First-Class LawyerCh61 - Reporters (iv)

The last twenty-five minutes of their meeting felt as long as an age, yet as short as a twinkling for Chen Zhang.

When the recording was being played, his eyes didn’t even blink. It was as if he had turned into stone, maintaining the same posture throughout. His bloodshot eyes were clouded with a shimmering watery sheen for a while, which gradually faded away due to how wide he was opening his eyes. Fu2tyE

It alternated back and forth like this many times, but not a drop escaped from his eyes.

The recording ended with the nurse’s disgruntled complaint about him, as well as his mother’s repetitive explanation, “It’s not that he’s not coming, he’s just too busy. He’ll come when he’s done…”

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To Chen Zhang, this explanation was more heart-wrenching than anything else. Yan Suizhi saw his eyelids twitch slightly, the watery sheen contained in his eyes flashing—

“Oy, time’s up!” The warden opened the door right on the dot, reminding the two of them that the visitation time was over with a little urgency in his voice. nZLtYT

While the warden was talking, Yan Suizhi no longer looked at Chen Zhang; Chen Zhang quickly wiped his face with his sleeve and silently looked up again, his teeth clenched together.

The warden’s gaze was bewildered and curious. However, Chen Zhang didn’t respond, standing up obediently and stiffly with his head down, ready to follow the warden out of the visiting room.

Yan Suizhi made good on his word, not asking him a single question. He simply kept the recording pen with a blank expression, dropping a familiar sentence to Chen Zhang. “I will still be here for tomorrow’s meeting.”

This time, Chen Zhang stayed silent for a long time before finally giving a low reply. “Yeah.”

VWKJ P

Then he turned his head and followed the warden out.

Chen Zhang’s rare cooperative response was promising. But perhaps Yan Suizhi was affected by the contents of the recording earlier; his expression was still curiously blank when he came out of the detention centre.

He usually wore a smile on his face, even when being a terror or being sarcastic to others. But once he kept aside his smile, cold detachment would emanate from all of him. It always made people worry that he was unhappy, yet also daring not to ask, only watch him from afar.

It was with this cold expression that he walked to the intersection, not even looking around before dropping his gaze to the screen of his smart device to book a taxi. JCg9vL

The booking was just about to be sent when his smart device suddenly vibrated.

A new message had slid in right then.

Yan Suizhi minimised the taxi booking interface for now, clicking in to take a look.

From: Pettymint Essence 17upvc

Message: [Lift your head.]

Yan Suizhi, “???”

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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Tjc Velhtl rajgafv wlceafis, atfc rwlifv.

However, with the barest movement of his eye, he realised that Lawyer Gu wasn’t sitting there alone. Two others were sharing the table, and it was even two… acquaintances.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

It was the two from Honeycomb Media; the so-called reporters, Bens and Hersey.

The young reporter named Hersey left a passable impression on Yan Suizhi. At this moment, like he had done something humiliating and underhanded, he only glanced over once, then silently lowered his head, covering his forehead. As for the one called Bens, he was awkwardly smiling at him. 5AqdTa

It just so happened that he was sitting next to Gu Yan. The contrast between his bastardy bean-round face, next to Gu Yan’s cold face, was what people would term as a human tragedy.

Professor Yan mercilessly and unkindly said in his heart, How much must he hate himself to pick such a seat…

“Last night Fitz told me that you are on a business trip.” Yan Suizhi crossed the road and walked over to the table at the cafe, looking down his nose at Gu Yan. “A business trip out to a cafe?”

“I’m really here on business. There’s a case I previously took that’s being tied up in Zone 2. I have to go over and walk through the procedure, sign some papers.” Gu Yan raised his eyes. “However, Fitz has been complaining about you to me every day. At least for appearance’s sake, I feel there is a need for me to come and fulfill my disciplinary obligations as a teacher first.” PIEHLc

Translation: Although I have no intent of bothering with you, to keep up appearances, I must still condescend to put on a show along with you.

Yan Suizhi was torn between laughter and tears. “What blind accusations have Miss Fitz been making behind my back? Let me hear them.”

“Not submitting work logs, not filling out reimbursement forms, not following the rules.”

Yan Suizhi, “…” Ei8sUf

He could wager that the last one had been arbitrarily added by a certain someone. The tone was wholly different.

Hersey, whose head was originally hung down, involuntarily looked up, silently watching these two go back and forth, a faint trace of envy leaking into his eyes.

He felt that this should be the ideal relationship between mentor and mentee that he had envisioned… um, it seemed a tad different still, but it was much better than what he and Bens had at least

It could be that the presence of his gaze was too intense; Yan Suizhi glimpsed it out of the corner of his eye, also clearly making out the speck of envy in his gaze. lfUpZj

Yan Suizhi, “…”

He believed that this young man might be misunderstanding something.

Anyway…

“And the two of you are here for…?” Yan Suizhi turned towards Hersey and Bens. His gaze swept over the professional camera Bens was tightly clutching in his hands and the basic version that Hersey awkwardly fiddled with. “Hm?” z5pUD3

What’s with that hm…

Bens scrubbed his face like he had a toothache, grunting out, “I deeply apologise, we only came here to take a few pictures of you as a memento.”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Yan Suizhi glanced at Hersey’s expression, catching on. “Don’t use the word ‘us’. I think that on this occasion, there’s no need for you to play coy.”

Bens’ toothache worsened. He scrubbed his face again, silently glared at Yan Suizhi for a long time, then caved, saying, “I only wanted to take a few photos at first, but I didn’t take into account your willingness and some actual laws…” ndzSdw

Yan Suizhi smiled.

This self-professed reporter had failed to make a deal and got flung aside when he tried to tail a car. Stifled with anger and shame, he probably wanted to stir some trouble but ended up getting hindered by Gu Yan, who sat him down for a good chat about legality.

Wasn’t there a saying in the alliance, that no one should mess with reputable lawyers? Because if you did, those lawyers would have ten thousand reasonable and legal ways to hang you dry.

This was likely the quality education that Gu Yan had indoctrinated into Bens. He immediately shrivelled up, letting the matter rest. M5Ud9c

After apologising, he felt that the attitude he displayed was adequate. So he turned his head and tentatively asked Gu Yan, “The photo backups…”

Gu Yan coldly replied, “I have no interest in your thousands of photos. But I need to keep a backup.”

Because the judge might be interested one day…

Bens supplemented the second half of the sentence for him, scaring himself stiff. He silently shut his mouth and no longer brought up the backups again. nE18QJ

He didn’t manage to vent his anger in the slightest, even leaving behind evidence that could be used against him. His day couldn’t have gone worse. Therefore, when Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi said that they didn’t intend to keep them any further, Bens dragged Hersey away and fled without a backward glance.

“How was the client that made you so nervous you wanted to puke?”

“…Speak properly,” said Yan Suizhi, peeved. “He hasn’t loosened his tongue yet, but this might not be so tomorrow.”

Featherlight, he breezed over it, which always made the listener feel a million times more at ease. NpKeCY

“I’ll be heading back to the hotel now to take another look at the oral confessions.” Yan Suizhi asked him, “How about you?”

“Making a trip down to Zone 2.”

“Oh, you’re really on a business trip?”

Gu Yan, “…” wP4izV

Professor Yan looked at his expressionless face, receiving great pleasure from teasing this student. His eyes crinkled as he said, “Alright, jokes aside; how long are you going to Zone 2? Will you be coming back to Zone 3?”

Gu Yan looked at him for a moment. Then, he lowered his gaze, turned the cup in his hand, and took a small sip of coffee. “We’ll see.”

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“As my teacher in name, don’t you intend to watch your intern’s court trial?” Yan Suizhi felt that Student Gu’s acting, unlike his, wasn’t up to par.

It was just a flippant question; he was already looking down and booking a taxi on his smart device. RMsXrS

Soon, the taxi automatically stopped by the side of the road. The two of them got in the car, and soon the question of ‘spending money like a torrent’ and ‘terrifying asset balance’ arose from the car model that was booked, such that Yan Suizhi forgot Gu Yan hadn’t yet answered the question of whether he would watch the trial.

Yan Suizhi got the smart driving car to bring Gu Yan to the port first.

Zone 2 and Zone 3 weren’t connected continents. Driving there wasn’t as quick as going by water. The passenger sea shuttle could reach the shore in five hours.

Before getting out of the car, Gu Yan seemed to remember something, telling Yan Suizhi to turn on the inter-device connection. 8PHhWF

“What are these two files that you’re transferring over?” Yan Suizhi was puzzled. “Why are they so big?”

“The photo backups from the cameras of the reporters,” Gu Yan said. “After all, they were targeting you. It’s more appropriate to give you the right to decide how to handle them. If you don’t have any thoughts about it for the time being, just leave them be for now.”

Yan Suizhi readily accepted. While waiting for the file transfer to complete, he inadvertently thought back to the state of affairs between Hersey and Bens. He casually brought it up, “That mentor and apprentice… well, mentor and apprentice in a sense. Their ideologies are too different, it’s quite amusing to watch. They probably haven’t known each other for long.”

In a few years, they could end up going completely separate ways, never speaking with each other to their deathbeds. TCedAN

When he said this, Gu Yan didn’t respond.

The two smart devices chimed a short while later; the file transfer was complete.

As Gu Yan closed the screen, he suddenly said, “There was once a period of time that I felt our ideologies clashed as well.”

Yan Suizhi was briefly startled. Seeming to recall something, he uttered a soft “ah”’ a few seconds later. He smiled, and he asked, “What about now? Do they still clash?” iq2mOL

Gu Yan sat quietly in the seat next to him. A moment later, he gripped the door handle and got out. Pressing his hand against the roof of the car, he bent over slightly to look inside, saying evenly, “We can talk about this another time. I won’t bring my luggage with me, help me book a room. I’ll go over tomorrow night.”