"M... Mistress?!"
"How are you... aren't you in..."
Chrysanthemum Douluo was stepping out from inside the Pope Palace, lifting his head to see Qian Renxue walking straight toward him, and he froze in place like someone had cast a binding spell on him.
"That woman is inside?"
Qian Renxue stopped right in front of him.
Her voice was abnormally calm, but those typically cold eyes of hers surged with something tightly suppressed beneath that composure, something burning and nearly scalding hot.
Chrysanthemum Douluo opened his mouth. He wanted to say the Pope was currently in a towering rage and that this was no time to see her, but meeting Qian Renxue's eyes, he suddenly couldn't say a single word.
"Her Holiness the Pope is inside." He stepped aside, adding in a low voice, "Mistress, Her Holiness has been in a rather bad mood these past few days. You..."
Only, Chrysanthemum Douluo didn't even get to finish.
Qian Renxue had already brushed past him and pushed open the palace doors.
Bibi Dong sat upon the Pope Throne, currently reviewing an urgent document, and she lifted her head upon hearing the doors open.
Their gazes met.
The side hall grew entirely silent for a full five breaths.
Bibi Dong looked at Qian Renxue standing in the doorway. On that face were traces of Qian Xunji; the contours of her brows and eyes, the line of her jaw—all of it looked overwhelmingly like the man she had hated for a lifetime.
"What are you doing running back here without authorization instead of staying in Heaven Dou City?" Bibi Dong's voice was cold as usual, the tip of her brush not even leaving the document.
"Tell me, are those reports currently circulating outside true or not?"
Qian Renxue didn't offer a bow or exchange