Chapter 103

(Every single line spoken by Gu Liang, was like a knife stabbing into Yang Ye’s heart)

The night was deep and heavy.

The windows to the bedroom were closed to prevent bugs from entering.

The mosquito-repellent incense was diffusing wisps of smoke soundlessly. The entire room was quiet, except for the noise of an electric fan turning.

Gu Liang sat opposite of Yang Ye, his hands clasped together, making it apparent that he was slightly unsettled.

When Yang Ye heard that sentence, he knew that his small and pitiful Gu Liang Liang was refusing to forgive himself again. He probably felt that after he heard his story, he would stop loving him immediately.

But Yang Ye did not say anything for the time being.

Noting that he was sitting too close to the electric fan, Yang Ye merely stood up to help him s.h.i.+ft the electric fan further away before turning it away slightly, lest it blew at Gu Liang’s back constantly.

After doing that, Yang Ye sat down in front of Gu Liang once more, quietly waiting for him to speak.

Even though Yang Ye did not utter a word, his simple gesture still managed to comfort Gu Liang.

Grip relaxing, Gu Liang placed his hands on the armrest, looking at Yang Ye as he retold his own story.

After Gu Liang’s mother went through the divorce, her psychological state was not in the best place. Her blood pressure could not be suppressed, and in addition to the sleepless nights and being overly heart-broken, it resulted in issues in her hormone secretion. Owing to the abnormalities in her hormones, problems started cropping up in her thyroid gland and mammary glands, so she would have a run-in with the hospital every two to three days.

During Senior High, Gu Liang would usually be taking care of his mother besides attending school.

Afterwards, his mother’s body did become better, albeit slowly, but her illness was never completely cured, so frequent trips to the hospital were still unavoidable.

w.a.n.g Qing was a patient that Gu Liang’s mother had met when she was staying in the hospital. Both of them had their own children, which meant that they had a lot of common topics, and they became friends.

The only difference was that w.a.n.g Qing was not raising a son, but a daughter.

w.a.n.g Qing would frequently joke to Gu Liang’s mother about how Gu Liang was too outstanding, and if it were not for the fact that her daughter had been born late and too young for him, she would have wanted her daughter to marry Gu Liang.

Two years after Gu Liang graduated from university, w.a.n.g Qing’s daughter was seven.

It was also that year when an accident happened to her.

On a certain weekend, w.a.n.g Qing went to work an additional s.h.i.+ft.

Her daughter and her friends were playing at home. They were playing hide-and-seek.

As they were laughing and playing around, her daughter tried to hide inside the closet and let her friends find her.

w.a.n.g Qing had installed a kind of closet where the upper half was a large clothing rack while the lower half had two rows of smaller drawers in her house.

The young girl had pulled open the drawer, stepping on it to climb up, but when she climbed into the larger compartment, the closet had fallen down, directly crus.h.i.+ng her underneath.

Just like that, her daughter died, and w.a.n.g Qing sank into despair immediately.

Her family’s financial situation was not good at all; the renovations in her home, including the installation of that new closet had nearly exhausted all her savings.

But she wanted to register a complaint against that furniture company, and she could only ask Gu Liang for help.

Truth to be told, this case was not within Gu Liang’s specialisation. Furthermore, his law firm did allow him to privately accept cases.

Gu Liang had only agreed to help w.a.n.g Qing and ask his leader for permission under his mother’s request.

His leader had looked over this case with him, and he directly said that the significance of filing a lawsuit was not large.

The related safety directions and precautions for that furniture company were very clearly stated.

It was a well-known brand, its relevant risk management procedures were already relatively mature, and the furniture’s quality inspection complied with the standards too.

The reason why the accident happened was because they did not have the time to fasten the closet properly.

The brand was responsible for sending the product and installing it safely. It was just sent two day ago, but a small problem had appeared in the components for fixing up the closet. During the installation, the installation worker had noticed that a component was damaged, and they had no way of fixing up the closet.

The installation worker could only instruct w.a.n.g Qing, saying that they had to wait for the general headquarters factory to send the component over. Once they received the item in two days, they would bring the component to the door and install it. They asked her not to use the closet for the next few days, because there were issues with its safety.

Certainly, the brand was responsible for the tragedy, but w.a.n.g Qing also bore the responsibility.

w.a.n.g Qing did not take particular heed of the installation worker’s words. For one, she really did not expect that such a tragedy would occur, which led to the situation where she did not instruct her child, and secondly, she did not ask someone to look after her child while she was taking an additional s.h.i.+ft.

This lawsuit would be very hard to litigate, and the possibility of winning was incredibly small.

That was because the installation worker had told w.a.n.g Qing not to use the closet for the next two days, since it was not set rigidly in place, and that conversation had actually been recorded.

“There is no possibility of winning this lawsuit. At most, it would create some unfavourable public opinion for the brand, and asking for sufficient compensation would be the best outcome. You can help her in this case out of your personal feelings, but this isn’t a case that the law firm is willing to take, because we’re not a charitable organisation after all. Hence, it’s alright if you want to help but don’t let it delay our usual work and the process of the other cases.

“Lastly, you need to have an adequate grasp of propriety; don’t let this case affect our law firm’s reputation if a problem appears. Otherwise, no matter how much importance I attach to you… when that time comes around, I’m afraid I would have no choice but to make you leave.

“Honestly speaking, I genuinely suggest that you don’t concern yourself over this matter. When it comes to cases where human lives are involved, you would be leaving a bad taste all over your body if it’s poorly handled.”

This was the suggestion and counsel that Gu Liang had received from his leader.

At that time, Gu Liang only wanted to help his mother’s friend, and he was just treating this as a part of his job, except he was doing it pro bono. He did not antic.i.p.ate that this would bring such a large impact on him and his mother.

Gu Liang had done his investigation and research in all seriousness, making the most out of his professional work time and treating this case with the gravitas it deserved.

The recording that the installation worker made back then was an extremely disadvantageous point for w.a.n.g Qing.

Gu Liang could only look for the design flaws in the wardrobe installation, and the gaps in the installation procedures.

In the end, Gu Liang found two critical issues in the opposing party.

The first was a design flaw.

In order to make a show of being unconventional and original, the screws and other components that were used to fix up the wardrobe were extremely special. Once it was damaged, suitable replacements could not be found at local hardware stores and they could wait for the general headquarters factory to re-deliver the component before they could proceed with the installation.

They did not need to have special design when it came to the components that would set the furniture rigidly into place, and to a certain degree, it became a safety hazard, which meant that it was a type of design flaw.

The second was an installation issue.

This wardrobe needed to be fastened on all four corners. When the wardrobe in w.a.n.g Qing’s house was being installed, only one of the closet corner’s components had an issue. If they had installed the other three corners, the wardrobe would actually be relatively stable, and the child would not have lost her life because of it.

After catching these two deficiencies, Gu Liang helped w.a.n.g Qing file a lawsuit, then contacted the brand’s lawyer to begin a long and slow negotiation.

Truthfully speaking, Gu Liang did not want to fight a war of opinion at the start.

He and w.a.n.g Qing had neither the money nor power. If they were to agitate such a big brand from the get-go, it would not be beneficial to them at all. That company had a PR department; if they wanted to go as far as to buy water armies to create opinion, their side would sink into a pa.s.sive state instead.

However, w.a.n.g Qing’s protest was still noticed in the end. A news media interviewed w.a.n.g Qing, and proceeded to expose the matter on the internet.

This incident fermented particularly fast on Weibo.

Everything that happened afterwards was beyond Gu Liang’s control.

Numerous news media seized the chance to create momentum and started scolding the brand loudly.

The brand lawyer was originally still negotiating with Gu Liang. However, given how it had devolved, the brand also started thinking that Gu Liang’s side had resorted to methods that did not conform to the standard practices. The negotiations for compensation were originally going well, why were they suddenly using public opinion to attack them?

The brand’s PR department moved quickly. The installation worker’s recording and the detailed sequence of events were all publicised on the internet.

Simultaneously, the company bought a batch of marketing accounts and water armies to control the rhythm to turn around and attack w.a.n.g Qing, saying that she was using her daughter’s death to extort money.

The installation worker clearly told her that the wardrobe was not properly set-up, and would pose a safety risk. She was the one who failed to take care of her child properly, the blame was not the brand.

Even though the matter had reached this stage, it was not completely unsalvageable.

The negotiations between Gu Liang and the brand’s lawyers were still going smoothly.

The other lawyer had a daughter as well, and moreover, this was just another job he was doing under the brand if they wanted to speak bluntly.

People had to conduct themselves with an innate sense of right and wrong, plus they had to consider the aspect of humanism. It was just that he was receiving a salary so he had to work, and his work consisted of protecting the brand’s reputation. However, he did relay the brand’s opinion, wherein they were willing to give compensation.

Gu Liang was of the similar opinion that filing a lawsuit was actually unnecessary.

Putting aside how the first instance and second instance (of law) would drag on for a few years, the settlement in front of court would be no different.

Gu Liang’s main objective was to negotiate the sum of compensation, the apology declaration, and the optimal way to control the opinion.

Truth to be told, the brand was not willing to resort to such tactics either.

No one wished for the repeat of the tragedy, and they were also trying to control the stream of opinion the best they could.

But the other consideration that the brand had was that if they had to officially publish a formal declaration, how should they minimise the amount of damages they would incur. After all, if they were to publish a formal apology, it would be equivalent to admitting fault. If they did not give a proper explanation of the follow-up risk control, it would have a terrible impact on their business.

For the same reason, this matter dragged on for a period of time, and the progress was not very fast.

w.a.n.g Qing, because of her daughter’s death at the forefront, and later scolded by the people on the internet for not taking proper care of her child, was stimulated to the point where she had to go to the hospital for emergency rescue, and she nearly failed to wake up.

After coming out from the intensive care unit, all sorts of bills from home loans to other types, had already smashed down on w.a.n.g Qing like snow.

Gu Liang believed that w.a.n.g Qing needed the money.

Her daughter was gone, but she still had a very long life ahead.

Hence, Gu Liang also discussed this with her, suggesting that they should have a conciliation in court and accept the compensation.

Of course, the brand would also be issuing an apology statement and the optimising of the risk control, to ensure that such incidents would occur as little as possible.

For full disclosure, if they were to fight it out in court for a few years, the final and best conclusion might not necessarily be like this.

But it was not the same in w.a.n.g Qing’s eyes.

Her views were from the previous generation: she believed that once she reconciled in court, it would be equivalent to admitting that the incident was her and her daughter’s fault entirely, and the brand would share no part of the blame.

Furthermore, she believed that this would also mean that the accusatory rumours against her on the internet would be cemented— like she was really the type of person who would use her daughter’s death to extort money.

She persisted in wanting to file a lawsuit, and she wanted to win.

When Gu Liang was talking to her about this, she was still lying on the sick bed.

Gu Liang had a.s.sumed that she could not accept that view at the moment.

That when she recovered from her illness, he just needed to explain to her the merits and drawbacks clearly.

But Gu Liang had neglected the power of public opinion.

The news media that had noticed the fact that w.a.n.g Qing’s daughter died due to a wardrobe malfunction, was still following this case.

They even went as far as stalking Gu Liang negotiating the matter with the brand.

They discovered that Gu Liang’s mother was also staying in the hospital, and his family conditions were average at best.

Lastly, they heard Gu Liang discussing the conciliation in court with the other party.

Hence, they were of the opinion that Gu Liang was only doing this because he had received the brand’s money.

The public opinion went from scolding the brand to scolding w.a.n.g Qing, and then another reversal happened again, where they started to attack the brand again, bringing in w.a.n.g Qing’s representative lawyer Gu Liang this time around.

The picture of Gu Liang being invited to a meal by the brand’s lawyer, and the details of their negotiated compensation were published on Weibo by them, with an attached statement that Gu Liang had accepted their “bribe”.

In a short span of time, all the information about Gu Liang was dug out by other people. His pictures and educational history were all exposed before the world.

This included the fact that his father’s h.o.m.os.e.xuality and extramarital affair, which also became an attacking point for the internet.

When he opened Weibo, all he saw was accusations and derision against him. Thus, Gu Liang deleted his Weibo.

When he reached his company, what awaited him was the cessation of his work.

Because his other clients had started doubting his moral character and capabilities.

Next was the HR department, his leader talked to him, and the portion of colleagues who distrusted him whispered and shot him suspicious gazes.

Gu Liang had no choice but to resign.

The matter was not over yet despite reaching this stage.

w.a.n.g Qing also believed the narrative constructed by the news media that interviewed her, as well as the rumours and slander on the internet.

When Gu Liang went to see her afterwards, he was still hoping that she could obtain the compensation.

Gu Liang tried to a.n.a.lyse it for her: the possibility of winning the court case was absurdly small, whereas if they went for a conciliation in court, the possibility that he could win the compensation for her was extremely high, which could resolve the issue of her not being able to pay for her intensive care unit.

And if they were to drag the court case for a few more years, she would have collapsed from the strain, to say nothing of how much compensation she could receive by the end of it.

But Gu Liang only had to mention the words “conciliation in court” before w.a.n.g Qing became completely unresponsive; she had suspected that Gu Liang had genuinely betrayed her.

The meaning of “conciliation” in law, was not something w.a.n.g Qing understood.

In her eyes, “conciliation” meant betraying her daughter, and forgiving the brand.

This reasoning was something that Gu Liang only understood in hindsight.

Back then, he only a.s.sumed that w.a.n.g Qing could not comprehend his suggestion because her emotions were unstable.

Gu Liang never expected that w.a.n.g Qing was already on the brink of collapsing back then, having been completely worn down by the a.s.sault of public opinion. And with Gu Liang mentioning the “conciliation” again, it might have become the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

When Gu Liang received the message that hinted at her possible suicide, he had run over to her house like a madman, called the police, and asked any neighbour who could have known where she went. In the end, it was the gatekeeper uncle at w.a.n.g Qing’s small community that told him that she might be heading towards a nearby park.

Gu Liang ran to the park until he reached the man-made lake, and then he saw w.a.n.g Qing preparing to jump into the lake as she carried her daughter’s school bag.

By the time Gu Liang raced for her, she had already jumped down.

Gu Liang followed her in jumping, and in the process of trying to save her, he had drowned to death.

He was saved, but w.a.n.g Qing still died in the end.

After that, the public opinion continued to burgeon.

For the sake of mitigating the damages that the public opinion was doing to their business, the brand’s PR team started to push the waves and add to the billows intentionally or otherwise, thus pus.h.i.+ng the origin of the tragedy to Gu Liang.

Gu Liang became the target of a mult.i.tude of arrows; he became the unforgivable figure in the entire narrative.

Naturally, Gu Liang’s mother also saw the speech that attacked Gu Liang and his father.

She felt extremely guilty, believing that she should not have asked Gu Liang to take on w.a.n.g Qing’s case.

It was all her fault, it was because of her that Gu Liang was being battered so badly.

Self-blame, guilt, and seeing all the posts that had dug out Gu Liang’s father, made Gu Liang’s mother so angry that her heart disease relapsed.

Fortunately, Gu Liang was by her side back then. He called for the ambulance and gave her emergency treatment, which temporarily preserved his mother’s life.

But there were instances where life was as such: just when you were met with a mishap, and you barely managed to get through it, you will discover that countless misfortunes will soon follow on your heels, as if the Heavens was out to make life difficult for you.

While his mother was lying flat on the sofa to rest, Gu Liang received a phone call from the ambulance, stating that owing to the rain, a car accident had occurred on the highway. The situation at that moment was not optimistic at all, and they were trying to dispatch another ambulance, but it would be better if Gu Liang had a second course of action, like calling a taxi to allow the driver to go to the highway to fetch the doctor and nurse, and see whether if that was feasible.

Gu Liang had used nitroglycerine on his mother, so he promptly asked his neighbours to look after his mother and ensure that she did not move while he went to the entrance of the small community to call for a taxi.

Taxis were notoriously difficult to flag during rainy days.

After flagging down a taxi with much difficulty, Gu Liang was just about to explain the situation to the driver when the driver glanced at his phone and then looked at Gu Liang. “Huh? Aren’t you that trash lawyer? Like I would allow you to get on my car!”

The driver stepped on his accelerator and drove off with his car.

It was only after a full ten minutes that Gu Liang managed to flag down a second car.

By then, the main issue that Gu Liang’s mother had, which was her blood pressure, could no longer be repressed. In reality, her heart problem had also originated from her high blood pressure.

After a long delay before finally reaching the hospital, his mother had already sunk into a coma.

The brain damage caused by her high blood pressure made Gu Liang’s mother sink into a coma for a long time.

When she woke up later, she did not live for long before she pa.s.sed away as well.

He did not know if it was because these events had been covered by his psychologist, or he had suffered a terrifying punishment during the day and his mental state was already relatively calm by then, recounting these events were not as difficult as Gu Liang had originally imagined.

He only felt tired.

After speaking about all these things, he felt like all his strength was exhausted and he was weary down to his bones.

As he was retelling the past events and looking back on the first half of his life, Gu Liang could not remember fear, anxiety, pain, or fatigue.

Right now, he felt like he had been through a dream.

To the extent where it was giving rise to the impression that he did not personally experience all those events.

‘As if it was a lifetime ago’, that was probably his current feeling.

But every single line spoken by Gu Liang, was like a knife stabbing into Yang Ye’s heart.

His heart was in so much pain that he could not speak.

When he had been unaware of his situation prior to this, he had secretly sighed with emotion that it was not necessary for him to regret the fact that they had met late. He had thought that, maybe the time wherehe and Gu Liang met was just right.

But presently, he felt like, not only was their chance encounter too late, their chance encounter was far, far too late.

He really wanted to travel back to all those years ago and tell Gu Liang, none of this was his fault.

He wanted to travel back even further, and tell Gu Liang not to care about the case at all.

It was to the point where he wanted to go back to Gu Liang’s Senior High era, and keep close to him from that point onwards, protecting him, taking care of him, and ensuring that he would never suffer from the darkness and bitter pains that the world had given him.

He also recalled that he had asked if Gu Liang even used Weibo, such that he was actually unaware of the “Liang Liang” joke. He really wanted to give his past self a tight slap, lest he asked a question he should not have asked at all.

Gu Liang was not born to be a so-called “veteran cadre” or “old antique”; he was supposed to be like every other young person, going online and browsing forums, knowing how to scroll Weibo to look for interesting posts.

It was because he had been attacked and hurt by people on those Weibo posts, that he no longer used such software.

At the present moment.

Gu Liang raised his eyes to look at Yang Ye before he stated: “I failed to realise what w.a.n.g Qing truly cared about.

“Against the internet who scolded her for the money extortion, against the poisonous slander that her daughter had been looking for her own death, in addition to the undeniable reality that her daughter was already dead… She didn’t care about how much compensation she received at all, she was certain that her daughter’s death, and the public’s criticism of her, was the fault of the company.

“She would never have accepted the word ‘reconciliation’.”

“’Reconciliation’ normally refers to two opposing parties settling their disputes and restoring friendly relations; but in the court of law, it refers to an agreement reached between the persons involved in the lawsuit to resolve and end the litigation. It merely cites that without going through a court decision, the persons involved have reached an unanimous agreement, thereby settling the dispute voluntarily.

“It’s my fault for not explaining this clearly to w.a.n.g Qing, which led to…”

After he had concluded his story and recollection, Gu Liang also felt slightly uneasy when he looked at Yang Ye.

Rationally speaking, he knew that Yang Ye would definitely believe him.

But when those events happened that year, nearly everyone was scolding him, and cursing at him.

Even his university school senior, whom he had respected and trusted, had asked him if he had accepted that company’s bribe.

After a long time, Gu Liang spoke: “You… Why aren’t you saying anything?”

After asking that question, Gu Liang lowered his head, not looking into Yang Ye’s eyes again.

Simultaneously, he clasped his hands together once more, the red cord on his wrist so conspicuous that it was eye-piercing.

After a long while, Yang Ye’s deep voice rang out. “I’m scared that I can’t stop myself from scolding them, and let you hear just how dirty my profanities can be.

“Gu Liang, you’ve already handled everything exceptionally, exceptionally well.

“If it was me, I would definitely retaliate. Those dumbf.u.c.k keyboard warriors, those people who only know how to create topics to attract traffic, and those conscience-lacking news media that don’t even care for the truth and facts… Gu Liang, they are the ones to blame, not you. It has never been you.”

In that instant, Gu Liang’s eyes became wet.

After everything happened, he did not dare to feel wronged for himself.

Because he believed that it was his fault.

He was carrying two lives on his back, namely his mother’s and w.a.n.g Qing’s, how could he possibly dare to feel wronged?

How could he possibly be unaware of the logic that Yang Ye was trying to convey?

But he did not want to find an excuse for himself.

Admittedly, the news media that created said rumours and the internet commenters who went with the flow had their mistakes, but he believed that he bore a huge part of the responsibility too.

After all, he did not consider everything, the way he thought about problems was far too rational, and he did not take note of the problems present in the mental state of the people involved. He was not meticulous enough, he did not think she would misunderstand because she neither understood the law nor its corresponding terminology. Under such circ.u.mstances, her method of looking at the issue would have a discrepancy from his…

When all was said and done, the way he handled the case was insufficient and inappropriate.

Gu Liang had already admitted to this a long time ago.

Under such circ.u.mstances, against the rumours, the flesh-tearing and malicious a.s.sault, he was not allowed to feel wronged, and he had convinced himself that there was nothing he should be complaining about.

He had a healthy body and mind, he could learn, work, earn a salary, and enliven himself.

He could slowly make everything become better, and he accomplished it in the end.

He sought treatment, took medicine, started working again, got promoted and earned a higher salary, up until now.

He did not know if he was more liable to being soft-hearted and affective after he entered a relations.h.i.+p, but after so many years, as he was telling Yang Ye about those past events in the present moment, Gu Liang unexpectedly felt that small speck of grievance.

And then Gu Liang realised that he had been pulled up by Yang Ye, and into a hug.

After another long moment, Yang Ye cupped his face and kissed away his tears.

“Gu Liang, you’re such a good person, I don’t believe that the Heavens are that blind, it must have only… only given you all the bitter sufferings that a person has to experience in advance. You’ve already made it past that pit, what’s waiting for you in the future will only be good days. You will definitely be especially, especially blissful, and I will always, always be with you.”

The damp and humid temperature declared that a rain shower was about to arrive.

In that instant, a strike of thunder descended with a flash, and rain started to fall from the skies.

Gu Liang raised his arms. It was like he could no longer feel the pain coming from the small and densely packed wounds under the gauze.

Carefully, he used his fingers to touch his jaw, like he was trying to confirm if Yang Ye was really there.

Gu Liang’s eyes seemed a little unfocused at the moment. “After using depressants, or medication to treat depression, sometimes hallucinations that are absolutely wondrous will appear, giving people the illusion of a tranquil mood.

“Yang Ye, could it be that you’re actually a person in my dream—”

Yang Ye asked him in a low voice: “Do you want to try and confirm it?”

“Mn… Yes.”

Gu Liang laughed, holding Yang Ye’s face with both hands to tilt it towards his lips, before he leaned over and kissed it gently.

Gu Liang Deserves A Hug :’)