"Two powerful sects, both well suited to you, are willing to take you in when you've fallen on hard times. Which one would you choose?" Lu Yin suddenly asked.
Yi Shang hesitated. "I'd think about it."
"Think about it?" Lu Yin laughed. "Do you even have the right?"
Yi Shang stared blankly at Lu Yin, then gave a bitter smile. "That's right. Do I have the right to think about it? The moment I started thinking, I'd already failed."
To a sect, a down-and-out person was no better than an ant. Being willing to take him in was already a great stroke of fortune. If that person still wanted to think it over, still wanted to weigh his options, it would be an insult to the sect. The faster he chose, the more the chosen sect would feel acknowledged. Even if that acknowledgment came from nothing more than an ant, it would still benefit the down-and-out person. He might offend the other sect, but that wasn't something he needed to consider.
Thinking things over? Plenty of people had been ruined by those words.
People were better off being decisive.
Yi Shang took a deep breath. If he could go back to his younger days, he would choose one immediately. After all, he'd lived long enough to understand that much. But he had spent far too long in a position of power, and he couldn't help thinking of himself. Perhaps it was also a merchant's instinct.
How similar this was to his current predicament.
Did he have the right to make a deal with Lu Yin? To save Yi Xia, he should have offered Lu Yin everything he'd gathered throughout his life and promised to work for him. No, he should have offered himself first, then asked Lu Yin to save