She didn't look at Goye as she spoke, her gaze fixed on the distant, hazy skyline. It was as if she were assessing the last dregs of reason in a relationship that had already collapsed.
From the first moment she met Goye, she had never ceased observing him.
Back then, he had been a boy so fragile he looked as if a gust of wind could knock him over. His eyes were timid, his movements stiff. He was cloaked in the halo of his predecessor, yet he could never truly inherit that partner's sharpness and resolve.
Xi Lan never trusted appearances, especially when it came to matters of emotion and loyalty.
She knew that gentleness could be a mask for weakness, and in their world, weakness was a fatal flaw.
So from the moment they first met, she had been secretly scrutinizing his every move, assessing his motives and testing his limits.
