“I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t want to run away with you. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don’t want to even look at you. If I’m your precious heir, then let me do what I want to do with the List. Let me tear it down. Let me remake this city into what it should be instead of what the List has made it decay into. What you made it decay into.”

Bai Xue stood. He stared down at Liu Xiaokai, his fists clenched, his entire body stiff. “Mei Hua—”

“You know the police can’t touch you,” Xiaokai said. “You’ve never given up any information on yourself. No one knows your real name. Just leave the city now, rebuild the List as you want. I won’t stop you. Just…leave me alone.”

Bai Xue was still silent. His hands were still clenched.

Xiaokai slowly got to his feet. “Where’s my phone? I’ll call my driver to pick me up, and this can all be—”

Bai Xue’s arm suddenly moved, knocking Xiaokai back to the bed. The sudden movement made his head spin. He moved to get up again, but Bai Xue was crawling on top of him, one hand wrapping around his neck, the other lifting up—

“Bai Xue!”

The hand came down on Xiaokai’s cheek, furious, bruising.

“Bai—”

Again, again—the grip around his neck was suffocating—

“Stop, stop—”

Again, again, Bai Xue beat without abandon, darkness closed in from the corners of Xiaokai’s eyes—

IT HURTS, IT hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts—please, please stop, please just—please just let me breathe, please leave me alone, please, it hurts—