Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I didn’t move immediately.
My feet felt rooted to the ground.
Should we fight now? No. Jay needs time to put everything in place. Either way, it is clear there will be no true feast of food. Soon it will only be a feast of blood and flesh.
I sat down.
Lei leaned toward Monique and whispered something in her ear, though her expression remained serene, the corners of her lips curved into a soft smile—a smile that twisted the knife already lodged in my chest.
What the fuck did he just say to her? Was it about me?
At the table, the conversation grew louder. Monique’s ladies-in-waiting eagerly greeted her. Duck made some comment about her crown, and everyone laughed—even my sisters, Min and Suzi.
Lei, however, watched me like the Azure Dragon of legend, its serpentine body coiled and gleaming, its claws hidden but sharp, its eyes glowing with an unrelenting hunger for domination.
His gaze pinned me and it was unblinking.
Calculating even.
As though he could see beyond the surface of my calm exterior and strip away my control to expose the raw fury seething underneath.
Careful, son. I’m the one who taught you how to glare that way.
Still, I felt his gaze deep in my chest.
Felt the subtle shift in the table’s energy, in the exact way one would sense an oncoming storm brewing off in the distance before it arrived and unleashed flooding rain all over.
Lei sat with his shoulders squared yet deceptively relaxed, mirroring a dragon’s stillness before it descends from the heavens to claim its kill.
How dare you look at me that way?
I sneered.
His hand rested on the table, fingertips drumming in a rhythm that seemed casual, yet I knew better. That rhythm wasn’t idle—it was a cadence, a measure of time, perhaps counting down to the moment he’d strike.
Would you dare to try and fight here? Surely, you would not be that disrespectful.
The air between us thickened.
I can’t wait for you to see Plan B. I will smile as you lose yourself. As you crumble.
I forced myself to keep my breathing even, to hold his gaze without flinching but the tension crackled in my chest like fire sparking across a dragon’s scales, feeding its insatiable hunger.
I am a dragon too, son. Be very fucking careful.
As if he could hear me, Lei’s lips curved ever so slightly—not into a smile, but into the faintest expression of triumph, as though he could taste the ashes of the future I’d so carefully built.
So young. So cocky. I will teach you.
I picked up my chopsticks.
His eyes, like the Azure Dragon’s, were alive with an intensity that promised he wouldn’t just defeat me—he would obliterate everything I stood for.
And yet, there was no movement.
No outburst.
Just the steady nerve-wracking force of his presence.
I gripped my chopsticks tighter. The wood creaked under the strain. The urge to rise, to challenge him outright, gnawed at me, but I held back.
Lei had learned patience, a trait I’d once drilled into him as a boy, never imagining that this too would be turned against me with such precision.
Still, I would not cower before him.
I straightened my spine, meeting his gaze with the same unyielding resolve.
If he was the Azure Dragon, then I would be the Black Tortoise—a guardian of strength and resilience, unmovable and enduring.
Let him coil and threaten.
Let him burn with that unholy fire.
I would endure, even if I had to shatter my own scales to do so.
Suzi spoke to Monique and the women carried on light conversation, although they both glanced at us in between their tense glances.
Then, Lei moved and it wasn’t to get up or eat.
He reached into his pocket. The motion was deliberate, slow enough to draw attention without being overt.
Seconds later, he withdrew a small object, holding it between his fingers.
What does he have?
He brushed his thumb over the surface of whatever the small object was, and then he leaned all the way forward, extended his hand across the table in my direction, and then dropped the small object into my bowl of dumplings.
What the fuck is wrong with him?
The object landed with a soft clink.
I looked down and stiffened.
Oh.
My wife’s ring.
The table went silent.
Surely, almost everyone recognized that ring.
Even Monique’s ladies-in-waiting would have been familiar with it. In the museum dedicated to my wife, there was a whole section about this ring, with pictures and a fake copy on display.
Yet now this priceless ring of great importance sat on top of dumplings.
Blasphemy!
My composure cracked, the mask of control slipping just enough for the rage to seep through.
He took it off her finger!
My fingers twitched at my sides as I forced myself not to react. Every muscle in my body screamed to lunge across the table and choke Lei.
How dare he!
The orchestra played on, oblivious to the chaos rising.
Around the table, the others had fallen silent.
Very pleased with himself, Lei causally leaned back and placed his arm around Monique. “Thank you, Father, for offering my Mountain Mistress such a. . .polite gesture. However, her finger is a bit too crowded to wear that right now, so you can have it back.”