The Divorce Lawyer Is Very Hard To Flirt With - Chapter 97

Chapter 97: Say You Love Me

A chilling autumn rain began to fall.

The cities in Jiangnan always carried an air of misty melancholy.

When Ying Zhi’an parked her car in the familiar spot below Song Xidan’s apartment building, a light drizzle had started again.

Raindrops beat against the car window, trailing down and blurring the old complex and the hurried pedestrians outside into a hazy watercolor.

The car’s interior was quiet, isolated from the sound of the rain, leaving only her slightly accelerated heartbeat drumming in her ears.

Ying Zhi’an took a deep breath and took out the small velvet box containing the rings. The deep blue velvet felt fine to the touch. The small box was cupped in her palm, its edges pressing against her skin, sending a clear, real, and slight ache that strangely calmed her somewhat jumbled, nervous mood.

It’s just a confession!

There’s nothing to be afraid of!

Ying Zhi’an mentally encouraged herself. The System promptly emerged to join the fun: – ALERT! User heart rate detected at 108 beats/min, respiratory rate increased, cortisol levels slightly elevated, accompanied by slight palmar sweating and high concentration. Based on environmental positioning and recent user behavior data, the user is judged to have an extremely high probability of making an important emotional expression. System strongly recommends activating the ‘Say You Love Me’ auxiliary function for the ‘Confession’ scenario. This function provides: real-time emotional vocabulary prompts based on micro-expressions; optimal tone and intonation simulation calibration; and psychic magnetic field enhancement technology.

The System’s voice was as steady as ever, as if recommending the most common office software feature.

Ying Zhi’an had never trusted this romance-obsessed System. Furthermore, she preferred authenticity in everything—even if it was clumsy or incoherent. Her fingers caressed the ring box, and she decisively refused: “No need. A confession doesn’t need a preset script or an optimized plan.”

• However, data indicates that the vast majority of users experience ‘mind blanks’ and ‘incoherence’ during their first important emotional expression due to nervousness, severely diminishing the intended effect. The ‘Say You Love Me’ auxiliary function only provides basic framework support to prevent the omission of key information; the user retains freedom for self-expression.

“I said, no need.”

Ying Zhi’an’s tone showed a hint of impatience. However, the System’s interruption had greatly alleviated her nervousness!

• Understood. The suggestion to activate has been canceled for this instance.

The System seemed to pause, and the electronic voice also seemed to shift ever so slightly, as if incorporating some kind of human-like contingency logic. – The ‘Say You Love Me’ function, as one of the core safety auxiliary modules, remains on active emergency trigger protocol. If the user’s vital signs show extreme abnormalities or if the user is unable to communicate autonomously, this protocol may be passively activated to ensure the transmission of critical information.

What nonsense, Ying Zhi’an didn’t dwell on it. All her attention was focused on the upcoming meeting and the tiny ring in her pocket.

She took a deep breath and got out of the car to head upstairs.

The old residential building had no elevator, and the stairwell was filled with a damp, moldy smell.

As evening approached, the sound-activated light lazily switched on with her footsteps, casting a yellow glow that illuminated the peeling walls and dusty steps.

She paused just below the floor where Song Xidan lived and took a deep breath.

Her heart thumped like a drum in her chest. An unfamiliar, almost girlish nervousness gripped her.

Perhaps due to the System’s recent reminder that most people experience “mind blanks” and “incoherence” when nervous, Ying Zhi’an instinctively lowered her voice and rehearsed, speaking to the air.

“Xidan…” Her voice sounded slightly neurotic in the empty stairwell. She paused, frowning as she organized her words. “The exam results were never a prerequisite for my liking you. What I want to tell you is…”

She was so engrossed in her rehearsal that she completely failed to notice that in the shadow of the stairwell corner above, Song Xidan’s mother was standing rigidly, holding a bag of trash, her face gradually turning ashen in the dim light.

Those low, clear, fragmented phrases: “prepared for a long time,” “like you,” “thank you for the soup you made, the meals you cooked,” etc., slithered into Mrs. Song’s ears like venomous snakes!

Mrs. Song’s emotions were already at a breaking point. Song Xidan’s previous defiance felt like a knife in her heart. With Ying Zhi’an’s rambling, all her previous suspicions and clues suddenly connected!

All past memories, like boiling water, violently erupted in her already fragile mental world, which was ravaged by the early death of her son and the “abnormal” sexual orientation of her daughter!

This hypocritical female lawyer!

Mrs. Song herself had pulled strings to get Song Xidan into that law firm and naturally knew that a female lawyer was mentoring Song Xidan!

Although she had never met Ying Zhi’an, Mrs. Song had completely placed all the blame on her!

Mrs. Song’s mind screamed: It’s her! She corrupted my daughter! She used those illicit means to confuse Xidan, causing her to neglect her studies and fail the exam! And now, she even dares to show up here, wanting to fully solidify this filthy relationship!

“Bitch! Stay away from my child! He is going to be a great lawyer!” Mrs. Song let out a piercing, distorted shriek. The “he” in her words was referring to her son. Like an out-of-control mad beast, she lunged down the stairs, swinging the heavy trash bag in her hand and furiously hurling it at Ying Zhi’an, who had her back turned!

Startled by the sudden attack and the vicious curses, Ying Zhi’an spun around, her pupils contracting sharply.

She instinctively tried to dodge, but the stairwell was narrow. The trash bag smashed heavily into her head and shoulder. The peels, vegetable scraps, and other filth inside scattered out, sticky and dirty.

The dirt was a minor issue. The biggest problem was that the irrational Mrs. Song completely disregarded her own safety. She essentially threw herself at Ying Zhi’an like a human weapon. The impact was tremendously forceful, her entire body hitting Ying Zhi’an with brute strength!

Both instantly lost their balance, tumbling down the cold, hard concrete stairs in a tangled mess.

During the fall, Mrs. Song’s flailing arm violently struck the old, rusty electrical meter box installed on the stairwell corner wall!

The metal door of the meter box was already rusted and loose. The huge impact caused a loud “CLANG,” the door twisted and sprang open, instantly exposing the aged wires inside. Several clusters of electrical sparks “CRACKLED” loudly!

A gasp was drowned out by the dizzying tumble and the sound of the electrical crackle.

“Thump… crash… thump…” The sickening thud of bodies hitting the steps echoed sharply in the stairwell.

The world spun violently. Ying Zhi’an felt a sharp, bone-piercing pain in her forehead, elbows, knees, ankles, and all over her body.

She finally stopped on the landing platform at the corner of the stairs, curled up on the cold, dirty floor, unable to move for a moment. Her vision swam, and the only sounds she could hear were her own heavy, painful gasps and the rushing buzz of blood in her ears.

Mrs. Song also lay contorted not far from Ying Zhi’an. The arm that hit the meter box was bent at an unnatural angle. She made faint, insect-like whimpering sounds. The pain seemed to have briefly restored a sliver of consciousness, but she was quickly overwhelmed by greater agony.

The stairwell fell back into silence as both were consumed by pain. Only the sound-activated light, still on from the previous loud impact, shone coldly on the two figures curled on the floor, breathing painfully, and on the ring box that had fallen out of Ying Zhi’an’s pocket and rolled into the corner shadow.

But soon, the electrical sparks “CRACKLED” and ignited the dry paper scraps and flammable packaging bags that had spilled from the torn trash bag.

In the next second, a small cluster of flames “WOOSHED” up, spreading rapidly along the spilled grease and trash, greedily licking at the wooden stair railing and the old newspapers and cardboard boxes piled in the corner!

Thick smoke began to rise. The acrid smell of burning plastic and smoke quickly filled the narrow stairwell.

At the same time, the dense smoke, like a demon freed from its bonds, rolled upward through the stairwell, the pungent smell rushing into the nostrils and stinging the eyes of the residents in their homes.

Song Xidan had just retreated into her room to avoid communicating with her mother. Now, the smoke forced her out.

She opened the door, just as the elderly neighbor across the hall did the same.

An alarm bell rang loudly in Song Xidan’s mind. She immediately realized this was no ordinary smoke!

“Grandma! Quick, cover your nose and mouth with this!” She quickly pulled out a pack of wet wipes she always carried, shoved them into the hands of the panicking elderly neighbor without explanation, and pulled one out herself, tightly covering her own nose and mouth.

The damp, cool touch slightly eased the burning sensation of the smoke.

“Girl! Downstairs… downstairs is on fire!” The old woman’s husband was always alone, his legs were weak, and he rarely went downstairs. Now he was so scared his legs buckled and he could barely stand.

“Don’t be afraid. Hold onto me. We’ll go down slowly!” Song Xidan firmly supported the grandmother with one hand and held the wall with the other. In the rapidly decreasing visibility of the stairwell, she cautiously moved downward.

The dense smoke blurred her vision, forcing her to rely on memory and the feel of the steps beneath her feet to navigate.

After descending two flights, on the stairwell landing leading to the fourth floor, illuminated by the increasingly obvious light of the fire rising from below, she saw a sight that made her heart stop!

Her mother was curled up on the cold concrete floor, her face ashen, uttering weak, painful groans.

Not far from her mother, Ying Zhi’an was also lying motionless. There was a clear cut on her forehead, blood running down her pale cheek, and her left ankle was twisted at an unnatural angle—clearly broken!

The detail that made Song Xidan’s heart utterly seize up was that Ying Zhi’an’s uninjured hand was weakly batting at the flames that were trying to lick at the hem of her mother’s clothes!

“Mom?! Sister Zhi’an?!” Song Xidan’s gasp was trapped in her throat, coming out as a fractured, sharp intake of breath.

She released the grandmother she was supporting and rushed toward the two people.

Ying Zhi’an had fallen into semi-consciousness, but when she heard Song Xidan’s voice, she forced her eyelids open, trying to see her. However, the intense headache prevented her from speaking.

The fire was growing larger. The elderly neighbor already had poor eyesight and, in the thick smoke, did not notice Song Xidan’s situation, only clinging to the railing and crying urgently: “Girl! Cough, cough, cough! Don’t leave me! I can’t walk!”

In this split-second crisis, the System’s voice erupted in Ying Zhi’an’s mind: – WARNING! User vital signs are rapidly deteriorating. User has multiple traumas, blood loss, pain index overload, and declining consciousness. HIGH-RISK STATE! Emergency Protocol Initiated!

The cold electronic voice rang out in Ying Zhi’an’s mind again. This time, it carried an emergency command that allowed no dissent: – Target Subject located and facing major decision paralysis. Emotional fluctuation is severe. Critical information injection required to break the deadlock. ‘Say You Love Me’ function forcibly activated! Information infusion commencing—

The romance-obsessed System, at this very moment, performed a function beyond romance.

Ying Zhi’an felt her almost-dissipated consciousness being forcibly pulled together. She couldn’t control her vocal cords, but a powerful, pure emotional torrent, mixed with the System’s precisely calibrated frequency designed to cut through all noise, was clearly transmitted through her weak breath: “Xidan, listen to me! I love you. Be calm, save them quickly!”