—

Sifuse Media Group's studio was in an office building in the Central Business District. It was ten at night - normally no reason to hold a meeting at this hour - but Sifuse's people wanted to wrap up the sponsorship ASAP, and Stella's side, as the contracted party, was more than happy to play along.

Wen Fu stepped into the elevator. Two assistants beside him held off a few stalker fans who'd followed them down. The elevator rose slowly, and Wen Fu's mind held nothing but the text he'd seen on the search engine earlier.

Sifuse Media Group, founded in 2017, registered capital of ten million. Over five years it caught the short-video wave and blew up fast, growing from a small company into one of the giants of China's internet talent agencies, making serious waves in online video and e-commerce. The founder and executive director's name: Fei Bolin.

In the twenty-second-floor conference room, Fei Bolin sat in his office chair, eyes lowered, staring at his phone screen.

Today he was wearing a full GA autumn/winter custom - dark gray suit, black overcoat on top, gold-rimmed glasses on his nose bridge. A twenty-inch suitcase sat in the corner of the conference room. This was his first stop after getting back from abroad.

His phone screen showed his private chat with Stella, the interface paused on the last two messages she'd sent five minutes ago:

[Stella: He agreed to come over.]

[Stella shared with you: [Personal Card]]

[Stella: This is his WeChat.]

Fei Bolin tapped the card. Wen Fu's profile appeared on his phone screen.

Since he hadn't sent Wen Fu a friend request, the interface was stripped down - no Moments visible, just a bird flying through the sky as the avatar and a nickname: [Little Sister]

Wen Fu's WeChat nickname was Little Sister.

Fei Bolin's fingertip hovered over the "Add Friend" option for a long time, never clicking it.

Suddenly a notification popped up at the top of the screen - Xie Yining had sent him a new message.

Fei Bolin tapped it open.

[OneNotZero: Team lead, you're back in the country?]

[Lin: Yeah]

[OneNotZero: When did you get back?]

[OneNotZero: Why didn't you say anything first?]

[OneNotZero: We could have come to pick you up]

Xie Yining fired off a string of messages. Fei Bolin was about to answer them one by one when he saw her ask something.

[OneNotZero: Did you go find Do Re Mi?]

Fei Bolin's fingertip paused.

Xie Yining kept chattering in the chat.

[OneNotZero: I mean Wen Fu]

[OneNotZero: You remember him, right?]

[OneNotZero: He's a celebrity now, you know?]

[OneNotZero: Back then I said his singing was so good he should try debuting]

[OneNotZero: But he deleted his QQ, changed his number, completely unreachable]

[OneNotZero: Why aren't you saying anything?]

[OneNotZero: You still there?]

Fei Bolin laughed despite himself, then typed two characters and sent them.

[Lin: Looking]

[OneNotZero: Looking? Looking for what?]

[OneNotZero: Oh, you mean Wen Fu]

Based on Xie Yining's experience, Fei Bolin replying this briefly meant he was probably busy, so she decided not to bother him anymore.

[OneNotZero: Tell me when you're free, let's get a meal together, the few of us]

[Lin: Sure]

The message had just gone out when the meeting coordinator whispered in Fei Bolin's ear: "Director Fei, they're here."

Before the words finished, a knock sounded outside the conference room.

The assistant went to open the door. Stella, in high heels, came in first. Seeing Fei Bolin, she nodded in greeting: "Long time no see, Director Fei."

Fei Bolin rose from his chair and extended his right hand to shake hers: "You as well, Sister Dai."

Stella shook his hand, trading playful pleasantries - a way to close the distance of years apart: "Eight years, and now Director Fei's calling me Sister Dai? I can't take that."

Fei Bolin gestured for her to sit across from him: "Any time, you deserve it."

Stella laughed, then asked with a pointed look: "Director Fei isn't going to be upset about what I did a few years back, right?"

These few back-and-forth greetings were loaded with subtext - a you-know-what-I-mean kind of thing, unintelligible to bystanders but subtly showing the two had some history, making this business relationship suddenly look more complicated than simple.

Fei Bolin just smiled. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes lowered slightly, hiding whatever was in them. He neither confirmed nor denied.

The next second, Stella's two assistants walked in through the door and sat down in sequence on her right.

Then Fei Bolin saw Wen Fu step through the door.

The other was clearly looking at him too.

Wen Fu stopped at the doorway. His hat pulled low and his mask covered nearly all of his face, but Fei Bolin still looked straight into Wen Fu's eyes - just like the first time they'd met, years ago.

Those eyes were like a pair of bottomless black glass beads, hidden beneath thick lashes. Ten years of the same cold indifference, no impurities - only when looking at Fei Bolin would they show a flicker of emotion. But just a flicker.

The moment Fei Bolin saw Wen Fu, he felt a kind of daze, as if ten years had left no mark on him at all. This person hadn't grown up - identical to sixteen, quiet and sparse with words, pure and clean. Anyone who touched him felt like there was a layer of glass between them. Born distant - you could see clearly but couldn't get close.

"Wen Fu?" Stella turned her head toward the door. "Why aren't you coming in?"

Wen Fu broke eye contact, walked quickly to the conference table, and sat down next to Stella.

The meeting coordinator closed the door and walked to the front of the table: "Since everyone's here, let's start early and finish early - it's getting late... Director Fei?"

Fei Bolin stood before his chair, one hand's knuckles resting on the table, seemingly still not back to himself.

"...Director Fei?"

After the coordinator called out twice softly, he came to, pulled his gaze away, sat back down, and nodded at her: "Sorry. Go ahead."

On the other side of the conference table, Wen Fu heard Fei Bolin's voice and gently lowered his eyes, removing his mask.

The coordinator from Stella's Management Studio was flipping through PPT page after page, talking herself hoarse in front of Fei Bolin. Most of the content was about Wen Fu - market analysis, the singer's personal market value, influence, risk, and ROI assessment. In the mouths of the attendees, Wen Fu was practically becoming a treasure that existed nowhere else on earth.

Fei Bolin watched the screen intently. The light from the flipping PPT reflected off his gold-rimmed lenses. Under the glasses, his nose bridge was straight and sharp, his features and contours softened and blurred in the flickering light.

His expression was calm and composed. Regarding everything about Wen Fu on the PPT, he listened with great seriousness, as if learning it all for the first time.

This kind of meeting was nothing new for Wen Fu. Out of politeness he wouldn't play with his phone. Like the few times he'd attended in the past, Wen Fu only planned to sit quietly in his chair, eyes lowered, zoning out.

Different from before, in moments like this his head used to be full of unfinished sheet music at home, half-written lyrics, arrangement assignments. Only in occasional gaps would he think of the name Fei Bolin.

This time he was still silent, but his gaze had landed on Fei Bolin - with a touch of inquiry and confusion.

- Eight years ago, Stella had sent Wen Fu abroad for special training. At the time, he and Fei Bolin were in a cold war. He'd gotten on the plane still sulking, and by the time his temper had thawed, Fei Bolin had completely vanished. Later, when Wen Fu finally made it back to the country, he could no longer find any trace of the other person.

Fei Bolin had vanished from the face of the earth, no news for years, and now today dropped from the sky, appearing before his eyes as Director Fei, sitting across from him as if nothing had ever happened.

Was it that he'd sulked too long, leaving no room for either of them? Or was this person fundamentally not Fei Bolin?

Could someone really have the same name and the same face?

Wen Fu stared at the man across from him, lost in thought, trying to determine if the Fei Bolin before him was the real Fei Bolin from his memories.

After staring too long, when Fei Bolin turned his head, Wen Fu shifted his eyes away.

Fei Bolin looked back at the PPT, and Wen Fu's gaze returned.

When he zoned out, his gaze was very direct - fixed on the person across the conference table, his pupils barely moving.

Actually, no matter how long he looked, the answer was obvious - there was only one Fei Bolin in the world.

Whether eight years ago or eight years later, the person in front of Wen Fu was the same one.

Eight years ago they were two unknown nobodies, able to huddle in a thirty-square-meter apartment sharing one boxed meal. Eight years later, by chance meeting again - one a singer with a promising future, the other a director worth hundreds of millions - yet strangers to each other.

Tonight everything was so sudden. It was like Wen Fu's nerves were still stuck back in the car, not having processed it, but his body had already followed Stella to this conference room. After seeing Fei Bolin he still hadn't processed it, and then an hour and a half later the meeting ended with a bang.

Stella stood at his side, patted his back, in a pretty good mood: "Let's go, big star. Sponsorship's locked in."

The others present didn't know, but Stella had a very clear picture in her mind.

This meeting was just a formality. As long as it involved Wen Fu - Wen Fu didn't even need to be here in person - Fei Bolin would definitely agree to this sponsorship. In fact, this sponsorship had been initiated by someone from Sifuse Media Group's side in the first place. Stella had initially been puzzled by it, but once she saw the executive director's name was Fei Bolin, she understood everything.

From the moment she stepped into this conference room and saw Fei Bolin, she was even more certain of this fact.

As for adding Fei Bolin back as a contact and sending him Wen Fu's WeChat - just going with the flow.

Wen Fu put his mask back on and walked out of the conference room without a word.

It was nearly midnight. The office building should have been empty, but maybe because it was year-end and everyone was busy, one of the three passenger elevators was under repair, and the remaining two were both packed. Wen Fu wasn't on a public schedule tonight, with only a few staff around, so he had to squeeze into the elevator with everyone else.

The meeting attendees walked into the elevator that still had a bit of space. By the time they reached Fei Bolin, there was no more room.

Fei Bolin stepped back and said to them: "You go ahead, I'll wait for the next one."

His special assistant and meeting recorder laughed awkwardly - they'd been so focused on squeezing in, they'd forgotten the director was behind them: "Director Fei, how could we?"

The special assistant started to step out to switch with Fei Bolin.

Before he could squeeze out of the crowd, the elevator sounded its overload alert.

Well, now whether they switched or not, someone had to get out.

Wen Fu, standing at the outermost edge, suddenly walked out of the elevator, turned around, and said to those inside: "You guys go down first."

The special assistant hurriedly said: "No, no, that's not right, let me... I'll get out."

He was a bulky man, evenly fat from head to toe. Squeezing into the elevator had already been hard; squeezing out now was even more laborious.

Wen Fu watched him struggling in the gaps between people and quietly repeated: "You go down first."

The special assistant was still struggling: "It's fine, I'll be out in a sec..."

Wen Fu said out of nowhere: "You're heavy, you go down first."

The special assistant froze on the spot.

Wen Fu added: "You can't squeeze out."

Special assistant: !!!

Does this guy know how to talk?!

The special assistant wanted to speak, stopped, then wanted to speak again.

Stella, watching from the side, had a cold sweat drop on her forehead.

Wen Fu had never really been good at dealing with people. He didn't know any communication techniques, didn't know what tactfulness was, and always somehow offended people without meaning to - which was why he didn't like attending various events. But in front of outsiders he rarely spoke much, so not many people knew about this issue.

Tonight, him being willing to explain himself twice in front of people was already rare. Any more than that, and he'd reach the point of 'won't stop until his words shock people to death.'

Seeing the situation freeze, Stella quickly smoothed things over from the corner: "Um... what he means is he's worried the next elevator will be crowded too, and if it overloads again that's a hassle. Special Assistant Zhang, since you can get off this one, just come down with us."

The special assistant couldn't save face, his expression cycling between red and white as he looked at Fei Bolin. The other nodded at him too, so he stopped struggling and said reluctantly: "Th-then alright."

As they spoke, the elevator doors slowly closed.

Stella took the gap to say to Wen Fu: "We'll wait for you downstairs."

Wen Fu nodded. The elevator doors fully closed, and the corridor quickly returned to silence.

The floor numbers on the display slowly changed. The two of them stood one in front of the other outside the elevator doors. Only now did Fei Bolin openly let his gaze fall on Wen Fu's back, staring for a long time.

Wen Fu had grown taller.

Ten years ago, leaning against Fei Bolin, his forehead barely reached Fei Bolin's chin. Now it should reach his nose tip.

His hat was pulled low. The hair sticking out from under the brim showed that this person still had the habit of sleeping his hair into a mess.

He seemed even thinner.

When Fei Bolin had left back then, Wen Fu was in a growth spurt. The young man's appetite was astonishingly huge. Wen Fu wasn't picky - whatever Fei Bolin fed him, he'd eat. No matter how much he ate, he never put on weight. Under his clothes was always a body of fine bones.

Fei Bolin unconsciously curved his lips. He raised his hand, across the not-too-far, not-too-close distance between them, and traced the messy hair at the back of Wen Fu's head with his fingertip.

Just then, with a ding, the elevator doors opened.

This elevator was completely empty. The golden reflective walls inside mercilessly mirrored the two of them.

Wen Fu looked up and, in the reflective wall, met Fei Bolin's eyes - the smile he hadn't had time to pull back.

And the arm behind him, raised in midair, about to touch his hair.