Xingyu held his breath. Xiao-Xiao knew far more about Xingyu’s future role than he knew about Xiao-Xiao’s—Laoma and everything she was teaching Xiao-Xiao were still mysteries; all Ba had said about their jobs was that Xingyu would learn about it “when it was time.”

“The best way to describe my and Sun Yue’s job,” said Xiao-Xiao, “is keeping the List under control. The List can give its members everything it wants, but only because of the members it already has. That means that, if someone at the top turns their back on everyone else, it makes the List vulnerable. So, while Sun Yue is distributing those resources, she also ensures that every person who could hurt the List has a thread she can pull if they turn their back on her. Right now, my job is primarily to gather those threads and get them within her reach. The members of the List usually keep vital information with them, so I learned how to get that information from them. I usually take it directly to Sun Yue, but it’s entirely possible for me to duplicate it for myself, as well. Although…” He put his bottom lip between his teeth again and chewed on it. “That’s only going to work for the newest information. I’m going to have to also work on accessing the information I’ve already gathered for her, which means she’s going to need to give me access to everything. I really have no idea how close I am to that, though.”

Gathering information, controlling the List—it was no wonder Ba had never told Xingyu what the other roles in the family were; if Xingyu had learned such things as a child, he would have thought Sun Yue’s role unnecessary—would have demanded the role for himself. Ba would have never accepted it, but if he had…would Xiaokai have never entered the business? Would he have been free from the List?

“Don’t look so constipated,” said Xiao-Xiao. “I’ll be putting forward my best effort to take her place, so you should do the same. If you can take control before I do, you’ll have the authority to have me replace Sun Yue. Once we can accomplish that, it’ll be over as soon as we can get everything to the police.”

“Wait,” said Weiran, “then why did you—” His voice stuttered to a stop. He looked at Xingyu.

“Why did I what?” asked Xiao-Xiao.

“Never mind.”

“Then we can agree to move forward? I help you, you do what I say?”

“That wasn’t part of the—”

“We agree,” said Xingyu quickly.

“Good. Zhang Weiran, you can move your things here.”

“Excuse me?”