“What? It’s true.”

“Xiao-Xiao has never had any violent thoughts about me like that.”

“How do you know what he thinks?”

“And how do you know? You think you know him better than me?” Xingyu’s lip curled up and he held up his phone. “You want me to prove it?”

“What?” Weiran didn’t like the sound of that. He also didn’t like Xingyu getting upset at him, but he knew that was his fault.

“I’ll call my father. Ask him.”

“What—no!”

But Xingyu was already dialing. It was on speakerphone. Weiran shut his mouth and covered it too, just to be safe.

“Hello.”

His sound was deep and authoritative—even this one word he said sounded less like a greeting and more like a command. Weiran’s insides curdled at the sound of it. He felt nauseated.

“Ba.” Of course Xingyu was totally unphased—he’d dealt with far more from the man than his voice, after all. “Have you heard from Xiao-Xiao at all?”

Weiran wanted to leap across the room and smack the phone out of Xingyu’s hand.

“No.”

Xingyu paused. His gaze flickered to meet Weiran’s. “No?”

“You know I don’t like to repeat myself.” Liu Baiyan sounded very much like he wanted to be done with this conversation. “Why are you calling me about this?”

“Well, I hadn’t heard from him yet today, so—”

“I doubt that he would want to contact you, but if you feel you must talk to him, your mother probably knows where he is. I have work to do. Goodbye.”

Click.

Xingyu stared at his phone.

“Do you think—”

Xingyu understood where he was going immediately. “That’s the way he usually ends phone calls. He gets to decide when the conversation is over. It’s nothing new.”

“So why are you freaked out, then?”

Xingyu just dialed another number, which went to voicemail. He dialed another.

“Hello?” This was a softer voice—still fairly authoritative, but there was something a little warmer about it.

“Laoma, it’s me.”

Warmer? Weiran was an idiot. Xingyu was talking to Sun Yue, who was just as much a part of the List as Liu Baiyan was.

“Have you heard from Xiao-Xiao?”

“No, not today.”

Xingyu swore under his breath.

“Is something the matter?”

“Aren’t you wondering where he is?”

“Well, he’s a very busy young man. I don’t need him to check in for every little thing.” There was something strange in Sun Yue’s voice. “If he calls, I’ll let him know you asked about him. How’s that?”

Xingyu pressed his hand to his forehead. “Yes, thank you. I’ll let you get back to work.”

He was dialing another number before Weiran could say anything.

“This is Director Liu’s office! How can I help you!”