First-Class Lawyer

Having never gotten over his guilt for dousing Yan Suizhi with hot water, Chester took it upon himself as the chef to send the best dishes towards Yan Suizhi’s plate the entire meal.

In addition to that, these guests all appeared like children to Mdm Kitty Bell, especially Yan Suizhi, who looked the youngest. Therefore, when serving snacks and fruits, she lovingly heaped more onto Yan Suizhi’s plate too. 

There was also the awkward Joshua Dale…

As well as Rosie Dale, purely jumping in on the fun…

In short, under the combined efforts of these four people, the food on Yan Suizhi’s dinner plate was piled as high as a mountain. By visual estimate, it was thrice the portion he usually ate.

“…” 

This kindness was hard to refuse; the esteemed Professor Yan picked up his cutlery with a faint smile on his lips, smiling until his face turned green.

The old madam’s heart went out for these busy young men. She was constantly asking Gu Yan, “Is there a lot of work? Have you been sleeping well? Have you been eating regularly? How has your health been?”

Her memory wasn’t too good in her old age; she would occasionally repeat herself.

While Gu Yan didn’t speak much, he was exceptionally patient. Even if the questions had been asked before, upon being asked again, he would still calmly respond as if it were his first time hearing it.

Whereas the esteemed Professor Yan, out of care and concern for his student, would occasionally take advantage of the time the latter was looking up to answer her to secretly move the food on his plate over like an industrious hamster.

Whenever the old madam stopped talking, Professor Yan would smoothly start a new subject.

And so, Gu Yan would be pulled into conversation again, whilst someone secretly started moving more food over.

Originally, the distinguished Lawyer Gu closed one eye to it, cooperatively pretending not to see a thing. 

To be honest, he actually did enjoy these small private gestures very much.

Until a certain person took a mile when indulgently allowed an inch, moving his ‘entire mountain’ over with utter composure on his face.

“…”

While Kitty Bell and the others were being entertained by Young Master Joe, Gu Yan regarded his plate. His eyelids flicked up after a moment of silence, and he calmly asked, “Teacher Yan, do you think that I’m blind?” 

Professor Yan gazed at him with his chin propped up, feigning innocence for two seconds before his sheepskin slipped, and his eyes curved with mirth.

Resigned to his fate, Gu Yan picked up his fork.

—

It wasn’t too late into the night when they left Joshua Dale’s house. By then, the low-rise neighbourhood was awash with lights from every home. 

Once they emerged from the alleys, the cacophony of people and cars on Two Moon Street surged towards them. It was a mere distance of a dozen steps, yet they seemed like two worlds, disconnected from each other.

Young Master Joe was obviously more in his element around a place like Two Moon Street. However, as he stood at the corner of the street, he couldn’t stop himself from darting a look back at the shabby alleyways, mumbling, “That little brat’s house has quite a good ambience. I’m actually a bit reluctant to leave.”

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“I’m not a goldfish; I’ve a passable memory and I happen to have eyes.” Lawyer Gu sniped back as he pressed the other into the car, just as though he was menacing a silly dog into a cage.

The door slammed shut. Joe stuck his head out of the half-open car window. “Are you two not getting on?” 

“We’re going to take a walk,” after a pause, Gu Yan added with a paralysed face, “to aid digestion.”

Joe couldn’t contain his laughter, sprawling over the window, saying, “Even you have these kinds of days.”

“…”

Expressionless, Gu Yan helped him press the ignition start, driving him and Ke Jin off. 

The accommodations that Joe had arranged was near a river bank at the other end of Two Moon Street. It was actually only a short distance away, taking only five minutes if one crossed straight across Two Moon Street. However, Gu Yan took a gigantic detour, picking a road along the river.

Compared to Two Moon Street, this detour along the river was much more deserted. Though there were a handful of young sweethearts who had the leisure to stroll along the river, they were spaced far apart, and soon they were the only ones along the long footpath.

After taking a few steps, Yan Suizhi suddenly extended a hand, palm-up, to Gu Yan, his slender fingers gently crooked like an elegant invitation.

Gu Yan arched his brow. 

“I heard that there’s an acupuncture point on the hand that, when pressed, can aid digestion,” Yan Suizhi said as though it were the truth, “let me try.”

A certain professor once proclaimed that he had no knowledge of acupuncture points; if he were to be believed, pigs might fly.

With both hands stuck in his pockets, Gu Yan cast his gaze down at that invitation, then he took out a hand to hold it, lacing their fingers together.

Wine City was in the depths of winter, but as luck would have it, there wasn’t much wind by the river, so it wasn’t cold. 

They leisurely strolled back to the hotel.

“Before, at the welfare home, you were a bit off,” Gu Yan said. “When the director was talking about that consortium, you kept spacing out.”

“Was it that obvious? I’ve always been good at concealing my inattentiveness.”

“Who gave you that delusion?” Gu Yan’s hand on his was warm, but there was not a lick of tact in his words. 

Yan Suizhi clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.

“Was there something wrong with what the director said?” Gu Yan asked.

Yan Suizhi shook his head. “No, just that… it might be a bit difficult to obtain information about the people behind the consortium.”

“Why?” 

“Because one of the two anonymous parties in the partnership is no longer in this world,” Yan Suizhi said. “There’s too little information about the other one. It’ll be difficult to look up.”

No longer in this world?

Before Gu Yan could process the surety in his utterance, his smart device vibrated.

It just so happened that the caller was the old director. He came bearing news that his friend had responded to him with some documents signed by the anonymous sponsors, which he was sending right over to Gu Yan. 

The transfer speed was high. As soon as the call was dropped, the compressed file leapt onto his screen.

Gu Yan glanced at Yan Suizhi, then clicked it.

The privacy of his smart device was set to include Yan Suizhi, hence whatever was displayed on the screen was clearly visible to both of them.

The old director passed along a fair number of documents, about ten or so, most of them confirmation letters of asset transfer along with some letters of gratitude, and two unclassified receipts with no discernible problems. 

The director added a note to the folder.

-Information about the anonymous sponsors, mostly confidential. This is the best that I can do; I hope that it helps you. Moreover, I’m deeply sorry about the man that you call the Sweeper. After all, he was once a child under my charge.

Gu Yan opened each document as a separate hologram. It was as the director had said—the anonymous sponsors had constantly protected their identities. In these documents, the only area that involved them was actually only the signature at the end.

It was only at this time that he finally understood what the old director meant when he called them ‘very… um…’ signatures. 

The first document was the confirmation of asset transfer. There were two distinctive signatures in the acknowledgement section, where it was written:

One & Everyone.

On the second document, the letter of gratitude: Someone & So-and-So.

The third: Who & Who knows who 

The fourth: Old buddies & little buddy

The fifth: X & Y

The sixth…

Lawyer Gu silently closed the holograms, unable to read on. 

Going solely by the signatures, neither of the two anonymous sponsors took this seriously, which was exacerbated by their unwillingness to leave traces. Every signature was taken as a joke. Looking at it made people simultaneously vexed and amused, and a million times more at wit’s end.

Gu Yan rubbed his temples, spreading the holograms again.

What surprised him was that a glaring change appeared in the later documents.

The two signatures became one, and the style had changed to become proper, signing the name of the pseudo-consortium knocked out under the partnership, using this name to represent both families. 

The documents were arranged by date. It started out with two signatures, spanning a few years, later becoming a single signature.

Gu Yan took notice of the year that the first standalone signature appeared. If this were before, he wouldn’t be particularly sensitive to the date. But it was different now. When he saw the year, he subconsciously drew the association. It was the second year after Yan Suizhi’s parents passed on.

Gu Yan held the documents, staring at the year for a few seconds before raising his head. “The other party is—”

Yan Suizhi, “My parents.” 

“You looked into it long ago?” Gu Yan asked.

Yan Suizhi shook his head. He pulled a few of the signed documents in front of him. “Actually, there’s a bit more information to go on.”

He pointed at the first document’s ‘Everyone‘ and said, “Two people, referring to Mr Lin and Ms Lu.” 

Then, he pointed at ‘So-and-So‘ and said, “That’s also Mr Lin and Ms Lu. As well as this ‘Who knows who‘, that’s them too. However, the first time that I came across such documents was actually very early on…”

Yan Suizhi pointed at the ‘little buddy’ in the fourth document. “I was next to them as they signed this. I can’t remember the specifics; I think I entered the study to ask my father something or other, and they told me, ‘You came at just the right time. We were out of ideas on what to sign.'”

“I have a deep impression of this signature, and thanks to that impression, it was much easier to look up after I grew up.” Yan Suizhi jiggled the holographic paper, saying, “If you search through a handwriting depository, you’d probably never find a match, because my father signed it with his left hand.” 

He swept a gaze over that signature again. “Isn’t the handwriting quite ugly?”

Yet Gu Yan’s attention was caught by another point instead. “The ‘Y’ that you signed the asset donation letter with…”

Yan Suizhi chuckled. “It isn’t an abbreviation of Yan. It’s actually meant to allow my parents’ signature to carry on. I’ve also used ‘Everyone’ and ‘So-and-So’, as well as ‘Who knows who’ in other places. The Y is just a bit of a coincidence.”

He paused, then said, “What the director sent you is about the same as what I managed to get back then, with just a few more documents. But as you can see, the information is extremely limited. My father used his non-dominant hand to sign them, and it’s highly plausible that the other party did as well. I’ve run a search through the handwriting depository before. There are no matches.”