If You Could See the Sun (57)





“Repeat what you just said.”

Henry is staring at me from the other end of his dorm room, his expression the closest thing to shock I’ve ever witnessed on him. He runs an agitated hand through his hair, shakes his head. Sits down on the edge of his bed, which is perfectly made, as usual. Sometimes I wonder if he even sleeps on it.

“Which part?” I ask.

He doesn’t reply, but his eyes dart to the door. He’s been doing this a lot—ever since I ran in here and shut the door firmly behind me, afraid that people in the hall might overhear our conversation and call the police on us. He’d flinched as if I were trapping us inside a prison, looking almost...nervous. Tense. His back too straight, his fingers restless. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was more upset about the closed door than what I just said.

“Which part?” I say again, when it becomes clear he hasn’t heard me.

“All of it.”

“Are you serious?”

“It’s a fair lot to take in, don’t you think?”

I roll my eyes, but he’s right. It is a lot to handle; I wouldn’t have come here straight after school otherwise.

So I repeat it all. Everything from the latest Beijing Ghost message.

I tell him about Andrew She and Peter Oh, how their parents’ rivalry at the same company has been escalating in recent weeks, how one of them is meant to be promoted soon, but the company hasn’t reached a decision yet on who is the best pick. All Andrew knows is that whoever gets promoted will be the marketing director for every branch in Eurasia and receive a seven-figure salary each year, and it’s everything his father has been working for since his early twenties, but his father isn’t so confident about his chances at winning.

In fact, his father is so uncertain about his chances that he’s willing to use other methods. Simpler, crueler methods that are sure to produce results.

Like kidnapping the other guy’s son.

The Experiencing China trip will be the perfect opportunity, Andrew She had written. He hadn’t mentioned his own name, only Peter’s, but I’d known about them and their parents’ feud long enough to guess just from the context. We’ll all be staying at the Autumn Dragon Hotel for four nights in a row, and you know how these trips go—the teachers will have trouble supervising us all at night. The whole process should be smooth. Easy for someone like you. My father will send some of his men over, keep them hidden in a room on a separate floor. All you have to do is ensure Peter makes his way to them, and take his phone. It’s essential, however, that you create no disturbance whatsoever, so that by the time anyone even notices he’s gone, it’ll be too late.

Then, as if he could sense my horror through the phone, he’d added, Don’t worry. We won’t cause him physical harm in any way, and when the time comes, we’ll release him on our own. What we need is merely for Mr. Oh’s son to go missing during a vital time in his campaign, long enough to distract him, upset him, severely affect his everyday performance. Then the promotions will be announced, and Mr. Oh will have lost but miraculously won his son back, and everyone will be happy.

“Did he actually say that?” Henry asks, incredulity lifting his brows. “That everyone will be happy?”

I nod.

“Good god,” he says on a drawn breath. He’s silent for a while, processing, though his eyes still flicker to the door every few seconds. “Was there anything else?”

“No. Nothing,” I lie quickly. What I don’t tell him is that by some awful coincidence, or maybe some twisted sign from the universe, Mama had messaged me right after Andrew did. She’d received Airington’s reminder email about the change in prices too, having missed the first one.

Have you made your decision yet? she’d asked, then attached three brochures for cheap, low-tier local schools near our compound, as well as one for a school in Maine. If not, it’s time to start thinking about next step. Airington’s fee deadline is in one week. After that, you’ll automatically be un-enrolled from school.

In other words: I need to somehow make over 100,000 RMB in the next seven days, or accept that I’m screwed and start cleaning out my school lockers. But where am I supposed to get that sort of money? Where else, if not from Andrew?

As I fight off another wave of panic, Henry’s voice breaks through my thoughts.

“You know, I always figured Andrew She was a bit of a snake.”

I frown at him. “Really? But the guy’s so...so nice and scared of everything all the time. He looked close to wetting himself when Mr. Chen called on him in class the other day.”

Henry just nods as if I’m helping him prove a point. “Makes sense. It’s usually the cowards who resort to such crude, extreme tactics.”

Or the desperate, I add in my head, but don’t say.

“Well, coward or not, he’s definitely not messing around.” I walk over to his bed and show him the last message Andrew sent me. “He’s offering us one million RMB for this task alone.” When I first saw it, the number didn’t even seem real. It still doesn’t. “One million.”

“Wait.” Henry turns his full attention to me, and I can’t help but shift under the weight of it. “You’re not really considering this, are you? The plan is absurd. And we both know Andrew isn’t very bright.”

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