"I shouldn't have just left yesterday. I'm really sorry. I was somehow overwhelmed at that moment. Because although you were of course right about what you said, I couldn't and didn't want to agree with you. It's true, you are the best option for getting close to Ms. Isari and being accepted into her inner circle. And yes, we are using you to that end. But I wanted to bring you to the shoot not only because it's my mission to protect you, but also to thank you a little for your support in our mission. I thought that I could make you happy as my fan. But I didn't think about how it must have made you feel. To be honest, I'm not a man of many words and always assume that everyone around me already knows what I want. But yesterday that was my downfall when I made you believe that I only wanted to take you with me because of my mission." Yibo explained.

Zhan sneezed vigorously and motioned for Yibo to just follow him. In Zhan's office, Zhan grabbed a fleece blanket from his closet, wrapped it around himself and sat down at his desk. "Well?" He finally asked Yibo, without really knowing why.

Yibo looked at him worriedly. "I brought you two things as an apology."

"Oh." Zhan replied and took a large brown envelope from Yibo. He opened the envelope and found a few pictures taken yesterday at the commercial shoot, Yibo told him he could stick them in his photo album, and he found something even more amazing inside. A copy of Yibo's employment contract. Most of the text had been blacked out by Yibo. Only one part was legible. The part with a clause that Yibo had demanded.

The clause reads: "I, Federal Agent XYZ, hereby certify that Agent Wang Yibo is not required to physically/intimately engage with a target at any time while working for the XYZ government agency."

"I demanded this clause when I started working for the agency. Because unlike many of my colleagues, I'm not willing to get involved with a target in any kind of intimate way. It's important to me that you know that, because you hinted at something like that yesterday concerning me and Mrs. Isari." Yibo explained.

Zhan stared at the clause and read it over several times. He was relieved not to have to witness Yibo and Mrs. Isari getting closer and doing who knows what. "I don't know what else to say, except wow." Zhan replied, placing the copy of the contract, or rather, one side of the contract, back on the brown envelope.

Yibo took the copy and put it in the shredder next to Zhan's desk. Then he looked at Zhan again, so worried, and sniffed. "Oh no, are you sick?" Yibo asked in horror.

"Yes. Um, I should probably wear a mask now after all."

"Screw the mask. I won't catch anything that quickly. Why are you here and not at home in bed?"

"Are you worried that I won't be fit again by Saturday evening?"

"No. I'm not."

"Then what?"

"I'm worried about you. You belong in a bed and not in the office."

"Hahaha, worried about me."

"It's true."

"Never mind. I still have work to do and I can't put it off any longer."

"Then grab your stuff and work from bed, for my sake. But don't sit here and risk it getting worse." Said Yibo. Zhan wanted to disagree, but didn't have the strength. Instead, he gave in and let Yibo drive him home, where he flopped into his bed.

Since Yibo had obviously decided to make sure that Zhan stayed in his bed, because he didn't leave Zhan's apartment and instead positioned himself on the sofa in Zhan's living room, Zhan simply stayed in bed and was soon asleep. Zhan only woke up again when the doorbell rang. And by then it was already lunchtime.

Yibo had ordered chicken soup, porridge and a fruit basket for Zhan and had them delivered. He brought everything to Zhan in his bedroom, where Zhan had to sit up in bed and eat the chicken soup and then the porridge. And then Yibo peeled a mandarin orange for him, which Zhan also had to eat. Afterwards, Yibo gave him cough syrup, stuck a new plaster on his forehead after taking Zhan's temperature and then ordered Zhan to put on his pyjamas and go back to sleep. Zhan had no objections and did everything Yibo said.

It wasn't until the evening that Zhan woke up again. This time, Yibo served him noodle soup and porridge with a ripe banana. A tip from his mother, as Yibo explained to him when Zhan tried to push the banana aside in disgust. He never liked such ripe bananas and was now only able to get them down with great difficulty. Yibo also gave him a ginger tea with lemon and honey and a juice spritzer. This was followed by cough syrup, fever plasters, cold balm and another ibuprofen, as Zhan's temperature had risen to 38.2°C. And as soon as Zhan lay down again and snuggled into his comforter, he fell asleep again.

The next morning, Zhan woke up feeling more rested. His cough had broken out, but it was not very severe. His cold was weak. And his temperature had dropped to 37.1°C. Since he didn't see Yibo anywhere, he assumed that Yibo had gone home. And now, for the first time, Zhan thought about Yibo's gifts and was touched. Because it seemed really important to Yibo that Zhan knew he wasn't one of those agents who got involved with the targets.

Nevertheless, Zhan remembered his promise to himself not to allow any more hope to sprout inside him. Still, Zhan was unable to do anything about the wide grin he had as he thought about Yibo even showing him a clause from his contract to prove to him that he wasn't the kind of agent Zhan thought he was.

After a quick but very soothing shower, Zhan got dressed and went to the kitchen. He made himself some tea and wanted to drink it in the living room. But as he walked into the living room, his teacup almost fell out of his hand. Because he saw something that made him stop abruptly. Wang Yibo with his upper body exposed on his sofa!!! The woolen blanket that Yibo had covered himself with was lying on the floor next to the sofa.

At this sight, a dirty and extremely erotic image immediately began to form in Zhan's imagination. Only with the greatest effort could Zhan shake off this dirty fantasy. He carefully placed the teacup on the table and picked up the woolen blanket. Then he covered Yibo with it again and was annoyed that he hadn't been so mature as to take advantage of the situation and take a photo of Yibo. Zhan just knew that he would have had a guilty conscience afterwards and would never have been able to really enjoy the photo he had secretly taken.

So as not to accidentally wake Yibo up, Zhan went back to the kitchen and prepared a generous breakfast for himself and the idol. He made tea and coffee and removed the shells from the eggs he had just boiled. He cut the eggs into strips and placed them on the slices of toast topped with salami, green cucumber and tomato. He then placed cheese on top and put the tray in the oven for 20 minutes. Soon afterwards, the aroma from the oven began to spread through the apartment.

Awakened by the aroma, Yibo came into the kitchen. His upper body was still naked, which prompted Zhan to look at him closely, but Yibo didn't seem to mind. "You're feeling better?" Yibo asked and stepped next to Zhan to take a slice of cucumber.

Zhan swallowed hard and nodded. His imagination was getting out of control. The worst thing for Zhan, however, was that his body, a very specific part of his body, immediately began to respond to the fantasy as Yibo stood half-naked close to him and Zhan was even able to detect the faint sandalwood scent of Yibo's body. With a shaky voice and covering that particular part of his body with both hands, Zhan replied, "Yeah. Um, I need to go to the bathroom." Then he rushed away as if stung by a tarantula and stormed into the bathroom, where he only came out after a few minutes. His face was red and he looked embarrassed.

During breakfast, Yibo said: "I spoke to Agent Nax on the phone last night. We've decided that you won't be returning to your office this week and it's best if you work from home. Agent Chu Lei will put a note on your office door later to inform your clients that you will not be in the office this week. They also want me to bring you to the agency on Friday. They'll give you a specially prepared suit for the party. And kit you out with a few things."

"Wait a minute. What do you mean, a specially prepared suit? And what kind of things will I be equipped with?" Zhan wanted to know.

"In addition to a small microphone, the suit also contains a small camera and Teflon."

"Teflon? Like the material for protective vests?"

"Yes, exactly. You also get shoes that are equipped with a GSP transmitter. And there's a sensor in your wristwatch that can scan every corner of the house and put it together as a whole."

"Ah yes, and why don't you have a GPS transmitter or this watch?"

"I have one. But double is better. In case one of the devices fails. Oh, and then you get pills that can instantly neutralize any form of poison and a spray disguised as an asthma spray that cancels out the effects of narcotics like sleeping pills."

"Cool. Can I have one of those pens that shoots a numbing dart?"

"What do you want one of those for?"

"Wait! Is there really such a thing? I thought it only existed in movies." Zhan was totally fascinated.

"In movies, they usually have watches with numbing darts coming out of them. But yes, we have something like that. And we have a nail case that you can use when you're tied up. The nail file in it is actually a sharp knife. As sharp as a scalpel. The scissors in it are sharp and strong enough to cut a rope. Piece by piece, of course."

"Wow. Then I can spend an evening pretending I'm an agent too. I'm officially impressed. Are there contact lenses like this with a camera?"

"They do exist. But only for real agents. Because they are specially adapted and made for each agent."

"I see."

"Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Mhhh, let's think about it. Will we also have buttons in our ears that allow us to hear your colleagues?"

"No. We do have something like that. But we won't be using them. Unfortunately, they're not invisible and could easily be detected."

"And what if we are scanned by security guards for such spying devices before we enter?"

"Then nothing will happen. These are brand new models that can't be detected by scanners."

"Okay, good. Now I'm really a bit excited and looking forward to Saturday evening."

"The most important thing is that you always stay close to me on Saturday. Report anything that seems unusual to you. And don't forget her assistant's advice that you shouldn't let your drink out of your sight."

"Yes sir."

"And if anything goes wrong, just make sure you get out of there. Don't wait for me or keep looking around. Just start running and don't stop until you see Agent Nax."

"Don't scare me now. What's supposed to happen?"

"You have to expect anything Zhan. This woman is crazy and will even walk over dead bodies. I firmly believe that. Otherwise we wouldn't be after her."

"Should I actually try to make friends with Isko to get more information about this woman?"

"No! If he tells you something on his own, okay. But don't try to get him to tell you more."

"And why not?"

"Because he might suspect something and be warned. And as long as Mrs. Isari still has power over him and we don't know what she's using to control him, we shouldn't take any risks. Because he could turn against you and warn her."

"All right. But I don't think he would betray me."

"Believing is not knowing Zhan. In my training, we learned that we shouldn't rely on 'belief', but on what we know. And we both know, you and I, that Mrs. Isari is holding Isko back with something. Something that makes him keep quiet. Because I'm sure we both agree that he knows more than he's letting on. What I'm saying is, whatever Mrs. Isari uses as leverage has worked very well for Isko for many years. He doesn't betray her. I know that because he's also been interrogated several times and never turned her in."

"Yes, well, okay. If he wants to tell me something on his own, fine. If not, then I should leave him alone. I get it."

"Good, you got it. And now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a shower first. Unfortunately, I don't have a change of clothes here. But I still need to shower."

"Just take something from my wardrobe. I think we should have about the same size."

"Okay, thanks." Yibo said and went into the bedroom to Zhan's closet and then shower.

Meanwhile, while Yibo was in the bathroom, Zhan tidied up the kitchen and decided that, despite Yibo's objections, he would have a talk with Isko. He wanted to ask Isko what that woman had done to him. After all, this was only indirectly related to Yibo's mission. Besides, he and Isko had already touched on this topic once, when Isko came to his office alone. Which somehow seemed to Zhan as if it had been many weeks ago.