2:00 a.m., Supaku Lane ;

After a long and tiring row of requests and behests, Madame Sato finally agreed to Rong Xinghe's, or to be precise, Lu Xi's wishes. Shortly after, a thin woman dressed up in a traditional blue Hanfu, stepped into the room with the intent to escort the 'man' to the room where the woman named Ruby was.

"Pick anyone you like, Brother.", Lu Xi turned around to grin at Ashfakh Ali, "I will pay." Before the man could even reply, the girl disappeared from the crowd's line of sight, as she followed behind the sylphlike woman.

"Oh my God! Mr. Lu is so hot.", one of the girls standing behind Madame Sato clutched the hem of her top as she blinked into space, dreamily, "Why does he always come looking for that bi*ch?!"

"I know, right?", another girl almost shrieked with excitement, "Have you seen his jawline? So sharp!"

"Forget that. I am in love with his collarbone. Although he is well-covered most of the time, there was this one time when his top two buttons were torn, and damn! He is damn sexy.", another one commented.

Meanwhile, Ashfakh Ali just pinched the tip of his nose, as he attempted to suppress his laughter. Only if these women knew how 'masculine' this Lu Xi really was, he imagined. Of course, this wasn't the first time Ashfakh Ali had seen Lu Alix. The Hybrids were, in fact, well-used to Rong Xinghe's male alias. The girl had undergone a lot of missions during the training in this get-up of hers. He had just never expected how deeply-blend their Alpha was, among the common men, among the public. So much so that she was even associated with people hailing from the largest Red-light area across the nation. It truly was, mind-boggling.

But right now, the man could only sit and wonder, of how would Xi Yuan react to this little escapade of his Missus, once he would tell him about this.

"Boss...", Madame Sato's voice soon disrupted Ashfakh Ali's thoughts, "Which one would you have?", she inquired, as she pointed her chin towards the girls standing behind her.

"None.", the man answered, "I am not interested."

"Oh.", the woman looked troubled, "Um... we don't have boys here, Boss. But I will arrange the best piece of meat for you, from the brothel next to ours, if you want."

"...."

_______________

2:15 a.m., MZX Studios ;

Zhi Al strolled around Mo Zixuan in the newsroom lazily as he checked his mails. He was there to pick up the man since Cheng Tai had borrowed his car earlier that day to check on some lead. Mo Zixuan still had some files to organize, so he'd asked the man to settle-in for a few minutes.

"Come on, man. How much longer?!", Zhi Al complained as he grabbed a seat beside Mo Zixuan, "Can't you just take all of this home?"

"Patience, Al.", Mo Zixuan chuckled, passing the man his can of soda, "Here. Just five minutes more."

With a sigh, the man downed the third soda can in the last half an hour, "Don't you find this boring?", he questioned, "All of this paperwork crap?"

"No. It's work. And I love it.", Mo Zixuan replied, marking something on one of the paper stacks with a highlighter, "Journalism to me is what programming is to you. It's thrilling."

"Yeah? Well... you do look stunning in those three-piece-suits when you report. I've got to give you that.", the man shrugged, "I mean, I and Feng Mian literally, had an argument over how appealing you look both 'on and off' the cameras."

"You did?", the man smiled, amused, "Please tell me Mian was rooting for me."

"She absolutely was!", Zhi Al smiled back, as he thought of the banter he'd had with the woman, "I was the jealous boyfriend, with the silly comebacks. You, at the end of our fight, came out to be the real ladykiller, though."

"Why... thank you, Sir."

"By the way, how is wedding life treating you and Cheng Tai? I mean, you guys didn't get the chance to take a break ever since the big day, right?"

"Yeah. I mean... we've both been busy trying to help Kiddo. What happened at her engagement was worrisome, Al.", Mo Zixuan answered, "I did insist that we should go away for some time. But Cheng Tai wouldn't listen to me. She is worried about Xinghe.

"Honestly? Me too. Let's just face it. No one has ever had the audacity to challenge Xinghe like that, not so boldly, before this. We're both trying to help her. As much as possible, since we have a broader range of contacts in the underworld."

"Agreed. I've been looking out too... virtually. You know, to trace out any unusual or huge foreign capital transfers or transactions?"

"That's smart. Let's just keep our heads high."

The two men were in the middle of their conversation when out of nowhere, the emergency alarm installed throughout the Channel HQ went off. Mo Zixuan furrowed his brows as he walked around the newsroom and straight into the control room, Zhi Al following behind him. MZX Enterprise was the mightiest channel-group with ensured employee safety. This was, without a doubt, the first time since the establishment of that building that its security had been compromised. Naturally, the two men assumed that it was possibly some false warning.

Since they were the only two people present in there, they had access over the entire place, including the production control unit and CCTV cameras. In a matter of seconds, Mo Zixuan connected through to the set-up of the cameras in the lobby.

As soon as the huge screen in front of their eyes lit-up, a feeling of unease settled in their hearts. More than fifty security officers guarding the building were lying around in their own pool of blood, scattered like crushed ants. The secondary glass entrance to the office was smashed into thousands of sharp pieces too. Clearly, the intruders were somewhere near them.

And none of them had a gun at hand. Not immediately accessible, at least.