Ning Wan earnestly reflected upon herself and felt that she might really have been too partial. Although the senior partner had played a decisive role in the matter, without Fu Zheng standing up and making a statement, would Jin Jianhua's affairs have been handled so quickly?

But before she had time to praise Fu Zheng, Chen Shuo interrupted. He and Fu Zheng were surprisingly consistent in their views this time. "What Lawyer Fu said is very reasonable, senior. Although how the senior partner handled this matter may be popular, that doesn't make him easy to get along with, so don't view him through rose-coloured glasses. He might be the sort of ruthless man who is strict on Partner Jin but also the same toward the other people in his team..."

But before Chen Shuo could finish, Fu Zheng, who had just been in the anti-senior partner faction, defected. He frowned at Chen Shuo, "You have to be strict if you're a high-ranking partner. Strictness makes order, to some extent. Why is this a shortcoming? So long as you behave yourself, work hard, and don't do anything improper, no one will be able to blame you no matter how ruthless they are."

Chen Shuo was quite obviously bewildered at how Fu Zheng had just changed his mind halfway. He stared at Fu Zheng, then cleared his throat and looked at Ning Wan. "To be sure, if the senior partner is strict then strict teachers make excellent students, but I just wanted to remind senior sister that you should still be careful. No matter how good the  senior partner is, he's in a different class than we are. He's the boss, and we're his subordinates. We're in different positions, so our perspectives will differ. Don't depend on him and trust him too much."

This was quite reasonable. Ning Wan was about to nod when Fu Zheng once again opened his mouth. "Bosses are humans, too, and every human has empathy. It's not like a boss is some untrustworthy enemy in a different social class."

Raising an eyebrow, Chen Shuo looked at Fu Zheng. "Lawyer Fu, you're not a boss. How can you know what they're thinking?"

Fu Zheng bit his lip, looking a little unwilling, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Ning Wan hurriedly poured a cup of tea for them both to shut their mouths.

Recently, Chen Shuo had actually been feeling a little upset. He was in the community office whenever he had time, and being more in contact with Ning Wan should have made them closer, but he always had the feeling like he was getting more and more distant from her.

Before he had transferred here, Ning Wan had often talked to him when something came up, about those wonderful cases in the community, general gossip, analysis of some difficult cases, and even just how she was feeling about something that day. But now that he had come here, there was Fu Zheng around, and if anything came up she seemed to be used to discussing it with him. He had become an outsider who couldn't even get a word in.

Chen Shuo had been silently accompanying Ning Wan for quite a long time. The last time he had originally planned to express his feelings, he had been interrupted by Fu Zheng. Ever since then, he had been watching and waiting for the right opportunity. But now he thought that it couldn't go on like this. He couldn't keep waiting for the perfect opportunity. It would be better to cut the knot and express his feelings as soon as possible. At least in that way, Ning Wan would be aware of how he felt, and even if she didn't accept him immediately, he would be able to slowly work on her.

Chen Shuo had confidence in himself and patience with Ning Wan. Besides, according to the previous agreement where he and Fu Zheng would take cases in turn, he would be partnered with Ning Wan in the next case since she had been paired with Fu Zheng during the last one.

At the thought, Chen Shuo brimmed with motivation. He looked forward to a particularly difficult and complicated case arriving at their door so that he might work with Ning Wan as much as possible.

But alas, things did not turn out as he hoped. Where they had been saturated with consultations and disputes before, they seemed to enter an off-season during this period of time. Not to mention walk-in consultations, there were almost no phone calls at all...

But not having phone calls was fine. Thinking about it, Chen Shuo felt that he could just take advantage of his free time to plan his confession. After all, since he wanted to express his feelings, he needed to do it in a romantic way.

Eventually, after scouring the Internet, Chen Shuo finally laid his plan. The community office was just in front of two high-rise buildings in Yuelan Community's fifth district. Recently it had been getting dark early, and the lights would be coming on when they got off work. Wouldn't it be incredibly special yet subtle if the lights on the high-rise opposite spelled out their names with a heart as Ning Wan stood by the window?

He wasted no time. The community office had been planning to distribute law education leaflets recently. Chen Shuo volunteered for the job and brought the leaflets to the two high-rise buildings in Yuelan District 5.

He had written down which families needed to turn on the lights and which shouldn't. He planned to coordinate the lights while distributing leaflets, and to achieve this goal he had even bought a batch of little gifts to give to each family at the door.

He was looking forward to the future, thinking "After I hand out these leaflets, I'll confess!". He never thought that there were some things that should never be said for fear of tempting fate. The moment something like "When this battle is over, I'll be going home to get married" or "When this is done, I'm going to retire" comes out of one's mouth, a lunch box¹At the end of an actor's filming time, they get a lunch box, meaning their character is removed from the show would very predictably arrive soon after...

Just as he was about to enter the lobby of the two high-rises in high spirits, misfortune occurred.

Without warning, a monster descended from the heavens. Chen Shuo was walking on the road, thinking about his confession, and by the time he realized that there was a shadow over his head, there was no dodging it. Something hit him with a loud thump, his vision went black, and a fully grown 1.8m²or 5'9" in freedom units, as they say man collapsed to the ground under this unexpected disaster...

frostcrystal

Poor Chen Shuo. This is probably the most literal lightning from above strike to a 2nd male lead that I've seen an author deliver xD