Chapter 30

Mu Yu looked at Chen Mo and explained, "I was originally planning to fly back to Huajing with you on tomorrow's flight. But now, it looks like I'll have to rush back overnight."

Chen Mo smiled and shook Mu Yu's hand goodbye.

After leaving the congee shop, Chen Mo checked his phone and found that it was already past ten at night. The city lights shimmered, and the entire city showed no signs of sleep. Neither did Chen Mo.

He looked at the hotel across the street, hailed a taxi, and headed straight for the city's most famous nightclub.

The deafening dance music, flickering lights, pulsing rhythm, and crowds of gorgeous men and women were all familiar enough to make Chen Mo feel right at home. Moving with the beat, he squeezed through the dance floor to the bar. Just as he was about to signal the handsome bartender for a martini, he spotted Ji Ze sprawled across the other side of the bar, endlessly pouring drinks down his throat. Three or four men who clearly meant him no good were gathered around him.

One of them, with wine-red hair, a pale face and dark circles that screamed excessive indulgence, draped an arm over Ji Ze's shoulders and leaned close to whisper something in his ear. Ji Ze waved his arm in annoyance, trying to shove him away. Unfortunately, Ji Ze was already seventy or eighty percent drunk, and his constitution had always been weak. His struggling not only failed to work, but instead piqued the man's interest. With an excited expression, the man wrapped an arm around Ji Ze and gestured for the others to help drag him away from the bar.

Their actions instantly sobered the drunken Ji Ze. He looked around at the people surrounding him in alarm and began struggling again. In the chaos, Ji Ze's fist landed on the man's chin. Caught off guard, the man's face swelled on one side from the blow. Annoyed, he licked the split corner of his mouth, then backhanded Ji Ze across the face. Ji Ze lost his footing and staggered back several steps before the others grabbed him and started dragging him outside.

Chen Mo, seated on this side of the bar, clicked his tongue in annoyance. He rounded the bar, walked over to Ji Ze, brushed aside the others' arms, grabbed Ji Ze by the collar, and yanked him back. Raising a brow at the group, he said, "I know this guy. Go find someone else to pick up."

"Who the fuck are you—" The man had not expected someone to jump in and ruin things, and immediately cursed in rage.

Before he could finish, someone beside him shoved him. Once the man with the indulgent face got a clear look at Chen Mo, his eyes lit up. He immediately smiled and said, "Oh? You're his friend? Even better. I'm his friend too. Why don't we all have some fun together? Come to think of it, we've never played with celebrities before..."

As he spoke, a hand reached out to touch Chen Mo's face.

Chen Mo dodged aside and looked at the people who were gradually closing in around him. Impatiently, he said, "Get lost while I'm still in a good mood."

"Oh, you've got quite the temper. We're asking you to have fun with us because we think highly of you. Don't be so fucking ungrateful—"

Before the sentence was finished, Chen Mo kicked the man in the stomach, sending him flying three meters away. The people nearby screamed in fright. Chen Mo looked at the man sprawled miserably on the ground and said with a smile, "I told you to get lost while I was still in a good mood. Also, don't steal my lines!"

Ji Ze, still in Chen Mo's grip, recognized him as well and immediately began struggling. "Let me go. I don't need you meddling. This is all your fault. Stop pretending you care..."

Ji Ze was taller and more heavily built than Chen Mo. His violent struggling caused Chen Mo quite a bit of trouble, especially with the others still watching from across the way. Growing impatient, Chen Mo slapped the back of Ji Ze's head and snapped, "Stop moving. Move again, and I'll leave you here and wash my hands of you."

The others sneered. "It's too late even if you want to leave now. Who told you to be blind enough to stick your nose in? But don't worry, we know how to treat pretty things gently..."

Before the man could finish again, Chen Mo casually picked up a crystal glass from the bar and threw it at him. It struck the speaker right in the face. The man only felt a powerful blow smash into his features, his whole face burning with pain as two streams of blood immediately flowed from beneath his nose. "Blood, blood..."

While the group shouted and fussed over the injury, Chen Mo grabbed Ji Ze and ran.

After stumbling out of the nightclub, Chen Mo shoved Ji Ze into a taxi and called Yang Qindong without forgetting to do so. But for some reason, Yang Qindong did not answer at all.

Ji Ze, drunk out of his mind in the backseat, did not settle down either. Already seventy or eighty percent drunk, he became even worse after the night wind hit him. Leaning against Chen Mo, he mumbled endlessly and kept dry-heaving. Chen Mo was so frightened that he immediately shoved him far away and threatened loudly, "What are you doing? Don't you dare throw up. If you puke all over the place, I'll beat you to death!"

Ji Ze ignored him. Every time Chen Mo pushed him away, he would rub right back over. Throwing an arm around Chen Mo's shoulders, he sobbed, "Don't leave me..."

Chen Mo rolled his eyes in irritation. When they finally got back to the hotel, Chen Mo had planned to stuff Ji Ze into his room and leave him there. But when he asked the front desk, he learned that Ji Ze and Qin Yuqiong had already checked out that evening.

"Fuck," Chen Mo asked furiously. "What about his agent? Forget it, get me another room—"

"Sorry, all of our rooms are fully booked," the front desk attendant replied apologetically.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Chen Mo tossed the drunken Ji Ze onto a sofa in the hotel lobby and turned to leave.

But Ji Ze clung to him. The nearly six-foot-three man wrapped Chen Mo in a bear hug and whimpered, "Don't abandon me. I'll behave, sob..."

In an instant, everyone in the hotel lobby turned to look over with strange expressions. With a face full of black lines, Chen Mo dragged Ji Ze into the elevator and took him to Yang Qindong's door, pounding on it hard.

"Come out! Get out here! I know you're in there. You've got the nerve not to answer my calls, so you should have the nerve to open the door! Open up! Open the door!"

The loud pounding woke everyone up. Guests along the corridor opened their doors to watch the show. Yang Qindong, who had been about to get busy inside the room, had no choice but to get up and answer the door.

"Why didn't you answer my call? Why wouldn't you open the door—" Chen Mo, loudly demanding answers in the hallway, stared in shock at the sweet-faced, voluptuous mature woman behind Yang Qindong, wrapped in a white bath towel. She looked very familiar. That was right—it was the flight attendant who had slipped Yang Qindong a note on the plane.

Chen Mo had not expected to witness such a scene. His earlier fury instantly turned into awkward silence.

"So, why did you run into Ji Ze? Weren't you having drinks with Boss Mu at the bar downstairs?"

In Chen Mo's hotel room, Yang Qindong looked at Chen Mo, who was sitting innocently on the sofa, then at Ji Ze, who had been thrown onto the bed and was sleeping like a dead pig. He frowned and asked.

"Well... after we finished our drinks, I saw that it was still early, so I went to look around a nightclub. Then I saw that he was about to be taken advantage of." As Chen Mo spoke, he pointed at Ji Ze and did not forget to defend himself. "I didn't do anything. I didn't even order a cocktail. I came straight back after getting him out of there. I even called you, but you didn't answer."

Even in a crisis, Chen Mo did not forget to accuse his agent of being unreachable. He also recounted in full how he had heroically saved the beauty at the nightclub.

"So not only did you go to a nightclub, you got into a fight too?" Yang Qindong immediately summed up the important point. Seeing Chen Mo hurriedly put on an expression that said I'm a righteous citizen, he could not help shaking his head. "I knew you were unreliable. Sure enough..."

Seeing Yang Qindong pick up his phone and wallet as if he were preparing to go out, Chen Mo stood and asked, "You're going out? Then what about him? You're not planning to make me take care of this drunk, are you?"

"Weren't you playing the hero? Since you saved him yourself, you have to take care of him even on your knees. I'm not his agent. Where am I supposed to find the time to be his babysitter? I still have to go clean up your mess—"

"Don't make it sound so dire. You were just saying that we were partners with great chemistry, but the second something happened, you started gritting your teeth and talking about cleaning up after me. With that attitude, how can I feel safe leaving the rest of my life to you? Ow—"

"You still dare to make smart remarks?" Yang Qindong slapped Chen Mo on the top of the head in exasperation and rubbed it hard. "I told you that newcomers who just debuted need to mind their image. Tell me, how many times have you gotten into fights at bars already?"

"This time was special. I couldn't exactly stand there and watch Ji Ze get dragged away by them, could I? Even if he's not much of a person, has a terrible temper, and isn't particularly capable, we've known each other for a while at least. Hey—" Chen Mo watched Yang Qindong leave the hotel in a hurry before he had even finished speaking. He could only scratch his hair irritably, think for a moment, and call Xiao Ding.

"You're not asleep yet, right? Come to my room. I have an important task for you!"

A few minutes later, with an expression of immense relief, Chen Mo handed the completely wasted Ji Ze over to Xiao Ding. He then called the hotel housekeeping department and had the staff bring up fresh sheets and bedding.

Xiao Ding could not refuse Chen Mo, so he could only return to his own room with the King of Heaven, wearing a miserable expression. Unlike the luxurious suites for artists and agents, the rooms Banana TV booked for artist assistants were standard business double rooms. Since they had both come from Huajing and taken the same flight, Xiao Ding and Fei Yuchen's assistant, Xiao Meng, had been assigned the same room.

Xiao Meng, a recent university graduate from Huajing with a rather excitable personality, saw Xiao Ding go upstairs alone but return dragging the completely drunk King of Heaven. He immediately rushed over in shock. After helping Xiao Ding settle Ji Ze down, he finally asked, "What happened? Didn't Chen call you upstairs, Ding? How did you end up..."

"This is my important task tonight." Xiao Ding stood with his hands on his hips, looked at Ji Ze sprawled unconscious on the bed, and said with a headache, "Take care of him!"

The next morning, as Chen Mo finished getting ready and went downstairs for breakfast, Lin Xia, Huang Lixin, and the others furtively gathered around him and asked, "We heard that you saved the King of Heaven at a nightclub last night and took care of him all night, right?"

"Do you think that's possible?" Chen Mo raised a brow and scoffed. "Even if he were a gorgeous woman, I wouldn't spend the night alone with someone dead drunk. Much less when he isn't. I just brought him back and handed him to Xiao Ding—"

"You handed him to Xiao Ding?" Lin Xia asked in shock. "Doesn't Xiao Ding stay in a standard business room? It's already cramped enough with two grown men in such a small room, and you actually stuffed Ji Ze in there too... Isn't that too cruel?"

"Not only that," Huang Lixin interjected with a smile, "I heard he also ruined Dong's good time last night!"

"Wow!"

Chen Mo looked at his companions, whose mouths expressed regret while their faces looked more gleeful than the next, and tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You can make it sound even faker. It's fine."

Yang Qindong did not return to the hotel until after breakfast. Four sturdy, steady-looking middle-aged men followed behind him. In Yang Qindong's words, they were "temporarily hired assistants."

Chen Mo was baffled. He had no idea why Yang Qindong had gone out and hired four assistants.

Besides, although the four men were dressed casually, every movement they made was clean and efficient, and their manner was tough and disciplined. They looked far more like bodyguards than assistants, okay?