“Go ahead. Ask your questions. I’ll just close my eyes if I don’t like what your face looks like.”

“Are you serious?”

Xiaokai spread his hands.

“Okay…then why are you a sex worker?”

“You can say whore. I won’t get offended.”

Weiran winced. “I’m not…going to say that.”

“I’m a whore because it’s my job.”

“Why?”

“What?” A little half-laugh burst from Xiaokai’s lips, like he couldn’t help it. “Why is it my job, or why do I have it alongside my other job?”

Weiran didn’t know why he was surprised. He changed tactics. “How long have you been a wh—a sex worker?”

“My first appointment was when I was sixteen, if that’s what you mean.”

Sixteen. Weiran’s stomach lurched. He wanted to run to the bathroom like Xiaokai had been doing every half hour he’d been here.

“Anything else?”

“Why—how could your parents be okay with this?”

The room felt almost cold. Xiaokai smiled. “Do you really think they don’t know? I told you Xingyu would find out when he took charge, and they’re already in charge.”

“You mean your parents—your parents know? And they just keep letting you do this?”

“Letting me? Zhang Weiran, are you really that naïve?”

Weiran might have been upset at the insult if Xiaokai’s affect wasn’t so absolutely flat; he was leaning back in his chair now, his hands folded in his lap, and he regarded Zhang Weiran like Weiran was a mildly interesting television show. “Just give me one straight answer.”

“What do you want, Zhang Weiran? Do you want my life story?”

“I want you to tell me why the hell you showed up for that appointment!”

“Sun Yue told me to. She got wind of some dumbass trying to impersonate her precious son and wanted me to investigate.”

Sun Yue herself had heard about Weiran impersonating Xingyu. Involuntarily, he shivered. If anyone else had showed up instead—someone who wasn’t willing to help them, someone who wasn’t on their side—Weiran would be dead by now. Everything would have just been…over. Liu Xingyu would have been left to fight against his parents and the List on his own or, even worse, he would have been caught too, and everything would have really been over.

“I had my suspicions that it might be you,” Liu Xiaokai added.

“Then why the hell did you take your clothes off?”

“It was an appointment. What was I supposed to do? If it wasn’t you, Sun Yue would have given me an earful. But don’t worry. I didn’t tell her it was you. As far as I know, she doesn’t know your name yet.” He paused. Tilted his head. “Wait, it was me taking my clothes off that bothered you?”

“Of course it was!”

“What is it that bothers you now?”