Chapter 54

Chapter Fifty-Four

“Boiled egg, boiled spinach, and boiled yam,” An Ye introduced the breakfast menu to Chi Tuo. “You gonna eat before you leave, or go grab something outside?”

There were two plates set on the bar counter. She had made two portions.

Chi Tuo sat down without hesitation.

An Ye glanced up at him, then lowered her head again to continue tapping on her phone.

“I’ll get you some low-sodium, low-calorie dipping sauces,” Chi Tuo said after swallowing a bite of boiled egg. “Don’t you get tired of eating like this all the time?”

“Oh.” An Ye didn’t even lift her head. She casually handed him a bottle of mineral water sitting next to the bar. “Drink up. Don’t choke to death.”

There were two lumps of cold boiled spinach left on her plate. Chi Tuo took her plate and finished them, cleaned up, and put the dishes into the dishwasher.

As he turned around, An Ye looked up. Chi Tuo quickly turned his head and realized, sure enough, her gaze had landed exactly where he thought it would.

...

Chi Tuo pointed at her. “...You’re still not done?!”

An Ye held her phone up to cover half her face, her eyes glinting with amusement.

Chi Tuo was smiling too.

Neither of them mentioned what had happened the night before, even though An Ye’s eyelids were still swollen.

An Ye had always stayed pretty calm about the matter of terminating her contract.

She had long since prepared for the astronomical penalty stipulated in the contract. The reason her spacious flat in Baigang City looked like a model home was because she needed it as collateral. As for her “black marks,” the only one with any real damage potential was her mental health issue. She had faith in Qi Wei’s handling of public relations, and even more faith in Chi Tuo’s legal professionalism. So she had always thought the termination would go just like that—Qi Wei handling the PR mess, Chi Tuo cleaning up the contractual fallout, and she walking away from Huan Zhou clean and free.

As for what to do afterward, she hadn’t thought that far. Her first thought was simply: keep acting, don’t starve.

That was about as far as her plans went.

So she had never really asked Chi Tuo about the progress on the termination. When he asked her to save all recordings of calls related to Huan Zhou and hand over all her work-related contracts from the past ten years, she simply treated it as a routine part of the termination process. She didn’t read too much into it.

Yan Wan’s assessment of her was quite accurate in some ways.

She was a drama addict—completely absorbed in playing other people in stories. Anything else, especially things that actually had to do with her real life, she didn’t care about much.

It was only recently, after reconnecting closely with Chi Tuo, that she started thinking a little more deeply.

But just a little.

Nothing close to what today turned out to be.

That meeting about the contract termination, which Chi Tuo had reminded her of two or three times, she had always assumed was just a procedural thing at his law firm. After all, a massive contract like that—weekly progress updates seemed normal.

She never expected it to be this formal. The meeting was held at a private club—the kind of place where, if Yan Wan had arranged a dinner party here for her, she definitely wouldn’t have shown up. From the entrance to the designated room, everything was managed by private staff. Not a single other guest would be encountered. It was confidentiality at the highest level.

If it hadn’t been Chi Tuo, she absolutely would have turned around and left the moment she saw the setup.

“Why’d you pick this place?” An Ye only removed her mask and hat after entering the room. Her shoot had run late today—she arrived an hour past the agreed time. To avoid complications, she had driven herself. On the way, she had called Chi Tuo twice, but he hadn’t said anything specific about the meeting’s content.

Just said it was complicated and needed to be discussed in person, all mysterious."Hello, Miss An." A man's voice greeted, followed by a slight bow.

The meeting room was a suite. When An Ye entered, she had been busy taking off her coat and setting down her bag, and didn’t notice that the figure approaching in black was a stranger. Her whole body froze.

The man was startled by her stiffness and took a step back before handing her a business card. "I'm Lin Hao, Assistant to Lawyer Chi."

An Ye collected herself, took the card, and asked, "Where’s Lawyer Chi?"

"He's outside taking a—"

Before Lin Hao could finish, the meeting room door opened again. Chi Tuo, also dressed in black, pushed the door open and walked in. He paused when he saw An Ye’s expression but didn’t say much. He simply explained to her, "Sorry, something urgent came up with Lao Yuan’s case just now, I had to step in."

"It’s fine." An Ye fully relaxed and smiled, shaking her head. "I’m the one who was late."

An Ye found her mood a bit strange.

Maybe it was the overly formal and private setting, or maybe it was because this was the first time since reuniting that Chi Tuo was formally meeting her in his capacity as a lawyer—it felt unfamiliar.

This wasn’t the Chi Tuo who sat on her floor applying under-eye masks with her.

His expression when he entered just now was cold and distant. Even though he was standing right next to her now, she somehow had the strange urge to hand him a business card.

Lin Hao stood off to the side, not daring to move.

Chi Tuo gently tapped her head with his phone and said softly, "Let’s talk inside."

Then he headed straight into the inner room.

Lin Hao's eyes widened.

An Ye paused half a second, then followed him in.

No one mentioned the awkward moment just now. She asked again the same question she had upon entering: "Why meet here?"

"This meeting room is permanently reserved by the firm," Chi Tuo replied. "High-tier clients only. You're the first client from our group who's ever gotten to meet here."

An Ye: "…Oh."

She noticed that Lin Hao’s eyes probably needed to be physically pressed down, otherwise they were going to pop out.

"The soup dumplings here are really good," Chi Tuo said, looking at her. "Can you eat today?"

"...Yeah." An Ye paused. "Maybe two."

Eyeballs nearly falling out, Lin Hao pressed his eyes back in and went out to order the soup dumplings. Chi Tuo waited until Lin Hao had gone and closed the door before turning to An Ye with a frown. "What happened just now?"

"...I thought Lin Hao was you…" An Ye rubbed her forehead. It wasn’t until this moment that she truly relaxed. "Sorry, I overreacted. Yan Wan’s been holding all his drinking parties in places like this these past two years."

These kinds of high-end clubs were so discreet, you could die inside and no one would know.

Chi Tuo was quiet for half a second.

"Sorry," he said.

"I know, you just wanted to show off the high-end treatment." An Ye waved her hand. "We’ve said sorry three times already since walking through that door."

"Sorry," Chi Tuo said again.

An Ye paused, looked at him, and asked very seriously, "Just how good are the soup dumplings here?"Chi Tuo: "Huh?"

"Qi Wei’s been here before. Ever since, he brings this place up every time soup dumplings are mentioned," An Ye said. "Just how good are they?"

"I’ve only had them once," Chi Tuo reached out and brushed her hair lightly. "They’re on the sweeter side, no scallions inside—probably your kind of taste."

Then he lowered his head. "Sorry, I didn’t think of that angle."

An Ye: "…"

She reached up and tugged the hem of Chi Tuo’s shirt downward, eyes wide: "Whoa, your black undershirt actually has texture?!"

Lin Hao, who had just come through the door: "…?"

Chi Tuo: "…"

"Th—the soup dumplings are ready." Lin Hao felt like a total idiot. The kind of idiot who could just quit his job and go home right now.

"Let’s eat first." Chi Tuo, whose collar had just been yanked crooked, remained perfectly composed.

The reception room had a four-person dining table, a set of sofas with a coffee table, a conference table and a projector, and one full wall of glass blackboard—clearly laid out for professional meetings.

This meeting space was long-term leased by their firm, so it made sense that Chi Tuo hadn’t thought much of it.

An Ye didn’t blame him either.

But his repeated, solemn apologies had made her heart tremble just slightly.

Like being pricked by a pin used to fasten a gown—just a little stab of pain, but more of an itch. An indescribable sensation. So much so that, without realizing it, An Ye had eaten four soup dumplings. Just as she was about to put the fifth one in her mouth, she noticed her chopsticks had wandered into someone else’s basket.

An Ye: "…"

She quietly put the chopsticks down, wiped her mouth, and looked at Chi Tuo. "Shall we begin?"

She still had to go for a one-hour run tonight.

"Y—yes." Lin Hao resumed his idiocy.

Actually, Chi Tuo had already briefed him before they came: An Ye was a close friend, so he didn’t need to be overly formal during the meeting.

But this very close friend had shown up an hour late for her first consult, looked like she was about to call the cops the moment she walked in and saw him, and then Lawyer Chi—the guy they called the machine—suddenly turned into a real human and tapped the celebrity on the head. Then the celebrity opened up the machine’s shell...

Lin Hao forcefully flushed all the screaming out of his brain and bravely handed over the documents.

Something felt seriously off. Chi Tuo was even eating the soup dumpling An Ye had left behind.

Even though he looked up mid-bite and gave Lin Hao a calm, blank glance.

Lin Hao: "…"

He instantly straightened up and handed the neatly arranged stack of documents to An Ye.

"Start with page three and the last page," Chi Tuo said, chopsticks rapidly shoveling the noodles into his bowl, clearly intending to inhale the rest of the dumplings at the same pace. "I’ll explain after I finish eating."

"You’re going to burn yourself." An Ye tapped his chopsticks with hers. "Slow down. Let Assistant Lin talk me through it first."

Chi Tuo looked up at her.

An Ye had met with Huanzhou’s legal team plenty of times over the years and was very familiar with the procedure. Typically, the assistant would introduce things first, the lawyer would follow up with clarifications, and only at the final discussion would the lawyer fully take over.She was now officially a client of Jinding, and this was clearly what Chi Tuo had planned for today.

Childishly, he’d applied for the highest tier of service for her, and even brought his assistant along.

It was the first time since their reunion that Chi Tuo had shown her something like this—putting on a bit of a display. It was supposed to be kind of fun. But today, it seemed to have flopped.

He must’ve decided to explain things himself because she seemed a bit stiff when she first met Lin Hao.

Lin Hao was still stiff now.

An Ye decided to stick to the normal process. After all, she’d likely be working with Chi Tuo going forward—wrecking his assistant’s morale on the first day wouldn’t be ideal.

Lin Hao snuck a glance at Chi Tuo.

Chi Tuo nodded slightly, going along with An Ye’s cue: “You go ahead. I’ll finish dinner.”

Eating dinner past 8 PM—no wonder he’d been shoveling food like that.

An Ye turned to page three, read a couple lines, raised an eyebrow, then flipped to the last page. After reading it, she put the documents down and looked at Chi Tuo.

“We’ve compiled all the work you’ve done with Huanzhou over the past five years,” Lin Hao began abruptly—his brain still buzzing with thoughts like Wow, the robot’s shirt really can be pulled open—“There’s a clear discrepancy between the work opportunities Huanzhou initially promised in your contract and the actual work you’ve done, especially in the last two years. The films you’ve taken on weren’t arranged by Huanzhou. For example, Director Yang Zhengyi’s film was one you negotiated independently and only later brought to Huanzhou for revenue sharing. The same issue exists with the films from the first two years.”

“Additionally, through communications with Ms. Qi Wei, we’ve discovered that your manager Yan Wan has, without informing you, unilaterally declined several work opportunities. His behavior has caused you serious intentional psychological harm and has already had a negative impact on you.”

“Therefore, we believe that for this contract termination, you should not have to pay the penalty stipulated in the contract. In fact, you could demand emotional damages from both Yan Wan and Huanzhou.”

“Of course, if you wish to press charges against Yan Wan for intentional harm, Chi-lawyer believes there’s room to proceed legally as well. Our team includes lawyers experienced in criminal defense, and if needed, we can continue to follow up on that front.”