Release that Man

The next day, Ye Shuang dropped her laptop off before returning to work. To Ye Shuang’s surprise, Lawyer Lin was also there. To protect the client’s personal safety, Brother Wong as the bodyguard had to report for work daily. Miss Chef spent quite a lot of time at An Zining’s place as well since she had to take care of the three daily meals, plus supper and tea; as long as food was needed, she had to be there. Now, her workload had even increased due to the pregnancy. She had to do more homework when it came to the menus.

Different from these two and the intern, Lawyer Lin was only responsible to the legal dealings that An Zining might have. Specifically, he would only appear when An Zining wished for him to go argue with Chen He’s lawyer, so he had no need to greet An Zining daily.

After all, what was there to be said between the lawyer and his client when the case had no progress? The client would not be able to help with his job, and additional discussion would be completely unnecessary; all An Zining could do was add to the trouble, like requesting irrational clauses.

“Bro…” Realizing her male self would not have known Lawyer Lin, Ye Shuang caught herself mid-greeting and changed it. “Lawyer Lin, is it? Nice to meet you.”

Lawyer Lin sat at the dining table and finished his bowl of porridge before removing his glasses to wipe at them as he raised his eyes to nod slightly at Ye Shuang, “Nice to meet you.”

He did not ask how Ye Shuang managed to identify him as the lawyer in one glance… Yesterday, the workshop’s members had already filled him in regarding the changing shift of Sister Ye and Brother Ye. Knowing that there was only a selected few who served An Zining, easily identifying him as Lawyer Lin was no surprise.

“Miss An is still resting?” Ye Shuang turned to look at the bedroom door. After receiving the confirmation from the rest, Ye Shuang, who wanted to plant herself at the sofa waiting for her boss to wait up, thought about it and went to sit across from Lawyer Lin. He asked politely, “I hear Lawyer Lin is familiar with the local scene. I wonder, are you familiar with the local underground racing scene‽”

Lawyer Lin finished wiping his glasses and put them back on. “Mr. Han’s examination?”

Could it be that Han Chu has such a famous fetish? Or did Brother Lin hear it from Brother Wong? Just how did they manage to find out that I’ve received such a mission from Han Chu… 

Lawyer Lin took a gander at Ye Shuang, and after arranging the information in his mind, he answered, “The private racing normally occurs at the mountain roads, often at midnight during holidays or weekends. Before the race, there will be special individuals who block off the road, and the racing bets are normally huge. Technically speaking, it is a form of public disturbance and a safety hazard, but since it does not involve normal citizen and some of the participating racers are influential people, as long as there are no horrible accidents, local law enforcement won’t get themselves involved.”

After making the brief introduction, Lawyer Lin paused before asking with some interest, “Mr. Han wants you to interact with the racers?”

“Yes.” Ye Shuang laughed sadly. “Sounds like they’re a bunch of rich kids with nothing better to do?”

“I suppose. After all, the cars used for racing are mostly modified, and that is not something affordable for normal citizens,” Lawyer Lin said with surprising condescension. “The rich’s means of entertainment are more varied than normal individuals; public entertainment can no longer hold their interest, keeping mistresses will lead to too much trouble, and honestly, not everyone is interested in daily sex. So those with the addiction for adrenaline pursue thrills via racing, boxing, or gambling. If compared to these people, Miss An’s ex-husband could be considered a rare saint; after all, he is only gutsy enough to keep a few mistresses.”

Ye Shuang realized that Lawyer Lin did know a thing or two about the underground world. Perhaps because she was now a man, Lawyer Lin did not hold back as he would do with Sister Ye. Or to put it simply, he was more sharp-tongued.

Then again, it was not uncommon for a lawyer to know such things. It was the nature of their job to have interactions with the underworld, especially since Ye Shuang had heard from Chen He’s lawyer that Lawyer Lin came from a criminal law background. It was also because of this that Ye Shuang came to Lawyer Lin for information. While she could do her research the formal way via internet, that information definitely would not be as complete as asking a person involved in that world, right‽

“Then, about Yao Zhixing…”

Lawyer Lin hummed to himself in thought before saying, “His father is the restaurant mogul of San Lin City. His personality is not bad among the second-generation young masters, if you disregard his pursuit of adrenaline. Therefore, illegal racing is the only strike against him.”

Naturally, Han Chu’s people would not be some fugitives on the run. Ye Shuang had expected as much. She raised her brow to ask, “Then, do you know where he normally likes to spend his free time?”

“I don’t,” Lawyer Lin replied readily. “Since he has no criminal record, I am not familiar with the man.”

I suddenly feel like I’ve been demoted from a friend to an acquaintance.

Chatting with those with great knowledge had great advantages; Ye Shuang had managed to find out about the other side of San Lin City that she did not even know exist before.

At around 11 am, Miss Chef came to prepare lunch. When she was clearing away the dining table, she saw Ye Shuang, who was sitting in the living room, and quickly bounced back into the kitchen like a scared rabbit with her face as red as an apple after she greeted him. Lawyer Lin looked at Ye Shuang with curved lips before turning to look at Brother Wong, who was at the window, watching for suspicious activities. Then he turned back to Ye Shuang and whispered, “Brother Wong is interested in our lady chef, so you’d better watch yourself.”

Through their conversation, Lawyer Lin had a good impression of Ye Shuang. Even though the latter did not have much knowledge of the world, he was an expert at professional and esoteric knowledge; his sharp analytical ability especially impressed Lawyer Lin. Therefore, he provided Ye Shuang with this warning to evade possible misunderstandings in the future.

Good social skills might not seem important normally, but having a good relationship was much better than going around stepping on people’s toes.

“An office affair‽” Ye Shuang smiled before brushing it off. As she stood up to go to wake her boss, she added, “I already have a girlfriend.”

That was the best reason, but it also reminded Ye Shuang of her lack of progress in the romantic department. She needed to find someone to lock in her gender. She promised to trap… I mean, fall in love with someone, but there was no viable candidate in sight.

Ye Shuang waltzed over to the bedroom door and used her knuckles to knock on it. An Zining seemed to be awake already because her reply came quick. “Coming.”

Ye Shuang shrugged and returned to the sofa. Since she was in her male form, naturally, her boss would not just let her in.

Ten minutes later, An Zining opened the door, and her hands went unconsciously to her stomach, which was still flat. She did not seem to notice that this had become a habit of hers. After greeting the few people gathered in the living room, they had a quiet lunch. After gurgling down a glass of warm water, she gave her schedule of the day.

“Tonight, I’ll be going home for dinner with my cousin. Bodyguard and personal assistant will need to follow me, and we’ll spend a night there.”

An Zining gave her orders easily; after all, it was common for the boss to ask for their hired help to accompany them to events, so this was not even counted as overtime. However, when Ye Shuang heard that order, she almost burst out crying.

Illegal car racing only happened at night, and she had to work in the day, so the only time she could liaise with the racers was at night… and now even her night time was dominated by someone else!

I wonder if I can ask Han Chu to give me an extra day? Swallowing her tears, Ye Shuang could not come up with a valid reason to reject An Zining, so she could only nod sadly. “I understand.”

After that, it was report time for Lawyer Lin. However, An Zining’s attitude seemed to have softened due to her pregnancy. She stopped demanding to have Chen He stripped to his undies and tossed into the river but asked for monetary support. It would be best if she could get a large amount as soon as possible…

For some reason, Ye Shuang had a feeling that her boss was planning to run away from the country with her baby.

“If, I say if…” Ye Shuang scratched her chin and poked Brother Wong who stood beside her. “If our client suddenly decides to run away, and no one in her family, not even Mr. Fang, knows about this, is our job considered a success or a failure‽”

As hired help, their responsibility was to fulfil their client’s every need, and other people’s requests were not part of problem. However, if their client wished to escape and avoid their protection, then should the client’s orders be followed, or they should force their service on the client‽

Brother Wong answered with some degree of glee, “Then, it’ll be a heartache for Brother Han. In any case, this is not something we should be worried about. Furthermore, your job scope won’t be affected that much should that happen, so what are you so afraid of?”

Ye Shuang nodded. “That is true, but Brother Wong, you’re the personal bodyguard, what are you going to do if that happens?”

“…”

“Brother Wong?” Ye Shuang turned to look at Brother Wong since she did not get an answer.

Brother Wong did not seem like he had considered this problem before. When he was reminded by Ye Shuang of this conundrum, he was stuck. “I feel like we had better inform Mr. Han. After all, Brother Han is the head-hunter; this is not a violation of the non-disclosure clause.”

Ye Shuang looked on with pity as Brother Wong wandered to the corner to make a call. Meeting an unreasonable client was the worst part of being in this business, so it was little wonder that his face did not look that happy.

An Zining stayed at home that afternoon. At around 5 pm, the doorbell rang. Ye Shuang opened the door and saw Mr. Fang.