Chapter 4: A Truly Formidable Fate |
The following day.
October 2nd.
At eight in the morning, Xu De rose early, washed up, had breakfast, and was soon ready to leave his residence for work.
Feeling the long-absent grind of the working life, he couldn't help but feel a certain wistfulness.
This kind of existence — being bossed around and worked like an ox — did stir some nostalgic sentiment, though if he were truly made to live this way indefinitely... Xu De was absolutely not willing.
"I need to get my own law firm set up as soon as possible."
Xu De reaffirmed his conviction.
A law firm wasn't a one-man operation.
In 2002, solo practices hadn't yet been introduced — he could only establish a partnership firm, which required a minimum of three attorneys. That meant he still needed to find two more people...
Just as he was about to leave, Xu De suddenly remembered something. He turned back, opened the door, and pulled a pile of food and dishes out of the refrigerator.
He packed them into a plastic bag, then headed out, swinging it at his side.
At eight o'clock, the streets still hadn't shed their morning chill.
Pedestrians on both sides walked mostly in solitary silence. The roadside breakfast stalls still breathed white steam into the air, and streams of traffic wove endlessly through the road.
Xu De moved through the crowd, and as he passed the entrance to a back alley...
A vague silhouette hiding in the far corner of the alley caught his eye.
The figure was impossibly thin — "skin and bones" wasn't an exaggeration in the slightest. The clothes were threadbare and filthy, hair matted and clumped, and a pair of sunken eyes buried beneath those tangled strands darted about with sharp wariness.
The figure crouched with a hunched back — less like a person, and more like a wary stray dog.
Xu De had started to approach, but after just two steps, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
"Since when is there someone else here?"
Because crouching in front of the little beggar was... a woman?
And that, apparently, was the reason for the child's heightened vigilance.
"Are you going to eat or not? It'll go cold soon."
The woman was dressed simply — a white button-up shirt on top, blue jeans below, clean white sneakers on her feet. She spoke to the vagrant child while extending a breakfast she'd bought toward him.
The vagrant looked to be around sixteen. Far from taking the food, he only grew more guarded, silently inching back a step.
The woman stared, puzzled.
Until—
"Ahem!"
A voice sounded from behind her. Lin Yue rose on her tiptoes, still crouching, and turned her head.
She saw Xu De standing at the mouth of the alley, giving the beggar a pointed cough.
Lin Yue noticed the bag of food he was carrying and immediately understood his intention was the same as hers. She kindly tried to warn him:
"He seems a bit timid, you should—"
Before she could finish, a dark figure swept past her and walked — reluctantly — right up to Xu De.
Surprise flashed through Lin Yue's eyes. She was about to say something when the very next second, the man's actions left her utterly speechless.
Because—
"Squat down."
Xu De made a hand gesture and addressed the child.
The child's eyes flashed with defiance, but one glance at the warm food made him involuntarily swallow. He had no choice but to obediently squat.
"Turn in a circle," Xu De added.
The scavenging boy felt humiliated, yet he squatted and turned in place anyway.
Xu De was satisfied. He extended the bag and said: "Eat up."
Only then did the other party take the leftover food, shooting him one aggrieved glance.
Xu De was just about to turn and leave when the boy was stopped once more.
"Did you say thank you?" Xu De asked, his face entirely serious.
The scavenging boy's expression stiffened slightly. He stammered out: "Th-thank you!"
His voice was a little raspy, and a little young.
Then he turned and bolted as far away as his legs could carry him.
Having completed his feeding ritual, Xu De was ready to leave — but a voice called out to stop him.
"Do you know that child!?"
Lin Yue stared at him wide-eyed and incredulous, an odd expression on her face.
It was only then that Xu De turned his gaze toward her — and with just one look... he paused ever so slightly.
Despite having lived two lifetimes, he couldn't deny it: the young woman before him was strikingly beautiful.
Willow-leaf brows, cherry-red lips, skin like polished jade...
She had also pinned her hair up into a bun with a hairpin, though the style didn't look like an ordinary arrangement — it resembled more the grooming of a Daoist practitioner.
At this moment, those lovely eyes of hers were filled with undisguised bewilderment.
"What you just did back there..."
Lin Yue seemed at a loss for words. To be honest, she felt like Xu De had just been playing with a pet.
Xu De collected himself, steadied his composure, and replied offhandedly:
"Never met him. Just crossed paths a few times."
Lin Yue wasn't buying it. She'd tried to approach the boy herself on several occasions — and every single time, he'd fled before she even got close. The kid was sharp.
She thought it over, then asked curiously:
"Why isn't he afraid of you?"
"Probably because he hates me," Xu De said.
"Hates you?" Lin Yue blinked. She stood up straight, looking at him with suspicion. "If he hates you, why would he come anywhere near you?"
"Because he needs to eat to survive."
Xu De spoke plainly, then continued to explain:
"He's no fool. He won't believe in kindness for no reason. But if you approach it like you're teasing him — like it's all just a bit of fun — he'll assume from the start that you're just playing around, rather than having some ulterior motive."
Sometimes, excessive courtesy and politeness don't make a relationship closer.
Just as a deep brotherhood between two men might have begun with a single careless slight.
"Ah, I see!"
Lin Yue smacked her right fist into her left palm, a look of sudden understanding on her face.
"You're too polite with him, so he thinks you want something from him," Xu De went on. "If you want to feed him in the future, just make him spin in a circle and put on a little performance."
"Or alternatively..."
It was rare to come across someone else who enjoyed feeding strays, so Xu De generously shared his hard-won experience in the art of feeding wild humans.
By the time he was done.
Lin Yue found herself feeling more convinced than ever that the man in front of her was peculiar.
Even so, admiration crept into her eyes. She then glanced at the suit Xu De was wearing, and the ID badge clipped to his breast pocket.
"You're a lawyer?" Lin Yue asked curiously. "What field — criminal or civil?"
Xu De's brow furrowed slightly. She was being a little too familiar.
Considering she was nothing more than a passing acquaintance, he gave a diplomatic non-answer: "A lawyer who sets the moral standard."
Lin Yue: ?
A lawyer who sets the moral standard...
Lin Yue's expression turned strange as she recalled his so-called "feeding procedure" from moments ago. If anything, it spoke more to personal amusement than moral virtue.
"And you?" Xu De said. "Are you a Daoist?"
"You're half right — but not only a Daoist."
Lin Yue nodded.
Xu De glanced at the bun on her head skewered through with a hairpin, and his interest was mildly piqued. He crossed his arms and said:
"What shall I call you, Daoist?"
"You can call me..."
Lin Yue didn't intend to hide it, but the words died at the tip of her tongue.
The man had deliberately withheld his own name and was busy throwing around "moral standard"...
She thought for a long while.
Lin Yue suddenly had an idea.
She abruptly drew herself up straight, the plain white shirt at her chest rising and falling with the motion — and then came her declaration:
"You may address me as..."
"'The Jade-Faced Thunder Primordial of the Nine Heavens Flying Dragon, Universal Salvation and Demon-Subduing Sovereign of Ten Thousand Ages'"
Xu De: ?
......
......
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"This woman... does she really have a fate strong enough to bear all that?"
Nine o'clock in the morning.
Inside Jinmao Law Office.
Xu De had left the alley and arrived precisely at the time clock. His hand swiped his card mechanically, but his mind was still back in that alley, on the woman who had nearly made his eyes roll back in his head.
The more he thought about it, the more bewildered he felt.
That string of characters...
Could any fate really hold it together?
"Forget it. I gave her a runaround answer about myself, so it's only natural she'd do the same back."
While Xu De was mulling it over, he had already made his way into the main hall.
He was just heading toward his workstation when, in a sudden moment—
"Hey there — Attorney Xu! I've been waiting for you. Hold up a moment!"
Xu De stopped in his tracks and turned his head.
He saw Sun Hao, suited up as always, rising from a seat along the side of the hall with a grin on his face, and slowly making his way over.
That smile... a weasel paying a New Year's call to the chickens — nothing good about it.
Xu De thought it plainly in his mind, though his face revealed nothing. He looked at the man and said:
"What brings you my way, Group Leader Sun?"
"Good news, of course!"
Sun Hao came to stand beside Xu De, that jovial expression firmly in place — and then, with a pivot in tone, he continued:
"Didn't Attorney Xu mention wanting more cases to boost his performance metrics?"
"I figured — since you wrapped up that very tricky specialized consultation for case 103 in such a short time yesterday, you showed yourself to be a top graduate in every sense of the word!"
"And as it happens, the firm has just assigned our group a criminal case."
"What a coincidence, right?"
Sun Hao's smile widened, looking for all the world as though he truly had Xu De's best interests at heart, as he said leisurely:
"So I went right ahead and gave the case to you."
"Well?"
"Feeling confident?"
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