As soon as Zhu Chenglang finished his dialogue, someone came to take another bottle. Now, only one remained.
"See what I mean?" Zhu Chenglang shrugged.
"You're right." Zhang Jie Meng went on to accept the wine. "I'll keep this for Xiao Di or else he won't have any."
"You should. This wine is not bad, the alcohol content is very low, even children can drink it. The organizers are just too thrifty with their wallets and gave us only a few boxes."
Zhu Chenglang expressed his disapproval but in truth, the wine was sponsored by the young master, or else, there won't even be any.
"Even if its alcohol content is low, it's never good to drink too much." Zhang Jie Meng had a good temper and gentle nature, she would never say anything bad about anyone.
Zhu Chenglang sneered in his heart thinking that this otaku girl is quite boring. But thinking about her fate in a couple of minutes, he decided to keep her entertained.
…..
When Mo Di reached the villa, he went straight to the northwest corner of the hall. Many came up to say hello and it took him another seven or eight minutes to leave the crowd.
"Xiao Di, you're so popular." Xian Yu Chao enviously said after seeing the ladies swarmed towards Mo Di to talk!
"You're quite popular yourself as a ladies' best friend."
"I don't want that title! It generally means that they only treat me as a friend and I'll get nowhere with them!" Xian Yu Chao immediately objected.
Mo Di: "….." And you still haven't got my hint.
"Xiao Di, this is for you." Zhao Chun came over and gave Mo Di a bottle of sparkling wine, "This has a very low alcohol content. It's honey and peach flavor, give it a try."
Mo Di took the bottle: "Where did you get it?"
"It's from the organizers. They sent twenty or thirty boxes. Penny pinchers." Xian Yu Chao complained, "There are so few left."
"Some even drank to quench their thirst. I'm surprised there's any left." Zhao Chun said, "I got this from Meng Meng. There are only two bottles left so she took this for you."
"I have to thank her then." Mo Di smiled. Nonetheless, him drinking this was impossible after what happened with Du Wen Jing. Even more so with this type of bottle that could be easily tampered with.
The tin bottlecap could be opened and then replaced with a specialized tool and no one would be the wiser.
And yet if he vocalized his theory, most would only find him paranoid and mentally unstable. But with his life experience, he simply could not afford to be reckless.
"Where's Zhang Jie Meng?" Mo Di looked around and did not see her.
"Oh her? She was having fun with this hot dude. Maybe they wanted to go somewhere more private?" Zhao Chun snickered. "Meng Meng is too introverted, it's rare that she could talk to a stranger like that."
"A hot dude?" Mo Di's eyelids twitched. "Who? Which team?"
"He was wearing a gray windbreaker. He's staying in villa three but I don't know which team." Zhao Chun looked at Mo Di, "What's wrong?"
Alarms were ringing in Mo Di's head as his vigilance gave out a warning. "Nothing. But we should go find her. There are too many men here, you girls should be more careful."
"Pfft…" Zhao Chun burst out laughing. "You're the youngest among everyone here and yet you act and think like an old man. Alright alright, don't look at me like that, I'll give her a call."
Zhao Chun took out her phone and dialed Zhang Jie Meng. After two rings, the other side picked up.
"Hello, Meng Meng, where are you?"
"You're having bbq outside? Oh, ok, I'll go find you."
Zhao Chun hung up and said to Mo Di: "Xiao Di, Meng Meng is outside."
"Then you should go look for her. You two be careful, don't drink too much."
"Aiya aiya, I got it. You're so young yet so old. You don't have to worry about your sister here." Zhao Chun patted Mo Di on the shoulder and left with a piece of cake.
Mo Di scanned the area and felt that someone was eyeing him. He pretended to look for someone then merged into the crowd.
In a small villa that housed almost two hundred people, it was quite easy to stay hidden.
Mo Di sneaked through the crowd and went up the second floor.
On the second floor were several pairs having a conversation and a bunch of people waiting in front of the men's bathroom.
Several of the men in the queue stayed at the same villa as Mo Di. They saw him and said: "Little Team Leader Mo, do you need to use the toilet as well?" They were very much older than Mo Di so as to not make things awkward, they called him 'little team leader.'
"Hi, why are there so many people here?" Mo Di asked
"Well, the male to female ratio is the problem. There are less than thirty girls here and the rest are men. Of course there'll be a queue." A skinny youth replied.
"Another reason is we men could really drink and this is the result." A tall man answered and laughed: "Plus the wine tastes like juice and we just kept drinking. After drinking that much, how can we not want to go to the toilet."
"We did drink a lot and now there's none left."
"I just saw a female member from team Yiyesheng wanting to get one for her captain. She said he came in late and did not get to have any of the wine. But too bad she couldn't find an unopened bottle."
"The team with the really handsome captain?" The skinny youth asked, "The ladies of that team are all pretty cute. If I had any I would definitely give it to her."
The tall man next to him said: "So what if you're gallant to her, doesn't mean she'll like you. Have you seen their captain? Even his name sounds elegant. She's definitely into him."
"If you really like her then go for it. Who knows, you might still have some hope." Mo Di smiled and passed the wine to the skinny youth. "Here, she might still be looking for the wine. You can help her out and start a friendship."
"What you said makes sense. I'll take this wine then. I'll come back and pee later." The man gave Mo Di a pat then ran downstairs.
Mo Di revealed a subtle smug on his face.
If the person who gave Zhang Meng Jie this wine had nothing to do with Ye Cheng Feng and no tampering had been done to it, then it's Ye Cheng Feng's gain. On the contrary, if Ye Cheng Feng did something to this wine then he had to reap what he sowed.
The tall man left behind was bitter: "I wanted to have a chat with those beauties too!"
"You didn't say anything. Sorry, I didn't know." Mo Di swept his sight through the remaining people in the queue and was relieved that none of them was from Ye Cheng Feng's team. "If I find another bottle I'll give it to you."
"Ai, forget it. There's none left."
…..
Mo Di initially did not want to use the bathroom but nature suddenly called and he stepped in line. He sent Han Chao a text asking him to deliver some toilet paper.
He did not want to ask Xian Yu Chao because he would then gloat and tease him about it. Han Chao was the most mature one in the group.
After Mo Di went in for about seven minutes, Han Chao came with the toilet paper for him. He also took a leak and they both came downstairs together. Mo Di looked at the time and it was one minute to ten.
"Return before ten-thirty." Mo Di texted the whole group: "Any later and it'll affect your work tomorrow. Don't get too crazy."
Zhao Chun: Alright, alright. Xiao Di, you should have some fun too.
Since only Zhao Chun responded, Mo Di knew that the rest was getting wild.
He sighed.
Bang!
A bright light flashed and music boomed as the main door of the villa was closed.
Mo Di covered his ears in surprise but he saw that everyone else was only getting more energized. He had no idea what was going on.
Seeing Mo Di's baffled look, Han Chao explained: "They do this every hour! It started at eight! The last person the light touched had to entertain everyone with his or her group! And there's no escaping from it!"
Mo Di finally understood. He looked at the light as it spun wildly and finally landed on a woman in a white dress.
It was Li Qingqing.
She gaped her mouth then smiled helplessly. She coughed lightly and said: "Fine… Don't bother my team, I'll do this by myself."
"I… I'll sing a song." Li Qingqing smiled. "Give me the tunes to 'Love is like a Tide.'"
Almost all eyes were on Li Qingqing except for Mo Di. He was looking about and happened to see two people at the door. One was Ye Cheng Feng and the other was a female member of his team.
Ye Cheng Feng's expression was troubling. His face was red and he seemed to be in pain but the girl next to him was quite normal. She was helping him stand.
Mo Di hurriedly sneaked over.
The rule was to close the door while the performance was still ongoing but seeing that Ye Cheng Feng was in discomfort, the person guarding the door let them out.
Ye Cheng Feng immediately stumbled out and the woman followed. She wanted to help him but was pushed away.
Mo Di's keen senses told him that something was amiss.
The wine…
Could there really be something wrong with it?
Mo Di took a minute to strategize. He then pulled out a badge imbued with a microcamera Mu Tian Heng gave him in the afternoon and turned it on.
The tiny device had only three hours worth of memory and compared to the ones placed at the Mo house, it was of a lower end.
However, in this situation, it was perfect.
Mo Di squeezed back into the crowd. Without anyone noticing, he stealthily attached the badge to the thick overcoat of a plump man from Ye Cheng Feng's team.
Five minutes later, when Li Qingqing's performance was over, Mo Di patted him on the shoulder.
The plump man turned and looked at him suspiciously.
Mo Di pointed outside: "You should go check on your captain, he looks sick."
"Ha?!" The big man shouted: "I can't hear you!"
Mo Di raised his voice and said: "Let's talk outside!"
The man looked back at Li Qingqing. Seeing that she had disappeared into the crowd, only then was he willing to leave the hall with Mo Di.
The music subsided as soon as they reached outside.
"What do you want?"
"It's about your captain. I saw him and another of your female team member ran out. He wasn't looking well. I think something's wrong, you should go take a look."
"What's the matter?" Coincidentally, two other female members of Ye Cheng Feng's team were also present. "What happened to the captain?"
"Your captain wasn't looking well. He's probably upset about something. Anyhow, his complexion was quite pale. You should go have a look." Mo Di sounded serious: "There's another one of your female teammate with him but I don't think she's able to support him."