It was already 6 PM and Zhan was engrossed in a heated discussion with an anti-fan of Yibo when Yibo suddenly appeared behind Zhan and tapped him on the shoulder, nearly scaring Zhan to death. "For God's sake!" Zhan cried out in shock.

Yibo looked at Zhan from tired eyes and said, "I'm sorry. I fell asleep."

"Yes, I know. Did the sleep do you any good?"

"Yes, very much so."

"Are you hungry now?"

"Yes, very hungry."

"Then I'll heat up your food quickly." Zhan said and went into the kitchen. Yibo sat down at Zhan's laptop and read what Zhan had written. He read how hot-bloodedly Zhan defended him and Yibo couldn't help but grin.

"For not wanting to be my fan anymore, you're defending me pretty hard." Yibo shouted to Zhan.

Zhan came running back into the living room, closed the laptop and asked: "Do you have to stick your nose in everywhere?"

Yibo laughed: "Sure. I'm a federal agent. I'm interested in everything."

Zhan shook his head. "I can't say anything about that. Come with me to the kitchen. Your food is warmed up."

"Okay." Yibo replied and followed Zhan into the kitchen. He ate everything and thanked Zhan for the delicious food. Then he had to get going. As he left and said goodbye to Zhan, Zhan had the fleeting impression that Yibo didn't want to leave at all. Afterwards, he told himself that it was probably just wishful thinking because he was still so much in love with Yibo and wished that Yibo had said that he didn't want to go.

In the evening, Zhan took a cab to Chuyue, his best friend. He had invited Zhan to his house for a beer or two. In the end, it ended up being more like 6 beers and a bottle of cherry liqueur. They drank, ate snacks and talked about Chuyue's ex-girlfriend, with whom it had been over for three months, but which Chuyue still couldn't let go of.

Zhan, who had never been in a romantic relationship, could do nothing to ease his best friend's heartache. He simply listened to him, patted him on the shoulder every now and then and told him that he would surely be fine soon. As Zhan didn't know whether he was at least allowed to tell his best friend that he had met Wang Yibo in person, Zhan kept quiet about it. However, he decided that if he met Yibo again, he would ask him what he could and could not say.

Zhan drove home late at night. He was drunk, but not too drunk to make it home. Once he was upstairs in his apartment, he went straight to his bedroom and flopped down on his bed. And immediately he noticed the faint scent of sandalwood. He rolled over, sniffed his bedding and sighed: "Wang Yibo smells incredibly good too. How am I supposed to finally get him out of my head when he is so perfect and would suit me wonderfully? I'm far from perfect. But never mind. Oh dear, I really want Yibo so much."

Suddenly Zhan remembered that secret agents in movies always plant little listening devices, called bugs, in rooms and he wondered if Yibo could have bugged his bedroom too and now everyone in Yibo's government agency could hear what he was saying about Yibo and his feelings for him? He quickly jumped out of bed and searched his room for such a bug, but found none and dropped back into his bed, relieved.

Zhan was about to fall into the land of dreams when he heard a loud knock on his door. At first he thought he was mistaken and that he was imagining it because of his tiredness and the alcohol. But then the knocking repeated itself. He slowly walked to his front door and looked through the peephole. An unknown man was standing there, looking anything but friendly.

Very slowly and careful not to make any noise, Zhan slipped away from the front door with his heart pounding and went into his living room, where his cell phone was lying on the table. He picked up his cell phone, ready to call the police, but then he heard in the hallway: "Hey man, you're knocking on the wrong door." Zhan's heart slowly calmed down again as he heard footsteps moving away from his door. Nevertheless, he was now wide awake and remained sitting in the dark living room for quite a while.

And as Zhan sat in his dark living room, he realized how great his fear of this woman had become after hearing the stories about the disappearances from the agents. And he knew that although he had this great fear of her, he would still join the agents and help them. He doesn't yet know how and whether it will work at all, but he will try. The main work would have to be done by the agents anyway.

Thinking about it, he finally got tired again and fell asleep on the sofa. When he woke up in the morning, his back and neck hurt like hell. Like an old man, he struggled to get up from the sofa, bent over in the bathroom, relieved his bladder and went straight to the bedroom, where he fell into bed and fell asleep again until the doorbell rang.

Zhan sat up in bed and grumbled angrily as he walked to the front door: "Damn it! First nobody comes to see me for months and now it's ringing and knocking every day." Zhan opened the door and a young, good-looking guy stood in front of it and explained that he was a colleague of, he already knew who, and had been sent to him to clarify certain details. Zhan didn't understand anything, but let the man into his apartment after he had identified himself to him as an agent.

"I didn't know you were still asleep. I thought you'd be awake by now because it's midday." The young man said a little sheepishly as he looked at Zhan.

"Ah yes. I was at my best friend's last night and we had a few drinks. It got late. So what was that again. You're a colleague of whose?"

"From Wang Yibo. Our team leader is Agent Nax, she picked me. I'm supposed to stay by your side and get to know Ms. Isari through you, gain her trust and then attach myself to her." The young agent explained.

"So first of all, I am Xiao Zhan and you are?"

"Oh haha. I'm Agent Chu Lei."

"Good. And you're supposed to play my good friend?"

"Not quite. They've changed the plan again. Since I have at least a basic knowledge of graphic design, my superiors imagine that I could play your intern."

"Okay, fine. Agreed and what next?"

"They're hoping that Ms. Isari will take the bait and take an interest in me. And if she does, that I will officially start my mission."

"And how many missions have you already done? Don't take the question the wrong way. But you look like you've only just finished your agent training."

"That's also the case. Well, I mean that I just finished my agent training. But Agent Nax trusts me to complete the mission."

"And do you trust yourself to complete the mission? Because to be honest, you don't look like it."

"I have confidence in myself. But I'm also nervous because it's my first mission and it's such a big one."

"Mhhh, I understand. Well, luckily you're not alone and you have colleagues to support you. Let's go through the details you've come up with."

"Okay." Chu Lei said with relief and explained to Zhan that they wanted to keep it simple. Chu Lei is supposedly studying graphic design and is doing an internship at Zhan's to gain practical experience. They didn't know each other before, but are about to become friends. Zhan liked the idea, but wasn't sure whether Chu Lei was really the right person for the job. But he didn't say so, so as not to make the young agent feel insecure.

After the conversation with Chu Lei and after he had left, Zhan actually wanted to lie down again and get some more sleep. But when he saw the dirty laundry in his bathroom and the dirty dishes in the kitchen, he stayed awake. He switched on the washing machine, tidied up the kitchen, dusted the living room, vacuumed and mopped the floor and hung up the laundry when the washing machine was finished. He then cleaned his bathroom, changed his bedding and by the time he had finally finished everything, it was late afternoon.

As he hadn't eaten anything yet, he ordered something from the delivery service and then literally wolfed it down. It was only while eating that he realized how hungry he had been. Afterwards, he went to his balcony and looked after his plants there. He watered them and picked out the dried flowers. He then stayed on his balcony for a while, enjoying the view and the fresh breeze. It would soon be fall and that would bring the cold with it. So he wanted to enjoy the last warm days of summer a little longer.

Around 8 pm, Zhan retired to his bed with a book. He read two chapters of the book and then put it down. He just couldn't concentrate properly on reading because his thoughts had distracted him. Now that he had time to think, he asked himself seriously for the first time whether he was really prepared to help the agents get close enough to this woman to infiltrate her from the inside? Is this woman really that dangerous? And if so, how great is the danger to him? Would he also have to get more involved with this woman in order to help the agents properly? To clear his head, he went out onto the balcony again, where a cool night breeze could be felt.

"Hello Mr. Neighbor?" Called Zhan's neighbor. Or the neighbor whose visitor had almost given Zhan a heart attack that night when he banged on Zhan's apartment door like a madman.

"Hello." Zhan replied curtly.

"About last night, well, I wanted to apologize. My eldest son was drunk and got the wrong door."

"I noticed that."

"He was sorry too when I told him this afternoon after he'd slept it off."

"Okay."

"You um, can I ask you something?"

"Depends on what you want to ask."

"I've seen someone at your car a couple times. It looked to me like someone had put something there. You should be careful."

Zhan froze. Yibo had told him that there was a GPS tracker on his car, but hearing from a neighbor that someone had attached something to his car still frightened him. And his imagination immediately went crazy. What if it wasn't just a GPS tracker? What if there's a bomb there too? It didn't seem that unlikely, now that he was dealing with secret agents. But finally he answered: "Oh, it was just an acquaintance who installed something in case my car was stolen so that I could always find it again."

"Ah yes, a GPS tracker. But you have a new car, don't you? It already has theft protection built in. And GPS trackers like that really suck. Anyone who knows a bit about it can hack into it and spy on you."

And there it was again, the reminder that Zhan is terrible at lying. His neighbor was right. Zhan's car is new. In fact, he had only bought it four months ago. And yes, it has anti-theft protection. In the event of theft, he would only need to open a certain app on his cell phone to see where his car was. And he could disable the car with just one press of a button. The engine would switch off and the thief would no longer be able to start the engine, no matter what he tried. "I have no idea about this. An acquaintance advised me to get one of those GPS trackers." Zhan finally replied, already suspecting that this lie was even more stupid.

"And you're sure that your friend means well? Maybe he just wants to find out where you've been hanging out this way."

"I um... no I trust him." Zhan stuttered and could see from his neighbor how little he believed Zhan.

"I'm a police officer and I really advise you to remove that GPS tracker. And if you really just want another layer of protection, have it done in a workshop and not by someone you know."

"Um, okay."

"Besides, your friend didn't look very trustworthy to me. He was huge, with broad shoulders and kept looking around as if he had something to hide."

Zhan thought for a moment and knew that this man could definitely only have been this woman's driver. "Mhm, I know. He's always so overprotective."

"Honestly, Mr. Neighbor. I realize you're lying to me. But you'll have your reasons. But if you need help, just knock on my door. Oh yes, my name is Wen Rouhan."

"My name is Xiao Zhan. And thank you."

"Just be careful. I don't know what you've gotten yourself into and you don't have to tell me. But if there's anything, if you want to talk or need help, just come over."

"Thanks, I will. Well, I'm going back inside. I'm going to make myself something for dinner now." Another lie his neighbor didn't buy. But Wen Rouhan said nothing, smiled kindly and nodded.

"All right. Have a good evening."

"Thanks, you too." Zhan replied and hurried back to his living room. He would have liked to call one of the agents now, preferably Yibo of course, to tell them that his neighbor was a police officer and had seen how the GPS tracker had been attached to his car. But he had completely forgotten to get a phone number. He would have to do that tomorrow, when Chu Lei was working in his office.

With no real desire, Zhan prepared himself a sandwich, ate it with even less desire and went back to his living room, where he switched on the TV and watched the interview Yibo had given after the concert. Zhan was of course immediately thrilled and almost glued to the TV. Yibo spoke of the overwhelming feeling that so many of his fans had come to the concert and that he was looking forward to meeting one of them in person. This made Zhan laugh. "Yes, of course. He was happy! He just wanted to persuade me to help him and his colleagues!" Zhan scolded.

But then he thought about how friendly Yibo was to him and even offered to buy him a drink. And Yibo even came to his home, offered to protect him, praised Zhan's photographs of Yibo, slept in Zhan's bed and even ate what Zhan had cooked. Perhaps Yibo did this because he wanted to keep Zhan happy, because he felt guilty about Zhan, or perhaps because he was interested in Zhan's well-being. In the end, Zhan didn't care. Because this was Wang Yibo. The first and only man Zhan had ever developed feelings for. Real feelings that now went far beyond a crush.

Overnight we had -8 °C and fog again. In the morning it looked like this. Small ice crystals had formed on the trees, bushes and grass.