The next time someone came into the room, Bai Li took the moment when everyone was distracted to switch his glass. The extra glass, he rolled under the couch.

He looked up. No one was paying attention to him except Anne. He watched as she did the same thing. They shared a smile before resuming their innocent expressions.

This was common sense, especially when the seating was prearranged. They couldn’t spike the bottle since everyone would insist that the drinks be given to everyone, but what was stopping them from tampering with the glasses?

If it was Bai Li, he would use a two-step trap. Both the glass and bottle would be spiked. Only when the two came into contact would a problem arise.

He leaned back, watching as the class interacted. Eddie was a social butterfly. The connections he developed here would help him get a foothold in his family’s company. As the second son, he would need them to crawl out of his brother’s shadow.

There was a commotion at the door before a familiar face burst into the room. His old middle school buddies were stumbling about. They apologized for entering the wrong room. The leader didn’t deliberately look in Bai Li’s direction, which just made him appear more suspicious.

Bai Li pretended not to know who it was. Was he brain dead enough to call out? He hadn’t contacted them in three months was enough of an indicator that their time as friends was at an end.

They would not be seeking him out if it was not for their connection with his mother and the Goldstein family.

“Bai Li?” Middle schooler # 1 called out. His act of suddenly noticing him was awkward. The people in the room sensed something was off. “It has been a while. Why don’t I buy you a drink?”

Bai Li sat staring at him. His neck shrank under the weight of Bai Li’s stare. His best friend stepped in. An arm around the shoulder broke the tension. Bai Li didn’t even want to think his name, but instinct told him that they would be meeting often.

“Roger,” Bai Li greeted curtly.

“LI,” Roger greeted back.

There was a smile playing at both their lips. Bai Li wondered what happened to Roger in his last life. They lost contact when Bai Li went abroad. Roger didn’t have the low-level scum energy that he expected him to have.

This was a snake that would go far if not kept in check.

“You look well,” Roger said.

“Doing okay,” Bai Li answered. “How are things for you? Everything Golden?” Bai Li fought the smile at the pinched look on Roger’s face.

“Don’t you know you shouldn’t carelessly pet a tiger?” Roger asked.

Picking up the bottle, he poured a drink. “Petting a tiger? I don’t know what you are talking about. I am only changing the water on some goldfish.”

Bai Li could be this confrontational because the Goldstein family couldn’t hold up under the weight of the Ping family. Knox Degas was also backing him up. He didn’t have to worry about those small fries.

Bai Li wouldn’t have wasted his breath if Ping An wasn’t involved. He remembered the comfortable feeling after he realized that he didn’t even have to lift his hand. He’d wasted time coming up with countermeasures only for the problem to be taken care of.

He’d even turned around and profited by shorting the stock of the Goldstein group.

“Haha, why didn’t I realize you were this interesting?” Roger sat beside Bai Li, pouring a drink for both of them.

“If you were able to realize, then I wasn’t doing it properly.” Bai Li took a sip. Despite schooling his expression, Bai Li caught the flash of satisfaction that danced through Roger’s eyes. Naive.

Eddie was watching their interaction with interest. Anne wore a worried expression but had a smile in her eyes. The rest of the class was watching with varying expressions.

“It was good to see you.” Bai Li finished his drink. “Since this was our old haunt, I expected to see you here.”

The look in Eddie’s eyes changed. The lackey to his left dropped the glass he was holding. Bai Li didn’t care about these small tricks, but he wasn’t willing to let anyone who schemed against him go. Eddie should be able to sort out his own people.

Roger downed his drink before leaving the room.

“Well then,” Bai Li clapped his hand, and the wait staff came in. “I will cover the bill. It was my fault that riff-raff wandered in.”

There were laughs all around. Everyone switched gears. They started to drink and socialize.

The night ended.

The moment Bai Li got into the car, his phone started to ring. Glancing at it, he saw Knox’s name on the caller id.

“What was the point?” Knox asked.

“Well, hello to you too,” Bai Li said. He was a bit tipsy, but not enough to lose rationality.

“Was there any reason to poke the hornet’s nest?” Knox’s tone lightened.

It was odd to have someone worried about him. “I already beat the hornet’s nest with a stick. If I started to act quiet, it wouldn’t be to my benefit.”

“Bullshit!”

Bai Li smiled. It was bullshit, but he would never admit it. “Did you call for something else?” The dial tone was the only response he got.

Laughing, he raised the privacy screen between him and the driver.

“Campo, did you get it?”

“Yes, boss.” The way Campo answered had lost the flippant note his voice used to have. The phone in his hand felt like it was burning through his palm. “I cloned their phones.”

The technology to clone phones wasn’t radical or new. It just wasn’t widespread. It would be commonplace in a few years when cybercrimes became prevalent.

“What about their credit cards?”

“The magnetic strip reader thing that you gave me seemed to have worked.” Campo was afraid of this young boy. The sophistication and ease with which he committed crimes. A shudder ran through his body. He’d thought it was a joke when Bai Li asked if he was willing to do extracurricular work. Now he knew for sure that he would be killing a few people.

“Good. Get the information to Carpenter.”

Why would Bai Li go out of his way to participate? Of courses, it was to get the most benefit.

Bai Li didn’t care about Roger. What he was after was the numbers and messages on his phone.

It would be years before people knew they had to guard against being hacked and having their phones cloned.

Since there was a gap, he would start to piece together Ping An’s network.

The more information he had, the more people he could be.

He sent out an apology to his classmates and the patrons of the bar.

He lowered the barrier. The news was playing on the radio. The story was about a shocking financial crime that was rocking the country. A popular Electronics company employee was suspected of having embezzled millions of dollars from the company.

Bai Li checked his bank account statement. Carpenter had transferred half of the money he stole. This was okay. They would be tied together as criminals. This was the comfort that Carpenter needed to work under Bai Li.

This way, neither of them could carelessly betray the other. Or that was what it looked like on the surface.

If Bai Li wanted to break ties, this small thing wouldn’t be able to hold him. He would need to warn his family about the dangers and benefits of foreign bank accounts. He was counting down the days until online banking was the staple.

“I should become a criminal,” He mused out loud. It was an off-hand comment, so he didn’t pay attention to how Ferron flinched.

Ferron pretended to be blind and deaf. The little boss was just as dangerous as the big boss. Your corpse would be buried before you even realized that you were dead.

The surface loyalty he had towards Bai Li deepened a bit without him realizing it.

The call connected. “Campo will be providing you with some information. Compile full dossiers on the people inside. After that is done, get in contact with behavioral analysts and psychologists. Do a comprehensive analysis.”

“It would be best if you found people that are willing to join our team or that we can partner with for the long term. This is not the only time that we will require their area of expertise.”

Carpenter had adopted a wait-and-see policy when it came to Bai Li. He was resentful toward the young child who overturned his life and exposed his insecurities. Yet, after a day. Those petty thoughts had drifted away.

He didn’t have the capability to crawl in this boy’s shadow much less be resentful. Working as a secretary would benefit him more than Bai Li. Early on, it became apparent that he was thrown all the tasks that Bai Li was too lazy or busy to do.

If he wasn’t here. Bai Li would still beagle to do his work. He might even be more efficient. His young boss was brilliant but lazy. That might be the biggest blessing. It terrified him what it would look like if Bai Li became serious.