Chapter 17

Wen Fu hung up the phone just as Fei Bolin finished paying and came back with the medicine.

A few minutes later, a nurse finished preparing the IV bag and came over with a tray to administer the injection.

Before the IV, they had to do a skin test. The skin test needle was a size smaller than the IV needle, which made it look even sharper. Wen Fu sat in the injection room, with Fei Bolin standing beside him. Just as the nurse raised the needle to prick Wen Fu's arm, Wen Fu looked up at Fei Bolin.

Fei Bolin: "..."

He put one hand on Wen Fu's shoulder and raised the other to cover Wen Fu's eyes.

Actually, Wen Fu wasn't afraid of getting shots. Over the past few years, he'd ended up in the hospital quite a few times from overwork and illness. When Fei Bolin wasn't around, the needle would go in, and he'd just take it without a sound or a gasp. But with Fei Bolin here now, whether he was scared or not, he was definitely going to milk it and have Fei Bolin cover his eyes—otherwise, it'd feel like a waste.

That was the gist of it—other kids got their eyes covered by a parent when they got shots, so he wanted Fei Bolin to cover his too.

Fei Bolin understood his thinking perfectly. When Wen Fu looked over, he gently placed his hand over his eyes.

The nurse, wearing a mask, glanced at Wen Fu. Luckily, Wen Fu was also wearing a mask and wasn't recognized. She just chuckled warmly and said, "Still scared of shots at your age?"

Fei Bolin explained with a smile, "He's acting spoiled. The more attention he gets, the more he leans into it."

The nurse kept laughing, trying to ease any real fear Wen Fu might have by keeping up the conversation: "How old are you, still acting spoiled with your brother?"

As she spoke, the needle pierced the skin and the antibiotic was injected.

Wen Fu didn't speak. His eyes blinked repeatedly in the darkness that had descended over them, his dense eyelashes brushing faintly, back and forth, against Fei Bolin's palm. Fei Bolin's fingertips trembled slightly, and he pressed his hand a little closer, feeling the motion of Wen Fu's blinks more clearly.

After the skin test was done, Fei Bolin lowered his hand. Wen Fu's expression hadn't changed at all—it was completely unlike someone who'd just been hurt by the sting of a needle.

A small bump rose where the needle had gone in. The nurse would come back to check in fifteen minutes.

Wen Fu grabbed a corner of Fei Bolin's clothes and said, "Hungry."

Fei Bolin pulled a chair over and sat down next to him, taking out his phone. "What do you want to eat?"

The location was pretty remote, and Fei Bolin wasn't familiar with the nearby restaurants. Most of the places around the hospital were cheap fast-food joints, probably nothing too tasty. Delivery was the only option.

Wen Fu thought about it. "Burger."

He actually hadn't eaten his fill that night at Weibo Night. The McDonald's burgers were small. He'd eaten three when someone came over to ask him for some. Hearing the other person was a fourteen-year-old actor, Wen Fu thought for a moment, remembered how much he could eat at fourteen, and just gave away all the food he had on hand.

He understood better than anyone how awful it felt to be that hungry at fourteen or fifteen.

What Wen Fu had misjudged, though, was that not everyone could eat as much as he could at fourteen.

The young actor he'd given the McDonald's to hadn't finished it, and Wen Fu himself had been left wanting more. Now, sitting in the hospital, he didn't know why he remembered it, but he suddenly craved it intensely.

Fei Bolin instinctively searched for "burger" on the delivery app. The results that popped up, aside from some no-name fried chicken shops without physical locations, only showed one KFC, 4.8 kilometers from the hospital.

The delivery radius here was within five kilometers. The only McDonald's he found that was closest to the hospital happened to be 5.1 kilometers away.

Fei Bolin's eyes darkened. He closed the delivery app and called the driver downstairs, telling him to drive to the McDonald's 5.1 kilometers away and buy a few combos to bring over.

He hung up and said quietly to Wen Fu, "There aren't any burgers for sale nearby. I told the driver to go buy some. It'll be faster than delivery."

The KFC 4.8 kilometers away was thus forcibly erased from this lie.

How could Wen Fu possibly detect how many layers Fei Bolin was operating on? He naturally had no objections.

About half an hour later, Zhou Ji, having finished dealing with the paparazzi, hurried to the hospital. He happened to run into Fei Bolin's driver downstairs and helpfully carried the still-warm McDonald's up.

After asking at the information desk, Zhou Ji headed straight for the injection room. The moment he stepped inside, he met Fei Bolin's gaze.

The other man unhurriedly gestured for him to be quiet—Wen Fu had already fallen asleep leaning against Fei Bolin's shoulder.

Zhou Ji had no idea when these two had gotten so close. He'd originally thought Wen Fu and Fei Bolin were just passing acquaintances from a single meeting, and that being together today was just a chance encounter. He'd even been worried that Wen Fu had gotten into some trouble that forced him to go to the hospital, inconveniencing Fei Bolin. Who would have thought that rushing over in a panic, he'd be confronted with this scene? He was practically stunned speechless.

Zhou Ji didn't show excessive surprise. He caught on and went over, exchanging a silent nod with Fei Bolin, which counted as a greeting.

He placed the several large bags of McDonald's on the table. Fei Bolin showed no intention of chatting further, and Zhou Ji didn't feel comfortable initiating conversation either, so he just sat to the side in a daze.

Thinking back on these two, Zhou Ji could only recall that night last month when Wen Fu agreed to Stella's request in the car to attend the sponsorship meeting.

Back then, Wen Fu was eating his salad. His first reaction upon hearing Stella mention a meeting was to refuse. But later, what made him suddenly change his mind?

It was when Stella said the sponsor's name—that is... when Wen Fu learned the attendee would be Fei Bolin.

—!

Zhou Ji's calm eyes suddenly widened, his heart starting to beat rapidly.

His mind flashed back to the mountain of luxury clothing gift bags worth several hundred thousand piled up in Stella's car a few days ago.

He'd known it. That stingy company definitely wouldn't spend money to get Wen Fu all that stuff.

Could it be...

Fei Bolin and Wen Fu...

Were long-lost biological brothers?

He felt like he'd just brushed against the edge of some rich family secret. Combined with Wen Fu's usual situation of having no relatives in sight, Zhou Ji immediately cemented Wen Fu's identity in his mind.

Shocking! Popular male idol singer is actually a rich family's illegitimate child!

Internet giant makes bold move—what's the reason behind the tens of millions in concert sponsorship?

Carrying this incredible secret in his heart, Zhou Ji kept sizing up the two people beside him whose closeness seemed abnormal. Several times, he looked like he wanted to say something to Fei Bolin but stopped himself.

When Zhou Ji's gaze swept over him for the eleventh time, Fei Bolin asked softly, "Is something wrong?"

Yes, of course there was.

Zhou Ji: President, is the young master still refusing to come home?

No, wait, Chairman.

No, wait, seems like we're missing a female lead.

He cleared his throat lightly, reining in his increasingly wayward thoughts. "Wen Fu's high-speed train is about to leave."

Fei Bolin looked away, his expression unreadable. "I'll take him back to Jin City after the IV."

Guiyang wasn't far from Jin City. It was an hour by plane; Fei Bolin's car ride over today had only taken half a day.

He'd originally just wanted to see Wen Fu. He'd finished a full day's work in the morning and had the driver bring him over specially. He ended up missing Wen Fu's performance, but instead ran into Wen Fu nearly getting stabbed to death in the river.

If the crowd of onlookers on the bridge hadn't caused a traffic jam, he really wouldn't have glanced twice at that river.

"Ah..." Zhou Ji weighed his words and explained, "It's not about going back to Jin City."

Not back to Jin City?

Fei Bolin turned his gaze back, waiting for him to continue.

And what Zhou Ji had to say was clearly awkward in the current situation. "Originally, he could have gone back to rest for a night, but now there's no time. He can only go straight to another city after the IV—he's got two more days of Commercial Performance to run."

Fei Bolin lowered his eyes to look at Wen Fu. When he spoke again, his voice was so soft it could only be read on his lips. "He's not going."

As if knowing what Zhou Ji was worried about, he added, "There won't be a breach-of-contract penalty."

Not that he would pay the penalty, but that there *wouldn't be* a penalty.

Soon, Zhou Ji understood what that meant.

After Wen Fu woke up, he and Zhou Ji huddled together, devouring the McDonald's. While Fei Bolin stepped out to make a call, Stella sent a message in the team's small group chat, saying that an investor had been suddenly added to Wen Fu's next two Commercial Performances. However, the investor considered the dates of the celebration performances inauspicious and demanded the shows be postponed. The contract was very clear about this kind of last-minute schedule change: the performing artist had the right to choose an amicable contract termination with the organizer due to scheduling conflicts.

And so, quite naturally, tonight's performance of *The Butterfly* became the closing act of Wen Fu's last small-scale promotional Commercial Performance.

[@Zhou Ji: Won't the higher-ups at the company have a problem with this?]

[@Stella: What problem? They wouldn't dare.]

[@Stella: Just don't go.]

Zhou Ji smiled at the chat window. He put away his phone just as Fei Bolin returned from a distance.

At that moment, Wen Fu, head down eating fries, had choked a bit. He was about to pick up the iced Coke beside him to wash it down when Zhou Ji quickly reached out to stop him, pulling Wen Fu's thermos from his own bag. "You're still on an IV. Drink hot water."

Since Fei Bolin wasn't around, Wen Fu glanced at the thermos in Zhou Ji's hand, took it, set it on the table, then scooted over to the other side, sitting just out of Zhou Ji's reach, and prepared to drink the Coke.

He'd just raised the iced Coke when he suddenly felt a chilly gaze from ahead.

He instinctively froze, sneaking a glance in the direction of that ominous feeling.

Fei Bolin stood leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, phone in hand. He didn't say a word, just watched him quietly with a look that said, "I'm waiting to see if you dare."

Wen Fu's Adam's apple bobbed. He slowly shifted his gaze away, planning to pretend he hadn't seen anything, and brought the Coke in his hand to his lips, opening his mouth to gulp it down.

Fei Bolin's gaze didn't waver. He didn't shout a reprimand, not even moving from his position, too lazy to even straighten up.

Wen Fu held the Coke silently for two seconds. Just before his lips touched the drink, he lowered his eyes and silently swapped the Coke for the thermos, gulping the hot water down.