Chapter 29: Chapter 16 (part 1)

Half an hour later and a steaming latte in her hand, Ning Wan was in an excellent mood. Fu Zheng didn't seem to feel the same way, however. "It's always like this in the beginning," she soothed him magnanimously. "There are plenty of tiny details that are easy to miss, so you really don't have to feel bad comparing yourself to me. So long as you follow me and learn, you'll do great. Now come on, go make a phone call to Guo Jianhong and tell her that we'd like to speak to her privately."

Though Fu Zheng's ruffled feelings of inferiority were probably not completely smoothed, he seemed to retain a pretty good attitude toward work and immediately placed the call to Guo Jianhong.

Coincidentally, she was nearby and it didn't take her long to get to the office.

"What can I do for you, lawyers?"

Ning Wan didn't beat around the bush. "I just wanted to confirm with you that your mother is truly unstable, and cannot be trusted to make her own decisions at this current time?"

"Yes, my brothers and sisters-in-law are all saying so. Apparently Mom was hit hard by the lung cancer diagnosis and began acting strangely, refusing to cooperate with treatment..."

"Have you seen this with your own eyes?" Ning Wan interrupted.

Guo Jianhong shook her head. "No, I've been working elsewhere this whole time. When I heard that mother had been diagnosed with cancer, I immediately resigned and moved back to Rong City. But when I got back, mother seemed to be acting oddly. She refused to see any of us. I went to her house with my brothers and sisters-in-law several times, but she wouldn't let us in." Guo Jianhong's eyes filled with tears. "It's partly my fault. I'm always away and I never took good care of her. It's partly because of me that that lying neighbour managed to get a foot in the door. Now our mother would rather be with him than with her children..."

Ning Wan's heart beat fast. So her hunch was likely right on the money. Guo Jianhong had never actually met and talked with her mother, and she was completely unaware of her mother's true state.

"Honestly, if my mother wanted to remarry and she was still in her fifties, I wouldn't mind at all even if the man was a decade or so younger. Mother has worked hard all her life, and if she had someone to talk with and take care of her in her golden years, that would be wonderful. But this... this man is only twenty-six, my mother is sixty... he's three years younger than me, this..."

Guo Jianhong hung her head and lamented, "The doctor has given my mother just a couple of years to live. Her time is running out, but I can't just sit here and watch her be cheated!"

"I've seen her neighbour. He's pretty good-looking. Yes, he's got a child and has been divorced before, but he's also got a decent white-collar job. He could totally marry some girl similar in age to himself, so why would he want my mother? Mother worked hard her whole life to buy houses and cars so that both my brothers could marry well. Only the house she currently lives in still belongs to her. It's all she has in her old age, so what will she do if she gets cheated out of it? My two sisters-in-law are both saying that the house should be sold now and divided up before it's stolen, but then will they take care of mother afterward?"

Pain and shame warred across Guo Jianhong's face. "It's also my fault for not having lived up to expectations. I'm nearly thirty, and I don't even have a family..."

Ning Wan didn't put on the airs of a lawyer. As if she were a close family member, she comforted Guo Jianhong gently. Though her words seemed trivial, while listening in Fu Zheng found that through her seemingly simple small talk, they had obtained a thorough understanding of the family--

Guo Jianhong's mother, Wang Liying, was 60 years old. She was raised in the country, but slowly brought her entire family into the middle class by sheer hard work. However, though their wealth had increased, her mindset had not changed. The patriarchal thoughts of rural China were deep-rooted in her, and it was her firm belief that a married daughter was like spilt waterTraditionally, women in China 'marry out', meaning that their duty is to look after their in-laws when they get old, not their parents. For this reason, girls were viewed as 'spilt water' - you put effort into raising them, but they don't look after you in your old age. Having a son was like having a retirement pension., ineligible to receive an inheritance. Though her two sons both received a house and a car as a wedding gift, her daughter received nothing. Both sons had been provided with a dowry for their wives, but Guo Jianhong had been hurriedly married off to a man in a different province. Due to issues negotiating the bride price, Guo Jianhong's marriage had gotten off on the wrong foot right from the start. Her husband's family had been equally patriarchal, and when her first child turned out to be a daughter, there had been no peace in the family ever since. Later on, her husband had an affair, and they divorced after his mistress got pregnant. She had received full custody of her daughter. She was a single mother, not well-educated, working alone in a faraway province. It was a difficult life, and even after having worked hard for many years, she had not a penny in savings.

"After my dad died, I thought about returning to Rong City to take care of my mother, but she didn't want to see me." Guo Jianhong wiped away her tears. "She felt that it was shameful for a woman to be divorced. I was an embarrassment... But now she's in such a state, and I thought to myself that I had to come back no matter how much she scolds me..."

"Don't worry. We'll first pay a visit to your mother so that you can be assured of her health. After that, we can decide on the next step."

Gratitude flashed across Guo Jianhong's face, but then she hesitated. "Will there a charge for this...?"

"No charge," Ning Wan smiled.

She comforted Guo Jianhong and walked her to the door.

As soon as the door closed behind Guo Jianhong, Ning Wan sighed, "I hope I'll have a daughter in the future."

Fu Zheng frowned, puzzled. "What?"

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"Daughters are so lovely and sweet. Sons aren't worth shit. Now those two have got powerful wives, and they couldn't care less about taking care of the elderly. They just hope you'll die early so they can get their hands on your money."

"Did you believe everything Guo Jianhong said?" Fu Zheng disagreed.

"I did."

Fu Zheng was struck speechless. "The most taboo thing a lawyer can do is to simply believe everything the client says. You claim to be a reliable senior lawyer, but you still don't understand this?"

"Of course I do." Ning Wan turned to him, tapping on the desk with her pen. "Weren't you listening? Wang Liying favoured sons over daughters all her life. She gifted each of her sons houses upon their marriages, yet saved nothing for her daughter. This has been the family way all along, and even Guo Jianhong herself has long been brainwashed into believing that this is normal. The family belief is that daughters don't deserve to inherit property. Therefore, Guo Jianhong has never expected to inherit anything in the event of the old lady's death. They all agree that when the old couple is dead, the remainder of the property will belong to the two brothers. Which is to say, only the two brothers are impacted by the addition of an extra 'spouse' of unknown origin. Guo Jianhong, who of her own volition believes that she has no right to the old lady's property, has no conflict of interest whatsoever with the 26-year-old foreigner."

Ning Wan batted her eyes. "So of course I believe her. She has no motive to lie." She looked at Fu Zheng, "I say, Fu Zheng, didn't you ever take Chinese literature in school? All the reading comprehension questions are about analyzing meanings and implications. Did you fail? "

“……”

"Look at that, my initial hypothesis was pretty much spot on, wasn't it? Guo Jianhong doesn't understand her mother's situation. She really thinks that her mother has become a little senile, which is why she asked us to apply for a civil competency assessment. But her two brothers were obviously hiding something, which you can see by how much less enthusiastic they became once they found out that it was necessary to have a neutral third party declare their mother incapable of civil competence. My guess is that their mother is very much aware of what she's doing, so why waste our client's money on a worthless assessment?"

It had to be said that after Fu Zheng arrived, Ning Wan's confidence had soared. No wonder they say that all men enjoy lecturing other peopleI believe Ning Wan is slaughtering yet another quote from Mencius here: "人之忌，在好为人师", which I would roughly translate as "the curse of man is how much he enjoys lecturing other people" and I thoroughly agree, haha.. How sweet the feeling was! All of a sudden, Ning Wan was once again in high spirits. Look, everyone! Next to this little fledgling Fu Zheng, she was a max-level boss!

 

Just as she was about to bring Fu Zheng over to visit that old lady in her second spring, however, an uninvited guest came by the office. Gao Yuan, a senior partner who should by all rights have been sitting in his fancy office at HQ, had actually condescended to appear at the community office door, and was now peeking in.

Before, Ning Wan wouldn't have thought anything of it, but now that Fu Zheng had revealed Gao Yuan's true face to her, Ning Wan watched him peering into the office and found him to be acting very suspiciously.

Seeing that both of them were there, Gao Yuan straightened his tie and came in looking dignified--

"Ning Wan, Fu Zheng, it looks like you're both here. I was just passing by and thought I might take you both out to lunch. You two choose - what would you like to eat?"

Just passing by! Ning Wan wanted to sneer.

She hadn't expected this pervert to blatantly and flagrantly chase Fu Zheng all the way to the community!

Thinking of it, Ning Wan eyed Fu Zheng up and down. He was a striking man, tall and long-legged. Although he was from a fallen family, he looked well-bred and like he was used to living in luxury, a truly handsome man who wouldn't look out of place among the most gorgeous people in the world. It was entirely understandable that Gao Yuan had not yet given up on him.

Forget it. There was no running away from this. Even if she could find a way for Fu Zheng to decline this time, Gao Yuan would always find some way to get to him. It was fortunate that she was here today. If she hadn't been, what if Fu Zheng was unable to stick to his decision and coerced into making a big mistake?!

Ning Wan thought carefully and responsibly about it. It was almost lunchtime. Why not take Fu Zheng along, eat a huge expensive meal on Gao Yuan's dime, and then make the pervert give up on his lecherous ideas in one fell swoop?