Almost as soon as she hung up on the neighborhood committee, Fu Zheng called. His voice was calm and composed. He didn't sound at all like someone who had just hung an apology banner from a drone. "Ning Wan," he said coolly, "I'm downstairs, can I come up?"

"Sure, but..."

Before she could even finish speaking, Fu Zheng interrupted. "Open the door, let's talk in person."

Although it wasn't far to get from the lobby to her door, he had arrived as soon as she had spoken... There was no such thing as teleportation. It seemed as though Fu Zheng had been waiting at the door for quite awhile...

When she opened her front door, sure enough, he was standing there, his face serious.

"Did you rush back?"

"Yes," Fu Zheng nodded.

Now that their identities had been reversed, Ning Wan felt a little uncomfortable. "Did you catch the early train? You didn't need to be in such a hurry. You really should pay more attention to your health. Even if there was work to catch up on in Rong City..."

"There wasn't any work to catch up on," Fu Zheng interrupted, pressing his lips together.

"Then why were you in such a hurry to come back?"

This time, Fu Zheng said nothing. He only looked at Ning Wan.

Because of her?

Ning Wan's cheeks began heating up to see him like this, but upon thinking about Fu Zheng's deception, she suddenly felt like playing with him a little longer. Pretending not to understand, she asked, "Why?"

Fu Zheng hesitated and glanced at her, feeling helpless and indulgent. Even his voice gentled. "Because of you."

He looked away awkwardly, coughed, and then added, "Because you didn't reply to my message."

Fu Zheng had sent her a message?

Ning Wan instinctively checked her phone. She hadn't had time to look ever since she had woken up that morning. When she had called the neighborhood committee, she had been furious and hadn't had the time to scroll through her text messages.

She wouldn't have known if she hadn't looked, but when she did, Ning Wan was rather surprised. "Why did you send me so many messages?"

Ever since nine o'clock last night, Fu Zheng had sent her a message every few hours.

It seemed as though he had had a rough time getting out the first text, because the first two attempts had been withdrawn.

"Generally speaking, if I don't reply to a message at night, I probably went to bed..." she hinted tactfully, glancing at Fu Zheng. "So if you text me late at night, you definitely won't get a reply... When I sleep, my phone gets put on silent..."

"It's not that I needed you to reply," Fu Zheng averted his eyes, paused, and then explained very unnaturally, "I just wanted to confirm whether or not you blocked me."

Is that why you checked every few hours???

Ning Wan was stupefied. She had originally been a little tense, thinking about Fu Zheng's true identity, but now her voice rose, "Why would I block you?"

This time it was Fu Zheng who was surprised. He looked away awkwardly. "I concealed my identity and lied to you. You would be right to be angry..."

"No? Me, angry? Rest assured, I wouldn't block someone even if I was angry with them. That would be far too childish!"

After hearing that, Fu Zheng seemed relieved. "Yes, you're a very sensible person. You'd never be so childish, there wouldn't be any need for you to block me. I was just nervous so..."

Before the words "I worried a little too much" could come out of his mouth, Ning Wan continued--

"What if someone apologizes to me by sending me a few big red packets? So long as you have them send it in some number like 520 or 1314, indicating love, it would be legally considered a gift, not a loan. Even if they tried to back out later, the law wouldn't allow it. So if I wanted to block someone, I would only do it after cheating an apology red packet out of them! Otherwise, what, should I block them without even getting anything? Am I an idiot? How childish!"

"..."

Fu Zheng pursed his lips and tried to calm down. "I know that anger wouldn't be enough to describe your feelings. You might even be considering breaking up with me right now, but I just hope you can give me a chance to explain that I didn't mean to mislead you like that. My feelings for you are sincere..."

"As for the red packets," he added, "There's no need for those. I could withdraw cash straight from the bank and give it to you. This way there would be no traces of the transfer at all. As long as you didn't sign an IOU, I would never be able to get anything back legally. It would be safe and traceless, and in an amount much larger than anything you could get off WeChat. You could have as much as you want.”

?

Ning Wan could have interrupted Fu Zheng as he spoke, but after listening to his very serious confession and loan proposal, she suddenly didn't feel like speaking. Saying nothing to indicate her position, she simply looked quietly at Fu Zheng, and just as she had expected, it made him even more nervous.

This experienced senior partner even sounded a little panicked as he spoke, as though he were a primary school student who hadn't reviewed for a test and didn't know the answer but wanted to get good grades nonetheless--

"Except for lying about my identity, nothing about my education, name, or height are false. I want to be good to you. I want to help you. I want to work with you in the same team. I want you to not get hurt. All of these are true.”

"After realizing that I liked you, I was already thinking about confessing my identity. But I was worried that my identity would affect your acceptance of my confession, or pressure you unnecessarily. Because I never thought of a foolproof way to circumvent that, I kept putting it off; until I realized you liked me too."

At that point, Ning Wan became cross. "Then when you realized that day that I was drunk, but you weren't, why didn't you stop me from talking nonsense? Wouldn't it have been fine just to interrupt me and say that you liked me too? Instead you lied to me, and now my reputation is destroyed thanks to all the unspoken rules stuff. Is that what you wanted?”

"I did that on purpose."

Ning Wan had thought that Fu Zheng would quibble about it, but the man actually outright admitted it. Did he still want to go on living? Was that desire completely gone?

But Fu Zheng paused for a moment before continuing, "But even if I didn't say anything on purpose, you using the unspoken rules on me is an established fact. You were the one who promised that you would support me."

His lips quirking up, he took out his phone and pressed 'Play'. Ning Wan's voice sounded in the room--

"If you follow after me, I will definitely teach you everything I learn from the senior partner. Also, I do actually have some additional skills in the matters of taking advantage and avoiding blame, and it's not impossible for me to teach them to you. But to be honest, passing my unique hidden skills on to you doesn't come without a cost. You must be aware that in the past, one would only pass one's martial art secrets down to their own people, so in summary; I advise you to like me as soon as possible..."

…

…………

"You recorded it??? You actually recorded my confession???"

Ning Wan almost knelt at his feet in admiration. What sort of dog man was this?! Even at the most exciting moment of being confessed to, he hadn't forgotten to record it? Was this bastard even still... human?

Fu Zheng finally showed his first smile of the day. "It was so sudden, you confessed to me before I had the chance to confess myself. Because I was worried you would turn your back on me after you found out my identity, I felt that it might be better to leave behind a little evidence. After all, making a recording is just a casual act, an instinctive occupational habit. It's very convenient and useful. I hope that no matter what situation you may find yourself in in the future, you'll always have this awareness as a lawyer about you."

"..." And on-site training too? Were you aware you might be losing your girlfriend soon?

It seemed that this scoundrel had made up his mind to touch porcelain¹Wikipedia: Pèngcí (Chinese: 碰瓷; lit. 'touching or bumping porcelain') is the practice of crooks placing ostensibly expensive, fragile items (usually porcelain) in places where they may easily be knocked over, allowing them to collect damages when the items are damaged.. "But you said that you would support me. Was this solemn vow of yours just casually said? Is your word not trustworthy at all? Ning Wan, is this the sort of person you are?"

"..." Ning Wan lost her temper. "Fu Zheng, check your own bank balance. Do you still need me to support you? Was it fun, watching me do my best to save money on your behalf? Where do you usually live? In a villa, right? It wasn't an accident that you didn't see the cherries I put out for you, because you've never lived in that tiny little second-hand apartment, have you? You don’t like it at all, am I right? Now that I think about it, didn't you hate it when you first saw it?"

Fu Zheng's false reasonings succeeded in making Ning Wan get a little angry recalling the details of the past. However, she herself did not realize that because of these emotions, she no longer treated Fu Zheng with the slight formality of addressing her future boss. Before she even realized it, she had reflexively shouted out his full name  in anger²Like how you're in trouble when your mom  starts using your middle name.

For his part, Fu Zheng seemed to take this very well. He cast a glance at Ning Wan. "The second-hand apartment you made me buy has appreciated by almost one million yuan since buying it."

One million?! Ning Wan felt her heart become a little unbalanced. This piece of rubbish, Fu Zheng. How could she have earned him so much extra money by mistake?! So it was true that the rich just got richer!

Fu Zheng very gently persuaded, "If you break up with me now and in the future I find someone else, then all these appreciations will go to them. You helped me buy an apartment yet it ended up benefiting another woman. Do you feel like this is appropriate?”

Of course it wasn't!!!