“Oh?” Xingyu took a swallow of his tea, grimaced, and blew on his too. “With whom?”

“Hu Yongzhu. We’ve been arranging a deal with him for some time. After Xiaokai’s hand in it, we’ll be able to close it.”

“Xiao-Xiao? I thought he wasn’t a part of any deals.”

“He is, but that is a discussion for another day.”

“Isn’t it always?”

“Xingyu, I’m giving you this opportunity because I think you’re ready. Don’t make me regret it.”

Xingyu smiled into his tea. “How funny. I also think I’m ready.”

“Regardless,” said Ba, opening his desk drawer and retrieving a folder, “this will have all the information you need. I expect you to have it memorized by tonight.”

Xingyu took the folder and started flipping through it. It looked fairly standard—he’d seen it already when he’d been snooping around Xiao-Xiao’s office. “Two questions.”

“Go ahead.”

“First—what was Xiao-Xiao’s role in all of this?”

“He was able to lower it another billion yuan.”

So he was in negotiations of some sort. Xingyu wasn’t exactly surprised—he knew Laoma always got involved in the more crucial negotiations. Xiao-Xiao must be learning the same tactics. “My second question relates to the dates here. It says you lowered the price weeks ago. Why are you just now finalizing the negotiations?”

“Hu Yongzhu was out of town for some time and wanted to wait until he could speak with us in person before he finished signing the papers. The meeting is just a formality to make things official. In every sense except official, I already own the properties, and Hu Yongzhu already has the money.”

“And we are wasting our time with this because—?”

“Hu Yongzhu still has valuable resources we and the List can use. His request to meet in person isn’t so unreasonable that I would give up those resources just so I could save time.” He blew on his tea one more time, and then sipped at it. “Though I was tempted.”

It was easy.

Liu Xingyu knew what guilt tasted like. He’d become familiar with it years ago, and even after all this time had passed, he knew he would recognize it if he met it again.

He wasn’t feeling it now.

“How’s the tea?” he asked.

23

THE INHERITANCE

THERE WERE THREE meetings on Ba’s schedule: at nine o’clock, with Liu Xingyu; at noon, with Sun Yue; at five, with Hu Yongzhu.