After Tang Zhi's unremitting efforts, he met the lawyer on the fifth day of his stay at Xu's house.
Xu Keyu and Xu Sheng went out early in the morning. It was said that they were going hiking with their grandfather.
At two thirty in the afternoon, Assistant Jiang brought the lawyer.
The lawyer was in his early forties, with a determined look, a slim build, and wore a well-fitting suit.
He walked up to Tang Zhi and stretched out his hand: "Hello, Mr. Tang, I am Zhong Rui."
Tang Zhi shook hands with him, thinking a lot at the moment.
As early as in the freshman criminal law class, Tang Zhi heard the name Zhong Rui from the professor.
At that time, he also thought about whether everything would be different if Zhong Rui defended his mother when she appeared in court.
But this was just a passing thought. Tang Zhi knew very well that Zhong Rui's defense fee was too high for him to afford, and he wouldn't even be able to raise a fraction of it if he sold it.
He didn't expect that a few years later, he would actually meet Lawyer Zhong.
After briefly introducing the two of them, Jiang Yan went out, leaving Tang Zhi and Zhong Rui talking alone in the reception room.
Zhong Rui brought Tang Zhi a document he had compiled, found out all the inappropriate parts of the original judgment, and put forward many professional opinions, giving Tang Zhi the possibility of applying for a retrial and unprecedented confidence.
When sending Zhong Rui away, Tang Zhi was in a daze. He felt that the dream came true too quickly, almost distorting it. He also felt that although Xu Sheng had a bad personality and looked down on him, he did not lie.
Maybe Xu Sheng can really let him and his mother meet outside the prison.
After watching Zhong Rui's car drive away, he went to sit on a chair in the garden facing the lake for a while, staring at an unknown lake in a daze.
Ever since Tang Zhi returned to Bingang and entered this bungalow, he seems to have never seen the sun and the weather has been gloomy.
The surface of the lake was filled with lifeless waves, and the foam sometimes covered the grass on the shore, and sometimes receded.
The light smell of the lake water brought by the wind was entangled with the aroma of sour grass wafting from the house behind me.
He didn't go anywhere in the past five days. He only wandered or sat in specific areas of the house, chatting with Xu Keyu. Every minute and second was so painful.
He didn't want to see Xu Keyu or everyone in this family.
But at the moment when he met Lawyer Zhong, the things that he originally found unbearable, such as self-esteem and personality, suddenly became no longer important.
Because more than anything else, Tang Zhi wanted to see his mother.
In the evening, Xu Keyu and Xu Sheng came back together.
Xu Keyu called Tang Zhi's name softly at the door. Tang Zhi heard it, stood up and looked back, Xu Keyu ran towards him, his skirt swaying in the air.
Tang Zhi guessed that she might have thought he liked her wearing pink, so she wore the pink dress for five days in a row.
She ran to Tang Zhi and asked him: "What did you do today?"
Xu Sheng followed her calmly.
Tang Zhi's eyes swept over Xu Sheng's face and he quickly looked at him.
There was no emotion in Xu Sheng's eyes, as if he was preparing to evaluate whether Tang Zhi's sincerity towards Xu Keyu was enough to offset the legal fees.
Tang Zhi lowered his voice and said softly: "I've been waiting for you."
Tang Zhi knew Xu Sheng was looking at him, but he didn't look at Xu Sheng anymore, only at Xu Keyu.
He hopes Xu Sheng is satisfied. Xu Sheng wanted him to have some emotion, so he acted hard.
Excluding his misbehavior in school, Tang Zhi was actually a very good student. From childhood to adulthood, everything he wanted to do well was very simple.
Xu Keyu's face quickly turned pink, and she lowered her eyes, looking shy.
"Are you having fun?" Tang Zhi asked her.
She raised her face and suddenly showed an unhappy expression: "Not very happy."
"Only when we got to the mountains did we realize that we were doing charity activities. My grandfather and brother had gone elsewhere, leaving me and my cousin to stay together."
Immediately, Tang Zhi found that her mood was very abnormal, as if she had been stimulated by something, and the corners of her eyes twitched slightly, showing a bored and anxious expression.
And in the past, Xu Keyu hardly spoke when Xu Sheng was present, but now he talked a lot: "My cousin insisted that I give school bags to the children of the fishermen down the mountain. There were so many staff... and they even took pictures of me. Talk about making headlines..."
Xu Sheng stood aside with his chin slightly lowered, as if he wanted to interrupt her, but in the end he did not speak.
"Those children's fingernails are full of fish scales... It's so disgusting, and they still smell fishy..." Xu Keyu rubbed his hands at a weird angle and scratched his joints with his nails, "Can't you take a shower and come out... Disgusting, disgusting …”
She raised her head, looked into Tang Zhi's eyes, and kept repeating the word "disgusting".
Then, Xu Sheng cleared his throat, and Tang Zhi looked up at him, reading a warning in Xu Sheng's eyes.
Tang Zhi guessed that Xu Sheng might know his past experiences and was afraid that he would retaliate impulsively and make Xu Keyu even more unhappy. Tang Zhi would not do this, but he felt a little embarrassed because he could not explain it directly.
Indeed, after being dismissed from school, Tang Zhi could not find a job. He also worked on a fishing boat for more than a year, working as a man with fishy smell on his hands.
But Tang Zhi didn't feel uncomfortable, because he had seen many looks with Xu Keyu, and he didn't care for a long time. He was just thinking about how to answer the conversation to stabilize Xu Keyu's mood again.
It didn't take long for Tang Zhi to think of what to say.
He gently interrupted Xu Keyu, looked into her eyes, and said to her: "Keyu, let's register tomorrow."
Xu Keyu was stunned and stopped complaining.
Tang Zhi asked her again: "Let's get married, okay?"
After a long while, Xu Keyu nodded and looked at Tang Zhi blankly.
Tang Zhi raised his hand and touched Xu Keyu's face. The soft and warm touch of his fingertips made him feel afraid, and he slowly withdrew his hand.
He still didn't look at Xu Sheng, hoping that Xu Sheng would find his performance satisfactory.
Xu Keyu was still a little sensitive. He kept saying that he smelled fishy. After staying downstairs for a while, he couldn't help but go upstairs to take a shower.
Only Xu Sheng and Tang Zhi were left in the living room.
At first, Xu Sheng didn't talk to Tang Zhi, as if he was thinking about something. He silently walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the scenery Tang Zhi had just seen.
His suit was dark, with no wrinkles in the fabric, and he had a very light cologne scent on him. He was still well-dressed, and he didn't look like he had just returned from a charity donation site that smelled of fish.
The butler asked the maid to make a pot of tea for him and brought it to the high black table. He picked up the cup but did not drink it and looked down at his hands.
Tang Zhi looked at Xu Sheng and suddenly felt that with so many people in the room, Xu Sheng was the only one who really belonged to this house and this home.
Xu Sheng's profile is very sharp, his lines are clean and neat, he speaks unhurriedly, he looks like a gentleman, but he is actually arrogant. Just like no one can enter his eyes, in his eyes everyone is regardless of gender, has no beauty or ugliness, they are all just specks of dust.
Tang Zhi stood for a while, fearing that Xu Sheng would think he was redundant and wanted to go upstairs. Before he could turn around, he suddenly heard Xu Sheng say: "How was the talk this afternoon?"
"Very good, Lawyer Zhong is very professional," Tang Zhi said, paused, and then told Xu Sheng sincerely, "Thank you, Mr. Xu."
"No need," Xu Sheng looked into his eyes from a few meters away and said to him, "As long as you satisfy Keyu, I will not break your promise."
"Definitely," Tang Zhi nodded repeatedly, "Definitely."
On the way to the marriage registration office, Xu Keyu sat next to Tang Zhi. She seemed a little anxious, so Tang Zhi patted her on the shoulder.
Xu Sheng went to pick up their mother. After getting the news from somewhere, she also wanted to be there.
Xu Keyu and Tang Zhi mentioned that her mother was diagnosed with gastric cancer at the beginning of the year. Her condition after surgery was not ideal and she has been staying in the hospital for continued treatment.
Tang Zhi had never met Mrs. Xu and didn't know her character, so he was a little uneasy. He looked at the street scene outside the car window and made useless prayers in his heart, hoping that time would go slower.
The car took them down the mountain, through the urban area with many high-rise buildings, around the narrow alleys, and arrived at the marriage registration office in Bingang West District.
Someone has already filled out the application form for them. Tang Zhi and Xu Keyu don't have much to do, they just need to register the final oath.
Not long after, Xu Sheng also arrived.
He personally pushed the wheelchair out of the elevator.
The lady sitting in the wheelchair still had a diaphragm injection in her hand. Her face was vaguely similar to the woman in the photo on the stairs, but she was much paler and thinner. She looked at Tang Zhi, then at Xu Keyu, and said, "So big." You didn’t tell me anything in advance.”
Xu Keyu smiled at her and said nothing.
Jiang Yan had a confession interview with Tang Zhi on the phone in the morning - Tang Zhi is a law graduate of Bingang University. He met Xu Keyu in high school and secretly fell in love for eight years before finally consummating their relationship.
While waiting to register, Ms. Xu chatted a lot with Tang Zhi. She said that she had thought a lot after getting sick and regretted working too hard and neglecting her daughter. She also said that her hunch was very accurate and she had just told her son that she wanted to see her. Once the daughter finds someone she can trust, she will really get married.
Tang Zhi was afraid that he would spill the beans, so he kept his spirits up. It wasn't until she turned around and started talking to Xu Keyu again that he breathed a sigh of relief and made an excuse to go to the bathroom to wash his face and calm down.
The marriage registration office is a very old building. The light in the bathroom may have just been replaced, and it hangs pale on the roof.
Tang Zhi took off his new suit and hung it on the hook on the wall. He took off the cuff pins and rolled up his sleeves. Then he opened the water spout, took a handful of water, and leaned over to press it on his face.
The water was very cold, and he shuddered, raised his face, and looked at himself in the mirror.
Opposite Tang Zhi seemed to be frightened by the torture of his future mother-in-law, and his face turned pale. His rich facial features seemed to have been soaked in water and became soft. Water fell into his eyes from between his eyelashes. He closed his eyes and splashed a few more times with water. , raised his hand to fumble around and pulled out a few pieces of paper, wiped the water from his face before standing up straight.
Turning around, he found Xu Sheng standing at the bathroom door, looking at him for who knows how long.
"Mr. Xu." Tang Zhi called him, suddenly wondering why he and Xu Sheng often ran into each other in the bathroom.
Xu Sheng said "hmm" and asked him: "Are you hot?"
Tang Zhi shook his head: "It's okay, I'm a little nervous."
"Am I doing okay?" He asked Xu Sheng again, trying to be a humble Party B.
Xu Sheng nodded slightly and said to Tang Zhi: "There is nothing to be nervous about. She is very satisfied with you."
Tang Zhi twitched his lips and said honestly to Xu Sheng, "It's impossible not to be nervous."
"Why?" Xu Sheng asked him, his tone was condescending and reserved, which made Tang Zhi feel funny.
"Because I have to tell a lot of lies," Tang Zhi said, then realized he had made a mistake and immediately made up for it, "I'm just kidding, of course I'm nervous about getting married. When Mr. Xu comes to register himself, he might be even more nervous than me."
Xu Sheng did not answer his words and said calmly: "I'll go out after washing my face, but I'm still waiting for you."
Tang Zhi quickly buttoned up his cuffs and put on his coat. When he was about to pass Xu Sheng, he was stopped by Xu Sheng again: "Tang Zhi."
"There is paper on your face." Xu Sheng pointed at Tang Zhi's brow bone from a distance of more than ten centimeters.
Tang Zhi said "Oh" and raised his hand to wipe the place he pointed at. Nothing was wiped, so he asked for help again: "Where is it?"
Xu Sheng's expression was a bit disgusting, and he pointed again from a distance: "Here."
Tang Zhi tried again, but still couldn't find any trace of the paper, so he had to look at Xu Sheng again and asked politely: "Where is it."
He felt that Xu Sheng looked at him as if he was maintaining basic politeness and looking at an idiot. However, after a two-second pause, Xu Sheng still raised his hand and gently wiped Tang Zhi's forehead.
Xu Sheng's fingertips were hotter and softer than Tang Zhi imagined. They were the hands of a young master.
The heat stayed on the skin for less than a second. After wiping the confetti off Tang Zhi's face, he moved it away.
Xu Sheng quickly withdrew his hand and said, "Okay." Then he walked to the sink.
Tang Zhi walked out without looking back and heard the sound of water coming from behind.