Paradise Street

13

"Why my wife asked me if you are betraying Joyce?" Brent asks at the moment that he answers the phone.

"What?" Zi Hong asks.

"Yeah, and when I asked why she wanted to know this, she said 'just curiosity," Brent says.

Joyce and Brent's wife are kind of friends, so that's no surprise.

"What you said?" Zi Hong asks.

"First, that I didn't know, so she said that I was lying, so I said I couldn't answer," Brent says.

"This is basically say 'yes," Zi Hong says.

"I don't going to lie to my wife, Zi Hong," Brent's tone changes, "not even for you."

"I don't want that you lie to her, sorry for that," Zi Hong says.

The last thing Zi Hong wants is to pull his best friend into this mess he's in.

"Its okay, I asked for she doesn't say anything to Joyce," Brent says.

That will work? Absolutely not, Joyce isn't stupid, she sure knows he doesn't stay up all night just walking randomly. Even though for the first two months, Zi Hong actually spent the whole night walking around, and he would probably still be doing it today if Yu Teng hadn't talked to him that night.

"Thank you," Zi Hong says.

"Why you called me?" Brent asks.

"I need you to find a hotel for me," Zi Hong says.

"Why?" Brent asks.

"Because I'm going to be in court all day, and I need this for tonight," Zi Hong says.

Zi Hong has hearings all day, he'll have to stay in court until it closes and then more meetings until the time he set with Yu Teng. He also still has to stop by the house for clothes and stuff, he won't have time to sit down and research a decent hotel, but Brent does, he's at home on vacation.

"Don't you have a secretary and an assistant?" Brent says.

"This is not their job," Zi Hong says.

He's not going to put one of his employees to research something like that. People talk and the last thing Zi Hong needs right now is there is a rumour in the company that he is cheating on Joyce.

"And is it mine?" Brent asks.

"You are a good friend," Zi Hong says.

"What happened to the other place you met him?" Brent asks.

"Brent, the hearing starts in five minutes, I don't have time to explain it right now," Zi Hong says.

That is true, Zi Hong is not running from the question this time.

"When am I going to meet him?" Brent asks.

"Never," Zi Hong says.

"Give me his name, or I won't help you," Brent says.

Zi Hong would have predicted this, Brent has been trying to find out Yu Teng's name since the day of the dinner, he already talked to Yu Teng, and he said he didn't care and that Zi Hong could tell if he wanted to.

The problem is, Brent isn't good at keeping secrets, even not a little bit.

"Brent...," Zi Hong says.

"That is my name," Brent says.

He doesn't need to say Yu Teng's whole name...

"Yu," Zi Hong says.