An Agreement

"69 billion yuan, if we got married and had a child that is biologically linked to us. They won't accept adopted, and if we get a divorce or put the child up for adoption, all the money must be paid back in full within 1 year or suffer 5 months of imprisonment."

Leon Mo crossed his leg, leaning at his chair. "Does that sound fair to you?"

"Hell no. I'm my parents' only child, and yet I can only get my inheritance if I marry some guy like you and live with you for the rest of our lives? And with a child!?" Wolfe Fang grabbed a beer bottle in front of their table and chugged it. "It's so ridiculous!"

"Exactly." Leon Mo agreed as he pulled out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth, lighting it.

They were drinking at a bar close to the Duanxiu Hospital. It's been a long time since they have been in a mostly Chinese-speaking bar, and the atmosphere from those in the US is totally different.

People mumbled sweet nothings to each other in Chinese, dance to Chinese songs, and ask for drinks for the bartender in Chinese.

But the most noticeable difference was the lack of people around the bar.

Bar culture is not common in China after all. This was already one of the most 'Western-like' they could find.

But the ambiance is still very quiet and sort of has a sluggish feel to it rather than a lively party.

Leon Mo actually liked this because his purpose was not to pick up girls. It was just a place away from their parents and prying eyes of possibly spies from Fang. He already clocked the whole area and it's pretty secure. Perhaps their family decided to leave them some space to think.

Or perhaps they thought they were on a 'date'.

"This is giving me a headache. I want that 69 billion yuan." Leon Mo said as he tapped his cigarette on the ashtray.

"It's still so funny to me that it's 69 billion." The slightly tipsy Wolfe Fang chuckled. "I'm sure they were not aware of how ironic that is, but it's such a funny coincidence."

"It's actually 68.97 billion because of all the taxes and transferrable fee and stuff." Leon Mo said.

"Yeah, yeah....." The actor crossed his leg as well. "Still a whole lot of money though. I can settle down for life. I can buy any estate I want, but any car I want, travel and get girls anywhere...."

"Except you won't be getting any girls. Coz that will be adultery." Leon Mo swiped on of his untouched bottles of beer and uncapped it. "Even I want to do those things. But your family's connection is something else, almost as good as ours at Interpol."

Wolfe Fang furrowed his brows and swiped the uncapped bottle before he can drink it. "What do you do in Interpol anyway? I always see you at bars and clubs, shouldn't you be busy chasing criminals all the time?"

"Ah, this misconception again. We don't chase criminals or bust them. Law enforcers do that." Leon stole it from him again. "Let me have this one. You already had like 5, you alcoholic."

"You go buy your own, chain smoker." The actor retorted. "Aren't you a law enforcer? I remember hearing you finished a degree in criminology."

"Not all policemen enforce the law. I was one before, yeah. The type that works with heinous crimes and handcuffs people and all that. But I become a seconded officer at an Interpol once, they basically asked for my station to have someone over to their post in L.A."

"And then I thought, this work is kinda nicer. Have more free time to spend, not much blood and shooting all the time. I left the law enforcement, and work more as a negotiator now." Leon Mo said. "My fluency in 60 languages came in handy for this job."

"So you like talk things through with hostage takers and stuff?" Wolfe raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that also dangerous?"

"Hah, there's much more dangerous stuff than that. Bomb threats, people running amok and threatening the masses, school shooters.... Though I mostly encounter already captured criminals and try to make them speak up. It's not just breaking language barriers, I have to break through their own personal barriers as well."

Leon Mo snatched a second bottle while Wolfe was distracted by the stories of his work. "What about you? Not much danger to worry about in the stage, eh?"

"It's a different kind of danger. The annoying press one." Wolfe chuckled. "There's a reason why many celebs have therapists, some even called the suicide hotline almost every week."

"Every single movement you make, someone's watching. Even after you walk out the stage. Actually, the stage is the safest place for you." He recalled bitterly. "Unless of course some accidents like falling equipment or slipping down wet floor happens. But in the stage, you are someone else. The mistakes of your characters are not your mistakes."

"But after that, you would face more scrutiny than your characters. People telling that you were not good enough, you did not bring a certain dead man justice, that you do not deserve the role..... All kinds of stupid things. Not to mention it's even hard to make your first big break, yet you encounter hate either way."

"Red Riding Hood is your first main role?" Leon asked.

"Yeah. You're not the first one to bring out my 'melodramatic' performance." He smiled smugly. "Actually, I got the role coz of the dead man. Leslie... He couldn't handle being torn by the stage life and off-stage life and ended it without warning. So they had to re-cast quick."

"And they somehow chose this pathetic nobody who only gets side roles from indie productions from time to time."

"But now you're the great Wolfe Fang from that role, no matter what those critics say." Leon Mo sipped on his bottle. "Don't beat yourself up too much."

"Are you comforting me? That's disgusting man, you must be drunk." Wolfe opened another bottle. "Anyway, enough about career blues. We still haven't talked about this inheritance thing."

"We say 'ja' or we say 'nein'?" Wolfe leaned his head on one hand lazily. "I don't want to marry you but I want the money. We can still always cheat, they just said we can't divorce."

"Yeah, but that might cause fighting among them."

"Then we be discreet enough until we find some kind of legal loophole to get away with having the money without staying together for too long. Maybe you have connections to help you out. You often boast to your girls that you have connections all over the world."

Leon Mo thought about it while drinking, his himboish face making it appear like he was not thinking about anything when he was in fact thinking of many things. This was a useful asset to him.

He can easily blend in the crowd as just some other mindless hunk who probably work on modelling, not as a high-class negotiator for Interpol.

It was also good to have when for his enemies to not know what he was thinking. His 'poker face'.

"Alright then. Deal." He said, expression unreadable even for the actor. "We marry for the 69 billion, but no strings attached besides that."

So he says, but the night seemed to have..... other plans for them.

-------------------------------

"Ahn~ Ah....... Fuck...... Mmmm....... Leon......."

"Hah....... hah......... It feels so good........."

Hotel Tuanyuan. Soft beds, great accommodation. Not to mention that the deluxe rooms allows much privacy for two.

And would you guess how much surprise the both of them had when they woke up with a hangover in this very hotel...... right beside each other naked!?

"YOU!?"

"YOU!?"

They shouted at each other at the same time. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME LAST NIGHT!?"

No strings attached indeed. But perhaps only beads.

Beads inserted to a certain hole, that is.