It was an unusually warm December evening. Just as always, there was a collection of fu’erdai lingering at the bar, enjoying a variety of expensive alcohol. Occasionally one would tip their glass at the bartender, slur out a “Another, another—I’m thirsty—” and the bartender, hating every bit of this but also unwilling to lose her job, would pour out another round of drinks, hoping desperately that someone would come and relieve her before her shift ended in another four hours. At least, she thought, they could go to the pool, enjoy the warmth of the water, leave her alone to take her fifteen-minute, play on her phone, text her mom—mom, who convinced her to take this job in the first place, who told her that the money was more important than anything at this age, she could just get the job she really wanted when she was older and more stable in life—

It was at this moment that Liu Xiaokai came through the door.

As far as fu’erdai went, Liu Xiaokai was an exception among exceptions—a real ‘gaofushuai.2’ If he was a dog breed, he would be an expensive one, the kind that people spent years on waiting lists for, the kind that went through careful and selective breeding before it was allowed to be put on the market. If he was a book, he would be limited edition, signed by the author, written with gold ink and bound in the softest leather. Seeing him linger among the other fu’erdai was like watching a two-thousand-dollar purebred prancing into a chain pet store, or putting that special edition copy next to the half-off grocery store paperbacks.

He looked like he knew it, too.

He dressed to the nines every day. When he moved, it was with a casual, confident kind of swagger that turned heads. In business, he was quick on his feet, and clever too; people couldn’t help but like him. It wasn’t just Xiaokai’s goal to inherit his father’s empire, to run it with the expertly-cultivated success his father accomplished before him—it was also his goal to be just as loved as his father was, to stand in front of the crowd and feel not just like a business tycoon but a beloved king.