"He is powerful," Liu Mingyan concedes. "He is Luo Binghe's lieutenant, his most trusted." She decides to make another concession to Janet's bluntness. It's surprisingly fun, to dispense entirely with insinuation and simply state what one means. She wonders if Janet keeps this same tone in her royal council meetings. "If I am honest, I only brought him up intending to insult his lack of bedfellows, and ideally make you laugh."