The reception was officially over.
Ji'an had practically been vibrating with the desire to sprint back to her kitchen, lock the doors, and begin stress-baking an entire gross of red bean buns to cope with the fact that the Sect Leader's daughter was actively trying to force her into a royal same-sex marriage!
She had made it exactly three steps toward the exit before the collar of her formal white robes was snagged by an inescapable, calloused hand.
"Not so fast, you slippery little eel!" Master Jiu Zui's gravelly voice rumbled behind her. "Only the disciples are dismissed. The Sovereign Elders are not. We have an executive summit."
"Master, please," Ji'an had pleaded, going entirely limp and forcing the immortal to physically drag her backward across the starlight-glass floor. "I am a child. It is past my bedtime. I need my beauty sleep, or my pores will clog with the ambient toxicity of sect politics."
