Chapter Fifteen #4
Father Xiaobo said, “But heartbreak grass has a long history of being used in assassinations. The Russians used it to kill a man recently.”
“It was many years ago,” Mother Huiling corrected him.
“My point is that assassinations are mostly done by men.”
Shanlin seemed unimpressed with this argument, but at least Leander’s hand on his knee kept him silent.
Leander changed the subject. “Your gift is most generous. Too generous. I could not accept.” The thick envelope had what appeared to be close to 100,000 yuan.
Leander suspected 88,000 yuan since 8 was such an auspicious number.
Even without a phone to check the exchange rate, Leander knew that was a ridiculous amount of money.
“You will,” Father Xiaobo said. “It would be a great dishonor to welcome you with less.”
Mother Huiling smiled warmly before dropping a verbal bomb into the conversation. “You must tell us about the Boon family.” Leander winced. He understood that for the Chinese, family was important, but he had no family to bring to this adoption.
“What’s wrong?” Xi whispered, unable to follow the Chinese conversation.
“They asked about my family,” Leander explained. Now Xi winced. Mother Huiling and Father Xiaobo glanced at one another with concern.
“Is there any difficulty?” Father Xiaobo asked.
Leander knew he could not make himself sound unfilial under any circumstances.
Insulting one’s parents or ancestors was not acceptable, even if one was a complete asshole who had left his pregnant girlfriend.
And even if the other was his mother. He weighed his words.
“America is a difficult country,” Leander said.
“China is also difficult,” Father Xiaobo said. “Mother and I were both alive when China was even more difficult than it is now. We understand difficult governments make for difficult choices.”
Leander wished they were not so understanding.
Lying to people who made it this easy felt wrong.
“My father vanished before I was born,” Leander confessed.
Hopefully, that implied that the government had taken his father.
Hell, for all Leander knew, that could be the truth. He doubted it, but it was possible.
Mother Huiling’s face twisted with sympathy, which made guilt knot Leander’s innards.
“And your mother?” she asked.
Leander rubbed a hand across his face. He could talk about her paranoid delusions, the days when she would whisper they were being hunted by everyone from aliens to demons that crawled up from hell.
The nights they hid in random sheds and abandoned buildings.
As a very young child, Leander had believed her.
As he’d gotten older, he thought these were metaphors for the government.
But now he saw they were nothing more than hallucinations that had tormented his mother.
If the government had any clue Leander had talent, they would have arrested him the moment he went into care.
But that was not the story he wanted to tell.
Finn was the only one he had confessed the full truth to—Finn who had parents that adored him and had changed his name and given him fake paperwork and driven him states away from their home to throw the government off the trail.
Finn and Leander had both ended up at the same group home, but their paths could not have been more different.
Feeling guilty, Leander stole just a small portion of Finn’s story for his own.
“She believed people had found us, that they were after us and that if we stayed together, she would only make it easier for them to capture me. She left when I was young.”
Father Xiaobo sucked air through his teeth. “It is a terrible thing when a parent believes they may save a child only by leaving them.”
Leander swallowed. He hoped somewhere in his mother’s addled brain, that was the thought. But he knew it was more likely her disease lied to her and told her Leander had become an alien or a demon or whatever phantom haunted her nightmares on that particular day.
Mother Huiling leaned forward and patted Leander’s knee. It was an awkward position that forced her to stretch across the table, one hand bracing herself on it. Leander shook himself out of his melancholy and smiled at her. “I am grateful the Nie family has accepted me,” he said.
“Of course, of course,” said Father Xiaobo. “Will you take the Nie name for your own?”
Leander froze. The question was so unexpected his brain struggled to craft a response, and he even had to think for a moment to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood. “I am grateful you have made such an offer,” he said slowly.
Father Xiaobo waved a hand as though dismissing the issue as trivial, even though nothing about family structures seemed trivial in China. “We know you are Western, and we would honor your customs as well.”
“I...” Leander had no idea what this would mean for his relationship with the Nie family, so he needed to wait until Heng came back so he could talk to him.
“I must think on this and what my parents would have wanted for me,” Leander said, proud of himself for coming up with an excuse that saved all of them from embarrassment.
Mother Huiling patted his hand once more before settling back into her seat. “Auntie Daiyu says you are a skilled craftsman of baskets that can hold ling.”
“We can have many high-quality reeds delivered here for you, and we shall find someone to teach our grandson Shanlin how to speak Chinese as is proper,” Father Xiaobo added.
“I believe Pill Master Xiangren owes us a favor,” Mother Huiling said with a devious glint in her eye. “Would not two sets of language pills be an appropriate payment?”
Father Xiaobo smiled widely. “That is an excellent suggestion.”
Leander said quickly, “A set of pills is far too great a gift, even one would be. Shanlin and Xi shall both benefit from learning without assistance.”
Leander smiled at Xi, who was looking back and forth between them with a confused expression.
He knew something was happening, but Leander refused to translate the offer.
He might jump at the chance without understanding the value of the pills.
Language pills were less valuable than something like cultivation pills, but Xi could not grasp their worth. They were distilled magic. Pure power.
“Nonsense,” said Mother Huiling. “Shanlin is the first son of the qidi of my second son. And your friend is your qidi. We shall provide. This is the way of things. I will not allow my grandson to learn Chinese the slow way when such learning might cause an inauspicious accent.” She nodded firmly, clearly feeling the topic was closed.
Leander opened his mouth, but there was nothing he could say to counter that.
Leander could not deny their familial relationship.
He had no escape, and he felt like he had just been run over and then ordered to thank the driver.
It left him feeling off-balance and unsure, even if the driver who had run him over had the best of intentions.
He bowed his head. “I thank you, Mother Huiling. I shall weave my best basket in appreciation.”
She beamed at him, and Father Xiaobo chuckled. “It is a wise son who knows never to argue with Mother,” he said with a wink. “I will order the finest reeds.”
“Please do not,” Leander said. “My gift is with plants, and I can do my best work if I find live reeds and tangle my qi with the plant.” Leander could, of course, affect the magic in an individual leaf or harvested reed, but the magic never responded as well.
Father Xiaobo nodded. “Then I shall hire a local boy to show you places where reeds may be found.”
Leander wanted to turn down the offer, but refusing favors was as dangerous as asking for them. So he smiled graciously and accepted that he would have an escort. Luckily, his escort would not recognize what he was doing if he were to commune with a few trees and set a few sentinels.
“Excellent!” Father Xiaobo said, “and I shall inform everyone of our grand feast.”
“‘Feast’?” Leander asked, alarmed.
“The Nie family has a new son to honor,” Father Xiaobo said, “and a new grandson with Shanlin. The presentation of the first grandson of the family is always an auspicious moment, and we shall feast with the city to celebrate.”
Leander could gave a weak smile. Apparently, the adoption extended to Shanlin, so not only would Leander need to overcome the stereotype of a scheming adopted child, but he would need to do so after stealing the coveted position of first grandson.
Maybe Heng would forgive him for this, but the first-born Nie Zhiyuan certainly would not.