Blank Charge

Every afternoon when school was over, there was always heavy traffic congestion near Hongpingguo Elementary School, filled with parents driving to pick up their children after school.

Jin Zhou walked to the entrance of the elementary school. Many parents had already stretched their necks to look inside the school, afraid of missing the sight of their own children.

After waiting for a while, the sound of noisy footsteps echoed from the teaching building, and the children with backpacks ran towards the school gate like released cattle and sheep.

“Luo Zihao!” Seeing a familiar figure, Jin Zhou put his left hand in his pocket and raised his right hand to wave.

Most of the other parents around him were not taller than 1.7 meters, making him particularly easily noticeable in the crowd.

Luo Zihao came to Jin Zhou’s side, looked around, and put on his iconic sour face, frowning and asking, “Where’s my mom?”

“Your mom has something to do.” Jin Zhou put his right hand back in his pocket.

“I will take you to my place first, and your mom will come to pick you up later.” Jin Zhou said as he started walking forward. “Keep up, if you get kidnapped, I won’t be responsible.”

“How do I know you’re not a bad person?” Although Luo Zihao said this, he still followed Jin Zhou’s pace. “I’ve seen a lot of news like this, where people pretend to be friends with children’s moms and team up with traffickers to kidnap them.”

“You sure know a lot for such a little brat.” Jin Zhou turned his head slightly and looked at Luo Zihao, who only reached his waist in height. “I’m a lawyer. Do you know what lawyers do?”

“I know.” Luo Zihao slightly softened his sour face. “My mom told me they help people with lawsuits.”

“It’s good that you know.” Jin Zhou said, “So lawyers can’t be bad people.”

Just as he finished speaking, a plastic water bottle suddenly appeared and flew towards Jin Zhou.

He quickly reached out to protect Luo Zihao, and followed the direction from where the water bottle was thrown, only to see a little girl with double ponytails and wearing a pink princess dress crying, saying, “I don’t want Peppa Pig!”

A young woman beside her hurriedly soothed her, “Okay, okay, Mommy will buy you a new one.”

Jin Zhou looked down and saw that the water bottle that was thrown at him had the Peppa Pig design.

The parent walked up to Jin Zhou and said, “Sorry,” then bent down to pick up the water bottle.

Jin Zhou continued walking with Luo Zihao, and when they were far from the crowd, he looked at the top of Luo Zihao’s head and asked, “What’s wrong with Peppa Pig?”

“I don’t know.” Luo Zihao said indifferently, “She doesn’t seem to like it.”

“If she doesn’t like it, why bother buying her a new one?” Jin Zhou clicked his tongue and muttered under his breath, “Why are kids nowadays so unreasonable?”

If Jin Zhou were a parent, he would definitely let the little girl pick up the water bottle herself. If she didn’t pick it up, fine, she wouldn’t go anywhere else and stay at the school gate overnight until she picked it up.

“I’m also a kid,” Luo Zihao glared at Jin Zhou unhappily, “You talking bad about her in front of me shows that you’re also unreasonable.”

Jin Zhou: “…Damn it.”

Jin Zhou took Luo Zihao to the repair shop. At that time, Xiao Wu, Yu He, and Sun Yi had ordered takeout and were gathered together having dinner.

After giving a few instructions to the others, Jin Zhou greeted Luo Xueqing and leisurely strolled back to Yang Shiyu’s house.

Seeing the lights on in the house, Jin Zhou was slightly surprised, “Wife, did you finish work early today?”

The sound of utensils clinking inside the house were heard, but Yang Shiyu didn’t respond.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jin Zhou walked into the kitchen, took out a bowl to fill it with the meal, but when he opened the rice cooker, it was empty.

“You didn’t make mine?” Jin Zhou became even more puzzled. He held a pair of chopsticks and sat down at the dining table, intending to pick up the dishes at the table and eat, but Yang Shiyu’s chopsticks stopped him.

“If you want to eat, cook it yourself,” Yang Shiyu said calmly.

“No, are you still mad at me?” Jin Zhou put down his chopsticks in confusion, “I don’t even know what I did to upset you this time.”

“You didn’t upset me,” Yang Shiyu said calmly, “I just don’t want you to come watch me in court anymore.”

“If you don’t want me to watch, then I won’t watch,” Jin Zhou also became annoyed. He hadn’t done anything wrong, so why should he endure Yang Shiyu’s bad mood?

Jin Zhou silently went to serve himself a bowl of noodles.

After dinner, Yang Shiyu went to the study to work, while Jin Zhou sat on the sofa watching TV. Neither of them paid any attention to the other.

Two hours passed, and in the end, Jin Zhou couldn’t hold back anymore. He gave up on searching “what to do when wife is inexplicably angry” on Baidu and went into the bathroom, turning on the showerhead but suddenly let out a loud “Ah.”

Within two seconds, the bathroom door was forcefully pushed open from the outside, revealing a panicked figure.

Jin Zhou sat calmly on the toilet seat, shutting off the showerhead and said to Yang Shiyu, “Wife, so you still care about me.”

With a “bang,” Yang Shiyu shut the bathroom door behind him.

“Hey, wait!” While Yang Shiyu hadn’t entered the study yet, Jin Zhou quickly caught up, grabbing his wrist.

“I’m sorry.” After searching on Baidu for a while, Jin Zhou could only come to that conclusion – no matter what, apologize first.

Yang Shiyu didn’t move forward, turning his head to look at Jin Zhou. It was clear what he meant: continue.

“I shouldn’t have been there at the sacred courtroom,” Jin Zhou sincerely said, “I shouldn’t have imagined you being pressed down on the defendant’s seat, with my giant crotch making you moan.”

“… Did you really think about that while I was in court?” Yang Shiyu narrowed his eyes slightly.

Jin Zhou clearly sensed the danger in the air. He thought, why is he so difficult to appease? So It’s not okay to tell the truth either?.

He cleared his throat and said seriously, “No, just kidding, I was listening attentively. I remember every word the prosecutor said.”

Now Yang Shiyu’s face completely darkened, and he turned around to head back to the study.

An idea crossed Jin Zhou’s mind. He took a few steps forward and blocked the entrance to the study, looking at Yang Shiyu. “No way, are you mad at me for watching the prosecutor and not you?”

In the past, when Jin Zhou went to watch Yang Shiyu in court, he almost always focused on Yang Shiyu. Occasionally glancing at the prosecution and defense, but quickly returning his gaze to Yang Shiyu.

But earlier in court,  Jin Zhou became infatuated with the handsome guy, and the time he spent focusing on Yang Shiyu probably didn’t exceed two minutes.

Yang Shiyu furrowed his eyebrows slightly. “Move aside.”

“And you came home early today,” Jin Zhou continued as if he had discovered the secret of the universe, “Because you thought I would be waiting for you at home” The smile on his face became more and more audacious. “Not knowing, I received a call from a friend to help her pick up her son.”

Yang Shi Yu furrowed his brows even deeper. “Do you have nothing better to do?”

“It doesn’t matter whether I’m busy or not.” Jin Zhou raised a finger and gestured left and right. “So, it turns out you love me this much, Yang Shi Yu”

Jin Zhou couldn’t help but recall the previous discussions he had with Xiao Wu about love. In retrospect, his theories were completely wrong, but now he was certain that he had found out the secret to love—just appease them.

Although they hadn’t resolved important  issues between them, judging by the current situation, Jin Zhou was almost certain that in the future, it would be Yang Shi Yu begging for mercy under him.

“Do you still want to file a case?” The chilly voice interrupted Jin Zhou’s daydream, abruptly changing the topic from love to work.

“Well, uh,” he scratched the back of his head, trying to be more reserved, “can you help me with that?”

“I can,” Yang Shi Yu turned around and sat down in the living room. “But there are conditions.”

“Please don’t tell me it’s something related to…” Jin Zhou followed and sat on the couch, feeling a headache coming on. “Can we put aside these controversial issues for now?”

Now was not the time for negotiation; Jin Zhou knew very well that he didn’t have enough bargaining chips at the moment, so he couldn’t make Yang Shi Yu compromise.

“It’s not about that condition,” Yang Shi Yu said calmly.

“Alright then,” Jin Zhou said, “please go ahead and tell me.”

As long as it wasn’t a matter of principle, Jin Zhou was willing to consider it. Even if it meant not leaving the house for ten days, he could accept it. However, what Yang Shi Yu said next confused him.

Listening to Yang Shi Yu’s words, Jin Zhou stared blankly, unable to believe what he was hearing, and suddenly felt a surge of anger.

“Yang Shi Yu, you’re a judge,” he said angrily, “can’t you refrain from using such vulgar language?”

Jin Zhou admitted that he had a strange purified image of Yang Shi Yu.

Just as an outstanding class monitor couldn’t copy someone else’s homework, Yang Shi Yu, as a judge, should speak with justice and positivity, without any trace of profanity and vulgarness.

If he were to utter explicit words, it would greatly lower Jin Zhou’s opinion of him and he would lose all interest.

Wearing the golden-framed glasses to the bar previously had already made Jin Zhou very unhappy, let alone the last time Yang Shi Yu used his hand to help him while uttering such explicit words, which infuriated Jin Zhou.

“If you speak like that again—”

Just as Jin Zhou was angrily about to say something, Yang Shi Yu interrupted him, “So, do you prefer orally instead,”

Jin Zhou stared at Yang Shi Yu in astonishment, and just imagining that scene made his heart race. He moistened his lips with anticipation, blushing as he said to Yang Shi Yu, “Then… go ahead, yes.”