Liu Mingyan nods. "I ask as your friend," she says, gentling her voice, a little. "I can speak to them, when I return, and prepare them for this eventuality as you see fit. In your absence, many of them look to me for guidance." She hesitates. "I can help them with fulfilling other needs, as well."

She already is, of course; she has been for years, in some cases, and there are other dalliances between wives, as well. Luo Binghe knows this. But they do not speak of it, the way they do not speak of happiness and its impossibility. But—if his preferences truly mean nothing, here, perhaps hers can, as well.