Chapter 32
“Brother, you really know how to attract bees and butterflies.” Liang Jinyi lowered his thick, long lashes and stared at Jiang Mi beneath him, his tone complicated.
Jiang Mi sighed and looked at the little brother in front of him with feeling. “Little Brother, if you want to praise me for being handsome and young, just say it directly. Don’t use such roundabout words.”
Liang Jinyi lowered his eyelids and stared at Jiang Mi without blinking for a long while before saying, “Brother, next time you come to my school, wear a mask.”
After saying that, he frowned again, staring at Jiang Mi’s moist peach-blossom eyes. “No, a mask can’t cover your beautiful eyes either.”
His tone sounded as if he were discussing it with Jiang Mi. “Brother, next time you come, wear a face shield. Cover this whole face of yours.”
The more he spoke, the more outrageous he became. Jiang Mi said irritably, “Then do I also need to wear a Middle Eastern black robe and wrap my whole body up?”
Liang Jinyi’s eyes lit up. “Can you, Brother?”
Jiang Mi could no longer endure it. He pushed Liang Jinyi. “Get lost.”
Liang Jinyi pulled away from Jiang Mi. Jiang Mi turned around and patted off the dust that had gotten on the back of his school uniform jacket.
At that moment, low voices suddenly came from not far away.
Jiang Mi followed the sound and looked over. Beside a locust tree more than ten meters away from them, two kids in school uniforms had arrived. The two kids held hands and said a few words, then the boy leaned in and kissed the girl.
Jiang Mi’s eyelid twitched hard. At that moment, he felt a chest press against his back again, and the other person also looked in the direction he was looking.
“Let’s go.” Jiang Mi wasn’t the director of discipline, so he couldn’t do something like beat apart a pair of mandarin ducks. Besides, he wasn’t a voyeur either and couldn’t stand here secretly watching a young couple fall in love.
Liang Jinyi didn’t care who the dating schoolmates were either. Hearing this, he withdrew his gaze. Although he hadn’t clearly seen who those two schoolmates were, he had seen their movements. One lowered his head, the other stood on tiptoe. They were clearly kissing.
After Liang Jinyi withdrew his gaze, his eyes subconsciously moved to Jiang Mi.
Jiang Mi had his back to Liang Jinyi. He bent down and picked up the jacket and schoolbag Liang Jinyi had casually thrown on the ground. Seeing that Liang Jinyi hadn’t followed, he turned his head and reminded him softly, “Let’s go.”
Liang Jinyi’s gaze fell on Jiang Mi’s red lips as they opened and closed. He pressed his lips together before finally following.
A minute later, the two left Experimental High School’s little grove. Jiang Mi handed Liang Jinyi his jacket and indicated for him to put it on.
Liang Jinyi obediently put it on, then took his schoolbag from Jiang Mi.
The two walked out of Experimental High School.
It was already seven-thirty. If they went home and cooked dinner themselves, it would be almost nine by the time they ate. That was too late.
So Jiang Mi found a claypot rice restaurant with decent business near Experimental High School.
Jiang Mi ordered a cured pork and sausage claypot rice. One portion wouldn’t fill Liang Jinyi at all, and he had exercised heavily that afternoon, so he ordered three portions: one the same as Jiang Mi’s, one black-bean sparerib claypot rice, and one mushroom and tender chicken claypot rice.
Their claypot rice arrived not long after.
Jiang Mi pulled a pair of chopsticks from the chopstick holder, wiped them with a tissue, then used a stainless-steel spoon to flip up the fragrant, crispy layer of rice crust at the bottom of the claypot rice.
He lowered his head and tasted a bite of claypot rice with cured pork, sausage, and corn kernels. But when he was eating his second bite, he noticed that the youth sitting opposite him wasn’t eating dinner.
Jiang Mi lifted his head. “Jinyi, what are you looking at?”
Liang Jinyi held a stainless-steel spoon, gently stirring the fragrant claypot rice, but his eyes weren’t on it. He stared at Jiang Mi, who was an arm’s length away, and said, “Brother, are there also a lot of people at your company who like you?”
Jiang Mi: “…”
“Liang Jinyi, eat dinner.” Jiang Mi lowered his head and continued eating.
“Brother, you’re not denying it. That means someone does like you. Who is it? What position are they in? Do you have a good impression of her?” Liang Jinyi asked one question after another.
Jiang Mi: “…”
It was simply endless.
Jiang Mi said, “No one likes me, and I only treat them as ordinary colleagues. I don’t have any feelings beyond that of colleagues. Is that enough?”
Jiang Mi felt that if he didn’t properly answer Liang Jinyi’s question, he wouldn’t get any peace tonight.
Liang Jinyi looked at Jiang Mi without blinking for a while, seeming to weigh how credible his words were. A moment later, he nodded lightly. “Temporarily enough.”
After saying this, Liang Jinyi lowered his head and began eating dinner.
Seeing that Liang Jinyi was finally willing to eat dinner properly, Jiang Mi let out a breath of relief.
The next day was a workday.
If it wasn’t raining or snowing, Jiang Mi wouldn’t drive Liang Jinyi to school. For such a short distance, the child could completely walk there himself or scan a shared bike and ride over.
If Jiang Mi drove him, judging by Bei City’s traffic during work hours, it might take even more time.
And the weather this morning was very good, so Liang Jinyi could only go to school alone.
Liang Jinyi set out at seven-forty. Jiang Mi was twenty minutes later, setting out for the parking lot at eight.
When he arrived at the company, it was only eight-thirty. The firm’s workday started at nine, and only the auntie was there cleaning.
Jiang Mi greeted the auntie mopping the floor, then walked to his office, turned on his computer, and began the day’s work.
Last night, Gu Yuan had taken another lawyer to President Wang’s appointment. After eight last night, Gu Yuan had messaged him, saying that even though he had made the excuse that Jiang Mi was unwell and couldn’t attend, President Wang was still not very satisfied. He felt that their firm had slighted him, so there was a seventy to eighty percent chance the case would fall through.
Although Jiang Mi felt some regret, if there was no way to salvage it, he wouldn’t remain tangled in regret.
He thought for a moment about the work he needed to handle today, then began drafting a document.
When one worked with complete concentration, one couldn’t feel the passage of time. Even lunch only came when Gu Yuan knocked on his office door and asked whether he wanted to order takeout or go downstairs to eat with him.
Jiang Mi chose to go downstairs with Gu Yuan for lunch.
After lunch, the two went upstairs. Jiang Mi rested for a while, then continued drafting that document. This document was for a Singaporean company, regarding legal considerations for domestic investment.
At four in the afternoon, Jiang Mi had just communicated a few details with that company and was preparing to continue writing the document when the half-closed office door was suddenly knocked twice, neither lightly nor heavily.
Jiang Mi lifted his head. Their company’s receptionist said, “Lawyer Jiang, your little brother is here.”
Jiang Mi froze, then immediately stood and walked toward the company entrance.
After all, they had only just started the business. The office floor Gu Yuan had chosen had an excellent location, but its area wasn’t large, only about three to four hundred square meters.
Jiang Mi soon reached the company entrance.
Liang Jinyi stood at the front desk, observing Zhuosi’s decoration and layout. Seeing Jiang Mi walk over, he smiled and went up to him, calling, “Brother.”
Jiang Mi, however, was somewhat surprised. “Jinyi, shouldn’t you be in school at this hour? Why did you come here?”
When he had heard the receptionist’s words just now, he thought it was already six or seven. But he looked down at the time on his watch, then at the time on his computer, and it was only four-fifteen.
“Oh, I asked for leave.” Before Jiang Mi could open his mouth, Liang Jinyi spoke first. “The last two classes this afternoon are math. Brother, it doesn’t matter whether I attend or not.”
This was the truth. Among Liang Jinyi’s six subjects, his best was mathematics. In elementary school, he had even won a gold medal in the Asian Mathematical Olympiad. In middle school, he hadn’t won any awards only because he was too lazy to participate in Olympiad competitions.
“And Brother, you’ve been working for so long, but I’ve never come to see your company before.” Liang Jinyi softened his voice.
As soon as Liang Jinyi finished speaking, two deliverymen each carrying two large bags of things came in, saying that the things Lawyer Jiang had ordered for their company had arrived.
Jiang Mi was standing relatively close to the front desk and heard the deliverymen’s words. His face was full of confusion. He hadn’t ordered anything, and in their company, he was the only one surnamed Jiang.
Just as he was about to ask whether the deliverymen had delivered to the wrong place, Liang Jinyi said, “Brother, I ordered these for the brother and jiejie who work with you.”
After saying this, Liang Jinyi indicated for the deliverymen to simply put the things down.
Hearing this, the deliverymen placed the items on the front desk. In an instant, the reception counter, which had still had a lot of empty space just now, was packed full.
The receptionist at Jiang Mi’s company was a recent university graduate, twenty-two years old this year. She looked at Jiang Mi hesitantly, not knowing what to do.
Jiang Mi’s company currently had only nineteen people. The team was small but refined, and most of them worked together in the open office. Hearing the movement here, they had already looked over at him and Liang Jinyi.
With so many people present, even if Jiang Mi had questions to ask Liang Jinyi, he couldn’t do it in front of everyone.
Children all needed respect and face, so he nodded at the young receptionist, then told the colleagues in the company that if they wanted anything, they could go take it themselves.
Zhuosi Law Firm was a relatively young team. When everyone heard this, they became lively. An outgoing employee had already thanked them loudly. “Thank you, Lawyer Jiang, and even more thanks to Lawyer Jiang’s little brother!”
Everyone crowded around the front desk. When they discovered that the afternoon tea Liang Jinyi had ordered wasn’t ordinary afternoon tea but came from a very expensive coffee shop and a very expensive cake shop, this wave of gratitude reached its peak.
Although Zhuosi was a start-up law firm, because the two bosses in charge were both very capable, everyone’s current income wasn’t low. Even so, not many working people were willing to buy coffee that cost seventy or eighty yuan a cup and cake that cost seventy or eighty yuan for a small piece.
Since taking someone’s gifts made one’s hands short and eating someone’s food softened one’s mouth, everyone’s good impression of Liang Jinyi rose several points. Zhang Ke took a latte and chatted with Liang Jinyi. “Little Brother, are you in high school? That looks like a high school uniform you’re wearing.”
“I’m in second year of high school,” Liang Jinyi answered truthfully.
Lin Yan followed by asking, “Little Brother, where do you study?”
“Experimental High School. The Experimental High School that’s only four or five kilometers away from the company.”
“Then that’s very close to our company. Little Brother, come over often when you have time.” Jiang Mi and Gu Yuan mainly handled non-litigation business and needed to deal with Party A, many units, or government departments, so when selecting employees, they had chosen a group of employees with strong professional knowledge who were also good at socializing.
Seeing that Liang Jinyi had already started chatting with his colleagues, Jiang Mi shook his head helplessly and returned to his office alone first.
Seeing Jiang Mi leave, Liang Jinyi didn’t choose to follow. Instead, he found an empty workstation close to everyone and smiled. “I’d like to, but everyone should be very busy, right?”
“It’s fine. Little Brother can choose a time when we’re not busy to come play,” a likable female colleague with a round face and round eyes said.
Liang Jinyi said, “But I feel like everyone is usually quite busy. I often see Brother come home after work and still work overtime.”
After saying this, Liang Jinyi’s gaze circled around the expressions of everyone in the office.
Zhang Ke took a sip of coffee and said, “How can we compare to Lawyer Jiang?”
Liang Jinyi still wanted to bring the topic back to Jiang Mi. “Why can’t you compare to Brother?”
“Because Lawyer Jiang isn’t human.”
Liang Jinyi: “?”
A colleague pushed Zhang Ke, who had spoken too bluntly. “His little brother is here.”
Zhang Ke hurriedly patted his own mouth. “Little Brother, what I mean is that Lawyer Jiang is too outstanding. He’s not someone ordinary humans like us can compare to. For example…”
Zhang Ke’s eyes turned, and he pointed at Su Kang at the workstation diagonally opposite. “He’s only one year younger than Lawyer Jiang. Just one year. But he’s an employee, and Lawyer Jiang is a boss. The bosses of quite a few companies specifically request Lawyer Jiang for legal consultation.”
Su Kang was eating an egg tart. Hearing Zhang Ke step on him like this, he wasn’t angry. He turned his head and said to Zhang Ke, “Thanks, huh. Thanks for comparing me to Lawyer Jiang.”
Ah, I never thought there would come a day when I’d be mentioned in the same breath as my senior.
He had also studied his undergraduate degree at Jing University.
Zhuosi’s team atmosphere was harmonious. Hearing this, everyone laughed and joked around. Liang Jinyi tried bringing the topic back to Jiang Mi several more times. Only when he saw that everyone had almost finished eating the snacks and cakes and probably needed to work did Liang Jinyi read the room and stand up. “I won’t bother everyone anymore. I’m going to find Brother.”
“Go on, Little Brother.” The female colleague closest to him waved at him.
Three minutes later, Liang Jinyi pushed open the half-closed door of Jiang Mi’s office and walked in. After entering, he casually shut Jiang Mi’s half-closed door tightly.
Jiang Mi heard the movement and lifted his head from in front of the computer.
“Brother, the colleagues in your company are all pretty good.” Whether men or women, none of them had any feelings toward you that they shouldn’t have.
“Everyone was already pretty good.” Jiang Mi said this in confusion. After saying that, he remembered the scolding he hadn’t had time to give just now. His tone grew slightly heavy. “Jinyi, this is your first time coming to my company, so I won’t lecture you. If there’s a next time and you ask for leave to come to my company, Brother will get angry.”
At this point, Jiang Mi said earnestly, “I know your math is very good, almost full marks. But your Chinese, chemistry, and physics all have a lot of room to improve in ranking. If you think you don’t need to study math, then you can use the time for studying math to study Chinese, chemistry, and physics. Do you understand?”
“I understand, Brother.” Liang Jinyi became very obedient.
As soon as Liang Jinyi finished speaking, the office door was suddenly knocked a few times. Jiang Mi said, “Come in,” and Gu Yuan twisted the door open and directly entered. “Xuedi, I heard Zhang Ke and the others say your little brother… This is your little brother? He’s really handsome.”
Gu Yuan had just gone to Party A’s company to handle business and had returned to the company three minutes ago.
Liang Jinyi had always paid close attention to anything related to Jiang Mi, so he knew there was only one person at the company who would casually call Jiang Mi his junior. He immediately guessed who it was and greeted him, “Hello, Brother Gu.”
“Little Brother is quite polite.” Gu Yuan smiled and praised him a couple of times, then looked at Jiang Mi sitting behind the computer and said in a subtle tone, “No wonder you didn’t even go negotiate that million-yuan case yesterday and went to watch a high school student’s basketball game instead. If I had a little brother this handsome and this well-behaved, I wouldn’t bear to disappoint him either.”
Liang Jinyi’s brows moved. He looked at Gu Yuan. “Brother Gu, what did you say?”
Gu Yuan smiled. “Little Brother, your ge didn’t tell you, did he? President Wang, who was very satisfied with him, asked him last night to discuss legal matters related to overseas finance. In the end, your ge said he had promised to watch your basketball game and didn’t go meet President Wang. That was a case worth close to a million.”
Thinking of this, Gu Yuan still felt heartache.
That wasn’t ten or twenty thousand.
“All right, all right, Xuezhang. When something isn’t in your fate, don’t force it.” Jiang Mi stood and patted Gu Yuan’s shoulder to comfort him.
Although Gu Yuan respected Jiang Mi’s choice, the lost million-yuan matter had only happened last night, and Gu Yuan hadn’t completely recovered yet. After saying a few words, he left Jiang Mi’s office.
After Gu Yuan left, Liang Jinyi looked at Jiang Mi with a complicated gaze. “Brother, you really didn’t go see that President Wang and didn’t negotiate that million-yuan case because of me?”
His brother certainly didn’t lack money, but the comparison point for “not lacking money” was the general public.
He had looked into the income of lawyers before. Lawyers with eight-figure annual incomes were extremely rare. This was only Brother’s fourth year working, and before this, he had always been working for someone else. Even if Brother had some income from buying funds and trading stocks, an income of several hundred thousand was still not a small amount to him.
Jiang Mi picked up the cup on his desk and took a sip of water, his tone calm. “Didn’t I promise you? Anything I promise you, aside from force majeure, I’ll work hard to fulfill.”
Liang Jinyi smiled. He walked behind Jiang Mi’s office chair, buried his head in Jiang Mi’s shoulder, and gently rubbed against him.
“All right, all right.” Jiang Mi felt a little ticklish and pushed Liang Jinyi’s head away. “There’s only a little left of my document. Don’t bother me for now. I have to finish writing it before the end of the workday.”
“Okay, Brother.” Liang Jinyi answered obediently. After answering, his gaze circled around Jiang Mi’s office, and he sat down on the leather sofa not far away, waiting for Jiang Mi to finish work.
The last day of October ended with Liang Jinyi picking up his brother from work.
In the blink of an eye, it was November.
The firm’s case with President Wang indeed fell through. However, at a reception, Jiang Mi and Gu Yuan got to know a President Cheng.
This President Cheng was in the automotive parts field, and his company planned to acquire a downstream company.
He was also very interested in Zhuosi Law Firm.
That night, President Cheng arranged to meet Jiang Mi and Gu Yuan.
Liang Jinyi moved the place where he did his papers from the bedroom to the living room. At eleven that night, he had already been killed three times in his game before he finally heard the sound of the door opening. Liang Jinyi stood and strode toward the entrance.
Jiang Mi walked into the entryway. He had only shakily taken off one leather shoe when he caught sight of a tall shadow approaching from the corner of his eye. Jiang Mi swayed slightly and called, “Jinyi.”
The moment Liang Jinyi got close to Jiang Mi, he smelled a strong scent of alcohol. Looking again at Jiang Mi’s reddened eye corners, Liang Jinyi furrowed his brows. “Brother, you drank a lot tonight.”
Jiang Mi slowed down for a moment, stuffed his other foot into a slipper, and rubbed his swollen, aching temple. “No… no choice. That President Cheng is a drunkard. He won’t go home until he’s drunk to his heart’s content.”
After saying this, he called for Jinyi to pour him a cup of honey water.
“I’ll make you hangover soup.” Liang Jinyi felt that tonight, he probably needed hangover soup.
“That’s… fine too.” Jiang Mi was helped by Liang Jinyi to sit on the sofa.
This past month, Liang Jinyi had been cooking for Jiang Mi, and last week, he had even gone to Grandpa Jiang’s house for further training. His cooking had made great progress. After a dozen minutes, a steaming bowl of hangover soup was ready.
After Jiang Mi drank a bowl of hangover soup, his body felt much more comfortable. He leaned against the sofa and recovered for a while. While undoing his tie, he walked toward his room. “Jinyi, I’m going to wash up and sleep. You should… sleep early too. Tomorrow… you still have class.”
Liang Jinyi followed behind him and reminded him, “Brother, tomorrow is Saturday.”
“Saturday?” Jiang Mi’s brain was a little muddled. “Oh, it’s Saturday.”
As he spoke, he returned to his room and casually yanked off his tie, throwing it onto the standing coat rack by the door.
Liang Jinyi returned to the living room, took the bowl of hangover soup Jiang Mi had casually placed on the coffee table into the kitchen, washed it clean, put it in the cupboard, and left the kitchen.
Just as he reached the living room, he heard a muffled sound from Jiang Mi’s room. Liang Jinyi quickly walked over. “Brother, you…”
When he saw Jiang Mi, Liang Jinyi’s voice stopped abruptly.
Jiang Mi endured the pain in his calf and stood up. Hearing the movement, he turned his head. Seeing Liang Jinyi standing at his bedroom door, Jiang Mi smiled and comforted him. “It’s fine.”
After saying this, he lowered his head and continued undoing the black clips at the hem of his black silk shirt.
But his hands were weak, and after trying several times, he still couldn’t undo them.
At that moment, Jiang Mi felt a scorching breath approaching from behind him. His eyes carried a trace of confusion. “Jinyi?”
“Brother, what is this on your thigh?”
Jiang Mi was a healthy adult man. His legs were long and straight, and because he had kept exercising for years, the lines of his legs were smooth and clean.
At this moment, on that pair of long, straight legs, there was a black leather band fastened around one thigh. The band tightened around fair flesh, slightly squeezing out a bit of suggestive softness.
Jiang Mi followed Liang Jinyi’s gaze and looked down, then explained, “This? This is a shirt stay. That President Cheng likes playing snooker. I… I was afraid that while playing with him, my shirt would come untucked. That would be impolite.”
As Jiang Mi explained, he continued undoing the clip at the hem of his shirt. He tried several times, but still couldn’t undo it. Jiang Mi’s patience ran out, and he directly yanked off the black leather clip by force.
After violently removing the shirt stay on his left leg, Jiang Mi prepared to do the same and undo the shirt stay on the right side.
But a scorching hand pressed down on his soft, powerless hand. “Brother, I’ll help you.”
Jiang Mi stood beside the bed, while Liang Jinyi sat at the head of the bed. The shirt stay first had a black leather band looped around the middle of the firm, slender thigh, and three leather straps extended upward from the leather band. By clipping the shirt hem with the straps, the shirt could be firmly held in place.
Liang Jinyi moved very slowly. He first undid the front clip, then the middle one, then the clip at the back.
Finally, he pinched the black leather band around Jiang Mi’s thigh and slowly slid it downward, bit by bit.
“Are you done?” Jiang Mi yawned. By the time he came back to himself, he discovered the shirt stay had already fallen to the floor. Jiang Mi let out a breath of relief and walked toward the bathroom while taking off his shirt.
More than twenty minutes later, Jiang Mi came out of the bathroom wearing pajamas. He picked up the hair dryer and casually blew his hair a few times, then prepared to go to bed and sleep. But just as he reached the bedside, Jiang Mi was startled. “Jinyi, why haven’t you gone back yet?”
Liang Jinyi was sitting by the bed. He lifted his eyes and looked at the sleepy Jiang Mi, took a deep breath, and said, “I’m going back now.”
“Mm.” Jiang Mi lifted the blanket and got into bed. “Help me… turn off the light.”
He was very sleepy. Almost as soon as the words “turn off the light” fell, he fell asleep.
Liang Jinyi stood beside Jiang Mi’s bed and looked at him for a while. Then, gripping the shirt stay he had just removed and the shirt stay Jiang Mi had violently torn apart, he returned to his room.
That night, unsurprisingly, he had a dream.
He couldn’t clearly see the face of the person in the dream, but the other person had a pair of long, straight legs. In the middle of the left thigh, there was a tiny red mole. And those legs were wearing shirt stays. The black leather band happened to cover that shy, vivid little red mole. When those legs wrapped around his waist and moved intensely, the shirt stays would tighten upward, pulling up a little flesh.
Thus, occasionally, that little red mole could see the light of day.
