As expected, Shi Wu bullied the weak and feared the strong. After Ning Wan’s ultimatum, she never dared act out again. Ning Wan discovered that sometimes there was nothing wrong with a strong counter. Once her attitude was shown and her bottom line made clear, all she had to do afterward was stick to her principles and live her life.

In the past, when her life had not been going smoothly, she had always felt like time had slowed to a crawl. But now that everything was on track and every day was fulfilling, time flew.

"The annual company meeting is tonight, why are you two still working so hard? Relax! The high-rankers have already said that we can have these couple days off!"

Thanks to Shao Lili's reminder, Ning Wan was jolted out of her work. She looked up at the calendar on her desk, whose pages had already been turned several times, and realized that before she knew it the year had come to an end.

Thanks to a proposal of Fu Zheng's, firm-wide emails of encouragement had been canceled this year. Instead, everyone had received a review personally written by their team's partner. It was the first time that partners had written such personalized emails to their subordinates, and though each person's expression when they opened the email was different, it was clear that everyone was moved.

Among them, Shao Lili was the most excited one. She had almost wiped away her tears while reading. "What a nice person my boss is. I didn't expect him to know that I was staying up late to work overtime. He even recommended Bodyshop's ginger shampoo and other hair growth products to me in the email. He really cares! I didn’t expect him to be so approachable..."

This was a typical employee who lacked love. Upon getting a little care from their bosses, they would give off their own brilliant light...

Ning Wan didn't have the heart to remind Shao Lili that if her boss cared so much about her hair, he would have arranged less work for her so that she could go to bed earlier. Keeping her up late while recommending her hair growth products was truly the most sinister of capitalist doctrine...

But Shao Lili was obviously blinded by sugar-coated capitalism. She was now praising her boss, vowing to stay up late next year, and at the same time, buying hair growth shampoos, black hair pills, and imported hair growth helmets...

However, although her hair had thinned from staying up late, Shao Lili's wallet was also quite swollen these days. She was now living the happy shopping life, buying whatever she wanted, and every time she went to the supermarket she would thump her chest with pride and say--

"Ning Ning, if anything catches your eye in this supermarket, just grab it!"

Ning Wan couldn't help but laugh thinking of Shao Lili's exaggerated expression back then. Although it had been difficult to stay up late, her hard work had been rewarded. Shao Lili had grown very quickly, been entrusted with important work, and cherished her opportunities. Although she was tired, it was a sort of happy tiredness, and nowadays she was looking more confident and becoming more independent.

After placing her order for hair growth products, Shao Lili studied some hair transplant advertisements, before finally remembering Ning Wan. "Have you gotten an email from your boss?"

"She should have! I just got Partner Fu's email, so Ning Wan must have gotten it too!"

Ning Wan nodded along with Cai Zhen, then quietly changed the topic.

She had indeed received a letter of encouragement, but it would sound a bit too much like bragging to say out loud--

Because the letter Ning Wan had received had been handwritten by Fu Zheng himself.

After Shao Lili and Cai Zhen dispersed, Ning Wan checked her surroundings before secretly pulling out her letter.

What she saw was a flowing, sharp script. Thinking back to the secret note that she had taken by mistake, Ning Wan felt a little ashamed. Fu Zheng's actual handwriting really did match his appearance, but there was usually little need for any of the senior partners to write anything by hand. After all, every lawyer registered with the Bar Association had a seal, and if any legal opinions or contracts or whatnot needed to be signed, Fu Zheng simply used his seal instead.

Ning Wan opened the letter to find that that Fu Zheng had very eloquently written several pages. For a moment she felt quite proud to have gotten so much handwriting from a partner who usually didn't even sign his own signature, and when she perused the content, she felt even more moved.

Fu Zheng had conscientiously listed every case Ning Wan had handled after joining his team, made note of the problematic legal habits she had developed in the community in the past, and very fairly and objectively scored each case. He had then summarized her strengths and weaknesses, and finally given her suggestions and a plan for her future career.

"The above is my review, which every lawyer in our team receives equally. What follows is what I have to say as a boyfriend, and it is only for you."

When Ning Wan saw this, she felt a little nervous but also a little sweet. Fu Zheng was currently on a business trip and would not be back until the annual company meeting tonight. But looking at the note he had written, Ning Wan had the illusion that they were hiding from their colleagues, whispering together.

"Thank you for having brought me this very special experience. Thank you for choosing my team, for choosing me to be your boyfriend, for making my life richer..."

The words themselves were not actually very sentimental, but reading them, Ning Wan still felt very soft and moved. Wasn't she also grateful to Fu Zheng? He had brought her out to finally experience a completely different view.

"Let's go, Ning Wan, c'mon, hurry up!"

Ning Wan was busy indulging in her feelings when Shao Lili pulled her out of her chair. "I'll drive us to the hotel!"

Shao Lili had recently bought a new car and gotten her driver's license, which she was very eager to exercise. Dragging Ning Wan and Cai Zhen behind her, she brandished her car keys to drive them to the hotel where the annual company meeting would be held.

Ning Wan and Cai Zhen met each other's eyes sympathetically and decided to fasten their seat belts for their lives.

This year, thanks to Fu Zheng joining, Zhengyuan Law had undergone a great many new reforms. Also thanks to Fu Zheng and his ability to bring in cases, the office's profit had reached a new level, manifesting itself in the prizes for the annual company meeting.

As soon as she entered the venue, Shao Lili began drooling over the golden eggs piled up in the corner. "I wonder if I'll have a chance to grab a phone or tablet..."

"It's okay even if you don't win a golden egg, Lili." Cai Zhen was attending the annual meeting for the first time, and no one else was a match for her curiosity and excitement. "Anyway, Partner Gao said that everyone would have a participation prize this year, even those who don't win the lottery!”

"Yes, but the participation prize isn't the same for everyone. I heard it's random. Didn't we get a number when we entered the venue just now? I heard that those who don't win a prize get a random participation one based on the number, and they're very different. See the pile over there? They're all wrapped up, but I bribed our admin and found out that there are cooking appliances, soymilk makers, kettles, mountain bikes, kitchen utensil, snack bags, hand cream, skin care sets, calcium tablets, hair tonics, overtime sleeping bag sets... to sum it up, it's completely random. What you draw could be big or small or cheap or expensive, and there's a huge price difference between them!"

Shao Lili drooled over the prizes, silently hoping that she would get a big one. "In short, the bigger the box, the better." She pointed to the largest among the pile of random prizes, "See the biggest one there? I want that one! I Yesterday I went to the temple and asked for a fortune! The biggest one has got to be the most expensive one, and I feel like I can win it! It looks about the size of a refrigerator, and I happen to be short one..."

Soon their other colleagues began arriving, and everyone gathered together to chat animatedly about each other's cases, their recent lives, their new boyfriends and girlfriends, and the new houses and cars they were about to buy...

Each and every young lawyer's face was full of expectations and hope for the future. Even just listening, Ning Wan couldn't help but be infected by the emotions around her - unconsciously but firmly, they were all moving together toward a better future.

After the reorganizations, the atmosphere within the firm had become very good. Cui Jing and others like her, whether due to being criticized by name or restricted by the system, had resigned one after the other. Lacking real talent and practical knowledge, they were increasingly unable to fish in troubled waters within the firm, so they had left, and the vacancies had been filled by the many lawyers originally in the talent pool who had worked hard, passed a written examination and interview, and obtained the opportunity to join a partner's team. Some lawyers in the talent pool had also signed up to join the community lawyer service group. Just as Fu Zheng and Gao Yuan had planned, the entire talent pool mechanism was slowly changing.

Those who were still in the firm now were either capable or willing to work hard. The reorganization had made rewards and punishments clear. No longer would there be any worries about making a mistake by doing too much. So long as you worked, you would be seen. If you put in effort, it would not be in vain. And if you worked hard, opportunities would come to you. This had become almost a positive feedback loop. Although there were many who had resigned, the teams as a whole had become more streamlined, and morale and cohesion had gone up. Last time, Ning Wan had heard Fu Zheng inadvertently mention that this year's income had not decreased but increased. Since there were fewer staff, the per capita income had also gone up a great deal, and the year-end bonus each lawyer received at the end of the year was therefore much more generous. The reorganization had truly upended the entire atmosphere of Zhengyuan Law.

"I moved out of the shared house I was renting in! Now that I'm making more every month, I can finally afford to rent a place by myself. It's so nice to have my own space when I go home! The apartment is a bit small, only 30 square meters, but really feels like it's mine, you know? I couldn't have a cat before because it wasn't allowed in the shared rental, but now that I have my own place, I've adopted the stray I was feeding. I'm a cat owner now, you're all welcome to come over and play with my cat.”

"I thinking of buying a scooter, any recommendations?"

"Wow, upgrading your two wheels to four? Did you make a lot this year?"

"Hehe, not too bad. I can almost afford a car, so I'm planning to get a small one soon. That'll save me having to transfer around subway lines every time I go to court..."

…

It was all so great.

Listening in, Ning Wan felt like everything was wonderful.

Sometimes it even felt like a dream, but here she was living in this moment - whether for her colleagues or for herself, a new life had begun.

She had joined a good team, begun working on the commercial cases she had once only dreamed of, and was facing new challenges every day.

For all these, aside from her own hard work, she had Fu Zheng to thank for having come to the community, for having been 'tempered', for having the ability to reflect and the courage to reform.

At that moment, the talk among her colleagues shifted to that very same topic. Everyone was filled with gratitude--

"Thank you, Partner Fu, for leading us forward into a socialist future!"

"Be careful, if Partner Gao hears what you just said, he'll definitely feel sour. You can't hug just one thigh!"

"Hahahaha, that's right. Thank you to all the partners for letting me enter a new era..."

When it came to this, Chen Shuo, who had just recovered and come back to work, seemed to have a different opinion. "You're exaggerating too much, Fu Zheng is just..."

"Not at all! I know you two worked together in the community before. You're close, so there's no need for you to flatter. But we've never gone through weal and woe with Partner Fu, so we can only close the distance by flattery!"

…