The timing was perfect. Zhu Wenxing waited half an hour in the parking lot across from the Verian before Wen Tingxuan finally appeared.
On his arm was the girl from last time, in a striking red dress and heavier makeup—fresh from some dinner party, by the look of her.
Laughing and chatting, the two swept into the hotel lobby.
Zhu Wenxing wore a dark gray baseball cap, the wide brim hiding his face completely. Unless someone looked twice, they'd never place him.
He followed quickly, stopping in front of the elevators to watch the glowing red numbers stall.
Twenty-first floor.
He turned back to the front desk. "Excuse me—is the room that gentleman just checked into still available?"
The receptionist looked baffled and immediately waved over a security guard. "I'm sorry, sir, this is a luxury establishment. Your attire doesn't meet our check-in standards. Please leave."
Swipe—
Zhu Wenxing dropped a thick fold of cash on the counter in front of her. "I'm a paying guest. I'd like the same room that gentleman just took. Next door, if possible."
"I'm very sorry, sir. First, as stated, the dress code. Second, all the floor-to-ceiling-window rooms on that gentleman's floor were just rented out. Once again, please leave."
Floor-to-ceiling windows.
Zhu Wenxing's mind turned. He picked the cash back up off the counter, slid a few bills quietly into the receptionist's hand, and said, warm as anything: "Thank you so much."
The receptionist and the guard exchanged a look, half understanding. What had she done to earn his thanks?
Zhu Wenxing walked out of the hotel and looked up at the building facing it.
Another hotel, conveniently.
He took a black suitcase from the trunk and walked briskly into its lobby.
Twenty-first floor, same style of floor-to-ceiling-window room, similar price—and this front desk was far more sensible.
The room took less than three minutes.
Zhu Wenxing set up the camera, aimed at the twenty-first floor of the Verian across the way.
Five rooms on that level; the one Wen Tingxuan occupied still had its lights on.
Click-click.
Plenty of heated footage—but nothing decisive yet.
Not enough. Not with only this.
A knock at the door.
"Hello—room service."
"Come in!"
"Just leave the fruit plate, and please close the door behind you. Thank you."
Zhu Wenxing stayed glued to the camera, terrified of missing a single frame.
But the leather shoes never left. And there was no sound of a service reply.
By the time he realized, two broad hands had wound around his waist like snakes, one clapped over his mouth.
"Mmph—!"
"Shh. It's just me."
"Li Feiyang."
Zhu Wenxing gulped fresh air. "Cough—cough—what is wrong with you? Are you sick in the head?"
Li Feiyang still wore that black jacket, the bloodstains long gone from it.
He flopped onto the sofa grinning, turning a room-service apple over in his fingers. "All this artillery set up—shooting evidence of his affair?"
Zhu Wenxing glared at him. "What do you actually want? What I do is none of your business!"
"You're not welcome here. Get out!"
Li Feiyang tossed the apple up. Once. Twice. Three times.
Crunch. Sweet juice exploded across his tongue.
"How is it not my business? You're catching a cheater. So am I."
Crunch. Crunch.
Three or four bites and the apple was gone.
Zhu Wenxing was furious and mortified in equal measure, with no idea how to make him leave.
He gave up, fixed his eyes back on the camera, and jabbed the shutter the instant anything moved.
Li Feiyang leaned in against his back, his big frame folding down around him, chin coming to rest on Zhu Wenxing's shoulder. "That rig's outdated. A phone would be handier."
Zhu Wenxing nodded—then tipped his shoulder, and Li Feiyang's head cracked against the camera mount. "You're right. Unfortunately my phone's lens is broken and I haven't had it fixed. Lucky for me I have this. Clearer, too."
Li Feiyang rubbed his chin without so much as a wince, his hands already expertly working the zoom. "It is professional gear, I'll grant you. Could count body hairs at that range. Still—bold of them, not even drawing the curtains."
He talked as he watched, laughing. "Bodies not yet at peak viewing condition, and the technique's nothing special either, I'd say."
Zhu Wenxing shut him up with one look.
Li Feiyang, for his part, was the picture of composure. Zhu Wenxing's pale face had already flushed the red of an overripe apple.
"Tsk tsk tsk. Look at you, all red." Li Feiyang caught his chin and turned it back and forth. "Can't even hear a word like that—and you claim you've been married ten years? How innocent."
"Don't tell me you've never once—"
Zhu Wenxing couldn't win a war of words with him, so he simply stopped listening and answering, shoved him away, and reclaimed the camera.
Click-click-click—a furious burst of shots.
Through the zoom, everything across the way was laid perfectly bare.
Nothing like what Li Feiyang had claimed.
On screen, the two of them were vigorous, urgent, the flirtation climbing.
The more he watched the angrier he got; the angrier he got, the more he watched.
Astounding. Truly a masterpiece.
Strangling the mist in his eyes, Zhu Wenxing said: "They're about to shake the bed apart, and you call that 'nothing special.'"
"Your fiancée's practically a specialist by now."
Ice flooded Zhu Wenxing's chest. When exactly had Wen Tingxuan's tenderness withered away to nothing? He couldn't remember the man ever wearing such a soft face for him.
"I'm done shooting. If you want the view, the room's yours."
Li Feiyang's arm locked around his waist, lips pressed to the most vulnerable stretch of his neck.
Mwah.
"They're at it hot and heavy over there. You're not even staying to watch? Don't you want your revenge?"
Zhu Wenxing was wrapped up so tight he couldn't move an inch.
"Let go. Let go of me!"
"I don't need revenge. I need money! Let go!"
Li Feiyang gave his neck a light bite.
"Ah—!"
Zhu Wenxing cried out at the sting. "Were you born a dog or something?"
"How did you know I was born in the year of the dog? Clearly fate is working overtime for us."
Zhu Wenxing elbowed him in the ribs, again and again. Li Feiyang might as well have been carved from stone.
"Let's make a deal instead. You want money. I want payback."
That hit exactly the spot Zhu Wenxing wanted it to. He eased off. "What deal?"
Li Feiyang finally loosened his grip on his waist. "I want you to come with me."
"And I'll strip him of everything he owns."
"Deal?"
Zhu Wenxing laughed coldly, looking a little foolish. "Am I really worth that much?"
Li Feiyang hauled him around until they stood face to face, close as a couple hopelessly in love.
"You're not what's valuable. My hatred is worth far more."
The camera was switched to auto-shoot. The vast floor-to-ceiling window caught the shadows of the two of them, standing close.
And then, at last, they vanished from the glass.