Zhang Xingchuan hadn’t set an exact date with Lawyer Hua. Tan Xiao was the actual client, after all. Zhang needed to go back, align all the details with him, and find out what he wanted.
Lawyer Hua understood. She no longer thought this young alumnus in his thirties had been wasting her time.
The value of the case and the fees she could earn had become almost beside the point. In nearly thirty years of practice, she’d represented people on the Forbes rich list and become financially independent herself. But the Doria family operated on an entirely different scale, at an entirely different table.
If she handled it successfully, this wasn’t merely a payday. An unwritten rule of the legal profession was that the level of the cases you’d handled determined what level of lawyer you were. Having a seven-hundred-billion-yuan trust matter on her résumé could carry her into a whole new professional class.
She sincerely thanked the alumnus who had made the introduction. Even at an age when one was supposed to understand one’s destiny, she could use a thrill like this.
After work that evening, Zhang messaged Tan Xiao: What are you doing? Convenient to take a call?
Tan Xiao replied: Playing with your dad.
Zhang misunderstood: Don’t use filthy language.
Tan Xiao: I mean your actual father.
He sent a photo. He and Old Zhang were taking a selfie, and Old Zhang held up an awkward peace sign.
“…” Zhang’s vision went black. Someone had raided his home base while he was away!
When he got home, Tan Xiao was chatting with his parents. Something amusing came up, and Tan Xiao and Ms. Jiang burst into laughter. Even Old Zhang smiled, though rather more reservedly.
The moment Zhang walked in, Old Zhang made his face stern again.
Ms. Jiang rose. Zhang hugged her, and they exchanged a few simple greetings.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Ms. Jiang asked with a smile.
Zhang thought helplessly, You’ve been chatting this happily, and you don’t know who he is?
Tan Xiao was feeling a little awkward too.
He hadn’t introduced himself, because he didn’t know quite how to describe his position.
Zhang’s parents hadn’t asked who he was, because they weren’t sure how to ask.
The two sides maintained this delicate equilibrium while exchanging a great deal of other information.
For example, Tan Xiao’s age, the fact he was from Zhejiang, that he’d graduated this year and was preparing for a postdoc, that his parents were divorced, that his mother and stepfather worked at Customs in a port city, and that he hadn’t seen his foreign father in seven or eight years.
They’d also discussed WenCheng’s recent crisis when an upstream hotel group cut off supply. Zhang’s parents had followed the news abroad. They couldn’t help, and knew coming back would only add to his burdens, but had checked in many times by phone and message. Although Zhang was the kind of person who shared good news and hid the bad, they could make their own judgments and knew the crisis had only substantially eased quite recently.
That was part of why they’d decided to return now: to see their son and, incidentally, find out what this mysterious young man was all about.
Ms. Jiang looked both excited and nervous. “Come on. Give us a proper introduction.”
Proper? Fine. Zhang said, “This is Tan Xiao. He’s my wife.”
Ms. Jiang kept smiling, while a tsunami and earthquake struck behind her eyes.
Old Zhang remained sitting, though spiritually he’d departed some time ago.
Tan Xiao was startled too. His face went scarlet. He’d expected Zhang to take a more roundabout approach.
He looked at Ms. Jiang, then Old Zhang, then finally Zhang.
Zhang looked back, smiling with his eyes.
He’d changed his mind. Being direct was exactly right.
“That’s how it is,” Tan Xiao said, formally introducing himself again. “I’m Zhang Xingchuan’s wife.”
That evening, Zhang spent a long time talking with his parents upstairs.
To his surprise, seeing Old Zhang again didn’t result in their usual pointless arguments.
His performance during WenCheng’s struggle against the overseas hotel group had earned his father’s respect. The old man’s remarks even carried a sense of pride. In short, the old fellow had finally conceded.
As for Zhang’s love life, Old Zhang didn’t want to comment. He couldn’t understand it, but in recognition of his son’s contribution to resisting wicked foreign capital, he managed a grudging respect and didn’t interfere.
Ms. Jiang, however, had concerns.
She and Old Zhang both had a good impression of Tan Xiao. His exceptional looks and academic credentials aside, he was plainly a sensible, reliable young man. As for Zhang dating someone of the same sex, she’d had a full eight months to prepare herself psychologically and could accept it.
She was more concerned by the age difference. “I’m really worried. In a few years, he’ll break your heart.”
Zhang was ready to protest. “When I started a company, Dad said it would go bankrupt in a few years. Now that I’ve finally found my lifelong partner, you’re predicting I’ll get dumped. Can’t you learn anything good from your husband?”
“What’s that got to do with me?” Old Zhang now genuinely hoped WenCheng would grow ever stronger and become the world’s leading travel-service platform. “Was it also your idea for your wife to push me into a pile of manure the first time we met?”
Zhang hadn’t heard that story. Ms. Jiang explained the whole affair, and Zhang burst into thunderous laughter.
After getting his parents settled for the night, he looked upstairs and downstairs and discovered Tan Xiao wasn’t home. His bicycle was gone too.
Had Zhang spent too long talking with his parents, neglected the kid, and upset him enough to leave?
He began hunting for his phone so he could call Tan Xiao.
“Don’t worry,” the housekeeper told him. “He went back to his place. He was perfectly cheerful when he left. He definitely wasn’t angry.”
Zhang thanked her, thought for a moment, changed into his running shoes, and went out.
Dinner had been rather awkward, and Tan Xiao hadn’t eaten much. Back at his own place, he played a game for a while, got hungry again, and ordered McDonald’s. He was waiting for the delivery.
He hadn’t returned to avoid anyone. He thought Zhang’s parents liked him, but they still didn’t know how to be around him. Better to give them some time and space.
His doorbell rang. He tossed his phone aside and went to collect the McDonald’s.
The delivery system in this complex worked like this: the courier handed food over at reception, and the property staff arranged to bring it upstairs. Usually they rang the bell and left the order on a cabinet outside the door, without meeting the resident.
But when Tan Xiao opened the door, there was a man holding his McDonald’s.
“Eating junk food again,” Zhang said. He’d met the property-management ‘NPC’ downstairs on their way up and taken over the delivery.
“There’s meat, vegetables, and carbohydrates. What’s junk about it?”
He took the bag, turned, and walked inside without paying Zhang any attention. Zhang followed him in and shut the door.
Tan Xiao opened the bag at the table, took out his burger, and bit into it while standing.
Zhang hugged him from behind. Tan Xiao turned to look. With his large eyes and small face, and one cheek bulging with food, he was so cute that Zhang kissed the swollen cheek.
Tan Xiao swallowed and laughed. “Why are you kissing a Filet-O-Fish? Is a Filet-O-Fish nice to kiss?”
What an infuriating kid. Zhang stopped hugging him and sat down on the sofa. Tan Xiao followed and sat sideways on his lap.
Zhang was about to speak when Tan Xiao anticipated him. “You didn’t say I could sit here? Well, I’m sitting here anyway. Any objections?”
“None,” Zhang said. “These legs of mine grew for the sole purpose of giving you somewhere to sit.”
Tan Xiao shook with laughter. He could feel how warm Zhang’s body was. “Did you run here?”
Zhang hugged him again. “It’s so close, it’s hardly worth driving. I should buy a bicycle too.”
“I’ll buy one for you. The same as mine. One last opportunity to fleece the Doria family.”
That gave Zhang a natural opening. “I got in touch with a very good offshore lawyer today.”
He told Tan Xiao about his consultation with Lawyer Hua and her desire to meet in person.
“I’m free these days. Any day is fine,” Tan Xiao said. “If it’s inconvenient for her, I can go to Hong Kong.”
But Zhang couldn’t get away that week, and he felt uneasy about Tan Xiao going to Hong Kong alone to meet a lawyer.
“Let’s ask her to come here,” he said. “For this case, even flying to the North Pole would feel worthwhile to her, let alone Beijing.”
“How much am I going to pay her?”
“Probably a few hundred thousand to a million Hong Kong dollars. It shouldn’t be that high.”
“That’s not high?” Tan Xiao said. “On my own merits I can only earn three hundred thousand a year.”
Zhang was rendered speechless.
“Once I’m out, I won’t get the family dividends anymore, and I’ll earn so little. President Fu’s prediction is about to come true. Pretty but impoverished me will become a gold digger and have to be supported by my CEO husband.”
Of course Zhang supporting him wasn’t really a possibility. Tan Xiao’s personal assets were already astronomical. Whatever he eventually did with them, the returns from those investments alone would keep him well beyond needing Zhang to support him.
He was simply teasing his poor husband to make him happy.
Zhang exclaimed in horror, “What? So it really was a pig-butchering scam!”
Tan Xiao laughed and stroked his face. “How did your talk with your parents go? Did your dad give you a good beating for being such an unfilial son?”
“My dad doesn’t watch short dramas,” Zhang replied. He hadn’t acquired that miraculous ability to slap someone at any moment.
“Did he scold you?”
“No. My parents praised you from head to toe. Said you’re wonderful in every respect and that I’m the one marrying above my station.”
Tan Xiao knew that account had to be embellished, but he enjoyed hearing it.
“Well, that’s not quite right,” he said. “I am wonderful, but you’re pretty good too.”
“Only pretty good?”
“Other people see you as pretty good. With me, you’re my perfect match.”
He sipped his Coke through a straw, knowing Zhang wanted to kiss him and deliberately taking his time finishing his junk food.
“Are you going home later?” he asked.
“I haven’t even asked you yet,” Zhang said. “Why did you come back here? Want me to act out the husband-chasing-after-his-wife trope?”
“What else was I supposed to do? Stay at your place and have my way with you, so your parents can’t sleep tonight?”
“Fair point,” Zhang said. “Then I’ll come over and let you have your way with me.”
After Tan Xiao finished eating and washed up, they kissed and cuddled on the sofa. Tan Xiao was still sitting on those long legs that had supposedly grown just for him. They rarely used that position; Tan Xiao was a hedonist and a little lazy, not fond of doing the work himself. But once in a while, it felt quite good.
“Are you still going home?” he asked suddenly.
“What? Asking that now? No.”
“Then will you sneak home tomorrow morning before your parents get up?”
Zhang understood. “I’m not sixteen.”
Tan Xiao laughed. “Then you’re sixteen now. Call me brother.”
“…”
Tan Xiao discovered one advantage of being the more active partner: he could actually coerce and tempt his husband. “Go on. Say it.”
Zhang hadn’t expected him to be this bad. But faced with that beautiful little face, he reluctantly said it once.
Tan Xiao went wild with delight. Naturally, his delight went too far and brought its own punishment: in exchange for being called brother once, he ended up saying it at least a hundred times himself.
The next morning, Zhang got up and ran through Olympic Forest Park, which also brought him back to his own house.
His parents were talking with the housekeeper, curious about his normal day-to-day life.
When Zhang entered, both parents froze and exchanged a look. They’d been up for a while. If Zhang had gone for an early-morning run from home, they would have seen him leave. Plainly he’d spent the night elsewhere and had only just returned.
All three were silent. Under his parents’ gaze, Zhang crossed the living room and climbed the stairs.
The instant he was out of sight, his parents began whispering about him. Zhang poked his head back around the staircase, and they immediately fell silent again.
Well, even at thirty-six, you apparently couldn’t spend a night away from home under your parents’ noses.