At 12:30 AM, Huo Mingjun was sleeping soundly when he was roused from bed by a call from Huo Zhikuan. The first thing he heard made his only thought to shove Huo Zhikuan back into his mother's womb and let him reconsider why he came into this world.

"What is it?"

He wearily pinched the bridge of his nose while listening to Huo Zhikuan's report. A few seconds later, his fingers suddenly froze between his eyebrows. "Who did you say?"

"Xie Guan. The one you had me look into last time. Is he one of yours?" Rustling sounds came from the other end of the line, and Huo Zhikuan said, "Looks like he's dead drunk. What should I do? If he sleeps here tonight, he'll definitely be an icicle by morning."

Huo Mingjun was caught off guard by the name Xie Guan and was still a bit slow to react. He asked subconsciously, "Doesn't he have an assistant?"

"Nope, everyone's gone," Huo Zhikuan said. Hearing his business-like tone, he assumed the two didn't have much contact and so, very perceptively, took the initiative to suggest, "How about I arrange a place for him here? The club has guest rooms upstairs, one more won't make a difference."

Huo Mingjun hesitated for two seconds, then said decisively, "No need. Take him inside and wait. I'm on my way."

Huo Mingjun's residence and the Lanyue Club weren't in the same district. By the time he arrived, nearly half an hour had passed. Huo Zhikuan had placed Xie Guan in the staff lounge on the first floor and found a waiter to watch over him.

Huo Mingjun walked into the lobby, bringing a biting chill with him. Huo Zhikuan, so tired he was seeing stars, looked as if he'd found his savior. "You're here. He's inside."

He glanced behind Huo Mingjun, expecting to see a bodyguard or an assistant. But Huo Mingjun just grunted an "Mm," paying him little attention as he walked straight past him into the lounge.

Huo Zhikuan was instantly dumbfounded. "My dear brother, you... came by yourself?"

Pushing open the door, he saw Xie Guan sitting on a folding chair in the lounge, eyes tightly shut, his gaunt chin hidden in the collar of his overcoat. His face was pale, save for a tipsy flush on his cheeks.

Huo Mingjun hadn't seen him for nearly two months. Seeing him so suddenly now, that face he once found so familiar seemed somewhat strange.

In a sense, Xie Guan had succeeded.

In the most decisive and resolute way, he had completely separated himself from Cheng Sheng in Huo Mingjun's perception: as long as Huo Mingjun never saw him, he would never associate him with Cheng Sheng.

This method of inflicting a thousand wounds on the enemy at the cost of eight hundred to oneself was quite effective. Now that the barrier between them was unexpectedly broken, Huo Mingjun found that upon seeing him again, memories swirled in his mind, but ultimately settled on the moment Xie Guan calmly said, "Let's not see each other anymore."

He was not Cheng Sheng.

This was a fact he should have known from the beginning, a fact confirmed even after paying the price.

"Xie Guan," he motioned for the waiter to leave, slowly walked to the chair, and bent down to gently shake his shoulder. "Wake up, you've had too much to drink. I'll take you home."

Xie Guan's brows furrowed in discomfort. He blindly grabbed Huo Mingjun's hand, his eyes still closed, and mumbled, "Don't shake... dizzy."

Caught off guard, Huo Mingjun's hand was seized by his cold fingers. This purely accidental physical contact made his breath catch for a moment, and his entire body froze on the spot.

Huo Mingjun remained still for a good few dozen seconds before his breathing gradually steadied. He counted his heartbeats to calm himself, realizing he was probably scared of Xie Guan, his every move as cautious as if he were about to touch a live wire, afraid of stepping on a landmine with the slightest misstep.

At this rate, neither of them would get any peace tonight.

Huo Mingjun, the so-called cold-faced, ruthless great demon king, had decisiveness as his greatest strength. He was a man of action. Once he identified the root of the problem, he swiftly sorted through his thoughts and, no longer trying to ask for Xie Guan's opinion, called the waiter over. The two of them, one on each side, helped the drunkard into the car.

Huo Mingjun had Xie Guan lie down in the back seat, said a word to the completely dumbfounded Huo Zhikuan, then got in, turned on the GPS, and drove towards Xie Guan's home.

It was another struggle when they got downstairs. Huo Mingjun spent a Herculean effort to get the drunkard out of the car, but after being jostled awake, this bastard who couldn't even walk a straight line actually recognized him. He didn't speak, just stubbornly kept pushing him away.

The old building's corridor was narrow. As they pushed and shoved, Huo Mingjun almost lost his grip on him several times, nearly breaking into a sweat on the frigid winter night.

Xie Guan swayed from side to side, yet he obstinately tried to push him away again and again. To still hold a grudge while this drunk showed just how deeply he'd been hurt. He usually tried hard to hide it, but some emotions just couldn't be contained. The alcohol had eroded the crumbling lock, and Huo Mingjun's appearance was undoubtedly another heavy blow upon it.

Huo Mingjun felt guilty, so he was especially tolerant of the rejection Xie Guan showed, diligently helping him up the stairs, taking the abuse without fighting back. However, Xie Guan was incredibly stubborn. Seeing he couldn't push him away, he simply resorted to childishly grabbing the handrail, refusing to take another step forward.

Huo Mingjun took a deep breath, feeling his patience sending out a final warning before running out. "Stop fooling around. Let's go home first, we can talk when we're home, okay?"

Xie Guan's eyes were bloodshot. Like a cornered beast, he wouldn't look at him, speak, or budge.

Huo Mingjun's temper was really not good. The young master had been pampered since childhood and had never coaxed anyone with a soft voice. After a major upheaval in his youth, his personality had veered straight towards cold and ruthless. His bit of guilt was only enough to last for fifteen minutes. Once the time was up, the domineering and arbitrary side of his character immediately bared its fangs.

"If you have something to say, say it. Don't put on this half-dead act. What are you being so stubborn with me for?" He grabbed Xie Guan's elbow, yanked him close, and said angrily, "There's a limit to messing around. If you're going to have a drunken fit, go do it in your own home!"

As Huo Mingjun's voice rose, all the voice-activated lights in the corridor lit up in response. He could clearly feel Xie Guan's body tremble from his shouting.

But before his heart could soften, he heard Xie Guan hiss, "Why are you always like this..."

Huo Mingjun: "What?"

"You show up whenever you want, and cast me aside whenever you want... Did I ask you to come pick me up, huh? Did I ask you for help? What does my being half-dead have to do with you? Huo Mingjun, I told you we shouldn't see each other anymore, so why do you insist on showing up in front of me?!"

Huo Mingjun was stunned into silence.

Xie Guan's eyes were crimson, his expression on the verge of collapse as he screamed hoarsely, "I'm not Cheng Sheng! You've got the wrong person! I'm begging you, can you please stop bothering me!"

His cracking roar seemed to wrench Huo Mingjun's heart, causing an indescribable sour, aching pain to rise. Huo Mingjun's lips moved slightly, about to speak, but then an enraged shout suddenly came from an upstairs resident in the quiet corridor: "What the hell time is it! What's with all the demonic howling in the middle of the night! Are you nuts!"

The sudden voice was like a bucket of cold water poured over the raging fire, interrupting the tense, hostile standoff between them, leaving only a wisp of weak and awkward white smoke.

The brief moment of clarity was soon washed away by the rising tide of alcohol. Having just thrown a tantrum, the emotional fluctuation was too great. Xie Guan was now seeing double of everything, and his temples throbbed as if they were about to split open. He was being held uncomfortably and struggled slightly. Not paying attention, Huo Mingjun subconsciously let go.

Having lost his only support, Xie Guan instantly crumpled like a heap of mud, slumping toward the ground.

Huo Mingjun jumped in fright. Fortunately, he was standing one step lower than Xie Guan and reacted quickly enough. Just as Xie Guan was about to fall, he managed to reach out and catch him.

Due to inertia, both of them lurched backward, and Xie Guan's off-balance body crashed uncontrollably into Huo Mingjun's arms.

Huo Mingjun sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

When he had first seen Xie Guan, Huo Mingjun had only judged by sight and thought he seemed a bit thinner than before. Now, holding him, with the hard bones of a grown man pressing against his chest, did he truly feel just how much weight Xie Guan had lost.

Xie Guan wasn't short, nearly 1.8 meters tall, but Huo Mingjun's frame could almost completely envelop him. His waist and gaunt back were wrapped in a heavy down jacket, and could be encircled with a single arm.

He was never the only one who couldn't forget.

The collision was a bit rough. Xie Guan was dazed for a while before regaining his senses. Half his face was buried in Huo Mingjun's shoulder. He was about to struggle, but was held down.

The man had one arm around his waist, the other hand on the nape of his neck, kneading it gently as if coaxing a disobedient cat. The voice by his temple was low, deep, and slow, full of gentle, soothing meaning: "Shh, be quiet. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have scolded you just now... It's all my fault. I'll take you upstairs now, we can talk when we're home, okay?"

Xie Guan weakly raised a hand to push him. He moved, opening his eyes slightly, but was immediately hit by another wave of dizziness.

"Still dizzy?" Huo Mingjun soothed, stroking his back again and again. "Let's rest for a bit. We're just two floors from home, just hang in there a little longer."

Since they had met, their friendship hadn't necessarily deepened much, but they'd had several earth-shattering fights. Summing up his experiences, Huo Mingjun had roughly figured out how to deal with Xie Guan. This person responded to soft tactics but not hard ones. He looked gentle and mild, but was in fact quite capable of letting go, and when he got ruthless, no one was his match. A person like this would rather break than bend; the more you pushed him, the more he'd rebel. The only way was to use a gentle policy and smooth his fur in the right direction.

Logically, with Huo Mingjun's status, he was not naturally the type to bow and scrape. But as the saying goes, "brine sets the tofu—one thing is always subdued by another." Between the two of them, Huo Mingjun appeared to be the more dominant one, but it was actually Xie Guan who maintained their friendship. Huo Mingjun was domineering and tyrannical, and Xie Guan was willing to accommodate him; the day Xie Guan was no longer willing to tolerate it, he would leave without a second thought, like an arrow that never returns.

The method, forged and summarized through several failures, proved to be effective. After ten minutes, Huo Mingjun finally climbed the last two flights of stairs, fumbled the door open, and at last, delivered Xie Guan to his bedroom safe and sound.

He leaned against the bed and let out a soft sigh of relief. He glanced sideways at Xie Guan, whose arm was draped over his forehead, then bent down to help him take off his shoes, socks, and heavy overcoat, arranging him in a comfortable position.

Xie Guan was only wearing a thin shirt underneath. Two buttons at the collar were undone, revealing a small section of his delicate, prominent collarbone. As Huo Mingjun pulled the blanket over to cover him, he inadvertently glanced at his exposed neck and suddenly noticed the skin was red and hot, with a few small red rashes in some places.

Fearing he was having some kind of adverse reaction to the alcohol, Huo Mingjun quickly woke up the nearly-asleep Xie Guan. "Xie Guan? Wake up for a second. You have a rash on your neck. What happened?"

Xie Guan grunted a "mmph" dazedly.

Huo Mingjun pulled the hand from his forehead, checked his temperature, and asked worriedly, "Has this ever happened before when you drank? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

"It's nothing," Xie Guan said, his eyes closed in discomfort. His voice was hoarse, the words coming out one by one, listlessly. "Allergy."

Huo Mingjun's heart suddenly skipped a beat. "You're allergic to alcohol?"

Xie Guan was silent for a moment, then forced his eyes open despite the dizziness.

For a moment, his gaze was so clear he didn't look like a drunk person at all. His dark pupils reflected the incandescent light from above, revealing an unusually cold gleam.

"No," he said softly, "it's 'to you'."