Lo Meifeng watched Sen wander off to do whatever he was going to do and hoped it wouldn’t involve anything showy. Not that he usually went out looking to do things that drew attention unless someone made him very angry or picked a fight. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any lack of people ready to pick a fight with him, which she found perplexing. When left to his own devices, Sen was generally an affable person. Still, she had another Sen problem to deal with in the form of a weeping princess. She’d sort of thought she was done with Sen problems when he went off to find an insane nascent soul cultivator in a final, desperate bid to get that manual he needed. On some level, she knew she shouldn’t be surprised that he’d actually done it. She’d seen him do one impossible thing after the next, but that had seemed like one impossibility too many.

Then, the bastard showed up like nothing had happened and barely a day had passed. She wished she hadn’t kicked him because it had been such a juvenile thing to do. If only it hadn’t been such an immensely satisfying juvenile thing to do. She was going to cherish the look of total shock that had been on his face for the rest of her life. Sighing, she turned her attention to Chan Yu Ming. The smart thing to do would be to just kill the girl and be done with it. Sen had made it pretty clear he wasn’t going to do it. The idiot. But she’d been on the receiving end of his cold fury before, and it wasn’t an experience she was in any hurry to repeat. I guess I’ll have to do this the hard way, she thought. She nudged the princess with her foot. The girl looked up at her with a tear-streaked face.

“You’re making a spectacle of yourself out here,” said Lo Meifeng. “Come inside if you plan to keep doing that.”

Turning back to her home, she turned the formations back to their passive state and went inside. She left the door open. The princess would either come in or she wouldn’t. Lo Meifeng gave the leftover food a longing look before she set about to make fresh tea. She cleared the table and sat down. Lo Meifeng estimated that there was a fifty-fifty chance that Chan Yu Ming would come inside. The young woman slunk into the house and closed the door. Damn, thought Lo Meifeng. She’d rather hoped that the girl would slink off to somewhere else.

“In here,” called Lo Meifeng.

Chan Yu Ming came into the room. She’d clearly made an effort to clean herself up a little, although there was still a bit of puffiness and redness around the girl’s eyes that her cultivator constitution hadn’t had a chance to deal with yet. Lo Meifeng slid a cup across the table and gestured at a chair.

“You may as well sit.”

Chan Yu Ming hesitated and looked around before she finally sat down. “Where’s Sen?”

Lo Meifeng resisted the urge to strangle the girl. Of course, that’s the first thing she wants to know.

“He’s not here. Can you blame him?”

Chan Yu Ming worked very hard not to make eye contact and slowly lifted the cup to her lips. Lo Meifeng didn’t want to have this conversation, so she was content to let it wait a little longer. What is it with Sen and his terrible relationship decisions? Lo Meifeng sipped at her own tea and watched Chan Yu Ming get more and more uncomfortable. Suppressing another sigh, she broke the silence.

“So, did you get what you wanted from that exercise in futility?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Of course, I didn’t. He’s still breathing, isn’t he?”

“Oh please. You knew that was going to happen before you ever showed up here. You didn’t stand a real chance against him before he went off and found another nascent soul cultivator to be his teacher. The only question was whether or not he was going to kill you. So, relieved or disappointed?”

“What?” asked Chan Yu Ming.

“Are you relieved he didn’t kill you or disappointed by his restraint? In case you don’t know, I’m in the disappointed camp.”

“He killed my father.”

“You keep saying that. Do you think that if you say it often enough it’ll magically become true?”

“It’s his fault.”

“Is it? The way I recall events, he refused to let you come with us. Then, he told you that your plan was bad. He tried to say no to you over and over again. In fact, the only reason he got involved at all was his trivial desire to not die. Despite your many promises, you didn’t help him with that at all.”

“It isn’t like that. He…” started Chan Yu Ming.

“He what? Got you out of that engagement you didn’t want? Exposed the king as an evil bastard who liked to rape and kill children? Saw to it that your brother, a man who wouldn’t sell you to the highest bidder, assumed the throne? Yeah, Sen really did you one bad turn after another. Oh, and while he was at it, he singlehandedly removed a cultivator criminal organization that no one else in the city could or would take on.”

“You’re twisting things all around!”

“Okay. Explain it to me. How am I twisting things all around? What truly happened?”

Chan Yu Ming’s mouth worked several times without any noises coming out. Lo Meifeng was actually interested to see if the princess had even bothered justifying all of this craziness to herself.

“He didn’t have to do it the way he did.”

“Seriously? That’s what all this is about? You don’t like the way he handled it? No offense, princess, but what in the thousand hells did you expect him to do? You saw what he did back in Inferno’s Vale. You heard the stories about him. No, this was about something else. You’re not this stupid.”

“He left!” shouted Chan Yu Ming. “He left me here alone!”

Lo Meifeng calmly reached across the table and slapped Chan Yu Ming across the face. Hard. The princess stared at Lo Meifeng in shock.

“He didn’t leave you. He left because he was dying and there was no one here that could help him. You know that. Besides, you’re in no position to have any expectations about him. Especially after what you did.”

“What I did?"

“You promised him help. The only thing you did was waste time he didn’t have to waste. The fact that he didn’t kill you two years ago remains completely mysterious to me. I would have killed you. Just about any cultivator would have killed you in those circumstances. Sometimes, he has more compassion than he should.”

“Of course, you’d defend him. You’re in love with him.”

Lo Meifeng kept her face rigidly neutral. “We aren’t talking about me.”

“Did you think it was a secret? It’s written all over you.”

“Says the woman who was so heartbroken he left that she brought people to try to kill him.”

“I don’t have to listen to this,” said Chan Yu Ming standing up in a huff.

“You also don’t need to leave this room alive,” said Lo Meifeng in a supremely calm voice. “Now, sit.”

Chan Yu Ming studied Lo Meifeng’s face. Then, she slowly sat back down in her chair.

“You mean to kill me?” asked the princess.

“Sen doesn’t want to kill you. I think he feels bad about how things went for your family. It’s skewed his perspective. As for me… I’m indifferent to your survival. Now, you can do what you should have done from the start and talk to him. You can also leave him alone. Those are your options.”

“Or you’ll kill me? You really think you can?”

“Yes,” said Lo Meifeng with the kind of absolute assurance that only comes from knowing a thing is true.

Chan Yu Ming sat very still for nearly a minute before she nodded her understanding. She rose from the table and started toward the door.

“Princess,” said Lo Meifeng. “You should pray that you’re wrong about me.”

“How so?” asked Chan Yu Ming.

“If I was in love with him and someone did the things you’ve done, what do you imagine I would do to you before I finally let you die?”

“He’d never forgive you,” said Chan Yu Ming, her eyes wide.

“He’d never find out.”