Here was the battle, of course: he couldn’t trust or depend on anyone, but he also couldn’t put himself in such a risky position so as to commit the murder himself. The first option made it possible that someone might give him up, but the second option made it possible for authorities to catch him directly. He had to know how to do both. The first option meant that he needed to go through the List, which meant that he needed to understand how and when to access those resources. He would make the order, then the order would go through the List, then the List would find an appropriate person to carry out the order, and then his target would be dead. Xingyu had no issues with such things. As he only cared about the company—and Xiao-Xiao, though this was a secret from Ba—Xingyu did not have any concern for other people, nor did he have any concern for their lives. When Ba gave him the ‘ultimate test’ of ordering some random person’s death through the List, Xingyu didn’t blink twice.

There was still the possibility that the List would fail him, which meant Xingyu needed to be able to pull off the job himself, as well. He studied poisons extensively, became familiar with them, researched potency and availability. Sure, he could afford to buy whatever poison he wanted without trouble—but what about poisons that couldn’t be traced back to him? What about poisons that a run-of-the-mill autopsy wouldn’t uncover?

And then Ba made him practice that, too.

IT WAS EASY. Every moment of it. He made a pot of tea, set up the tray nicely, and carried it into the room.

Ba was pleased. He didn’t smile, but the space between his eyebrows relaxed just a bit, which meant that he was pleased. Liu Xingyu took the first cup, filled it with the tea, and settled into one of the chairs in front of Ba’s desk.

“So what wisdom do you have to impart on me today?”

Ba nodded toward the tray. “Are you going to serve me?”

“I wasn’t aware serving tea was in the curriculum.”

“I wasn’t aware I taught you to be unfilial, and yet here we are.”

Xingyu reached for the tray.

“Give me the bottom cup.”

He’d stacked three cups on the tray, one on top of the other. He had taken the top.

He took out the bottom cup and put it on the tray.

“Be thankful I am not making you do the entire ceremony.”

“If you wanted me to do the entire ceremony, you should have told me to do so before I made the tea. It’s a moot point now.” He filled the cup and took the mug to his ba, settling it carefully onto the surface. “Enjoy.”

Ba blew on it. “I want you to help me finalize a deal.”