Master Gao grabbed the wine bottle again and waved it directly at Zhi Hao. “You tell her to leave! Banish the supernatural. You study as if your life depends on passing the exam.Because it does!”
Zhi Hao let his chin drop as he gazed at the text in front of him. “I will apply myself,” he said firmly.
“Good.”
“But if she is a fox woman, then I cannot simply send her away. She will return again and again.”
Master Gao shook his head. “Arrogance! You cannot best a spirit. Her weakness is that she cannot take you unwillingly. Now that you know, you can defend yourself. But only if you send her away.”
“But what about what she has already taken? How do I get my chi back?”
“The same way she took it from you. She must release into your hands, you must absorb the power she gives out.” The master shook his head. “Do not think you can do this. Demons are clever. She will not give up more than she takes.”
“I must make her come? That will give me her chi?”
Master Gao grunted his assent, but a moment later, he waved the whole discussion away.
“Do not try it, Zhi Hao. Your future is in passing the exam. So what say you? Do you study? Do you take the destiny that fortune is offering you?”
That answer was obvious. “Yes, Master Gao!”
“And when the fox returns, what will you do?”
“I will not give her what she wants.”
The man poured himself the last drops of the rice wine. “Excellent.”
He now knew what he had to do. He would take from her instead. She would release her chi into him.
Zhi Hao did not say those words out loud. His master would loudly berate him for his arrogance, but he knew he could do it. He knew he could touch her and bring out her life force, right into his hand. And then he would use her power to pass the exam.
But first he had to study. And then after dinner, he would make plans for when the fox returned.
Chapter Eight
Ling Xin couldn’thave slept if she tried. Fortunately, she wasn’t trying. She was waiting until everyone was abed to sneak out to her wall perch. But while she waited in the dark, her heart pounding, her mind spun with the possibilities of her choices.
She could rely on the emperor’s perception of her virtue and wait to be selected.
Absolutely not. For one thing, what she’d already done with Zhi Hao had tainted her virtue. Besides, waiting passively for heaven to bestow a gift had never been her style.
Alternately, she could wait for her mother to find the book. She knew Mama had called for grandmother’s stored trunks, but she had no idea if or when her mother would come across the mysterious book.
And again, that required passive waiting.
Which left her with her last option—she must learn everything she could from Zhi Hao without risking her virginity. That was something she could not lose. She would be checked in the Forbidden City, and if she did not pass the test of virginity, she would be thrown onto the street as trash.
Her father would not accept her back then. Not if she failed the virginity test. He had already told her that when she had her first menstrual period. That meant she would have to live with her aunt and uncle in the north, but what kind of life would she have there? Her uncle had already thrown away Li Fei and killedher lover. Li Fei was his daughter. How much worse would he treat his niece?
With her choice made, Ling Xin snuck outside and quietly climbed up to her perch on the wall. She noted with pleasure that yesterday’s rain had brought more leaves onto the branches. With the moonlight beginning to wane, this was a very secluded bower.
At least, that was what she told herself, since stroking a man’s dragon on a rock wall was not the sort of risk even a daring girl would take. Unless, of course, she was very desperate to learn.
As expected, she found Zhi Hao in Master Gao’s garden. He wore no shirt, no shoes, and the moonlight played delightfully with his muscles as he worked through his exercises. She could see that he wasn’t working very hard, and that he turned to look at her the moment she settled on the wall. Then before she could do more than smile, he bounded up beside her on the wall, perching like a bird in front of her.
“Good evening, Ling Xin,” he said, his voice a throaty purr.
She shivered at the tone even as she sensed a note of hardness in it.