( Look, he does look: eyes bright and white and sharp, predatory, absorbing every hint and hue of movement, every gasp at the tables, every conceit of surprise or artful disadvantage later weaponised, when a player reveals some great strategy all along. Then, the game of cards: the dealer, luck-craving.
The sea creature seems entirely above board, clean-handed, even permissive and patient — but the twirling lengths of his dangling moustaches catch on the corners of cards, now and then, and is it a play of lights, or does Lan Wangji see him peer at them —
He stirs, as if the question breaks him from a dubious, thick thrall, finding his tongue thick and weighted, the taste of his mouth soured. What is cheating? ) ...Wangji, sect Lan.
( Lying on that count would be it, perhaps. He does not presume. ) You know much of the gambling rooms.
( More, he does not say, than most beautiful women who sell their company at the going rate of ambitious pride prices. )
no subject
( Look, he does look: eyes bright and white and sharp, predatory, absorbing every hint and hue of movement, every gasp at the tables, every conceit of surprise or artful disadvantage later weaponised, when a player reveals some great strategy all along. Then, the game of cards: the dealer, luck-craving.
The sea creature seems entirely above board, clean-handed, even permissive and patient — but the twirling lengths of his dangling moustaches catch on the corners of cards, now and then, and is it a play of lights, or does Lan Wangji see him peer at them —
He stirs, as if the question breaks him from a dubious, thick thrall, finding his tongue thick and weighted, the taste of his mouth soured. What is cheating? ) ...Wangji, sect Lan.
( Lying on that count would be it, perhaps. He does not presume. ) You know much of the gambling rooms.
( More, he does not say, than most beautiful women who sell their company at the going rate of ambitious pride prices. )