An attendant presented a Whitetail Fan with a bamboo handle on a lacquered tray.
Yu Yi looked at the four of them and asked, "Who wishes to take this?"
"I do!" Yan Youcheng cried.
Seeing that Wang Yang and the other two remained silent, Yu Yi instructed the attendant to bring the lacquered tray before Yan Youcheng.
Yan Youcheng reached for it, but before he touched the Whitetail Fan, he suddenly stopped, his hand suspended in midair.
Yan Youcheng looked first at Liu Cheng, then at Xie Xinghan, and finally, out of courtesy, at Wang Yang. With a touch of unease, he asked, "You really don't want it?"
Liu Cheng shook his head, Xie Xinghan smiled without speaking, and Wang Yang gestured for him to proceed.
Yan Youcheng summoned his courage to take the Whitetail Fan, but at the thought of having Liu Cheng and Xie Xinghan beside him, he simply lacked the confidence to present an argument. He withdrew his hand. "My throat's a little dry. I'd better rest a while and listen to your arguments first."
Liu Cheng smiled faintly. "Then we shall choose the principal speaker from the three of us. Fourth Lady, Brother Wang, do either of you wish to take it?"
Neither Wang Yang nor Xie Xinghan spoke.
Reading the whole from that small sign, Liu Cheng said, "Since you're both being so modest, I'll do it."
The moment Yan Youcheng heard that Liu Cheng intended to speak, he grew anxious. "You can't present an argument! Once you do, it'll be as impregnable as walls of bronze and a moat of boiling water. What would we have left to discuss? We'd have no choice but to concede."
Xie Xinghan's brows drew together slightly.
Liu Cheng smiled. "'There is no thing that is not "that"; there