Night fell.
As the lights of Los Angeles, the city that never slept, began to twinkle, a luxurious yacht like a palace on the water lay anchored off the city's coast.
The yacht was ablaze with lights, its searchlights making the surrounding seawater shimmer.
Deafening, bass-heavy music echoed on the sea breeze.
This was the yacht Happy had chartered with maximum efficiency on Luca's orders.
The yacht's deck was a paradise for men.
Dozens of models, urgently flown in from a Victoria's Secret branch, had already arrived.
Clad in bikinis, they moved about the spacious deck.
Champagne foam flew through the air, and hormones were running wild.
Luca lay comfortably on a round sofa, wearing a beach shirt.
On his left, a statuesque, six-foot-tall model gently peeled a purple grape and slipped it into his mouth.
On his right, a gorgeous Latina with a sizzling figure held a glass of champagne and smilingly fed him a drink.
Luca chewed the grape with a look of bliss, his gaze roaming back and forth over the long-legged women.
After suffering for two months, he had to make up for it now, with interest.
Just as Luca's hands were wandering restlessly, his phone suddenly vibrated at an inopportune moment.
Luca frowned.
He picked up the phone and saw Potts's name on the screen.
He curled his lip, answered the call, and switched on the speakerphone.
"Hey, Pepper Potts, what's up? Missing me this late at night?" Luca's voice was lazy, with a hint of drunken teasing.
From the other end came an immediate shriek from Pepper, who sounded close to losing her mind.
"Luca! Where on earth are you two?! Why can't I get through to Tony?!"
Pepper's voice came through the speaker, and even over the loud music around him, he could hear how furious she was.
"I just went to Malibu to find you, and there was nobody there!"
"Do you have any idea how much commotion this afternoon's press conference caused? The company's stock is on a roller coaster right now! The entire board is looking for you two, demanding an explanation! And what do you do? You just disappear?"
Hearing Pepper's rapid-fire questions, Luca held the phone a little farther from his ear.
He took the opportunity to squeeze the Latina beauty's thigh.
She immediately played along, letting out a coquettish giggle. "Oh, young master Luca, you're so naughty~"
Pepper fell silent for a second on the other end of the line, then raised her voice again.
"Luca Stark! What's that noise over there?! What are you two doing?!"
Luca rolled his eyes and answered as though it were only natural.
"What else? We're partying, of course."
"Potts, my dear big sister. Tony and I just escaped from the desert, and we've suffered physical and emotional trauma. We need alcohol and beautiful women to soothe our souls."
"Tony isn't answering his phone because he's busy explaining his scientific principles to a few models right now. If you don't believe me, I can take the phone over and let him have a few words with you, but I'm afraid I'd spoil his fun."
"Have you lost your mind?!" Pepper roared into the phone.
"Obadiah is frantically contacting the shareholders right now. You two need to come back and deal with this mess immediately!"
"Mess?" Luca sneered.
"A bunch of old men, that's all. Let them make whatever fuss they want."
"Even if the sky falls, nothing's going to stop me from enjoying life tonight. Tell Obadiah that if he has a problem with it, he can come find me off the coast of Los Angeles. I'll buy him a drink. That's it, I'm hanging up."
"Wait! Luca, you can't..."
"Beep!!!"
Luca hung up without hesitation, then put his phone on silent and tossed it into the ice bucket beside him.
"All right, sweethearts, where were we?"
Luca turned his head, a smile returning to his face.
He swept both beauties into his arms, making them shake with laughter and giggle incessantly.
Just then, a man carrying a drink staggered over.
It was Tony Stark.
Tony held a glass of whiskey, with a model sporting an explosive figure on each arm.
He walked up to Luca's sofa and plopped down, looking at Luca's floral shirt with utter disdain.
"Luca, I have to say, your taste in shirts is like that of an old man selling coconuts on the beach. You've completely disgraced the Stark Family."
Not to be outdone, Luca immediately fired back.
"Tony, you've got some nerve talking about me. Look at yourself: skinny as a bamboo pole and paler than paper."
"Are you sure that body of yours can still handle two gorgeous women?"
Luca looked Tony up and down and smacked his lips.
"I'd advise you to take it easy. Don't forget, you've still got a battery in your chest. Don't get too excited in bed and short-circuit it. That would make for a really embarrassing headline tomorrow."
"'Genius inventor Tony Stark dies in an electrical accident atop a beautiful woman.'"
Hearing Luca's teasing, the two models beside Tony couldn't help covering their mouths and snickering.
Tony felt he was losing face. His eyes widened, and he immediately retorted loudly.
"Damn it! This is the world-weary look of a mature man! What do you know? Besides, this is the latest-generation Arc Reactor. It's a lot more reliable than a certain musclehead. Even after starving for two months, I'm still the most charming man in the world!"
As Tony spoke, he deliberately puffed out his chest, showing off the glowing ring.
"Oh, give it a rest. Stop forcing yourself."
Luca picked up a bottle of vodka and took a long swig straight from it, without so much as a blush or a change in his heartbeat.
"Pepper called just now. I got rid of her for you. You really ought to thank me."
"Well done." At the sound of Pepper's name, Tony instinctively hunched his shoulders.
For all his tough talk, he was actually most afraid of being nagged.
"Nobody's making me work tonight. I'm going to make up for all the fun I missed over the past two months."
The two brothers sat on the sofa, trading jabs back and forth.
Though neither gave the other an inch, both knew perfectly well in their hearts.
This was the best way for them to release their stress... or rather, to feel that they were still alive.
As long as they could sit together and mock each other, it proved they had escaped that damned cave.
After they had been drinking for a while, Luca suddenly swept his gaze over the yacht's deck.
"Wait." Luca put down his glass and frowned.
"What is it? Did you spot a beauty who isn't to your taste?" Tony followed Luca's gaze.
"No." Luca pointed to a dim corner at the very edge of the yacht.
There was a lonely round table there.
Yinsen, dressed in a suit that looked a little tight, was hunched in a chair behind the table.
He was actually holding a glass of orange juice!
At a party full of bikini-clad beauties, Yinsen kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, looking even more out of place than an alien.
Several long-legged models passing by had tried to strike up a conversation with him, only to be scared off by his bright red face and stammered replies.
Seeing this, Luca and Tony exchanged a glance.
The same look of frustration at his failure to do better flashed in both their eyes.
"Damn it." Tony gritted his teeth.
"This is an insult to a Stark party. Someone's actually drinking orange juice on my yacht?"
"What's worse, he actually told a model who came up to talk to him, 'Sorry, I'm allergic to alcohol'?!" Luca clutched his forehead in an exaggerated gesture.
"This is a crime! We have to go correct this poor man's misguided values."