Cheng Yao want to give him an even harder beating.
“My senior classmate is great in every way.” Cheng Yao made things up, deliberately trying to infuriate him. “Looks, money, refined, went to the same school as me so we have plenty to talk about, and he’s able to help and guide me a lot professionally too. He always says exactly what’s on his mind, never awkward or evasive, never makes me guess; he treats me wonderfully, never full of himself, doesn’t have that overbearing macho thinking; and most important of all, he knows his place — knows that if you’re pursuing someone, you should approach it with humility.” Cheng Yao thought about it, then added, “Oh, and he can eat spicy food with me too.”
“…”
Qian Heng paused for a long moment before saying, with difficulty, “How is eating spicy food an advantage?”
“It is, actually. Sometimes if you find a boyfriend whose tastes are completely different from yours, it just doesn’t last. This kind of lifestyle mismatch really is a problem.”
Qian Heng nearly ground his teeth. “I can eat spicy food too. Sichuan food, that’s nothing for me.”
Just then, the server finally brought over the dish for Cheng Yao’s table — a plate of dry-mixed beef noodles with raw chili.
This particular dish, despite being called “noodles,” has no broth — it’s simply chopped fresh bird’s eye chilies mixed directly with noodles and beef topping. To enjoy the fragrant beef, you had to endure a mouthful sensation that basically felt explosive from the chilies — and the spiciness of these little chilies was so intense that even Cheng Yao, who loved spicy food, classified it as “freakishly spicy.”
……
Cheng Yao looked at Qian Heng with a touch of sympathy. “You sure about the spicy food thing?”
Qian Heng clearly had no idea what he was in for, and still scoffed with confidence. “I told you — people need to try new things in life sometimes. I suddenly feel like Sichuan food is pretty great. Spicy is nothing. Ha.”
With that, Qian Heng, without any sense of self-preservation, picked up his chopsticks and took a huge, defiant bite of the noodles.
……
He clearly had a lot more to say to Cheng Yao, but after that one bite, he couldn’t get a single word out.
Spicy! It was really spicy! Spicy enough to send you to heaven! Spicy enough to kill! Spicy enough to make functioning impossible!
For the first time since becoming an adult, having never once cried, Qian Heng found himself shedding tears of pure regret, utterly unable to resist.
Why couldn’t he just live a peaceful life? Why did he have to go and eat something spicy? Why did he have to provoke Cheng Yao?
What kind of image could he possibly maintain in front of Cheng Yao now, with his eyes and nose red from the spice, tears welling up? Qian Heng thought furiously to himself — he hadn’t expected Gu Beiqing to actually have some tricks up his sleeve, turns out he was a real rival after all.
Cheng Yao, of course, had no idea of the elaborate inner monologue running through Qian Heng’s head. She simply watched, stunned, as Qian Heng — after that one bite of soul-crushing spice — turned red-eyed, fought back tears, and chugged an entire glass of ice water, then gritted his teeth and took another bite, chased it with more ice water, then another bite, until he’d finished the entire bowl, downing about three full bottles of ice water in the process…
Cheng Yao tried several times to talk him out of continuing, but every time, Qian Heng shot her down with a look.
“Are… are you okay?” Watching him, Cheng Yao couldn’t help feeling a pang of pity. “If you can’t handle spicy food, just don’t eat it — actually I think I’d rather have something lighter now, spicy food really is too much of an assault on the senses…”
But having had his fighting spirit ignited, Qian Heng looked positively heroic, declaring proudly, “The word ‘lose’ does not exist in Qian Heng’s dictionary! I can absolutely out-eat Gu Beiqing on spicy food! Whatever you ordered today, I’ll finish every dish!”
No sooner had he said this than the server brought out another wave of new dishes — chili fish head, spicy chicken, mouthwatering frog…
Every single one of these dishes, without exception, was smothered in every variety of chili imaginable, guaranteed to bring anyone to tears…
Facing this spread, Qian Heng fell silent for the first time. After a long while, he finally, with great difficulty, lifted his head to look at Cheng Yao, gritting the words out. “It’s just two people having dinner — why did you order so much food?”
“…”