But now here was his older brother who Meimei had met a grand total of two times—who hadn’t said a word to her, who’d looked right past her at the Director or at the office—was asking her where the Director was. She didn’t like Mr. Liu Xingyu at all. The general consensus—and all the articles she’d seen about him that had come out when she was twelve—said that he was the more handsome and charming of the two brothers. That he radiated charisma. To Fei’er, though, he seemed too much like President Liu. The Director had never passed his eyes over her like that—had never acted like she wasn’t worth his time. Fei’er was pretty sure the Director would never tell a man like that about the appointments, so what was she supposed to say? The truth was, sometimes the Director was just overwhelmed with his appointments. Sometimes he needed a break. Sometimes Fei’er had to pick up the slack and make sure that all the work got done that needed to get done while the Director was passed out on his couch. He hadn’t come into work this morning—hadn’t been in all day—but he’d had an appointment with Chen Jun last night, and she knew Chen Jun was excitable, and he’d been looking under the weather for a few days, anyway. He’d even asked Fei’er to bring him pain medication a couple times, which was very rare. He was probably resting.

“Oh, he’s out,” Fei’er said cheerfully. “Would you like to leave a message? I can pass it on to him when he gets back.”

“Out? Where is he?” He even had that same authoritative undertone to his voice that President Liu had. She wanted to take him by the shoulders, shake him, shout at him to leave the Director alone, already.

“Oh, I can’t really give out that information.”

“I’m his older brother. You can tell me.”

“Sir,” she said, her voice a little more careful than usual, “as you are not an employee of Liu Incorporated, and as you do not have the official clearance, I can’t give that information to you, regardless of whether you are family.”

Liu Xingyu swore in English. Fei’er only recognized it from the dramas she’s watched, and she was a little offended that he thought he could swear in front of her and think he wouldn’t get noticed just because it was a different language. “Have you heard from him today? My mom and dad said they haven’t heard from him. Have you?”