The night Lou Mingxu received an offer from Lanjin Law Firm, he had a dream for the first time in ages.
The dream's sense of place and time were continually changing, making it fragmented. He was playing video games at home one minute, and then he was back in a high school classroom, staring blankly at a page of questions that he was unable to understand.
A crack of thunder yanked him awake.
Rain hammered against the windows, loud and relentless, scattering the dream as easily as raindrops disturbing the surface of a lake.
Lou Mingxu couldn't make sense of what had happened in the dream, but he remembered its main character.
Zhou Yan.
A man he hadn't seen in six years, whose face and voice had long since faded into a blur in his memory.
Lou Mingxu had met Zhou Yan because of an accident.
Back then, Lou Mingxu attended a private high school with a rather poor reputation. Its students generally fell into three categories.
The first were the children of wealthy families, born into privilege and raised on the finest educational resources money could buy.
The second were the top students specially recruited by the school, whose tuition and miscellaneous fees were waived entirely.
And then there was the third kind—the rich kids who couldn't be bothered to study and relied on their families to throw enough money at the school to buy them a diploma.
Lou Mingxu belonged firmly in the last category.
The school's reputation was poor because its student body was a chaotic mix of all kinds of people, making it notoriously difficult to manage. Something new went wrong practically every week.
One Friday evening, as usual, Lou Mingxu packed up his schoolbag early and prepared to slip out.
Instead, he accidentally walked in on a bullying incident in the boys' bathroom.
A skinny, sickly-looking boy who seemed practically malnourished had been stripped of his clothes and pants by a buzz-cut student, who was repeatedly slapping him across the face. Torn textbooks and clothing littered the floor.
The buzz-cut boy was named Xia Haitao. Everyone in the school knew him. He had once made a grand public confession to their English teacher during the school's morning assembly.
Their English teacher was a man.
The naked boy huddled in a corner, curled up like a stray dog beaten half to death. He was crying and begging for mercy, but Xia Haitao showed no sign of stopping. He kicked him viciously in the stomach and legs, cursing all the while.
“Think you're so damn important, huh? I sent you messages. Who the hell said you could ignore me?!”
Lou Mingxu hurried forward to stop him, only for Xia Haitao to grab him by the collar.
“Get lost. Stick your nose into this again and I'll beat you too.”
Lou Mingxu didn't leave.
Instead, he took off his own jacket and handed it to the boy lying on the floor. Then he helped him to his feet.
“What happened?”
It was similar to holding a lit match next to a fuse.
Sparks flew directly into Lou Mingxu's face as the firecracker detonated in an instant.
And Lou Mingxu retaliated in the heat of the moment.
It wasn't until the police came to the school the next day that Lou Mingxu realized he'd hit Xia Haitao far harder than he'd intended.
He'd knocked out two of Xia Haitao's teeth, and the boy had suffered multiple other injuries. He was in the hospital receiving treatment, and his injuries had been classified as a Level Two minor injury under Chinese criminal law.
When Xia Haitao's father found out, he was furious.
Not only did he demand that Lou Mingxu pay the medical expenses, he also threatened to hold him criminally responsible.
Lou Mingxu was already eighteen and legally an adult. There was a real possibility that he could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.
Lou Mingxu couldn't understand it at all.
Xia Haitao had been the one to start the fight. Lou Mingxu had stepped in to help someone who was being bullied. How had he ended up carrying such a heavy burden of responsibility?
His mother was terrified as well. She immediately went to a nearby law firm for advice.
The lawyer told her the situation was very bad and advised her to prepare several hundred thousand yuan for a settlement. If they could settle, Lou Mingxu would most likely receive a suspended sentence and wouldn't actually have to go to prison.
But a suspended sentence still meant a criminal record.
And during the probation period, his freedom of movement would be restricted. He wouldn't even be allowed to leave the province.
Lou Mingxu's father also began calling in favors.
One of his friends was a renowned doctoral supervisor at a university's law school. Since the man himself was extremely busy and wasn't currently in town, he recommended one of his most accomplished former students to take the case.
That student was Zhou Yan.
A criminal defense lawyer at one of the country's most prestigious law firms.
Under the law, suspects facing a sentence of less than three years could be released on bail rather than detained in a detention center. So the first time Lou Mingxu met Zhou Yan was actually in his own living room.
Unlike the polished, intimidating elite lawyers portrayed in television dramas, Zhou Yan was surprisingly young.
He was dressed in a suit, but there was an ease about him that made him seem completely unhurried. And when he looked at Lou Mingxu, there was none of the lofty judgment one might expect from an adult looking down on a teenager.
His eyes were clear as water, filled with an almost boyish curiosity.
“My name's Zhou Yan—Yan, as in the ‘yan’ in yuyan, language. I came over because I wanted to confirm a few things with you. Do you have some time?”
Lou Mingxu nodded.
As someone who spent his days doing anything but studying, he had one thing in abundance.
Time.
“Then why don't we sit down and talk? Standing is tiring. Also, why are you so tall? You're making me feel pressured.”
Zhou Yan said it jokingly, as though he were the host rather than the guest.
His eyes were slightly almond-shaped, with deep double eyelids and the faintest upward tilt at the corners. When he smiled, his whole face seemed to light up. His features were strikingly handsome, untouched by the exhaustion that usually came with adulthood.
Lou Mingxu sat down across from him.
His mother came over carrying freshly brewed tea.
“Careful, it's hot. Drink it slowly.”
“Thank you, Auntie—” Zhou Yan stopped himself, looking embarrassed. “I mean, Sister.”
He had accidentally made her sound older than she was.
“It's fine. Just call me Auntie.”
Zhou Yan had already gotten a detailed account of what happened over the phone. He had also gone to the hospital several times on Lou Mingxu's behalf and spoken at length with the Xia family.
Lou Mingxu had no idea how exactly Zhou Yan had persuaded them.
All he knew was that Zhou Yan was sitting there, speaking with remarkable humility.
“Xia Haitao's mother is actually fairly reasonable. She said that as long as your son is willing to go to the hospital, apologize to Xia Haitao, and cover the medical expenses, they won't pursue criminal charges.”
Zhou Yan paused.
“I've been observing the situation these past few days, and it seems that Mrs. Xia is the one who really calls the shots in their family. She's straightforward, but she's also reasonable. She's willing to let this go, so I suppose that's good news.”
Lou Mingxu's mother let out a long breath of relief and nodded repeatedly.
“As long as he doesn't end up with a criminal record. That other lawyer scared me half to death. He said Xia Haitao was seriously injured and that he would definitely get at least a suspended sentence.”
But as far as Lou Mingxu was concerned, this wasn't good news at all.
He couldn't accept the condition. In fact, he was furious.
“Why the hell should I apologize to that bastard? I didn't do anything wrong! He was the one bullying another student! He beat him until he was covered in bruises, and I stepped in to stop him. How is that my fault?”
He was getting angrier by the second.
“If I hadn't gone over there, he might've beaten that kid to death! Why aren't the police arresting him? Is the law only there to screw over people who try to do the right thing?”
The smile disappeared from Zhou Yan's face.
He sighed.
“I went to see the student you mentioned. But he insists that he was injured because he fell. He says Xia Haitao had nothing to do with it.”
Lou Mingxu's heart began pounding so hard that he could feel it in his temples. His eyes widened.
He couldn't imagine what Xia Haitao had done to that boy over the years to leave him so completely without the courage to stand up for himself.
“He says he fell, and the police just accept that?” Lou Mingxu knew there was probably nothing he could say to change the situation, but he still tried to explain himself. “I only hit Xia Haitao because I saw him beating someone! Why would I attack him for no reason?”
Zhou Yan gently patted him on the shoulder, silently telling him to calm down.
“I know you were trying to help. I saw the injuries on their body myself. You can't get injuries like that just from falling.”
“Exactly! The police aren't idiots. Can't they investigate?”
“The circumstances of Xu's family are rather complicated.”
Zhou Yan hesitated before continuing.
“He was adopted by an elderly couple. His grandfather works as the head of security at Xia Haitao's father's company. His grandmother is very old, and her heart condition has gotten quite serious over the past few years. She's about to undergo surgery.”
He paused.
“And, as it happens, the doctor performing her surgery is Xia Haitao's maternal uncle.”
Zhou Yan didn't need to say anything more.
Lou Mingxu understood everything.
He also understood why the boy couldn't bring himself to testify on his behalf.
Zhou Yan tried gently to reason with him.
“Xia Haitao's injuries really are quite serious. If you refuse to obtain his forgiveness, once the case is transferred to court, you really could be sentenced.”
“Then I still won't apologize.”
Lou Mingxu's anger hardened into resolve. He stubbornly lifted his chin.
“Even if it means going to prison for three years, so be it.”
Smack!
A sharp slap landed across Lou Mingxu's face.
For a moment, his cheek was numb.
Then the heat came, burning across his skin.
He stared at his mother in disbelief.
Her lips trembled slightly, and her eyes were blazing with anger.
“I raised you all these years so you could go to prison?”
“You're an idiot. I've always called you stupid, but you really are stupid! An absolute fool!”
“You think what you did was so damn heroic? I sent you to school to study, not to cause trouble! The kid himself said he fell. Why are you still playing the hero? Did he even appreciate what you did for him?”
Lou Mingxu's throat felt as though someone had stuffed it full of cotton.
Every thought, every argument, every word he wanted to say was swallowed up.
He didn't know when it had happened, but somewhere along the way, he and his mother had become incapable of communicating.
No matter what he said, she could always find another angle from which to contradict him, to suppress him. They were never on the same wavelength anymore. They talked past each other, neither one ever able to understand the other.
It was the same problem that had eventually led Lou Mingxu's father to divorce her. He'd felt that she'd stopped being reasonable, that she was always making a fuss over nothing.
But even his father, far away in another province, had given Lou Mingxu exactly the same advice.
Over the phone, he'd said:
“Go to the hospital and apologize.”
Lou Mingxu's father had remarried and had another child now. In the background of the call, a child was whining about wanting ice cream.
Lou Mingxu could hear the distance in his father's voice. The indifference. The perfunctory way he dealt with him.
His father hadn't even bothered to hear the whole story before telling him to apologize to his classmate.
“Did you hear that?”
His mother seemed to have found an ally, and her tone grew even firmer.
“Your father says you should apologize too. It's just saying you're sorry. It's not like you're going to lose a limb.”
They said it with such certainty.
They were his parents, yet they never seemed to care about his pain or sense of injustice. They always treated him like a problem to be solved, as though he were an object that had no right to feel anything.
Lou Mingxu hung up the phone.
He threw it aside and ran out of the house without looking back.
A winding path stretched between rows of villas half-hidden beneath the trees. It was the turn of spring into early summer, and the plane trees were lush with leaves, blocking the glow of the streetlights.
Light and shadow fell across the path in alternating patches.
The road was quiet and deep.
Lou Mingxu didn't know where he was going.
He just needed some air.
When he saw an empty swing bench by the roadside, he sat down.
He tipped his head back.
There wasn't a single star in the night sky.
Footsteps approached from somewhere in the distance.
Lou Mingxu assumed his mother had followed him out, and his irritation deepened.
But it wasn't his mother.
It was Zhou Yan.
Lou Mingxu said nothing.
As far as he was concerned, the lawyer was nothing more than a mouthpiece his mother had hired. Whoever paid him was whoever he worked for. He had no principles of his own.
Zhou Yan seemed completely unfazed by Lou Mingxu's sour expression.
He walked over and sat down beside him on the swing bench.
With one foot, he pushed gently against the ground.
The wooden bench began to sway with a soft creak.
“If you're here to convince me on my mom's behalf, don't bother talking.”
Lou Mingxu's tone was openly hostile.
“I am here to convince you,” Zhou Yan admitted.
A small smile tugged at his lips.
“But definitely not because of your mother. My job is to protect your interests as much as I possibly can.”
“Could've fooled me.”
Lou Mingxu lowered his head, unwilling to look at him.
“You seem more like you took money from Xia Haitao and came here to laugh at me.”
Zhou Yan was quiet for a moment.
Then he said, “Actually, I understand you pretty well. And I admire your courage.”
Lou Mingxu snorted.
“You're just saying that. If you really understood me, you wouldn't be forcing me to apologize.”
Zhou Yan frowned slightly, but his voice remained gentle.
“Apologizing doesn't mean you were wrong to intervene. You did help that student. That's true.”
He paused.
“But it's also true that you went too far and seriously injured someone. Those are two separate issues. Helping someone was right. Hitting someone that badly was still wrong.”
“He slapped me first. I was acting in self-defense.”
Lou Mingxu was still fuming.
“He shouldn't have been so damn weak.”
“I noticed all those certificates and trophies on your wall,” Zhou Yan said. “You've trained in boxing. And taekwondo.”
Lou Mingxu raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Zhou Yan explained quietly, “What you did technically falls under excessive self-defense.”
Lou Mingxu's expression darkened.
“Whatever. I don't want to apologize to a piece of garbage like him. If I actually go apologize and everyone finds out, how am I supposed to show my face at school afterward?”
Zhou Yan tilted his head, seemingly puzzled.
“So that's what you're worried about?”
Lou Mingxu leaned back into the bench, unwilling to continue the conversation.
When Zhou Yan got no answer, he suddenly changed the subject.
“Have you ever thought about what you want to do after you graduate?”
The only time Lou Mingxu had ever made up an answer to that question was in elementary school, when he'd had to write an essay about his future.
The truth was, he had absolutely no plans.
His academic grades were terrible. His teachers referred to him as one of those “very few students” who were hopeless cases. Even getting a university diploma someday was far from guaranteed.
Inheriting the family business wasn't exactly realistic either.
With his talent for spending money, he'd probably bankrupt the company within a few years.
And besides, his father already had another son.
Perhaps his father wanted to start up a new family after determining that the other one was beyond rescuing.
“I don't know. I've never thought about it.”
Lou Mingxu answered honestly.
Zhou Yan didn't give up.
“Then think about it now.”
After a long while, Lou Mingxu still couldn't come up with anything.
Zhou Yan finally supplied an answer for him.
“All right. Let's say that someday you decide you want to become a lawyer.”
Lou Mingxu thought the idea was ridiculous.
With his current grades, getting into university, let alone becoming a lawyer, was practically impossible. He'd have better odds becoming a sorcerer by performing rituals for the dead.
But he didn't argue.
He simply listened.
“After somehow making it through university, you're getting ready to take the bar exam when you discover there's a rule saying that anyone who has received criminal punishment for an intentional offense is prohibited from registering.”
Something seemed to strike Lou Mingxu squarely in the chest.
His heart jolted.
It was an angle he'd never considered before.
Zhou Yan continued.
“Maybe you decide being a lawyer isn't for you and want to pursue some other career. Fine. But when a company runs a background check during the hiring process, they could reject you without even asking why.”
“Of course, you might say your family has plenty of money. You could stay home and never work a day in your life and still have enough to eat.”
“But who can guarantee that a person will go through their entire life without ever running into hardship?”
“You can refuse to apologize today.”
“But you'll also be giving up a lot of possibilities for your future.”
He looked at Lou Mingxu.
“Do you really think it's worth sacrificing your future for someone like Xia Haitao?”
It really wasn't.
The evening breeze stirred gently, sending ripples through the stagnant pool of Lou Mingxu's heart, much like Zhou Yan's words had done.
Lou Mingxu knew Zhou Yan was genuinely thinking about his future.
And somewhere deep down, he already had a feeling that he was going to lose this argument.
“Maybe none of this means much to you right now…”
Zhou Yan turned his head and looked straight at him.
“I've seen far too many people in court who regretted what they'd done only after it was too late. A lot of them had opportunities to save themselves.”
He paused.
“I really don't want you to make a decision you'll regret for the rest of your life.”
Perhaps worried that Lou Mingxu wouldn't believe him, Zhou Yan began telling him about some of the people and cases he'd encountered in court.
Every so often, he'd turn to Lou Mingxu and ask,
“Do you think I'm right?”
Lou Mingxu accepted this unfamiliar kindness.
He made up his mind to go to the hospital and apologize.
At the same time, he lowered his head miserably.
It had been a long time since anyone had spoken to him with such patience and gentleness.
Yet the thought of having to bow his head and apologize to Xia Haitao still made the tip of his nose sting. The humiliation felt unbearable.
“Oh, come on…”
Zhou Yan noticed.
There was a teasing note in his voice.
“What's this? Little pearls falling already?”
“I'm not crying.”
The moment Lou Mingxu spoke, he realized his voice had gone embarrassingly wobbly with hurt.
“How about we find somewhere with fewer people and talk there?” Zhou Yan suggested.
“That auntie who just walked past was giving me such a strange look. She probably thinks I made you cry.”
He rested a hand on Lou Mingxu's shoulder and lowered his voice, joking around as though trying to coax him into a better mood.
Lou Mingxu's emotions came and went quickly.
Before a single tear could even fall, Zhou Yan had already made him snort with laughter.
Then Lou Mingxu asked seriously,
“When I go to the hospital, will you come with me?”
Zhou Yan readily agreed.
“Of course I will. I'll come with you!”
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