Sun Yue had made a bit of an impact on him, of course. He’d been doting on her since she was younger, charmed by the training her mother had put her through and charmed by her pretty face, and naturally she was skilled in bed too. He hadn’t loved her, but there was something there—at the very least, he wanted to keep her by his side, and then after some time he wanted to make her his heir. Her family, which for years had been managing the Files side of the List, was largely taken for granted. Most of the List’s leaders found the job necessary but unpalatable; the appointments were a secret that everyone knew but no one talked about. Then, on the other side, the person in charge of the Files never made a fuss, and quietly managed their people: themselves and their heir stealing information from the elites and the other hosts stealing information from everyone below. It was a dirty but necessary part of the List. Bai Xue was the first to acknowledge that it was the most valuable, that it required the most skill, that to convince an entire people that you were innocent and demure and pliable and agreeable all while you dug around their hearts for their deepest secrets was far more impressive than knowing how to manipulate a conglomerate into a favorable deal. People like Liu Baiyan and Chen Jun and Kang Haichi were all masters in making deals and held the city under their thumb, but people like Sun Yue were capable of controlling such powerful people from the shadows, even without them realizing it. If she could accomplish all of that, wouldn’t she be the perfect person to become Bai Xue’s heir?

And then, Liu Xiaokai.

The advantages were not immediately obvious. Initially Bai Xue was furious that Sun Yue could not produce a daughter, and only calmed down after several days of coaxing. As she listed reasons why another son wasn’t a downside, those reasons became advantages in Bai Xue’s mind, and as Liu Xiaokai grew older he realized that this was the force that he’d been looking for all along.

Liu Xiaokai was different from his mother.

Sun Yue was undeniably a force to be reckoned with. She was beautiful and intelligent and quick on her feet, and the confidence that seemed to seep from her very bones was not so intimidating it drove clients away but was instead alluring. She was sure of her place in the world, sure of her duties to her family and to the List. She did exactly what was expected of her. But Liu Xiaokai—