Weiran finally had the courage to speak up. “What do you mean? Is she refusing to step down?”

“I told her to retire.” Xingyu’s voice had lowered even further. He sounded dangerous.

“She’ll retire if you get official control over the company. Otherwise, she’ll just be handing over the entirety of Liu Incorporated to someone outside the family, and her loyalty to Liu Baiyan is still too strong to do that. Even when she does retire, she won’t hand over all control to me at once. On paper, I’m going to be in charge, but she’s not convinced I’m ready. I’ll get access to things slowly. I imagine access to the File will be last, if she ever gives it to me. And no, before you ask.” He shot a glare at Xingyu. “Killing her won’t help. I have no idea where she keeps all her information. It isn’t as if she carries around a briefcase everywhere that I can poke around in.”

Xingyu just shrugged. “If you find out where she keeps it and she still won’t give it to you, it might be best to get her out of the way.”

Weiran shivered again.

“I think it might be safe by now to move Weiran out,” Xiaokai said, and Weiran was caught off guard by how off-topic that seemed.

“Out? Out of the hotel, you mean? Or out of the city?” He was going to put up a fight if they tried to make him leave now, after all they’d done.

“Out of the hotel. Liu Baiyan would have killed you in a heartbeat, but Sun Yue won’t suspect you so quickly. I think her mind is otherwise occupied, anyway.”

“Is it worth the risk, though? Why not just leave him in here?”

“It’ll be riskier to keep him here. Now that you’re in line to become president, there will be more eyes on you than ever, but we will still need to be able to meet with Weiran. It’ll also be easier for Weiran to do his work at the office, where he has direct access to everything. I suggest you hire him as a secretary or a personal assistant so he can stay with you. At this point, it’ll be safer to keep him by your side. If anything happens, we’ll have an escape route for him.”

“Just for me? What about y—what about the two of you?”

Xiaokai gave him a crooked smile. “What are you doing worrying about us? If we get caught, your first responsibility is exposing the List. As far as anyone knows, we’re your enemies.”