Chapter 82: Chapter 39 (part 2)

Fu Zheng hung up the phone call and felt like he had done a good job preparing himself mentally. Chen Shuo was even younger than Ning Wan. He was just an immature junior, and his provocative behavior should simply be laughed off.

When Fu Zheng returned to the office, Chen Shuo was gone. Only Ning Wan was there, squatting alone in the middle of the room working on a huge paper box. When she saw him, she looked at him as though she had just been saved--

"Thank goodness you're back!"

That sounded right. Really, that youngster Chen Shuo was unreliable after all during critical moments. Mature men were still the ones who could be relied on...

But soon Ning Wan's words interrupted his thoughts--

"You got back just in time. Chen Shuo just left the office since he's only officially starting here tomorrow. I pushed for the chair to be delivered ASAP, but unfortunately I'm not very good at putting it together. Come help me figure it out."

"...Are you asking me," Fu Zheng said slowly, "To help assemble Chen Shuo's chair?"

As if this was something quite natural, Ning Wan nodded, "Yup. Let's quickly get it done so that when he gets here tomorrow he'll have something to sit on."

Fu Zheng felt a little uncomfortable inside. When he first came to the community, Ning Wan hadn't been nearly so enthusiastic. He had sat, humiliated, on that cheap plastic stool for a long time. Yet now he had changed Ning Wan's view on him through his own effort and hard work, and was finally using a nice chair. Why was Chen Shuo somehow a step ahead?

But even though he was in a complicated mood, Fu Zheng still crouched down and helped Ning Wan dismantle the carton. Although he had never done this sort of thing before, he quickly put the chair together.

To his great relief, it was the same chair as his own, which meant that they were finally getting equal treatment.

Ning Wan was greatly pleased once the chair was finally assembled. She grabbed a towel to wipe it down, asking Fu Zheng to throw out the packaging. Although Fu Zheng seemed quite cooperative, for whatever reason even after she had wiped down the new chair he hadn't left yet to throw the box out. She looked up to find him standing in the room staring intensely at a piece of paper in his hand, lips pursed in a frown.

She looked closer to find that he was reading the purchase order with the name and price of the chair. Walking over, she patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's the same one as yours!"

Fu Zheng's expression looked like he was trying to restrain himself. In the end, he couldn't apparently help but ask. Biting his lip, he looked at her and then quickly looked away again. "Since it's the same chair, why is Chen Shuo's more expensive than mine?"

Ning Wan felt very pleased. Fu Zheng was poor, but sometimes he wasn't very sensitive to monetary details due to his old background. For him to be able to see at a glance that the same chair was priced differently, Ning Wan felt like he was really making progress  with the subtle details and was very glad for him.

"There was a sale at the store when we got yours! By the time Chen Shuo transferred here, the sale was over, not to mention the markup for inflation. His chair was nearly a hundred dollars more even though it's the same one. Yours was far cheaper, and much more economical!"

Unfortunately, Ning Wan wasn't aware that being economical wasn't at all a good thing in Fu Zheng's eyes. To Fu Zheng's view of the world, the more expensive something was the better. Economical was the same thing as cheap. He would much rather buy something flashy than something economical.

Frankly, Fu Zheng's bad habits had already improved a great deal ever since he was first transferred to the community. He even thought his 2,200-yuan second-hand furniture was okay when he looked at it nowadays. But there is no harm without comparison.  It was the same chair, so why was his cheaper than Chen Shuo's? Was he cheaper than Chen Shuo?

His inner bad-tempered young master was feeling a little unpleasant.

But still, he felt like he shouldn't care so much. In the end both Ning Wan and Chen Shuo were his subordinates. A boss should be generous.

 

Early the next morning, Chen Shuo came in as expected. Although community lawyers were supposed to wear professional attire, he was so well put-together from head to toe that it Fu Zheng the feeling of a male peacock showing off his feathers.

But even showing off one's feathers had it's limits. Even if he was pursuing Ning Wan, should he really be preening so much?

Fu Zheng coldly deducted points from Chen Shuo in his mind - a professional lawyer should put work first. Even if one wanted to take advantage of being at work to solve one's emotional problems, work should come first. Why, unknowing people might think that Chen Shuo was about to get married!

It was too bad that Chen Shuo had absolutely no idea that he was apparently about to get married. His eyes sparkling, he was staring at Ning Wan fawningly and not even trying to hide it, asking questions one at a time--

"Senior sister Ning Wan, do we record these kinds of consultations in this form?"

"Do we need to follow up after a telephone consultation?"

"The details of this case seem very complicated. Let me sort it out first and then discuss it with you later!"

……

Fu Zheng looked on coldly. This fellow Chen Shuo was actually quite the schemer. He was obviously aware of how to do all these things, but to attract Ning Wan's attention, he would say something from time to time, pretending to be eager to learn. Ning Wan, that silly woman, had absolutely no idea about the inner chess game he was playing and was cheerfully handholding him the whole way.

It seemed like they would get nothing done here.

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Fu Zheng looked around at his workplace from an employee's point of view for the very first time. It was rather refreshing. With a clear strategy in mind, he adjusted his expression to show sincerity and friendliness, and looked at Chen Shuo--

"Chen Shuo, if there's anything you're not sure of, just ask me. I can teach you the very basic stuff. Ning Wan has some things to do for the general office." Fu Zheng smiled gently. "When I first came to the community, it was she who taught me all these things. I remember them all, so let me teach it to you. That will be a good refresher for me, too."

Ning Wan was very happy to hear Fu Zheng's proposal. These last few days she had been corresponding with the senior partner over email. He would arrange homework  assignments for her, which she would complete. She had begun looking forward to his daily emails. His thinking was meticulous and sophisticated, and she felt herself coming to a new understanding every time he sent her back a "correction".

She hadn't yet figured out the problem the senior partner had set her yesterday, so since Fu Zheng was willing to help, she jumped on the opportunity. "Then Fu Zheng, please show Chen Shuo around to get him familiar with the environment. Have him provide Director Ji with a photo of himself, too. Walk him through the processes that you had to go through when you first arrived," she said gratefully. "Thanks so much!"

Having said so, Ning Wan really did go off to a corner to work on her own. The question he had set yesterday was quite difficult, so Fu Zheng figured that once she was immersed in it, she wouldn't have time to bother with Chen Shuo for awhile.

Sure enough, when Chen Shuo heard that his mentor had become Fu Zheng, his breezy, smiling demeanor disappeared. He gathered his emotions and turned to look at Fu Zheng.

Fu Zheng, expression natural, began guiding him through handling consultation records and informing him of matters that needed attention when answering the phone. Unfortunately, the whole time Chen Shuo looked dark. In a low voice and with a look brimming with hostility, he asked, "Did you do that on purpose?"

Fu Zheng smiled. "I'm just a senior in the community office teaching my juniors."

Chen Shuo laughed too. "Lawyer Fu, I entered the workforce before you. As far as work experience is concerned, you're the one who's my junior, so don't bother giving me advice. I'd rather fumble about on my own."

"But there's quite a big difference between community work and general office work. Experience doesn't count for nothing. Are you sure you don't need my advice?"

"No need," Chen Shuo said, tightening his mouth.

He didn't particularly seem to want to hide his intense dislike.

Young men really were impatient. Fu Zheng didn't take it to heart. Soon, telephone consultation began coming in, and he got busy with work. By the time he put the phone down on the last consult, it was noon.

"Let's go, let's go! It's Chen Shuo's first day here with us today. Let's go have a good meal, my treat!" Ning Wan exclaimed passionately. "We're going for Japanese food, your favourite, Chen Shuo!"

Chen Shuo smiled warmly and pleasantly. "You remembered that I like Japanese food."

"Fu Zheng, is that okay with you?"

Everything had already been decided before asking him. That wasn't asking, but rather notifying. What a sham of democracy, Fu Zheng thought, but what else could he do? As a senior partner, shouldn't be think first of the overall situation and push the boat along without embarrassing his young subordinates?

"Mn."

"Then let's go!"

The three of them headed to a rather nice Japanese restaurant nearby. After finishing the meal, it felt natural to linger and chat. But though they started out talking about work, once Chen Shuo joined in he quickly led the conversation into a different direction--

"Do you still remember our highschool dean and how she hated the principal so much? They were at each other's throats all day. Guess what I heard last time I went back? They're married now!"

"And that senior Yin Feng who graduated with honors and was working in an investment bank? I heard he quit and started his own business. A whole bunch of people invested their money with him. He ended up running away with the money..."

"When we were in highschool, there was an animal corner in the school garden with two rabbits. Now there's a whole litter of them, all their descendants."

……

He kept reminiscing about his and Ning Wan's past while in school together. They talked and laughed, leaving Fu Zheng completely excluded from the conversation. He had never met Ning Wan prior, and couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"Oh, and remember how we used to go to Miss Guo's home for English cram school? Old Guo was the worst! In two hours of tutoring, we always spent one hour doing exam papers, and one hour correcting them."

"What do you mean, no? He was definitely awful! Every time the summer vacation cram school ended, he went out to gamble..."

It was Fu Zheng's first time feeling so left out in the cold. He drank his tea in silence. Chen Shuo was behaving very childishly, but with Fu Zheng's credentials backing him, he didn't really care about that at all. But when he looked at Ning Wan gazing at the other man, eyes crinkled in a smile, he felt oddly disconcerted and upset inside. At that moment, she seemed to be wholeheartedly focused on Chen Shuo. It was like she had completely forgotten that he was still there, sitting at the table with them.

They hadn't even fallen in love yet, and he already felt like a third wheel. Was it because it was rather hot outside today? Fu Zheng grew more and more agitated.