"It would erase the Lin Estate from the memory of the continent. You would cease to have ever had a family."
He reached forward, setting the empty jade cup firmly onto the floorboards between them.
"The board is set, little Chef. The pieces are moving. You cannot force the harvest before the fruit is ripe. If you try to rip the veil away today, you will burn the entire field."
Ji'an gripped the heavy fabric of the white silk robe draped over her shoulders, Xie Wangchen's robe, her knuckles turning white.
"So what am I supposed to do?" she hissed, the bitter, helpless frustration rising in her throat like bile. "Just sit here? Just keep flying this stupid leaf across the continent, playing chaperone to a bunch of teenage peacocks, cooking soup, and waiting for the sky to fall on my head?!"
Yan Zhaoge looked at her.
He saw the fierce, untamable fire burning in her eyes.
