Qian Renxue's fingers paused slightly.
She raised her head and looked at Eva, a flicker of surprise passing through her cool eyes.
"Your information network is quite extensive."
Qian Renxue set down the memorial in her hand and leaned back in her chair. The bead strands of her crown swayed gently, producing faint clinking sounds.
She looked at Eva, the corner of her lips curling into an ambiguous smile.
Eva smiled. Her slender fingers continued lightly fiddling with the pearl bracelet around her wrist. Tilting her head, her emerald eyes gleamed eerily in the candlelight as she continued, "Who is the candidate?"
Looking at her, Qian Renxue's smile deepened slightly. "With information as extensive as yours, you don't know who it is?"
Eva was not annoyed. She merely sighed softly, a sigh faint yet filled with just the right amount of helplessness.
"No matter how extensive it is, it can't infiltrate Spirit Hall." Her voice was languid yet candid, as though she were discussing the most ordinary matter. "That is Spirit Hall, after all, not some teahouse or tavern in Heaven Dou City where any piece of news can be pried out."
As Qian Renxue listened to Eva, a hidden meaning flashed through her eyes.
Of course, she knew Eva was no ordinary woman, but Qian Renxue was not surprised.
From the day she decided to work with Eva, she had known that the woman before her was far from ordinary.
Their relationship had never simply been one of using and being used. It was a game in which each took what she needed.
Once, she had needed Eva's influence, Eva's mind, and the connections and informants Eva had amassed within this palace over more than a decade.
And Eva had needed her throne, her protection, and the power in