"Say it," I told him. "Or stop standing in my way."
Longzi didn't blink. His gaze held mine like a hand on a hilt. Lady Huai's fingers hooked themselves into his sleeve; he didn't look down to shake them off, and he didn't move aside either.
"You've changed," he said.
"I adjusted," I replied with a shrug. "You can keep up or you can get stepped on."
A flick at the corner of his mouth—annoyance or amusement, I couldn't tell. Lin Wei's grip tightened in Yizhen's robe; I laid my palm on the boy's head without breaking the stare.
"You walk the market as if you're not the most watched person in it," Longzi said. "That's either courage or carelessness."
"Or practice," I said. "Which do you think?"
He didn't give me the compliment. "Risk."
"Then learn how to carry it," I said, and let my hand slide once down WeiWei's hair so he could borrow the steadiness. "Some of us don't get to put it down."
