After spending the rest of the time until the evening enjoying the beautiful weather from Zhan's balcony, they slowly got ready for the party in the evening. First Zhan went to the bathroom and took a shower and then, while he was getting dressed in his bedroom, Yibo took a shower. And after Yibo had also got dressed, he helped Zhan to style his hair perfectly and gave Zhan a little make-up.

In their expensive black suits, Yibo and Zhan looked like elegant young men who could easily have been rich snobs. But only if nobody knew who they were, or rather, who Wang Yibo was. And that was virtually impossible. Because almost everyone in this country knew who Wang Yibo was by now. The idol. The superstar. The talented young man who made an impression everywhere.

When Zhan looked at himself again in the bedroom mirror before they set off, he still couldn't believe how perfect this suit was. And what amazed him most was that there was really no way to tell that this was no ordinary suit. You could neither see nor feel the Teflon. And even on closer inspection, Zhan couldn't see the camera or the microphone. The only thing Zhan didn't like was the shoes, which were fitted with a GPS tracker. They were a little tight and therefore felt uncomfortable. They also didn't look like shoes for a young man, but rather for a man over the age of 50.

When they arrived downstairs, an agent was waiting for them in a fake cab to take them to the woman's villa. The cover had to be perfect. And that meant they couldn't drive there in their own car. After all, there's alcohol at parties. And unless you were someone (like the author of this book :P ) who avoided alcohol completely, that meant having at least one glass of champagne or some other alcoholic drink. But usually it would be more than one glass. After all, an evening like this can be long.

The closer they got to the woman's villa, the more nervous Zhan became. Yibo, on the other hand, seemed calm and introverted. Zhan wished he could be just like Yibo. At first, he succeeded by using a breathing technique that Yibo showed him. But as soon as they left the city and drove along the country road to a godforsaken area, Zhan's heart began to flutter with excitement and nervousness. Which didn't feel good.

By the time the big mansion came into view, Zhan's hands were wet with sweat and the paper handkerchief was sticking to them in tatters. Yibo handed Zhan a cloth handkerchief and said, "Remember to breathe. Breathe in through your nose for four seconds. Hold your breath for seven seconds. And then breathe out for eight seconds."

Zhan nodded and breathed as instructed. Yibo dabbed sweat from his forehead with a second handkerchief. After the third time of the breathing technique, Zhan slowly felt himself calming down. In his mind, he kept saying: "I can do this. I can do this." Out loud, he said, "I feel like I'm on an exam day at university. I knew I had studied enough and remembered everything. But I still panicked that I would forget everything."

Yibo smiled sympathetically and asked, "Is there anything I can do to calm you down even more?"

Oh Zhan would know something. But he would never say that out loud. After all, he couldn't tell Yibo that a kiss would make him a blissful man who didn't give a damn about anything else. So he just shook his head. It had been too late now anyway. They had arrived at the villa.

They got out of their fake cab, Zhan took out the invitation card and they walked up the steps to the large front door, where two huge security guards were already standing and immediately asked them to show the invitation and then scanned them with a hand scanner before they were also patted down for safekeeping.

With a nod to a woman standing in the entrance area of the villa, she opened a second door, through which Zhan and Yibo finally made their way into the villa. Another woman, one of the service staff, approached them and handed them both a glass of champagne. When she recognized Wang Yibo, she blushed and became nervous. Yibo hadn't even noticed, but had immediately started to work and scanned everything with his watch.

They were directed to a door to the lounge where the party was about to start. There were already a few guests there, chatting animatedly with each other. When they noticed Zhan and Yibo, a few of them approached them. Naturally to greet the idol Wang Yibo and to find out how this woman had managed to get him to be there that evening. Yibo calmly explained with the rehearsed text: "I am accompanying Xiao Zhan today. We met after my last concert and became friends. He invited me to accompany him and as I had no other plans, I agreed."

"That's right. I wanted to show off the fact that I'm friends with Wang Yibo." Zhan explained a little uncertainly and with a nervous laugh.

One of the men, Zhan had already forgotten his name after two minutes, laughed out loud and patted Zhan hard on the shoulder a few times. "That's how I would have done it!" He said and went to get another full glass of champagne.

A young woman, Zhan guessed she was barely older than 20, giggled sweetly and explained that it had been worth her while coming to this party, which she hadn't really wanted to attend. Then she turned bright red in the face and hurried over to a man who looked like he could be her father. However, he is not her father, but probably her lover instead. "A sugar daddy." He whispered in Yibo's ear and he nodded.

The lounge quickly filled up with other guests who had arrived. When there was hardly any room left, a man opened a double door to a room similar to the lounge and the guests dispersed. At 08:30 PM, a woman announced that the hostess had arrived. Everyone looked towards the staircase that could be seen from both lounge rooms.

Mrs. Isari walked very slowly down the stairs in a skin-tight long dark red dress that sparkled and glittered with every movement. One hand on the banister, the other held by Isko, who looked the same as always. He was wearing a simple black suit and this time a black bow tie instead of a wine-red tie.

She greeted her guests one by one and finally arrived at Zhan and Yibo. Her smile widened. "Hello Zhan. It's so nice to have you here. And I see you've brought someone very famous to my party. That makes my party a special event." She said and placed a small kiss on Zhan's left cheek, then on his right, in greeting. Then she held out her hand to Yibo and explained: "It's nice to meet you."

Naturally, she wanted to know how they had met and they rattled off their rehearsed lines. That Zhan had been at Yibo's concert and had been one of three lucky winners who had had the great fortune to meet Wang Yibo in person. That they talked and immediately hit it off and eventually became friends. And that they had been in close contact ever since and Zhan had invited him to the party.

Ms. Isari didn't give the impression that she doubted the story in any way and Zhan began to relax. The most important part for him was done. He brought Yibo to the party and introduced them to each other. Now it was up to Yibo to make sure she didn't lose interest in him. But first they had to be patient, because there were still plenty of other guests waiting to be greeted by her.

As soon as Mrs. Isari had moved on, Yibo wiped Zhan's cheeks firmly with a handkerchief. "Ouch what are you doing?" Zhan asked, confused.

Yibo hissed, "I'm wiping the lipstick off! Hold still!"

"Don't do that. I'll go to the bathroom later and do it there."

"No! You can't keep walking around with the lipstick marks on you."

"And why not?"

"Don't ask such a stupid question!" Yibo growled and finished his work. "That's better." He said. Zhan saw a mirror on a shelf and looked at his cheeks.

"Heavens. My cheeks are bright red!" He scolded quietly. Yibo just shrugged his shoulders with a smile, finished his champagne and immediately took another glass. Meanwhile, Zhan's eyes met Isko's, who, Zhan thought, was looking at him with concern.

After greeting all her guests, Mrs. Isari went back to the stairs, stood on the third step, had Isko give her a microphone and said: "Hello and welcome once again. I am very pleased that you have accepted my invitation. I'm sure you want to know what the reason for this party is. Now you'll find out. Today is my birthday. But I won't tell you how old I am. I stopped counting when I turned 21 anyway. But my birthday isn't the only reason for this party. No, we're also celebrating the fact that I've opened my first business overseas and am already making a profit. I want to celebrate this success with you. Let's have fun tonight and celebrate properly." She gave Isko the microphone, took a glass of champagne and everyone toasted her.

Zhan and Yibo looked at each other. "Here we go." Yibo whispered, before music began to play over the speakers and service staff walked around like trained waiters, offering more glasses of champagne. At the same time, the bar they had set up opened and served harder drinks. Many of the guests refused the champagne and literally stormed to the bar.

After everyone had been served drinks, they came to Zhan and Yibo. Of course, they were only interested in the famous idol and not in Zhan, who is just a simple, unknown graphic designer. And Yibo made a friendly effort to respond to all these guests and answer their questions. Zhan quickly began to get bored and was pushed further and further away from Yibo by all the guests.

Zhan went to the bar, ordered a cocktail and waited for the bartender to prepare it. A woman, Zhan estimated her to be about 50 years old, joined him and said: "They're like eagles. As soon as they see someone famous or with a lot of money, they literally stick to them."

"Yes, I guess that's true." Zhan replied with a sigh.

"So my name is Gene Lu and I'm a model scout."

"I'm Xiao Zhan and a simple graphic designer with my own business."

"Isn't that actually called an agency?"

"Yes, of course. But I'm still a long way from being an agency. My employees consist only of my assistant. I don't have any others. Once I earn enough money to hire one or two more people, I can think about calling my business an agency."

She laughed. "If you need money, I can help you."

"Oh yes, and how?"

"As I said, I'm a model scout and I'm always looking for new, fresh, pretty people. And you look like a model."

"Me? No, certainly not." Zhan knew she was right. He'd been told that a lot. And his looks had attracted many women, and men too, who wanted to date him. And it was only because of his looks that this woman took notice of him.

"Oh yeah. And I think you know that too. You're well aware of your charisma and the effect it has on the people around you." She said, as if she had read Zhan's thoughts.

"Yes, perhaps. But I never wanted to be a model." Said Zhan honestly. He had never wanted it and his parents would never have allowed it. They were worried that one day he would end up like those famous models. Way too thin, addicted to drugs and alcohol. And to top it all off, bulimia. Zhan himself had a classmate who went into the modeling industry and suffers from all these things that he is so afraid of.

"Well, if you're ever interested in taking on a modeling job or two, just give me a call or email me." She said and handed Zhan a business card. Zhan put it in his pocket, but knew that he would certainly never call her.

Since Yibo was still engrossed in his conversations and it didn't look like he was getting out of there anytime soon, Zhan decided to look around a bit. He didn't see that woman at the moment, so he wasn't worried. When he saw Isko, he actually wanted to go to him immediately and start a conversation with him, hoping to learn more from Isko about what he had to go through because of this woman.

But then Zhan had to think of Yibo and Agent Nax's words of warning. So in the end he didn't go to Isko after all and decided to listen to what Yibo told him. He would hold back and just see what there was to eat and then slowly walk back to Yibo.