The popularity of Sheng Min Ou’s law firm had exploded in popularity since last year, and as the new year ended client requests began to pour in and the amount of requests he received to represent a lawsuit was unending. Naturally, it was impossible for him to accept all of them, so he meticulously went through the cases and only picked those that piqued his interest, as he readied himself for another busy year.
At around the same time, I became busy too.
To run a pawn shop, one must acquire a diverse range of skills and become proficient at it, a kind of achievement which cannot be acquired overnight. The ability to identify various pieces of jewellery, watches, and brand-name bags only made up the foundation of what was required, and it demanded continuous learning afterwards. Considering that as a civilisation, we would not be progressing backwards, instead only advancing; if one could not face the status quo and keep up with these changes, then they would be left far behind.
Both my career and relationships were tracking along well now, and I had nothing else to do in my spare time, so I decided to take a gemology certification exam to enrich my knowledge and understanding of the subject. This took up most of my time for two months, and though I lived under the same roof with Sheng Min Ou, as we both had things that kept us occupied, it was a rare occurrence for us to bump into each other. Often, when he came back I would already be asleep, or when he left in the mornings I wouldn’t be awake yet. Under these circumstances, I even developed a feeling that we were in some sort of long distance relationship.
When I finally finished the exam, I felt slightly dazed the second I walked out of the examination hall. I fished out my phone and saw that my last message with Sheng Min Ou was from three days ago.
The last text was from him, when he was asking me about when my exam was, and I hadn’t replied to him.
Seeing this, I immediately felt like something was off.
This sense of something feeling “off” was hard to describe. It was a feeling born from part intuition and part from a sense of impending danger. It was mysterious, perplexing, and unable to be captured through words.
I first sent a tentative text message to Sheng Min Ou, as I asked what he was up to, and waited for ten minutes without a response. I decided to then send another message to Wu Yi, as I asked him if they were currently in a meeting.
No, but Laoshi is currently meeting with a guest. Are you looking for him?
Wu Yi’s reply was pretty instant in comparison.
The examination hall wasn’t far from the city, so I hailed a taxi and headed directly for Jin Shang law firm.
When I entered, Wu Yi was in the middle of chatting and laughing with the receptionist. Seeing my arrival, he appeared to be a little surprised, and subconsciously glanced at Sheng Min Ou’s office a few times.
I greeted the receptionist at the front desk and also took a look at Sheng Min Ou’s office. Seeing that it appeared to be occupied, I headed to another room in wait.
Not long after sitting down, Wu Yi poked a head in and entered the room as he asked with a low voice, “Do you know who Laoshi is meeting?”
I found him to be acting rather strangely so I replied doubtfully, “Who is my brother meeting with?”
“The client in this case is Qiao Lei, a talented and beautiful 16-year-old girl.”
I frowned slightly as I replied, “…So?”
Cases that were high profile attracted more attention and therefore more controversy. This to Sheng Min Ou was a rather unconventional challenge, and one of the few things he enjoyed in life.
This case was no exception. The client, Qiao Lei, can be described as the type of person that the media loved reporting on most. She was beautiful, young, rich, and had an extraordinarily high IQ. Though she was only sixteen years old, she had already completed all of her courses in university and had founded her own software company. Her net worth was worth hundreds of millions at a very young age.
Being such a gifted child, and the epitome of “the neighbours child“, she should have been able to continue following the script of the mary sue character she received, and lived a life without worries. However, because of her troublesome parents, she had no choice now but to initiate a lawsuit to defend her rights.
As Qiao Lei was underage, her assets still needed to be managed by her parents. Yet, compared to her extraordinary gifts, her parents could only be described as average, the type of commoner that was plentiful on any street. They were short sighted and were tempted by money. They were lured by the various promises assured to them, and were tricked into selling a large amount of the company’s stocks behind their daughter’s back. When Qiao Lei found out, it was already too late, and she no longer had complete control of the company.
Seeing that much of her hard work was now in vain, Qiao Lei could only take her parents to court on the grounds of them violating the personal property rights of a minor, in order to make the contract void.
In the vast crowd of options, Qiao Lei chose Sheng Min Ou to be her attorney, and Sheng Min Ou did not disappoint her. The judge had made their decision three days ago and Qiao Lei’s parents had lost the lawsuit. The contract to transfer stock ownership was voided, and Qiao Lei’s parents also lost their custody of Qiao Lei.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Now though, I wasn’t after the candlelight dinners or night views on top of mountains anymore. As long as Sheng Min Ou and I shared some passionate moments, that was good enough for me.
“Why don’t you have any sense of crisis at all?” Wu Yi asked, as he frowned and continued to speak in a quiet voice, “This young, beautiful girl is not a simple character. She is intellectually mature beyond her age, she’s pretty, her IQ is 140 and she seems to have a very good impression of laoshi. Do you know why she’s here today? She came to personally hand us all thank you gifts, she had prepared something small for everyone, and she gave laoshi a bouquet of flowers —roses.”
My eyes narrowed slightly, “Roses?”
Wu Yi nodded as he elaborated, “The red roses were lovely and just in bloom. Laoshi accepted the flowers, and then the two entered the office together. It’s been a long time since then, and they still have yet to come out. If I were you, I wouldn’t be able to sit still.”
Even if I wanted to sit still and wait, I could no longer do so after the mood had been ruined by this inept strategic advisor of mine.
I walked straight out of the room, rather imperceptibly fixed two strands of hair and straightened my clothes. Then I knocked on the door of Sheng Min Ou’s office.
The room was silent for a moment, before Sheng Min Ou’s voice responded.
“Come in.”
I reached out for the handle and opened the door with a smile on my face. As soon as I did so, my eyes landed on the bunch of roses, as red as blood, on Sheng Min Ou’s desk.
My smile became a little stiff, and upon second glance, I saw a delicate and beautiful girl sitting opposite Sheng Min Ou across his desk.
The girl’s hair was long, straight and ebony black, scattered like a waterfall on the back of her chair. Her limbs were lithe and slender, and her skin very pale. Though she was only sixteen years old, her eyes showed a maturity exceeding her age. She tilted her head back slightly as her gaze landed on me, her eyes filled with evident displeasure. It was hard to believe that someone with such a captivating gaze could be a minor.
“Excuse me, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were meeting guests,” I said. Despite my words, I didn’t show any sign of withdrawing from the room, as I maintained the position I was in.
The young girl uncrossed her long legs as she sneered and responded, “It doesn’t look like you’re apologetic about walking in.”
I really wasn’t.
I smiled and said nothing in response.
Qiao Lei rolled her eyes at me before looking back at Sheng Min Ou as she asked, “I have one final question, don’t you ever think that this world is very boring? I rarely find individuals who can keep up with my thinking as I’m constantly surrounded by stupid people. Dealing with them tires me out both physically and mentally. Don’t you feel like this too?”
Sheng Min Ou leaned against the back of the chair and didn’t spare me a single glance. He stared at the young girl and didn’t take long to think about the question she posed before responding with the following two words:
“I do.” After which, he gave no further response.
Qiao Lei was stunned for a while, before realising that Sheng Min Ou had already answered her question. His response was concise and powerful, very much an answer that was characteristic of him as a person.
Her expression was one of slight astonishment, before a smile appeared on her face.
“As long as you do too, that’s good enough. I’m relieved to know that I’m not alone in suffering like this.” She stood up, straightened the folds on her short skirt, then walked out with her black leather shoes, brushing past me without ever turning her head back.
I retracted my gaze as I closed the door and walked over to sit where Qiao Lei had sat before. I glanced at the striking red roses on the table before throwing out the question, despite knowing what had occurred, “Seems like someone gifted you roses.”
Sheng Min Ou didn’t spare a single glance at me before he picked up the roses and tossed them into the trash can on the side, without any sense of hesitation or pity.
I suppressed the urge to smile as I coughed lightly and commented, “Why did you throw it away, that’s such a waste.”
Sheng Min Ou opened a paper file and began to review its contents as he responded without raising his head, “If you want it, you can take it.”
What would I do with these roses, use them as an offering for the heavens?
I dragged my chair behind me as I approached Sheng Min Ou’s desk and placed both my hands on his desk as I leaned in towards him. Even as I looked at Sheng Min Ou like this for a while, he still did not raise his head up, as if he didn’t care about my existence at all, or as if my presence was simply nothing to him.
“Ge, I’ve finished my exam, shall we go to the mountain tops tonight to stargaze?” I suggested to Sheng Min Ou, in a tone that was eager to please.
He was silent for a long time, but the pen he held in his hands moved fluidly without stopping, and on average it only took him two minutes to sign off a document.
I felt rather apprehensive, and just as I was about to say something again, Sheng Min Ou spoke, “Why should I go to the top of the mountain with you to see the stars?”
“Just… to celebrate, a celebration of you winning your case, and also to celebrate the fact that I’m done with my exams now and I don’t have to study anymore.” My will to survive was at its highest now, so regardless of whether or not he was actually angry, I decided to admit to my mistake first, “I’ve been too busy in the past two months and consequently I neglected and ignored your feelings. I used to give you instant replies to the texts you sent, but this time I didn’t reply for a whole three days, that should have never happened!”
For a moment, I felt that this scene, with me expressing myself in this tone, was the splitting image of those scumbag guys who go through the motions of “getting the girl and then not cherishing them”.
If I thought about it carefully, in front of Sheng Min Ou I had always behaved in a flippant manner, so perhaps he had always regarded me as one of those butterflies that flutter around to various different beautiful flowers.
“You drive.”
Sheng Min Ou’s response was so abrupt that I had to think about it for a full few seconds before I came to the realisation that he had just agreed to my suggestion of going to the mountain tops tonight.
While I was secretly relieved at this, I also became excited at the prospect of tonight’s plans as my eyes curved alongside my grin, “Great, great, then I’ll wait for you to get off work.”
I said I would wait and ended up waiting until nine p.m that night. As I waited for him, I ended up knocking out directly on the sofa, before I was finally woken up by Sheng Min Ou.
There was no one else in the law firm, and Sheng Min Ou was the last one there. I seriously suspected that this was one of the punishments he had for me, because I didn’t believe that with his efficiency he would have so many documents piled up for him to review.
We drove away from the city and made our way up the mountain roads. Before long, we had reached the top of the mountain.
We parked the car next to the observation deck and the two of us got out of the car.
I had caught wind of this observation deck by accident from an old magazine that I was flipping through, and it was hailed as one of the top 10 hidden gem date spots for couples in Qing Wan city.
Whether it was a top 10 date spot was one thing, but the claim was true in that this spot really was a hidden gem. I have been living in Qing Wan city for twenty something years and I had never heard of this place before. Presently, the moon was bright in the sky and there was a gentle breeze. The weather was just right, and surprisingly it was deserted here, so how credible was the editor’s claim of this being an amazing date spot?
Fortunately though, despite it being deserted, the view wasn’t bad. The city at night had faintly formed a cluster of light in the distance, and the sky was full of stars above. Each star was clearly discernible, and without light pollution, the night looked particularly deep and blue.
Ppa-
Sheng Min Ou leaned against the hood of the sports car and lit a cigarette.
I moved closer to him and also leaned in beside him, as I carefully remarked, “Ge, that pretty girl from today – does she want to go after you?”
Sheng Min Ou held the cigarette in his fingers and turned his head to look at me, before slowly spitting out a haze of white smoke, which snaked its way to the depths of my heart and blurred the sight in my eyes.
“Worried?” He replied, as he approached me slowly, the corners of his lips raising slightly.
“En.” I responded in a low voice, as I moved to kiss him, but just as I lifted my chin, he seemed to have anticipated this possibility as he leaned back and avoided me.
His gaze was then directed towards the vast night scene ahead, as if he never noticed what my intentions were.
“She gave me red roses not because she likes me, but because she herself liked red roses. Her act of cutting off her parents did not cause her any pain, and she long since had intentions of seeking me out, but she was missing a reason to come. The reason for her visit today was not to thank me, but to ask for life advice.” Sheng Min Ou remarked rather detachedly. “She asked me how she could suppress her innate impulses.”
He rested one hand on the hood, and I didn’t know why, but after hearing his words, my heart tightened, as I moved subconsciously to clasp his hand firmly.
“What’s…what’s her condition?”
“She’s a high-functioning sociopath.”
I drew a sharp breath as I asked, “How did you answer her question?”
At this point, Sheng Min Ou told me everything.
“I told her that if she wants to have the whole world as her enemy, then she should go ahead and let her innate impulses run loose. However, if she still wanted to coexist peacefully with everyone else on this earth, then she would have to suppress part of her urges, and follow the rules established in this world. This didn’t apply for just her, but for everyone on this earth.
“You didn’t tell her that boxing works too?” I suggested, jokingly.
He glanced at me, and I immediately stopped laughing, not daring to repeat my actions again.
“Everyone’s situation is different, so what works for me might not necessarily work for her. Therefore, I didn’t assume that my suggestion would be of any help to her.” He replied coolly, “Rather than consulting me, she would be better off consulting a psychologist instead.”
Luckily Qiao Lei was not interested in him, otherwise her affectionate heart would have been shattered into pieces, into so many shards that it would have been impossible to piece back up again.
“Then… why don’t you have her try falling in love, perhaps then she might be able to find a reason to not become an enemy of the world.”
Sheng Min Ou was silent for a while after hearing the words, before he turned to look at me. At this time, a gust of wind picked up and dispersed the smell of cigarettes around him, as well as making him half squint in response.
He parted his lips slightly, and the syllables rolled out his throat, low and alluring.
“Good idea.”
Beneath the stars and with the moon luminous in the sky, I didn’t give him another chance to escape from me as I pressed my lips against his without warning. This time, he didn’t hide from me anymore, as he parted his lips in anticipation of me, his hand free of the cigarette pressing into the back of my head as he kissed me harder.
The more we kissed, the more fierce he was, and halfway through the kiss, he pulled me away by tugging at my hair, as he completely revealed his true colours.
“I don’t like it when you pay more attention to other things compared to me.” He said coldly, with slight pants in his voice, “I also hate it when you don’t reply to my messages.”
I hissed, and before I could answer, he bit my lower lip before leaning in and becoming entangled with me again.
I tasted blood in my mouth, so it was likely that Sheng Min Ou had bitten me, but I didn’t have time to care. I licked the roof of his mouth in a pleasing manner, in an attempt to placate him, but instead he met me with an even more fervent kiss.
Qiao Lei may never understand how Sheng Min Ou was able to achieve the feat of suppressing his true nature, and she may also never understand why she was clearly smarter than those around her, but lived a life more tiring than anyone else.
It was quite a dispiriting thought to entertain in detail, but if one day she did come to a realisation, then I would truly be happy for her.
ty for the chapter!!
Thank you for the chapter!!!!!
Wow! Always love to read these updates. Thanks for the chapter.
Thank you for the chapter 💞
Ty for the chapter~❤️
UGH SO CUTE