“My darling Li.”

” Who are you? Where have you gone?”

“I will see you in a year.”

“I love you.”

“Mom”

Bai Li set Bai Fang on the bed in the guest room. Going into his office, he pulled out the letter from Ping An.

With his hand trembling, he flipped it over the note.

This was a code he wouldn’t be privy to until he was older.

Why would she send him a note with a message encrypted in a code he didn’t know? He shuddered.

In the corner, there were three dots and then the date. Moving to the side of the office, he found the stack of newspapers.

He found the corresponding date and turned to page three. Looking, he found the third article on the page.

After he finished converting the code, he stared at the words in shock.

Good job. I am proud. Think for yourself. Be happy.

He did not understand much about his mother, but this is not a message she would send him. He took up a copy of the dictionary.

Ping An had several ciphers she liked to use for different groups. He found out about several purely by accident. She had discarded them when she realized he knew them. He could only hope one of them was in use at this time.

This code wasn’t meant for him. Who else would have come into contact with this letter?

He changed all the letters in the note into their numerical equivalent. He worked for two hours before he figured it out.

Trouble. Cease all activities. Isolate BW. Asses BL.

He needed to find out who came into contact with this letter.

While his grandfather and cane wouldn’t guard the letter, it wasn’t something a random person could get their hands on.

There was someone in that house they needed to be wary of. The hardest thing to defend against was an attack in the dark.

How could he let them know without showing his hand?

Picking up the letter, a troubling idea passed through his mind. Moving to another draw, he took out a black light.

There were sequential dots in neat rows. Was it braille or morse code?

Asses PZ. Poison? Send away CG.

The letter was meant for at least four people to see.

BT. Woman? Child? Away. 6 months-1 years.

Could he call her economical? To send so many messages in one note. There might be more that he wasn’t aware of.

Taking out a lighter, he burned the note. All the related parties were likely to have received their message.

It frustrated him, but he would have to ignore all the information he found out. It was a test. If any of her spies were weeded out, she would know that her information network was compromised.

Ping An was poking around to see what happened to cause him to slip out of her grasp. It seemed he would have to endure a series of tests.

Bai Tao and Ping Zen might think he was hiding until he found the right time to slip out of his mother’s control, but Ping An would know differently.

It was hard to know if she realized any differences in his behavior during the last few months. Plus, he wasn’t sure about the placement of cameras in the house.

Remembering the photo of his friend and the Goldstein family representative, a plan was formed.

Pulling out his phone. He dialed Dave Campo. “Find all the information you can on the Goldstein family and…,”

After confirming what he wanted, he ended the call.

He could blame this on a slip from the friends his mother put at his side. There was no way to confirm it, but it was a plausible reason.

He often visited their houses and went through their phones. Anything could have triggered him. That is what he needed his mother to believe.

The doorbell sounded, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Bai Tao stood at his door.

Moving out of the way, he motioned for him to enter.

“Are you here to pick up Bai Fang?” Bai Li knew this was only his wishful thinking.

“Don’t you have anything you want to ask me?” Bai Tao countered.

What was there to ask? “Will the answers change anything? Will they help me move forward?” They wouldn’t. Bai Li was curious about the past, but he was more concerned with the future.

“Do you want your mother dead?” Bai Tao sat on the couch. He stared at his fingers.

Bai Li watched his father. He didn’t know what answer the man was looking for. If he could get away with it, he would already have put a plan in place to get rid of her. There was no love lost between them, and he wasn’t above murder.

After coming to the past, most of his time was spent figuring out how to get rid of or neutralize his mother.

It wasn’t lost on him that a bullet to the brain was the fastest way to achieve that. It wasn’t feasible.

Adding on to the fact that Ping An was careful, there was still Ping Zen protecting her.

It wasn’t lost on him that his grandfather wanted to institutionalize her. Not to kill her.

Bai Li wasn’t willing to risk his freedom to do it himself.

“It would simplify things.”

Bai Tao weaved his fingers together. “The Goldstein family was in contact with Lee Shan’s mother.”

That name was coming up more and more recently. It wasn’t a good sign.

“That means Ping An has known about your little family for a while now.” Bai Li got them something to drink. “If she knew about Bai Fang’s parentage, she wouldn’t be going about it calmly.”

Lee Shan was special. Only she would invite the enemy in and give them a map to locate her weaknesses. Her mother was even better. She went around digging graves for the entire family.

“Have you told this to Lee Shan?”

“I showed her proof. She doesn’t believe me. She thinks that I made it up.” Bai Tao squeezed the bridge of his nose.

Denial. Lee Shan didn’t have anyone to lean on if her parents proved to be untrustworthy. Her entire belief system was crumbling. “Leave Bai Fang here. We start school on Monday. Figure out a way to clean up that mess. He is smarter than you give him credit for, and he hears a lot.”

Bai Fang didn’t agree or disagree. “What did you and your grandfather talk about?”

“My allowance.” Bai Li said simply. There was no need to go into the details of what he received. He wasn’t sure if Bai Tao was privy to the information about Ping Zen and Cane’s relationship, so he didn’t bring it up.

Bai Li was waiting for school to start.

Knox looked at the message. Was Bai Li lying or telling the truth? Bai Li didn’t appear to have a team of his own, yet he had a source of reliable information.

This source had information on Knox but not on Ping An?

His first assumption was that Ping Zen stepped in, but he kept an eye on any movement from the old monster. All things were quiet on that end, so he discarded the idea.

Did he use his mother’s network? He found that hard to believe. From everything he managed to find, it was clear that Bai Li was in hiding.

He only exposed himself to use C-school to threaten his mother and the Goldstein family. His actions had the intended effect and limited their activities.

Knox added fuel to the fire by exposing their deal to some interested parties. Both the Goldstein’s and Ping An would be sorting the mess out for quite a while. In the best-case scenario, their partnership might be permanently damaged.

It didn’t sit right. You could call it a gut instinct, but something was telling him he was missing the plot. There was also the phenomenon that happened when the people from the hospital were around Bai Li.

Something big was hiding here. He couldn’t figure out what.

Then there was Campo and Carpenter. Dave Campo worked as a security guard. His resume was spotless. It was too bad that all of it was fake. The real information was enough for Knox to cough up blood.

A diamond was sitting in his nest, and he threw it out thinking it was a bug. It also proved that Bai Li had eyes in Trident. Something that Knox thought was impossible.

Carpenter is another person he wished to pull to his side. Instead of reporting the embezzler, Tobias Carpenter was setting him up for a bigger fall. The small to medium end crime had jumped to six-figures and corporate espionage under Carpenter's careful hands.

Bai Li’s actions looked haphazard. He didn’t want to damage the trust he was trying to build between them by asking the men he sent over for inside information, but he couldn’t figure out Bai Li’s erratic movements.

What was the end goal?

Should he just ask?

Bai Li was willing to talk to him, which was more than he thought possible when he first contacted the prickly porcupine.

Biting the bullet he sent out a text, “What are you doing?”

He couldn’t stop smiling when he got a reply.

“Lots of things.”