At four-thirty, he went to Sun Yue’s office. She was working steadily at her computer, her secretaries moving in and out of her office with different folders that she flipped through with what seemed like an increasing anxiety, but when Xiaokai rapped his knuckles on her door, she set everything aside.

“Come in.” To the secretary hovering at her side: “Make sure no one disturbs us for the next half hour.”

It was the new secretary. She looked alarmed at this order. “Ma’am, President Chen is expecting a reply at—”

“If he asks for me during that time, send him to Xingyu. Now get out.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She bowed low and backed out of the room, narrowly colliding with Xiaokai as she passed through the door.

“Xiaokai. Come sit down.”

He eyed her as he went further in.

“How was your appointment with Bai Xue?”

“Surely you don’t seriously want an answer to that question.”

She met his eyes. “I do.”

“It made me want to die.”

Her breath stuttered.

“But you knew that would happen,” Xiaokai said. He dropped into the chair across her desk and gestured for her to speak. “Just tell me why you want me here. There’s no point in telling you about the appointment in detail.”

“Have you been taking your—”

“Yes. I’ve been taking my damn medicine. But no medicine is going to prevent me from wanting to peel my own skin off after that man touches me. Get on with it.”

“Xiaokai—”

“Just get on with it,” he snapped. “What do you want?”

“It’s about…your role in this company, Xiaokai. Your role in the List.” She seemed almost nervous. She folded her hands over each other again and again, twisting her fingers around, her gaze apparently not able to decide between Xiaokai’s face and anywhere else in the room. “You know, I…I never wanted a daughter.”

Why the hell was she starting with this?

“It wasn’t that I wanted to put a son through what I went through, but I just really didn’t want to put a little girl through everything I experienced. Terrified about getting pregnant, actually getting pregnant—I was relieved when you were born.”

“Sun Yue—”

“Bai Xue was furious. He needed me to have an heir. He kept saying he needed me to have an heir. But what was he going to do? I had already had two children. We had gotten an exception to have you, and we weren’t going to get another exception when we had two perfectly healthy sons.”

“Why are you telling me all of this? I don’t need to be reminded of another reason I’m a disappointment, Director Sun.”