You... I Want It

On the fifth floor of the Starry Sky Auction House stood a lavishly decorated, spacious office.

Ji Ruxue rested her chin on both hands atop an ice-crackle-patterned red sandalwood desk. Flowing light from outside the window passed through a glazed lamp and fell across her face, making her misty almond eyes all the clearer. Yet her delicate brows were tightly furrowed, like cloud brocade that had been crumpled by someone's hand.

Her pouting red lips could have hung a wine gourd from them. The fingers of her boneless little hand tapped unconsciously against the desktop, producing soft tap-tap sounds.

The auction house ledgers spread across the desk had long since been pushed aside. A cinnabar brush sat crookedly in the inkstone, where the spilled ink had spread into a small blot like a black cloud.

Ever since receiving that transmission talisman from her mother half an hour ago, she had had no mind for work.

"A marriage meeting?"

"They actually came up with something like that!"

The young woman abruptly straightened, the silver chain at her waist clinking crisply.

"That foppish young master who only knew how to carry a birdcage through the Courtesan Bureau—was he worthy of standing beside me, Ji Ruxue?"

Ji Ruxue casually grabbed a jade ruyi and hurled it onto the couch. The brocade bed curtains swayed violently from the impact, revealing the white fox-fur robes laid within.

Northern Ling Venerable had given those to her last year, yet at this moment, she treated them as an outlet for her frustration.

The transmission talisman on the desk still flickered with a faint golden glow, and her mother's gentle yet unquestionable voice seemed to echo in her ears.

"Xue'er, be good. The marriage alliance between the Shen Family and our Ji Family is something your grandfather has