Asano Nene's back was slightly bowed in the cramped space beneath the table. Her black hair slipped off her shoulders and hung on either side of her knees. She resembled a piece of antique porcelain stuffed into a narrow box, awkwardly positioned yet dignified in bearing.
Clearly, she really had put a tremendous amount of work into her deportment and poise before this.
Time to eat!
Yongye exhaled comfortably, pulled off a second piece of squab, and tossed it into his mouth. After chewing twice, he lifted the purple clay teapot and poured himself a cup of tea. He took a sip, set the cup down, then tilted his head to glance beneath the table, his lips curving with undisguised satisfaction.
He picked up his chopsticks again, took a piece of back meat from the steamed coral trout, dipped it in the soy sauce at the bottom of the platter, and ate leisurely.
Kikyo knelt opposite him, quietly watching him eat. Occasionally, she rose to refill his tea or used the serving chopsticks to turn the squab over, ensuring that every side was heated evenly.
Her movements were extraordinarily light and steady, each timed precisely to the intervals when he put down his chopsticks, as exact as an instrument calibrated thousands of times.
Tamamo-no-Mae leaned against the edge of the cabinet beside the dining table, her nine tails slowly unfurling behind her. Her pale purple eyes swept from beneath the table to the tabletop and back again, the smile on her lips shifting from mischievousness to a deeper amusement.
"Lord Yongye, isn't this morning's breakfast especially flavorful?"
Yongye popped a jumbo shrimp dumpling into his mouth. The springiness of the shrimp and the softness of the wheat-starch wrapper alternated between his teeth. He chewed twice and swallowed, then spooned some