Chapter 5

Through a pane of glass, Fei Bolin was browsing things in a maternity store.

When Wen Fu came up the escalator, he happened to look up from the shelf. Their eyes met, and both froze on the spot.

Today Fei Bolin was still wearing glasses, but he'd swapped yesterday's business suit for a loose sweater and jacket. He looked way more relaxed.

The moment he caught Wen Fu's eye, he first set down the baby products in his hands, so Wen Fu wouldn't get the wrong idea.

But Wen Fu didn't react. His mask hid the lower half of his face. His eyes were ice-cold, staring at him in silence.

Fei Bolin's heart skipped. He'd barely started to step out when Wen Fu spun around like a rabbit, shot down the escalator, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Fei Bolin knew exactly how fast Wen Fu could run. He'd just chased out of the maternity store when his phone rang.

Su Haoran was frantic on the other end: 'Team lead, where are you? Youyou can't wait any longer.'

Fei Bolin glanced at the stream of people below, then back at the shop. He let out a barely-there sigh, steadied his voice, and said, 'Thirty minutes.'

Half an hour later. Qilin Bistro.

Fei Bolin walked into the private room carrying a bag of diapers. Su Haoran took the baby from him: 'You and Ningning chat first, I'll take Youyou to change her.'

And he was off, dashing toward the gender-neutral restroom.

Xie Yining sat in her chair, idly poking at a dessert. First she shot Su Haoran a look: 'Hurry up.'

Then she waved Fei Bolin over: 'Team lead, sit.'

The two of them had been high school classmates with Fei Bolin. Back in school they'd been in the same group — Fei Bolin was team lead, Xie Yining was class president, and Su Haoran was a rich kid who loafed around doing nothing. His proudest achievement in all three years of high school was getting Xie Yining to be his girlfriend on graduation day.

Later Fei Bolin founded Sifuse Media Group. Su Haoran and Xie Yining put in two million as partners. At the end of '19, Fei Bolin went abroad to negotiate a deal, got stuck there for years because of the pandemic, and the domestic projects had been handled by them ever since.

Xie Yining was anti-marriage, but last year she and Su Haoran had a daughter, named Xie You. After You was born, Su Haoran transferred all his shares in Sifuse to Xie Yining's name and stayed home full-time as a stay-at-home dad, revolving around his daughter every day.

Today was the first time the three of them had met in person — outside of video calls — in years.

Also today, the first time Fei Bolin had seen Xie You not through a phone screen.

Except before he could even see her face, You had pooped her pants.

Su Haoran came back with the baby, freshly diapered, just in time to hear Xie Yining scolding: 'I told him to remember diapers when we go out. He had to argue with me, said the baby wouldn't poop at this time. Look at that — pooped all over herself.'

Su Haoran sat back down with a shameless grin, hid his face behind Xie You, lifted her little arm to wave, and mimicked a baby's voice: 'Mother knows best! So wise and all-powerful!'

Xie Yining tossed a crumpled napkin at him: 'Get lost. Cut the smooth talk.'

Xie You wasn't even one yet — she didn't understand what the grown-ups were arguing about. Bouncing on Su Haoran's lap, she giggled along.

Su Haoran placed the baby in Fei Bolin's arms. Fei Bolin played with her for a bit, thinking what an exquisitely pretty little thing this months-old baby was.

He pulled a small box from his coat and slid it across to Xie Yining: 'A Safety Charm I got for Youyou at Daci Temple.'

Given Fei Bolin's and Xie Yining's current family situations, gifting a child gold or luxury jewelry wouldn't be unusual. Compared to that, a Safety Charm personally requested from a temple actually meant more.

Xie Yining was clearly delighted with it: 'Well then, I'll take it.'

Fei Bolin wasn't great at holding babies. Worried Xie You might be uncomfortable in his arms, he held her for a bit then handed her back to Su Haoran. Just then Xie Yining suddenly asked: 'Hey team lead, where were you yesterday when I messaged you?'

Fei Bolin said: 'Over by the Jinjiang River. What's up?'

'Oh...' Xie Yining looked thoughtful. 'Didn't you say you were looking for Doremi? Find him yet?'

Fei Bolin went quiet for a moment.

Xie Yining caught his expression. Before he could answer, she said: 'I just saw a post — looks like Doremi was there last night too.'

Fei Bolin blinked. 'A post?'

'Someone's saying he threw his weight around.' Xie Yining pulled out her phone, swiped through a few screens, found the post, and handed it to Fei Bolin. 'Here. Does the person in the photo look like Doremi to you?'

Fei Bolin glanced down. His expression went cold.

-

Wen Fu thought he was hallucinating again.

He ran back down from the third floor, completely forgetting his earlier plan to eat on the fourth.

He didn't stop until he hit the ground floor. The mask over his face amplified the sound of his own breathing. Wen Fu was panting, and a wave of long-bottled-up exhaustion swept through him.

Suddenly he couldn't run anymore. He desperately needed to rest.

On his left was a KFC right at the entrance. Wen Fu pushed open the glass door, found the most out-of-the-way corner, and dropped into a single seat against the wall.

A QR code was stuck to the table. He scanned it and ordered two chicken wraps. Then he curled up in the chair, head down, body heavy as if a hydraulic press was sitting on him, not moving a muscle.

The front desk called his number four or five times before he finally lifted his head, shifted his arm, braced himself on the table to stand, and picked up his food in slow, silent motion.

Back at his seat, he wolfed down the chicken wraps. Then he put his mask back on and stared at the empty plate.

Just then Qi Yichuan called. Wen Fu picked up: 'Hello.'

'Wen Fu?'

'Yeah.'

Qi Yichuan sounded anxious: 'Let me ask you — didn't you come back to Jin City yesterday?'

Wen Fu nodded.

Qi Yichuan didn't wait for an answer, firing questions like bullets: 'Did you go over by the Jinjiang River?'

Wen Fu hummed again, his voice so low it was barely there.

'You... ugh!' Qi Yichuan asked, 'Where are you right now?'

Wen Fu said softly: 'KFC.'

'Which KFC?'

'The School one.'

Qi Yichuan hung up with a click.

The moment the call cut off, Wen Fu's brain went blank again.

He held the phone, knowing full well he should move again. Like Stella always reminded him — as a rising star, he was the center of the whole team, responsible for everyone on it. He shouldn't be out in public on his own, especially not in his current state.

But he really couldn't make himself take a single step.

It felt like all the strength in his body had been drained out of him that morning. Maybe days of back-to-back work had worn him down. Either way, he didn't want to move a single finger. He'd sit here a few more minutes.

Didn't matter if someone recognized him. Didn't care if stalkers found him. Right now he just wanted to rest.

Wen Fu crossed his arms over his chest, head hanging, eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Somehow he ended up dozing off right there in the chair.

The next time he opened his eyes, Qi Yichuan had found him in this forgotten corner of the KFC.

Wen Fu's head had been bobbing toward the table like a woodpecker, every dip coming dangerously close to cracking against it. Qi Yichuan reached the corner just in time to see Wen Fu tilting to one side, about to topple over. He hurried over with long strides and caught him.

'Hey! Hey! Hey!' Qi Yichuan grabbed Wen Fu's shoulders, propped him back in the chair, and dropped into the seat across from him. 'Still got the nerve to sleep?'

Wen Fu was awake now but said nothing, head down, blinking hard like he could blink the sleep away.

'Stop torturing your eyes,' Qi Yichuan said, pulling out his phone and tapping at it. 'You're really famous now, you know. There's already a hit piece about you on the forums.'

He tossed the phone, forum page already open, to Wen Fu.

Maybe the motion was a bit too sudden. Wen Fu instinctively raised his arm to shield his head and flinched back.

His first reaction to any sudden movement toward him was to flinch away.

Qi Yichuan stared at him, exasperated: 'I'm not gonna hit you. What are you dodging for?'

Wen Fu didn't explain. He just shifted his gaze to the phone on the table, looking silently at the posts floating on the forum page.

'That first one,' Qi Yichuan pointed. 'The one pinned to the top with over a hundred replies. The tag's already changed color.'

Forum post tags came in three colors. Few replies meant a pale yellow. Over fifty and it turned orange. Wen Fu's post was already a vivid deep red.

The poster's ID was 'momo.' Their IP address matched his location.

The title was: 【@momo: guys... last night... i think... i ran into a 208... throwing their weight around...】

Wen Fu held up the phone and tapped in to read the main post.

【@momo: so here's what happened. I'm just a poor office worker, right? Yesterday I was working late at the Jinjiang River Central Business District. When I went down to take the elevator — my office is in a commercial area, so even at that hour there were still a lot of people in the building, and the elevator was packed. Anyway, when it reached the 22nd floor, the doors opened and a 208w's whole team was waiting to squeeze in with us.

(By the way, these 208w types really travel with a whole entourage. Last night was supposedly a private trip — no fans, no security — but they still had six or seven staff with them.)

The elevator I was in couldn't fit many people to begin with. Their team piled in all at once, leaving one person outside, and we were still over capacity. So someone had to get out. The 208w himself was standing closest to the door — probably too embarrassed to stand there shamelessly without moving — so he reluctantly stepped out, looking super sour about it, like he felt he'd gotten the short end of the stick.

But no one on the 208's team dared let the artist give up his spot for them. So someone offered to step out themselves and let the 208 back in... and that's when the 208's arrogant side came out...

He straight up told the person trying to switch with him (probably an assistant or something): You're fat... if you can't squeeze in, then don't (something like that — anyway, it was really harsh)

The scene got super awkward...

I really felt for that assistant for like five seconds. What did us workers do wrong? Running around serving you 208w types only to get bodyshamed at the end...

Oh right... that 208w is the one fans call the chosen one with the ultimate su-gan boy voice, the ice mountain beauty Wen Fu...】

The main post ended there.

In the article, 'lz' is short for 'original poster' — not hard to figure out.

Wen Fu finished reading, looked up, and asked: 'What does 208 mean?'