The Gap

"He only said a few words and then left? What a strange man."

From beginning to end, Qin Xin had not said a word. She felt this was a man's affair, and men should be the ones to step forward and decide. All she could do was stay by Duàn Yì's side, never leaving him.

But once Chen Xing had left, Qin Xin could no longer hold back her confusion. Her clear, bright eyes followed the direction in which he had departed as she asked in bewilderment.

In her view, if the other party truly wanted Duàn Yì to do something for them, they should have been more resolute and more sincere. Even if they could not match Liu Bei's three visits to the thatched cottage, they should at least have patiently and earnestly persuaded him several times.

Instead, the man had finished speaking, Duàn Yì had considered and refused, and then he had simply left. His decisiveness was strangely abnormal.

Duàn Yì returned the Dragon Abyss Sword to the clasp at the side of his saddle. Slowly turning the blood-red thumb ring on his hand, he sneered,

"There's nothing strange about it. He was merely a mouthpiece, delivering someone's thoughts to me.

"As for what I think, in the eyes of someone like that, it simply isn't worth mentioning."

Duàn Yì was clear-headed and knew himself well. Thus, whether it was Zhenbei King's Mansion or the Crown Prince, he held no particularly favorable impression of either.

The mansion had indeed given him quite a few benefits, but in a certain sense, it had also cut off some of his hopes. Even blood ties had been treated as a transaction—heartless indeed. It was inevitable that resentment lingered in his heart.

The Crown Prince, meanwhile, had his eyes on the future