You wiped the sweat off your brow for the umpteenth time today as you tried your best to pay attention to what Hua was saying in front of you. Politics, Xianzhou, hierarchy… You wanted to learn, you knew it was definitely something important, but you just couldn’t. You physically couldn’t.

Because somehow, she had the idea that you might be made to learn better if she lectured you, right after you’d sparred with her, in the middle of a forge. Needless to say, the cacophony that was the clanging and the relentless heat that threatened to make you spontaneously combust was not conducive to learning at all.

Maybe Hua was just sadistic. Or maybe this was some well-calculated move that had an ulterior motive that you obviously hadn’t learnt enough to assuage yet.

“You’re thinking if I’m enjoying this.”

Hua interrupts her lecture, smirking at you. This woman couldn’t keep getting away with being able to practically know your thoughts real-time!

“To which I respond: Who cares? Shut up and listen. Your thoughts are loud when they are not needed, yet they are silenced whenever they are crucial. Rather shabby for my successor.”

She reaches over to poke your cheek, her azure eyes staring straight at you, making sure you feel a lot more uncomfortable than you already did as she resumes her lecture.

Still, that constant eye contact sustained you for maybe a minute before the heat was too much again. Your mind slipped, and your thoughts wandered.

Before long, Hua has ended her lecture without you ever realizing it – she pats her white-black dress and stands up with a smile as you follow. She walks with you, your arms interlinked.

“I know you did not listen for a second but worry not. All I just said was a bit of useless prattle. Answer me: Why did I do this to you? The correct answer to that is all you have to learn today.”

Her eyes twinkled as she observed the somewhat shocked yet resigned expression on your face.

“This lesson is more important than you think. After all, to succeed me you must think like me, no?"