Release that Man

The next morning, Ye Shuang did not receive the call from An Zining saying that she should take the day off. Ye Shuang assumed that An Zining was annoyed by the incident that had happened the day before. Having extra people around would be useful should Chen He decide to go and create more trouble. By the time her bus had arrived at An Zining’s place, her boss still had not woken up, probably too tired from the stuff that had happened the day before. However, all the other people were present—even Lawyer Lin was there.

The intern immediately came to greet Ye Shuang when he saw her. “Sister Shuang, I hear you have been promoted to an agent‽ Congratulations. Do take care of our workshop in the future—we can handle both group cases and individual cases.”

Now that their position had shifted, there was no more competition between them. One would be responsible for assigning cases, and the other would receive cases. Naturally, the relationship became better. Having a good relationship was beneficial for both parties. Ye Shuang understood that theory as well, so she smiled and said, “Thank you. Actually, this is because both my and my partner’s time is hard to schedule, and that’s why we’re assigned to do the backend job.”

Ever since she had realized that she was dumb to have attached herself to herself without actually having a boyfriend, when Ye Shuang met new people, she tried her best to undo this situation. The first thing she did was to change ‘boyfriend’ to ‘partner’. After people got used to this setting, maybe people would think of the less innocent relationship first when they thought of Ye Shuang.

Miss Chef was the most excited to see Ye Shuang. The day before, she had been lucky enough to witness the gossip at close range but unable to find anyone to share it with. Finally, Brother Wong had arrived, but the man was a simpleton who had no interest in things like that.

Sharing it with her friends was a violation of her client’s privacy. Among her colleagues, only Ye Shuang was female. Miss Chef had many things she wanted to ‘share’, and her lips could not stop moving when she saw Ye Shuang. “Sister Shuang, you’re finally here. Let me tell you just how insane the argument was last night between Sister An and Mr. Chen. Mind you, I’ve never seen Mr. Chen before, but according to rumors, he is supposed to be a gentleman, so why…”

“Miss Ye, do you mind if we have a talk?” Lawyer Lin interrupted her. Miss Chef’s desire to gossip was extinguished immediately. Lawyer Lin was considered the leader of this small task force—not only because he was the most educated but also because he had the calmest mind of all. So, during stressful situations, they normally referred to him.

Ye Shuang smiled and looked at An Zining’s bedroom door, which was still tightly closed. It would probably be some time before the woman woke up. Therefore, she accepted Lawyer Lin’s invitation to chat. They both moved to the balcony. The wind was blowing so strongly that their conversation was silenced by the wind.

“Brother Lin?” Ye Shuang closed the balcony’s glass door until only a palm-size sliver was left open before she turned to Lawyer Lin. “Is there a problem with Miss An’s case?”

Yes, things were complicated, but technically, it had nothing to do with them. It was a battle between Chen He and An Zining or the Chen family and the An family. Therefore, Ye Shuang was curious why Lawyer Lin would ask her out and purposely away from the workshop colleagues that he should have been closer to.

Lawyer Lin glanced at the people in the room before pushing on his glasses and calmly announcing. “It was me who released the news about Miss An’s pregnancy.”

Ye Shuang almost coughed up blood.

When Lawyer Lin saw the surprise on Ye Shuang’s face, his lips twitched into an imperceptible smile. “Miss Ye should have noticed by now that Miss An is intentionally avoiding us, and we have no way of getting the evidence we need to prove that she is preparing to escape from the country. If this was allowed to continue, we would only have ended up being in a war with Miss An.

“When things really go down and reach a point of no return, if we are unable to produce any evidence, to keep the fact that their daughter was running out of country to have the illegitimate child under wraps, the An family would probably use us as sacrificial lambs,” Lawyer Lin explained slowly and calmly. “Therefore, it was my belief that since we were unable to achieve any progress, why not get an ally to help us halt Miss An’s plan? No matter the result of the negotiation between Mr. Chen and Miss An, it has nothing to do with us.”

This was rather brilliant. Since they could not do anything, then they found someone who could. They did not want to have they relationship turn sour, so they found another target who was willing to risk that.

Ye Shuang was silent. Lawyer Lin’s idea was not bad, but she did not expect he could be so decisive and resolute when necessary.

“You purposely called me out to tell me this…” Ye Shuang gasped. “Does this mean your colleagues still don’t know that it was you who leaked the news‽”

“Of course not!” Lawyer Lin huffed, directly mocking his colleagues’ IQ. He even used his finger to point out their problems one by one. “Look at our Miss Chef… With that busybody personality of hers, if she had known the plan, she probably would have retrieved a focus light to shine it on Miss An all day. And our bodyguard, Brother Wong… He probably would not dare to even look at Miss An if he knew that he had to keep the plan a secret. Well, you know how it is with the intern.”

When the people in the living room noticed that Lawyer Lin was pointing at them, Brother Wong waved at them holding an apple in his hand, and Miss Chef smiled back. In any case, none of them realized that their respected Lawyer Lin was talking behind their back to Ye Shuang. If anything, they thought he was introducing their individual good qualities to the new agent. Lawyer Lin sure is thoughtful; he has started to prepare for our future already, so touching…

Lawyer Lin waved back calmly before turning to address Ye Shuang. “See? And you expect me to share the plan with them‽”

Indeed, if she was in Lawyer Lin’s shoes, she would have hidden the plan from them as well.

“In any case, our contract with Miss An is bound to crash and burn.” Lawyer Lin continued to analyze with another push on his glasses. “She is planning to leave the country without notifying us; that is already a violation of our contract. However, we are pretending not to notice on the surface, so in a way, while we are still working for Miss An, we have to be focused on self-preservation as well. Letting Mr. Chen know about Miss An’s pregnancy was beneficial to us.”

Lawyer Lin did not really do much but dropped a few hints during his negotiation with Chen He’s lawyer. Even though he did not point it out directly and quickly changed the subject, the lawyer hired by Chen He was not an idiot. He held onto this point and started his investigation. Soon the startling news was unearthed—the former madam had gotten herself pregnant!

“The dealings between Miss An and Mr. Chen might get complicated. I’m informing you of this now in case you let your focus be distracted by the hunt for the news leaker.” Lawyer Lin smiled. “In any case, what we need to do now is take the front seat and watch this couple hash it out.”

“Yes, if we’re lucky, it might drag out until our contract ends.” Ye Shuang looked at An Zining’s bedroom with complicated emotions. If An Zining had not planned to hide her escape from even her allies, or if she had just cancelled the contract outright, things would not have devolved to this stage.

An Zining’s biggest wish was to disappear without a trace without arousing anybody’s suspicion. Ye Shuang and the workshop’s biggest wish was to not get roped into the argument between two families and end the contract peacefully and successfully.

An Zining was selfish enough to not consider the possibility of placing Ye Shuang’s group in an awkward position after she disappeared, so Ye Shuang’s group had no choice but to make the first move. Instead of them suffering, it had to be her. There were no saint in this world, why should they sacrifice themselves to help her?

…

Not long after the chat between Ye Shuang and Lawyer Lin, An Zining exited her bedroom. She looked tired. She glanced at the people gathered in her living room before walking over.

Ye Shuang was still her personal assistant, so when An Zining was about to sit down, she quickly placed a cushion behind her back. While she handed An Zining a glass of warm water, she said, “Sister An, what is the schedule for the day?”

“Temporarily, I have nothing that I want to do.” An Zining used her fingers to rub her temples, and she leaned back on the sofa with her eyes closed, ordering, “Lawyer Lin, go and negotiate with Chen He one more time. Get the divorce settled as soon as possible. Surrender some benefits if necessary as long as he is willing to give up the child’s custody…”

“Understood.” Lawyer Lin nodded, all ready for war. Previously, the point of contention had been money, and even then, Chen He had still refused to budge. Now An Zining wanted the man to give up on his child; it would be a miracle if he agreed.

“Also Mr. Wong, I don’t want anyone to barge into my house today,” An Zining told Brother Wong.

Even though it was not her turn, Ye Shuang could not help but ask, “What if said person is Sister An’s relative?”

Since it had already happened once yesterday, Ye Shuang felt like if there was nothing wrong with Chen He’s brain, he would arrive today with family and friends as reinforcements.

As this thought crossed her mind, Chen He’s voice came from outside the door. “An Zining, come out and face me! You have the courage to get pregnant but no courage to answer the door‽”