Volume One, Chapter Three: Not an Ex-Girlfriend
“Not an ex-girlfriend.” Zhou Jincheng’s voice was distinct—deep, steady, and magnetic amidst a sea of ordinary tones, with a penetrating clarity.
No matter how noisy the surroundings, his words reached Yu Jin’s ears with crystal precision.
“Yu, are you feeling heatstroke? Why do you look so pale?”
“I’m fine. Continue.” She sniffed, a thin veil of mist clouding her eyes as she suppressed the sour ache deep in her heart.
So, in his mind, she wasn’t even worth being called an ex-girlfriend.
Their relationship had been nothing more than her imposing herself on him.
Their families were neighbors. She had secretly admired him since middle school, yet never dared utter a word through three years of high school.
When she heard Zhou Jincheng was going to be with the campus beauty in college, panic seized her.
She begged her father to approach Uncle Zhao, willing to sacrifice her dignity and self-respect just to be with Zhou Jincheng.
At that time, her family was well-off. An only child, her father a local tycoon, her mother a university professor.
The Zhao family barely had time to climb socially before agreeing without hesitation.
To her surprise, Zhou Jincheng did not refuse either. He agreed to date but with three conditions:
No contact initiated by her, no public acknowledgment of their relationship, and to break up upon graduation.
She complied perfectly, never reaching out first. Their clandestine affair was tightly sealed.
But there was always someone better.
He did even better. The promised graduation breakup turned into him sending her off to prison—a far cleaner end to the relationship.
If it had been a breakup, she might have cried, thrown tantrums, or worse. But prison? There was no refusal possible.
“Why would Lawyer Zhou date a fat woman? You haven’t seen Chu Nanqing, but I have,” said a man surnamed Dai, whose father was also a school trustee.
Before the Chu family’s downfall, Dai’s family had been eager to curry favor, honeyed words flowing nonstop.
Suddenly, he stopped speaking, locking eyes with a pair of cold, profound gazes—sharp as blades.
Dark waves surged in Zhou Jincheng’s eyes. His long fingers grasped a tall glass, knuckles quietly reddening, his face maintaining a frosty professional smile.
Seeing Zhou’s glass empty, someone assumed he was dissatisfied with the hospitality and hurriedly called a waiter to refill it.
Another man, quicker with his tongue, didn’t let the comment land.
“So what if she’s two hundred pounds? In the dark, they all look the same.”
“I heard some prison guards in the women’s facility prey on inmates without visitors, torturing them to death. Maybe Chu Nanqing’s already dead inside.”
“Even if she’s alive, she’d be covered in STDs, fat and filthy. Just thinking about it makes me sick.”
Zhou Jincheng was stunned for a moment, then downed the potent cocktail in one gulp. The alcohol dulled his mind, numbing nerves from head to toe.
He glanced over nearby, scanning the crowd, as if searching for someone.
The chatter continued, some classmates pitying her while their gazes seethed with disdain and contempt.
“The crime she committed is unforgivable for life. The sentence was too lenient—it should have been death.”
“Lawyer Zhou, don’t you agree?”
As the only lawyer among them, difficult questions naturally came his way.
Suddenly, the two men who had been most vocal about Chu Nanqing collided inexplicably, spilling two glasses of red wine all over themselves.
“Are you blind, damn it?”
“Who’s your dog mouth insulting? Who pushed me without looking?”
…
Amid the scuffle, Zhou Jincheng remained silent, adjusting his rimless glasses with thumb and middle finger, his hands whitening from the pressure as he glanced at his wristwatch.
He spotted a slender figure not far off—a woman in a light apricot fitted suit that clung seamlessly to her frame, thin but not flat.
Yu Jin met his eyes and awkwardly lowered the microphone she held.
A man stood before her. Her uneasy gaze slipped past his shoulder, landing squarely in Zhou Jincheng’s.
He walked toward Yu Jin.
“Think it over again. The deputy director’s salary is much higher than yours as a reporter, and you won’t have to suffer the elements. Just have dinner with me.”
She had heard this line for the third time.
“Reporter Yu, good to see you again.”
Zhou Jincheng approached her, lips curving in a faint smile, his dark, brooding eyes scanning the man beside her.
Yu Jin’s fingers tightened slightly around the microphone, eyes lowered. She whispered faintly, “Mm…”
Her gaze dropped to his figure—narrow waist, long legs, the metallic sheen of his shirt buttons visible under his trousers. He stood before her like an unyielding wall.
Her heart pounded.
The man who had tried to approach Yu Jin, seeing she knew Zhou Jincheng, gave a forced smile and quickly turned away.
He had his eye on a beauty but dared not provoke Zhou Jincheng.
“Why do you have time to come out today?”
Zhou Jincheng had asked her out yesterday, claiming he wanted to discuss a case, but she declined, citing work assignments.
Yu Jin passed by him with the microphone, eyes falling on the camera behind. She turned sideways and said, “Covering the school anniversary.”
Her voice was clear and cold, matching her current appearance—pale and thin, like a faint sliver of moonlight.
“Your daughter…”
“What about Xiaojing?”
Yu Jin’s emotion flared, hastily cutting him off. Only hearing about her daughter could rouse such feelings.
She had not seen her child for four years, with only a few photos from her daughter’s full moon brought in by friends visiting the prison.
Giving birth to Yu Jing had been difficult. Due to the limited medical facilities in the prison hospital, she lost consciousness from pain and only woke on the third night.
Upon waking, she was told her cousin had taken the child away.
She herself had suffered severe hemorrhaging, barely surviving, and would never bear children again.
Xiaojing was more important than her own life.
“Your daughter’s adoptive parents have strong backgrounds. Your case won’t be easy to win.”
Zhou Jincheng’s voice dropped, each word like a shard of ice in winter.
“Haven’t you lost before?”
Yu Jin bit her lip, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
He had the ability to send her to prison but not to reclaim her daughter—was this the persuasive power of a top-tier lawyer?
“It’s difficult for other lawyers.”
“As long as you follow my advice, your daughter will return to you.”
Zhou had spent all day studying laws and materials about Yu Jing’s adoptive parents. He knew the facts well.
What he did not know was the woman before him claiming to be Yu Jing’s biological mother.
He had no idea why she was in prison, her age, or her family situation. The real challenge in this case lay with her, not with Yu Jing.
“What do you want me to do?”
A bad feeling gnawed at Yu Jin. She knew Zhou Jincheng too well—after all, she had loved him for ten years.
Was the man she once knew now so verbose when handling cases?
“It’s simple. First, answer a few questions.”
Zhou Jincheng inquired about her basic information. Without hesitation, she answered, matching the details on the law firm’s intake form.
“How about your romantic life? Do you have a boyfriend currently?” he asked coldly.
“What does that have to do with my case?”
Yu Jin’s heart leapt to her throat. Her palms and eyes grew moist; her voice trembled slightly.
Strictly speaking, she and Zhou Jincheng were not officially broken up.
The last time they saw each other in court, he probably hadn’t had time to mention it.
Moreover, Zhou Jincheng had set the condition to break up upon graduation, so no words were necessary—the relationship had an unspoken closure.
Zhou Jincheng spoke deliberately, his tone steady and serious.
“If you have a boyfriend, that means Yu Jing has a potential stepfather, which would be detrimental to regaining custody.”
“When judges make rulings, they consider not only the law but also your personal circumstances.”
“If you truly want to win, it’s best not to conceal anything from your lawyer.”
“…Alright.”
When it came to her daughter Yu Jing, Yu Jin had no choice. She bit her lip and told the truth: “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Dark waves flickered through Zhou Jincheng’s eyes before he regained his composure and spoke gravely:
“One last question—where is Yu Jing’s biological father?”
“Dead.” Yu Jin dared not meet his gaze.
Zhou Jincheng responded lightly, “That makes things easier.”