What about my service fee?

"Do we need to get reacquainted?" The first basement level was dim, and the light at the top of the elevator fell across Feng Wanting's lashes like flickering reflections. He enunciated each word. "Curator Pei."

Pei Yang was too stunned to speak. The elevator doors between them began closing automatically, but Feng Wanting caught his wrist in time and pulled him out.

"Director Feng." A shudder ran through Pei Yang. He instinctively stepped back to keep his distance and retrieved his fountain pen from Feng Wanting's hand. "Thank you."

Pei Yang tucked the pen into his pocket, intending to leave just like that.

What did it matter if they had run into each other again? Who was Feng Wanting? Even Sister Lan might not get a chance to meet someone of his standing. This encounter was nothing but coincidence. If they met again someday, he would deal with it then. For now, he just needed to get away.

That was how Pei Yang reassured himself, but circumstances wouldn't allow it. The man before him clearly had no intention of letting him go. He stood languidly in the way without saying a word, as though forcing Pei Yang to speak first.

Pei Yang let out a shaky breath and voiced his question. "Didn't you leave through the revolving doors, Director Feng?"

"That wasn't me," Feng Wanting said.

"..."

Pei Yang realized he had been played.

His eyesight was excellent. He could tell that the man who had walked out through the revolving doors had been nearly identical to Feng Wanting in height, build, even clothing and hairstyle. After sitting through a two-hour meeting, his head had already been foggy. Seeing someone like that, he had naturally assumed it was Feng Wanting.

But the real Feng Wanting had been waiting here.

How could anyone be so calculating? Had making the Exhibition Planning Department travel all the way to headquarters for a meeting not been a coincidence either? Had someone arranged the whole thing?

"Director Feng." Pei Yang was displeased, his lips pressed into a straight line. "Could you move? I'm leaving."

"No hurry. I'd like to catch up with Pei Yang." Feng Wanting looked down at him for a moment, then elegantly drew a leather wallet from the inside pocket of his suit. With his index and middle fingers together, he pulled out eight banknotes.

Pei Yang said, "..."

"Look familiar?" Feng Wanting raised his hand and lightly patted Pei Yang's cheek with the bills. With each movement, a fresh citrus scent brushed past his ear. "Isn't Curator Pei's overnight fee a little paltry?"

The sound-activated light overhead came on. They looked like they were hiding behind a car for a clandestine affair. Looking at the two undone buttons on Feng Wanting's shirt, Pei Yang's Adam's apple bobbed. "That was for the room."

"The room?" Feng Wanting gave a derisive laugh and moved closer, the tip of his leather shoe pressing against him. "The executive suite was sixty-eight hundred. Were you planning to pay in installments, Curator Pei?"

Long fingers suddenly clamped around Pei Yang's chin. Feng Wanting narrowed his eyes and asked in a low voice, "Or... are you implying that's all my skills are worth?"

"Please behave yourself, Director Feng." Their breaths mingled. Pei Yang kept backing away until he had nowhere left to go, his back hitting the Maybach he had ridden in before.

"Behave myself?" Feng Wanting frowned, unable to reconcile the man before him with the Pei Yang of that night. "Why didn't you tell me to behave myself when your legs were hooked around my waist and you were whimpering?"

Pei Yang's eyes widened. Forced to bend backward, he said in shame, "Please don't bring up that night again, Director Feng."

"Why?" Feng Wanting asked. "Wasn't that you that night?"

"I'll pay for the room." Pei Yang fumbled all over himself before finally finding his phone in his pocket. "Sixty... sixty-eight hundred, right? I'll cover all of it. Give me your payment QR code, Director Feng."

...Sixty-eight hundred? Half a month's salary...!

At the time, he had only asked Feng Wanting to help him book a room. Who could have known the man would take it upon himself to book a suite?

Feng Wanting, if you have even a shred of decency, you'll offer to split it.

"All right." Feng Wanting took out his phone, tapped on it, and held it up before Pei Yang.

Apparently, he doesn't.

Pei Yang raised his phone, but stopped just as he was about to scan, his hand freezing in midair. Feng Wanting had given him a QR code for adding him as a friend.

"Director Feng." He lowered his phone. "Could you just give me your payment code?"

"No," Feng Wanting said firmly. "This is the only one."

"..."

Clearly, this man wasn't going to let him off so easily. Pei Yang pressed his lips together and decided to confront him head-on. "Director Feng, I was upset that night and wasn't thinking clearly. When I woke up, I regretted it too. I wished I could hit myself hard enough to lose my memory."

Feng Wanting said, "?"

"So I hope we can both forget about it."

"Forget about it?" Feng Wanting's eyes darkened. "So you don't intend to take responsibility."

"Take... responsibility?" Pei Yang looked utterly bewildered. "Aren't you a man?"

"So you don't have to take responsibility if I'm a man?" Feng Wanting's gaze wandered shamelessly, slowly sweeping over Pei Yang from head to toe. Then he said, "That night was my..."

"First time."

"..." Pei Yang was completely dumbfounded.

How old was Director Feng again?

Th-thirty-two?

Thirty-two. His first time.

How could anyone tell a lie so convincingly, with such complete assurance?

Just as Pei Yang was at a loss for what to do, a car pulled out directly ahead of them in the parking garage aisle, its glaring headlights illuminating them both.

"Pei Yang, it really is you?"

Yin Sufang sat in the driver's seat and rolled down his window. From his angle, Pei Yang was being pinned by a man whose hands seemed poised to start groping him.

Feng Wanting's eyes couldn't immediately adjust to the sudden high beams, and he raised a hand to shield his face.

Pei Yang seized the opportunity to scan the QR code, pushed him away, and climbed into Yin Sufang's passenger seat.

"Go. Hurry."

"?" Before Yin Sufang could get a clear look at the man's face, Pei Yang's shout made him hit the accelerator and turn the car around.

"Hey." Yin Sufang deliberately took a wrong turn. After checking the rearview mirror to make sure no one was following, he began looking for the garage exit. "Who was that?"

Pei Yang said nothing. He held his phone in both hands, the screen showing the friend request page that had appeared after he successfully scanned the code.

"Pei Yang?! Pei Yang? I'm fucking talking to you! Are you listening? Why did you leave the group without telling anyone? Why didn't you answer the messages in the group chat? What was that man trying to do? Was he sexually harassing you? Do you need me to help write a complaint?"

"Just drive. Stop talking for now." Pei Yang's mind was a mess.

"You... are you fucking treating me like your chauffeur?"

Pei Yang ignored Yin Sufang. Once the car emerged from the dim underground garage, he steeled himself and tapped to send the request.

The other man accepted his friend request almost instantly.

Pei Yang's fingers stiffened. He quickly checked his balance and the loan payment due that month, then painfully transferred a full six thousand to Feng Wanting.

Once the transfer went through, he laid his phone facedown on his thigh and exhaled. "...Stay out of this. It has nothing to do with you. Drop me off at the next intersection."

"Am I your dog, for you to order me around like this?" Yin Sufang snapped. "You're not getting out until you explain."

With a ding, Pei Yang's phone sounded.

He opened it to find the same chat with Feng Wanting. Feng Wanting hadn't accepted the money. Instead, he had sent a message: [What about my service fee?]