If You Could See the Sun (84)

There’s a long pause as Baba stares Henry down.

My heart keeps skipping beats.

“Hmph,” Baba says at last, which is actually a much better response than I expected. Coming from him, that’s almost an invitation to join the family.

I let out a small, silent breath. Henry winks at me.

“Wait!” Xiaoyi suddenly slaps her thigh like she’s just had a major epiphany, making everyone except Henry jump. “Is this the Henry Li? The boy you’ve been talking about since Year Eight? Your”—she makes large air quotes with both hands—“biggest academic rival? The one you keep having to share the award with?”

I flush. “Uh...”

Henry leans in with great interest. “Oh? So she talks about me a lot?”

“A lot,” Xiaoyi confirms generously, and I contemplate fleeing the city.

“What else has she said?” Henry asks, a gleam in his eyes. “Did she mention anything about—”

“You know what?” I step between them, piercing a chunk of apple with a toothpick and stuffing it into Henry’s mouth. “Maybe we should just eat first. And...you know. Not talk for the next three hours. Or ever.”

Xiaoyi glances at me, amused. “Yan Yan. Your face is very red.”

“I... Thank you so much for pointing that out.”

Henry makes a sound that strongly resembles a muffled laugh. I scowl and force-feed him another piece of apple, doing my best not to react when his lips brush my fingers, not to notice how warm his skin is.

The room is quiet for a blissful three seconds before Xiaoyi starts talking again.

“Tell me. What’s your shengchen bazi?” she asks Henry casually.

Shengchen bazi: The Four Pillars of Destiny. As in, the exact time of a person’s birth used to calculate their destiny—and their suitability for marriage. And judging from Henry’s expression, he knows exactly what Xiaoyi means.

While I scramble for some way to dissuade Xiaoyi from planning out any future weddings, my phone buzzes. I pick it up at once. Refresh my inbox: One New Message. I click on it and—

My stomach flips.

Even though this is what I planned for, it’s still slightly unnerving to receive a vague, passive-aggressive email from the Airington school board agreeing to meet as soon as possible.

“What happened?”

I start at Mama’s voice and look up to see everyone staring at me: Henry, with a grim, knowing sort of expression; Baba and Mama, with concern; and Xiaoyi, with bright curiosity. If I were to give her my shengchen bazi now, I wonder what destiny she’d predict for me. Where the events of today might lead.

“It’s the school,” I tell them, glad I don’t technically have to lie about it. Then I turn to Henry. “We have to leave immediately.”





19


“Andrew. Glad you got my message.”

Andrew She almost falls out of his chair when he sees me enter the school conference room. He’s seated at a giant oval table meant for at least eight people, but right now, it’s only the two of us in here. Just like I wanted. The place is perfect for private conversation; we’re far away from the classrooms, the door is shut, the entire room windowless, and the overhead heater is blasting loud enough to mask what should be a very interesting conversation.

“Alice,” Andrew croaks. Licks his lips. “What—what are you doing here? I thought you’d left the school.”

I don’t say anything. I grab the chair opposite him, cross my arms over my chest, and wait for my sentence to register. Watch him as he squirms.

One, two, three—

“Hang on.” His brows pull together until they’ve practically formed a single line, a dark slash over his forehead. “You were the one who messaged me? But I thought Henry—”

“Well, obviously you wouldn’t have come if you knew that I wanted to see you.” My words hang heavy in the air between us, and I’m both surprised and kind of thrilled by how threatening I sound. I’m not even acting, really; the anger comes easily. All I need is to think about Andrew’s kidnapping request and the fact that he’s been hanging out at school as if everything’s normal, as if he’s innocent, while I’ve been sobbing alone in my room. “Did you get an email from the school, too?”

Andrew’s eyes go very round—then they narrow. “Yeah. I did. The school told me all about your accusations.” He shakes his head. “I—I can’t believe you lied about the app.”

“It wasn’t exactly a lie,” I reason, leaning forward and propping both elbows on the table. I may or may not have Googled best power stances on the car ride here with Henry, and he may or may not have laughed at me. But it seems to be working. “You literally hired me to kidnap Peter.”

“You—you were the one who kidnapped him.”

“Only under your orders,” I shoot back. “I may be complicit, but you’re the one who’s guilty.”

“As if. My family lawyer will be the judge of that.”

“No. They won’t be.”

Andrew blinks at me, his face going slack for a second. Clearly, he was expecting the fancy lawyer card alone to shut me up. Rich people can be so predictable sometimes.

“I have the right to sue you for false accusations,” he insists, though he already sounds more uncertain than he was earlier. “We could launch an in-depth investigation.”