"Deliberately what?"
"Deliberately acting utterly devoted, talking as though everything they said was for your sake."
Li Xizhou laughed so hard she stopped drinking.
Pei Ye smiled too. "I was still very sporting. I fought them properly and didn't use any dirty tricks-but I'd advise you to stay away from men like that."
"Really? I happen to have a subordinate like that now."
"Who?"
"I forget his name. Anyway, when we first met, it was all 'Your Highness,' 'your humble subordinate,' and 'as you command.' Then he turned around and talked about me behind my back with Xu Chuo."
"..." Pei Ye thought for a moment. "At least that proves he likes Xu Chuo a lot."
Li Xizhou smiled and drank.
They drank quietly for a while before Li Xizhou asked, "How much is left?"
"One flask."
"Let's play pitch-pot."
"Sure."
"Same rules as last time-go get it."
The wine at her place was never very strong. Compared with what Pei Ye had once used to take his medicine, it was like sweetened water. They chatted beneath the moon, playing pitch-pot and drinking just as they had last time.
Though Pei Ye had become much more physically agile, she was no longer weak either, and once again she actually won by a single throw.
"You must practice in secret whenever you have nothing to do." Pei Ye laughed.
"Don't play if you can't take losing." Li Xizhou leaned back against his shoulder.
"You make quite a comfortable chair back," she said.
Pei Ye did not retort again. The lamps and candles on the terrace gradually dimmed, leaving only the pure light of the stars and moon.
"Xizhou," he said.
"Mm?"
"I think I'm beginning to understand what you meant just now."
Li Xizhou tipped her head back to look at