Only, Qi Xi hadn’t expected that she and Gu Yan would run straight into Gu Xuehan the moment they walked into the office.

Gu Xuehan blinked when she saw them. “Aren’t you two taking a bit more time to rest?” She looked at Gu Yan suspiciously. “This morning you told me you two ate something bad at a get-together last night. You’re already back at work this fast?”

Gu Xuehan frowned, studying Gu Yan’s face: “Your face is so red—this isn’t a fever from gastroenteritis, is it?”

Gu Yan coughed, looking a little unnatural: “Oh, I’m fine. I figured there might be things going on at the firm, so we both felt we had to come in.”

Gu Xuehan still found this a bit odd, but she seemed to be rushing off to some meeting or court session, so she didn’t press further: “The bar association just held its annual professional ethics conference. There’ll be a firm-wide meeting later—partly to do a case study discussion, partly to relay the spirit of the association’s guidelines. I happen to be busy, so if you two have nothing pressing, go attend it.”

With that, Gu Xuehan left, and Qi Xi let out a breath of relief.

She exchanged a glance with Gu Yan, then both quickly looked away, pretending to be composed as they returned to their desks.

Same work as always, same office as always, even Gu Yan beside her hadn’t changed—yet Qi Xi felt like everything had changed.

She found herself distracted, constantly stealing glances at Gu Yan. But Gu Yan seemed to be thinking the same thing, because their gazes kept accidentally meeting, then darting away just as quickly, as if they’d been shocked by static electricity.

Qi Xi thought resentfully to herself—no wonder so many companies banned office romances. With a temptation like Gu Yan sitting right beside her, there was no way to focus on work in peace.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much work to handle in the afternoon, and before long, the administrative department announced the firm-wide meeting.

This kind of study session at Jingge was a regular routine. Generally the first part of the agenda involved a partner selecting a legal topic on rotation, discussing some difficult or noteworthy case with the junior associates. The second part, taking advantage of everyone being gathered, would reiterate professional ethics for lawyers—emphasizing appropriate boundaries in dealing with clients, a fairly routine matter usually relayed by whichever colleague liaised with the bar association, followed by the routine viewing of the bar association’s professional ethics promotional video.

By the time Qi Xi and Gu Yan entered the conference room, they were running a bit late, and only two seats remained, in the farthest corner of the conference table. Without any hesitation, they sat down.

The case discussion began quickly. Jingge’s case discussions were somewhat like mock trials—plaintiff and defendant sides would be selected to conduct a simulated debate based on the case facts.

Qi Xi drew lots, and it turned out she and Gu Yan ended up as opposing counsel for plaintiff and defendant.

This time’s simulation was a complex equity transfer dispute case. Both plaintiff and defendant sides would have two representing attorneys each. Qi Xi was paired with a male lawyer from another team, while Gu Yan was paired with another female colleague from the firm.

Though the case was complicated, Qi Xi had distilled the key points and felt that, as plaintiff’s counsel, her chances of “winning” were fairly good. But once she confidently stepped up prepared, the “defense” attorney turned out to be far tougher than she’d anticipated.

Naturally, it wasn’t the female colleague who was the difficult one—it was Gu Yan.

Nearly every time Qi Xi took a fresh approach and proposed a new angle, Gu Yan, as “defense” counsel, would smoothly rationalize the “defendant’s” wrongdoing under all sorts of pretexts, relentlessly attacking the validity of Qi Xi’s evidence from every angle, using every means to deny the facts.

Traditionally, these mock debates at the firm served two purposes: giving everyone practice, and functioning as an alternative kind of “team-building,” letting different colleagues break the ice, whether cooperating or competing—nothing built trust between coworkers faster than getting to know each other through work.

So this kind of mock debate tended to be more friendly in nature, never as sharp-edged as this particular round turned out to be. Qi Xi’s partner soon smiled and eased off, and Gu Yan’s female partner also stopped pressing so hard, but neither Qi Xi nor Gu Yan let up.

Even though she knew it was just a practice round, seeing how seriously Gu Yan was taking it stirred up Qi Xi’s own stubborn refusal to lose. She threw herself fully into a fierce back-and-forth exchange with him, completely absorbed, entirely forgetting that Gu Yan was her boyfriend. Once she’d stepped into the role of opposing counsel, all that remained in her mind was the drive to fight Gu Yan to the finish. Gu Yan clearly felt the same way, giving no ground whatsoever, carrying an air of “I’ll win this ‘trial’ even if it costs me my girlfriend.”

What was supposed to be a friendly match ended up, thanks to Qi Xi and Gu Yan, taking on the atmosphere of a blood feud. What should have been a quick mock trial dragged on a full extra half hour without ever reaching a decisive winner, until the female colleague from HR running the meeting finally called a halt—

“If you two aren’t quite finished, find time privately to spar some more after the meeting.” The HR colleague glanced at Qi Xi and Gu Yan. “Time’s limited, let’s move on to the next item on the agenda.”

Though the case hadn’t officially been decided, it really wasn’t appropriate to keep taking up everyone’s collective time debating further, so Qi Xi said nothing and stepped down from the podium, and Gu Yan did the same.

Once the conference room began playing the professional ethics promotional video, Qi Xi pushed open the door to use the restroom, and, quite by coincidence, ran into the HR colleague there. The woman seemed startled to see her too. The two of them washed their hands side by side at the sink, and naturally exchanged a few polite words.

Qi Xi got to chatting with her about a manga that was currently being serialized, and discovered they were both fans—instantly, they were talking away with genuine enthusiasm.

“By the way, Qi Xi, are things not going so well between you and Gu Yan?” Just before leaving, the HR colleague finally seemed unable to hold back any longer. “Logically, since you’re on the same team, your relationship should be pretty good, but the way you two were at each other’s throats earlier, it really looked tense.”

She looked at Qi Xi with some concern: “You’re on Attorney Gu’s team now, and Gu Yan is her own younger brother—is there some conflict between you two over case allocation? Has Attorney Gu shown any favoritism toward Gu Yan? If you’re genuinely not getting along with him, you can raise it with our HR department head too, see if we can transfer you to a different team…”

Qi Xi blinked, then couldn’t help but laugh a little. She explained: “No, nothing like that. I’m really happy on Attorney Gu’s team, and I get along great with Gu Yan. Attorney Gu has never shown any favoritism at all.” She clarified further, “It’s just that Gu Yan and I might both get a little too competitive sometimes.”

Still somewhat doubtful, the HR colleague nodded anyway: “Good to hear then. In any case, if you ever have any issues regarding colleagues or supervisors, feel free to reach out to us directly, one-on-one, anytime.”

Qi Xi thanked her sincerely, then headed back to the conference room.

The promotional video was still playing in the conference room, and Gu Yan sat upright, seemingly listening attentively.

During the earlier debate, aside from the necessary eye contact, Gu Yan had maintained an extremely proper, distant demeanor toward Qi Xi the entire time, and, perhaps to avoid any suspicion, had even shown her a coldness more detached than usual. It was the same now, which was no wonder the HR colleague had gotten the wrong impression earlier.

Qi Xi couldn’t resist. She picked up her phone and sent Gu Yan a WeChat message.

“You’re so fierce.”

Qi Xi thought for a moment, then stole a glance at Gu Yan, who was staring straight ahead at the video without so much as a sideways glance, and kept typing: “Showing no mercy to your own girlfriend like that.”

“I thought you’d go easy on me.”

“You’re so fierce, the HR sister even thought you and I were on bad terms.”

“And during the debate, you wouldn’t even look at me once!”

…

Qi Xi didn’t really want Gu Yan to hold back—deep down, she actually felt it was more satisfying when they both went at each other with their real skill. It was just that, even though keeping things low-profile and undisclosed at the firm had been her own decision, seeing Gu Yan now acting so completely detached, as if none of it had anything to do with him, left her feeling a little bittersweet. She’d made the rule herself, and yet she was the first one to resent Gu Yan for actually following it.

Qi Xi didn’t really want to blame Gu Yan, or genuinely use her status as his girlfriend to get any kind of special treatment. It was just…

She just wanted Gu Yan to coax her a little.

Even though it was just a few text messages, and no one would ever know, there was something strange about sitting together with Gu Yan in a conference room full of colleagues like this—something with a thrill to it, almost like… like the excitement of a secret affair?

Struck by this inappropriate comparison, Qi Xi instantly felt her face heat up.

Because of the repeated WeChat notifications, Gu Yan finally, with a slight frown, unlocked his phone.

Qi Xi expected that once he saw the messages, he’d immediately look over at her, or reply right away.

Instead, after reading them, the man calmly put his phone back down—without even glancing at Qi Xi, without replying at all. ???

Qi Xi was a little baffled.

By all rights, she and Gu Yan should still be in the honeymoon phase of dating—so why was this man acting like this? She was sitting right there in front of him, and he wouldn’t even look at her, let alone acknowledge her.

The promotional video in the conference room had moved on to the section about lawyers not accepting benefits from clients—a routine, old topic covered every year in this kind of mandatory training. Qi Xi glanced around and saw that, sure enough, the other colleagues in the room were mostly dozing off, zoning out, or on their phones, some even secretly editing contracts…

Well, in that case…

Qi Xi’s heart pounded. She knew it was probably better not to, but couldn’t help herself. It felt like there were two little figures living inside her—reason and impulse—and the wicked, impulsive one had won out.

As if possessed, Qi Xi quietly scooted a little closer to Gu Yan, then, hidden by the conference table, gently pressed her leg against his, awkwardly and deliberately rubbing against his leg underneath the table.

Qi Xi had seen it in plenty of TV dramas—that’s how the bad women always seduced men.

The tactic apparently really did work, because Gu Yan finally looked over at her this time. Unfortunately, there was none of that knowing, charged, ambiguous glance you’d see in a drama. The man simply looked at Qi Xi with an expressionless face, then went right back to staring at the video screen without so much as a sideways glance, and shifted his body away from Qi Xi’s foot, leaning further to the other side.

“…”

Qi Xi was practically speechless.

What was so great about this stupid promo video anyway, playing the same thing year after year in different variations—with Gu Yan’s memory he could probably recite the lines by heart. Everyone gathered to watch it was just going through the motions, and yet here he was, genuinely watching it with full attention!

Qi Xi felt a bit deflated and defeated inside. Didn’t every novel say that in the honeymoon phase, just one glance from the other person felt like an electric shock? And yet here she was… was she just not charming enough…

The feeling of having just gotten together already carried a slightly unreal quality, and now, with Gu Yan’s attitude like this, Qi Xi found herself growing insecure, caught up in a swirl of anxiety.

She tried to focus her attention on the video too, but inside she still felt resentful and a bit wronged. Perhaps a little distracted, as she picked up her phone to put it away, it accidentally slipped from her hand and rolled underneath the conference table.

Without thinking, Qi Xi instinctively bent down to grab it. At the same moment, Gu Yan also rose from his chair, half-crouching as if to help her retrieve it. Qi Xi got to the phone first, but a beat later, Gu Yan’s hand came down over hers, the one holding the phone.

Once Qi Xi had the phone in hand, she instinctively went to straighten back up, but that hand was held in place by Gu Yan.

Maintaining this bent-over position was starting to tire her out. Just as she opened her mouth to say something, her lips barely parting, she suddenly felt a warm touch against her mouth.

Gu Yan had kissed her.

Jingge’s conference table had a front panel, and with Gu Yan half-crouched and Qi Xi bent over, the two of them seated in the farthest, emptiest corner with no one else nearby, the height of the table blocked outside sightlines, concealing both their figures.

Gu Yan pulled Qi Xi down from her chair, drawing her together with him beneath the conference table, then cupped the back of her neck, gently but forcefully pressing her face downward, toward his lips.

Underneath the conference table, out of everyone’s sight, Gu Yan kissed Qi Xi once again.

Despite the conference room being full of colleagues, Gu Yan kissed her with startling boldness. Qi Xi felt possessiveness, dominance, and aggression all at once—she felt like a defenseless city being conquered and claimed by Gu Yan on the spot.

Overcome with nervousness and the fear of being discovered, Qi Xi’s heart raced to an absurd degree. The thrill and sweetness of being kissed by Gu Yan mixed together with the fear of getting caught sneaking around, making this first kiss between them feel flustered and hurried, yet lingering so vividly in memory that every single detail became unforgettable.

Because of Gu Yan, the entire conference room seemed to split into two separate worlds.

The bright one, visible to everyone, was the world where the professional ethics lecture continued for all to hear.

And in the dim, hidden underworld, the two people HR had just mistaken for having some feud were kissing recklessly.

In truth, it wasn’t a very long kiss. Gu Yan soon released Qi Xi, resting his forehead against hers, and warned in a low, hoarse voice: “Stop fooling around.”

Then the man placed the phone back into Qi Xi’s hand, and, as though nothing had happened, sat back up and returned to his seat, leaving Qi Xi to slowly straighten up on her own, her limbs a little weak.

Qi Xi’s mind felt as though a bomb had just gone off inside it, still ringing with the aftershocks of the explosion, her whole brain buzzing. It took a long, long moment before her senses gradually returned to her.

Gu Yan’s words—”stop fooling around”—still seemed to echo in her ears.

What fooling around? Qi Xi felt like she was practically steaming with heat all over. It clearly wasn’t her who’d been fooling around—it was Gu Yan.

And this was Jingge’s conference room, of all places!

Out of embarrassment and a bit of indignant anger, Qi Xi picked up her phone again. She wanted to demand an explanation from Gu Yan—what exactly did he mean by this? Ignoring her completely just moments ago, and then ambushing her under the table like that. That had been Qi Xi’s first kiss, completed so abruptly, without any warning at all.

But just as Qi Xi unlocked her phone, before she could even type a message, she found that Gu Yan had already, at some point, replied to her earlier questions—

“Idiot. The moment I look at you, there’s no hiding how much I like you.”

“Because I like you too much, even trying to act like just an ordinary colleague around you feels hard. If I so much as look at you, if I so much as talk to you, I can’t help myself—so I have to overcorrect and act cold instead.”

“Stop fooling around. Keep your distance from me for now. I don’t have as much self-control as you think.”

…

Qi Xi glanced at Gu Yan. The man had shifted his body to lean even further to the other side once again, as though trying to physically demonstrate keeping his distance from her, his expression perfectly composed, as if it hadn’t been him who’d just pulled her under the table to kiss her moments ago.

Qi Xi found it hard to put into words what she was feeling right now. Her heart felt split in two—one half racing with a fluttering, nervous excitement, the other half settling into a growing sense of security and certainty, warm and steady.

Gu Yan liked her.

And she really, really liked Gu Yan too.