Loyalty (3)

Therefore, it was not surprising that Bai Yifei ultimately made such a choice.

But this promise...

"I can't give it to you."

After Red Lotus and Jing Ni conveyed the message, Ye Qingcang entered the palace again the following evening. After sunset, at around seven o'clock, he sat on the left side below the long table in Red Lotus's bedchamber, sipping tea as he spoke calmly to Lady Mingzhu across from him.

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

By all rights, Ye Qingcang should have sat at the head of the table.

Whether in terms of their relationship,

strength,

or status and background,

Ye Qingcang should not have been seated below Red Lotus.

Yet that was precisely how it was. Red Lotus sat at the head of the table, with Ye Qingcang and Lady Mingzhu seated below her on the left and right respectively. Only after them came Jing Ni, seated below Ye Qingcang.

Lady Mingzhu would have been lying if she said she felt no pressure.

Judging from the arrangement of the seats,

she had effectively been placed ahead of Jing Ni, a Grandmaster martial artist.

Had she been a Grandmaster herself, it would have been one thing.

After all, she represented Bai Yifei's position,

the position of that aunt, the Female Marquis,

and the position of more than half the Han Kingdom military.

She could not afford to be modest.

But she was only an Innate martial artist now.

If Red Lotus and the others had not all appeared perfectly normal,

she would truly have suspected that this was Ye Qingcang's way of establishing dominance,

of putting her over the fire to roast.

Thus, upon facing Ye Qingcang's refusal, Lady Mingzhu could no longer sit still. She immediately asked, "Why can't you give