CM | Chapter 14

Gu Yao quickly found the floor where Ming Shuo Law Firm was located. She took the elevator upstairs and used those brief ten-odd seconds to calm herself down and prepare mentally.

On the way over, she had already come up with a questioning strategy. Thanks to last night’s exchange, she also had a preliminary understanding of the bastard named Xu Shuo.

This was definitely not an ordinary man. Not only was he bold, he was also meticulous, good at talking, and extremely observant. He knew exactly how to use just a few words to get the other person boiling mad, not to mention he had done his background checks and homework.

In other words, he had managed to “know himself and know his enemy”, while she still knew nothing. She was already a step behind from the start.

With that awareness, Gu Yao knew she absolutely could not underestimate him. She simply decided to treat this bastard as a first-class criminal, and trying to pry something out of the mouth of a first-class criminal was very challenging.

At that thought, the emotions she had been suppressing for days finally found an outlet and were eager to burst out.

Gu Yao took another deep breath, and just then she heard a ding. The elevator had arrived.

On the other side, at Ming Shuo Law Firm.

Xiao Chuan was in his room hacking into a company’s intranet when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a figure appear on the surveillance monitor. He immediately sent the feed to Xu Shuo in the office.

Xu Shuo was still dressed in a suit, sitting on the sofa and acting all smug. Based on his calculations, Gu Yao would definitely show up today.

Sure enough, the moment the footage came through, Xu Shuo smiled.

Xiao Chuan said, “Bro, you really called it. The fish bit.”

Xu Shuo said, “Enough. Follow the plan. Remember to protect yourself first. That woman has a history of violence.”

They had all seen the livestream of how Gu Yao broke Wang Meng’s nose bridge.

Xiao Chuan froze. “No way? That day was a special case. I didn’t even provoke her…”

Xu Shuo analyzed it calmly. “Think about what happened these past few days. Gu Chengwen’s overprotectiveness toward her, Zhu Shengxi hiding things from her, even Du Tong, Gu Chengwen’s assistant, speaking with thorns in his words, and then all that pressure from the outside world. If you were her, could you really not be pissed off? She can’t turn on her own family, and now she finally caught some bastard who’s asking for it. Wouldn’t she take the chance to vent?”

“But I wasn’t the one who provoked her!”

“You’re my man. If I provoke her, it’s the same as you provoking her. Hurry up and go entertain the guest.”

“…”

The doorbell rang. Gu Yao was already outside.

Xiao Chuan reluctantly went to open the door, looking guarded. “Who are you looking for?”

Gu Yao said, “Hello, I’m looking for Xu Shuo, Attorney Xu.”

As she spoke, Gu Yao also sized Xiao Chuan up. The boy looked young, wearing a hoodie and jeans. He had very fair skin, a short build, and looked rather frail. There were two bluish shadows under his eyes. At a glance, he looked like a hardcore internet addict.

Xiao Chuan opened the door and let Gu Yao in. “Oh, then sit for a bit. He went out.”

As he spoke, Xiao Chuan pointed toward the pantry. “There’s something to drink in there. Help yourself.”

After that, he took his phone out of his pocket, sat down on a chair to the side, propped his legs up on the desk, and started gaming.

Clearly, this lackey had no intention of entertaining the guest.

Gu Yao glanced at him, then went to the pantry by herself and found coffee inside, which she made using a disposable cup.

She didn’t sit down to wait. After setting the cup down, she began looking around.

The law firm wasn’t very big. The outer area was an open workspace, and apart from some stationery supplies, there weren’t any other personal items in sight. That showed they hadn’t hired many employees yet. Most likely, this door-answering lackey was the only one.

Gu Yao walked to the wall, glanced at the painting hanging there, and asked, “May I ask your surname?”

Xiao Chuan didn’t even look up. “My name is Xiao Chuan.”

Gu Yao continued along the wall. Besides the pantry, there were several other doors leading to the outer area. The open one was the restroom, the two shut ones were probably offices, and there was another half-open door that looked like a storage room.

Gu Yao walked to the office at the very end. Although there was no sign on the door, her instincts told her this was Xu Shuo’s office.

She had no intention of barging in recklessly, so she turned back the way she came.

“How long until Attorney Xu comes back?”

Xiao Chuan said, “No idea. Maybe an hour, maybe a day.”

Gu Yao raised a brow and walked over to Xiao Chuan. “Oh? An hour or a day, that flexible with his schedule? What is he doing?”

From the corner of his eye, Xiao Chuan saw Gu Yao and subconsciously shrank his neck. “We don’t have enough staff here. He has to go out and drum up business himself.”

Gu Yao said, “What about you? What do you do?”

“I can’t do anything. I just help him keep the door, take care of guests if anyone comes, and wait for him to come back.”

Gu Yao laughed. “Hah. With that kind of ‘take care of guests,’ can you even keep a guest?”

The sarcasm in her words couldn’t have been clearer. Xiao Chuan really couldn’t keep pretending, so he simply lowered his legs and looked up at her.

She was leaning against the desk, arms crossed, and didn’t look friendly at all.

Uh, had the roles been reversed?

This was clearly his turf, so why did it suddenly feel like when he was a kid, staying up all night playing games and not studying, only to get caught in the act and lectured by the dean?

Xiao Chuan blinked and asked, “Sis, what do you want me to do?”

No matter what, calling her “Sis” first couldn’t be wrong.

Gu Yao smiled slightly. “Simple. I’ll ask a few questions, you answer them, and we’ll just treat it as casual conversation while killing time waiting for Attorney Xu to come back. How about that?”

How could Xiao Chuan dare say no?

“Oh, then ask away.”

A second later, Xiao Chuan added, “But I’m saying this in advance, okay? Asking about my privacy won’t do, because I’ll be embarrassed. Asking about Attorney Xu’s privacy won’t do either, because I don’t know. And… oh, your questions can’t exceed three. More than that and I’ll get annoyed.”

Xiao Chuan almost shamelessly tossed that out in a not-soft-but-not-hard tone. This routine had always worked on Xu Shuo.

Gu Yao raised a brow and said very sincerely, “Fine. I’ll follow the rules.”

Xiao Chuan was delighted.

Who would have thought that the next second, he’d hear Gu Yao ask, “My first question is, how long have you been watching me?”

Xiao Chuan instantly turned to stone.

What?

That direct?!

Seeing Xiao Chuan standing there with his mouth open, looking dumbfounded, Gu Yao kindly reminded him, “See? I’m not asking about your privacy, and I’m not asking about Xu Shuo’s privacy either. I’m asking about my privacy. Your rules don’t include pretending to be stupid and not answering, so you have to answer.”

Xiao Chuan quickly looked away, awkwardly scratching his head. “How did you know it was me?”

Gu Yao said, “Are you asking me a question in return? Fine, ask me one question back, and I’ll add three more. How about that?”

Xiao Chuan immediately said, “Don’t… actually… actually, it hasn’t been that long. Just half a month, I guess.”

Half a month?

Gu Yao recalled what had happened over the past half month, and little by little, she began to piece things together.

Then she looked at Xiao Chuan again and smiled very innocently. “Second question. Was the drone flying over the rooftop on the day Chen Feiyu committed suicide yours?”

“How did you guess that?” Xiao Chuan was stunned again, then reacted. “Wait, I’m not supposed to ask that… Uh, yes, that was mine.”

After a few seconds of silence, Gu Yao’s smile disappeared, and her tone turned rude.

“Third question, how long is that turtle Xu going to keep hiding?”

Xiao Chuan: “…”

In the office at the end of the hallway, Xu Shuo was watching the livestream from outside, and he was watching it with great enjoyment and interest. When he got to this point, he finally laughed out loud.

He picked up his phone and sent Gu Yao a WeChat message.

“Come in. Don’t make things hard for my little brother.”

On the other side, after seeing the message, Gu Yao held up her phone to Xiao Chuan so he could see it clearly, then walked straight in without waiting for anyone to invite her.

But just as she crossed the hallway and was about to push the door open, her phone rang again. It was a call from Qin Song.

It turned out half an hour had already passed.

Gu Yao answered and said, “I’m fine. I still haven’t seen him yet, and I was just about to look for him.”

Qin Song on the other end let out a breath of relief. “That’s good. You scared me to death. You have no idea how worried I’ve been these past half hour… By the way, you still don’t want me to come over?”

Gu Yao said, “No need. Just keep an eye on the location. If my location doesn’t move for a long time, call me. If I don’t pick up, call the police.”

Qin Song hesitated a little. “Are you sure?”

Gu Yao said, “I’m sure.”

After saying that, she cut the call and pushed open the door in front of her.

The office was very large, with not much furniture. A quick glance was enough to take everything in.

But the owner here was obviously very rich, and he knew how to show it off in a low-key way. The few decorations scattered around were all rare, top-tier pieces, not to mention that ridiculously large desk and that equally oversized sofa set.

Xu Shuo was sitting on the largest long sofa, one leg crossed over the knee of the other, hands spread out and resting casually on the back of the sofa. Even dressed in a suit and tie, he still managed to give off the vibe of some rich young company heir openly interviewing a live-in secretary.

Unfortunately, even though the place was bright beyond reason and sunlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, it still couldn’t force that bastard to show his true face.

After Gu Yao finished scanning the room, she chose a single chair and sat down.

She got straight to the point. “So Attorney Xu was here after all. Why were you hiding and refusing to see anyone?”

Xu Shuo lowered the hand that had been lifted too long and said half-seriously, half-jokingly, “I didn’t know what brought Miss Gu here, so I didn’t dare go out.”

As he spoke, he picked up the teapot and teacup from the table and poured Gu Yao a cup of tea with practiced ease.

At his age and with his kind of aura, he actually liked drinking tea.

Gu Yao couldn’t help but look at him a little longer.

Xu Shuo pushed the teacup in front of her and said, “Besides, my nose bridge is very fragile. My face is also very valuable. If it’s disfigured, my feng shui will get worse. How am I supposed to entertain guests after that?”

He showed no trace of guilt at all about the aerial drone surveillance. Instead, he was still full of mockery.

Gu Yao glanced at the teacup but didn’t touch it.

Xu Shuo asked, “Oh? Miss Gu came looking for me today because of something?”

Gu Yao took out her phone, opened WeChat, and directly held it out in front of him.

“You monitored me for half a month, and you even took secret photos of my boyfriend. With those things alone, I already have enough to sue you. I didn’t expect a lawyer to break the law.”

Xu Shuo smiled lazily. “Evidence?”

Gu Yao let out a cold snort, took the rolled-up photo from her bag, and placed it on the table.

Xu Shuo raised a brow. “What’s that?”

Gu Yao said, “The photo you secretly took.”

“Oh? You say it is, so it is? You’ve rolled it up already, I can’t even see it.”

Gu Yao didn’t know what game he was playing, so she looked at him suspiciously. Then she unfolded the photo.

Who would have thought that the moment she opened it, the inside of the photo was completely blank. The image that had been there before was gone without a trace!

Gu Yao froze.

What was going on?!

She subconsciously rubbed the material with her fingers, then brought it under her nose and smelled it. Suddenly, she understood. It had been processed with special imaging technology, and the image only lasted for a limited time.

Gu Yao closed her eyes, and anger began surging up inside her.

Then she put the blank sheet on the table and silently recited “calm down, stay cool, keep it together.” Only then did she meet Xu Shuo’s gleeful, malicious gaze again.

Xu Shuo said, “Forgive my poor eyesight, but I don’t seem to have seen anything.”

Gu Yao said, “You tampered with it.”

“Evidence?”

“I don’t have any.”

Gu Yao answered very honestly. She understood perfectly that this was a trap. From the moment she received the delivery, to this bastard provoking her on WeChat, to her coming here, to the image on the photo disappearing, everything had been laid out in his plan.

He had predicted each step so accurately. That meant he had already figured out her personality and behavior patterns, and most likely had investigated her for a long time before he ever started watching her.

In other words, in this trap, if she fought back using her usual move set, she absolutely wouldn’t have a chance of winning. She had to step outside the board and catch him off guard.

While Gu Yao was thinking through her response, Xu Shuo didn’t interrupt her. Instead, he leisurely poured himself a cup of tea and drank it at his own pace.

After he set the teacup down, he finally said flatly, “Miss Gu, allow me to remind you of a few things. One, the evidence you brought is a blank sheet of paper. Two, that photo of your boyfriend with another woman on WeChat was sent to me by you, so it has nothing to do with me. Three, we only met yesterday, and you already said you wouldn’t let me off. I will definitely retain the right to pursue this matter.”

Gu Yao said, “Is that so? But your lackey has already admitted that you monitored me for half a month.”

Xu Shuo smiled lazily. “Oh, I still have a fourth point I haven’t mentioned. My office has a special device, so from the moment you walked in, your recorder stopped working. If you don’t believe me, take it out and check.”

Gu Yao was somewhat surprised. The first thing that came to mind was that this might be Xu Shuo trying to trick her into taking out the recorder so he could snatch it away.

But on second thought, that didn’t seem right. If he wanted to steal her things, she wouldn’t have any chance to resist at all.

Thinking of this, Gu Yao took out the recorder, pressed pause, and played back the recording from earlier.

Sure enough, the recording only went up to before she walked out of the elevator. After that ding, all that came through was a hiss of static.

Gu Yao gritted her teeth and tossed the recorder back into her bag.

Xu Shuo took another sip of tea. “Please don’t mind. It’s an occupational hazard. People in our line of work always run into some fools who think they can steal trade secrets with just a recorder.”

Author’s Note:

Well, some readers probably saw “Lixin Orphanage” before and knew it was the place where the male and female leads grew up in that other boyfriend story. There were also readers asking for a crossover.

Cough, actually I was just too lazy to come up with a name, and I thought Lixin Orphanage was easy to type so I just used it. I never really thought about whether it was the same place, but if the plot allows, I can consider doing a crossover. You can also just treat it as a parallel world to that other story, haha 233

The next chapter will be all about the showdown.