Ch22 - What was he in it for? 

I asked Mo Qiu why he suddenly thought to involve the police in this.

He was silent for a while before he replied, “I don’t want to be someone who’s always being tormented by someone else, with no way to fight back. More than that, I don’t want someone else to suffer because of my own cowardice.” While saying these words, he was shaking greatly, “If I let him go, then next time the person getting hurt could be anyone, someone I know, someone I don’t know, someone I passed on the street, someone else’s child… I don’t want it to turn out that way.” 

In the past, I always thought that Mo Qiu and I wouldn’t be able to see eye to eye due our differences; our personalities were unalike and our hobbies had no overlaps. He was slow to react and inarticulate, I was vivacious and loved exploring new sights and things. He always walked with his head down, I always strode with my head held high.

Due to the principal’s request, I had no choice but to bring a liability with me wherever I went, but deep inside I never really wanted to spend time with Mo Qiu, so after graduation I quickly cut off all contact with him.

His relationship with me was built on reluctance and contradictions between my thoughts and actions. If being ‘quiet’ could count as a strength, then it would probably be the only nice thing I had to say about him.

Yet in this particular moment, I saw a new side to Mo Qiu that I had never seen before. 

Previously he was someone who couldn’t even protect himself, yet now he wanted to protect others. He was also alone in all of this, yet he was willing to face such a powerful figure like that head on.

I hoped that he would never come to regret the choice he made today, and never regret being someone who learnt to fight back.

He seemed to be more okay now and he even appeared more put together now than when I last saw him. I said a few more words to him before reminding him to take care of himself and to rest. I saw that it was getting late, so I got up ready to head out the door.

Mo Qiu accompanied me to the door and as I was slipping on my shoes I remembered that I almost neglected divulging an important piece of information, so I remarked, “Oh yeah, Luo Zheng Yun’s lawyer is my older brother.”

“Your older brother?” Mo Qiu’s voice came out perplexed, before it quickly turned into astonishment, “The one who came to our parent teacher meeting, the really scary older brother?”

I was stunned, then after a long while I remembered that we did have parent teacher meetings hosted by the school, but what exactly did he mean by ‘really scary’?

“Yeah, that’s him.” After properly wearing my shoes, I turned to Mo Qiu and waved at him to say my farewells, “Don’t worry, even though he’s my brother, our relationship has been quite estranged these few years, I just wanted to let you know. I’ll be going now!”

Sheng Min Ou did indeed come as a guardian to attend one of my parent teacher meetings, and it was when I was in ninth grade. 

After my father passed away, the breadwinner of the family became my mother, and typically apart from her main profession of working at school, she would also take up many part time jobs outside, resulting in her never having off days during summer and winter breaks, as well as the weekends.

That year, the parent teacher meetings were held on a Sunday. Their intent behind locking in a weekend was so it would be more convenient for parents that went to work during the week to come and attend. However, my mother had no time, so no matter when it was arranged she would not be free. In the end we could only have Sheng Min Ou, who was the only one free at that time, to sit in on the meeting in her stead.

Back then, Sheng Min Ou was already nineteen, so by all sorts of definitions he was already of age and an adult. Although the homeroom teacher was surprised that there was such a young ‘parent’ attending, as she knew of my personal circumstances, she didn’t comment on the arrangements.

Ninth grade was almost time for everyone to submit their preferences for the high school entrance exams. The main reason behind holding a parent teacher meeting that year was to explain any questions the families and students might have had behind the preferences. They also planned to instruct volunteers on how to facilitate the process, so students also had to be present to listen in. 

At least in my family I still had Sheng Min Ou, for Mo Qiu, there was only himself.

Filling in high school preferences was too hard of a task for Mo Qiu’s elderly grandparents to do, so after the homeroom teacher had confirmed that neither of Mo Qiu’s parents would be attending, they could only allow Mo Qiu to attend alone.

While the meeting was going on, due to Mo Qiu and myself being seated together usually during class, the meeting was conducted with Sheng Min Ou, myself, and Mo Qiu in attendance, with me sitting between the two.

All my other memories of the day are rather hazy, I can only remember that Sheng Min Ou’s hand looked especially beautiful as he held his fountain pen, and the view of him with his head down whilst taking notes was also a breathtaking view. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

On the other hand though, Mo Qiu’s handwriting looked like a dog had crawled over his page, the notes he took were also indiscriminate towards the content as he jotted down inconsequential points mixed with the essential information, so all in all it was a complete mess.

“Lbk fzjmais kfgf sbe ilrafclcu ab atf afjmtfg?” P ibbxfv bnfg ja tlr cbafr obg j ktlif, reymbcrmlberis ogbkclcu.

Zb Hle raloofcfv, atfc tf delfais gjlrfv tlr tfjv klat agfqlvjalbc ab ibbx ja wf obg j rfmbcv, yfobgf vgbqqlcu tlr ujhf jr tlr tfjv vgbbqfv fnfc ibkfg.

“Pr… Pr jcsatlcu kgbcu?” 

I turned my head around to look at Sheng Min Ou’s notes, he had a clear flow to what he had written down, his handwriting was impeccable and just looking at it was pleasing to the eyes. It was nothing less than what was expected from someone who was always top of the ranks..

“Ge, later could you lend the notes you took to my desk-mate so he can copy it down?” I leaned towards him, my lips pressed close to his ear as I whispered to him.

Sheng Min Ou paused his writing as he looked towards me, then looked past me as his gaze swept by Mo Qiu on the other end.

In my peripheral vision, I seemed to see an intense frisson tremble through Mo Qiu, then Sheng Min Ou retracted his gaze and gently gave an ‘En’ in response. 

This was probably the only time the two of them had interacted. After the parent teacher meeting finished, I let Mo Qiu take the notes home so he could copy the information across to his notebook back when he got home. He was boundlessly grateful for it and a few days later he even gave me two big apples, saying that it was a thank you gift from his grandmother.

I ate one, the other I brought home with me to give to Sheng Min Ou. However, even until the end of the week he still did not return home. I asked my mother to give him a call but she refused, saying that things were fine as is so what good would it do to have him come back. Eventually, the apple lost its ripeness, becoming shrivelled. My mother was disgusted by it, so in the end while I was away she took the opportunity to throw it out.

Who could have thought that two people who once met each other at a parent teachers meeting would now be facing each other again at a courtroom?

No one would have guessed. 

There was no need to wait for the blue sea to turn into mulberry fields, only a short ten years had passed, but there was already a huge difference in the world.

It was said that everything in this world was subject to change, and this had precisely fit the case.

After I had left Mo Qiu’s place, I took a taxi to get to Sheng Min Ou’s law firm. The reason I gave myself was that I wanted to find out what the truth behind all of this was.

However, I knew that it was only an excuse, all I really wanted to do was to just see him again. 

There was never a moment where my mind wasn’t sending signals at me to go seek him out, so breaking off my usual habits was like going through a withdrawal period. Now I yearned for him more than before, and I missed him more fervently than before too.

I almost thought that I went back in time, to when I had just lost my freedom and when I was desperately, maniacally craving to see him, but he never responded to me and never came to visit me… those two years.

At that time even when I had dreams at night I would envision sprouting wings to go see him. I passed time counting down each day on my fingers, nervously waiting for the day when visitors were allowed to come, then afterwards spending that day crestfallen each time.

Before, there would be high walls and iron windows, so I could only wait and was restricted in my movements. Now, unless I asked Shen Xiao Shi and the rest of them to lock me inside my house and tie up my hands and feet so I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, there was nothing that could stop me. 

Even if my logical thoughts told me, “Lu Feng, if you did this Sheng Min Ou would look down at you even more, you need to calm down.”

But my emotional feelings clamped down on logic’s mouth, singing and praising, “All bow down to Freedom! All bow down to Instinct!”

I comforted logic, “I’m just going to visit so my eyes can feel rewarded for a while, I promise I won’t do anything. Severe withdrawal symptoms can be fatal, so you need to let me take this step by step, you can’t have me cut things off too cleanly, after all I’ve loved him for so long…”

Logic heard my words and consequently quieted down. 

Emotional feelings completely dominated the scene now, as emotions cheered jubilantly.

In front of the law firm, heads bobbed up and down, it was all the reporters that came in hopes to secure an interview with Sheng Min Ou.

I made my way in and weaved through the masses left and right, using all my strength to make it to the very front, only to realise that the glass door which usually was open to greet clients had now been firmly locked. On the door was even a notice expressing that Jin Shang Law Firm was not accepting any interviews with the media.

Despite that, even with the notice plastered on the door, the reporters still flocked here to wait for their chance, neither side accommodating for each other. 

I tapped at the glass door and the receptionist hearing the noise raised her head. She saw that it was me outside and was surprised as she happily got up to open the door for me.

With a click, the lock opened and I slipped through the cracks at the speed of light, without leaving any opportunity for the journalists behind me to make their way through after me.

Seeing that outside the doors there was a darkened mass of people standing outside, I suddenly had the misperception that we were facing a zombie apocalypse. If there were a few bloodied handprints smeared onto the glass doors then it would look even more alike.

“Mr Lu, long time no see.” The receptionist greeted with a wide smile, “Are you here to look for Lawyer Sheng? He’s in the office, you can just head on in.” 

I nodded and thanked her, then left to walk towards Sheng Min Ou’s office.

After not being around for a long time, it felt like more people had joined the law firm, as the barren, emptied offices from before were now all pretty much occupied.

It looked as if they were doing pretty well.

Although, if you thought about it, there was no way that someone like Sheng Min Ou would stay under the radar for long. 

I came to the door of Sheng Min Ou’s office and I didn’t knock as I gripped the door handle and directly entered.

Inside, sun rays set the whole room aglow and in front of the huge floor to ceiling windows, a tall man had his back faced towards me, as he had one hand in his pocket and was talking to someone else on the phone.

Hearing the sounds of someone entering, he retracted his gaze looking down at the city and turned to look towards me.

“You all should be more familiar with how to move public opinion and how to instigate a war planning around that… we can just do it according to your tempo…” When he saw me his voice faltered for a second, as his gaze stayed on my face for a few seconds, before he turned away again to continue his call, as if he didn’t care about my existence. “For now, don’t let him leave the house… you can’t convince him to stay? Do I need to teach you how to tie butterfly knots?” 

As he said these vexatious words his tone remained even, not too slow and not too fast, it even sounded very refined, but upon a closer listen, it was evident that every syllable was permeated with a sense of disdain.

I sat down on the office chair in front of his desk and spun around from left to right, enjoying myself greatly. Around two minutes later, Sheng Min Ou hung up the phone and walked towards his desk.

“I thought we already formed a mutual understanding, that we’d never see each other again until the day we died.”

He never had anything nice to say when he opened his mouth, luckily I had already gotten used to this so I ignored his words as I delved straight into the main topic of conversation, “I’m here because of Luo Zheng Yun’s case.” 

Sheng Min Ou tossed his phone to one side as he sat down, “What, you started taking up being a paparazzi as a part time job?”

His desk was made from a transparent acrylic material, therefore if I just slightly lowered my head, I could see everything including his outfit in plain sight.

Today he wore a pair of black derby shoes that were a hundred percent handmade from genuine leather. Due to this brand of shoe being well regarded even in the luxury designer item market, it was no exaggeration for the brand to describe their customers as the wealthy elite in the business circles. I wasn’t surprised at all by the fact that Sheng Min Ou would wear shoes from their brand, I was just surprised that the bastard who had violated me wore the same shoes that Sheng Min Ou did, and had the same cologne too.

Such coincidences really existed on this earth… 

Did such coincidences exist?

All of a sudden, the thoughts within my head started racing around all at once, this time my emotions did not say anything, instead logic told me to calm down for a second, and to gather my senses together.

I opened my mouth, replying later than usual to his question, “… Mo Qiu is my friend.”

He seemed to instantaneously understand as he intertwined his fingers together while he slowly leant back against his chair, erecting an invisible impenetrable defense. 

“No comment.”

I forced myself to tear my gaze away from his feet, “Do you have to defend that monster? Whether Luo Zheng Yun is guilty or not, you should already know the answer in your heart.”

“The Law upholds justice, and lawyers are there to uphold the claims of their clients. Regardless of whether someone is innocent or guilty, Mr Luo has the right to request for a lawyer to defend him in court.” Sheng Min Ou’s tone was unchanged, “Further, strictly speaking I’m not working for him, the party who signed my contract as his representing lawyer was Xing Hao entertainment, which he is under. The ones who are paying the heavy annual fee are also them, right now I’m just protecting the client and preventing his properties from facing any additional damages. If you are here to try and get more information out of the case from me, then you can stop with whatever you’re planning. The door is over there, you may leave now.”

I long since stopped assessing his real feelings on the situation, and I knew that with his personality there was no way he would reveal any confidential information to me. Honestly, at the moment all my attention was directed on his pair of god damned shoes. 

But… was it possible?

The Sheng Min Ou that has historically always kept me at an immeasurably far distance, the Sheng Min Ou that would clean himself for ages after even the slightest touch from me, he would do something like that to me?

What was he in it for?

He could simply curl a finger at me and I would kneel to the ground and kiss the sole of his feet. Why would he need to blindfold me and tie me up, was he in it for the adrenaline rush that came with him torturing me? 

It was impossible, it was too bizarre, it should be… just a coincidence.

I quickly came to understand the reality of it all and denied the possibility of Sheng Min Ou being the bastard.

I was able to see his face and we got to have a rubbish conversation. I stood up as I prepared to take my leave.

Sheng Min Ou no longer looked at me as he opened the laptop on his desk. 

I lowered my eyes, staring at his thinly pursed lips as I subconsciously touched my neck. The mark made on the place that I was bitten had already faded, yet somehow at this time it started hurting inexplicably again.

I wasn’t able to hold it in any longer as the words blurted out of my mouth, “Where were you last Saturday night?”