Loyalty (3)

Therefore, it was hardly surprising that Bai Yifei had ultimately made such a choice.

But this promise...

"I can't give it to you."

After Crimson Lotus and Jing Ni relayed the message, Ye Qingcang entered the palace again the following evening. A little after sunset, around seven o'clock, he sat at the left side beneath the long table in Crimson Lotus's chambers, sipping tea as he calmly spoke to Lady Mingzhu across from him.

To be honest, Lady Mingzhu found this seating arrangement quite strange.

Logically, Ye Qingcang should have sat at the head of the table.

Whether considering their relationship,

their strength,

or their status and background,

Ye Qingcang should not have been seated below Crimson Lotus.

Yet that was precisely how it was. Crimson Lotus sat at the seat of honor, with Ye Qingcang and Lady Mingzhu seated below her on the left and right respectively. Only then came Jing Ni, seated below Ye Qingcang.

It would have been a lie to say Lady Mingzhu felt no pressure.

Judging by the arrangement of the seats,

it was practically the same as placing her ahead of Jing Ni, a Grandmaster-level martial artist.

If she were a Grandmaster herself, that would have been one thing.

After all, she represented Bai Yifei's position.

She represented the position of that aunt, the Female Marquis.

She also represented the position of more than half of Han Kingdom's military forces.

She could not afford to be modest.

But she was only an Innate Martial Artist now.

If Crimson Lotus and the others had not all appeared perfectly composed,

she truly would have suspected this was Ye Qingcang's way of knocking her down a peg.

The kind that left her roasting over a fire.

Thus, faced with Ye Qingcang's refusal, Lady Mingzhu immediately lost her