no longer ordinary friends

Two days after the Mid-Autumn Festival, it will be Zhou Zhicheng's 27th birthday, and it will also be the fifth day since she returned to work in a small law firm in Nanri County, the county seat of the [-]th-tier county, where she was willing to degenerate as a so-called "legal person from a prestigious school". Year.

In addition to a bunch of birthday wishes messages in her WeChat, there is also a voice from her master He Kailun, his voice has a strong dialect accent: "Today, the lawyers and the program team of Mindy Law Firm in Beicheng are coming to us. Now, you should dress more stylishly and show the demeanor of our Kailun law firm! You have also worked in Mindy before, and the lawyers of these big law firms must have eyes on the top of their heads and look down on our county town."

Zhou Zhicheng was serious: "Not only that, the barrister also has three eyes, four hands, and five legs."

He Kailun sent an old emoticon package of "cut her", and reminded him again: "You are the face of our Kailun Law Firm, dress up well, do you understand?"

Of course Zhou Zhicheng didn't listen to him, she wore her trousers as usual, rode on her electric bike, and went to the law firm.

Grandpa Zhou chased her out of the house with a spatula, and called her from behind: "Chengcheng, I bought a lot of vegetables today, remember to call home the lawyers from your law firm and the new lawyers who came today , let’s celebrate birthday together!”

"Understood." Zhou Zhicheng replied with a smile.

When she went downstairs to the law firm, she just received a call from Jiang Li.

Jiang Li is her good friend, both of them are lawyers.

The difference is that Jiang Li stayed in Beicheng after graduating with a master's degree. Now he is a third-year lawyer in a foreign firm with a stable annual revenue performance of the top three in the world. He is doing business in the direction of mergers and acquisitions. He has high income and high-intensity work. In daily life, when projects pile up, there are also 100 hours of work in a week.

She obviously stayed up all night in the law firm again. When the phone was picked up, there were her long yawns and the clinking of coffee spoons and cups. Her voice was sleepy and vague: "Chengcheng, your birthday wish is not Is it to torture Jiang Xianghuai?"

Zhou Zhicheng paused as he went upstairs, not understanding why she mentioned him.

"Mindy's partner who led the team to the countryside to our hometown is Jiang Xianghuai. Either Mingdy is crazy or Jiang Xianghuai is crazy. A blood-sucking capitalist, money-making machine, and noble son from a family of law scholars actually went to the countryside for legal aid. The program team did not Let me tell you, is he the one who came here? It’s strange that he, a barrister in the capital market, goes to the county to file a lawsuit. What is he trying to do? He has fame and wealth.”

Lawyer Xia Mingning did not tell Zhou Zhicheng that the person who led the team was Jiang Xianghuai, her ex-boyfriend.

She was slightly distracted, just as she went up to the second floor, when she raised her eyes, she saw a few people standing at the door of the Kailun Law Firm. Her eyes paused and fell on the familiar yet unfamiliar figure in the middle.

Heart dropped.

On the first day of her 27th birthday, she met Jiang Xianghuai again in Nanri County.

He was standing in front of the simple white and blue signboard of the county law firm. He was wearing a pure black suit with a tall and straight silhouette. His back was facing her. There were two young boys standing beside him, who should be interns of Mindy Law Firm. lawyer.

A boy saw Zhou Zhicheng, pulled Jiang Xianghuai's arm, and nicknamed her: "Brother, the county lawyer is here."

Jiang Xianghuai turned around.

The eyes of the two met. He had a pair of good-looking eyes. He was not nearsighted, so his eyeballs would not float up slightly. There was only a shallow crease in his double eyelids, and his pupils were very black.

Zhou Zhicheng hung up Jiang Li's call first.

Jiang Xianghuai smiled at her gently: "Hello, you are lawyer Zhou Zhicheng from Kailun Law Firm, right? I'm Jiang Xianghuai, a partner of Mingdi Law Firm."

It was as polite as meeting strangers for the first time.

How dare he?

Ten years ago, the first sentence he said to her was the same.

At that time, the late and rebellious she skipped the cram school and played games in the Internet cafe in the dark, surrounded by smoke and dim lights, but suddenly a man's face appeared behind her computer screen, with smiling eyes and eyes Bright.

He glanced at her, checked the photos on his phone, and then leaned down slightly: "Hi, you are Zhou Zhicheng who skipped class, right? I'm Jiang Xianghuai, your brother came to arrest you .”

At that time, she ignored him, just glanced at him expressionlessly, and continued to fight in the game. The reason was very simple, she would not give face to her brother if he came in person.

Ten years later, she has changed from that bad girl in a small town to a well-known good-tempered lawyer Zhou in Nanri County.

But she still had the same reaction as before.

She ignored him, walked around him, opened the door of the law firm, and only smiled at the other two boys: "Come in, Kailun Law Firm welcomes you."

Except for Jiang Xianghuai.

Zhao Yanjia silently added this sentence in his heart. He is Jiang Xianghuai's cousin, and also a despised landlord's silly young master who entered the law firm through the back door for an internship. He is known as the VIP of the law firm.

This was the first time he saw Lawyer Jiang's hot face sticking to someone's cold ass. He couldn't hold back, and laughed out loud. After laughing, he was worried that his brother would bear the grudge, so he gritted his teeth against his will, filled with righteous indignation: "This little girl The local women in the county are just ignorant, blind, and cowardly! How dare they ignore our famous Jiang Par!"

After the trio of Mindy entered the law firm, the other lawyers from Kailun Law Firm have not yet come.

What they participated in was a law popularization documentary produced by Beicheng TV Station, which focused on the daily case handling of grassroots litigators in townships. A few people also joined the law-enhancing action in the countryside, which is why the trio of Mindy will come to participate in the show.

And Kailun Law Firm's participation in the recording was arranged by Zhou Zhicheng.

Her master, lawyer He Kailun, often said that Kailun Law Firm is the largest law firm in the universe, but in fact, let alone the universe, even the number one law firm in Nanri County is not even close to it. Lun, there are only two lawyers in the firm, He Kailun and his son He Yanming. It is a typical family small "workshop" type listed law firm, small-scale, without system, without case sources, and without elites.

Therefore, she participated in this law popularization program, firstly because of favors, Xia Mingning, a partner of Mingdi Law Firm, helped her a lot in the past, secondly, to contribute a little to the law popularization, and thirdly, to increase the popularity of Kailun Law Firm and expand case source.

Zhou Zhicheng took out the tea set from her master's office, boiled water, and planned to make tea for guests.

Zhao Yanjia did not stay with the other two, but followed Zhou Zhicheng like brown sugar: "Lawyer Zhou, my name is Zhao Yanjia, and I am Jiang Xianghuai's cousin..."

Zhou Zhicheng had known Jiang Xianghuai for so many years, so he had naturally heard of his name.

"Well, can I ask you a question?" He lowered his voice, mysteriously, "Are you the same ex-girlfriend who dumped my brother five years ago?"

Turn black and white.

She didn't even move her eyelids: "Did your brother say that?"

"Of course not. My brother has a stubborn mouth. Even if I become a eunuch, he will never admit that he was dumped by a woman. I saw that he was in a bad mood during that time. Besides, I want to use my brother's mobile phone to contact me in the morning. You just found out that my brother's mobile phone number and WeChat account have been blocked by you, there is no love-hate entanglement, how could he be blocked."

"You become a eunuch?"

"It's just an exaggeration, in order to express the impossible, understand?"

"I don't understand." She really didn't understand the language proficiency of this young master who went abroad for gilding since high school.

Zhao Yanjia didn't care either, and gossiped in a breathy tone: "You know what? After my brother was dumped, he was overly sad and quit smoking and drinking. I heard that his ex-girlfriend disliked him for drinking and smoking."

Hearing this, Zhou Zhicheng stopped pouring water, but the water from the spout of the pot continued to pour out, overflowing the cup, and her fingertips were scalded, before she regained consciousness, consciously losing her composure , withdrew his hand, took out a wet tissue from the side, and wiped his fingertips.

Jiang Xianghuai used to have a lot of work pressure, smoking and drinking were very fierce, but quitting, it should have nothing to do with her, although when they separated, she lost her composure and scolded him for smoking and drinking, being sensitive and arrogant, and she would never like him again.

She made up her mind to leave him back then because she was heartbroken by his indifference, but returning to her hometown to work was also an important decision she made after careful consideration. At that time, her grandfather who loved her was sick, and she didn't want to have a son who wanted to support her. She wants to do litigation more than non-litigation business in the capital market, and she also believes that she will have a new career in Nanri County, as long as she is willing to work hard for it.

Zhao Yanjia sized up Zhou Zhicheng for a while, stared at her face, and finally completed the logical self-consistent: "Forget it, that woman should not be you. Although you are good-looking, you are not what my brother would like." That type, you are people from two worlds."

"..." Zhou Zhicheng was ready for what he was going to say about the differences between the two classes.

As a result, he stretched his waist: "He is a lawyer in the city, and you are a lawyer in the countryside."

"..."

"He's a non-litigation attorney, you're a litigator."

"..."

"He does equity mergers and acquisitions in the capital market, and you do debt collection, divorce and fights."

"You just say that he is a man and I am a woman."

Zhao Yanjia agreed: "It's okay, it's barely a reason."

Zhou Zhicheng was amused by him.

After Zhao Yanjia left, not long after, someone came over again.

Zhou Zhicheng knew it was Jiang Xianghuai without looking up. He looked at her and asked gently, "What did you talk about with Yan Jia? He is my cousin. You haven't seen him before. He was studying in the United States before."

He doesn't pretend to be a stranger now, he is familiar with the modification, as if there is no gap of five years between the two, and there is no painful break before separation.

Jiang Xianghuai leaned forward to take a cup of tea, Zhou Zhicheng subconsciously glanced at his hand.

Straight and thin, the nails are clean and healthy, and the knuckles of the middle finger have thin calluses that have been grinded by holding a pen for many years. In addition, the yellow marks left by smoking fiercely, have disappeared.

Jiang Xianghuai knew what she was looking at, and smiled calmly: "You said you hate smoking and drinking too much. Once you hate smoking, you won't contact me for five years. If I don't quit, I'm afraid I won't be able to talk to you in this life."

It was just angry words, it wasn't like that between them at all, she didn't want to let herself lose her composure and argue, and thought distractedly, she didn't like people smoking, but when she was in love with her head, he was the exception.

She even took a photo of him leaning against the car door and smoking.

It was his birthday, and coincidentally, they both had the same birthday, so it was her birthday too.

She had just celebrated her birthday with her classmates, and when she returned to the dormitory, she received a message from him. He took a photo of the cake and asked her, "Chengcheng, do you want a cake? I'm at the gate of your school."

When she ran out of the school desperately, it was the first time that she felt that such a small campus was so big. She seemed to have run for a long time before reaching the gate.

Jiang Xianghuai was standing next to his black car, the street lights were dim, the light was hazy and foggy, he lowered his head slightly, the changes in light and shadow reflected his sharp lines, his eyelids were drooping, he was biting a cigarette in his mouth, his cheeks were slightly sunken , The scarlet cigarette butts are on and off, and the smoke is lingering.

She couldn't see his expression clearly, but she could feel that he seemed to be in a bad mood.

Is there no one to celebrate his birthday with him?

If Jiang Li had been there at that time, he would have woken her up with a precise needle: "Wake up, don't feel sorry for men, women who want to line up to accompany Jiang counselor to celebrate her birthday will not be able to complete a hundred detours."