—

[There's a prize match tomorrow night. Coming?]

After returning from the Sanatorium, as if he knew Ye Yunhua had switched to a more expensive targeted therapy, the Gym manager sent Xu Ze a message.

During the months he hadn't gone to the Underground Club, Xu Ze had received more than one invitation to fight; every time, his reply was the same simple line: "Not coming."

Xu Ze had been waiting, waiting for the moment Tang Feiyi would use that contract against him, force him back into the ring — but perhaps he had been weighting the contract too heavily. To everyone else, signing on might have been nothing more than a formality. The Gym never lacked fighters willing to sell their lives for money; if Xu Ze wouldn't fight, there was always someone eager to take his place.

The difference was that a good fighter commanded a high price, and Xu Ze was the only one who didn't haggle over his fee. The money saved went, naturally enough, into the manager's pocket — who would gladly arrange a few more matches for Xu Ze. And Xu Ze, as an S-Class Alpha, was in both hype and skill a money tree of his own.

Xu Ze stared at the invitation for a long time today, and at last replied: Not coming.

Then he found the Auto Repair Shop manager's number and called.

"Hello, Xu Ze?"

"Manager — are you short on people for the evening shift, six or seven until around two in the morning?"

"Night shift? You've got school during the day, and you want to take the night shift too — you won't be able to keep up."

"I'll be fine."

"I can put you on the schedule, but you know how night shifts go. We say we clock off at two, but if there's an accident after two and they call you, you've got to be on-site right away. Worst case, you don't sleep the whole night."

"Mm, I know," Xu Ze said. "Thank you."

He Wei had gone to his uncle's house and to He Yu's house two days in a row without finding him, and tonight he finally caught He Yu at Lake Rock Manor.

Lake Rock Manor's discretion was exceptionally thorough — every private room had its own separate entrance and exit — and He Wei had always thought the place felt like a maze. After eating his fill of sweets and fruit in the private room, and once word came that He Yu's gathering was about to break up, He Wei went to fetch his car and, at just the right angle, boxed He Yu's car into its spot.

"New car again?" He Yu said his goodbyes to his friends, stood beside He Wei's car, and smiled.

"Get in," He Wei said, glancing at him.

He Yu gestured to his driver, then climbed into He Wei's car.

Too lazy to argue about the game of hide-and-seek He Yu had been playing, He Wei went straight to the point: "Why are you mixing with Tang Feiyi?"

"Kid, why do you care about any of this."

"Someone said they saw you at Chengxi Club. The day Chi Jiahán got married, I saw you smoking with Tang Feiyi and Wei Lingzhou." He Wei's brows drew together. "Why are you working with Tang Feiyi? Isn't the money from your own family's company enough for you?"

"Who in this world turns down more money?" He Yu pulled out a cigarette, then remembered He Wei didn't like the smell; he only pinched it between his fingers and inhaled.

"If you get tangled up in dirty business, how is your father supposed to hand the company over to you?"

He Yu's expression darkened a shade. He twisted the cigarette in his hand until it snapped: "People outside don't know — but you don't?"

"Which heir has spent years inside a group and still hasn't been given real power?" He Yu said coldly. "I'd love to keep my hands clean, but my father's heart belongs to that eldest son of his, the one doing research abroad who refuses to come home and inherit. He drags his feet, refuses to hand anything over to me — isn't he just waiting for my brother to change his mind?"

He Wei was silent for a few seconds before he said, "No matter what, you're still your father's son. He can't leave you with nothing."

"What little he gives, I've long since stopped caring about." He Yu tossed the crushed cigarette out the window and pressed a thumb to his temple. "Xiao Wei — not everyone grew up the way you did, spoiled by mom and dad. Happy, you go play with cars and fall in love; unhappy, off to some island for a holiday."

"Among all the younger generation of the He Family, you're the one closest to me, the most real — but we're really not the same kind of people. Do you know why Chi Jiahán turned you down? Because an omega raised in a family like his wouldn't be your kind of person either. You're only suited to dating the rich sons and daughters you've dated before — carefree, no worries."

If anyone else had said these things, He Wei would have told them to get lost long ago. But now he only stared, expressionless, at the road ahead.

"I'm not saying this to make you change anything. You're fine the way you are, and I hope you never have a worry in your life. But stop looking at everyone else through your own eyes — it won't get you anywhere." He Yu let out a long breath. "Pull over."

There was nothing left to say. He Wei pressed the brake and stopped at the side of the road.

"Also — tell that boxer friend of yours to stay away from Tang Feiyi, and don't go back to the Underground Club." He Yu closed the car door. "Drive slowly. Be careful on the road."

He Wei gave no reply. He started the car and drove off.

Lu Heyang hadn't come to school for two days; he only showed up at the Swimming Pool today, just before the first official swim test. When he came out of the changing room and into the pool hall, the S-Class students from both classes had already lined up to warm up and take the test. Gu Yunchi had come too; He Wei was chatting with him; Xu Ze stood in line behind them both.

The moment he stepped down the stairs, Lu Heyang caught Xu Ze's gaze — Xu Ze had been looking toward the entrance the whole time, clearly waiting for someone, looking for someone.

He and Lu Heyang held each other's eyes for a few seconds; he turned away, and a moment later turned back, watching Lu Heyang take his place at the end of the line.

Ten seconds later, Xu Ze stepped out from the middle of the line and joined Lu Heyang at the back, becoming the last in the queue.

"What's wrong?" Lu Heyang asked, half-turning his body.

Xu Ze thought he saw something like a smile in Lu Heyang's eyes — a knowing, teasing quality, as if he were asking only for the sake of asking. Xu Ze said nothing, lowered his head; he knew his intention must already be plain.

Lu Heyang reached back, caught Xu Ze's wrist, and drew him closer. "Stand here," he said.

Xu Ze stepped forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Lu Heyang. Lu Heyang loosened his grip on Xu Ze's wrist; his fingertips slid along Xu Ze's palm and hooked his ring finger and his little finger.

The others were still chatting and laughing. Xu Ze and Lu Heyang stood quietly at the far end of the crowd, the part that had drifted loose from the rest.

"Hey, where's Xu Ze?" He Wei was mid-sentence when he turned and found Xu Ze gone. He leaned out to look back. "Why's he all the way at the back? When did Heyang get here?"

"When you weren't looking," Gu Yunchi answered.

He Wei thought it over for a moment, then said, "Isn't that just stating the obvious?"

After the fifty-metre freestyle came the two-hundred-metre individual medley. Xu Ze and Lu Heyang were in the last heat; most of the students ahead of them had already gone back to the changing room.

Lu Heyang's swim time was outstanding — probably the result of the high-intensity physical training at the Military Academy. He reached the wall nearly two seconds ahead of Xu Ze, who came in second. Lu Heyang was about to surface after touching the wall when his hand was suddenly seized. Underwater, he looked left and saw Xu Ze reaching out his other hand to touch the wall, then swimming toward him.

The assistants were recording times; the red-and-yellow lane markers rocked with the churning water. Xu Ze, like a fish beneath the surface, silent and bold, swam toward Lu Heyang; under cover of the waves and the floats, he pressed his mouth to Lu Heyang's.

A muffled rush of water filled his ears, threaded through with a heartbeat heavy and fast, and his head swam with the faint suffocation of held breath — Xu Ze thought he might never again in his life have a courage like this one.

He saw Lu Heyang, after a flicker of surprise, smile at him and blow a bubble, then move his lips and say a few words.

Too tense, no time to react — before Xu Ze could make out what Lu Heyang had said, his arm was seized and he was pulled up to the surface. The instant he breathed air again, noise closed in from every direction, and they were back in the real world.

He Wei had finished his shower and changed when he came out; Xu Ze and Lu Heyang had only just finished their test. Xu Ze was sitting on a bench; Lu Heyang stood in front of him, leaning back against the lockers, twisting the cap off a bottle of mineral water.

The afterglow of the setting sun came slanting in through the high windows, its angled cut falling just on Xu Ze and Lu Heyang, filling the whole changing room with a warm yellow light. He Wei saw Xu Ze looking up at Lu Heyang the whole time — his gaze, his expression, focused, quiet, pliant — and Lu Heyang, after twisting off the cap, straightened and stepped forward, bringing the water to Xu Ze's lips.

Xu Ze tilted his head back and opened his mouth; his lips closed around half the mouth of the bottle. The line of light drawn along his throat rose and fell with each swallow, like the rolling surface of the sea at sunset. Xu Ze's eyes stayed fixed upward on Lu Heyang, unwavering, not for a single second.

He Wei stared, then rubbed his hair with his towel, then rubbed his eyes. His gut told him the scene was absurd, but he couldn't quite say where the absurdity lay — because Lu Heyang becoming friends with Xu Ze was, in itself, a not-very-normal thing; but since it had happened, it meant Xu Ze must be someone rather special in Lu Heyang's eyes — and so giving a special friend a sip of water seemed, on reflection, perfectly reasonable.

"Aren't you going to shower?" He Wei walked into the changing room. He had the strange, unaccountable feeling of having forced his way into some private space, and for once began to wonder whether he ought not to be here at all.

"Mm," Lu Heyang glanced at him, then looked back at Xu Ze. "Go get changed."

Xu Ze nodded, stood, and went to open his locker; the two of them then went off to the showers. Not long after, Gu Yunchi came in, changed and towelling his hair as he went to fetch his sports bag. He Wei, sorting his things, said, "I think something's a little off."

"Off how," Gu Yunchi said without looking up. "Off that you've somehow survived this long with that head on your shoulders?"

"Hiss—" He Wei, already in a foul mood, flung down his towel. "Why is your mouth so poisonous? Last time I saw you coming out of the equipment room with that omega, one in front of the other, and he was crying as he walked — your doing? Did you hit him? I'm going to tell Grandpa Gu right now."

Gu Yunchi turned his head and looked at him coldly.

"What are you looking at!" He Wei shouted. "Nobody's getting out of this in one piece!"

Gu Yunchi, as ever, refused to engage with this kind of low-grade bickering. He sat down on a chair and opened his Mobile Phone; He Wei muttered a few more things, then sat down too and started playing with his phone.

Xu Ze finished his shower first and came out. He Wei, mid-game, turned his head and asked, "Heyang not done yet?"

"Getting dressed," Xu Ze answered. His face and neck were flushed a little pink from the water.

Half a minute later, Lu Heyang came back into the changing room, packed his things, and the four of them walked out together. Lu Heyang said suddenly, "Xu Ze, you've grown a tail."

Something at his back seemed to tug. Xu Ze turned around in confusion and found that Lu Heyang was holding the drawstring of his tracksuit trousers — he had put them on backwards.

Xu Ze blinked, reached back to tie the string himself. Lu Heyang said, "Let me." He tied it into a knot, then gave Xu Ze's waist a light push. "There. Let's go."

He Wei, walking ahead, looked back at the two of them; that strange feeling rose again, but this time he said nothing, because he knew it would only end in another fight with Gu Yunchi.

At the school gate, He Wei asked Xu Ze whose car he was taking. Xu Ze shook his head. "I'm heading home first."

"Why? Come eat with us. Heyang can hardly ever eat with us these days."

"Something on tonight." If he ate dinner with them, he'd be late for his shift at the Auto Repair Shop. "You guys go ahead."

When he finished speaking he looked at Lu Heyang, as if waiting for some word from him. Lu Heyang said, "Be careful on the road. We'll eat together next time."

"Mm." Xu Ze shouldered his bag and walked toward the bike shed.

"Going to work?" He Wei asked, after Xu Ze had gone.

Lu Heyang gave a small nod. In the distance, Xu Ze was wheeling his bicycle out.

"Anyway, just don't go back to the Underground Club… but the entrance exams are coming up — won't it affect his studies? Aren't you going to lend him some money, let him focus on revising for a bit?"

"He wouldn't take it," Lu Heyang said.

He wouldn't accept it, and he certainly wouldn't ask. There was no room for change in Xu Ze on this point — he had long since grown used to it, used to spending his own health and rest to earn money; it was the way he lived. Xu Ze didn't consider other options, and no one else had any standing to judge or interfere.

After dinner at the hotel, He Wei and Gu Yunchi went off to the entertainment area to play pool, and Lu Heyang went alone to the washroom, where an Alpha was standing at the sink.

"We've nearly finished the investigation — the Casino, the Gym, x-transactions, prohibited drugs. Especially the Gym: someone's been using the fighters to run trials on stimulant drugs. People have already died."

Lu Heyang gave an "mm." "Wait a little longer. Wait for the Gu Family to take the Chengxi project."

"Mr. Lu is returning to the country tomorrow," Jiang Wen said. "He must already know about the kidnapping last time."

"It's fine." Lu Heyang washed his hands. "Uncle Wen, help me look into someone."

"Xu Ming. A criminal police officer at the Capital Bureau. Ten years ago he died on a mission — fell off a mountain — but the family never saw the body. Find out for me what that mission was, exactly, and who went with him."

"A case from ten years ago. It might take some time."

"Mm." Lu Heyang dried his hands clean. "No rush. Tell me the moment you have a lead."