"Do you have a plan?" Xue Fuyao asked, cutting straight to the chase.
She was actually more curious about why this person had chosen her.
After all, of everyone there, she could be said to have lost the least. She had only had one fragment, after all.
Even that one fragment was something she had picked up in passing.
For Xue Fuyao, apart from feeling somewhat stifled, she could be said to have lost nothing along the way.
The other woman wasted no words either. She simply removed what she had used to conceal her face, revealing her true appearance.
The baby fat had yet to fade from her round face. Paired with her round eyes, that face alone, disregarding her build, made her look even younger than Xue Fuyao.
Her actual age.
"My name is Chen Lin, from a collateral branch of the Chen Household."
At that, Xue Fuyao stood up, ready to leave.
"Wait. I genuinely want to work with you. After what happened on the Spirit Boat, are you really willing to swallow that bitter humiliation?" Chen Lin said hurriedly.
Hearing this, Xue Fuyao paused and sat back down, but her gaze turned scrutinizing as she looked at Chen Lin, filled with distrust.
Chen Lin did not mind. Or rather, she had already anticipated this the moment she chose to reveal her identity.
Still, she believed sincerity was the prerequisite for cooperation, so despite having anticipated it, she had chosen to speak.
"Aren't you afraid they'll discover you're betraying your lineage?" Xue Fuyao asked.
Disciples from aristocratic clans were all deeply loyal to their lineages, after all. Some were even blindly loyal, valuing their lineage's orders above their own lives.
Even the rebellious ones would, at most, run away from home or sever ties with their lineages.