"You-" Zhu Qingyue sputtered, seizing Li Meirong by the wrist and moving her hand away from her face. She wriggled under his grasp as he leaned down and forced her to stare straight at him. He bent down so close that she could feel his breath mingling with hers.
"I was going to punish him!" he snapped.
Li Meirong stilled, raising a single eyebrow in disbelief. "Why would you punish him? Who is him, anyway?"
"I govern my family and sentence them to their punishments accordingly. The man you saw is one of my family members," said Zhu Qingyue, letting out a breath of exasperation. He quickly added, "A very distant family member, might I add. He not only neglected his duties, but completely failed his appointed task."
"I thought your father, the Grandmaster of the Bestiary division, was governing the family. Didn't he only recently find you and brought you back to his side, to your clan?"
