No one else made mention of the sudden rigidity of Prefect Shi's qi, and Wu Hao was relatively sure that he was the only one who'd seen it.

  "Hm," Lady Jin said. She tapped her finger on the parchment again. "Well, we'll take it under consideration. It is a negotiation, after all. Are you set on this being part of the contract?"

  Prefect Shi gave an embarassed sort of smile, which possessed as much honesty as a door-to-door salesman. "We were hoping for it to be taken up, yes. Is it such a heavy restriction?"

  "It is not," she said. "But one we'll consider carefully. Let's move on, shall we? The rest of the contract still must be discussed, after all."

  Wu Hao tried to keep up, trying to keep the same mentality as he had earlier, but the numbers flew entirely over his head. What were percentages? They talked over expected gains in best and worst cases, began to quibble over what those cases might actually be and how often they might occur, talked about the required manpower, the history of the site in and how much it'd delivered in previous years.

  Occasionally Lady Shi joined in, but mostly Prefect Shi and Lady Jin talked, voices eventually fading into a drone of words that Wu Hao wouldn't even bother to try and understand.

  If this was a battle, then it was one that went far beyond Wu Hao's level. For all the words being bandied about, though, Wu Hao was getting the distinct impression that not much was actually happening. Both parties had essentially already agreed to the deal, so far as he understood, and the particular details of if they were going to keep the current mine supervisor and, if so, how long he might remain in employ before transitioning to a more advisory role just bored Wu Hao.

  Wu Hao's attention drifted instead to their daughter. Shi Huyin had spoken a little before the contract itself had been brought up, but afterwards she'd only sat quietly, looking for all the world like she was listening intently like a dutiful daughter.

  She wasn't, though. Her fingers occasionally flicked back and forth, and she was prodding the strings that extended from her core into the distance with a sort of vague boredom. They pulsed at her occasionally, pulses which sped into her core and which she consumed.

  He was really starting to get curious about what she could do. If he started a scene now, maybe he could still get that duel - but then again, he might also anger Lady Jin, and that was something for later when he'd managed to claw his way up to a level of power where he could actually do more than repeatedly die in the attempt.

  When Shi Huyin noticed him looking, her qi swirled a little around her. Another pulse, this time with a complex tangle of emotions dominated by the angry red wound-color of hate, which she consumed with only a slight change in her expression.

  Then she smiled at Wu Hao.

  Bitch, Wu Hao thought. He didn't know where those tendrils of hers extended to, but he was getting better at recognizing emotions, and that last pulse of qi smelled of green tea.

  So she was connected at Shan Kong even before the ambush, then. Wu Hao stored that little factoid away.

  " - and that is the last point," Prefect Shi said. He leaned back, hands folded over his belly. "If I'm not mistaken, Lady Jin."

  "You are not," Lady Jin said. She rolled up the scroll again before handing it off to a guard, who bowed and accepted it.

  "You have a reputation for being a hard negotiator," Prefect Shi said, stretching slightly in his seat. "I see now that that reputation is more than earned! My word."

  "It's a nice compliment," Lady Jin said, noncommittally. She very deliberately did not thank him, though. It didn't seem to be part of her lexicon. "I'll have an answer for you in a day or so."

  "I see," Prefect Shi said. "Well, of course I understand. These things always take time. It wouldn't be right if I tried to hurry this along, now would I?"

  He laughed.

  "Sir," one guard said respectfully, seizing the moment now that a short silence hung for the first time in a while. "I shall let the chef know you're on the way back, then?"

  "Yes," Prefect Shi said. "Yes, thank you, Quan Ye. Please do so. It's a hungry business, negotiation."

  He glanced at Lady Jin, giving her a secretive little smile.

  "Unless Lady Jin intends to invite us for dinner?"

  "I would quite like to," Lady Jin said blandly. "Unfortunately, I cannot. I have my own training to attend to, you understand."

  "Ah," Prefect Shi said, and sighed. "Far be it from me to stop you from training, of course."

  He stood up from his wicker chair with a grunt of effort, some of that qi in his belly pumping its way through his body to help him stand smoothly. He cut it off and sagged a little, then offered his wife a hand and pulled her up to her feet as well.

  "Flower," Prefect Shi called. "Are you coming?"

  "One moment, Father," Shi Huyin said. She stood up gracefully, bowed to Lady Jin, and said, in a reverent tone: "Thank you for allowing me to be here, Lady Jin. I've long since heard of your martial reputation. You're an inspiration to girls like myself."

  Lady Jin, though, just waved off the compliment.

  "Yes," she said simply. "I hope you've learned something today, if so."

  "Of course, Lady Jin," Shi Huyin said, and bowed again. "Thank you for the lesson. I'll treasure it."

  "Hmm," Lady Jin said in response. "See our guests out, would you, Wang Hansheng?"

  One of the guards stepped forward, bowed, and then rose smoothly. It was one of the men Wu Hao had seen during the duel between Lady Jin and Librarian Zhu. The red saber stood out prominently against his wide chest. "Yes, Commander."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Prefect Shi offered a final bow, as did his family, before they walked out back out of the pavillion, Prefect Shi raising his arm to ward off the glare of the sun before getting in the carriage. It dipped slightly under his mass as he entered.

  Wang Hansheng the guard shouted orders, instructing men to go open up the gates, to get out of the way of the carriage in which the prefect had arrived, and to start clearing up the pavillion.

  Lady Jin placed her cup back down, leaving only a single drop in its middle, and looked out into the distance. The carriage had reached the end of the garden path, and with two guards pulling open the fence that blocked this pleasure garden away from the main compound, it had slowed momentarily.

  Soon enough, though, it set back into motion again, and Prefect Shi's qi was carried away with it. A faint trace of him still hung over the wicker chair that he'd set in, but even that soon faded from Wu Hao's senses.

  They stood there in silence for a little while longer. Wu Hao was growing bored with the entire thing, but equally he was anxious to know why the hell Lady Jin had wanted him here at all.

  And if maybe he wouldn't have been better off preparing for the ambush anyway. He had a plan for something he could make with a decent-sized tile that might prove to be an effective trap, but the question was where he'd put it. Near the arena itself and gamble on being able to lead them to that specific spot, or maybe more near the escape route?

  "Qilong," Lady Jin finally said, drawing Wu Hao's attention.

  "Yes, mother?" he responded, snapping to attention. Like Wu Hao, his thoughts must have wandered elsewhere.

  "Your thoughts?"

  "It seems fine," Jin Qilong said slowly. "I don't quite get the problem. It seems a little expensive, if he's put the right price on the mines."

  If, Wu Hao thought sceptically.

  "But -" Jin Qilong squirmed, but then his fists clenched and he stood up a little straighter. "But I don't understand why he's selling. There has to be some problem."

  "Which is?" his mother pressed.

  "If he can't cheat us on the deal," Jin Qilong tried, "then maybe - I mean - then he's got to be either aiming to exploit some other clause in the contract, or just dealing with us honestly."

  "Which is it?"

  "I hope it's the latter," Jin Qilong said, and froze.

  Lady Jin sighed. Some measure of tired annoyance rippled through her qi.

  "You hope," she said. "I need better than that, Qilong."

  "It seems a fair deal to me," Jin Qilong said quietly, with a faint tinge of heat.

  "That is the problem," she said, her tone stating it should be obvious. "It is fair, within reason. Scrupulously fair, almost."

  "It seems to be," Jin Qilong said.

  "Then why is he offering it at all?" Lady Jin asked. "He's no friend of ours, and even friends wouldn't offer a deal such as this. He could stand to make a great deal of money from this, but he isn't. Hence he might as well making a loss. Why? Why sell at all?"

  "Maybe he needs sabers?" Jin Qilong said, thinking it over a little more. "Or he's trying to get closer to the clan?"

  Lady Jin waved a hand derisively.

  "Every martial artist he has on his retinue was brought along with him," Lady Jin said. "Or close enough to it, at least. And they've all got weapons already. No, he doesn't need sabers. Try again."

  Another quick silence, but this time Jin Qilong inhaled a quick breath of shock, like he'd had a realization.

  "He's aiming to try and outbid a rival," Jin Qilong said, some triumph leaking through. "He wants his opponent not to have our weapons. "

  The war-fan tapped against Lady Jin's lips. To Jin Qilong's credit she gave this maybe a full second of thought.

  "Perhaps," she allowed, then focused on Wu Hao.

  "Your thoughts?" she asked him.

  "I don't know," Wu Hao said honestly. "I couldn't really follow the conversation."

  And admitting that was difficult, in and of itself, but what other option did he have? He couldn't follow all of the economics or the intricacies of the situation. He knew less than nothing.

  For this, he'd rely on Jin Qilong.

  "Mother," Jin Qilong asked. "Why did you want him here?"

  "He knows," Lady Jin said.

  Wu Hao shared an awkward look with Jin Qilong.

  "Come now," Lady Jin said, and smiled at him. "Prefect Shi is a martial artist. Not one of renown - he put his hand in for the slower aging and the like, really. I don't think he's seriously fought in his life, let alone killed a man in a duel. Or tried to."

  Her eyes danced with something approaching amusement, but Wu Hao's own narrowed. She knew that he'd tried to kill Shan Kong and she didn't mind. That was... encouraging.

  "I think he could," Lady Jin mused. "Not physically, perhaps. But mentally I think he could kill someone. That's the more difficult part, I've always heard. Cowardice, it seems to me."

  Jin Qilong flinched, taking that rebuke as aimed squarely at him. It probably had been.

  "My point is," Lady Jin said, ignoring the way that her son had reacted. "He's not much of a martial artist, but he does have qi, as I said. Enough qi to reach the third rate mark."

  A sliver of ice crept into Wu Hao's gut as he realized what she'd just driven at. If she was talking about qi, then that could only mean...

  "And after all," she said, smiling at him. It was a pretty smile, really - it reached her eyes and there was a faint hint of smug appreciation in her qi.

  Wu Hao imagined that a demoness might smile the same way, faced with a child she wanted to eat.

  "You're a sensor," Lady Jin all but purred. "What did his qi tell you?"