Thankfully, Ning Wan was meticulously attentive and solicitous toward the other people sitting at the table with her. After catching up with Chen Shuo, she looked at Fu Zheng and attempted to draw him into the topic. "Fu Zheng, did you ever run into a teacher like this while you were in school?"

Now that her glittering eyes were back on him, Fu Zheng felt his irritability over being ignored gradually subside. He cleared his throat. "No, English tutoring wasn't popular in our high school. No one gave tutoring like that, so we never had such a teacher…"

Ning Wan's eyes widened. "No one tutored you?"

"Mmn."

"But why?! Our high school had tons of tutoring!"

Fu Zheng had gone to an international private school during highschool, in which English was used to teach lessons. Most of his classmates were foreigners, meaning that they wouldn't be taking the college entrance examination route, so there really was no need for tutoring at all.

But before Fu Zheng could explain, Chen Shuo cut in again. "Well, times are different. Back when Lawyer Fu was in school, maybe tutoring just wasn't popular then. It's a shame he didn't have access to quality education!" Chen Shuo smiled. "Perhaps there's a generation gap in our highschool experience because of the age difference! After all, education reforms have been coming out fast and frequent in recent years."

The smile on Fu Zheng's face faded away. No way.

He was just a little older than Ning Wan and Chen Shuo. He wasn't old at all, but this little shit Chen Shuo seemed to be implying that he had one foot in the grave.

Fu Zheng looked at Chen Shuo, who was in high spirits, and this time really felt displeasure. But it couldn't be denied that he was older than the two of them...

Gao Yuan received a short message from Fu Zheng while on a conference call. Generally speaking, if there wasn't anything going on with work, Fu Zheng was unlikely to send him a text. So when he saw Fu Zheng's name on the screen, Gao Yuan perked up abruptly. Had something gone wrong with the bankruptcy reorganization case they had discussed before? Or was it something else?

He apologized to the customer for bowing out of the meeting halfway, rescheduled the appointment, and then opened the message very seriously--

"Am I old?"

What greeted Gao Yuan was a short, three-word message. It was concise and abrupt, very in line with Fu Zheng's speaking habits, but... it's just that that contents weren't at all what he was expecting! This wasn't something Fu Zheng would ever ask!

Gao Yuan thought for a moment, then decided cautiously not to answer. He would wait instead. In his experience, such messages usually began with words where it was difficult to distinguish if they were really the person or not. In another ten minutes, he would probably get another message saying, "Brother, to tell you the truth, my girlfriend abandoned me for being too old, and I became obsessed with visiting escorts in an attempt to rebuild my self-confidence. I've just been caught and now I have to pay a fine. I'm too embarrassed to tell anyone else. Please lend me some money, my account number is..."

Fu Zheng must have lost his phone.

But after waiting for ten minutes, then for five minutes more, there was still no message asking for money. Gao Yuan thought about it and felt like perhaps he should take the initiative to attack, and made a call to the swindler to probe them.

"Hello?"

But when the call connected, be it that cool, aloof tone or the faint overtone of disgust, the person on the other end was clearly Fu Zheng!

"Didn't you lose your phone?" Gao Yuan asked, confused.

Fu Zheng's reply seemed puzzled. "Why would I have lost my phone?"

"Then why did you send that? Who told you that you were old?"

As the questions left his mouth, Gao Yuan wondered if he was imagining things. He felt somehow that Fu Zheng, on the other side, seemed to be feeling guilty. His tone was quite unnatural as he cleared his throat and replied, "No one, but I was just wondering... do you think being in your thirties is old?"

"Not at all! Thirty-one is the prime of a man's life! One must at least be in their thirties for their careers to be in full bloom!"

"Hm."

It was only one syllable, but Gao Yuan somehow sensed that Fu Zheng had lightened up a little.

However, Gao Yuan was a lawyer, and thanks to being a lawyer he had the bad habit of answering any questions posed to him in a very comprehensive, scientific manner. Every pro and con had to be outlined in detail, so he continued, "But that's career. I caught my fifteen-year-old niece reading romance novels the other day, and when I leafed through them, I found that all those alpha CEO male leads were only twenty-three or twenty-four! I asked her why there wasn't at least one man in his thirties, and would you believe what that child said? I quote: 'A man over twenty-eight has one foot in the grave, how could he possibly be the male lead of a romance novel?'"

“……”

Was he imagining things? Although Fu Zheng didn't say anything, Gao Yuan felt a strange chill in the air...

"I've got something to do. See you."

Finally, Fu Zheng dropped that sentence on him and hung up.

? ? ?

Ning Wan wondered if she was imagining things. Fu Zheng seemed a little unhappy today. He didn't usually talk much normally, but he was obviously even more taciturn today, especially after he got back from taking a phone call. His entire face looked dark...

Anyway, after the meal, the three of them went back to the office. Halfway through, Ning Wan got a phone call. It was Director Ji, asking her to attend a meeting on the community's behalf.

"You all know each other, so while I'm away, Chen Shuo, familiarize yourself with the work and ask Fu Zheng if you don't understand anything."

As soon as she left, leaving only Fu Zheng and Chen Shuo in the room, the atmosphere got a little delicate.

Chen Shuo glanced at Fu Zheng. "Just now, Ning Wan asked me to send you a photo. She said that you would help me put it on up the online bulletin board. I'll send you one."

He was clearly the newbie, but his bearing was that of a senior, and his tone of voice was as if Fu Zheng was his errand boy. Fu Zheng hadn't been in a good mood to begin with, and now he was even more unhappy.

Age was still a sort of experience, and he felt that as a superior, it had become very necessary for Chen Shuo to realize this.

Therefore, Fu Zheng didn't get upset or ruffled, but simply said gently, "Go ahead and send the photo over."

Sure enough, not long after he received an ID photo from Chen Shuo. He looked handsome and energetic. Fu Zheng glanced at the photo, smiled a very sincere smile, and sent it off to the staff in charge of uploading.

Chen Shuo didn't need guidance from him and felt like he could take care of himself. A young man like that had to be tempered by society.

……

Half an hour later, Fu Zheng refreshed the webpage. Chen Shuo's rather handsome photo had gone up on the community website. Raising his wrist, he checked his watch, silently counting down in his head.

Sure enough, precisely an hour later several old aunties appeared at the office door. The number increased over time, and in just a little while there was a tsunami of aunties pouring into the room--

"Oh my, it seems I have a question that I must consult with a lawyer about. Lawyer Chen, isn't it? Lawyer Chen, I was here first, so let me first ask, what school did you graduate from?"

"Lawyer Chen, are you new here? Goodness, you sure are handsome, are you taken?"

"Xiao Chen, I have a question too..."

……

Chen Shuo had never seen anything like this in his life. Although Ning Wan had mentioned that community work spiked just before before dinner, he had never imagined something like this. Clearly they had been idle in the morning, so why were there many on-site consultations in the afternoon? And what on earth was going on with all these old aunties poking around and flocking to him?

They crowded him so much that Chen Shuo felt like he could hardly breathe. All he could do was attempt to get them into some sort of order--

"There are two lawyers currently present in our neighbourhood community. If you're in a hurry, please consult Lawyer Fu..."

But before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by an old auntie--

"It's you we want to ask, Xiao Chen! We're already well-acquainted with Lawyer Fu. Now, how old are you?"

"Oh, yeah! Xiao Chen, won't you add me on WeChat? So I can ask you if I have any legal questions in the future?"

……

Chen Shuo was completely ignorant of the community ways, and Ning Wan was absent. He could only allow himself to be surrounded by a herd of old aunties to "answer" legal questions. When he had finally managed to send them all away after a whole lot of this and that, he began to have some doubts about life, never once realizing that the entire tragedy had been caused by a photo...

Fu Zheng watched lightheartedly, occasionally sipping at his tea, feeling just a little like brushing off his clothes to hide his talent and fame. Some young people were just asking for a beating. Most of the time it wasn't that they weren't going to get what was coming to them, but that it just wasn't time yet.

frostcrystal

As I mentioned a couple chapters ago, I'm taking next week (maybe two) off for my wedding! Pray for a cool and gorgeous day :)

On the Chinese education system

At the end of highschool, Chinese students take the college entrance examination, which is a huge deal. What you score on the exam dictates which Chinese university you can get into. Students spend years swotting for this exam to get into the schools of their choice. However, foreign students, such as the children of expats or foreigners living in China, and certain Chinese students like Fu Zheng who are aiming to go abroad, often don't go through this system. They instead go to international private schools, which can be rather pricey (which is why it's associated with rich kids or expats, whose companies often give a school stipend.) These are taught in English and have a curriculum that prepares you to go to college abroad.

By the way, the Chinese government recently cracked down HARD on private tutoring. Time will tell if that's a good or bad thing, but it will definitely have far-reaching effects. More reading if you're interested.