Ever since Sheng Yuan left, Shi Yan sat on the sofa without moving.

The constant temperature of the indoor central air-conditioning continued to operate. The young man, wearing only a cotton sweatshirt and trousers, stared at the mobile phone in front of him with his dark eyes. The screen was in always-on mode, and the real-time time was jumping on it.

He had cold and pale skin, soft black hair covering his forehead, a high and straight nose bridge with a superior curve, and a sense of cold silence.

He stared at the clock numbers on the screen without blinking, with great concentration, as if at this moment, apart from looking at the time, nothing else could attract his attention.

The hairless cat wearing an Elizabethan collar on the ground seemed bored or curious about him. It circled around him with its tail erect and meowed at him a few times, but he didn't even look at it.

At first, as time passed by, the countdown gradually approached half an hour, and the boy's dark eyes lit up, thinking, it's almost time.

The second hand jumped to 8:10 on time, and Shi Yan turned his head to look towards the door.

It was quiet.

There was no sound of the door opening.

Shi Yan frowned slightly almost instantly.

Then another five minutes passed... ten minutes passed... fifteen minutes passed...

She hasn't come back yet.

Shi Yan lowered his thin eyelids and pursed his lips. It was clearly agreed that it would take half an hour, so without any hesitation, he reached out for his cell phone and quickly opened the address book.

But then, I remembered that she was going to a dinner party with the crew.

It was probably a lively dinner party, so it was normal for him to stay a little longer. Maybe he was on his way back, just a delay. He shouldn't have been so anxious to ask right away.

The boy's slender knuckles hovered above the screen, but in the end he did not press the dial button and chose to give up.

The room suddenly became stuffy.

And this dull atmosphere lasted until exactly 8:40.

The boy's face was already covered with a layer of gloom. Lai Lai, who was originally walking around leisurely on tiptoe, also noticed his mood, and the four paws that stepped on the cashmere carpet unconsciously became much lighter.

A cat's head popped out from the Elizabethan circle. It raised its beautiful heterochromatic eyes and looked at the person on the sofa as if it could no longer bear it. It stretched out its slender hand and took the phone.

Immediately, a beeping sound came from the phone.

Less than two seconds.

Lai Lai saw the boy put the phone to his ear: "...Why don't you come back?"

There was an emotion in his low-pitched voice that the cat world could not quite understand. It just felt that his tone was very similar to the day when Sheng Yuan left him alone here and walked away, hiding under the cupboard and waiting, and waited for a very long time but she still didn't show up. He felt aggrieved.

Then, not knowing what happened on the other end of the phone, the boy's face darkened and he stood up.

A black shadow passed over the cat's head. When Lai Lai could see clearly, he only saw that he was holding a black coat and a hat in his hands, striding with his long legs, opening the door and leaving.

Then the door slammed shut, showing how anxious he was. -Xu Lizhi watched Sheng Yuan put the phone to his ear,

She was really drunk. She squatted on the ground with her sparse and curly eyelashes drooping. Her thoughts and reactions were obviously slow, but she still held the phone and said softly, "...I'm back."

Sheng Yuan didn't turn on the speakerphone and covered the receiver tightly. Xu Lizhi couldn't hear the voice on the other end of the phone at all, nor did he know what the person on the phone said to Sheng Yuan. He only saw her blinking and answering the phone: "Well... I seem to be drunk."

Then she suddenly raised her head again, but she was not looking at Xu Lizhi, but at her surroundings. She looked around blankly for two times, and her voice began to become helpless: "...I don't know where this is."

Xu Lizhi, who was completely ignored, said: "..."

There was no way to argue with it, after all, she was drunk. Xu Lizhi once again lamented that the girl's alcohol tolerance was surprisingly low, and was about to step forward to take her call and help her tell the person on the other end of the phone the exact location.

Without waiting for action——

A hand directly stopped Xu Lizhi.

Then a serious male voice sounded.

"This gentleman."

Xu Lizhi looked up and saw several men with cold faces, wearing casual clothes and tall and burly figures. Without exception, they all had sharp eyes and a cold and professional temperament.

Xu Lizhi knew the two leaders.

In the car accident that night, the person sent by Uncle Fifth was dragged out of the car—Sheng Yuan’s bodyguard.

Although he was injured and lying in the car at the time, he still remembered it.

The bodyguard probably recognized Xu Lizhi, but despite this, his eyes were still stiff, looking at him with a strange face, and warned: "Please step back."

The bodyguards stood in front of Xu Lizhi, shielding the girl behind him tightly. They were alert and solemn, not allowing anyone to come forward, otherwise they would really be rude.

"Brother Li Zhi?"

Xu Lizhi's assistant was originally in the box, sitting at another table. Xu Lizhi's mother had told him that brother Lizhi had just recovered from a car accident, so she should remind brother Lizhi to rest more and pay more attention to his physical condition. The assistant saw that Xu Lizhi had been out for a long time and had not returned, so he hurried out to look for him.

…

Since Sheng Yuan's bodyguards were here, Xu Lizhi didn't need to worry about anything else. He left with his assistant and returned to the box.

However, just as he was about to open the door of the box.

There was a ding sound in the quiet corridor. It was the elevator arrival signal and someone walked out of the elevator.

In his peripheral vision, a slender figure was walking straight towards the vase, causing Xu Lizhi to subconsciously stop and look sideways.

A tall boy wearing a black coat, a hat and a mask, wrapped up tightly, squatted in front of Sheng Yuan.

When the bodyguards saw this, surprisingly, not only did they not make any move to stop him, they also turned sideways and nodded slightly towards the boy. Their attitude was very respectful, completely different from the cold and ruthless attitude they had just had.

The artistic lighting in the corridor was not very bright, with a hint of dimness, but one could still see that the boy had a clear and distinct temperament, which was very eye-catching.

Xu Lizhi stopped right where he was, his silver-gray eyes suddenly fixed on this—

This was the young man standing outside the set when Sheng Yuan finished filming at the filming studio during the day.

Xu Lizhi looked at him and stretched out his hand to hold Sheng Yuan's wrist, and seemed to say something in a low voice. The girl, who had become slow due to drunkenness, looked up as if she recognized him. Her eyes were sparkling and she smiled sweetly, with a gentle look of complete trust in the boy that had never been shown to anyone before.

Then she let the boy put a mask on her, stood up and bent slightly, held her waist and legs, and easily held her in his arms. She did not move and remained quiet.

(End of this chapter)