You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 43 Part 3

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 43 Part 3

Xu Huaisong caught the change of Ruan Yu’s expression and asked: “What’s wrong? Tell us what you think.”

Ruan Yu said in a low voice: “Hrm, it’s just that phrase: ‘driving away is relatively safer’ sounds reasonable, but it’s actually not. Under normal circumstances, the person driving the car would be in control of the vehicle, safe as long as they keep driving. But in this case, we have to remember that the driver was a woman who had just seen evidence of her boyfriend’s affair.”

Xu Huaisong nodded: “Continue.”

“Based on the description of the client, I feel that the victim was a hot-tempered person, very quick to act impulsively. How far would a person of this kind of personality drive the car in a rage? If I were her, after I found out that my boyfriend……” 

Xu Huaisong coughed and gave her a questioning look.

The serious discussion became a little awkward. Liu Mao chuckled.

Ruan Yu smoothed her bangs and cleared her throat: “I mean, in a situation like that, it’s very likely that the victim would step on the brake after driving away for a short distance. She would stop to calm herself down. It’s possible that the accident happened after she had parked the car?”

Zhang Ling nodded: “I second this theory.”

Xu Huaisong also agreed, except the part where Ruan Yu had used him as the example.

Zhang Ling continued: “This is all the information that we know so far. The follow-up investigation and collection of evidence will have to wait till a month later when the case enters the review stage.”

Xu Huaisong nodded and continued the discussion with her while flipping through all the documents until it was almost ten o’clock. He noticed Ruan Yu was covering a yawn with her hands. He put the documents away: “It’s getting late, let’s call it a day. Thanks everyone.”

Zhang Ling and Chen Hui left together.

Seeing them come down the stairs, all the people working in the open office felt as if they had been pardoned.

Someone exclaimed: “Not bad, it ended before 10. Judging from Lawyer Xu’s daily routine, I thought you guys would discuss till midnight.”

Chen Hui replied while gathering papers: “Tsk, see, that’s what you don’t understand. You know the ‘law of the minimum’?[1] Lawyer Xu’s sleep time may be at midnight but Ms. Ruan is tired now. Then, wouldn’t he have to go with her daily routine?”

Someone: “Wow, is that really Lawyer Xu’s girlfriend?”

“Hrm, why does her last name sound so familiar? Wasn’t it a short while ago that our firm had a client with the last name Ruan?”

“You don’t say, I seemed to have seen her before. No wonder she looked familiar.”

“What’s going on here? A lawyer and his client can become a couple? Why hasn’t it happened to me after I’ve taken so many cases all these years?”

“Hehe, look at the kind of cases you’re on, they are all divorce cases.”

“Can we ask Lawyer Xu to tell us how to chase a client?”

“Look how aloof Lawyer Xu is. Perhaps it was the girl who chased after him?”

When Xu Huaisong and Ruan Yu came down the stairs, they happened to hear the last part of the exchange among the people in the open office.

It didn’t seem to bother Ruan Yu, but Xu Huaisong paused and let go of her hand. He turned to go into the open office.

All the chatty people in the office became serious: “Good evening, Lawyer Xu!”

Xu Huaisong: “En.” He stood at the door silently for quite a while. He stood there for so long that all the people in the office thought that he was going to chastise them for gossiping. Instead, he smiled and said: “First, when trying to fulfill a lawyer’s duty and obligation in its entirety, we can accommodate, to some degree, the client’s request on some minor issues.”

Everyone was stunned to hear him and didn’t know where he was trying to go with the topic.

Xu Huaisong continued: “Second, we can use the excuse of discussing the case to invite the client to meet somewhere out of the office. I recommend meeting during meal times.”

Someone exclaimed in a low voice: “Wow.” They understood what Xu Huaisong was talking about.

“Third, we can occasionally lie. For example, while downstairs at the client’s home, we can ask the colleague to answer an emergency call from the office so you can get the colleague to leave in a hurry. So, we naturally have to go to the client’s home to talk about the case.”

Someone began applauding. The sound of applause filled the open office: “Lawyer Xu, brilliant!”

Xu Huaisong nodded to them and smiled: “Go home early.” He turned and saw Ruan Yu next to the staircase, looking like she was going to cry.

He went over to hold her hand and they walked downstairs together: “What’s wrong? You feel wronged finding out that I had sent Chen Hui away on purpose at that time?”

“That’s not important……” Ruan Yu pursed her lips and shook her head: “I don’t care about people I don’t know talking about me. But they all work for you and your reputation is more important, why did you……”

Why did he have to make an effort to explain exactly who was chasing who? Just to make her look good?

Xu Huaisong laughed and lightly touched her nose: “I wanted to.”

[1]: Specifically: Liebig's law of the minimum, the idea that growth/progress is dictated by the scarcest resource. In this case, the person that gets tired faster is what dictates the time the meeting ends. More on wikipedia if interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebig%27s_law_of_the_minimum

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