He pulled out his phone and tapped in Weiran’s number.

Paused.

Weiran was the obvious choice to go to for this kind of question—there was no way he would tell anyone anything that Xingyu asked him to keep to himself. But was it really right to let Weiran have that information?

He pressed ‘call’.

“Hello?” Weiran was obviously immediately on edge.

“I have a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Well, several questions.” He felt at the photographs in his back pocket, making sure they were still there. “But the second one can wait until we meet.”

“O…kay?”

“Would you be able to access someone’s medical records?”

“I mean…it depends. I have to know the hospital they were treated at for me to access anything.”

Xingyu rubbed his face. “They’re a fu’erdai, so it was probably a higher-end hospital. Nowhere the general public would be going with ease.”

“Mn…as far as I know, there will be a few of those in a city this big. But…”

“But what?”

“If I just access one of those higher-end hospitals, I might be able to make the assumption that they’re all operating off the same system. You’re sure you don’t know the hospital?”

“No. I have some ideas that I can send to you, but nobody in my family really goes to hospitals very often.”

A long pause. “Is this…about Xiaokai?”

“Would you be able to find his medical records?”

Another long, pregnant pause. “Xingyu…”

Xingyu didn’t know why Weiran was being so weird about this. “If you find them, don’t open them. Just send them to me.”

A sigh. “Okay. I’ll look for them. I just…you might not like what you find.”

“Do you know something I don’t?” Did he know about the pills? Was it right to ask him directly if he didn’t already know?

“Um, no. But if it’s something that he hasn’t told you—if it’s something you have to go behind his back to get—I don’t think it’s something he wants you to know.”

“I—”

“And I know,” said Weiran, emphasizing, “that you’re worried about him. But people need to be able to have their secrets.”

Xiao-Xiao. Depression.

“I have to know,” said Xingyu.

Another sigh. “Okay. I’ll send it to you when I have it. What was your other question?”

“I need to ask it in person. Can I come to you?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Xingyu glanced to the kitchen, where the pot of hot water, chopped vegetables, and knife all sat abandoned on the counter. “I can bring you food.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll see you in a bit, then.”

“THIS IS WHAT I wanted you to look at.”