Liuxian looked at the screen.

"Shen Zihao cannot take him away from me," he said. His voice was even and entirely certain. "But I can take everything away from him." He paused. "It seems he has a great deal of free time if he can dedicate this much of it to looking into my little rose. So let us make him a little busy."

Jae raised an eyebrow. "How busy?"

"Crash his stocks," Liuxian said. "All of them. When the investors start calling he’ll have to spend the next several weeks doing nothing but damage control and coaxing angry men in suits."

Jae looked at him for a moment.

Then he smiled.

"You’re absolutely diabolical," he said. "I love you."

Liuxian looked at him flatly.

"Don’t be gay," he said.

"It’s not gay if it’s with the homies," Jae said, with complete conviction. He shifted in his chair, the serious energy dissolving back into its default state. "Anyway. On a different note." He paused with the particular pause of someone who was about to say something that actually mattered to him. "Tian Huan is coming home."

Liuxian was quiet for a moment.

"When?" he said.

"Soon. He’s finally decided it’s time to retire from the military." Jae’s tone was light but something underneath it was not. "You and I both know it’s the leg. They’re letting him go because of it but at least he’s prolonged his life by a few years." He shrugged, a small and deliberate thing. "So I was thinking, as his buddies, we threw him a little welcome home party. Get Hao Lin, get Lindong—" he paused, "well. I don’t know if Lindong’s going to come. Ever since he got married we’ve been seeing significantly less of him. I don’t know if his wife thinks we’re a bad influence or something."

"You probably are a bad influence," Liuxian said.

"That’s fair," Jae said. "Anyway. That’s the plan, my broski. Your thoughts?"

Liuxian leaned back in his chair and stretched, his hands going briefly to his lower back before he caught himself and lowered them. The pain patches shifted slightly with the movement.

"It’s not a bad idea," he said. "Set a date when everyone’s free. Get a proper catering service, something good." He paused. "You know how Tian Huan gets when he’s had a proper meal."

Jae laughed. "The man becomes a completely different human being. Remember that time in—"

"Set the date," Liuxian said.

"Setting the date," Jae confirmed, already reaching for something off screen. "I’ll sort it out and send you the details." He looked back at the camera. "And the Shen Zihao thing. Consider it handled."

"Good," Liuxian said.

"Diabolical," Jae said again, admiringly, and ended the call.

Liuxian closed the laptop.

He sat in the quiet of his room for a moment, then reached back and pressed the pain patch more firmly against his lower back.

He really needed to see the doctor about that.

He would find time next week.

He turned off the desk lamp and went to bed.

Guiying was up before seven.

He showered quickly, dried off, and stood in front of the wardrobe with the focused efficiency of someone who had already decided what they were wearing and simply needed to execute it.

He pulled out the white shirt first, buttoning it up to the collar, then the dark brown Ralph Lauren cable knit zipped over it, leaving the collar of the shirt visible at the neck.

The black tie went on next, slim and unhurried, sitting against the white of the shirt beneath the open zip.

Dark wash wide leg jeans, slightly oversized in the way that looked deliberate.

Black loafers.

He looked at himself in the mirror.

Casual but put together. The kind of outfit that read as effortless because the thought behind it was invisible.

He sat down in the vanity.

The wig came first, fitted carefully until the hairline sat naturally.

Then the hazel contacts, one at a time, blinking until his own brown eyes disappeared entirely.

The makeup was lighter today than it had been for the gala, just enough to shift the contours of his face, soften the jaw, adjust the nose slightly.

Nothing dramatic.

The goal was not to look like someone else.The goal was to look like nobody in particular.

He looked at the mirror when he was done.

Xue Guiying was not in this reflection.

Tang XiaoYu looked back at him instead. Soft featured, blonde, unremarkable in the best possible way. At least, what he saw in his pov.

An art collector from Chengdu with no family and no fixed address and an interest in Xu Beihong.

Guiying dies, he thought.

And Tang XiaoYu comes alive.

He picked up the small bag from the nightstand and checked its contents.

A backup charger.

Makeup kit for touch ups.

A pack of wipes.

A folded handkerchief, white, because some habits from his past life had survived the rebirth intact.

Then the perfume.

He had ordered three during his first time in the mansion and had been working through them in rotation.

Today he reached for the one that sat furthest to the right, a quiet, clean scent that opened with something green and settled into something warm, the kind that did not announce itself but left an impression.

He pressed it to his wrists and the side of his neck and set it back on the shelf.

He smelled, Shen Mingzhu had told him at the gala, like he had come down from somewhere considerably nicer than anywhere she had been recently.

He picked up his bag, slipped his phone and his card into his pocket, and headed downstairs.

He was halfway down the stairs when he smelled it.

Congee.

And something else, something that suggested Old Li had been up since six and had opinions about what a proper Thursday morning breakfast looked like.

He followed it to the dining room.

Liuxian was already at the table, fully dressed for work, tie on, jacket over the back of the chair, reading something on his phone with one hand and eating with the other.

He looked up when Guiying walked in.

Then chuckled, he wasn’t as sophisticatedly dressed as his age and job role as Tang XiaoYu proposed.

"You look cute, baby. Are you really 28?"

-_-

"I’m not. I can’t be that old"

-_-

Pfft—

Liuxian looked around, who dared to laugh?

"Are you saying I’m old? I must be ancient if you call 28 old."

-_-!! 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Guiying tsked as he sat down.

"You’re quite handsome and young for your age. Perks of being Asian."

-_-

Liuxian laughed, then spread his hands to show the food.

"Eat up before you leave. This old man can’t eat it all."

Old Li appeared from the kitchen immediately, set a bowl of congee in front of him alongside the dumplings, a small dish of chili oil, and a cup of warm barley tea, and disappeared again.

"So what’s the agenda? Who’s the omega?"