“As long as I didn’t miss anything. There aren’t any cameras inside the office of anybody important”—he’d checked the building Liu Xiaokai worked at too, just to satisfy his curiosity, and the arrangement was the same—“so it’s probably the case that they don’t think there’s anything important to hide. Lucky for us, since we do have something to hide.”

“Fine. Do a test run tonight somewhere public, make sure that you can get in. Get whatever footage you need. Then go back to the motel. I’ll let you know if I see my father getting any weird calls.”

XIAOKAI KEPT DREAMING.

He told Bai Xue that he wanted him to make more frequent appointments, but he regretted that now, and very strongly at that. He always got caught up in the whirlwind that was Bai Xue—no, not whirlwind. He was like the gentle breeze in the middle of a hurricane. The respite from a storm. If you’d been braving twenty-foot waves for years and suddenly found calm waters, why would you ever want to leave again? Just being near Bai Xue was terrifyingly addicting. He gave Xiaokai a taste of a life of being loved, of being treated tenderly, of relaxing into the water and turning his face into the sun. It was better to stay away from him entirely, let himself stay adjusted to the rock of the boat, let his eyes adjust to the darkness under the clouds. Lingering in the calm was just going to make it harder to adjust to the storm again.

And yet…

How could he resist? He couldn’t help wanting another taste—time to breathe. When he was with Bai Xue, all he could think about was figuring out how to stay by his side.

Afterward—after he ended the appointment and after his inevitably follow-up meeting with Sun Yue—he was left alone to adjust back to his life away from Bai Xue. It made him ache with want. What would Bai Xue say if Xiaokai asked him to just whisk him out of all of this?

He didn’t allow himself to wish for anything while he was still awake. It would destroy him if he did. Instead, all of the desires that coiled up inside of him came out at night, when he was sleeping.

Bai Xue buying them a house.

Waking up in Bai Xue’s arms.

Coming out into the kitchen and seeing Bai Xue at the counter.

No Liu Baiyan, no Sun Yue, no List, no Liu Incorporated, no heritage.