“Xiaokai, I—” This time Xingyu stopped himself. His jaw worked a few times, then he put a single hand up, pressing his palm against the glass. Xiaokai just looked at his hand for a moment.

“Make sure you have the last remnants of the List cleaned up.”

“You don’t need me for that.” Weiran had finally figured out how to speak again. He couldn’t let Xiaokai do this. He couldn’t let him get punished for something Weiran had done. “If I—”

“No.” Xiaokai’s voice was hard. “Help Xingyu. I want to be in here, Weiran. I…need to be in here. So just leave it alone.”

“You want…” The words caught in Weiran’s throat. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to understand. Look.” Xiaokai rubbed his face. “When you and Xingyu finish bringing down the List, just get away from him and live a normal life. Hell, get away from him now and live a normal life. He’ll help you.”

Weiran glanced at Xingyu. Xingyu gave him a tight nod. “I don’t…want to leave,” Weiran said.

“It’s the only way you’ll have a normal life. Even if we brought down what we know is the List, that doesn’t mean the List’s allies and enemies aren’t going to come after us for what we’ve done, for whatever reason. Whatever feelings you think you have, they’ll fade.”

This again. Weiran wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he understood.

“In any case.” Xiaokai glanced over his shoulder. “My time is up. Don’t come to court, either of you. But especially not Weiran. You can just hear about the sentencing on the news like everyone else.”

The news said it was a light sentence.

Only a few years—the minimum they could give him. Xiaokai’s lawyer said it was because of extenuating circumstances: Bai Xue was arguably a monster; Xiaokai had been injured by him repeatedly; it was largely self-defense, anyway, when you looked at it like that. Really, with all the evidence still coming forward about everyone else in the List, and when you looked at what Xiaokai’s role was in the List—he was a part of it, yes, but with his specific circumstances, he hadn’t hurt anyone personally, he hadn’t given the order to hurt anyone as far as they could tell, he’d been in a clearly dangerous position that he couldn’t possibly refuse, and hadn’t he done something about what was happening as soon as he could? He was the reason they knew about the List at all. Without him, they would have been oblivious for years to come.