“There’s the squirrel!” Bugz yelled. Feng yelped. “Your best friend!” Bugz pushed Feng out of the way and sprinted back to the front door. Feng followed closely behind her. Neither stopped running until they’d left the trailers, cleared the chain-link fence, and run a hundred yards back down the bush trail.

CHAPTER 25

Feng caught his breath as he and Bugz slowed to a stroll.

“I showed you something cool,” Bugz said. “So now you have to tell me something.”

“Okay.” Feng hesitated. “Shoot.”

“Why are you part of Clan:LESS?”

“Because they’re the best. Everyone wants to be a part of Clan:LESS.”

“I don’t.”

“But you can’t.” Feng sounded defensive.

“Even if I could join your little boys club, I wouldn’t. It’s just a bunch of losers who try to make themselves feel big by putting other people down.”

Feng noticed Bugz attempting to compose herself. “Everyone’s so sensitive now,” he said. “We’re just having fun.”

“Sensitive? Meanwhile, you’re the ones who act like the biggest victims of all. As if men have it so hard. It’s gross.”

“It is hard to be a man now,” Feng said. His shoulders felt more tense than usual.

“Even if you believe that, why join them?” Bugz angled her head. “Clan:LESS is the worst of the worst of the neo-alt-right. You make it impossible for women to play the game. You harass us, kill our ’Versonas, say gross things about us. I only survived because I can beat you.”

“You didn’t beat us. We’re regrouping.”

“Oh, give it up.”

“Clan:LESS isn’t all bad.”

“It doesn’t even make any sense that you joined them in China.”

“Now you’re being racist.”

“They’re white supremacists!”

“No, and you’re being racist for assuming someone in China can’t join this global movement.” Feng replayed in his head all the times his clanmates had said racist things to him or in front of him, while Bugz stood by him, silently. The changing light indicated the sun was past noon somewhere far beyond the trees. Feng snapped out of it. “Well, maybe some of them are racist, but that exists everywhere.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Well, that’s just a few bad apples. Our real mission is to teach men to be strong.”

“Real strength is kindness, it’s compassion, it’s caring about how other people feel.”

“Look at history. For a long time China was weak, but now we’re strong—the most powerful country in the world. And the West: first it was strong, but then it started apologizing for itself, and now it’s in decline. So maybe being a man, or being strong, is due for a comeback.” Feng’s appearance conveyed his conviction. “That’s what Clan:LESS is.”

“It just seems like overcompensating. Seriously, would anyone ban women if they weren’t afraid of them?”