“No doubt you expected an American bedroom with room for line dancing,” Leander snapped even though he felt just as shocked as Xi.“I’ll call up room service and request a larger suite.”
“Ass,” Xi whispered.
Leander didn’t argue.He was being unreasonable, but the room was a shock.
“I guess families are more willing to share beds here.”Xi glared at the bed as though it had offended him.Then he shook his head like a dog coming out of the water before focusing on Leander.“What made you so upset in there?”
“The situation is getting complicated,” Leander said.
Xi snorted.“The situation has been complicated since we were twelve years old,” he said dryly.
Leander disagreed.Back then, life was simple.Grown-ups had the power to do whatever they wanted; kids were helpless against an uncaring system.Life had been unrealistically simple back then.
“The family has accepted the adoption in a way I didn’t expect them to,” Leander admitted.He was the one with experience living in China, and from all the stories he had seen on television, the older generation should have suspected adoptees at best.Yet events kept knocking him so off-balance that he didn’t know how to react.
“You tend to assume people will reject you, which says something about your self-esteem,” Xi said.
Leander ran his fingers over the Go board set into the table.“Don’t try psychoanalyzing me.I had the same childhood therapist you did, and I recognize her words perfectly well.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re wrong,” Xi said.“But that still doesn’t tell me what upset you.My paranoia is running rampant here.What aren’t you telling me?”
Leander glanced toward the dim hallway that ran along the backside of the house.He couldn’t hear Shanlin, but Leander had eavesdropped enough as a child to be distrustful.Closing his eyes, he felt for the small bonsai tree sitting on a shelf in his room.A rustle of paper, the slow slide of a page turning.It sounded like Shanlin was lying on his bed reading something.
Leander closed the carved doors to the hallway with athunk.Everything in this house was ornate and solid and elaborate.He never knew Heng had come from such a wealthy family.
Xi waited until Leander sat before asking again.“Your silence is making me consider panicking.What is going on?I don’t know more than a half-dozen words in Chinese, and most of those have to do with Chinese takeout menus.But I know you.I can see your reactions.What happened?”He said the last two words with a sharp precision that demanded answers.
Leander looked out of the window and across the inner courtyard.The house that belonged to Heng’s older brother Zhiyuan was on the other side, and only the garden separated them.If Leander had his way, he would have stayed somewhere else.Hell, the house in the outer village was probably safer than this place.
“Adoption is not always looked on favorably in Chinese culture,” Leander said quietly.“Media shows people who get adopted as grasping and willing to stab the family in the back given half a chance.”
“Actual Chinese culture, or the dramas you keep talking about?”Xi asked.From his expression, he did not take the danger seriously.
Leander was so tired.He would go to bed and hope tomorrow was better, but apparently his only bed came with a bedmate, and he was not ready to handle that sort of drama.“Fictional stories often reveal culture.”
Xi scoffed.“Then should I expect all American stepmothers to be evil?”
“All?No,” Leander said, “but when we were kids, we met enough kids coming out of bad family situations with stepparents.You’re a police officer; I’m sure you’ve seen a few examples of evil stepmothers or fathers.”
Xi winced.Apparently, Leander had scored a direct hit, but he didn’t give up on his argument.Xi said, “Heng’s parents seem wonderful.They’ve embraced Shanlin as a grandson, so I don’t think they’re going to fall for any of those myths.You’re looking for problems.”
“Being here may put Mother Huiling and Father Xiaobo in a difficult position, especially with their eldest son.Nie Zhiyuan would have expected he would provide the first grandson.But now, the Nies are giving that status to Shanlin.It won’t make him or us popular with Zhiyuan and his friends.”Leander tried to will away the nagging headache that was trying to form.
“Are we in danger?”Xi asked, his dismissive attitude vanishing in a blink.
“I don’t know,” Leander admitted.“I didn’t know how rich Heng’s family was, and I don’t know if first son Zhiyuan is violent.If he believes we have tricked his parents, he may see it as his obligation to stop us, and I don’t know if he’s the type of man who would target us to defend his inheritance.”Leander ran his fingers over the Go board and tried to think past the dull panic that had settled into his soul.
“Well, shit,” Xi whispered.“Could he have been the one who poisoned me...You were the one who should have been handling the basket as you collected plants.”
“I don’t know,” Leander said wearily.“If the Nies mentioned to him that they wanted to give Shanlin the status of first son...maybe.If they take birth order as seriously as they do in dramas, it’s possible, but it’s also possible the culture is more modern and they don’t care.”
“So you know exactly nothing,” Xi summarized.Leander would have taken offense, but that was an accurate summary.
“I’ll feel better when Heng gets back, and we can talk to him about what’s going on with the family dynamics.”
“So when is your hot little lover going to be back?”Xi toed off his shoes and scooted back onto the bed.
Leander’s heart almost stopped as he shushed Xi.“Do not say that,” he hissed.He leaned forward and poked a long, sharp finger toward Xi.Xi’s eyes grew huge, and Leander reminded himself that Xi was an ally–his only ally.He had said that out of ignorance, not out of a desire to get them all killed or exiled.
