"Yes, I'll have him there in thirty minutes… no, it's just for today… I understand… yes, thank you."
Still speaking into his phone, Louis stepped out of the elevator and headed straight for Mo Fei's apartment. His expression was tired, and his patience unknown to the world was already hanging by a thread.
He punched in the passcode. The door opened and Louis stepped inside.
"Yes, yes, no problem, we'll be right th..." The rest of the sentence died in his mouth. Louis blinked.
Then, without a word, he turned around, walked back out of the apartment, and stood in the hallway for two full seconds.
Then he walked back in.
Opened the door wider. Looked again. The room was still exactly the same.
Bottles everywhere.
Shoes in impossible places.
A blanket half on the couch and half on the floor like it had given up mid-life.
And four full-grown, supposedly functional adults, sleeping in different directions across the living room like survivors of a natural disaster.
Louis closed his eyes.
Inner peace, Louis. Inner peace. Remember your breathing exercises.
He took one step forward and nearly crushed an empty bottle under his shoe. He bent down, picked it up, stared at it for one long moment, then deliberately let it fall.
CRASH!!!.
The bottle shattered against the floor with a sharp, violent sound.
All four sleeping beauties jolted awake at once.
"I'M UP!" Chen Yu screamed, bolting upright panic.
Nil jerked awake too, eyes wide and soul halfway out of his body. "Yichen!" he shouted instinctively.
Somewhere on the couch, Sima Li only frowned in his sleep, scooted closer to the nearest warm body, which happened to be Mo Fei and wrapped himself around him like a giant decorative octopus.
"Mm…" he mumbled. "Can't we reschedule…"
Mo Fei, still mostly asleep, shifted closer out of pure unconscious laziness and yawned. "Five more minutes…"
Chen Yu turned to Nil at once. "Yichen?" he repeated, confused.
Nil looked away immediately, ears burning red with embarrassment.
At that exact moment, Louis' voice cut through the room. "Mo Fei."
Chen Yu felt the temperature in the room drop. He immediately started shaking Mo Fei with both hands.
"Feifei. Feifei…"
Mo Fei smacked weakly at the air. "How about… three more minutes…" he mumbled, still deep in sleep.
Louis' dark aura seemed to physically deepen.
Chen Yu's survival instincts snapped.
"FEIFEI!!!" he screamed.
Mo Fei and Sima Li both jolted awake so hard they almost headbutted each other.
"Louis... ?!" Mo Fei stared in shock. Then he turned and noticed Sima Li still holding onto him. His face twisted. "Get off me!"
"You get off!" Sima Li shoved him away at once and sat up, yawnin, he stretched. He had slept very well.
Louis lifted one hand to his forehead.
The sight before him was trying its hardest to destroy the last of his self-control.
"Can somebody," he said slowly, "please explain."
Five minutes later.
The living room had been "organized," which in this case meant the more dangerous bottles had been kicked into corners and everyone had at least attempted to sit upright.
Actually... No. Not everyone.
Mo Fei, Sima Li, and Chen Yu were kneeling on the floor in a neat row with their hands raised in surrender like three criminals caught at the scene.
Nil was gone.
The moment he sensed Louis' dark aura forming into a weather system, he had quietly excused himself and fled, citing "important matters."
Chen Yu, now kneeling between Mo Fei and Sima Li, felt betrayal claw at his heart.
That damn boyfriend of his. Traitor!
Louis stood in front of them, arms folded, trying very hard to understand the explanation he had just been given without having a stroke.
"So," he said slowly, "you all went to a party…" He narrowed his eyes. "Came back here…"
His gaze moved to the bottles.
"And drank until none of you could move."
The three kneeling idiots looked up at him and nodded together. "Yes."
Louis stared.
Sima Li swallowed.
For the first time in a very long while, he felt a strange and deeply unfamiliar emotion. Fear.
He was an S-tier celebrity. A national treasure, and yet here he was, kneeling on another man's floor in front of Mo Fei's manager like a schoolboy who had been caught stealing exam answers.
Why?
Even Sima Li did not know.
But something deep inside him had whispered:
Do not test this man. Obey and survive. So he stayed on his knees and behaved.
"I understand why Chen Yu is here…" Louis's gaze shifted slowly. Then landed on Sima Li.
"What I don't understand," he said, "is why he's here."
Sima Li, still kneeling, looked up and smiled with zero shame. "Hangover."
Louis blinked. "Hangover?" he repeated.
Sima Li nodded, this was the most obvious explanation in the world.
Louis stared at him for a long moment.
Other catastrophes, he could handle.
Scandals, bad schedules, emotional breakdowns, internet storms,
But this?
Louis turned to look at Mo Fei, who on sensing danger, had already stared off into middle distance and pretending to reflect on his life choices.
Good.
He had better be reflecting.
With a tired sigh, Louis pointed toward the bathroom. "Go freshen up."
At once, all three of them stood.
But just as Sima Li made to follow, Louis raised a hand and stopped him.
"Not you."
Mo Fei and Chen Yu vanished immediately.
No dignity.
No hesitation.
No backward glances.
They fled.
"Wait for me!" Chen Yu cried as Mo Fei somehow moved even faster, proving that fear was the body's greatest fuel.
In seconds, they were gone.
Louis let out a long breath and turned back to Sima Li.
Now that the other two were gone, his voice dropped lower.
More serious.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
Sima Li yawned.
A very full, lazy yawn, "Hanging around friends?" He sounded almost offended that the answer wasn't self-evident.
Louis' jaw tightened. "I'm sure you have a lot of people to hang around." His voice sharpened slightly. "But do you know what this could mean if it ever got out?"
"What?" Sima Li looked at him properly now. Louis was still holding his wrist. That irritated him more than the question.
"Since when," Sima Li said, frowning as he yanked his hand free, "has it become a crime for friends to hang out at each other's place?"
Louis took a breath.
"A top national celebrity like you is enough controversy on your own. Hanging around my client will do you no good, so I sugges..."
Sima Li cut him off.
And unlike earlier, there was no teasing in his voice now. Only irritation. "I'd be worried about something very different if I were you," he said sharply. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not under anyone's stupid law to fit in among fake people."
He folded his arms.
"Yes, I'm a national-level star. So what?"
His eyes narrowed. "If I say Mo Fei is worthy to be my friend, then he is. What are you going to do next? Draw up a restraining order?" he scoffed.
Louis stared at him.
Sima Li's annoyance was real now.
This was exactly the kind of thing he hated most about the industry, people separating others by status, measuring worth by rank, deciding who should stand beside whom like human beings were brand assets and not people.
Louis saw it.
And after a moment, his expression eased.
He sighed.
"That's not what I meant at all. I was just surprised to see you here, Mr. Li. My apologies if I sounded harsh."
Sima Li froze.
The anger in him stumbled.
He had been fully prepared to explode further, dramatically, perhaps poetically.
But Louis' apology knocked the wind out of his momentum.
He coughed once, awkwardly. "Uh… it's no… it's no issue." He glanced away. "It's normal for you to worry as his manager."
Louis nodded once. "Thank you for understanding."
For a moment, silence settled between them.
Then Sima Li bent, picked up the jacket he had tossed carelessly onto the floor earlier, and slung it over his shoulder.
"If that's all," he said, already turning toward the door, "I'll be leaving." He paused only long enough to add,
"Tell Mo Fei and Chen Yu we'll meet up later."
Then he lifted one hand in a lazy wave and walked out without turning back.
Louis stood there for a second after the door shut.
Then he exhaled and rubbed his temple.
One chaotic night with Mo Fei, and now he was somehow apologizing to an S-tier celebrity in a beer-soaked apartment at sunrise.
What a life.