It turned out that the private detective was more than happy to work for Zitao.

“Are you sure he is capable, Zitao?” Xia asked suspiciously as she eyed at Zitao who was telling them the good news. “He sounded like he had no jobs lined up for a good detective as you said.”

Zitao chuckled, “I have used his service for quite a lot of time. I’m his VIP customer, so, don’t you worry,” he spoke to her teasingly with a playful smile.

“Excuse me,” Kris interrupted, mostly to stop Zitao looking at Xia with such fond eyes, “why do we need a private detective?”

“Your case is not a criminal case. You cannot use police force’s detective department since we do not have the rights to issue warrant so we will have to get help from outside,” Xia explained to him. “Usually, with celebrities, I prefer to use a private detective since it’s easier to control them.”

Kris nodded, “What is he going to do?”

Xia smiled as she looked at him from where she stood, “That means we’re going on a field trip.”

~~~

“This is silly,” Kris grunted as he put on a beret on his head. “You think this disguise will help me?” The three of them were fitted into different outfits. Xia was dressed in less formal outfit of a blouse and a flared A-line skirt. Zitao’s impeccable pressed suits had switched into a polo shirt and a fitted khaki pants. They looked like a rich couple who were going to go to the country club for a fun day with golf. For Kris, they gave him a set of clothes to resemble a Parisian male.

Xia didn’t respond to his question. Instead, she was focused on dressing herself. Zitao, however, replied, “If you don’t want to go with us, you can stay behind, it’s okay. We don’t mind.”

“I’ll come along,” he spoke, disgruntled.

They were all going to find leads on his ex-girlfriend and the alleged boyfriend. Kris knew that she had been cheating on him while they were dating but he was not too bothered to look into it but the snake had bitten him. So, they wrote out a list of places where she could appear with her alleged boyfriend and from there on, the detective could pick up the lead to get more information. However, there were so many places that the detective had to ask for extra help form the legal team.

It would explain why Kris was stuck in a car with the two lawyers, as their driver.

“So, when we get to the places to get information, I want you to stay in the car,” Xia instructed as she appeared in the space between the front seats of the car. Kris looked at her in disbelief. He didn’t come along for this. She understood his look immediately, “Do you want to get surrounded by fangirls and alert your ex-girlfriend that you are snooping around her? At worst, do you want a restraining order?”

“No.”

“Then you will have to listen to the legal team you hired,” she smiled softly as she reached for his head and fixed it slightly by moving it around. Kris’ stomach did a mild flip as he smiled, giddy. It had been quite long since Xia had been in such a close proximity like this. To his dismay, Xia noticed what she had done and immediately retracted her hand as quick as possible. She gave him an over-sized sunglasses to put on while he waited for the two of them.

Several hours later, the two came back. Then, they moved onto another location. The cycle rinsed and repeated a few times.

After many hours, they all sat back in the meeting room to meet with the detective to give him the details of what they had gathered. The detective, Mr.Luo, was a man who was in his mid-forties. He thanked the three of them and left.

“What did you guys find?” Kris asked as they all sat in the meeting room, sipping on the mediocre-tasting coffee that the office had.

Xia gave a knowing look to Zitao. Kris found it quite unsettling that Xia and Zitao have a way of speaking to each other without saying a word. They both give physical cues to talk to each other sometimes. When Xia puts her forearm on Zitao’s shoulder, it means she wants to talk to him about the case without letting other people hear. When Zitao coughs lightly while Xia is speaking, it means she is going off track with what they want to present regarding the case.

“Well,” Zitao pursed his lips, “we found something. Your ex-girlfriend had been going in and out of this hotel’s suite rooms with that alleged boyfriend.”

“Then we can use that to counter her,” Kris snapped, getting impatient.

“Kris,” Xia stopped him, “it’s not that easy. How are you going to prove it? Do we have physical evidence?”

“CCTV footage! My fans have used those footages so many time to get information on me!” he tried to make a point.

Xia giggled lightly, “Kris, you know...those footages are not to be released to public unless an order from the police had been issued. Even if we can get them, we can use those as evidentiary objects.”

“You mean I could sue my fans?”

She and Zitao looked at each other and broke out into a light laughter, “Well, technically you could but it has to be a CCTV footage that they obtained. Not some blurry video of their phones recording a CCTV video. However, you aren’t exactly protected by law since you’re a celebrity. Do I make sense?”

Kris groaned and leaned back into his chair. He really hates his life now.

“Kris Wu, don’t you have schedules to attend to?” Zitao asked suddenly after a brief moment of silence. His question was meant to be something to make two people become less awkward but Kris felt like he had been punched in his stomach.

His smile felt lopsided as he replied, “Pretty much everything in my life is on hold.” It was true. Quite a lot of people think that he is just a playboy who does not want to take care of an innocent life due to media’s mis-reporting. He felt like he now stood at the edge of no return cliff; nothing at the front, nothing at the back. He felt stuck.

“Don’t worry,” Xia comforted him, “we’ll help you.”

Her words soothed him, even when he knew that his chances of winning were very low with almost no evidences to prove to the court.

~~~

Over the next few meetings, Kris learned that his ex has indeed been going out on date with the guy, under the disguise of close friends. His suspicion of the kid not being his is correct, according to his conscience but they needed an evidence.

After the meeting and consultation, the legal team advised him to leave the entire matter to them while Kris went about with his own life. Kris decided to oblige though it meant that he would not be seeing Xia for a while. The girl had been so cold towards him; she didn’t even reply to his messages, leaving the read status on and it drove him slightly crazy with frustration.

Kris was walking back from the toilet into the meeting to pick up the file he had left before he headed out to an interview that his manager had arranged.

“Xia, it’s been so long since you told me that you were going to give me an answer.” Zitao’s familiar voice stopped Kris as he was about to enter the room. He decided to hide by the entrance into the meeting room. It seemed like only Xia and Zitao were left in there.

A rustle of paper was heard, “Zitao, unless you have had a temporary loss, you should remember. I did say I won’t go out with you.”

“Xia,” he chuckled, “stop playing with me. It’s been so long since I liked you for so long since we entered the firm. Come to me. I know you’re single. Just one date.” Kris’ heart jumped at his words. Even though he had been seeing Xia for some time, he had never really said how he really felt about her.

“Zitao,” Xia sighed, “I can’t and I won’t.” Kris’ heart felt slightly lighter.

“Is there someone else?” Zitao’s voice sounded hurt, and hesitant.

There was a pause before her reply, “yes, there is.”

“Who is he? Is he better than me?”

“Every person has his own strength and weakness, Tao,” she spoke fondly by using Zitao’s short name form, “it’s more of a matter of attraction.”

“Do you like him?”

There was a pause. “Yeah.” Kris could hear a hint of smile in the way Xia spoke, like how he used to hear her emotions in her voice back in the Tang household. He missed those. Lawyer Xia always sounds emotionless. “Yeah, I really like him. He's very nice.”

Zitao sighed again, “Any chance I’ll meet him?” Kris could hear the two of them walking towards the entrance as their voices grew near and he didn’t know what to do. He started to panic as he looked around for a place to hide.

“You wil-” Xia was smiling before she saw Kris and paused mid-sentence while her feet stopped walking, her body stiffening upon seeing him. “Mr.Wu,” she sounded breathless, “what are you doing here?” she asked.

“I…” Kris looked at the files she was holding and picked out the topmost one, “forgot a file. This one.” He smiled sheepishly and shrugged an apology.

“Oh okay…” Xia’s voice tailed off. Her eyes were looking everywhere but him and then she casted down her gaze. Her face was flushed and her cheeks a really dark shade of red, “Then, I’ll see you around. Come on, Zitao. Let’s go have something to eat.” She left hurriedly.

Zitao, the clueless lamb, smiled and waved Kris a goodbye before following her like a little puppy dog.

Nobody should see all the victorious punches that Kris threw into the air after the two left. Nobody should; not even Xia.

~~~