Zhi Ji's Request

The Cosmic Star Tribulation Hall, Cloudsilk Palace.

"Liu Bang searched everywhere for the Lü sisters and couldn't find them. How did they end up here? Did they really come just to attend the ceremony? And why did they arrive with Zhao Ji?"

After settling Zhangchu State's affairs, Jian Shang dealt with several other important matters of government, then headed for Cloudsilk Palace, where Zhao Ji and the Lü sisters were staying. The questions nagged at him along the way.

Jian Shang had not seen the sisters since the events in Xianyang, the Great Qin Imperial Capital. Now that he was about to meet them, he felt unexpectedly apprehensive.

It was hard to put into words: a little guilt, a little unease, a little embarrassment, a little anticipation, a little longing...

It was not romantic love. It was closer to friendship, threaded with gratitude and memories.

"Greetings, Huan King!"

When Jian Shang entered Cloudsilk Palace, the attendant announced him. Zhao Ji, the Lü sisters, Ying Tianlong, and Changsun Yu had risen to wait for him and greeted him with flawless courtesy.

Though Ying Tianlong and Changsun Yu had advanced to Loose Immortal, they still considered themselves Zhao Ji's servants—a remarkable thing. Zhao Ji led the group, so the formal greeting naturally fell to her.

"Hmph!" Lü Rong pursed her lips and turned her head away without greeting him at all.

Graceful as a pearl, radiant as jade; elegant, with the bearing of wealth.

That was Jian Shang's first impression of Zhi Ji. They had not met in months. Having lost her father and spent that time "hiding from place to place," she ought to have grown thinner and more haggard, he had thought. Instead, she had not.

Looking more closely, he saw that some of her youthful innocence had given way