When Zheng Tiao spoke, his voice was steady, his posture stiff. Ji Bozai, still recovering, didn't study his expression. He just nodded with a faint smile. "She's sharp."
He wasn't worried about Ming Yi making enemies. As long as no one hurt her, he'd deal with whatever mess she left behind.
"Heading back to Fei Hua City?" Ji Bozai asked.
Zheng Tiao was a fighter from Fei Hua City. They'd met at the Six Cities Tournament. After their first match, Zheng Tiao had looked at him and said, "You're worthy of fighting the Ming family's heir."
Ji Bozai hadn't known what to make of that. What was so remarkable about the Ming family's heir? Had Zheng Tiao traveled all this way just to say that?
But the man was straightforward. He talked little, said things bluntly, and carried no hidden angles. Ji Bozai liked that about him.
With Fei Hua City's internal politics souring and his tournament placing outside the top three, Zheng Tiao hadn't wanted to go home right away. After the tournament he'd taken a beast carriage to Mu Xing City and settled into Ji Bozai's mansion. By now the new selection in Fei Hua City would be starting.
"I'll leave at the end of the month," Zheng Tiao said.
He had planned to leave within a day or two. Then he saw Ming Yi, and changed his mind.
The first time he'd helped Ji Bozai test her, she'd been so startled she kept dodging wildly. He hadn't gotten a proper look at her face and assumed she was just an ordinary woman. But seeing her clearly today, her height and features reminded him strongly of Ming Xian.
He didn't actually think she was Ming Xian. Ming Xian was male, and no woman in the Qing Yun Realm, no matter how bold, would disguise herself as a man and win multiple Six Cities Tournaments. That was absurd. But Ming Yi might be connected to Ming Xian somehow. If he had the chance to ask, maybe it would lead him somewhere.
Another year, another selection. He was curious: without Ming Xian, could Chao Yang City still hold its top three spots?
When Ming Yi walked into the room, Ji Bozai was half-propped against a pile of pillows, drifting in and out of sleep.
The midday light landed across his pale lips. Without the usual sharpness in his eyes, he looked softer. Less dangerous.
Ming Yi slowed her steps without thinking about it.
It didn't matter. He woke up anyway. Dark eyes opened slowly, and when they found her, he let out a quiet, lazy sound.
She couldn't explain why, but that small sound sat warmly in her chest. Like a leopard cub just stepped into the sun.
She sat down beside him and smiled. "I solved the problem you were struggling with. What's my reward?"
He reached out and pulled her toward him, settling his head in her lap like it was the most natural thing. "Your reward is that I won't punish you for breaking into the Green Tile Courtyard."
She started to object. That wasn't much of a reward.
"Anyone else," he said quietly, "would have been beheaded before they could open their mouth."
She swallowed. "Thank you, Master."
He was quiet for a moment. Then: "Don't trust people so easily. If something's bothering you, come to me."
Not every question could go to him, of course. Like what he planned to do once all his enemies were dead. Or whether the antidote she needed was somewhere in this mansion.
Ming Yi kept those thoughts to herself and answered pleasantly, "This servant understands."
Ji Bozai settled against her, his breath evening out. "I wish I'd met you sooner."
Her heart moved, just slightly.
She blinked at the far wall. What did he mean by that? If he'd met her sooner, then what? He would have stopped chasing other women?
She didn't believe it.
A man like him was born restless. That kind of nature didn't change for any one person. This was what men like Ji Bozai did: they made a woman feel chosen, feel singular, feel like she'd somehow rescued him. It was a practiced thing.
She knew all of this.
And still, his face was genuinely beautiful, and his voice saying those words made her pulse do something inconvenient.
What if it were true, just this once? What if from now on there was only her? Could she let herself treat him like a real person, and not a complication?
His arm tightened around her waist. Ming Yi pressed her lips together, keeping her face still, and gently moved her hand across his back. She let him sleep.
In the days that followed, Luo Jiaoyang and the others stayed away from the Ji mansion entirely. They did visit Xue Sheng's home to pay their respects, and standing before Madam Xue's reddened eyes, none of them felt good about themselves. Paying a formal visit to Ji Bozai after the selection meeting, as custom required, was something they quietly skipped.
In other words, they refused to recognize him as their leader.
The Grand Minister was unsettled by this and called Ji Bozai to the inner courtyard twice. Ji Bozai came, listened, and shrugged it off. He hadn't been chosen as leader at the last tournament either, and life had gone on.
"That's exactly why we lost that time!" Shu Zhonglin threw his hands up. They were gathered in a private room at Hua Man Lou, and his frustration had been building all evening. "What happens if it goes the same way this year? Another noble brat takes your spot to show off, fails completely, and we're paying heavy taxes for another year?"
Liang Xiuyuan sighed and shook his head. "I don't like to say it, Bozai, but you were too patient last time. You shouldn't have stepped aside. We might have made the top three."
Ming Yi was sitting beside Ji Bozai. She leaned sideways toward Bu Xiu and asked quietly, "What happened last time?"
Ji Bozai's hand came up without him even turning his head. He redirected her gently back to face him. "Ask me."
She straightened and asked him the same question, directly.
He looked satisfied. He took a slow sip of wine. "It was nothing complicated. Prince Ping decided I'd gotten lucky against Zheng Tiao and wouldn't win the next rounds. So he pulled me out and sent in one of his own men from the royal family."
The rest wrote itself. That fighter lasted one match. Mu Xing City's chances were finished before they'd really begun.
"That's what I don't understand," Shu Zhonglin pressed. "Mu Xing City winning means everyone benefits. Who wants to hand over half their wealth to another city? They knew you could win, and they pulled you anyway."
Yan Xiao gave him a flat look. "Don't comment on things above your head. One wrong word and it's not just you who pays for it."
Shu Zhonglin stared at him. "What did I say that was wrong?"
Liang Xiuyuan gestured for him to drink and smoothly changed direction. "This year's young fighters from our city have some talent. Stubborn, though. I heard they even went to Chu He, trying to get him to lead instead of accepting your appointment."
Ji Bozai lifted his cup. "Let them."
He hadn't entered the tournament for Mu Xing City, not really. He'd entered to settle old accounts with certain people. Whether the city placed well afterward, and under whose name they did it, was honestly not his concern.