Jiang Yingcheng silently withdrew the hand she had been reaching toward the teacup and sat up properly in her chair, her lips moving a couple of times.
Her voice was so indistinct that even Jiang Yi'an, whose hearing far surpassed that of ordinary people, caught only two scattered words.
His eyes narrowed slightly. He picked up the teacup before him and blew gently across it, his voice cold. "Speak clearly."
"Are you a sore loser?!" Jiang Yingcheng abruptly raised her head, her round cheeks flushed scarlet with indignation. Her chubby little hand slapped the table with a series of smacks. "Y-you already did something as embarrassing as coming to the Heavenly Fragrance House to find girls, and now you're afraid of someone seeing you?!"
Liaochen and the others who had forced their way in were stopped outside the screen by guards rushing out from within. The door to the private room slammed shut with a bang, but her words brought the drawn-sword tension inside to a strange, momentary standstill.
"What did she just say?" Before Jiang Yi'an could speak, Li Cheng gave Liaochen a blank look.
The complicated emotions in his eyes could largely be summed up as a string of complaints he was all but bursting to voice: "It's people like you, defending her unconditionally, who have made this little dumpling so utterly lawless," and "Is no one going to do anything about a little girl talking like that?"
Liaochen turned his head slightly away. For the first time in his life, he felt the embarrassment of having the family's dirty laundry aired by the "dirty laundry herself."
Jiang Yi'an remained frozen with his teacup raised for a long moment, then suddenly smiled. "You're quite an interesting little thing."
He tilted his head slightly, gesturing toward Li Cheng and