Weiran didn’t know how to answer that. Even the very question made him angry. Of course he wanted the chance that Xiaokai would love him back—but the thought that Xiaokai was at any point in love with Bai Xue made him want to cry, to throw up, to hold Xiaokai in his arms until Xiaokai understood what it was like to be loved properly. If the only person he had ever fallen in love with had done that to him—well, how was he ever supposed to trust someone after that? How was he supposed to ever love someone after that?

“What about you? Are you okay?”

It took Weiran a second to figure out what Xingyu was talking about. “You mean after Bai Xue?” he asked, and Xingyu nodded.

“When I first started my…lessons, I didn’t ever have any issues, but I figure that’s just because I’m Liu Baiyan’s son. But you aren’t, and you didn’t grow up like me, and Bai Xue’s death…” He didn’t need to say that it was a lot more violent than anything most would experience in their lifetime. “Anyway. I was just wondering if you were okay after all of that.”

“I’m fine,” Weiran said.

“Are you really?”

“Yeah.” He was surprised himself. He thought that perhaps he should be disturbed that he was capable of such things, but when he thought about it he really didn’t think he would be able to do it again. Bai Xue was an exception. Bai Xue was the man who had torn Xiaokai’s body apart twice. He was the man who controlled the organization that killed Weiran’s parents. No matter how Weiran looked at it, the man deserved to die, and he deserved to die in pain. He wouldn’t be able to do it again, but he barely thought that Bai Xue counted. “The only thing I thought would really bother me was getting caught, but…we haven’t even been questioned.”

Xingyu nodded again and leaned back, swirling his drink again. “En. I’m a little surprised, but they might have just not made any connections to us yet. After all, it would probably be difficult to connect Bai Xue to the List, or even figure out who he is in the first place.”

“Maybe they’ll figure out his real identity.”

“Ah, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I can’t imagine he would keep anything that would reveal himself at that place. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll have his prints on file, though.” He passed the drink over to Weiran. Weiran drained the rest of it.

“I don’t know if it’s even necessary to—” He cut himself off at the feeling of his phone buzzing.

“Is something wrong?”