No sooner said than done. Early the next morning, Qi Xi rushed to the firm and started moving her desk.
Workstations had been tight before, but now that a few lawyers had left for other firms, and the newly purchased office desks had gradually arrived, a large section of the office had opened up.
That area suited Qi Xi perfectly, because it was quite far from Gu Yan’s seat, and relatively empty, occupied only by a few newly hired male interns.
Avoiding suspicion — starting with physical distance!
Only Qi Xi hadn’t expected there to be more stuff at her old desk than she thought, and by the time Gu Yan came in to work, she still hadn’t finished moving.
When Gu Yan saw her, he frowned, just as she’d expected. “What are you doing? Do you need help?”
Before she could answer, Gu Yan had already taken the box of legal reference books from her hands. Qi Xi felt her hands grow lighter and let out a breath of relief, explaining, “I’m moving my desk!”
Gu Yan set the box down, his expression darkening. “Why are you moving your desk?”
“Didn’t you say when I first joined the firm that I should keep my distance from you? Now that a new spot has opened up, it’s much farther from you! You can rest easy!”
Only Qi Xi hadn’t expected that the moment she finished speaking, Gu Yan, instead of helping her carry anything else, would put the box of books right back on her original desk. The man glanced at her, then looked away. “There’s no need to move. I’m used to it by now, and as for that incident before, I don’t feel it affects me anymore. There’s no problem with you sitting here.”
Of course not, Qi Xi thought sourly. Of course he doesn’t mind anymore. Someone like Gu Yan clearly did whatever he pleased and answered to no one — back then, when she’d made that scene at her graduation ceremony, what he’d cared about most probably wasn’t his public reputation, but rather his image in the eyes of the girl he liked. Now that he and his white moonlight were together, naturally he’d made his peace with Qi Xi too, truly turned the page.
But while Gu Yan had turned the page on Qi Xi like flipping past a chapter in a story, Qi Xi couldn’t do the same.
Qi Xi looked away, feigning nonchalance. “I know you don’t mind, but the two of our desks really are packed too close together, like desk-mates in high school. Now that the firm has so many empty spots, if I move, everyone will have more room. Look, as the caseload keeps growing, the case files are already piling up on the desk. Once I move out, you can take over my old desk to spread out your materials and files.”
Gu Yan’s expression soured. “But we’re on the same team. Sometimes we still need to discuss cases together. If you move that far away, it’ll be inconvenient.”
Qi Xi had a reasonable answer for that too. “I can just walk over! Sitting too long isn’t good for you anyway — this way I’ll be forced to get some exercise, and once I have a healthy body I can work even harder for your sister!”
Still Gu Yan wouldn’t agree. He cleared his throat and added, somewhat unnaturally, “If you move out, it’ll make me look petty, like I have poor character. We’re on the same team after all — if you do this, everyone at the firm loves to gossip, and they’ll speculate that you and I had a falling out. It might spread some ugly rumors and damage my reputation.”
So it seemed that even someone as unbothered as Gu Yan still cared, to some extent, about what others thought.
But Qi Xi was dead set on avoiding suspicion, and so she stood firm. “Don’t worry, once I get to the new spot, I’ll immediately bond with the interns sitting there, and through them I’ll spread word of the iron-solid colleague friendship between you and me!”
Qi Xi thought that would put Gu Yan’s worries to rest, but instead, after he glanced over at the area where the interns sat, his expression grew even worse—
“What do you mean by that?”
Qi Xi felt a little guilty but kept up her composure. “What do you mean, what do I mean? I don’t mean anything by it! It’s really nothing to do with you, it’s just that I consulted a feng shui master a few days ago, and he said I’d have better luck sitting in a north-facing spot. Our current seats face south, so…”
Fortunately, in the end, a phone call from Gu Xuehan summoned Gu Yan to her office, and with him no longer able to stop her, Qi Xi finally managed to move her desk while he was away.
After putting some distance between herself and Gu Yan, Qi Xi felt somewhat better. At least now she didn’t have to see him all the time, didn’t have to look up and see his beautifully sculpted profile.
Qi Xi felt like a fox lingering at someone else’s gate, drooling over the grapes growing in someone else’s yard — fully aware the grapes belonged to someone else, that the household might even keep a fierce dog, and yet unable to stop herself from peeking her head through the gate at the vines all the same.
So the best solution was to move her own den, relocate somewhere that didn’t pass by that grapevine. Then this fox of hers, whose willpower perhaps wasn’t all that strong, wouldn’t make any mistakes.
Only Qi Xi never expected that just half a day after she’d distanced herself from the grapevine, that very afternoon, the whole grapevine household would up and move too, planting itself right back at her den’s entrance.
Qi Xi stared, dumbfounded, at Gu Yan, who was hooking up a monitor at the desk right next to hers.
Gu Yan, for his part, seemed perfectly composed. “Oh, I also think feng shui is quite important, so I had someone calculate it for me too. Turns out I’m also suited to a north-facing spot.” He glanced around. “It’s pretty empty here anyway. There’s plenty of room for both of us.”
He paused, then added, “The feng shui master also said I should sit somewhere with heavier yang energy.”
Qi Xi frowned, puzzled. “Isn’t the south side supposed to have more yang energy? There’s more sun there, after all…”
Gu Yan looked at Qi Xi, expressionless. “It’s all men here. That’s the kind of yang I meant. Surrounded by this many men, I feel better about myself.”
“…”
He glanced at her again, adding, “Much more secure.”
“…” Then why don’t you just sit outside the men’s restroom?
**
The plan to move desks and put distance between herself and Gu Yan had officially failed, but Qi Xi wasn’t discouraged. As long as she kept the intention to avoid suspicion in her heart, she figured she could still manage to steer clear of him as much as possible.
Qi Xi stopped taking the elevator. Since the firm occupied an entire floor of the building, and one of the direct elevators was used almost exclusively by the firm’s lawyers and clients, riding the elevator during commute hours basically guaranteed running into Gu Yan.
And the enclosed space of the elevator made that shared time with him feel unbearably slow and difficult.
If she couldn’t see the grapevine, she wouldn’t drool over it.
Qi Xi decided she was, at the very least, a clever fox.
So she started taking the stairs to and from work.
This quickly drew the attention of her coworkers—
“Qi Xi, why aren’t you taking the elevator?”
Qi Xi, out of breath, still put on a brave front. “I’m exercising! My body fat’s been feeling a bit high lately, and climbing more stairs is good for your health!”
…
Before long, Qi Xi found that more and more lawyers at the firm had started climbing the stairs along with her—
“Qi Xi, it’s a good thing you set the example. Thinking about it, it’s true — we’re always so busy running to court to meet clients that our gym memberships just sit there unused. But exercise is right here around us, isn’t it? Climbing a few extra flights every day, up and down — that counts as exercise!”
“Last time, the opposing party’s client nearly came at me with a kitchen knife, so I really should get in shape — at least next time something like that happens, I can run faster!”
…
Qi Xi walked at the front of the pack, expressionless and utterly done with life, trailed by four or five colleagues, all of them panting like dying dogs but still gamely climbing the stairs. The one exception was Gu Yan, who walked the stairs as if strolling on flat ground — effortless, unhurried, not the least bit red in the face or short of breath, hands in his pockets, like a leader on a surprise inspection, like a king surveying his domain with disdain.
Because she had unwittingly started this damned new trend, Gu Yan had joined the rest of the coworkers in climbing the stairs alongside her.
Qi Xi, the bronze-tier straggler of the group, panted along while sneaking glances at the thoroughly king-tier Gu Yan.
Damn it! Was there no end to this?
She was thoroughly irritated.
What was Gu Yan even doing?
She fled, he chased — was there truly no escaping him?
How infuriating! She’d already gone to such lengths to avoid suspicion, and yet wherever she went, this man somehow ended up there too.
Back at her desk, Qi Xi couldn’t help but glare at Gu Yan. “You don’t even need the exercise. Why are you taking the stairs too?”
Gu Yan answered coolly, “I’m familiarizing myself with the escape route in case of a fire.”
“…”
Qi Xi was thoroughly at a loss. But she couldn’t very well go around dictating what Gu Yan could and couldn’t do — that would be overbearing. At this rate, there was simply no way to keep her distance. After all, she could hardly quit and switch firms just to keep him out of sight, could she?
**
That evening, back at her rented apartment, Qi Xi was still troubled. She couldn’t help logging onto the emotional support section of the legal professionals’ forum, LAWXOXO, and posting anonymously for advice—
“I’d like to ask you sisters with more relationship experience for some advice. It’s about a friend of mine — she has a bit of a thing for a guy, but this guy just recently got a girlfriend. Only, for certain reasons, my friend and this guy keep running into each other and it’s hard to avoid. What can I do to help my friend feel better, without intruding on someone else’s relationship, and get out of this cleanly?”
Soon enough, a pile of replies came in—
“Honestly, your… friend doesn’t need to avoid him at all. The more deliberately you avoid someone, the more it shows you still care. The best way to end feelings for someone is to start something new!”
“Your… friend just hasn’t seen enough of the world. There are plenty of men out there with two legs, aren’t there? Meet more men, and you’ll realize the world is a big place, there are tons of handsome guys out there, and the one she liked before is nothing special after all. No need to give up the whole forest for one tree!”
“Get out more, socialize more, fill up your time, and you won’t think about that guy anymore. The right one is always out there somewhere. Good luck!”
…
Qi Xi read through every single comment, and in the end resolved to gather her courage and start a new life.
Gu Yan was good, sure, but he was like a limited edition item already sold in the display case — she couldn’t, in good conscience, snatch him away from someone else.
Maybe her feelings for Gu Yan were just temporary. After all, her social circle really was narrow; she rarely met many guys, and she’d genuinely never even had a relationship before — maybe she’d simply mistaken her closeness to him for real attraction.
Besides, what was so great about Gu Yan anyway? The way he was so devoted to that white moonlight of his, like it was etched into his very DNA — why on earth would she want to be someone else’s stand-in?
And besides, he probably wasn’t even that great in that department — getting that fast at such a young age. He’d need to spend a fortune treating kidney deficiency down the road!
She really did need to go out and see more of the world!
Qi Xi immediately went and found Zhao Yiran. “Got any quality men to introduce me to?”
“…” Zhao Yiran was, understandably, startled by Qi Xi’s bluntness. “What’s gotten into you?”
Qi Xi cleared her throat and announced, with great fanfare, “I’ve decided to taste the flavor of love! I’m going to date someone!”
“How’d you suddenly come around to this?” Though Zhao Yiran was suspicious and surprised, she fully supported Qi Xi’s decision. “You want to find someone? Easy. This Saturday our court and the procuratorate are holding a joint mixer, and you can bring friends along. Our office director said to bring plenty of single people to expand the supply! Come with me!”