He wondered sometimes about how Chen Jun could look so pleasantly into Liu Baiyan’s eyes when both of them were well aware that Chen Jun was fucking Liu Baiyan’s son. Did they ever talk about it? Did Chen Jun ever say anything about the dresses? About all of the little pet names he moaned into Liu Xiaokai’s ear? About the way he would bend down and lick at the stockings against Xiaokai’s legs? Or did they just both understand that this was the sort of thing you left unsaid?—Xiaokai was just a tool to both of them, so why would he be worth discussing?

Xiaokai lowered himself slowly onto Chen Jun. Chen Jun’s pupils were wide, maybe from arousal and maybe from drugs. Maybe from both. He rocked forward and Chen Jun gasped out loud, his fingers digging bruises into Xiaokai’s thighs. He was so ugly like this—red-faced and drooling and panting—and he was even uglier when he came, his eyelids fluttering unevenly, that ragged groan leaking from his lips, the movement of his hips stuttering. Xiaokai hated all of it. He hated him even more when he saw him outside of these appointments, all done up in his suits and acting civilized next to Liu Baiyan and every other tycoon with whom he did his business. Acting like he was morally righteous.

Chen Jun passed out after he came, maybe an hour after Xiaokai first got dressed. He climbed off the bed and shrugged off the rags of his dress as he went over to Chen Jun’s briefcase. It was unlocked—he’d opened it to carelessly toss in his phone before he’d gotten onto the bed. Xiaokai pulled out the phone, tapped in the password that he’d seen Chen Jun enter a million times, and started combing through it. When he found something significant, he plugged in his drive and downloaded it. Then he went back into the bag and did the same to Chen Jun’s laptop.

More notes about Chen Jun:

He owned and was the president of Core Industries, which mostly made upscale home appliances.

He was largely only attracted to men who were his son’s age.

His biggest intake of money came from the organ trafficking that he handled for the List.