You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 8 Part 1

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 8 Part 1

Xu Huaisong hurriedly walked out of the courthouse with his cell phone in hand and said to Liu Mao: “I’m not that proficient with Wubi now.”[1]

When he finished, a man in a suit chased after him from the tall white building behind him. The man came to thank Xu Huaisong and praised his performance at court. This man also apologized to Xu Huaisong for his misunderstanding earlier.

The man was from SG Company. When Xu Huaisong went back to China the day before without informing the company in advance, this man thought Xu Huaisong had chickened out of the case and had sounded like he was willing to go and tear down his law firm with his bare hands.

Xu Huaisong, with phone still in hand, told this man not to worry about it.

He spoke fluent American English.

There was a Lincoln sedan parked not too far away and the driver had already opened the car door for Xu Huaisong. Xu Huaisong nodded to the driver as a greeting and brought the phone closer to him after he had gotten in the back seat of the car.

Liu Mao started to talk business: “I’ve taken the case for you.”

Xu Huaisong was quite courteous this time: “Appreciated.”

In comparison, Liu Mao was more demanding: “She avoids you like the plague. You’re forcing this on her. There are so many law firms in Hang City, why did you press her to choose Zhikun?”

“Because only I know how to go about this lawsuit.”

“It’s just a civil lawsuit, any law firm can handle it. Oh, right, you have feelings for her, that’s no problem. But in this case, you're a lawyer first, you can’t do whatever a client wants to do. She has a request and you say it can be done without even blinking?”

Xu Huaisong laughed.

The driver noticed that he was in a good mood and gave him a smile from the rear view mirror.

Xu Huaisong looked back at the driver and gave a friendly nod. When he spoke again, one could hear the laughter in his voice: “I did blink. Furthermore, what feelings do I have for her? I don’t even know myself, so you know?”

Liu Mao choked. He was surprised how Xu Huaisong could miss the point.

“I’m talking about the case……”

“I said it can be realized based on my assessment as a lawyer.”

“No, the legal system here is different from the one over at your place. This case in China has to proceed from the theft of the outline.”

“It should proceed from the theft of the outline in any country.” Xu Huaisong corrected him. He switched the phone to his other ear: “But, what if the outline isn’t stolen at all?”

Liu Mao was startled: “What did you say?’

Xu Huaisong was about to explain when the phone suddenly vibrated. He moved the phone away from his ear and saw there was a new WeChat message. Instead of explaining, he said to Liu Mao: “You’ve sent my business card to her already?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s talk later.”

Liu Mao cried out in an attempt to stop Xu Huaisong, but Xu Huaisong ended the call.

But when Xu Huaisong opened WeChat, he instead saw a message sent by Xu Huaishi.

Shijingbing: [Ge, there’s nothing happening on Ruan Xuejie's Weibo for the past few days. The comments and private messages are still turned off. Didn’t you tell me not to bother with this matter and you’ll take care of it?]

She seemed to be questioning her brother why he hadn’t taken care of it after so many days.

Xu Huaisong kept typing: [It won’t be that fast. You just focus on your studies.]

[You really don’t need me to issue a new statement?]

Xu Huaisong sent a voice message over: “You were so bold to lie before. Now you regret it? You have to be responsible for any statement you make. Now this is such a hot topic at the moment and you want to repudiate it completely at this juncture. Have you thought about how public opinion would take a turn for the worst? Do you think anyone would believe you, believe her?”

Shijingbing: [I know I was wrong…… but shouldn’t we at least give Ruan Xuejie an explanation privately?]

Xu Huaisong: [There’s no ‘we.’ Any private explanation is between me and her. You better keep your mouth shut.]

Shijingbing: [Oh…… But, ge, I keep thinking about this. I can’t even study. I feel that I probably need a large sum of money to distract me. <cute> Well…...the tickets to Li Shican’s concert are about to put on sale soon!]

Xu Huaisong didn’t bother replying to her and just transferred the money over to her. Before he put down his cell phone, he glanced at the “contacts” at the bottom of the screen.

There were no new notifications.

*

Ruan Yu struggled for half a day until the evening before she gave in. She had opened Xu Huaison’s digital business card for the hundredth time and braced herself to click “add to contact,” but then was stuck at sending the friend request.

What should she say?

How are you, Mr. Xu, I’m Ruan Yu?

Mr. Xu, sorry to bother you. Please accept the friend request?

She shook her head and deleted what she had typed, then she fell into her couch with the cell phone still in hand.

It was just like back in her high school days.

When she first developed a crush on Xu Huaisong back then, she considered confessing to him. Since her dad was Xu Huaisong’s homeroom teacher, she had gotten his Q-Q account number behind her father’s back. But she simply couldn’t muster the courage to send out a friend request. She could only look at his never changing personal information on the account over and over.

Eventually, she wasn’t able to add his Q-Q account during those three years.

After she calmed down somewhat, her cell phone suddenly vibrated. She thought it was a new message from someone. She lifted up the phone to check, it was-- --Xu Huaisong: [I’ve accepted your friend request. Now we can start chatting.]

[1]: Wǔbǐ (五筆), literally “5 strokes,” is a Chinese character input method.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.