Seventh Year Of Separation chapter 33

I Am His Lawyer

On Saturday evening, Gu Jiahe stood at the exit of the North City high-speed rail station, wearing a hoodie and a cap, occasionally glancing inside.

About half an hour later, a familiar figure emerged from inside, pushing a black suitcase.

In less than half a minute, that person got closer and stood in front of Gu Jiahe. “What a coincidence,” he said.

Gu Jiahe took off his cap, looked up at him, and pretended to smile naturally. “Yeah, what a coincidence.”

“What brings you here?” Li Zhao asked knowingly.

“I… have to pick up a client.”

“A client? Does your legal department still need to receive clients themselves?”

“… Never mind.” Gu Jiahe shook his head and was about to leave.

“Where’s your client?” Li Zhao intentionally asked.

“Lost!” Gu Jiahe felt like burying his head under the tiles.

Gu Jiahe walked less than three meters away when someone grabbed his hoodie and pulled him back two steps.

He turned back with a puzzled expression. “What’s up?”

“You’re going the wrong way. The parking lot is this way.” Li Zhao pointed in the opposite direction.

Embarrassing. Gu Jiahe thought to himself.

Why is it that yesterday it was Li Zhao playing games on Moments, and now it’s me, the upright one, feeling so awkward?

The two walked one after the other into the underground parking lot of the high-speed rail station.

Li Zhao’s car had been parked in the parking lot for a week, and even the roof had accumulated a thin layer of dust.

Gu Jiahe followed him to the car and couldn’t help shaking his head.

“What’s wrong?” Li Zhao asked. “I’ll wash the car later.”

“No, I mean, how much does it cost to park here for a week?” Gu Jiahe looked worried, as if he were the one spending the money.

“There’s a maximum charge.” Li Zhao pointed to the parking fee price list across.

Li Zhao got into the car first, and Gu Jiahe hesitated for a moment before getting into the passenger seat.

Before he could see how much the maximum charge was, Li Zhao started the car and drove off.

The car quickly got onto the ring road, with a huge setting sun in the distance. The afterglow of the sunset enveloped half of the city, and the ring road extended into the horizon, giving a sense of a space-time tunnel.

Gu Jiahe was captivated by the scenery outside the window.

“Have you eaten?” Li Zhao suddenly asked.

“I’ll treat you.” Gu Jiahe quickly turned his head and said, then thought for a moment before adding, “Consider it a welcome.”

“What’s this? Did you lose the client, and now his budget is on me?” Li Zhao said seriously, but his words were teasing.

Ignoring his teasing, Gu Jiahe asked directly, “Shall we go eat? Cantonese or Sichuan cuisine?”

Li Zhao glanced at his watch. “It’s too late. The food outside won’t be fresh.”

Gu Jiahe was hearing this reasoning for the first time. Wasn’t McDonald’s open 24 hours? Were they serving rotten vegetables at night?

Then, the next second, he heard Li Zhao say, “How about we eat at my place?”

“Huh?” Gu Jiahe widened his eyes at him. “Go… to your place?”

Li Zhao didn’t look away and nodded.

For some reason, Gu Jiahe suddenly felt his heartbeat quicken. The sunlight streamed in from the car window, making half of his face feel hot.

His impression of Li Zhao’s home was only based on what He Xiao said about the “large three-bedroom apartment”.

But when the car entered Li Zhao’s residential area, Gu Jiahe realized what a real “house” was.

Li Zhao’s residential area was very new, it seemed to have been developed in the past few years, with beautiful central greenery and water features. Unlike the old residential area he rented, where even the unit door was shaking.

The car entered the underground parking lot of the residential area. Li Zhao reversed the car into the parking space.

Li Zhao suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to ask him, “Do you have a driver’s license?”

“Huh?” Gu Jiahe didn’t react for a moment, and then answered after a long pause, “No, I haven’t taken the test.”

Li Zhao nodded and didn’t say anything more.

Li Zhao’s home was on the fifteenth floor. The entrance door had a password lock, and Li Zhao lit up the keypad. Gu Jiahe instinctively took a step back without looking.

The house was neatly arranged, and Li Zhao opened the shoe cabinet and handed Gu Jiahe a pair of new slippers.

Gu Jiahe stood at the entrance and glanced inside. There was a gray sofa in the living room, but no coffee table. There was an empty space in front of the TV, and everything was neatly arranged, making the house look particularly spacious, without any signs of life.

“Come in.” Li Zhao put the car keys in the box at the entrance and gestured for him to enter.

Gu Jiahe nodded, changed his shoes, and followed him in.

This apartment was indeed a large three-bedroom. The living room was north-south facing, with a south-facing room on each side, and there was also a relatively large open study to the north.

Gu Jiahe walked into the kitchen out of habit, only to find the stove shining brightly.

He poked his head out and asked Li Zhao, “What are we having?”

Li Zhao opened the fridge and saw that it was empty, then cleared his throat. “I’ll go buy now.”

Gu Jiahe was speechless. Was this what he meant by “the food outside isn’t fresh”?

“You can sit wherever you want. I’ll be back soon.” After Li Zhao finished speaking, he took an eco-friendly bag and left.

Left alone in the room, Gu Jiahe didn’t dare to move around and could only wander around the living room.

Li Zhao’s home was decorated in black, white, and gray, with no colors. The only thing that looked a bit personal was the open study next to the dining room, where there was a whole wall of bookshelves behind the desk.

Gu Jiahe walked over and glanced at it. Most of them were professional books. At the corner of the bookshelf, there was a glass cabinet, and behind it, he could see some trophies he had won from playing football.

Soon, Gu Jiahe noticed a thick book behind the trophies, pressed deep into the back, making it impossible to see what it was for.

The glass was extremely clean, and Gu Jiahe stood in front of the cabinet, seeing his own reflection through the glass. His raised hand quickly dropped back down.

Before he could finish inspecting the bookshelf, the front door was unlocked and opened.

Li Zhao came back with a bag of vegetables and meat.

“So fast?”

“Yeah, there’s a supermarket downstairs.”

Gu Jiahe walked over and took the bag from him, then went straight into the kitchen. He worked swiftly and naturally.

However, when he placed the bag on the kitchen’s marble countertop, he noticed Li Zhao leaning against the kitchen door, watching him.

Gu Jiahe glanced back at him and said, “What? Are you going to cook?”

Before he could reply, Gu Jiahe smiled and turned on the sink faucet, washing his hands. “Forget it, I’ll do it. Yours won’t be edible.”

“What do you mean by ‘won’t be edible’?” Li Zhao asked, not believing it, and tried to take the ingredients from Gu Jiahe’s hands. But Gu Jiahe elbowed him out of the way.

“It’s edible, just not good.” Gu Jiahe stabbed at his heart again.

Li Zhao was never good at cooking. When they lived together before, if they ate at home, Gu Jiahe would do the cooking while Li Zhao took care of cleaning and washing dishes.

“Do you have an apron?” Gu Jiahe asked him.

Li Zhao reached into the hanging cabinet and pulled out a brand new apron, handing it to him.

Gu Jiahe couldn’t help but tease him, “You really never cook, huh?”

“No time.” Li Zhao was honest. After starting work, he almost worked overtime every day at the office, or was stationed elsewhere, never having the opportunity to eat at home.

Gu Jiahe put on the apron, tied it behind him, and skillfully began sorting through the vegetables from the bag.

But Li Zhao stayed leaning against the door without moving.

Back in college, Li Zhao had been curious why Gu Jiahe seemed to be so good at everything around the house.

At that time, Gu Jiahe just smiled and didn’t explain.

Now, looking back, perhaps his teenage years had been spent like this all along.

Gu Jiahe glanced at Li Zhao still standing by the door without leaving. “Honey-glazed chicken wings? Sweet and sour spare ribs?”

Li Zhao’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted, and he paused before realizing that Gu Jiahe was asking him. “Sure.”

Just as Gu Jiahe opened the bag and saw the chicken wings and spare ribs, he knew what Li Zhao wanted to eat. These were Li Zhao’s favorite dishes back then, and he had forgotten how many chicken wings they had eaten in those three and a half years.

Two stoves, one cooking chicken wings, the other simmering spare ribs.

In less than an hour, Gu Jiahe had the dishes on the table. Li Zhao set out the chopsticks and soup spoons.

“How’s the weather in Ningcheng recently?” Gu Jiahe took off his apron and spoke first.

“Okay, a bit windy.”

“Yeah, indeed.” Gu Jiahe nodded.

“How did you know?” Li Zhao asked.

“I went there a couple of weeks ago too.”

Li Zhao immediately looked up at him. “What for?”

“Business trip.” Gu Jiahe replied, “There’s an investment project at the company, so I went for a week.”

“I see.” Li Zhao nodded, but his expression was somewhat subdued, as if he didn’t get the answer he wanted.

Gu Jiahe’s cooking skills hadn’t changed much over the years, and Li Zhao ate quite a bit to give face.

Halfway through the meal, Li Zhao suddenly remembered something and looked up at him. “So, is he still contacting you?”

Gu Jiahe paused, quickly realizing who “he” was that Li Zhao mentioned.

He breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. “Yeah.”

Li Zhao asked again, “When we had dinner together at Lingang, and you went out to take a call, was that him?”

Gu Jiahe nodded.

Li Zhao hesitated for a moment, then after about two minutes, he spoke again, “I shouldn’t have said that that night…”

After their frank conversation, this was the first time Li Zhao had brought up the night of their loss of control in Lingang.

But to Gu Jiahe’s surprise, he just smiled calmly and said, “It’s okay. After all, I was the one who was wrong first. It’s normal for you to have grievances against me. I was too self-righteous.”

There was a napkin on the table, and Gu Jiahe picked it up, folding and unfolding it twice until there were several deep creases on the paper surface.

Li Zhao didn’t continue the conversation further. Instead, he asked, “Why is he still contacting you? Is it still about that money?”

Gu Jiahe nodded, then shook his head. “Yes and no.”

“What do you mean?”

Gu Jiahe didn’t want to hide it. “I don’t know if he’s encountered any problems in the past two years, but his relatives in Pingcheng told me he seems to be short of money. Apart from that insurance money, he wants to ask me for more.”

“Did you give it to him?”

“No.” Gu Jiahe shook his head. “My grandmother needs surgery these two years.”

Li Zhao pressed his lips tightly, his Adam’s apple rolling. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the right words.

“Don’t worry about these things.” Gu Jiahe was the one advising him now, looking quite relaxed. “Evil begets evil. I’ve figured out his ways over the years. The more reasonable I am with him, the more aggressive he becomes. I can handle it.”

But that expression, Li Zhao was familiar with it. When Gu Jiahe dared not watch horror movies but pretended to be brave, he would show the same expression.

After saying that, Gu Jiahe tugged at the sleeve of his hoodie. He had forgotten to roll it up when cooking, and it had gotten a little wet during vegetable selection, making it uncomfortable against his skin.

During the silence between them, Gu Jiahe’s phone, placed on the table, suddenly rang.

He glanced at the incoming number, his expression slightly darkening.

“Wait a moment, I’ll take a call.” Gu Jiahe picked up his phone and walked to the balcony.

He stepped onto the balcony, then turned around and pulled the glass door closed, feeling the cold autumn wind blowing on him.

He answered the call, and the person on the other end greeted him quickly.

Gu Jiahe’s voice was chilly, “What’s the matter again? I said I won’t give you a single penny of that money.”

As soon as Gu Jianmin heard him respond, he immediately shouted at him loudly, his words fierce.

Gu Jiahe held the phone away from his ear, and after half a minute, he replied, “If you want to sue, just go ahead and sue. If you have the patience, I have the patience to deal with you.”

Seeing that Gu Jianmin still wouldn’t budge, Gu Jiahe said coldly, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll make everyone at your company know about it?”

Gu Jiahe took a deep breath, but before he could reply, someone suddenly snatched the phone from his hand from behind.

He turned around in surprise, and Li Zhao had somehow opened the door and stood behind him.

Li Zhao picked up his phone, his tone icy, “I’m his lawyer. If there’s anything, you can talk to me.”