Several vines rose behind me as though they had been waiting for their cue, and the messenger fell silent while he watched them move.
He seemed to be deciding whether Gu Han had paid him enough to keep arguing, and apparently, the answer was no. Eventually, he reached inside his jacket and removed a folded piece of paper.
"Gu Han has invited you to meet him tomorrow at noon. The location is marked here."
He tried to step forward, but the nearest vine immediately lowered itself between us. The messenger stopped before it could decide that he had crossed the boundary and held the paper out at arm's length instead.
Yuche moved past me to take it before the vine decided the man's hand looked edible. He unfolded the paper, glanced over the handwritten directions, and passed it to Xu Zhenlan, but I didn't bother looking at it.
"I'm not going," I said with a shrug. I had my outing, I was good for the next few months. I wasn't leaving again.
