It was almost 9 o'clock in the morning when Yibo stepped out of the guest room and looked around confusedly for Zhan. Zhan still seemed to be asleep, because he couldn't see him anywhere. So Yibo first took a shower, then got dressed and waited with a growling stomach for Zhan to finally wake up so they could have breakfast together. One thing that Yibo had gotten used to all too quickly. Just a few weeks ago, he would have done without breakfast. Because eating breakfast alone was no fun for him. But it was different with Zhan.

Finally, around 10:30 AM, Zhan came out of his bedroom. Yibo looked delighted and greeted him: "Finally. I'm starving already. I thought you wouldn't wake up at all. Oh yes, good morning."

"Good morning." Zhan replied, beaming, and after stretching extensively, he added: "I've been awake for quite a while. I didn't even realize that you were already up."

"You were already awake? What were you doing in bed for so long?"

"Oh, um, I wasn't in bed. I was sitting by the window making a list of activities we could both do to get to know each other better." Zhan said and handed Yibo a sheet of paper with many points listed by Zhan.

Yibo looked at the long list and didn't really understand what Zhan was trying to do? To get to know each other? Didn't they already do that? Aren't they already in the process? He had to ask Zhan about it. Because he didn't understand what it was all about on his own. "What exactly do you mean we're getting to know each other better?"

Zhan suddenly looked nervous and his cheeks turned red. "Well, getting to know each other." He replied and wondered why Yibo didn't realize that Zhan meant dating. After all, they had confessed their feelings to each other last night. And the next logical step would be for them to get to know each other better on or through dates. Zhan wasn't asking for them to become a couple immediately. But that he could get to know Yibo better that way. Because there is still so much that Zhan doesn't know about him.

Yibo, who was so hungry that he was unable to really think, looked at Zhan skeptically. He really didn't understand what Zhan was trying to accomplish with this list. And even at first glance, he realized that there were many things listed that they couldn't possibly do together. At least not during the day and without Yibo dressing up. He had to point out to Zhan that a lot of it was not possible. "So Zhan... these things here... well how can I put it? We can't do most of it. I'm a nationally known idol and I have to watch what I do and who I'm seen with." He explained cautiously.

"Oh oh yes, that's right." Zhan replied and took the list back. In his mind, he called himself an idiot. How could he forget that Yibo was an idol and a secret agent when he was making the list? Was the time he had spent with Yibo so far to blame for his forgetting who Yibo really was? Because Zhan had to admit to himself that he now only sees the Yibo who is behind the idol and the agent. The adorable young man he had fallen head over heels in love with!

Zhan walked past him into the kitchen and Yibo could see Zhan throwing the list into the paper bin. With a strange feeling of having said something wrong, he asked Zhan, "Are you mad at me?"

"Oh no. If I am, it's just at me for forgetting that you're an idol and an agent."

"I um..."

"Yibo? Can you please buy some bread quickly? We've run out and I want to eat sandwiches for breakfast today."

"Sure. I'll be on my way right away." Yibo said and immediately went to put on his shoes. "See you in a bit." He called out to Zhan and left the apartment. Zhan breathed a sigh of relief. A tear rolled down his cheek as he looked at the list in the trash. He was disappointed and didn't want Yibo to see it. Because it wasn't Yibo's fault that Zhan was disappointed. Although Zhan was sure they could have done a few things from the list.

Zhan prepared the breakfast table and then sat down in front of the TV in the living room while he waited for Yibo to return. He switched on the TV and searched for the latest news. When he found the right channel, shaky video footage was being shown while the presenter explained: "... discovered this morning in a shallow grave in the forest. In addition to this grave, which according to our information should still be fresh, the homicide investigators found other graves. We currently know of 8 bodies. But the search is not yet complete. There is still no statement from the police or the homicide department. We will keep you up to date. On to the sport." Then Zhan switched off the TV.

Very slowly, Zhan put the remote control on the table and went into the kitchen. He sat down at the table and wondered who the bodies could be? Who killed the people and why? And above all, where was Yibo? The small supermarket is less than five minutes away. So Yibo should have been back by now if he was really just going to get the bread!

Zhan had barely finished his thoughts and questions and was about to go out onto the balcony to see if he could see Yibo when his cell phone rang. It was Yibo calling him. "Hello?" Zhan asked, as if he didn't know who was calling him.

"Hey Zhan, it's me. Um, I'm afraid we'll have to postpone breakfast. I got a call as I was leaving the house. They want me to come to the agency right away." Yibo explained.

"And me?"

"I'm supposed to come alone and I'm already on my way. I'll tell you later what happened."

"Uh okay. But this..." Said Zhan and wasn't sure if Yibo had even heard that since the conversation had ended. He hadn't actually wanted to ask whether he should also go to the agency. Because if he had, Yibo wouldn't have simply driven off without him and fetched him. That much had been clear to Zhan. What he wanted to know was what he should do now? No bread, no breakfast, and he had been told several times that he shouldn't walk around alone outside.

Zhan didn't like it at all when someone tried to tell him how to live his life, what to do and what not to do. But he would still follow what Yibo told him and not leave the apartment building alone. He would do it because he knew he was safe. And he would do it because he was afraid to go out alone and then something stupid would happen to him again.

But since Zhan felt that just sitting in the apartment and doing nothing was too boring, he wondered what he could do instead. Since he knew that Wen Rouhan was on the road with Isko, as they were preparing his leaving and getting some of his personal belongings from the villa, that was out of the question. What else could he do?

Finally, something occurred to Zhan as he rummaged lost in thought in a drawer of the base cabinet in the kitchen and the small mini air pump was suddenly in his hand. "Oh yes, my bike!" He cheered. He grabbed the air pump, put on his shoes, grabbed his cell phone from the living room table, checked the battery level of the cell phone, pocketed it and then hurried downstairs to the basement, where he went to his basement room.

His bike, or rather the dusty something, was sticking out from between a few moving boxes. Zhan wondered what could be in those moving boxes? Because as far as he remembered, he had never put moving boxes in the basement room. The humidity in the basement was far too high for that and he was afraid that everything he would store in them would become moldy from the humidity.

He grabbed one of the moving boxes, placed it outside his basement room and opened it. "What's this?" He asked, frowning at the traditional dress. A dress for a rather small woman. A dress with cherry blossoms that wasn't actually a dress, but a kimono! "What the..." Zhan muttered and pulled out the next item of clothing. Another kimono and definitely of high quality, as he could see from the fabric and the decorations.

The whole box was full of kimonos, as Zhan realized when he pulled out one by one. Then he neatly put everything back into the box and picked up the next box. This box also contained kimonos. But these were for a man who could hardly be taller than the woman.

A third box followed and left Zhan speechless. Inside he found several shiny and beautifully decorated old wooden boxes. He opened one and found earrings, necklaces, rings and hair ornaments. There were 8 such wooden boxes in the box and they were all filled with valuable jewelry. And underneath these wooden boxes was a Japanese sleeping mat. A tatami mat!

In the fourth and last box he found what he had already expected after what he had found so far, three original Japanese katana swords! He also found two complete sets of handmade knives, which he knew were so expensive that only rich people could afford them. And even they would never use these knives, considering how expensive they were, but only show them off.

Zhan wondered who might own these moving boxes and who put them in his basement room. How did this person even have a key to his basement room? Every tenant and apartment owner has their own basement room. So what did this mean?

As Zhan just couldn't think of anyone from Japan who might live in the apartment building, he went upstairs to the front door and looked at the doorbell signs. Sure enough, he found a doorbell sign with the name "Mr. Yamamoto" written on it. Mr. Yamamoto lived on the first floor and Zhan decided to go to him and ask him if these were his moving boxes and how they got into his basement room.

He went to the door of Mr. Yamamoto's apartment, knocked and waited until he heard footsteps behind the door. A man in his early 50s, who didn't look at all Japanese, opened the door and looked at Zhan questioningly. "Yes?" He asked in a deep, raspy voice. Zhan assumed that this man must be European.

"Good day. My name is Xiao Zhan. I also live here in the house and I was just in my basement room and found four moving boxes with Japanese clothes, jewelry and weapons. I wanted to ask if they might be yours?" Zhan replied in a friendly manner.

The man shook his head. "They don't belong to me. And neither does my father-in-law." Suddenly, an even older and clearly Japanese-looking man appeared at the door.

"What are these things?" Mr. Yamamoto wanted to know. Zhan explained again and the very old man wanted Zhan to show him the things. He carefully let Zhan take him downstairs to the basement, where Zhan showed him the moving boxes and their contents. And when Zhan saw the tears in the man's eyes, he knew that he had found the owner of those things.

"I don't know how they got into my basement room. But I realized that it was all very valuable and that's why I wanted to find the real owner." Zhan explained awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

"Unfortunately, I don't know how they got into your basement room either. But yes, these are my things and those of my deceased wife. They are heirlooms from our families that are actually very valuable. I thought they had been lost. My wife, she died three months ago, and I thought they had been lost when we moved into this house. But now they are back. I'm relieved and happy."

"Then I'm glad I asked and that they've come back to you. I immediately realized how valuable these things are and would never have kept them. I realized that I had to return them to their true owner." Zhan replied and looked suspiciously at the old man's son-in-law. The latter looked anything but enthusiastic. Could it be that he had hidden these moving boxes in Zhan's basement room so that he could perhaps sell them later when his father-in-law died?

Mr. Yamamoto was so happy to have these things back that he hugged Zhan. And then his daughter, who looked much younger than her husband, came into the basement and had also started to cry when she saw the contents of the moving boxes. "Dad, I'm so relieved that these things weren't lost." She said and hugged her father. Only the son-in-law scowled at the moving boxes.

Zhan felt the urgent need to ask the son-in-law if he had done this. "Was that you? Did you gain access to my basement room and put the moving boxes in there?" He asked him with a serious look on his face.

"No!" Growled the son-in-law. But nobody believed him. His wife started talking to him. Zhan thought she was speaking in French, but he wasn't quite sure. But he didn't need to understand them to know what they were talking about and they were arguing quite quickly.

While the couple got into an increasingly heated argument, Zhan took the four moving boxes upstairs to the old man's apartment. He placed them in front of the man's bed and then helped the Japanese man to pack the things from the moving boxes into a huge wooden chest. When they arrived at the box containing the katana swords and knife sets, the old man smiled at Zhan's looks of admiration.

Mr. Yamamoto placed one of the swords in Zhan's hands and Zhan looked at it like a true admirer. And then he was also allowed to look at one of these traditionally handcrafted knife sets. "So beautifully crafted. You rarely find such quality these days." Zhan said, stroking the knives very gently.

"Please accept these and the katana as a gift from me. They are to be my thanks to you for returning my things to me. A finder's fee! And surely you know that it's tradition not to refuse a gift!" Mr. Yamamoto replied, smiling so broadly that Zhan could see his false teeth.

"But these things are too valuable..."

"They are valuable. And they should only be given into hands that recognize the value of these things. And I don't mean the monetary value. I want to give you this katana and this knife set because I can see that you recognize the true value of these things. I'm sure you wouldn't sell them."

"I would certainly never do that. My parents also have a handmade knife set that is 220 years old! One day it will be mine. And I will treat and cherish it just as my parents always have. You can't measure the true value of these things with money. There is history behind it. Great craftsmanship and... oh, I think this knife set and katana are just beautiful."

"Hahaha, I knew it. So do me a favor and take these things. But you mustn't play with the katana. The blade is very sharp!"

"Oh okay."

"And you have to be careful with the knives too. They could cut off your limbs. The blades are that sharp."

"wow."

"Now that you've agreed to accept these things as a finder's fee, you and I should have some tea. I'll show you the art of tea that I learned from my mother when I was a little boy." The old man said and went into the living room with Zhan, where Zhan found himself in a traditional Japanese living room and was absolutely thrilled.

Zhan spent another two hours with Mr. Yamamoto before he went upstairs to his apartment with his new katana and knife set. He had completely forgotten about his bike. He had found something better to pass the time with. Mr. Yamamoto was a great conversationalist and Zhan never got bored of his stories. And his tea tasted so good that Zhan was afraid he would never be able to drink any other tea now that he knew what tea was supposed to taste like.