Lan Wangji was sitting on the same couch where he was cuffed and swirling a glass of amber liquid in his hand when the door to his apartment opened with a bang and three men in black rushed in. 

He looked at the clock and timed their departure as fifteen minutes after he pressed the panic button.

"If there was really an emergency, I'll be long dead by now." Lan Wangji drank the whiskey in one smooth gulp.

"You mean, this is a drill?" Xiao Xingchen, his head bodyguard, signaled the other two to check the perimeter.

"It wasn't. But the perp has already gone for a while now." Lan Wangji poured another finger of the whiskey into his glass. "Check everything. I want to know how he could enter without my knowledge."

"He left in one piece? Wow boss, you're declining." Xue Yang, the youngest of all three, scoffed at him.

"Do we need to call Wen Qing?" Xiao Xingchen asked Lan Wangji.

"I called her already and she rescheduled my entire itinerary for the week."

"Make it a month. Better safe than sorry."

"Xichen will notice."

"You haven't told him?"

"I don't think it's necessary until we find out more."

Xiao Xingchen nodded, then he signaled Song Lan to check the rooftop.

"What do you think?" Lan Wangji showed him the small black thing he retrieved from behind the cupboard.

Xiao Xingchen took it and examined it for a while before putting it down on the table again.

"I'd say this is a highly sensitive listening device, but I've never seen anything like this, or remotely close like this before."

"Ask around and identi-..."

The door burst opened at that time to reveal a crying Jingyi, who looked around, ran straight to Lan Wangji and hugged him tight.

"Uncle, I'm sorry! I shouldn't leave you alone last night, I should go inside and check the apartment for you, I should…" Lan Wangji patted Jingyi's head and moved him to sit on the couch instead of on top of him.

"And what would you do if you found the thief here? Who told you anyway?" 

"I- uhm, I-..." Jingyi fidgeted like a cat on a hot tin roof.

"He stalked you from his apartment across the building." Xue Yang shouted from the second floor.

"What…? Yangyang, shut up!" Jingyi's face went beet red and Lan Wangji was amused to see his nephew like that.

"He is obsessed with you boss, a little stalker nephew, heh."

"I am not! I'm just concerned for uncle's safety, you know, his anti fans, his diehard fans. I'm afraid that they will find uncle's address and attack him somehow…"

"Jingyi, calm down, I'm alright. I think the intruder last night had something to do with my neighbour." Lan Wangji directed the last sentence to Xiao Xingchen. "Check who occupied it."

Xiao Xingchen nodded, then he checked his vibrating phone.

"Hmm, you should check your phone, it seems that your brother already found out. He wants us to stay with you until the intruder got caught."

"What? No. My phone's destroyed. Can you just tell him I'm fine?"

"I'll send someone to get a new encrypted phone. Meanwhile, I'll leave Xue Yang with you." Xiao Xingchen lifted his finger to stop whatever Lan Wangji was about to say. "This is the best I can do. You know how bad Xichen's brother's complex is. It's actually a blessing he didn't show up right here, right now."

"That's because he was like twelve hours away by plane." Xue Yang chirped while opening Lan Wangji's fridge. "Oh wow, boss, only water and vegs? No beer? No snacks? Jingyi, we need to stock your uncle's house, let's go." Xue Yang dragged a protesting Jingyi away, mostly to give Lan Wangji space and to check the perimeter again.

"I'll leave too, Wangji. Please be more vigilant, you know how the Jins were eyeing us for a while now. Mingjue also worried that those scumbags will do something unsavory, you know how degraded their morale is."

"Don't worry, Xingchen, I'm not involved in the power fight between the clans anymore, I really don't care."

"I know. That's what makes you the wild card and they will do anything to harm Xichen, especially when they know that you're his weakness." Xiao Xingchen walked to the door. "You want to move back to the house for a while? Xiao Bai misses you."

"Now is not the right time. I will start a new movie in a few days and I still have promotions to do."

"Well, don't be a stranger." Xiao Xingchen waved his hand and left.

-----

"You fucking asshole!" Wen Qing shouted at Lan Wangji right after she entered his changing room. She was probably the only one in the world who could cuss at Lan Wangji with no fear of any repercussion.

He was not supposed to be at the location today,  but since he was restless and Xue Yang did not help with Jingyi, he decided to go to the shooting location to review if there's anything needed to be reshoot.

"Good morning to you too, Qing. What riled you up in this beautiful morning?" Lan Wangji sipped his hot tea while reviewing a few new scripts.

"Right, mister I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about, your usual answer, but I bribed your nephew and he sang like a canary. Now spill, what happened? Do I have to hire bodyguards? Was that your fan?" 

"If I may know what kind of bribe you gave to my beloved nephew? I may have to talk to him about hiring a new assistant."

"Oh stop your high and mighty prince-ly talk, I've known you since you're in diaper and the more polite you are the more you don't want to talk about stuff."

"Well, Qing, you know me well. And no, Xichen already arranged… protection for me."

"And which one of the useless three stooges he sent this time?"

"Of course the most handsome one, what do you think?" 

The door to Lan Wangji's changing room was opened again by Jingyi and Xue Yang, who answered Qing's question to Lan Wangji.

"Of course it's you, the most useless one." Qing scoffed and gave Xue Yang a once over. "You should ask your boss for a pay raise. You wore the same coat ever since I met you, like ten years ago."

"Are you coveting my coat now? It's a limited edition and you won't get it anywhere unless you have a connection."

"Yeah, right. Connection to salvation army."

"Hey!"

"Kids, kids, behave, we're in public now." Lan Wangji sighed looking at the two persons who always quarreled like cat and mouse, although sometimes he wondered if this was some kind of a new foreplay. Either way, he could not afford any mistake now.

"I'm going to find if it was connected to your haters." Qing walked out from the changing room.

"I highly doubt it but go ahead." Lan Wangji put the teacup down and started reading the scripts again, which was interrupted by all the scolding and the foreplay fight.

"I'm gonna check the perimeter. You stay here." Xue Yang pointed to Jingyi, and left.

Jingyi sighed and took out a can of cola from the mini fridge near the door.

"I wonder if they're gonna fight again when they see each other outside." He opened the bottle and drank in big gulps.

"Don't worry about it, kid, sometimes adults have a hard time to express their feelings. Just give them time."

"It's been like this since I was a kid, I wonder if they will do something about it."

"Don't get involved." Lan Wangji shot daggers at Jingyi. He knew his nephew well and the tone of his voice was very suspicious. "Let them sort themselves."

"Right. Like I want to be in the middle of Qing and Xue Yang." Jingyi shivered and Lan Wangji chuckled. "By the way Xingchen called me and told me to activate your phone. Oh and he also said he installed new security cameras around your apartment temporarily."

"What? Was that Xichen's doing?"

"He said either that or you have to go back home."

Lan Wangji face palmed himself.

"I always feel like a ten years old when he does things like this." 

"It's just the way uncle Xichen loves you, you know that, especially after… after my parents…" Jingyi's breaths hitched, remembering how his parents were killed in an accident when he was still a baby and Xichen took him in without question.

"Right. Of course. I'm sorry, Jingyi, you know we love you like our own blood."

"I know, uncle. That's why you have to understand uncle Xichen's fear, especially with the looming clan war."

"Fine. Temporarily. Until they catch the intruder."

He had to catch the intruder. Fast.

Otherwise Xichen would find out his secret.

And he wouldn't want that.