DFLB – Chapter 84

By now the streets weren’t as congested anymore so Lu Xun’s black Bentley was able to quickly send Qian Wei to her destination. However, as Qian Wei packed up and got ready to get out of the car, it seemed that, to her surprise, Lu Xun was also preparing to get out.

“Hmm?”

Lu Xun’s face was frosty, and he seemed to have no special expression as he replied calmly, “I also haven’t eaten yet. Because I’m already here anyway, I decided to go in with you.”

“Oh! Sure.”

The way Lu Xun spoke was so natural that Qian Wei didn’t realize what was wrong with his proposal before she had already agreed. Suddenly she wanted to say ‘This is a blind date, okay? What are you doing here?!’. But by the time the thought even occurred to her Lu Xun had already casually walked up to the doors of the steakhouse, and it was obviously no longer an appropriate moment to try to kick him out.

After a moment of internal struggle, Qian Wei decided to just forget it. Anyway, she hadn’t even wanted to go on this blind date in the first place, so why not just eat together? If there were one more person at the table then maybe the atmosphere wouldn’t be as awkward.

Unfortunately, she had completely misjudged the situation because, moments after he sat down, Lu Xun had already turned the meal into a strangely aggressive interview.

“So you work in the financial industry? What exactly do you do? Nowadays there are many things that fall under the broad umbrella of ‘finance’, for instance, there were recently many illegal ventures that were busted who were operating while claiming to be a part of the financial industry. “

Zhou Qing was stunned by the sudden barrage of questions, but still replied politely, “I work mostly in the secondary market.”

Lu Xun took a sip of his tea and raised an eyebrow: “Huh, I’ve heard the people who work in the secondary market are all terribly busy. Don’t people of that line of work usually have to go out to promote their work to their clients five or six times a day, and then have to burn the midnight oil compiling their research materials until the middle of the night? Then they have meetings early in the morning, it’s a busy career. Plus, whenever they come back to the office there will inevitably have been fluctuations in the stock prices and they have no choice but to get criticized by their bosses. It’s really not easy.”

Zhou Qing smiled and replied steadily: “I’m actually a very efficient worker and, also, I’m the kind of person who needs eight hours of sleep every day in order to function properly, so I usually take good care of my body and exercise regularly. I’ve never been the type to give up my life for the sake of work. And, until now, there have never been any issues with my work because of it. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever really been criticized. After all, I was only poached from abroad with the promise of a very high salary, so my boss is always very polite to me for fear that I might decide to change jobs.”

Lu Xun pursed his lips: “However, for people working in the secondary market, there is a risk of developing tinnitus from all the hours spent answering phones while at work. How are your ears? Do you want me to recommend you an excellent folk remedy for ear health that I know of? These things can really protect your hearing, you know. Maybe you don’t feel that it’s important to do since you’re still young, but maybe one day in your 40s or 50s you might suddenly find yourself having to rely on shouting to communicate because you’re hard of hearing. It’s important to be careful while you’re still young.”

“I’m not too concerned. I rarely give my personal number to my clients, and most calls are fielded by my assistants.”

It seemed that maybe Lu Xun and Zhou Qing had the two personalities that were destined to clash, because the two men continued to go back and forth like that, to the point that even the dull Liu Shiyun could sense the gunpowder in the air despite the good meal in front of her. The two men spent the meal fighting openly and secretly, as if they were in the midst of some sort of high stakes business negotiation about comparing their own valuations and growth potentials, leaving Qian Wei and Liu Shiyun to eat by themselves while battling boredom.

After spending half an hour or so engaged in this ‘war of words’, Lu Xun, the lawyer, seemed to have gained the advantage and, with a satisfied smile, he exchanged business cards with Zhou Qing and the two men finally seemed to reach a temporary peace. Then, probably because of his recent ‘victory’ Lu Xun was able to naturally steer the conversation and volunteer to pay for the meal. 

Zhou Qing frowned: “I was supposed to be treating Qian Wei this time, I’ll pay for it.”

Qian Wei hurriedly waved him off, saying: “No, no, no. Rather, I’m really sorry because I’m the one who left midway. I should pay the bill.”

However, in the end, Lu Xun gave his card directly to the waiter and snatched final victory in this ‘bill-paying campaign’. He looked at Zhou Qing and said with a light smile: “Well, in the end, I’m Qian Wei’s boss so it’s normal for me to pay for her.”

Thus, despite going on a blind date, Qian Wei didn’t end up exchanging more than a few words with Zhou Qing before their blind date was directly transformed into a competition where the two men compared their careers. In the end, not only did they compete over their work, income, and stature, but also for who would pay the bill. 

Liu Shiyun, who had watched the whole thing from beginning to end, said in a dumbfounded tone: “Huh, it’s true that some men are just destined to fight, ah. Tut-tut, I really didn’t expect those two to suddenly get lost in their own vanity and want to start comparing like that, really terrible.”

Probably because of Lu Xun’s sudden appearance and the subsequent confrontation between them, Zhou Qing didn’t contact Qian Wei again after that night…

Qian Wei didn’t think much of it but, by contrast, it seemed that Lu Xun cared a lot. At work the very next day, he walked up to Qian Wei, cleared his throat, and said: “Did you get in touch with the guy who works in the secondary market again last night?”

Lu Xun, this guy, once he had recognized a ‘competitor’, he would have to completely defeat them before he could feel at ease. Qian Wei thought that perhaps meeting Zhou Qing, a man who could be said to be Lu Xun’s peer because of his high salary and elite background, had aroused Lu Xun’s desire for competition, which was why he was so concerned about the other man even after the meal.

“No, we haven’t been in contact.”

Lu Xun snorted with disdain: “I just look down on men like him who do finance. All they do all day is talk about ‘marketing’ or ‘social’*. What kind of professional skills do they really have? And, in particular, those people in the secondary market are the worst of the bunch. If the stocks they recommend to you plummet, they’ll just say that you bought at the wrong time, and when the stocks they haven’t recommended suddenly soar, they’ll just say that it’s a bubble and a bad market. In short, no matter what kind of situation it is, they are always right.” Seemingly done venting, Lu Xun’s lips curled up in a victorious smile, “Also, last night I accompanied you as your boss, mainly to check that person out for you. Sadly, after being lightly probed once or twice, that man couldn’t take it at all and backed down in fear of my superior insight.” 

All that said, Lu Xun left with a triumphant expression.

Qian Wei quietly stared at Lu Xun’s retreating back, somehow feeling that this guy was acting really bafflingly today!

However, she soon had no time to think about anything but the Hi-Tech Electronics case. As a person who was joining the team late, she had no choice but to spend a lot of time playing catch-up. On top of that, she also had several of her own long-term clients who needed her assistance in various matters, so she was soon immersed in her work. 

She worked steadily until noon, when several interns came over and invited her out for lunch, and Qian Wei finally tore herself away from her desk. 

“Guys, I’m telling you, I have some big gossip this time!”

As the interns ate, they chattered happily, the topic skipping around from the entertainment industry, to the legal circle, and then to their own law firm.

“Partner Lu, seems to be going on a blind date tomorrow night!”

This news was really explosive, like a stone cast into a still pond that formed a thousand waves. The other girls all cried out in disbelief, and even Qian Wei couldn’t contain her surprise, instantly freezing in shock. 

“No way! Hasn’t everyone always said that Partner Lu is a man destined to be pure and abstinent for ten thousand years, destined to never talk about love and to only ever have work in his eyes? In fact, I’ve even talked to the big sisters at the administrative department and they told me that, in the past, there have been big clients who have introduced him to all kinds of girls. For instance, he was once introduced to the daughter of the big boss of a listed company, or once he was introduced to the niece of the deputy mayor, and, of course, some people introduced some of those little 18th-tier starlets, but Partner Lu refused them all without even taking a look! Everyone says his heart is made of stone! So why would he suddenly decide to go on a blind date?”

“Well, Partner Lu is now 28 years old, his career is successful, and his work is all on the right track. For a man, it’s normal to yearn to have a family when they get older, so maybe Partner Lu has decided he finally wants to get married!”

“That could be… wait, tell me, who is the other person?”

“Actually, I just overheard all this in the breakroom, so you have to keep it a secret for me, okay? I don’t want to be silenced by Partner Lu! Anyway, the other party should be a woman who has known Partner Lu for a long time. Supposedly, she had been abroad all year round until recently and, as soon as she returned to China, Partner Lu reached out to invite her, saying that he missed her very much. Also, I know where they plan to meet! It’s at Hyatt’s Western Restaurant…”

After that, the intern’s topic moved on and they chattered about something else, but Qian Wei didn’t listen any further. She hurriedly finished her lunch, slipped into an empty conference room, and called Liu Shiyun.

“Which one of our classmates has been spending all of their time abroad? The kind that came back recently?”

Liu Shiyun was puzzled but she still answered: “Huh? I can’t really think of anyone like that. Mo Zixin was abroad for a long time, but she has already come back since a while ago.”

Even after talking to Liu Shiyun for a long time, Qian Wei couldn’t dig out her potential love rival, so she began to chat casually. However, she suddenly thought of Li Chongwen and said: “By the way, when’s the next time you’ll be free? Let’s go to the hospital and visit Li Chongwen!”

“Well, he actually got out of the hospital a long time ago, and as far as I know he’s already gone back to work.”

“Huh? Do chemo treatments end so quickly?”

“Chemo? For what? He didn’t need it! Actually, it turned out that he didn’t have stomach cancer at all!” Liu Shiyun said carelessly, “But I don’t blame you for being out of the loop. Who told you to lie in the hospital for a week? Actually, back then Li Chongwen seemed to be depressed and resigned to his fate, so several of us went to visit him to cheer him up. However, Lu Xun felt that something wasn’t right. He had asked around about the situation and he didn’t quite believe that Li Chongwen could develop stomach cancer at such a young age, so he contacted several experts from at home and abroad to revisit Li Chongwen’s case, only to find that it has been a complete misdiagnosis. Li Chongwen didn’t have stomach cancer at all, he just had a peptic ulcer that caused some gastric mucosal erosion, and some mild gastric bleeding. In the end, he was transferred to a different hospital, where he stayed for a few days before being discharged and returning to his court. And, regarding that private hospital that was responsible for the initial misdiagnosis, they’ve been in the news recently, and several other misdiagnosed cases have been exposed. It seems that, in order to generate more revenue, that hospital had habitually lied to their patients and dramatized the severity of their illnesses in order to encourage the patients to accept their so-called ‘further examinations’, after which, they would always prescribe expensive imported health drugs. Anyway, Li Chongwen has already hired Lu Xun to help him deal with the matter. In addition, many families of other victims have also found Lu Xun and they are all preparing for a class-action lawsuit.”

“Huh???” Qian Wei was quite surprised. However, although this twist was a bit abrupt, Qian Wei still felt very comforted when she thought about it. After all, Li Chongwen was a good man and, as a judge, even if he couldn’t singlehandedly reform China’s legal system, he would at least be able to make a lot of instructive decisions and contribute to the progress of the legal system with his career.

“However, although it turned out that Li Chongwen’s cancer was actually just a misdiagnosis, he lived with the knowledge that he ‘had cancer’ for a long time and was under a lot of psychological pressure, which seems to have stimulated him in a good way. Nowadays he doesn’t work as crazily hard as he used to, and he seems to finally be putting his health first. On top of that, I heard that he recently fell in love with one of the little clerks in his court and, recently, because he’s being ‘nourished’ by love, he’s even gained a lot of weight.”

“Huh?”

“Actually, you’ve probably seen that little clerk before, she’s the one who had long bangs and long hair. When she heard that Li Chongwen had stomach cancer she practically cried herself to death so, after that, a lot of people found out that she had actually been secretly in love with him for a long time. Also, while he was still in the hospital, she would come and bring him simple porridge every day in consideration for his stomach. That’s why, when he found out his cancer was a misdiagnosis, Li Chongwen directly confessed to her, and then the two of them naturally got together.” Liu Shiyun smiled. “So if you want to see Li Chongwen, I’m afraid you’ll probably have to make an appointment in advance so you don’t accidentally disturb the new couple.”

While Qian Wei was happy for her friend, she couldn’t help but lament as a single dog: “Why is everyone I know finding partners? Meanwhile, I’m still walking steadily on the road of being single!” She said angrily, “And you know what else?! Even that Lu Xun wants to betray our Singles League! He’s going on a blind date tomorrow night! Why can’t he look around and spot the neglected love nearby like Li Chongwen did? Can’t he just look at me?! I’ve wasted so much of my life working overtime with him, and now he wants to run off with someone else? In his dreams!”

Liu Shiyun became somewhat wary: “Qian Wei, what do you mean by that?”

“I know where his blind date is going to happen! And I’m going to go and sabotage it! I will never let him get away with this! Lu Xun can only stay single with me for the rest of his life, or else spend the rest of his life completely alone!”

“Qian Wei, why don’t you go to Taobao and buy one of those charms, you know, the ‘love that lasts for ten thousand years’ type of charm, and then stuff it into Lu Xun’s desk drawer. I think this method is more realistic…”

“Scram!”

Previous TOC Next

*marketing and social are both written in English in the Chinese raw, so Lu Xun is more complaining about them using stupid (loaned) buzzwords than actually complaining about people doing marketing

oh hey I have a new project The Rich Ex-Husband Cries and Begs to Remarry