Running out to the front desk, Lin Songmei thanked the receptionist before grabbing the food and disappearing back toward the stairs. Dodging the elevator after seeing a huge party of people crowd their way into it, Songmei flew down the stairs, returning to the room that Yan Mingqing, Han Youhong, and Wang Taigang were in.

“I’m back!” Songmei burst through the doors, her arms laden with the food ordered. “I hope I didn’t miss too much. Come get your food though, there’s one bag for each of us.”

With Mingqing running over to help carry the bags back to the table, Songmei murmured a small “thank you” as they passed the food out to everyone.

“I’ve never seen a place deliver this fast though, what is this? How do they do it?” Taigang asked, incredulity painted clear across his face. “It was like... two minutes? Maybe three? Maybe five... I have no clue... but no matter how long it took, it was barely a blink of the eye!”

Songmei had to agree. She remembered the first time she and Mingqing had ordered from the place a few days prior after Youhong had recommended it. Having ordered, Songmei and Mingqing had seen the “Delivers Fast” label, yet didn’t think too much of it.

Yet, with their food ordered, Songmei walked out from their bedroom, wanting to take a shower after waking up sweaty. Not a minute after the water had been turned on though, the exact moment she had taken off all her clothes, a notification had come in, letting her know that the food had been delivered to the receptionist downstairs.

What followed? An awkward, painful conversation while naked through the bathroom door asking Mingqing to go pick up the food.

This was before they had started dating too! The resulting embarrassment ate through Songmei faster than Youhong ate through supplies of lychee jelly! Songmei knew it shouldn’t have been that embarrassing, but even now, it still was! Even after having bathed together after their duel yesterday...

Having ordered a lychee chicken dish along with a lychee almond jelly dessert, Youhong made a beckoning hand motion towards Songmei, Mingqing, and Taigang. “C’mon, I want to know about these supposedly hot people. I might not care too much in the end, but I want to hear all of your opinions about them.”

“So, first of all, all of the seven lords of the districts are foundation establishment cultivators. But because of the Qi that permeates Westriver, they probably aren’t much further than that.” Mingqing clarified, making sure to lay out as much information as possible to avoid Youhong having any potential misconceptions.

“They should leave...” Youhong murmured with a shake of the head, “If they’re already at the top of the food chain they should just get going already.”

“Well, they might be attractive, but none of them are heaven defying talents. I think out of the eight extraordinary meridians, Pride has opened the most, and they’ve only opened three of the eight.” Mingqing shrugged, pulling out her own food out of her takeout bag. “After climbing all the way to the top of their respective districts, they don’t have much of an incentive to leave, I think.”

“Well, one or two, I can sorta understand, but three, three’s not too bad. You could make a decent living, climb a decent few more ranks.” Youhong sighed, sinking back into his seat, “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, I’m not one to judge their life choices. Let me see some pictures of them, then tell me about all your opinions on them.”

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“Okay, let’s just start with Pride,” Taigang offered, “They’re the one who probably looks the most similar to Youhong.”

Pulling up a picture, Taigang’s terminal had a picture of a pale, androgynous person with long straight black hair. With deep black eyes that could be interpreted as either mysterious or empty, Pride had a single silver, ring earring.

“Wearing a suit too?” Youhong whistled with a chuckle, pulling up a picture of himself. “I can see why a lot of people simp over Pride. I can see the similarity I have with them too... The only real differences are my red eyes and my slightly wavy hair that’s also short. Oh yeah, also I guess there’s a bit of a face shape difference.”

Giving Youhong some time to look at the two a little more, everyone ate in silence for a bit before Youhong asked, “Which side is Pride in? Also sure, feel free to give me another.”

“Pride is in the South,” Songmei answered after swallowing a spoonful of her soup. “Okay here, I have a picture of Wrath here. She wears a lot of armor because... why not I guess? She has really short blond hair, shorter than yours, Youhong. It’s a paler blond than Taigang’s though, and uhh, I’m pretty sure Wrath is one of the four in the north.”

“I see... yeah, certainly, certainly, it’s pretty pale, maybe a platinum blond? She really fits the Wrath... uhh judicial motif though. She looks pretty righteous though for someone who works in the underworld.” Youhong murmured, reaching over to steal some eggroll from Taigang’s takeout box.

“Damn, don’t take my eggrolls, pay me back in one of your like... eight lychee dishes,” Taigang countered, reaching out and shaking his fingers over near Youhong’s dishes. “Also, Mingqing, do you have a picture of one of them pulled up?”

“I have Sloth and Avarice here, Sloth is from the south and Avarice is from the North.” Mingqing nodded, handing her terminal over to Youhong as Taigang and Songmei looked for other pictures. “Sloth is the sleepy woman, while Avarice is the man with the beard.”

Murmuring another “damn,” Youhong laughed as he looked at the two pictures on Mingqing’s terminal.

On the one hand, Sloth appealed more to the cute side, with long green hair and a messy outfit, her lazy smile and tired eyes made her laid-back nature clear. Yet, the fact that slung on Sloth’s back was a massive blade almost bigger than herself gave... other thoughts as well. Small hints, maybe, at the more violent tendencies roiling inside of her.

On the other hand, Avarice was a tan man with medium-length, brown hair that ended just a bit above his shoulders. Wearing a deep v-neck, Avarice’s photo depicted him stroking his perfect beard with a hand laden with silver rings, bracelets, and chains.

“Let’s just speed run the rest, I just want to get back to eating” Taigang sighed, sliding over his terminal as everyone else murmured their agreement. “Here’s gluttony. Contrary to what you might think, he's actually probably the most fit person out of all the lords.”

While not bursting with muscle per se, it was easy to see that Gluttony was fit. The majority of pictures showed him... suspiciously, without a shirt on, to reveal a set of chiseled abs on his light brown skin.

With green, yellow eyes, Gluttony’s hair was also braided back, making it hard to see exactly how long it was; however, though braided, it didn’t extend past the base of his neck.

Not even giving Youhong a chance to give his thoughts, Mingqing and Songmei slid over pictures of envy and lust, respectively.

Envy was a man with blue-ish, black hair and sharp eyes. With short hair that was slicked back in half the pictures and a messy, middle-part in the others, a hint of disdain and jealousy was somehow crystal clear in every single photo.

Lust, lastly, was a darker-skinned woman who had braided-hair, longer nails, and a pair of thin glasses. With clear, blue eyes and a pair of hoop earrings, the picture that Songmei had showed her pointing to the camera with a charming smile, cocktail in hand.

“Not bad, not bad...” Youhong murmured, drumming his fingers on the table, “Let’s get back to eating, just tell me what you think while we eat.”