When Xiahou Yu brought over dinner, Shen Tang was dozing beside a rockery. Two round-bellied wine jars lay by her feet, and a faint scent of alcohol clung to her. He raised a hand to brush away the mosquitoes buzzing around them. Shen Tang asked, "Did those two leave?"
"They did. Did things not go smoothly with him, my lord?" Thinking of Zhai Xiaofang's dark expression when he left, and the friend who had been too frightened to come forward and see him off, Xiahou Yu had a guess about how the negotiations had gone.
Shen Tang sat up straight, took the bowl and chopsticks, and quickly shoveled down a few mouthfuls.
"Not smoothly. His appetite's too big, and he's too slippery."
Since making an outrageous demand and then bargaining down was standard procedure in negotiations, Shen Tang wasn't in a hurry. She had plenty of patience to keep grinding away at Zhai Le. At worst, she'd throw caution to the wind and swallow her pride to ask Wei Cheng and his nephew for backup, then take on the pressure of fighting two against one.
It would be difficult, but there was still hope of getting through it.
The problem was how to persuade Wei Cheng and his nephew. Getting those two old geezers to agree wouldn't be easy. A thousand worries tangled in her mind, leaving her unable to sort out a single thread. Only food could dispel them all. But the more she ate, the less she could settle her thoughts.
She couldn't help grumbling, "Zhai Xiaofang used to be so easy to fool."
Xiahou Yu was rather surprised by that assessment.
He didn't seem to think the word could describe Zhai Xiaofang.
Xiahou Yu recalled some of the things his friends had said about the young sovereign.