Chapter Four: The Kiss Experiment

“A man over a century old should know when not to interrupt.” Chenxing looked up. “So I am over a century old.” Jiming had revealed what his people found in the Lu archives: a banquet register from 1926. On the night before the Xie estate burned, the Lu family hosted a dinner at South Huai Theater. The first guest was Xie heir Chenxing. The last was represented by a dark-green lip print. The menu listed First-Kiss Cookies, Eternal-Vow Brownies, and Mercy Cinnamon Rolls. “We go to the theater,” Zhiwei said. Jiming provided an armored van with blackout curtains. Chenxing still had to cross eleven meters of daylight. At the seventh, wind lifted his umbrella.