Threads 476 -Glass 6

The Bai retainer didn’t quite gape at her, or otherwise make a fool of himself, as they crossed the gently swaying rope bridge over the vast drop below. It was a clear day, and the great expanses of the winter fields below were visible through the thin clouds. He did, however, stare at her incredulously out of the corner of his eye.

“And now you are needling me again.”

“Only a little. I know you dislike my wording, but the truth is there. Bai Meizhen may delegate to you, but she is not interested in sitting in a closed palanquin, kept pure from the grimy world outside.”

Ling Qi would play the part he wouldn’t accept as a partial jest. It would be swept aside, but the words would stick in the back of his mind. She considered what could be shared.

“It’s frustrating for her to receive only the good news. You have noticed that, surely?”

Bai Meizhen had mentioned her feelings in passing. Her friend was still very prideful, seeing many tasks as beneath her station, but Cai Renxiang had instilled an appreciation for accurate reports in her.

“I have,” he replied grudgingly. “There is some value in not having to massage the truth to avoid punishment, I will grant. Heiress Suzhen’s harsh views toward that obfuscation is disruptive though. Perfection is impossible, yet less is an insult to their sublime command. Things get done without the rulers being aware of every little stumble and have for ages. Inviting more scrutiny is… unwise. What does a lofty throne understand of production delays and snags in supply lines and other petty minutiae of trade and industry? It is a waste of their time.”

“Only what you tell them, unless they are annoyed enough to learn by themselves. So, better that she knows you well enough to see that there’s no need to check then?”

“Better that my results speak for themselves,” Xia Anxi corrected. “One of these days, speaking the way she demands in front of another white serpent will get me in trouble.”

“That almost sounded like a direct complaint. Aren’t you afraid that I will tattle on you?” Ling Qi teased.

“I do not know what game you are playing, but some fragments of your needling line up with my own observations,” Xia Anxi said grumpily. “If that Keung can get away with his passive-aggressive routine without any censure, my words won’t provoke a reaction either.”

He really resented having to learn a whole different system of etiquette, most of all, Ling Qi thought. That was what it was in his worldview. What she saw as friendly openness (for a Bai), he merely saw as a divergent and confusing new ruleset he was scrambling to learn. She could feel around the edges of that perspective. She had felt like that right at the beginning in the sect, having to figure out how the rules were different than those of Tonghou’s streets and where they were the same.

“I understand Lady Bai is fully in line with her mother’s policy. If it helps, maybe you should think of it as getting ahead of the etiquette changes.”

“Yes, very helpful,” Xia Anxi groaned.

Ling Qi cheerfully ignored his sarcasm. “I think so.”

“It isn’t a matter I control, so I may only ride the waves. I have never met someone who weaponizes optimism quite like you.”

“That might be a little much,” Ling Qi protested. “I’m not weaponizing anything. If I wanted to hurt you, you would very much know it, Xia Anxi.”

She let the cold creep up, and he hunched his shoulders and grimaced. “I suppose I will just have to remain in your good graces then.”

“You will.”

How strange that he would feel more comfortable with this than anything else she had said today.

It was good to be reminded that even changes she saw as entirely good could be twisted around into malice or burdens in the minds of others. It was no wonder the empire leaned so hard on layers of obscuring formality to keep statements neutral.

Then again, that might have been the wrong comparison. The Bai were probably like that even before the Empire, from what she understood. Those lessons may have even been the ones the Bai ancestors had contributed to the empire’s construction.

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“You know,” Ling Qi mused, “I’ve answered all these questions. Would you be so polite to answer one of mine, Xia Anxi?”

“I would be rude to deny that,” Xia Anxi said carefully. “You’re canny enough not to ask something I can’t answer.”

“I wouldn’t want to make things awkward, no. Nothing of the sort. I just wanted to ask you your honest opinion on the Emerald Seas.”

“And I suppose you want me to throw propriety to the side, hm? Speak candidly, like a drunk dockworker complaining about his overseer in the tavern?”

“I would appreciate it if you left out the slurring and expletives. I am still a lady of refinement,” Ling Qi said with faux haughtiness, giving him an amused look.

“So that is your line? Fascinating.”

They began to climb the shallow steps grown into the upward curve of the branch they were ascending. Foot traffic was growing again as they left the industrial district, and in the distance, she could see bright color. That was probably their destination.