The seventh bottle emptied, and when Jin Yue lowered it, the world did not steady. It tilted...not enough for others to notice, not enough to draw attention...but inside him, something had already begun to unravel. The heat rising within his body was no longer the slow, manageable warmth of alcohol nor the familiar burn that came with drinking beyond one's limit. This was different. Sudden. Violent. It surged upward like a flame catching dry wood, spreading too quickly for him to suppress.
His breath hitched once.
Then again.
Faster.
His fingers tightened around the next bottle, the ceramic surface strangely warm against his palm...or perhaps his hands were simply burning. A thin layer of sweat gathered at the back of his neck, sliding down slowly despite the fact that he had barely moved.
Focus.
