Ji Bingqian wore a gentle smile as he looked at Yun Si, the very picture of grace.
"My lady."
His voice was gentle, too.
"What made you so angry today?"
Yun Si sipped her tea. "The Ancestral Shrine's doors weren't sturdy."
The clan elders: "..."
Those were scarlet yang divine wood doors left by their ancestors!
Yet Ji Bingqian merely smiled, even agreeing with Yun Si. "Then they certainly ought to be replaced."
The clan elders: "..."
Ji Huang sat nearby. Since his father's arrival, he had looked up only once before returning to his tea, his manner exceedingly cold.
Yun Qing noticed this subtle exchange. This father and son don't seem particularly close.
Ji Bingqian paid no mind at all to his son's indifference. His gaze shifted to Yun Qing, whom he studied for a moment with a smile before nodding. "So this is Shuo?"
Ji Bingqian had accepted the name that readily, without the grief-stricken look of the elders behind him, whose faces proclaimed that their ancestral bloodline had suffered a great calamity today.
Whether he was genuinely broad-minded or a smiling tiger who concealed his schemes was another matter.
Yun Qing bowed in greeting, observing every courtesy.
"Greetings, Clan Head."
True to his name, Ji Bingqian waved a modest hand. "There's no need to be so formal."
The clan elders behind him were clearly about to die of anxiety.
One could not resist stepping forward. "Clan Head, about the Genealogy!"
"We'll discuss it later." Ji Bingqian raised a hand lightly, then actually walked straight over to Yun Si and sat beside her.
"Have you been well lately, my lady?"
Yun Si glanced at him. "Well enough."
Ji Bingqian smiled. "I've simply seen so little of you these past few days that, as your husband, I had to