Feifei's performance just now had been remarkably convincing! She'd looked exactly like a virtuous wife forced by circumstance to let her lover attend a business function—even one that included the seedier kind. Yu Lian knew perfectly well he was going to take care of serious business, yet somehow he still felt inexplicably guilty.
But if this was the seedier kind of function, wouldn't the Queen of Soluka be playing the hostess?
...Oh, so Feifei had been waiting to spring that on her all along? Once Yu Lian figured it out, every lofty impression he'd had of the Queen of Soluka vanished into thin air. When he saw the holographic projection of the future empress, whose beauty was dazzling and whose presence was every bit as formidable, he wasn't awestruck or intimidated. He even felt a little like laughing.
"It's been too long, Your Highness." Yu Lian held back a laugh and forced his face into a standard professional smile. He rested his fist against his chest and gave it a light tap, then drawled in the manner of an imperial courtier: "It's been half a year since we last met, and Your Highness seems to have grown rather thin!"
Brunhild said expressionlessly, "Disgusting! Lian, that expression of yours is disgusting. Every time you put on airs and imitate those old fossils from the Imperial Household Department and the College of Heralds, you push my sanity to its limit! After the way you insulted me, I thought that at least you'd say something nice and give me a pleasant look when we met again."
"Isn't this a nice thing to say, with a pleasant look to match?" Yu Lian pointed to his smile. "Besides, Your Highness, I didn't insult you. You were the one who first ignored basic diplomatic etiquette."
"When