“What about the lessons?” Weiran asked. He was still worried about Xingyu spending so much time with his father. It wasn’t healthy to return to your abuser, right in the original abusive environment. Even if he didn’t know all the details, he knew Xingyu couldn’t be enjoying his time back in that place with that man.

“Fine,” said Xingyu. “He still doesn’t trust me, which I expected. But he also doesn’t suspect me yet of anything. As long as I have time, I’ll be able to convince him to give me more access to his resources. He never gave up on me being the heir. I think, for him, my leaving was just delaying the inevitable.”

Xiaokai grimaced. Weiran saw him grimace. The bastard was still being petty and jealous, even as Xingyu was risking his life to bring the List down. Was nothing good enough for him? Would nothing make him drop it?

“In the meantime,” Xingyu continued, “I think it would be good if you started trying to get into their systems, Weiran.”

“Oh, that—”

“You don’t need to completely infiltrate anyone’s. Just do a quick scan of everyone we’re concerned about, poke around. If you can get into anyone’s system without taking risks, then do so. But for this week, just get a grasp of how difficult it’s going to be for each one. How long it’ll take.”

Weiran slowly swallowed his interjection. “Yeah. I can do that.”

“Xiaokai—”

“I’ll continue getting information. I can’t push Sun Yue to give me access to anything without reason, so give me time.”

“Who do you have—” Weiran made himself swallow that, too. He couldn’t use the word “appointments” here. Surely that would be too obvious. “Who are you meeting this week?”

Xiaokai thought about it for a moment. “Xu Runshen, Hu Yongzhu, and Bai Xue.”

Bai Xue—that had been the name that Xiaokai didn’t have any information about. Each of the List’s members that Xiaokai knew about had their own document, but Bai Xue’s was simple: just his name.

“Three?” Xingyu was frowning. “What about the banquet? Are you coming?”

“Banquet?” Weiran looked between them. “What banquet?”

“Liu Baiyan has a banquet around this time every year,” Xiaokai said.

Weiran opened his mouth.

“And no, before you ask, you can’t come.”

“I wasn’t going to ask.” He was going to ask, but he wasn’t about to admit it.

“I am going to the banquet. I have an appointment later that night, but I’ll be there for most of it. We can play the happy family.”

“I just don’t want them to suspect anything.”

“They won’t. I’ve never been a warm son. They don’t expect such things from me. The only thing they want is a brief appearance, and I’m sure I could get away with not even giving them that.”