His hands were shaking. He hid them underneath his legs and squeezed his eyes shut. “Did you ever want to be in charge?” Even with his remarkable control, his voice came out strained.

“Never. I was raised just like you were. I have more power than I’ve shared with you, Xiaokai. It’s not a job to be taken lightly. If you leave this position, who would take it?” Another few moments of silence, and then his mother’s voice started again, much closer this time—right above Xiaokai: “Have you been taking your medication?”

Xiaokai opened one eye to look at her. “Of course I have,” he said.

She looked down for a long while. Then: “Fine. Go to bed. Don’t be late to your meeting tomorrow.”

“I never am.” Xiaokai sat up. “Besides, meetings with Bai Xue are the easiest.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

On the way back to his room, Xiaokai wavered for a moment at Xingyu’s door. The decade he’d spent without his older brother were, of course, anything but leisurely, but there had been a certain safety in his absence. A certain comfort. In Xingyu’s absence, there was—or at least Xiaokai hoped—a chance that Xiaokai might inherit the company. He knew now, especially after that conversation at dinner, that such a thing was never going to be possible. If Xingyu could get his position back with only a request to have access to the family’s money, no amount of work was ever going to be good enough for his parents. No amount of information he was able to gather. No amount of obedience. No amount of loyalty.

All Xingyu had to do was say that he wanted money, and Liu Baiyan was begging for him to come back.

Xiaokai’s hands curled into fists. He walked away.

Inside his bedroom, Xingyu wasn’t even aware that Liu Xiaokai was boiling right outside his room for a solid three minutes. He’d finally gotten ahold of Weiran after calling a few times, and was now speaking into his spare cell phone in a hushed voice.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I can tell you about it tomorrow.”

“You didn’t have any trouble or anything?”

“No, no.” Weiran sounded a lot more relaxed than Xingyu thought he would be. He was fully prepared to talk him down if he suddenly couldn’t go through with the plan anymore. “We can meet tomorrow and talk about it, but I’m ready to request the next meeting.”

Xingyu blinked. “Already?”

“Yeah. I can tell you the details tomorrow, but I—anyway. I’ll tell you tomorrow.”