Nicole slowly woke from her slumber, opened her eyes, and looked at the ceiling.
"You're awake," came Tian Lie's lazy voice from behind her.
Nicole quickly sat up and saw Tian Lie lying beside her, his head resting against the headboard, guzzling liquor from a bottle.
In his hand was a bottle of Spirytus Rektyfikowany, a Polish vodka with an alcohol content of 96%—nicknamed the "water of life," hardly considered "alcohol" anymore.
Even in alcohol-loving Russia, such a drink was only used as a base for cocktails, and no one would ever drink it straight.
Yet Tian Lie was gulping it down as if it were water!
Beside him lay several empty bottles, and on the nearby nightstand stood a few unopened bottles of the same life-giving spirit.
However, what concerned Nicole even more was not Tian Lie's heavy drinking but their surroundings.
They were still lying in bed, with an old television set in front of them.
