39 Jin Lang, I like you
Liu Yuwei turned around and it turned out to be Jiang Fan whom she had just met not long ago. Her long hair was tied up, and she wore a pair of gold-rimmed half-frame glasses on her face. She looked capable and upright against the backdrop of a smoky gray suit, and was completely different from the image of a gentle mother in the park that day. Next to Jiang Fan was a short man wearing an "adadis" down jacket. His brand new black suit pants still had the pleats on them, but his sneakers were covered in dust. "Senior sister, why are you here too? I'm here to listen to a labor lawsuit, but it seems I need the judge's consent." "What a coincidence, my court should be the only one this afternoon. I'll go tell Judge Zhang, he's also our schoolmate, so it should be no problem. Wait for me!" Jiang Fan took the client into the door first, and came out to pick her up a few minutes later. As the two walked side by side to the courtroom, Liu Yuwei couldn't help but ask, "Sister, aren't you in Junda's Dispute Resolution Department? How did you end up representing a labor lawsuit?" "I'm a part-time legal aid lawyer at the Haifeng District Court. I occasionally do pro bono work when my time permits." Liu Yuwei paused, her steps filled with admiration. "Sister, you're amazing! Do you have time to get together for dinner after the trial?" She hadn't expected a busy, overworked red-circle litigation lawyer to find time for legal aid. She was truly filled with questions. "Great, let's celebrate our victory later!" Jiang Fan beamed, his expression a triumphant victory. Moments after Liu Yuwei sat down in the back row, the judge entered. This was a wage dispute, and the plaintiff was a migrant worker at a suburban renovation company. The dispute wasn't complex, but it wasn't simple either. It wasn't complex because the migrant worker did have a contract with the company. While it wasn't formal, it at least didn't involve a labor dispute. In today's rapidly developing Internet environment, many decoration teams are private businesses. Although they have shell companies to sign contracts with external parties, when they actually hire workers, most of them only have verbal agreements. Once they suffer work-related injuries or unpaid wages, many people find it difficult to even get through the labor relations arbitration. The situation of the plaintiff in this case is slightly luckier than this. It is said to be difficult because although the court accepted this civil dispute, the plaintiff lacked key evidence such as the wage IOUs or salary statements issued by the decoration company. Fortunately, the plaintiff had two "powerful weapons" in his hands - chat records and a diary. Even though the decoration owner group was disbanded afterwards, the bricklayer carefully kept some chat screenshots. In addition, he...
Liu Yuwei turned around and saw Jiang Fan, whom she had just met not long ago.
Her long hair was tied up, and she wore a pair of gold-rimmed half-frame glasses on her face. She looked capable and upright against the backdrop of her smoky gray suit, completely different from the image of the gentle mother in the park that day.
Jiang Fan was followed by a short man wearing an "Adadis" down jacket. His brand new black suit pants still had the pleats, but his pair of sneakers were covered in dust.
"Senior Sister, why are you here too? I'm here to sit in on a labor lawsuit, but it seems I need the judge's approval."
"What a coincidence! I think my courtroom will be the only one this afternoon. I'll go talk to Judge Zhang. He's also an alumnus of ours, so it shouldn't be a problem. Wait a minute!"
Jiang Fan took the person involved into the house first, and came out to pick her up a few minutes later.
As the two walked side by side to the courtroom, Liu Yuwei couldn't help but ask, "Senior Sister, aren't you in Junda's Dispute Resolution Department? How did you end up representing someone in a labor lawsuit?"
"I'm a part-time legal aid lawyer at the Haifeng District Court. I occasionally do some public service work when time permits."
Liu Yuwei stopped and said with admiration, "Senior Sister, you are amazing! Do you have time to have dinner together after the trial?"
She didn't expect that the busy red-circle litigation lawyer could actually squeeze out time to provide legal aid. She really had a lot of questions.
"Okay, let's go celebrate our victory later!"
Jiang Fan smiled, looking confident of victory.
Not long after Liu Yuwei sat down in the back row, the judge walked in.
This is a wage claim case. The plaintiff is a worker working in a decoration company in the suburbs.
This dispute isn't complicated, but it's not simple either. It's not complicated because the migrant worker did sign a contract with the company, and while it wasn't formal, it at least didn't involve a labor dispute.
In the current environment of rapid development of Internet platforms, many decoration teams are private businesses. Although they have shell companies to sign contracts with external parties, when they actually hire workers, most of them only sign verbal agreements.
Many people struggle to even get through labor arbitration after suffering a work-related injury or unpaid wages. However, the plaintiff in this case was slightly more fortunate.
The difficulty lies in the fact that although the court accepted the civil dispute, the plaintiff lacked key evidence such as the wage IOU or salary statement issued by the decoration company.
Fortunately, the plaintiff had two powerful weapons in his hands: chat logs and a diary. Even though the renovation owner group was disbanded afterwards, the bricklayer carefully preserved some of the chat screenshots.
In addition, his "work diary", which was jokingly called "private chronicle" by his coworkers, recorded the daily working hours and specific work content in detail, becoming the most helpful aid in his rights protection.
The judge ultimately supported the plaintiff's claim based on the evidence.
When the verdict was announced, the elder brother's eyes were red with excitement. He held Jiang Fan's hand tightly and insisted on treating her to a meal to express his gratitude.
Liu Yuwei stepped forward in time and said that the two of them had other work arrangements later, which helped Jiang Fan out of the predicament.
After leaving the court gate, it was the best time when the sunlight was soft and not dazzling. Jiang Fan and Liu Yuwei hit it off and decided to go back to school for a walk.
After so many years of graduation, the school has changed dramatically. The sun shines through the bare branches, casting a golden shadow on the ground, but the scene before me is very different from what I remember.
The Renxin Building, which was once covered with layers of dense ivy in the summer, has long disappeared, replaced by a postmodern glass building.
It's said that when Renxin Building was demolished, the school held a brick donation event as a special gift to alumni. Later, someone in a WeChat group shared a photo of a red brick next to a computer, with a note on it reading, "Move the bricks well."
After walking around the playground, they arrived at the girls' dormitory. Liu Yuwei and Jiang Fan enthusiastically discussed the legal aid case as they walked, taking their time, enjoying the leisurely pace.
This girls' dormitory area is nicknamed the Plum Garden, Orchid Garden, Bamboo Garden and Chrysanthemum Garden because of the different plants planted at the entrance of each building.
At this time, a large group of students gathered at the entrance of Meiyuan. Liu Yuwei's curiosity was instantly ignited, and he pulled Jiang Fan into the crowd.
After struggling to squeeze to the front row, he discovered a meticulously prepared confession scene, complete with roses, balloons, and a young man in full attire. He kept glancing toward the dormitory entrance, clearly waiting for his heroine to arrive. The students around him whispered to each other, their faces filled with envy and well wishes.
"Sister, let's go for a walk over to Mirror Lake!" Liu Yuwei suggested. She looked at the scene in front of her and suddenly felt an inexplicable melancholy in her heart.
"Don't you want to continue to join in the fun?" Jiang Fan asked back, with a hint of anticipation in his eyes.
"Forget it, passionate love only belongs to young people!"
She stuck out her tongue, and the smile on her lips seemed to hide her helplessness about the loss of her youth.
After walking a few steps, I heard whistles and shouts from the crowd behind me, obviously the heroine was in place.
Jiang Fan suddenly stopped and looked back. After a moment, he turned around and grabbed Liu Yuwei's arm, feeling a little excited.
"Yu Wei, you lived in Plum Garden at that time, right?"
Before she got a reply, she continued excitedly, "I remember the day we took our graduation photos, someone seemed to have put up a banner and roses at the foot of the dormitory building to confess their love for you! It's a pity that when I came back, there were only petals on the ground!"
There was a hint of regret in Jiang Fan's tone, and then he started to tease.
"No wonder you didn't bother to join in the fun just now. It turns out you've already experienced the feeling of being the center of attention!"
"Hey, I later heard from other schoolmates that you found a boyfriend, but it seems he's not the one who sent you flowers?"
After being a lawyer for a long time, usually when encountering problems, even if there are turbulent waves in their hearts, they can appear calm on the surface.
Jiang Fan looked so excited and chattering that he didn't look like a top lawyer who had just won a case. Instead, he looked more like a college student chasing after his roommate to discuss gossip.
Liu Yuwei also followed her words, and her thoughts suddenly drifted back to the sunny and romantic summer more than ten years ago.
…
During graduation season, the air on campus is filled with a complex atmosphere. As night falls and the lights come on, food stalls fill with students dining together. One group celebrates graduation with a happy drink, then moves to a karaoke bar, where they embrace each other in the darkness and cry bitterly over their separation.
As the backbone of the Law School Student Union, Liu Yuwei organized a warm and grand farewell party in accordance with the custom of welcoming the new and seeing off the old.
After the meeting, everyone understood that eating and singing were essential. Only in this way could the graduation season carnival be considered complete.
Inside the KTV's large private room, lights flickered and music blared. In the latter half, after singing lost its appeal, the crowd turned to games, with Truth or Dare becoming their preferred post-drinking game.
The first time the bottle went to Liu Yuwei, she chose to tell the truth. An older student couldn't wait to ask: When was the last time you kissed?
Liu Yuwei answered truthfully, no...
As soon as she said this, everyone started to jeer and expressed their disbelief. To prove herself, she picked up the wine glass and drank it all.
When the God of Destiny chose Liu Yuwei for the second time, everyone clamored that they could only choose the big adventure. The atmosphere was so tense that she was not the kind of person to spoil the fun, so she nodded in agreement.
After much discussion, they finally decided to let Liu Yuwei call the first boy in the call log to confess her love. Some busybodies even "kindly" helped her select some classic confession quotes from movies.
In the afternoon, Jin Lang called her and said that there would be an international green building conference in northern Beijing in a few days. He would go to the conference with his teacher to study, and after he was done, he would ask her to visit famous Chinese universities.
She didn't expect that a drunken adventure would turn into a real adventure.
The overhead lights continued to flicker and shimmer, casting a multicolored light on everyone's faces, creating a dreamy and hazy atmosphere. The noisy box fell silent, and everyone held their breath.
Liu Yuwei picked up the phone and turned on the speaker.
“Beep, beep…”
Every sound seemed to be knocking on her heart.
Just as everyone was about to lose their patience, a clear male voice was heard.
"Hey, Xiaoyu!"
Upon hearing such an intimate name, everyone's eyes lit up and excitement immediately set in. One girl even covered the mouth of the person next to her who was about to scream, fearing that it would disrupt the fun.
"Why aren't you talking?" the person on the other end of the phone asked.
Liu Yuwei's face had long been dyed red by the alcohol. Although it was not clear under the dim light, she could clearly feel her skin burning, as if it was being roasted by fire.
"Um...I have something to tell you..."
She tried to make her voice sound calm, but her trembling tone still revealed her inner tension.
My heart was pounding, the vibration was transmitted to my fingertips, and I almost dropped the phone.
"Wait a minute..."
The noisy voices in the background gradually faded away.
"I'm in the hallway now. It's a bit noisy in the dorm. Go ahead and talk!"
Jin Lang's voice came clearly, as if he was right next to him.
The classmate next to Liu Yuwei held up her phone screen, which displayed a few lines of excerpted dialogue. She was very familiar with one of them, having recently rewatched the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice.
She looked up and saw that everyone around her was urging her with silent mouth shapes. She tried hard to suppress her unreasonable nervousness, made up her mind, and took a deep breath.
"Jin Lang, I like you!"
After saying that, she quickly grabbed another phone and read it all in one breath. Her heart was beating like thunder, as if it was about to burst through her chest.
"I tried desperately to control myself, but it was no use. I can no longer suppress my feelings for you. Please let me tell you how much I love you." From "Pride and Prejudice"
"You know, from the day I met you, every step I took was to get closer to you." From "Memoirs of a Geisha"
“To me, you are perfect!” from Love Actually
There was a long silence, and everyone present, including Liu Yuwei, was waiting for the other party's response.
Some people shook their wine glasses with smiles on their faces, as if they were watching a wonderful drama.
Some people start a game with burning eyes and sincerity, just like a heroine immersed in the performance on the stage.
"Where are you now?"
"Why don't you speak?"
The two voices sounded almost at the same time, their words intertwined, but then they fell silent again.
Just as I was holding my breath, there was a "bang" and the heavy door of the KTV was pushed open. The howling singing of ghosts, foxes and wolves outside immediately slipped in from the crack of the door.
"Come, come, come... Ouch... Why don't you recognize me?"
"Just say you're drunk, and I'm telling you it's not this way!"
"Sorry...I came to the wrong room...I'm bothering you!"
As the apology was sounded, the door slowly closed again, and the little episode interrupted the originally tense and exciting atmosphere.
"Liu Yuwei, have you been drinking? Are you playing games?"
As soon as Jin Lang said this, everyone was immediately deflated.
“Eh…”
"Why…"
“Boring…boring!”
Seeing that everyone was no longer focusing on him, Liu Yuwei picked up his phone, turned off the speaker, and pretended to be relaxed.
"Yeah, you found out. It was just a joke, don't take it seriously!"
"Well, I'm going to hang up first. Everyone is still waiting for me to pick on the next unlucky guy!"
Without giving the other party any chance to speak, she hung up the phone in a hurry.
His hand subconsciously touched his chest, and the ups and downs of his heart were even more intense than when he just "confessed".
Spin the bottle again and the game enters the next round.
Everyone's attention shifted. Liu Yuwei leaned limply against the back of the sofa, as if his bones had been pulled out. The chattering in his ears seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier.
The uneasiness and nervousness she had felt during the call just now had receded like the tide, replaced by unspeakable disappointment and embarrassment, which weighed on her heart like a heavy stone.
Love is a game. Whether it is true or false depends entirely on your own perception.
Perhaps, whoever takes it seriously first will lose.
The next day, Jin Lang sent her a message as usual, asking her if she had drunk too much yesterday.
Liu Yuwei looked at the words on the phone screen, her fingers hovered on the keyboard for a long time, and after repeated consideration, she replied, no, she inherited Yuyao's gene of being able to drink a thousand cups without getting drunk.
Both of them tacitly chose to avoid talking about that "game", as if nothing had happened and nothing had changed.
Liu Yuwei comforted himself in a free and easy manner.
In fact, it’s nice to be friends forever.
Being too greedy will only lead to failure.
Until a few days later, she unexpectedly became the "heroine" of the story...
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