1. To welcome and dispel bad luck
The iron door creaked, raising a cloud of fine dust.
Outside the wall, even the sunlight seemed more vivid, and the spots of sunset light jumped into his eyes, making Zeng Xiasheng unable to open his eyes.
He held up his hand to his forehead. His ten-year-old coat was literally too tight for his shoulders, revealing a pair of strong, muscular forearms. On his rough skin was a black spot the size of a coin, a scar from a burn he'd accidentally sustained in the workshop a few years prior.
Zeng Xiasheng stood at the door for a long time, until the heavy iron door creaked closed again, then he slowly put his hand down.
Across from the empty prison gate, a silver sedan was parked. A woman in a beige suit was leaning against the car, staring at him quietly.
Zeng Xiasheng was originally sentenced to twelve years and six months, but was released from prison nearly ten years later after receiving two reductions in sentence due to his good behavior.
He didn't tell anyone, but Tang Sizhuo came anyway.
Compared to the quiet and timid girl in my memory, she has now grown into a pretty and graceful girl with a straight back, clear eyes and the appearance of a successful and capable person.
He couldn't hear what was being said between her slightly parted lips.
Tang Sizhuo walked closer, and the sound of her high heels made his heart beat wildly. She took two steps in front of Zeng Xiasheng and wanted to raise the corners of her mouth, but tears first appeared in her eyes.
"I'll pick you up."
Still the same soft tone.
Zeng Xiasheng was momentarily dazed, unable to distinguish what he saw from reality. When he came to, he was already in the car. The back seat was piled high with boxes and shopping bags, forcing Zeng Xiasheng to sit in the passenger seat. He figured those things were probably bought for him by Tang Sizhuo—clothes, shoes, or something else.
Tang Sizhuo's car was very clean and had a faint floral scent, perhaps from the car's fragrance or her shampoo. She looked a little nervous, starting the car without saying a word, then suddenly stopping.
"They said they wanted to set off firecrackers to ward off bad luck, but they can't set them off in the city. Let's find a place to set them off first."
She spoke calmly, going over it in her head several times, but she never looked at him. Zeng Xiasheng stared indifferently out the window, humming softly. Ten minutes later, Tang Sizhuo stopped at a wasteland further from the prison. It was the place she had checked on the map earlier, a place where fireworks could be set off.
She pulled a large string of firecrackers from the trunk, dragging it out in a long line, but she didn't dare to light them. Zeng Xiasheng sat in the car, watching Tang Sizhuo bite his lower lip, tilting his face, and tremblingly stretching his arm to light the fuse.
She used to be afraid of everything: the dark, ghosts, fire, and water. He just didn't know if she was just acting out the image in his memory or if she hadn't really changed.
Zeng Xiasheng opened the door and got out of the car.
"Let me do it."
He took the lighter, not caring about the scar revealed on his sleeves, and lit the firecrackers neatly, while pulling Tang Sizhu away.
The crackling sound startled a flock of birds, the rising smoke blurred the setting sun, and he felt a soft embrace in the noisy firelight.
Tang Sizhuo hugged him from behind.
"I miss you so much, but you don't even want to see me or reply to my letters."
She rested her forehead against his back, her words muffled and nasal.
Zeng Xiasheng did not move. After the firecrackers burned out, he gently patted Tang Sizhuo's hand on his waist, signaling her to let go.
"The firecrackers are over, let's go back."
Tang Sizhuo slowly loosened his fingers and sat back in the car, but Zeng Xiasheng did not move.
She rented a two-bedroom apartment in advance for this day. After discussing with the landlord, she strolled around the home furnishing market like a wife preparing for her wedding, picking out suitable wallpaper and curtains. She spent all her limited rest time tinkering with soft furnishings. She even had her eyes on the bay window and wanted to put a cat climbing frame there, even though she didn't have a cat yet.
However, she never thought that Zeng Xiasheng would not go back with her.
He stood in the lingering ashes of firecrackers and said, "I have somewhere to go, don't worry." His words were calm, as if he was addressing an old classmate with whom he had little connection.
Tang Sizhu rolled down the car window with a look of disbelief in her eyes. She unconsciously gripped the steering wheel, and the friction of the leather made an even more anxious sound.
"I bought something for you."
"Thank you." Zeng Xiasheng said, "Take it and return it. These firecrackers are enough for me."
Enough, enough for what? Enough for your ten years in prison?
In an instant, Tang Sizhuo's expression turned cold.
"Are we breaking up?" she asked.
Zeng Xiasheng looked at the setting sun that was gradually sinking into the valley in the distance, and asked her in a low voice, "Have we talked about this? I am the murderer of your father, right?" The sky gradually darkened, and the backlight cast a cold and hard outline around him.
Pain spread from her chest, stretching her temples until they hurt. She slowly inhaled and exhaled. A moment later, she leaned out the car window, pretending she hadn't heard anything. She forced a relaxed smile and asked, "Where are you going? I'll take you there."
Zeng Xiasheng stood there for a while, but finally gave up and got back into the car, feeling a bit cold. Tang Sizhuo didn't rush to drive. She took out a package from the back seat, which contained the latest Apple phone.
"At least take this, okay?"
In the dim light, her amber eyes even revealed a pleading look.
"I want to reach you," she said.
Zeng Xiasheng's Adam's apple moved, but he didn't respond. After a long silence, he took the package and put it on his lap.
Tang Sizhuo grew up in Jiangming City, a small city on the river. Although she went to Beijing to study and work for a few years, the old industrial city could no longer keep up with the pace of development. When she came back, everything still looked familiar.
Even so, she had never heard of where Zeng Xiasheng was going.
Following the navigation system, Tang Sizhuo finally turned into a cluster of low, dilapidated buildings. Her office was in a building three blocks away, considered the heart of the city. It was hard to imagine that just two or three kilometers away, there was this urban village that seemed to have been forgotten by time.
The alley is too narrow and the car can't drive in, so it can only be parked at the intersection.
Oil stains were spreading on the jagged cement floor. There were shops all around. Drunk men at the door of the stalls were shouting obscenities. In the distance, there was the ambiguous red light of a hair salon and the sound of quarreling coming from nowhere.
"Don't get off the car." Zeng Xiasheng said.
He opened the door and tried to get out of the car, but was grabbed by Tang Sizhuo.
"Do you live here?"
"A friend opened a shop here and asked me to come over."
Tang Sizhuo nodded subconsciously, but still held his sleeve. Zeng Xiasheng moved her hand away and suddenly smiled as he pushed open the door.
"Are you surprised? I've lived in places like this before."
Through the filmed glass, Tang Sizhuo saw a middle-aged man running out of the alley in the distance. He put his arm around Zeng Xiasheng's shoulder and pulled him into the shop. It should be some kind of repair shop, but the lights on the first two words were off, so he couldn't see clearly.
Tang Sizhuo sat in the car for half an hour, but Zeng Xiasheng never came out to see her.
Not even a glance.
It was almost ten o'clock when she got home. Tang Sizhuo moved all the things from the back seat of the car back home and threw them on the carefully selected fabric sofa. She didn't want to return them, and she had no one to give them to, so she just left them there for now.
The phone Zeng Xiasheng received had already been activated at the store, and a secondary SIM card had been inserted. She also bought two phones: a dark gray one for Zeng Xiasheng and a white one for herself. Zeng Xiasheng accepted them reluctantly, not even giving her a chance to show them the couple's phone.
After taking a shower, Tang Sizhuo lay on the bed. After thinking about it, he decided to send a text message to Zeng Xiasheng.
"I'm home now. Are you settled in?"
Zeng Xiasheng hadn't replied, which made Tang Sizhuo wonder if he hadn't even turned on his phone. She waited in bed, clutching her phone. Her eyelids felt heavy, and she didn't know when she'd fallen asleep with the lights on.
The next morning, she woke up from the cold. She had slept curled up in the corner of her bed without a blanket. Now she felt dizzy and her throat was dry and sore. Fortunately, she received a text message on her phone. It was from Zeng Xiasheng.
He sent it at 6:30 in the morning and only replied with four words.
"I'm fine, don't worry."
Tang Sizhuo sighed, threw his phone on the bed, got up, washed, changed into a dark blue long skirt with a waist, picked up his bag and went to work at the law firm.
Jiangming City's efforts to attract high-tech industries have been fruitless, and its economy has been declining year after year, leading to numerous disputes. The end of the year is the court's case closing season, and court sessions are packed. Tang Sizhuo, an elite lawyer returning from Beijing and the undisputed pillar of the team's practice, had already taken the entire day off yesterday. If he didn't go, his partners would be furious.
"Good morning, Lawyer Tang!"
Assistant Wang Yue greeted her with a smile. She had just graduated and started working in the summer, and was assigned to Tang Sizhuo's supervision. Tang Sizhuo responded and gave her one of the two breakfasts he had bought downstairs.
Wang Yue's undergraduate degree was considered low-tier; if she had been on Tang Sizhuo's previous team, her resume wouldn't have even made it past the initial screening. She vaguely heard that this person seemed to be a relative of one of the partners, having been offered the position with a friendly nod. Fortunately, the young woman was lively and down-to-earth, and currently mainly helped her with menial tasks, so she was quite useful.
"What are your plans for today?"
"In the morning, we will discuss the trial strategy for Liu Tong's loan contract dispute, and in the afternoon, we will negotiate Zhang Qiuran's divorce case."
Tang Sizhuo frowned. She hadn't slept well the previous night. This morning's incident was manageable, but the afternoon case had been deadlocked for over six months. Both sides refused to budge on the division of property, leaving both lawyers exhausted and frustrated. Tang Sizhuo had never gotten involved in family disputes before, but the legal environment in small cities was such that even Jiangming City's best litigation team couldn't afford to be picky.
"Oh, there's one more thing." Wang Yue said, "A woman called you around nine this morning. The front desk answered the phone. I told her you were out on business today and asked her to call back tomorrow morning."
"Did you tell me what it was?"
"No. But it sounds a bit anxious."
"What's your name?"
"He didn't say anything, just that he would come back again."
Tang Sizhuo nodded. "Go and do your thing. Print out the summary of the last negotiation and give it to me. Come with me this afternoon."
The negotiations unfolded in the most unexpected way.
Jiangming City has no purchase restrictions. A couple had been married for several years and had purchased several downtown storefronts, earning a considerable income from their rental income. The woman wanted half, but the man refused, agreeing only to give her two apartments. While the valuations were similar, young people with even a modest ambition in Jiangming were leaving. While the storefronts might hold up for a few more years, the apartments would only depreciate.
As usual, the two began arguing over the division of property and escalated into trivial disagreements. Tang Sizhuo completely lost interest in interjecting, and sat there, lost in thought, reading the documents. They also had a daughter in kindergarten. The man said his parents only wanted a grandchild and didn't want one at all. However, the woman didn't want to be burdened by him and was still thinking about getting a divorce and finding another partner.
Tang Sizhuo rubbed his fingertips, mentally reviewing the past few negotiations. Whenever he mentioned his husband's frequent business trips and his inability to attend to the family, his instinctive reaction wasn't to emphasize his contribution to the family's financial well-being. Instead, he evaded the issue by arguing that he treated his wife and daughter well. This didn't seem like the proper response for a man with such a significant financial disparity with his wife. Tang Sizhuo glanced at the time. It was almost six o'clock, so he coughed softly, signaling that they could call it a day.
"Mr. Liu, we've already provided you with the most fair and reasonable property distribution proposal. If you insist on refusing, you'll have no choice but to file for divorce. Not only will this take a long time, it may also affect your future plans, and..." Tang Sizhuo said calmly, his demeanor composed. "If it comes to that, the intensity of our evidence collection will be much different than it is now. We'll also more carefully determine whether you were at fault during the marriage. If so, everything will be written down in black and white in the judgment."
The man's face was gloomy and he glared at her, "Are you threatening me?"
Tang Sizhuo shook his head and smiled, "I dare not. The court will fully protect your rights to cross-examination and defense. No one can threaten you."
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