Xingyu wasn’t sure what to say to that. He knew what he wanted to say—“That’s because you’ve never made me feel like I had to.” But Zhang Weiran still did not understand the full extent of who Xingyu was.

“Normal people don’t threaten to kill other people.”

“No one in the Liu family is normal. Here.” Now Xingyu gave Weiran the suit jacket. It was a deep blue—something casual and not too extravagant, but certainly nothing either one of them would have worn when they were still abroad. Looking at Weiran like this made Xingyu wonder whether, if neither of their parents were involved in the List, they could have been friends. Two fu’erdai, two heirs—would they have gotten along then, too? But everything that Xingyu was was because of the List, and the same was true for Weiran.

“Where did you get this suit, anyway?”

“I asked Xiaokai to lend me a couple so I had options if I wanted to stop by the company.”

“And he just gave them to you?”

“He’s a good little brother.”

Weiran gave him a sour look. Xingyu didn’t want to argue with him any longer.

“Are you all ready for this meeting?”

That seemed to be distracting enough for Weiran. He let out his breath and slid his arms into the sleeves of the jacket. “I don’t know. I guess so. In any case, I don’t have a choice if we want to get this done.”

Weiran was in all likelihood the strongest person Xingyu knew, next to maybe Xiao-Xiao. He could have hated Xingyu—should have hated Xingyu. But his hatred for the List and the anger that was constantly swirling around inside of him were both strong enough to take the risk with Xingyu. Xingyu wasn’t going to let that go to waste. Weiran was in a foreign country now—one that he hadn’t been in since he was a child. He understood the language enough to communicate verbally, but he could only read very common characters. He was only barely familiar with the culture. He was risking his life just by coming back into the city—into the country, even. And yet, here he was, about to go into the lion’s den, his only ally being the son of the people he hated so much.

“Weiran,” said Xingyu quietly, and Weiran turned to look at him as he pushed the knot of his tie up to his neck.

“Yeah?”

“If something goes wrong, you know I can’t help you. You can contact the lawyer, but if I help you, it’s all over.”

There was a strange expression on Weiran’s face. “I know,” he said.

“And remember to order a man. It’ll be more convincing. They’ll think you’re going through the List so you can be more discreet about your sexuality.”