“Does he know how I feel about you?” Bai Xue guessed, and Xiaokai nodded tightly. “Hm…maybe. Maybe not.” Then he stripped off his jacket and draped it around Xiaokai’s shoulders; at Xiaokai’s questioning glance, he just said, “You were shivering.”

Xiaokai gave him a grateful smile.

“HE’S PROBABLY JUST pissed off that you looked into his medical files,” Weiran suggested at last, exhaustion coloring his voice. Xingyu was pacing in his hotel room, fast and frequent enough to wear holes in the expensive carpet, but he stopped when Weiran said this, his eyebrows rising into his hairline.

“You told him?”

“Hey, don’t get upset at me. You’re the one who violated his privacy.”

Xingyu looked vaguely nauseated. “That would…explain why he’s been avoiding me since then.”

“So there. You have your answer. He’s avoiding you because you violated his privacy and asked someone to dig up his medical records.” Weiran wasn’t going to mention that he was the someone who dug up his medical records, or that he was tempted every day to just open that folder and dig through it like Xingyu had. It had clearly messed up Xiaokai to know that Xingyu knew about whatever was in those files, enough to mess him up for a while—make him all weird and cagey, or at least weirder and cagier than normal.

“It’s been two weeks since then.”

“And it’s been over a decade since you left and he’s still holding a grudge about whatever happened when you were kids. What’s your point?”

Xingyu winced. He always did when Weiran broached the subject of their childhood. “But this is different,” he said. “I’m fine if he avoids me. But he would still show up to the meetings. Hell, we’ve had a meeting since then.”

“He didn’t want to have another meeting,” Weiran pointed out. “He said these were turning into a waste of time. Plus, you know, he’s disappeared before. He disappeared the week we agreed to work together, didn’t he?”

“He said that he would show up for one more. He’d keep the promise.”

“According to what?”

Xingyu rolled his eyes. “It’s pointless to talk to you about this.”

“What?” Weiran had to take a minute to process Xingyu…being annoyed with him? Angry with him? “What does that—”

“I’m going to call my parents and see what they know. We’ll reschedule the meeting for tomorrow.”

Xingyu left Weiran in the room, already pulling out his cell phone and dialing his father’s number.

“Hello.”

“Where’s Xiao-Xiao?”

“There you are again, always looking for Xiaokai.”

“He isn’t answering his phone.”

“He’s probably busy. He’s on a business trip.”

“A business trip?” Liu Xingyu skidded to a halt just a few paces away from the hotel doors. “Without telling me?”