“Is there anything he said? Even the most insignificant of things. A name, even.”

“Ah—Jagiya.” Yamashita shook at the hand he was still holding onto. “He spoke on the phone to someone before he came into the room, something about a property. We could hear his voice through the door.”

“A property? Did he say a name?” It wasn’t to Liu Baiyan—Liu Baiyan was long dead by then.

“Daichi, check on the security camera with Virgil, both on the inside and the outside of the room. See if you can get a name.” He lifted Yamashita’s hand to his mouth, pressed a kiss to it, and then released.

“Yes, sir.”

Once Yamashita was gone, it seemed like there was a hole left where he’d been standing. Eryu—whose surname was perhaps Jagiya but Xingyu wasn’t entirely sure—started on his drink again, his heavy gaze settling onto Xingyu.

“May I ask why you’re so willing to help me?” asked Xingyu. “I haven’t given you anything in return.”

“I like your eyes, and I think we have a few things in common.”

That couldn’t possibly be all of it. “Because we both had fathers we hate and brothers we love?”

Eryu just smiled.

“That’s it?”

“Do I need more?”

“It’s—” What the hell was Xingyu supposed to say? “Excuse me for saying, but it’s such a trivial reason. Should you at least ask for something from me? What if I’m taking advantage of you?”

“You don’t have anything I want. Besides.” He smiled again. It looked like a gentle expression, but Xingyu wasn’t so naïve that he couldn’t still see the danger behind it. “What sort of things do you need from a person to trust them?”

“I don’t trust anyone,” said Xingyu immediately.

“Except for your brother?”

“What I have with him isn’t trust. I only trust myself. Little Xiao…he can lie to me and hurt me as much as he wants, but I’m always going to love him and I’m always going to try to support him.”

“Has anyone ever told you that your relationship isn’t entirely healthy?”

“No one has had the courage to.”

That made Eryu laugh. “I guess you grew up in a powerful family.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Mn. Daichi knows more about that than I do. If all this ends and you and your brother have some free time, why don’t you bring him around sometime?”

Xingyu looked from Eryu to the armed guards to the door, on the other side of which was a known weapons dealer. He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to bring Xiao-Xiao anywhere near these people. “I—”

The door opened again. It was Yamashita. “Mr. Liu. Does the name Hu Yongzhu mean anything to you?”