"Fine. Then I'll bring it up at tomorrow's meeting." Yan Qing turned to leave. "I'll just pretend the conditions I can't meet don't exist."
"You!" Ying Ru Shi grabbed his sleeve. "At least... at least wait until I'm a little closer to them, okay?"
"How close? What exactly would that look like?" Yan Qing eyed her suspiciously. "I suspect you're just trying to stall."
Ying Ru Shi looked exactly like a woman being asked when she planned to marry while trying to wriggle out of it. She stammered, "W-Wait until they're willing to discuss matters involving you with me, then I'll tell them. After all, it'd be too immoral to give them advice while also... being with you."
"But if you don't tell me about your private relationship with them, how would I know?" Yan Qing still wasn't very satisfied. "Still... I suppose it's all right. Sigh, have you ever considered how I feel, always being so secretive?"
"You!"
If the education she had received since childhood had not forbidden her from swearing, Ying Ru Shi would have cursed this lecherous dog to death. She did not even bother asking him to dispel the barrier, instead raising her fists and striking him directly. "If it weren't for the mission and for your sake, would I need to hide it!? You were the one who provoked me, and you're the womanizer too. Now you even want me to help you keep it hidden... I'm doing this precisely because I'm considering your feelings! I don't want you to miss out on them because of me, and I don't want to see you sad... I don't want to keep hiding it either. I'm unhappy having to sit so far away from you during meals too!"
By the end, Ying Ru Shi could no