He dove toward Xiao-Xiao’s desk as soon as he was definitely gone. The computer was first—password protected, and he wouldn’t have enough time to contact Weiran and see how exactly to get past it. Xiao-Xiao was at least that careful, but the paranoia wasn’t enough to warrant Xingyu’s suspicion. There were some folders left out on his desk that he hadn’t put away, so Xingyu flipped through those instead—just business. All business. Some properties the Liu family was purchasing from a guy named Hu Yongzhu for a more than reasonable price—better for the Liu family than the Hu family, but not alarmingly so. Another deal with the Chen family about some new phone design that was boring enough to make Xingyu’s eyes roll. What else—the planner on the corner of his desk, which Xiao-Xiao had picked up several times and scribbled notes in while Xingyu was sitting on the couch. He went to it and flipped to the most recent dates. Again, nothing spectacular, but—

Next Monday at six…

That wasn’t on the calendar. It had been with one of the Chen family—Chen Jun if it was for a business deal, probably, since he was the head of the family and famously handled many of his company’s biggest deals personally. But why wouldn’t it be in his calendar if it was for business?

Xingyu passed a hand over his face.

Maybe it wasn’t Chen Jun. Maybe it wasn’t for business. Chen Jun had—did he have a daughter? No, he had a son around Xiao-Xiao’s age, maybe twenty-three or twenty-four. Xingyu vaguely remembered seeing him at some of the family’s banquets he’d frequented when he was younger. He’d been absolutely enamored with Xiao-Xiao then, and Xingyu had assumed it was because they were just the same age, but…was it possible? Xiao-Xiao had seemed so professional on his phone when he was setting the meeting, but the meeting was on a weekday at dinnertime—he might have just been acting professional for Xingyu’s sake. It was possible…

Xingyu passed a hand over his face again, this time hiding the smile that had burst across his lips.

Did Xiaokai get himself a secret boyfriend?

That was good—that was more than good. Xingyu would have to wait until he saw them in person together to be sure, but if it were true, that meant that Xiao-Xiao would have someone to go to after all this was over, someone who probably hadn’t been touched by the List yet. Assuming Chen Jun was part of it, they might even be able to connect over the fact that both of them had monsters for parents.