Qi Like Tar

Paike's first thought was Did Taka know? He couldn't see how, but at the same time, he wouldn't put it past his twin. So what was their plan now? He could take a second to hash something out after this dance, but right now he wasn't going to get any assistance.

"So what are you going to do now?" He asked.

"It was never our intention to trick anyone. How would that even work?" She asked, clearly amused. "But I apologize if we have offended."

"As I said, this is expected." He brushed off her apology. "But how would your plan even work?"

"Well, we would talk and take your measure; if our family and we approved, we would have an elder speak to your father. Then we would go with you to whatever your errand was before back into the empire." Sheng Yue said.

There were a lot of holes in that plan. He wasn't even sure where to start, but there was one thing that caught his attention that wasn't quite clear. "When you mean 'we,' who are you referring to?"

She tilted her head ever so slightly. "Xue, Bai, Gui, and me, of course."

"Some families that would work with, but it's surprising that you don't know more about the Kongs," Paike said.

"What do you mean?" A small furrow appeared between her brows. Paike felt the urge to poke it like he would if Liming had made the same face, but in a very different context. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Many families of the empire practice taking more than one wife in some cases, but since Father and Mother became prominent in the Kong family, we do not," Paike said while trying not to blush. He really hated this sort of thing. Why did he have to do any talking? He would have to figure out how the silent types did it. Just not responding to a question felt far too rude to him, but there had to be a way to talk less when he didn't want to.