Chapter 1 The New Year's Atmosphere

In the blink of an eye, the end of the year was approaching, and the New Year's atmosphere on the streets was getting stronger and stronger.

During the coldest time of the year, it would be perfectly normal for a friend to invite you out for a hot pot, right?

But this evening, Feng Bujue, invited by Xiao Tan to a private room in a certain restaurant, felt something was off...

Glug glug glug...

There were three people sitting in the private room, but no one was speaking... all that could be heard was the sound of the hot pot broth bubbling.

"Looks like... I'll have to be the one to break the ice..." Finally, Feng Bujue was the first to break the silence.

"Why are you so serious?" Bao Qing turned to look at him, wondering, "Didn't bring any money?"

"You don't have to put on an act." Feng Bujue's tone was still serious, "I saw through it the moment I walked in... this is a Hongmen banquet."

"Jue-ge..." Xiao Tan's mouth twitched a couple of times before he replied, "This meal really isn't expensive, and the room fee is fine too... Besides, I was planning on treating anyway."

"Hmph..." Feng Bujue snorted upon hearing this, "Xiao Tan, Bao-daren..." He scanned the two of them with his eyes, "I know all your habits, little actions, and subconscious micro-expressions... better than anyone else..." He ignored the two of them mentioning the money for the meal, and continued on his own, "From the moment I walked in until now, the two of you haven't said more than ten sentences combined, and you've only made eye contact three times; Xiao Tan, a person who rarely crosses his legs, has crossed and uncrossed them twice, and has played with his fingers three times... and Bao-daren, as someone who pays a lot of attention to dining etiquette, has looked at his phone five times..."

He finished saying all this in one breath, then looked at the two dumbfounded faces and asked in a deep voice, "You... received an order from Section Chief Gu to arrest me, didn't you?"

"No," Bao Qing answered very decisively.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue raised an eyebrow, "Could it be... you're here to kill me?"

"Heh heh..." Bao Qing gave another couple of dry laughs, "I can't kill you, you've practiced the Dunjia Tianshu, and you have special abilities, I can't handle you alone and unarmed."

"Isn't there still Xiao Tan?" Feng Bujue glanced at Xiao Tan, "I heard that your family has been cultivating immortality for generations, right?"

"Uh..." Xiao Tan didn't even know how to respond, "Actually..." So he simply avoided this nonsensical question and directly began to say his purpose, "I invited you here today to hand out wedding invitations..." As he spoke, he took a red envelope out of his pocket and placed it in front of Jue-ge, "Because Bao-daren arrived earlier than you, and he has something to do later, so I already gave him his just now."

Silence descended once again.

After the short exchange, Feng Bujue's reasoning was overturned; he didn't say a word for a long time, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward, just like the lyrics said – the scariest thing is when the air suddenly becomes quiet.

"Well..." After a moment, Jue-ge's serious tone returned to his usual lazy state, "Then why... haven't you guys been talking much since I came in?"

Bao Qing replied with a calm expression, "You're half an hour late without even saying hello. What did you want to hear when you came in? Did you want us to say, 'It's okay, we just got here too'?"

"Then what's with you looking at your phone all the time?" Jue-ge asked again.

"Didn't Xiao Tan say it? I 'have something to do later'," Bao Qing replied.

"Work related?" Feng Bujue said.

"No comment," Bao Qing blurted out these four words without even thinking.

"Oh... so it's work related," Jue-ge nodded, then looked at Xiao Tan, "Hey~ then why do you look so uneasy and guilty?"

"Well..." Xiao Tan thought for a moment, "On the one hand... it's because you didn't say anything to us just now, and the atmosphere was very depressing, I thought you had something on your mind, so I hesitated to speak; on the other hand..." As he said this, he stood up, "Actually, I've been eating a bit too much hot pot these past two days, and I have diarrhea... Since there's nothing going on right now, I'll go to the bathroom first."

Having said that, he covered his stomach and hurried out.

"Damn, if you have diarrhea, can't you just not eat it?" Feng Bujue rolled his eyes and shouted at Xiao Tan's back.

After all that, the other party wasn't feeling guilty, but had poop in his belly.

"There are two kinds of people in this world..." The next second, Bao Qing said while looking down at his phone, "The first kind are people who really like to eat Mexican quesadillas, but get severe rectal bleeding as soon as they eat them, so they stop eating them from then on; the second kind are people who keep buying new underwear after eating Mexican quesadillas and getting severe rectal bleeding..."

"Ho~" Feng Bujue carefully considered the meaning of the other party's words, "Although I think using 'masturbating' as an example would be more appropriate here, but you this..."

"Hey hey! You're missing the point, aren't you?" Bao Qing put down his phone and interrupted Jue-ge, "You see 'wedding invitation' and that's your reaction? Our buddy is getting married soon, and you're focusing on the example I used in my吐槽 (tu cao; to roast)?"

"You saying 'soon' is a bit inaccurate," Feng Bujue said, "Technically speaking... he's 'already' married. According to the Civil Affairs Bureau's records, he and Xiao Ling registered a long time ago."

"Huh?" Bao Qing was dumbfounded, "How do you know?" After two seconds, he seemed to have thought of something, "Xiao Tan told you? Hey~ but he didn't tell me."

"No no... he didn't tell anyone except him and Xiao Ling, the parties involved, and both of their families," Feng Bujue said, "I found out myself." He spread out his hands, "You know me, I like to browse the government agencies' databases as a pastime; but since last year, your Section Chief Gu has strictly forbidden me from wandering around the public security and judicial systems, so I have no choice... I can only shift my target to the civil affairs departments and those semi-bureaucratic organizations... By the way, would you like to hear a few toilet jokes about the Football Association and the Writers Association? I've been inspired recently and wrote dozens of them during my pooping time, and I'm considering submitting them to the internet under an alias to earn some extra money. How about you be the audience and see how the jokes land?"

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that last part..." Bao Qing said with narrowed eyes, "The key is... you knew that Xiao Tan and Xiao Ling had registered a long time ago, and you didn't even tell me?"

"Respect their privacy, isn't it better to let him tell us himself?" Feng Bujue replied with a straight face.

"You know that you're currently embodying the word 'shameless' with your words and actions, right?" Bao Qing said.

"I respect people's privacy a lot," Feng Bujue shrugged, "Look... did I reveal even half a word about him being married before he took out the wedding invitation?"

After hearing this, Bao Qing thought for a long time and couldn't think of any further words to refute the other party...

"But, come to think of it... you two really scared me just now," Feng Bujue said, "I really thought Section Chief Gu sent you two to take care of me." As he spoke, he also took out his phone and stood up, "Anyway... it's good that everything's okay, I'll go make a call."

"Huh?" Bao Qing looked back at him, "There are only two of us here, why do you have to go out to make a call?"

"It's nothing, because I thought I was ambushed just now, so I secretly sent some messages, notified some people, and arranged some backup plans while you weren't paying attention..." Feng Bujue said as he walked, "Since everything's okay now, I should cancel those arrangements as soon as possible, of course... they have to hear my voice..."

"Okay, okay, that's enough," Bao Qing rubbed his forehead and shook his head, interrupting Jue-ge again, "I shouldn't have asked..."

Bao Qing had actually witnessed something similar before, back in their high school days...

One day, a boy who had a conflict with Feng Bujue and had a lot of influence in his family asked Feng Bujue to come out for a one-on-one fight. Jue-ge thought the other party would set up an ambush, but he didn't expect the other party to actually come alone, and he accepted his loss without any complaints after the fight.

At that time, Bao Qing and Xiao Tan, who were hiding in the dark as "backup plans," heard Jue-ge say these two sentences to that boy; "How many people know about you coming here today?" "Well... you better wait for me to make a few phone calls before you go home."

After a while, when Bao Qing understood the meaning of those two sentences... he also felt a lingering fear.

No one knew how many sets of "backup plans" Feng Bujue had, and no one knew... what he would do, and to what extent.

But everyone had a consensus – if the end of the world suddenly came one day, and you had to find someone with emergency response measures by your side, he would be the right choice... Of course, that didn't rule out the possibility of being used as emergency rations after finding him.

"Hello?" Jue-ge didn't go too far, the soundproofing of this restaurant was quite good, so he directly answered the phone in the corridor, "Snow? Ah... it's me... false alarm, your people don't have to come."

"How heartless~" Snow's slightly teasing voice came from the phone, "Am I the kind of friend you only contact when you need something?"

"Don't make it sound like we have some kind of physical relationship," Feng Bujue said, "Just say we're friends who use each other, or you can omit the word 'friend' and I wouldn't mind."

"Hehe..." Snow laughed, "Okay~ whatever makes you happy..." He paused, "But since we're using each other... my men made a trip for nothing tonight, and it cost a lot of manpower and gas money..."

"Two scripts," Feng Bujue knew what the other party wanted to say, and didn't waste time with him, directly stating the key point.

"Three," Snow immediately began to haggle.

"Two," Feng Bujue repeated decisively.

"Then they all have to be Sleep Mode," Snow added.

"Deal," Jue-ge agreed to the conditions and was about to hang up, "If there's nothing else, I..."

"Hey~" Snow raised his voice at this time, "By the way, just now, I saw a big news item on the game forum, and it's related to you."

"Oh?" Feng Bujue said, "What is it?"

"'This evening, Red Cherry Studio released an announcement on its official website, announcing that the super popular player [Xu Huai Shang] terminated her contract with the studio peacefully half a month ago; as soon as the news came out, the entire gaming community was in an uproar. According to sources, contracts for star players of this level have very detailed provisions regarding termination matters; the news of the termination must be first released by the studio after all termination matters have been fully processed by both parties. If the player herself publicly discloses the relevant information before the studio does, even if the contract term has expired, she will still bear the corresponding liability for breach of contract. And this termination process usually takes up to fifteen working days... It seems that losing their mainstay player is a huge blow to Red Cherry, so they kept delaying the announcement until the very last moment before making it public.'" Snow read the news article verbatim.

"So... how is this related to me?" Feng Bujue replied without any waves.

Although he was outwardly calm, in reality... when asking this question, Jue-ge felt a slight sense of foreboding in his heart.

"Hehe..." Snow was waiting for this question, he smiled sinisterly and replied, "'Our reporter interviewed Xu Huai Shang online as soon as possible. When asked which studio she would join next, Xu Huai Shang said that due to the restrictions of the non-compete clause, she cannot join any other game studios within the next six months. The reporter then asked her if she would take this opportunity to enter the entertainment industry. Xu Huai Shang said that she would not leave the gaming industry, and even if she left one day, she would not enter the entertainment industry; finally, when the reporter asked her about her plans for the next six months, she replied that she was considering joining some strong non-professional player guilds. When asked which guild she would consider as her top priority, Xu Huai Shang's response was – Di Yu Qian Xian (Hell's Frontline).'"