Chapter 20
When Shen Bining returned to the private room from the restroom, she saw Tang Hui making a phone call in the nearby corridor.
From afar, she noticed that Tang Hui's mood was off; his face was pale, and his brows were furrowed, as if he was suppressing his anger, furious yet forced to patiently listen to the person on the other end of the phone.
Shen Bining naturally wouldn't eavesdrop on other people's phone calls. She quickly arrived at the door of the private room, just as Tang Hui's gaze fell upon her. He was slightly taken aback, then nodded at her in a friendly manner.
Shen Bining quickly waved as a greeting, and at the same time, she hurriedly opened the door to the private room, wanting to go in as soon as possible.
Why did she have the illusion that she had been caught eavesdropping on someone's phone call?
The moment Shen Bining entered the private room, she heard Tang Hui's barely suppressed rebuke.
"Don't go too far."
There were eight people at the dinner party tonight, four men and four women, including three couples. When Shen Bining returned to the private room and glanced around, she felt she couldn't bear to look at them.
The three couples were all incredibly affectionate, each more so than the last. Qi Wang, worried that Chen Nian was hungry, was frantically feeding his girlfriend's family's food; Lin Ruoruo was meticulously correcting her foreign boyfriend's Chinese pronunciation, eventually laughing at herself; Song Ziyi and Mu Ci were busy decorating their wedding home, their heads huddled together, intently looking at the interior design plans on their phones, occasionally whispering and exchanging opinions...
Shen Bining felt like a giant 1,000-watt light bulb, and for a moment she really hoped that Tang Hui would hang up the phone and come back.
In the end, Mu Ci was the first to notice Shen Bining's unease. She gently patted her boyfriend's leg under the table, put away her phone, and said to Shen Bining, "Dr. Shen, come and sit down. Two more dishes were served when you went to the restroom. They taste good. Come and try them."
Shen Bining knew that Mu Ci meant well, and she also had a very good impression of this beautiful and gentle dance teacher. She returned to her seat and said with a smile, "You can just call me by my name. Calling me Dr. Shen sounds too formal."
At this moment, Lin Ruoruo called out from the side, "Xiao Ci, you don't need to be so polite with Ningning. She's very easy to get along with. Just call her Ningning, like Niannian and I do."
She was always outgoing and friendly. She met Mu Ci and Shen Bining through Chen Nian and quickly became their best friend, calling them by their nicknames.
“Okay, then I’ll call you Ningning, and you can call me Xiao Ci. Calling such a pretty girl Dr. Chen makes her sound old.” Mu Ci, a cheerful girl, agreed with a smile.
The four girls were of similar age and all had easygoing personalities, so a single meal was enough for them to become friends.
At least when Tang Hui came in, the four girls had already huddled together, acting like best friends who had known each other for years, whispering and giving Mu Ci ideas for her wedding, and occasionally bursting into laughter.
When Tang returned, his expression was rather unpleasant, his brows furrowed. Clearly, the phone call had left him feeling frustrated, and he was suppressing his anger as he entered.
"What's wrong? You got so angry after just one phone call. Is it about the case?" Song Ziyi asked in a low voice.
"What case could make me so angry? It's that girl Lisa." Tang Hui said through gritted teeth, his voice filled with barely suppressed anger. "She's been missing for several days, refusing to answer my calls or her parents' calls. The three of us were frantic trying to contact her, and then this young lady just called me to say that she went to Beijing for two days to watch the flag-raising ceremony. It's not like it's the American flag-raising ceremony, what does she have to watch?"
Seeing that even the usually calm and composed Tang Hui was so angry that his voice changed, Song Ziyi laughed and teased, "Let her watch if she wants to. It's a good opportunity for the American girl to witness the power and prestige of our great nation, China."
Tang Hui rolled his eyes at Song Ziyi speechlessly, and then his next words were almost squeezed out from between his teeth, "Do you want to know what this girl's plans are next?"
Song Ziyi's breath hitched. He could tell from Tang Hui's expression that things were not simple. Before he could speak, Tang Hui continued angrily, "That crazy girl wants to come to our law firm for an internship. She's even complaining that she has nowhere to live and wants to move into my house."
"Hiss." Even someone as unreliable as Song Ziyi couldn't help but gasp at such an absurd request. He looked at Tang Hui in shock and asked in a trembling voice, "You agreed to her?"
Tang Hui didn't answer, but just glanced at Song Ziyi speechlessly, his eyes clearly conveying what he wanted to say.
"Do I look like an idiot to agree to this?"
Song Ziyi breathed a sigh of relief, then scratched his forehead and asked, "The work isn't urgent for now. That girl clearly doesn't really want to work; she just wants to stick with you. But what about accommodation? If she's determined to stay, she can't just stay in a hotel forever. You're definitely worried about letting her drift around alone. If something really happens to her, you won't be able to explain it to your uncle."
At this point, the two fell silent.
That's the crux of the matter. Tang Hui will not accept Lisa.
Logically, the best course of action is to avoid pursuers you don't like who are persistent and clingy.
Given Tang Hui's personality, if it were any other girl who was so persistent in pursuing him, he would have been much less polite and wouldn't have cared about their life or death—you're an adult now, you should be responsible for yourself, and if you do anything dangerous, you should bear the consequences yourself.
But the other party is Lisa, the only child of his respected and grateful uncle, and his little cousin who grew up with him. How could he possibly turn a blind eye and let Lisa do whatever she wants?
To be fair, aside from going a bit too far in pursuing him, Lisa is a good girl in every other way. He couldn't just ignore her, neither for his uncle's sake nor for Lisa's own.
So, during that phone call, when Lisa suggested moving in with him, he impulsively blurted out a reason for refusing.
"Hey, what are you thinking about? Are you out of your mind?" Tang Hui was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't hear Song Ziyi talking to him. In the end, Song Ziyi shook him a few times before he came back to his senses.
Song Ziyi looked at Tang Hui with a hint of schadenfreude, saying in a tone of watching a good show, "It has to be our Miss Lisa. She just casually made a request and she pushed Attorney Tang to this point. Think about your performance in court. No matter how unfavorable the situation is, no matter how cunning and ruthless the opponent is, you can always fight a beautiful battle with composure and calmness. How come you're helpless when it comes to Lisa? Is she born to be your nemesis?"
Faced with his friend's gloating teasing, Tang Hui ruthlessly and decisively picked up a sushi roll and stuffed it into Song Ziyi's mouth. "If you can't speak properly, then shut up," he said irritably.
It was a whole, uncut sushi roll, which Tang Hui stuffed almost entirely into Song Ziyi's mouth. Song Ziyi nearly choked to death and it took him a long time to catch his breath.
"Tang Hui, are you trying to choke me to death? As a lawyer, you've broken the law knowingly, and your crime is unforgivable," Song Ziyi roared.
The commotion drew the attention of several people, but perhaps they were used to this kind of playful fighting. Mu Ci and the other girls laughed and teased the two men for a few moments before continuing to look down at their phones.
Mu Ci had many beautiful wedding photos on her phone, and she was so overwhelmed by the choices that she couldn't make up her mind. So she decided to ask a few of her girlfriends for their opinions today.
Only Shen Bining was surprised, glancing over from the corner of her eye from time to time, seemingly very curious about Tang Hui's behavior in private.
Perhaps she never imagined that such a cold-faced lawyer, who was so aloof and rarely smiled, would be like this when she was with her close friends.
Qi Wang finally "reluctantly" left his wife and came to Tang Hui and Song Ziyi's small circle. Lin Ruoruo's foreign boyfriend John also followed along like a little puppy - he also wanted to hear what they were talking about, although he was not sure if he could understand it with his Chinese.
Upon seeing the "newcomer," Song Ziyi quickly recounted what had just happened. Qi Wang asked in shock, "So what do you plan to do? You can't just ignore her. She's a girl, a foreigner, and unfamiliar with the city. It's still very dangerous for her."
"I told her I'd help her find a single apartment so she could live alone. At worst, the apartment could be close to my house, and I'd pay the rent," Tang Hui said, frustrated.
Song Ziyi peeled the edamame, tossed it high into the air like a juggler, caught it accurately with his mouth, and splashed it with cold water, saying, "I bet her dinner money tonight won't agree."
Qi Wang didn't even need to ask any more questions; he could tell from Tang Hui's defeated expression that Song Ziyi had hit the nail on the head. He pressed on, "Then what are you going to do? Are you really going to let her move into your house?"
The thought of Tang Hui and Lisa living under the same roof sent a chill down Qi Wang's spine.
Sorry, but the image I'm trying to conjure up just doesn't feel right.
This is the awkward situation of Tang Hui and Lisa's identities. They cannot "live together" with various purposes like ordinary men and women; nor can they live together temporarily as family members like real cousins.
Because they are cousins without blood ties, they are bound by identity but not by blood.
They can develop a real romantic relationship, which is the freedom of emotion; yet they cannot break free from the shackles of family ties to become lovers, which is a moral constraint.
Qi Wang's questioning reminded Tang Hui of the reason he rejected Lisa, making him even more depressed.
He must have been so angry with that girl that he blurted out that sentence; now he realizes he's really shooting himself in the foot.
Tang Hui sighed, his tone filled with a sense of helplessness that was more despair than despair. "I told her that I have a girlfriend, and she can come to my house anytime. It's inconvenient for her to live here."
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