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Chapter 13 The Conference
Chapter 13 The Conference
Friday afternoon's conference room was more crowded than the night of the hearing. Judge Liang Qiushi was not in his robe. The clerk turned on the light of the recording equipment and said, "There will be a record." The sentence pulled everyone's back a little straighter. Zhao Heng's folder was thinner than last time. Thin was often more dangerous. It meant he had brought only the page he meant to hit with. Sun Qiming, Beicheng's legal representative, sat beside him, early forties, his volume arriving ahead of his reasons. Gu Chengyan's light gray suit was buttoned neat. Gu Wan turned her plain band once, and then it stopped.
Lin Xi's place was on their side. Zhou Ning was behind her on the right. In the last row, the chair by the door, Xiaoyao wore the dark blue shirt and held no papers. He nodded at her once. After the nod he put his gaze on the gray daylight outside the window. He did not look like someone who had come to supervise. He looked like someone keeping an appointment he had already made.
Zhao Heng spoke first. Maintenance required professionals. The constant temperature of the formula room could not rely only on the experience of the Gu family. A third-party warehouse had records, insurance, two people and two locks. This was enforcement of the preservation order, not resistance to the ruling. When he said the word "enforcement," he looked at Judge Liang, not at Lin Xi. Sun Qiming followed with a plainer sentence. The account had not been frozen, but suppliers were already asking whether this was an internal war. If the door stayed sealed, the old shop's Mid-Autumn window would pass.
Gu Chengyan's fingers moved once. Lin Xi saw it. That was the sign before a softening, like a handle being tested with pressure from the outside. She did not look at the last row at once. She set her own pen flat, and then she spoke.
"We agree to maintenance," she said. "The list, the number of times, the notary present. We can fix it today. The place does not change. What the ruling preserves is the status quo of the formula room and the seal. It does not find the status quo a new address that looks more advanced. If, under two people and two locks, the key is in the end decided by a board majority, that is not custody. That is a move. A move is not within the scope of today's record. Mr. Sun's Mid-Autumn window can be protected with the operating account. The account is not frozen. That was written in the oral ruling. It does not need to be marveled at again today."
Sun Qiming's face sank. Zhao Heng smiled. The smile lasted only until Gu Chengyan actually opened his mouth.
"If it's only going to look at the conditions of the warehouse," Gu Chengyan said, "with no commitment of any kind, does that still count as a move. Ms. Lin, I'm not trying to change your plan. I'm afraid we'll look as if we aren't being reasonable at all."
There was a very short vacuum in the room. Pei Song was not in it. His sentence still was. Look. Don't commit. Be reasonable. Lin Xi felt that there was a person in the last row. She did not hand her eyes to him to ask for an answer. She only turned her face, confirmed that the dark blue shirt was still by the door, and brought her gaze back to her own client. The person was here. The sentence was hers.
"Mr. Gu, looking is allowed," she said. "You privately visiting any warehouse in Shanghai is your freedom. It cannot be written into this record. It cannot become a condition for lifting or changing the preservation order. And the other side cannot designate the place or the people who accompany you. The moment it is written into the record, looking becomes an obligation. Obligations grow up. If what we sign today is a maintenance arrangement, then it is only maintenance. If you think this is unreasonable, we can recess for five minutes. You and Gu Wan can go out and decide whether to change lawyers. Changing is cleaner than turning 'looking' into a concession in a room that is being recorded."
Under the table Gu Wan stepped on her brother's foot. Not hard. Enough to make him swallow the second half of the sentence. Gu Chengyan's ears went red. After the red he actually smiled, like a father whose hand had been taken back in public. Annoyed, and also relieved.
"We won't look," he said. "We'll listen to Ms. Lin. Maintenance can be signed. The warehouse will not be looked at. Pei Song messaged again this morning. I didn't answer. Can that sentence stay out of the record. Leaving it out is fine. I'm saying it for myself to hear."
The clerk's fingers paused. Judge Liang looked up. His tone was level.
"Private communications unrelated to enforcement of the preservation order are not recorded. The number of maintenance visits, the personnel, the method of supervision, those are recorded now. If the two sides can form a written arrangement today, this tribunal does not encourage repeated applications to communicate on the same matter. Reconsideration is a party's right. If the right is to be exercised, follow procedure. Do not turn procedure into a dinner."
Zhao Heng's thin folder was finally opened. He did not push the warehouse again. He contested, word by word, the qualifications of the maintenance personnel. In the end the list was Gu Wan, one old technician, and one engineer from the other side. The engineer had to give twenty-four hours' notice before entering. If the notary's person was not present, the door did not open. Twice a month. The seal would still not be handed over. Lin Xi had Zhou Ning read those lines aloud, slowly, slowly enough that Sun Qiming could not paint the sentences out with a sigh.
When she signed, Lin Xi's hand was steady. After it was steady she capped the pen. The sound of the cap made her think of the night the hearing ended. The difference was that this time she knew who was sitting in the last row outside the door, and she knew she had not used his knee to judge.
After the meeting broke, Zhao Heng stopped for half a step in the corridor. It was still a relative of the same sentence. "Ms. Lin, my side will evaluate whether to seek reconsideration. Evaluation is not a threat."
"Evaluation is your work," Lin Xi said. "Send it in writing. I don't drink tea."
The light in the stairwell was dimmer than the corridor. When the people had mostly gone, her hands began to shake. The shaking was something she looked down on, and she could not finish looking down on it. Xiaoyao came up from the last step. He did not ask whether she had won. He took both her hands into his palms and gave the shaking an edge.
"The sentences were yours," he said. "I heard them. The warehouse is not in the record. And you didn't look at me for words. You only confirmed that I was there. I received the difference."
"I'm still shaking," she said. "Shaking isn't failure. I only want you to see it. After you've seen it, we go home. In the car I won't review more than three sentences. If I still want to talk after three, remind me. The word you use to remind me is my name."
Gu Wan came up from below the stairs. She saw them holding hands and was not awkward. She only put a paper bag like an envelope into the crook of Lin Xi's arm. "My brother's thanks are too loud. I changed them for this. Not a gift. A little pack of aged tangerine peel, not even as much as a mothball. Steep it. If your husband says it's bitter, that means our family hasn't infected him yet." She looked at Xiaoyao. "Not many people can sit still in the last row. Today Pei Song is at the coffee seats by the courthouse door. I had my brother leave by the side door. Don't you two run into him at the front and turn it into a pretty story."
"The side door," Lin Xi said. "Ms. Gu, that foot today isn't in the record. I'll thank you in private."
"A foot is housework," Gu Wan said. She had already turned. "The case is yours. Don't mix them. If you mix them, next time my brother will be inviting people to dinner again."
Out the side door, there was osmanthus in the wind, faint, as if someone had sent it from very far away. Pei Song's coffee seat was on the other side. They did not see his watch. In the car Lin Xi said three sentences. Maintenance was signed. The warehouse did not get in. Gu Chengyan himself said they would not look. Then she closed her mouth. Xiaoyao waited a few seconds and called her. "Lin Xi."
"I wasn't going to say a fourth," she said, and laughed. "I was only deciding tonight. Tonight, me. Not doing it in the car now. After we get home, after we've eaten, after I've washed today's conference room off, I lead. If you refuse, say refuse. Don't use tired in its place. Tired can be said directly."
"I don't refuse," he said. "I'm tired, and I want to. Both can be true at once. Whoever gets home first decides dinner. We'll arrive together. So this time you decide what we eat, and I decide the temperature of the bath. Do you think that's fair."
"Fair." She set her forehead against the headrest. "Don't make the water too hot. I've already been hot once today. The heat was here." She touched her temple. "What the body wants is to be soaked soft by you in warm water. After it's soaked soft, the person leading is still me. You are not allowed, because I look soft, to take the lead back. Unless I say 'tonight, you.'"
"I'll listen to you." He started the car. The shadow of the side door stayed behind them. "Home. The tangerine peel goes in your bag. Don't put it on my paper proofs. The smell of the peel gets into paper. The gold line will look as if it has been steeped."
