—

He Wei had brought a bottle of red wine from home, insisting Xu Ze absolutely had to try it. Lu Heyang, mindful that Xu Ze had work tomorrow, told him not to drink — but Xu Ze said it was fine.

Because he said it was fine, He Wei latched onto him and rambled from how the Summer Camp grew more tedious with every passing year to how the small mole on the tip of Chi Jiahán's nose was genuinely adorable, all the while trying to coax a few secrets about Chi Jiahán out of Xu Ze.

On the way back, Gu Yunchi drove, with Lu Heyang and Xu Ze in the back seat. He Wei kept up a steady stream of empty chatter the whole drive; Gu Yunchi, finding it unbearable, switched on the music and turned the volume up. Xu Ze and Lu Heyang weren't sitting close, but their hands rested by their thighs, separated by only a few centimeters.

In the dimness, the gentle rocking, and the music, the alcohol had swelled Xu Ze's courage. He slid his hand over very slowly, until his fingertip brushed Lu Heyang's. Lu Heyang gave no visible reaction, but Xu Ze himself flinched — then, as if rebuilding his nerve, reached out again, tracing from Lu Heyang's fingers bit by bit to the back of his hand, and at last laid his palm gently over it.

He was terribly nervous, glancing at the rearview mirror every few seconds, afraid Gu Yunchi might notice — but the mirror held only Gu Yunchi's face, considerably impatient with his friend's excessive noise.

His palm suddenly went empty: Lu Heyang had drawn his hand back.

Xu Ze was stunned for a beat, the embarrassment arriving slowly, and he withdrew his own hand.

But Lu Heyang caught his wrist instead, rubbed it, then let his fingertip drift slowly into Xu Ze's palm and laced their fingers together.

When they reached the building, their hands parted. Xu Ze pushed open the car door; Lu Heyang stepped out as well and said, 'He's had too much. I'll walk him up.'

Gu Yunchi simply cut the engine, abandoned He Wei without a second thought, and went down to smoke on his own.

The corridor was as dim as ever; Lu Heyang kept a hand on Xu Ze's arm, steadying him up the stairs. On the second floor Xu Ze suddenly asked, 'What... what kind of Omega do you like?'

From the things He Wei had let slip several times, he'd gathered that Lu Heyang seemed never to have liked anyone, and he very much wanted to know — no ulterior motive, just curiosity — what sort of person could make Lu Heyang's heart stir.

'Shrewd ones. Thick-skinned.' Lu Heyang answered. 'The kind who'd ask me for this and that, comfortably letting me hand them a lot of money.'

Xu Ze thought it over and said, 'You're lying.'

He might be a little slow in front of Lu Heyang, credulous about everything he said, but not so slow that he'd lost all judgment, unable to tell truth from deflection.

'The one I'm lying to is you.' Lu Heyang admitted it openly, a trace of laughter in his voice.

At the apartment door, Xu Ze produced his keys and unlocked it. Lu Heyang didn't follow him inside; he said 'goodbye' to Xu Ze, then pulled the door shut. Xu Ze stood within the apartment, head tilted slightly to one side, eyes open, watching him through the crack of the door — like some pet watching its owner leave, quiet and still; you never know how long they'll keep waiting on the other side once the door has closed.

The door was on the verge of closing completely, but was suddenly pushed open again.

Xu Ze, who was rarely startled, found his eyes going wide as the door swung inward.

'What's wrong?' he asked.

Lu Heyang stepped in, shut the door behind him, and said, 'With you looking at me like that, how am I supposed to leave.'

'...' Xu Ze thought it over very seriously for a few seconds, then raised a hand to cover his eyes. 'Can't see now.'

Some people are especially tiresome when drunk — He Wei, for instance. Some people become more interesting when drunk — Xu Ze, for instance.

'Alright, then I'm off.' Lu Heyang said.

Xu Ze heard the door open and close. He held himself still for a moment, then lowered his hand with a faint, lost feeling.

The light was soft and yellow, and Lu Heyang was still standing there, smiling at him.

He couldn't picture Lu Heyang playing a game this childish. Xu Ze reached out, uncertain, to touch his face — it was real. The successive lurches left his heart racing, his head swimming, and at last, as if enchanted, he leaned in and kissed him.

He'd been guided by Lu Heyang so often that his kissing had not improved at all — he could only manage little brushes and pecks. In the end it was Lu Heyang who patted his cheek, reminding him to open his mouth.

After a few minutes of kissing, Xu Ze's arm had somehow wound itself around Lu Heyang's waist. Lu Heyang pinched the back of his neck, drew back a little, pressed his lips into a smile, and said, 'I like the proactive type.'

That answer sounded considerably more credible. Xu Ze gazed at Lu Heyang, his eyelids drooping in slow succession, as though he were about to fall asleep, and let his forehead come to rest against Lu Heyang's shoulder.

'A few days ago I went to the Gym to pick something up, and I saw He Yu there,' Xu Ze said, his words blurred.

'You mean He Wei's cousin?'

'Mm. He seemed very familiar with the people from the Underground Club.'

'Alright, I'll mention it to He Wei.' Lu Heyang smiled again and asked, 'Why tell me first instead of going to He Wei directly?'

Xu Ze thought it over carefully and said, 'I'm a little more familiar with you.'

'Just a little more familiar?'

Xu Ze straightened up and began rubbing his eyes over and over, his head growing heavier; he didn't know what to say, afraid of saying the wrong thing.

'I have to go — they're still waiting downstairs.' Lu Heyang pressed down Xu Ze's hand, which had been rubbing his eyes without any sense of measure. 'School starts in half a month. Don't push yourself too hard.'

'Mm.' Xu Ze nodded.

Lu Heyang said, 'I'll stand here and watch you go back to your room before I leave.'

Xu Ze looked at him for a few seconds, then turned and walked toward his room. Before closing the door he raised a hand and waved goodbye to Lu Heyang, who stood by the front door watching him. Only after Xu Ze had shut his bedroom door did Lu Heyang leave.

'Xu Ze, finished? Help wash that car over there.'

'Sure.' Xu Ze slid out from under the car, packed up his toolbox, and went to the wash bay next door.

After applying cleaning solution, rinsing, and drying the bodywork, Xu Ze was about to go fetch the drying cloth when someone called out to him again: 'Xu Ze — someone's here for you.'

Xu Ze turned around. A black business car was parked at the entrance, the passenger window half-lowered, revealing a face he didn't recognize at all. Xu Ze wiped his hands and walked over.

Two bodyguards stepped out of the car, taking up positions at the front and rear. The back door was pushed open; Xu Ze stood still, watching Tang Feiyi emerge with an expressionless face.

It had been some time since they'd last met. Tang Feiyi had grown even thinner, his face bloodless, exuding a sullen, sickly pallor. Remembering what the boxer had said about Tang Feiyi's hand tendons being severed, Xu Ze let his gaze pass over his wrist — hidden by his sleeve, nothing visible.

'What is it,' Xu Ze asked. He didn't want to waste too much time on Tang Feiyi here.

'Nothing in particular — just curious.' Tang Feiyi smiled strangely. 'Curious that our little boxer has already climbed his way up to the director's son, and yet he's still out here washing cars.'

Xu Ze frowned. The phrase 'director's son' was entirely unfamiliar to him.

'You don't even know yet, do you? Lu Heyang — the son of the League's director.' Tang Feiyi's expression was mocking. 'After all the time you've been clinging to him, you don't even know this much. You're not even as good as one of his dogs — and with that, you still think you can walk away from the Club? Who gave you the nerve?'

'So?' Xu Ze returned evenly.

One of Tang Feiyi's misreadings of Xu Ze was his persistent belief that language of this sort would crush him — but Xu Ze genuinely didn't care about any of it.

As for the relationship between himself and Lu Heyang, no matter how ugly the words or how cutting the mockery, so long as it wasn't said by Lu Heyang himself, it was all, to Xu Ze, immaterial.

Wanting to leave the Club was, at its core, also nothing to do with Lu Heyang — it had been Xu Ze's plan from early on. Had Ye Yunhua not needed the money urgently for her surgery back then, Xu Ze would never have signed a contract with Tang Feiyi.

'So, just a reminder: you're not the same as Lu Heyang. Taking you on is really a very simple thing.'

As he spoke, he reached to pat Xu Ze's face; Xu Ze turned his head aside and coldly evaded it. Tang Feiyi, however, would not relent, and seized Xu Ze by the chin, forcing him to meet his eyes. 'Even if you're not afraid of dying, at least think about your grandmother lying in the hospital, won't you, Xu Ze?'

Before the words had finished falling, Tang Feiyi hadn't even caught sight of Xu Ze's hand moving — a sudden, violent pain shot through his wrist. He was locked by Xu Ze, his throat gripped with tremendous force and slammed against the car.

The bodyguards beside the car immediately closed in. Tang Feiyi coughed once: 'Nobody move.'

Xu Ze wasn't wearing his Wristband; the S-Class Alpha's Pheromone spread outward, bearing down so heavily that it was hard to keep one's footing. Tang Feiyi's neck and wrist were numb with pain, his face pressed against the edge of the car roof, his words slurring: 'Looks like you know exactly how many handles there are on you.'

He gave a contemptuous laugh. 'What could you possibly do to me?'

'Kill you,' Xu Ze said, his tone perfectly calm.

Xu Ze didn't make empty threats for the sake of it — Tang Feiyi knew this. When Xu Ze said he would kill someone, he would, at any cost, follow through.

'Fine. We'll see.'

'Did you notice anything?' The car pulled away from the Auto Repair Shop. Tang Feiyi rubbed his aching right cheek and asked coldly.

'Picked up two for now. Don't know how many there are in total.'

'You're sure they're not from some other Auto Repair Shop?'

'Certain. Those two had sharp noses — the moment we arrived, they smelled something off.'

'Starting from Xu Ze is never wrong.' Tang Feiyi looked out the car window. 'Sooner or later they'll be unable to help poking their heads out. Catch one, and the ones behind him will be easy enough to track down.'

He flexed his right wrist — still not healed, and now twisted again by Xu Ze. This hand could no longer hold a gun; now it couldn't even keep a cigarette steady between his fingers.

'I've always been a very fair person.' Tang Feiyi slowly leaned back against the seat, unclear who he was speaking to. 'I only want the other side to return me a right hand.'

Even if he couldn't take Lu Heyang's right hand, he still had to find the person who had personally severed his tendons.

Standing in place watching the car drive off, Xu Ze turned and walked back into the Auto Repair Shop, washing his hands at the basin by the door. He stared at the running water for a moment, then cupped some to wash his face.

Tang Feiyi's appearance had been far too conspicuous; plenty of people had seen it. Someone came over and asked, 'Xu Ze, what's going on?'

'Nothing,' Xu Ze said, wiping the water from his face. 'It won't affect the shop.'

He went back to the wash bay to finish the job. His Mobile Phone suddenly chimed once; Xu Ze pulled it out at once — it wasn't from the hospital, and his expression eased a fraction.

It was a message from Lu Heyang: a photo and a line of text.

The photo was Lu Heyang's side profile as he surfed, back arched, the lines of his body alive with energy; sunlight and spray seemed almost to fall on Xu Ze's face through the screen.

The text was a very short sentence: Xiaoze, my good baby, miss you ^o^

Xu Ze looked at it for a long while, then finally saved the photo, turned off his phone, and went back to wiping the car.

Ten minutes later, Xu Ze had finished cleaning the inside and outside of the car and shut the door. As he was hanging up the towel his phone rang again — this time a call, from Lu Heyang.

'Hello?'

'Hold on.' He Wei's rowdy voice came through the other end; Lu Heyang seemed to have walked a few steps to a quieter spot before continuing, 'Xu Ze.'

'Mm.'

'Busy?'

'No. What's up?'

'Did you see the message?'

'I saw it,' Xu Ze answered.

'Then why didn't you reply?' Lu Heyang seemed to be asking with a smile.

The towel hadn't been hung properly and had fallen to the floor; Xu Ze bent to pick it up and said, 'Because you didn't send it.'

'Mm. He Wei used my phone.'

Xu Ze nodded — and only after nodding remembered that Lu Heyang couldn't see it. He was about to speak when Lu Heyang went on, 'Xu Ze, don't worry.'

Such a sudden sentence — for a moment Xu Ze had no idea how to answer, because he did, in fact, have things to worry about right now.

'Whatever it is, don't worry. It's fine. I'll handle it,' Lu Heyang said.

If there had been anyone else around, Xu Ze would almost have suspected Lu Heyang of standing right beside him — otherwise why would he say the right thing at the right moment like that?

Although there were many things he couldn't make sense of, Xu Ze still found a strange comfort in Lu Heyang's words. He'd always been used to solving his own problems; this was the first time he had any real, bodily sense of what 'security' meant — the feeling of being soothed out of anxiety and tension. A little unfamiliar. A little new.