Liu Xiaokai was his, his, his. He would always be his. The List was crumbling around him, the police who dodged the List’s payroll swarming around each of the List’s vital members, but Bai Xue was untouched, and he would remain untouched, and as long as he did—and as long as he had Liu Xiaokai beside him—the List would survive without trouble. His power wasn’t only in those pathetic men who slobbered at Liu Xiaokai’s feet. His power went much deeper than that. The List wouldn’t just survive. It would flourish, and it would flourish even more under Liu Xiaokai’s rule.

Liu Xiaokai was his.

He saw the announcement for the interview—exclusive with the Liu brothers, the elder the new president of Liu Incorporated, the younger an executive director within Liu Incorporated, both handsome young men and desirable bachelors who had so far maintained pristine reputations.

Bai Xue was familiar with the kinds of nicknames given to Liu Xiaokai: Little Chrysanthemum, Untouchable Jade, and so on.23 They were the kind of nicknames that hovered between teasing and mocking, but nevertheless only improved Liu Xiaokai’s reputation, because how could you criticize someone with these kinds of nicknames? It wasn’t as if he wasn’t handsome enough to get anyone and everyone he wanted, and then there was the matter that he was very obviously a busy young man. Some would posit that he might be having issues…down there…but even people who tried to claim that they’d seen proof of these issues couldn’t provide any kind of proof of even meeting the man in the first place, and no one wanted to believe that a pretty chrysanthemum like him could ever have such an affliction—at the very least, it would be devastating for all the young women who hoped to one day have his attention.

Bai Xue found these nicknames very amusing. The city thought him innocent and clean; he knew different. He had a few plans, if Liu Xiaokai ever thought to betray him, though he didn’t think he would ever dare: Bai Xue could easily reveal Liu Xiaokai’s true nature and everything he did behind closed doors, away from the cameras. All of those people who thought him so pure—no one would be able to survive the scorn afterward. Even the threat of such scorn would make most people cower in fear. Xiaokai would remain comfortably in the palm of Bai Xue’s warm, welcoming hands as long as Bai Xue wanted him.

And if he ever decided he didn’t want him—well, he would tear him apart slowly and feed him to the dogs of this damned city.