Shuyin decided to help him.
After all, watching him squirm was entertaining, but they needed to move this along if she was going to establish her authority properly.
"Perhaps I can address the board's concerns directly," she said, her voice cutting through the tension like a knife through butter, sharp and impossible to ignore. Her aura was repressive and frighteningly cold.
Every head swiveled toward her, some faces showing surprise, others showing anger that she'd dared to speak without permission.
Others were scared with those eyes that felt like they were piercing deeper into their souls.
Lu Cheng raised one eyebrow fractionally but gestured for her to continue, curiosity apparently winning out over procedural propriety.
Shuyin stood slowly, deliberately, claiming the room's attention with the ease of someone who'd been born to command or had learned through brutal necessity how to fake it convincingly.
