This guy was a total try-hard too

Since he was on someone else's turf, Li Yi stingily poured Shi Yan just enough to cover the bottom of his glass.

Shi Yan picked up his glass and compared it with the other two men's, his brows knitting in displeasure.

Li Yi hugged the bottle to his chest and eyed him warily. "This wine is so expensive. You're lucky I'm letting you have any. One sip costs tens of thousands."

He still needed the rest to land a big fish. He couldn't let them drink it all.

Otherwise, the membership he'd bought for a million would have been a waste.

"Hahaha, look who's getting a taste of it now!" Seeing Shi Yan get different treatment for the first time, his two troublemaking friends burst into exaggerated laughter. They eagerly pulled Li Yi into their camp and warmly invited him, "Kid, want to do something exciting tonight?"

Li Yi pulled Peng Yuyan's hand off his shoulder and said honestly, "I don't want to stay up late. Count me out of anything after nine."

"Are you even an adult?" Peng Yuyan looked him up and down. "Why do you keep the same hours as a retired old man? You won't go out after nine? Do you have to crawl into bed by ten?"

He clicked his tongue. "Young people with no nightlife won't be able to find a partner!"

"I turned eighteen a few days ago." Li Yi gave him a pointed look. "Whether I find a partner is none of your business. You should stay out of other people's business too. You might get beaten up one day."

Shi Yan was the villain in the novel, so his friends were surely villains too.

Villains who went up against the protagonist generally didn't end well.

Peng Yuyan, sitting before him, was a lawyer famous in Beicheng's wealthy circles for specializing in divorce cases.

He rarely lost a divorce case he took on.

However, he also had a secret little hobby that only a handful of people knew about.

He liked introducing divorced people to potential partners.

Beautiful, wealthy women nursing broken hearts, plain-looking but loyal and rich men with low self-esteem, clearheaded women who had come to their senses and wanted independence, handsome men with more money than sense who were terrified of being scammed again...

These high-quality candidates for a second marriage, who weren't on the dating market, could always find someone they clicked with through him.

But this little hobby nearly got him killed.

In the novel, Lu Junjia and Zhou Xuanze later started a company together. One day, while eating at a restaurant, they happened to see Peng Yuyan matchmaking for a man and a woman. The woman was the recently divorced wife of the boss of the company they wanted to work with.

The boss had been dragging his feet over signing the contract because of the trouble surrounding his divorce.

The divorce had left the boss deeply embarrassed. He and his wife had founded the company together, and its old hands actually thought more highly of his wife's abilities. But he had cheated first, and his wife had taken him to court with a divorce petition and presented evidence of his affair.

Although the company remained his, most of the cash and several properties had all been awarded to his wife, leaving a shortfall in the company's accounts.

Theirs was a technology company. They could resolve the funding problem with a loan or by finding a business partner, so that was relatively easy to handle.

But someone had leaked the news that he'd lost the marital lawsuit, and the whole company learned that he had not only lost the case but was also a cheater. He lost both his dignity and his reputation!

The incident caused rapid staff turnover, with resignation rates soaring, leaving many projects unable to meet their deadlines.

Lu Junjia told the boss what he had seen.

After putting their heads together, they turned the tables, claiming that the divorce lawyer and the wife had conspired to frame him for cheating so she could take most of his money and elope with her lover.

They knew they couldn't take the matter to court, since a lie was bound to be exposed, so they got ahead of it by manipulating public opinion.

The boss's cheating was completely whitewashed, while his wife and her date were viciously lambasted.

Because of this, Peng Yuyan was also badly beaten several times by bitter people who had seen their divorced wives or husbands find love again.

People threw eggs at his law firm every day. He was forced to relinquish his reputation as a Gold Medal Lawyer, and many people no longer dared to hire him for their cases.

During that period, he fell from heaven to earth. A Gold Medal Lawyer with a win rate of over ninety percent fell from grace just like that.

"Kid, I'm showing concern for you. Why are you cursing me to get beaten up? That's really unfriendly." Peng Yuyan shook his head and complained to Shi Yan, "A-Yan, your little gardener is so fierce. Aren't you going to rein him in?"

"He told you to meddle less in other people's love lives. He wasn't wrong." Shi Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, finished the wine in his glass, and said lazily, "You break up people's marriages on one hand and pair them up on the other. Two paychecks for one job. Who else would they beat up?"

"After breaking up so many couples, I always want to bring a pair together to make up for the regret." Peng Yuyan grinned. "I hear about so many scumbag men and women every day. When I finally meet two poor souls whose personalities complement each other particularly well, I can't help wondering if they could make a couple.

When they really do get together, it feels pretty rewarding.

Ah, maybe I was a matchmaker in my past life.

I think I like introducing people to potential partners more than breaking up marriages."

"Why don't you close your law firm and open a matchmaking agency?" Qi Feiyu suggested sincerely.

"No, that won't work. I've always liked wavering between the two. Once I open a matchmaking agency, I might want to be a divorce lawyer again."

"You're so eloquent and sharp-tongued in court, leaving the opposing counsel speechless every time. You don't look the least bit indecisive then."

"I switch automatically between work mode and off-duty mode." Peng Yuyan raised an eyebrow, looking at the iodine solution and wineglasses on the table. "Aren't you the same?

You're much more meticulous at the hospital. You'd never put medicine and alcohol together."

"Fine~ I'll give you that." The two looked at Shi Yan, who was leaning back on the sofa in a languid pose.

This guy was a total try-hard too.

"Oh!" Qi Feiyu glanced at his watch and suddenly stood up. "It's almost eight. I have to head to Xīnzhōutián."

"What's the rush?" Peng Yuyan said casually. "It's only a half-hour drive, and it doesn't start until nine. We have time."

"I'm the track's emergency doctor. I need to get there early to prepare."

Qi Feiyu took a silver-gray medical kit out of the cupboard beneath the liquor cabinet and opened it to check its contents. "Are you racing this time, A-Yan?"

"No." Shi Yan looked at the wineglass on the table. "I've been drinking."

"I forgot. You're a model of moral conduct. You won't even ride a bicycle after drinking." Peng Yuyan chuckled and looked at Li Yi. "Kid, are you really not coming to watch with us?

Xīnzhōutián, a winding mountain road through the Mist Forest. Experience speed and adrenaline on the ultimate thrilling racing adventure.

Are you sure you don't want to come take a look?"

Xīnzhōutián, the Mist Forest, racing.

The moment those words appeared together, Li Yi immediately recalled a scene from the novel.