"Something's wrong with the money? I didn't count them because I don't have trusting issues toward the bank I worked with, ever since.",  Mr. Jung said, confused when recognized the silvery suitcase that his employee, Mr. Xiao Zhan,  placed on his office desk.

"I suppose that nothing's wrong, I didn't even open it.
Because I want the deal off.
Yesterday this money was vital to me, but today I found out that it wouldn't be any help. 
Therefore I need no money, because I'm not gonna marry your daughter and not gonna leave the country. 
But don't worry, I will acknowledge the baby as mine and sign for the father's name like the previous plan was.", Zhan said , watching with worry the suddenly stiffened facial expression of his boss.

"That can't be done, Mr. Xiao.
Should I remind you that I have your fiance's signature on the agreement along with  the delegation document?
So..."

"I know that, Mr. Jung, but you asked from me only my name to use it for the baby’s father name,  thing that I agree without anything in exchange, just don't force me to marry and go to the US. 
I am needed here, I have no father and I am the only one whom  my mother has in this world, I can't just go and leave her here alone. 
Besides that, I have some other urgent issues to solve. Not just any kind of issues, but issues of life and death..."
"I'm sorry son, I can't accept your request, because it's too late.
Mrs. Senator has already announced it to the media. And you know how important the media is for a politician.
Also she and other guests will arrive in time for the civil marriage, which can't be canceled just like that.
Eventually I will try to postpone your flight to the US for a few days, under the reason that you have to organize some problems for your mother or something.
And don't worry about your mother, after you and my daughter will get your American marriage license, you will become an American citizen.
Then you will be able to bring your mother as a family member, to live legally with you in the States.
The mansion Shia's mother has already bought for you two is big enough for your mother, too.
Come on son, we are talking here  of only 6 months, not such a big deal!
Six months of high life!
I bet you'll regret it when it ends."
 

"But...",  Zhan tried once again, but he was cut off curtly by his boss, who gave him back the suitcase and showed him to the door with a comforting, but also commanding tap onto his back.

 

 

Xiao Zhan was aware that Mr. Jung would be able anytime to force him to respect the contract.
He had nothing to do, the winning cards were in Mr. Jung's hand, especially in the law terms.
Zhan has actually signed the agreement through ZiZi's signature.

He doesn't need the boss' money because he knows now that the pimp has no intention to let Yibo free after getting the redemption money. For paying the eventual information the slum man could give him, his own money would be enough.

Xiao Zhan was always a man of planning, but right now, when it would be the most needed, he has no plan on how to save his beloved one.

He wandered on streets like a batty fly, hoping...didn't even know what...
He planted himself in the airport waiting area...maybe he would be lucky to see the kidnappers sending Muffin to his buyer...
He was still there after many hours when his friends had finally found him.

What could he do, where could he look for that damn pimp?
His head was aching in frustration, his whole being was screaming questions without any response...

Wang Ji, A-Xian and Wang ZhuoCheng formed a searching team that will try to get any information about the kidnappers, but they chased him away from the team, telling him that he was too anguished for thinking straight and for helping them.
They suggested to him to go instead and talk with his mother about the tomorrow civil marriage, then to join them later.

The contacting man asked him to bring the money the next day, at 1PM, just an hour after his civil marriage, at an address Zhan found out that it was an abandoned market place from a bad neighborhood.
“No police or else Wang Yibo will be a dead meat!”, the bastard said.

A-Xian will remain at the airport, Wang ZhuoCheng will try to squeeze some information from the Rainbow club's clients about the pimp's living place, or maybe about the places where he was usually gambling, while JiJi will go back to the slum man and see if they could find out something new together, and who knows, maybe the pimp could bring Muffin back in the slum room.

Zhan's contribution will come at the moment he will meet the pimp for giving him the money.
He will try everything possible to find where Yibo was!
Even put his life at risk.
He managed to illegally buy (online) a small handgun, and he was determined to use it if it will be necessary.

But till that moment, his friends were right, Zhan needed to announce the marriage to his mother.
He was undecided whether to tell her or not the whole truth, worried about her reaction at the sudden news. Marriage followed by a divorce after half an year it's not what a mother would like to hear about her son's future...

So when his mom opened her apartment door with a cheerful and happy smile, Xiao Zhan made his decision.

"Don't ask me about ZiZi anymore! I finally realized that I have never loved her, A-Xian was right, she was nothing more than an obsession stuck in my stubborn head.
I know now how it feels to be in love. I know now the taste of real love...I love him, ermm, her, with all of my heart!
I didn't tell you before because I thought that it was just a one night stand, three months ago when I slept with my boss' daughter.
But then when I met Shia again I began to like her, more than a ual partner.
You will like her, too, I'm sure.
Mama, why are you crying?
You should be happy, especially that you will finally have the grandchild you have always craved for.
After we will settle down I will bring you there next to me.", Zhan tried to sound as happy as he could, standing up from the sofa and hugging his mother tightly.

"And what about that cutie flat mate of yours?
I thought that you two were in love with each other."

"I told you that he is not my boyfriend, but you didn't listen to me.
BoBi will be fine...I hope.
He got a big sum of money contract in the entertainment industry.
He will work with a famous singer, and an even more famous online influencer and makeup artist who might have fallen in love with him. So maybe this celebrity will help Yibo to get rich and famous, as well."

"But why did he kiss you at your birthday party, then?
The way your eyes were looking at him, the way he was smiling at you...
No, you can't fool me!
ZhanZhan, I am your mother and you know that I always knew when you lied to me since you were a small kid.
And right now I can tell that you are definitely lying.
You are in love with BoBo or BoBi, and he loves you back!"

After a few moments of silence, Xiao Zhan burst into tears , burying his soaked face at his mother's chest:
"Okay, Mama, you got me!
I tried, but you always had this power over me.
I feel such overwhelming love!
If he is not alive anymore, I wanna die, too.
Yes, I do love him like I have never loved in my whole life!
Life which I don't want to live anymore if I would be forced to live it without him!", and Zhan started to tell his mother everything that had happened since that boy got into his life, except a few details like the handgun he bought or his plan to kill the kidnappers in order to save Muffin's life.

 

 

 

                                                                                      

 

~Next day~

It was hard for Zhan to get rid of his friends' insistence to accompany him at the 1PM  meeting, but it was even harder to get lost in a big hurry, without any explanation towards his new relatives, right after the registrar pronounced him and Shia , husband and wife.

His mother in law, Mrs. Senator, followed by two security guys, stopped him when he had finally reached the door, ready to flee away.
She pulled him into her embrace, but her eyes were looking suspiciously at the silver suitcase from  her son in law's hand:
" I am so happy that my Shia has met you.
You are such a perfect person to be her husband, to be my son.
Such an intelligent, educated, handsome, attentive man.
I hope that you allow me to call you my son, such a pity  that my daughter didn't meet you sooner, before all of this mess."

"No problem, madam, you can call me however it pleases you, but I hope that  you didn't forget that I am not her husband for real, nor your son in law.
But I'm aware and willing to act such as, for the strangers' eyes, especially for the media, do not worry.",  Zhan said, peeking anxiously at his wrist watch.
"Thank you dear, that's why I want you to wear this lucky charm, it's a couple items, Shia has the other one, you know how the media likes these kinds of things.
You can attach it to your car keys or your phone, no need for anything flashy and too obvious.
It will be like a hidden proof of the couple's love, but not hidden enough for the media to go unnoticed. Don't get me wrong, son, but we need for the media to believe in a real love between Alicia and her spouse."

"Of course, madam, you are a very smart woman, I see now why you are such a good politician, too, attentive with the smallest details."

"Well, what can I say, politics is a , and we need to play under its y rules.
But please don't call me madam, it would be my pleasure for you to call me mother or mom, not only in front of the others, though."

"Yes, madam, I mean, mother.
I'm sorry for not calling you mom, but I don't want my real mom to feel weird, or who knows, maybe even jealous.
Now, I need you to excuse me, I have some urgent problems to solve, I will be back as soon as possible, please tell Alicia not to worry."

 

 

"Okay son, you can tell me if we could help you in any way, you are family now.
And by the way, I like your mom, I talk with her a lot while waiting for your arrival.
She's a wonderful woman who loves her son very much."
"Thank you, mother, for offering your help, but this problem I need to solve alone.",  Xiao Zhan smiled, kissing Mrs. Senator's hand after locking the lucky charm on his car key.

 

 

~A few hours later~

 

Three nurses were barely enough for chasing away the crowd from the hospital ward where a still unconscious  Xiao Zhan was lying, after the needed surgical intervention for the bullet extraction.
Luckily no vital organ was damaged, when the bullet got stuck between two ribs.

"Can somebody tell me what on earth did it happen?!", Yang Zi shouted, who was the last to arrive in the hospital waiting room.

"Come here, let's take a seat and I will tell you everything.",  Zhan's mother said, pulling her aside and starting her telling between crying hiccups and sighs.

"I have almost killed my son!
Thank you God for saving his life!
After he told me the whole truth, I was very worried about his meeting with those dangerous people. When I saw the professional  protection Mrs. Senator was getting from the security guys, I thought about asking for her help in protecting my ZhanZhan, too.
So she gave him an amulet or something, with a small tracking device inside.
That's how the security men knew where he was located.
My son met the three kidnappers in a hidden, abandoned market.
When one of those criminals  shouted to the other: "Look out, he has a gun!", the guards reacted by shooting towards the mobsters, but sadly, too late.
My ZhanZhan was already lying to the ground with a bullet very close to his heart.
Baby son, why did you not tell me that you have a gun, and why did you risk your life like that?!"

Wang Ji wrapped the woman's shoulders in a comforting hug:
"Because he loves my brother this much.
But now let's calm down everybody and be thankful that  he is safe now, unlike my BoBo.
Sadly the security men shot all the three mobsters to death and now we have nobody to ask about my brother."

 

All of them startled at the phone buzz coming from the box which a nurse gave to his mother with Zhan's belongings.
"The caller's ID is 'Beast', it’s Wang Yiduo. I'm not gonna answer.
I suppose he wants to know why BoBo didn't  attend the filming, and I don't know what to tell him.", WuXian said, placing the still buzzing phone back in the box .

His own phone started to buzz right after Zhan's one has stopped:
"It's the same number, how on earth does the  makeup stylist know my number?
Maybe Ah-Zhan gave it to him, but still I'm not going to answer it."

Mrs Senator entered the waiting room after her bodyguards asked politely the people who were not family or friends, to leave the room for a few minutes:
"Firstly I feel the need to apologize for  my overzealous guards’ way of handling the situation. I am aware that now you lost any chance of finding where your...friend was taken, but their ultimate goal was to protect my son in law's life.
I promise to try my best in searching for that poor boy Shia has told me about, that he had a hard life ever since.
Also, I need all of you here to promise me something in exchange: nobody needs to know what happened here or why.
I will tell the media that it was only an accident when my son in law was taught to handle a gun by a security guard."

"That's why you instructed your guards to kill my brother's kidnappers, to not jeopardize your political career in front of the precious media?!
That's why my brother can be sold like a piece of useless sh!t or even killed, if he is not dead already?!",   Wang Ji screamed, with his fist in the air, angry tears bursting from his eyes.

"Leave him alone!", screamed WuXian, too, when two guards grabbed his lover's arms, twisting them at his back.

"The patient is awake, I allow only two persons in his ward, his mother and his wife.", the doctor interrupted the tense moment. 

 

 

 

                                                                                                   

 

 

 

It took nearly a month until Xiao Zhan was entirely recovered and allowed by doctors to take the flight to his new home from the US.

Alicia stood by his side and took care of him for all that time, like she was not being a fake wife, but a real, loving wife.
Maybe her reason was from pure humanity, or maybe...it was the interest in the handsome young businessman who was hospitalized in a ward next to Zhan's ward.
Yes, she might have fallen in love with that Yang Yang guy, who promised  to wait patiently for the weird agreement between her and Xiao Zhan to end, then to marry her for real. 

As for Zhan , he will go to the US with a lighter heart.
One evening he watched on the tv news that Wang Yiduo postponed his anticipated  national tour of fan meetings because of some unexpected issues which withheld him abroad for a longer time.

Then a few days ago the influencer texted him to congratulate him for his marriage, as he read in the papers news about the senator's daughter.

But the next part of the text almost gave