Chapter 51: The Girl with Difficulties in Love
Spring hastily departed with a few rainy farewells. In June, the days drag on, and middle-aged men and women, already sleepless over divorces, have even less time to harass lawyers.
Li Yingxuan opened his eyes at the sound of the alarm and was shocked to find that there were more than 30 unread message reminders on his phone. The messages were sent at around 4:00 a.m. last night.
[AAA Qiangge Auto Repair] Lawyer Li, my marriage is a scam!
More than thirty 60-second voice messages follow. 60 seconds is the limit for chat software, not for Brother Qiang.
Li Yingxuan nearly fainted, not having the courage to click on it. He decided to leave Brother Qiang alone and deal with his opponent's demands at the law firm.
He went downstairs to get the car and received new news from the person involved.
[Ruirui's mom] Lawyer Li, here's the child support I calculated. It's about 70,000 yuan per month. If my ex-husband doesn't pay, we, a widow and an orphan, will be left to sleep on the streets. Lawyer Li, you must help us seek justice with the judge.
[Li Yingxuan] Okay, Ms. Zhang. I took a quick look at the child support list. Ruirui's monthly English opera lessons cost 12,000 yuan, his tennis lessons cost 8,000 yuan, and he's also taking 5,000 yuan worth of calcium supplements. Also, is that 25,000 yuan LV handbag I bought last March also for the child? And what about the 30,000 yuan annual pass to a Korean spa? I suggest you assess the risks; the court might not support such a high child support amount.
Traffic was stuck in the East Third Ring Road during the morning rush hour when Meng Weishen called.
According to the client profile drawn up by the lawyer, Meng Weishen has a very poor sense of risk and even less common knowledge of marriage law. His strengths are that he is polite, calm, and quick to pay.
Considering the advantage of "quick payment", Li Yingxuan did not play dead, he pressed the hands-free button.
Meng Weishen greeted him politely: "Good morning, Lawyer Li, are you at work now? I want to consult you about a divorce."
Divorce, another divorce. Li Yingxuan was used to the mess after a relationship broke down. He said numbly, "Tell me. Did you cheat and fail to take proper precautions, causing the mistress to get pregnant, or does your male wife actually owe millions in gambling debts?"
“Neither.”
"Could it be that someone concealed an infectious disease before marriage?"
"You're getting more and more ridiculous," the other person laughed. "I was wondering how I can cancel our prenuptial agreement?"
The divorce lawyer had never heard of such a request before and was stunned: "Dissolve the prenuptial agreement? Why?"
"Before I got married, I really just wanted to find a random man to piss off my mom. But things have changed. My mom actually accepted my sexual orientation, and Jiang Ranxu and I have developed a real relationship. I think we are a good match and will definitely be together for a long time. I don't want to get divorced in half a year."
Li Yingxuan understood. Meng Weishen had fallen deeply in love; no wonder he was so confused and lost all reason. Sadly, he'd seen too many precedents with his divorce clients: clients who had promised to go through fire and water for their partner during the honeymoon phase only to find themselves unwilling to admit their foolish words when the divorce was final.
He advises: "No matter when you divorce, you can keep the agreement. It also contains provisions regarding the separation of property and debts, which you will need sooner or later. You have to leave yourself a way out."
"Not anymore. The divorce deadline is in a few months, and Jiang Ranxu said he feels very insecure."
Meng Weishen was obviously very unconscious.
Li Yingxuan thought he should listen to Brother Qiang's 60-second voice message. At least Brother Qiang had become much more clear-headed after being deceived by a woman, and would never trust an insecure (male) wife.
The car parked on the second floor below ground in the office building. The elevator was packed with urban elites rushing to clock in for work. Li Yingxuan was pushed forward by the crowd. The iced coffee in the hand of a stranger beside him stabbed his arm, and a flicker of doubt crossed his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.
This guy happened to meet his dentist on a blind date. He happened to be a kind-hearted gay man. The two of them just happened to be in love. They fell in love with each other within half a year of the contract marriage...
Although love is based on fate, is there really such a coincidence in the world?
With years of experience in handling cases, Li Yingxuan believed that there was something fishy going on in this marriage. The first thing he did when he arrived at the office was to call an old friend.
The other party's original mobile phone number had already blacklisted him. But the other party registered a lot of new numbers to expand his matchmaking business. He tried them one by one, and sure enough, there were numbers that failed to blacklist him in time.
"Hello, madam, it's me," Li Yingxuan greeted calmly. "What kind of pimp are you? What kind of drug did your old cronies give my client? I reasonably suspect you're colluding to defraud my client. Tell me, are you trying to get her money or her sex?"
——
"None of my business. Don't try to get information from me. I know nothing. Goodbye, I'm blocked."
Asher hung up the phone and blocked the other party's number on all eight phones.
"How many times a day do you have to go through your chat history with straight guys? You can recite the entire thing by heart, right?" He glanced at Jiang Ranxu across the bar and warned, "Be careful what you say and do. The lawyers are targeting you."
Passionate love obliterates rationality, and a sense of security obliterates vigilance. Jiang Ranxu clearly didn't take his warning to heart, a smile still lingering in the corner of his eyes as he praised him, "It's okay, I can trust your confidentiality."
"Then would you consider giving me some compensation? At least the other party can charge legal fees, and I haven't received a penny of referral fee so far."
"You still want a referral fee? I should be the one asking you for compensation. It's all your fault. If it weren't for disgusting you, would the lawyer be so arrogant? If there weren't lawyers, we would have been together a long time ago."
Anyone who wants to become a close friend of this well-versed lecturer on human nature must develop strong anti-PUA skills. Asher nearly surrendered on the spot: "Why are you blaming me? What kind of substantial impact did the lawyer have on you? I heard that straight men never listen to lawyers' advice, which is really infuriating."
"Yeah, some people just get off the phone with their lawyer and then turn their elbows. I want to tell the lawyer that you actually love him to death, but you just won't admit it."
"Fuck, I'm going to throw up my lunch, get out of here!"
Jiang Ranxu was not angry, still chuckled, and leisurely rolled away from the bar.
It was a weekday morning, and the bar was empty. The other person randomly chose a seat by the window and said, "By the way, boss, I want a glass of Difficult Girl in Love."
Love Difficult Girl, a pink sparkling drink made from grapefruit cranberry juice and soda water, is non-alcoholic and priced at a noble price of fifty-eight yuan.
Asher was particularly uncomfortable: "At the end of last year, there was an alcoholic named Jiang who said that anyone who ordered a non-alcoholic drink at a bar was an idiot."
"I never said that." Jiang Ranxu denied it. "Drinking is unhealthy and damages my image. I've been planning to quit drinking for a long time."
Damaging her image… Asher felt a chill run down his spine. He couldn't imagine what kind of image Jiang Ranxu had created in front of straight men. It was probably a combination of wisdom, beauty, elegance, tenderness, and fragile emotions, like a fairy from the Nine Heavens descending to earth. It was truly absurd.
He poured lemon soda into the glass, and the fine bubbles lifted the grapefruit juice to the top of the glass, forming a pink cloud. It was a color perfect for summer and love.
Asher went to deliver the drinks and saw Jiang Ranxu still busy with his phone screen, and he couldn't help but feel a little curious.
Jiang Ranxu stopped studying his chat history with the straight man and instead started playing a very stupid cultivation game. Users had to swipe around in a shopping app, completing various livestreaming tasks to accumulate coins, which could be exchanged for farm animals, and animal by-products could be exchanged for real vouchers and gifts...
Jiang Ranxu patiently clicked on one live-streaming sales room after another, just to redeem a limited-time colorful hen.
Asher was deeply shocked.
He suspected that Jiang Ranxu, who was madly in love, had been possessed by something. "Are you crazy? Even my eighty-year-old grandmother wouldn't fall for this kind of trick that makes users waste a lot of time to get a small advantage."
"This is a new feature developed by Weiwei's team. Let me try it out first."
"Weiwei? Soy milk company?"
Jiang Ranxu didn't explain, but just gave him a light look, letting him understand it on his own.
Asher was horrified: "That's disgusting. You're a fucking bastard, and you're still calling me by my nickname."
The other party was not ashamed, but rather quite complacent: "This is disgusting, there are even more disgusting things."
Asher had already guessed what the other person was yelling about, and he tried to stop them. "Stop, stop, stop! I really need to ask you for compensation for emotional distress! The IPO project you introduced before we got married has completely fizzled out. It doesn't count. You have to pay me something else."
Jiang Ranxu seemed to have been prepared and readily agreed to his request:
"Sure. We'll appear for free and help you shoot a blind date promotional video. Later, you can post the finished video on your major social media accounts, which is guaranteed to attract more traffic."
Asher thought it made sense at the time. Even good-looking people could get attention just by posting a couple of selfies, let alone being in a relationship. His dating account needed attention, too; attention brought income.
He agreed, but the more he thought about it after returning, the more he regretted it.
What do you mean by helping him attract customers? The other party obviously wants to announce their relationship to the world. Shooting a promotional video is much more effective than holding a wedding!
He had foolishly prepared the filming equipment and the script, and let Jiang Ranxu take advantage of him. It was really hard, my dick was hard.
Jiang Ranxu was extremely efficient in fraud. That weekend, he brought Meng Weishen to the bar.
Jiang Ranxu ordered a cup of Longjing fresh beer for the other party and ordered a glass of Love Difficult Girl for himself.
Asher adjusted the stand to ensure both of them were centered in the frame. "Are you two ready? Let's start filming. Thanks for filming the promotional video for free. Today we'll just record a brief interview. Just answer my questions."
Meng Wei's dark-dyed hair had almost faded, but he still subconsciously wanted to touch it. He nervously asked, "Teacher A, is there a script I can recite? I'm afraid I'll say something wrong."
"Of course there's no script. All we want is your genuine reaction," Asher said. "It's okay. If you stumble over something or get stuck, I'll edit it out for you in post-production."
Jiang Ranxu took the other's wrist and, to show his comfort, rubbed the ring on his ring finger. Meng Weishen finally sat up straight.
Asher: "Please listen to the question: Who was the first to fall in love?"
Meng Weishen: "Me."
Asher: "Who took the initiative to pursue whom?"
Meng Weishen: "Me."
Asher: "Then who proposed first?"
Meng Weishen: "It should be me, right?"
The instigator managed his expression very well. After listening to Meng Weishen's answers, he was still able to maintain a dignified and reserved smile.
Asher's temples throbbed with pain. He took a deep breath and, despite himself, gave a compliment: "I heard Wesley used to be straight and had never dated a man. Wesley, you're truly the most romantic straight man I've ever met. One last question: I'm curious why you fell in love with each other back then. Can you share your reasons?"
Meng Weishen finally hit a snag. He pondered for a moment, then answered earnestly, "Well... Jiang Ranxu is perfect. Anyone can't help but like him, right? Except for some tasteless gay men. He's incredibly charming at work, very responsible to every patient, and has received a whole wall of banners. He's also very caring and gentle to me in real life, always praising me. Plus, we always find common ground. Anyway... ah, there are so many reasons."
Jiang Ranxu still pretended to be calm and nonchalant: "Do I need a reason to like someone? I don't need a reason to like someone. A moment of affection is enough."
Asher felt like he was going to have a work-related injury.
He really wanted to play rock-paper-scissors with Jiang Ranxu, and he would keep throwing punches until Jiang Ranxu could no longer pretend and admitted that everything was his plan.
But he also accepted his identity in Jiang Ranxu's script, that of an investment bank elite and a winner in life. He had to maintain his elite image and not be too uncultured.
Even though he was very angry, he only dared to make a louder noise with his equipment. "Next time, the topic of the interview will be gift exchange. You two can prepare in advance. The other two can also record some interesting daily life after marriage. I will also consider editing it into the film."
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