The more he thought he knew, the more he realized how ignorant he was. He didn’t think he could be surprised at anything his mother did, but she proved him wrong every time.

“What are those gift cards?” Bai Li asked. He didn’t know what to do with his feelings. The more he found out, the less he wanted to know. Yet, he couldn’t stop wanting to know.

These answers would change his future.

Ping Zen sighed. “It was a different time. You have to understand it was a different time. Your grandmother and I were in an arranged marriage. Which was very common, but I already had a lover. A male lover.”

Bai Li felt that his tiny brain could not handle all this information.

“When my parents found out, they arranged the marriage for me. That was after my father beat me half to death. When my lover found out, we decided to separate. Both of us followed our parent’s wishes, but very soon I realized I wouldn’t be able to live like that.”

Opening the book he was holding, Ping Zen passed it to Bai Li.

Taking it, Bai Li saw a black and white photo. Ping Zen looked the same except a lot younger. Standing beside him was Cane Granger.

Bai Li pulled in a sharp breath. He looked up at his grandfather with wide eyes.

“We broke up. I got married, but two months in, I realized it was a terrible mistake. I was only eighteen. I didn’t know what to do.” Ping Zen’s voice wabbled. It seemed that this was still difficult for him to talk about. “I joined the military. Then the war started later that year.”

Bai Li flipped through the album as he listened to his grandfather’s story.

“I was on active duty and was sent to the front lines. It was six months before I found out that my wife was pregnant.” there was a beat of silence. “It is an awful thing to say, but I was relieved. I couldn’t leave the military and had a reason to avoid going home.”

“My tour of duty was four years. I served it in full before I went home. When I got there, I met my daughter, and my whole world changed. She was beautiful and adorable. She didn’t care about how much I screwed up or the mistakes I made. We were happy. I spoke to your grandmother, and we came to an agreement.” Ping Zen took a sip of water.

“Our relationship wasn’t sexual, but I loved her. We respected each other, and that was enough. I was twenty-four, and the industrial boom after the war started. I started Wen Shi because I wanted a better life for my family. I wanted to give them more options than I had.”

Bai Li saw a picture with three people holding hands. Ping Zen, a little girl he recognized as Ping An, and a soft smiling woman. Her eyes were open and honest.

“There were rough patches, but I was immensely successful. Your grandmother never took to the riches, but we were happy to give An An a better life. When An An was ten, I went on a business trip where I ran into someone. Cane was a widower. We remembered everything we had and everything we could have had.”

Bai Li thought that a lot was left unsaid in that sentence, but he didn’t want the details.

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“I went back home and resolved never to see him again. It stayed that way for two more years. Your grandmother knew, though. She knew something was different. I guess she got tired of living as friends. She asked for divorce having met someone else.”

Bai Li skipped pages. There was a wedding photo. The woman from before was smiling brightly with a tall man holding her close. In the next photo, Bai Li and the man were arm wrestling. The next photo had Cane and Ping Zen smiling at each other. The last was a photo with everyone and Ping An.

Bai Li wondered how that bright-eyed smiling girl grew up to be a maniac.

“You all look close.” Bai Li commented.

“We were. We remained close. Until their passing.” Ping Zen looked at the photos, his face was stone cold.

Bai Li felt that was more impactful than if his grandfather had shown excessive emotion.

“For her wedding present, I gave your grandmother 50 gift cards and shares in Wen Shi. She wasn’t the type of person to reach out without a push. They used the cards over the years for a mix of things. Her husband passed away from cancer. Back in a time when they were just figuring out the name for it. In three months, he was gone.”

“About two years later, she was walking home for a meeting when she was robbed. The assailant hit her on the head and left her to bleed to death.”

Bai Li heard the anger in his Grandfather’s voice.

“In her will, she left the remaining ten cards to An An. None of us could predict what a mess that would create.”

They were just getting to the meat of the matter. “How are those cards so...powerful?” Bai Li struggled to find the right word.

“They are legally binding. I am contractually obligated to fulfill the holder’s wishes unless the request is criminal or unethical. I felt guilty for my wife. It was a way to help her and ease my guilt. I never thought twice when An An inherited them. For years she didn’t use them.”

“Then she met your father. I don’t know if things were too easy her whole life, but when she couldn’t get him. He slowly slid off the deep end. I can’t tell you how long I have looked for a reason to have her committed or criminally charged.”

Bai Li digested those words. “You didn’t notice anything?” He found it hard to believe that his mother didn’t exhibit any behaviors that might have raised a warning.

“I don’t know,” Ping Zen admitted. “When you are too close to a situation, it is easy to miss signs. When I think back, the only thing that struck me as odd is how unaffected she was by her mother and step-fathers passing. She cried but…”

Ping Zen furrowed his brows. Thinking deeply, he tried to piece things together. He shook his head. “She used her first cards to have me hire Bai Tao. I thought nothing of it. He was a talent I had my eye on anyway. I was thrilled to scout him. I like the ambitiousness he displayed. For Wen Shi, whose heir didn’t want anything to do with business, I thought he would be best at moving the company forward.”

Bai Li didn’t know any of this. The story he knew was that Ping Zen introduced them to each other when he found out his daughter was incompetent. Ping An had been unwilling, but after spending time together, they came to love each other.

Then Bai Tao changed. Ping An was unable to cope and used hardline tactics that drove her husband farther away.

Fiction. The story he found out after investigating his parent’s relationship was fiction.

That was the story Ping An wanted to believe. Hell, in her mind, she might believe that was what happened.

“All of her wishes have had something to do with Bai Tao. No matter how I look, I can’t figure out her obsession with him.” Ping Zen took back the album. Closing it gently, he got up and placed it on the shelf.

His mother was a crazy stalker. How did stalkers form an obsession with targets? It wasn’t worth thinking about.

“I doubt those cards are enough to keep you from moving.” Bai Li found it hard to believe that cards were enough to restrict his grandfather.

“True, but I am sure you have already observed your mother’s way of doing things. The cards are just her first line of attack. To keep me from seeing you or your sister, she got a court order. She even opened a case claiming that I was sexually inappropriate towards her.” Ping Zen shoulders slumped.

“I don’t know how many emotions your mother feels. To her, you are like an arm or a leg. You should move or act the way she needs you to as an extension of herself. She will not be happy that her arm slapped her in the face.”

Bai Li disagreed. He wasn’t something as important as an arm. He was a strand of hair at most. Dirty under her nails at worst. She might be sad to lose his usefulness, or she might scrape him out and not care either way.

“I didn’t try to poison you.” Bai Li said. He wanted to talk more about his mother, but he needed to organize his thoughts first.

“Any time you want to talk. I am here. I was wondering if I had waited too late to get to you. The evidence is very compelling.” PIng Zen switched conversations.

This was good to know, but it didn’t change things for Bai Li.