[jiuqing raises an eyebrow at that. "compromised the mission," her foot; chang geng is better at keeping his mouth shut than most people she knows and probably better at it than most people she doesn't know, too. if there really is someone out there who evaluated the situation and said it was better not to tell him, she has to question their intelligence.]

I'm inclined to agree with you.

[this is certainly a disservice to them both, although perhaps for different reasons.

from the bits and pieces she's heard of chang geng's - or, rather, the other lost royal's - situation, the whole matter is complicated. in her case, it's much less complicated, but no less inconvenient. having their entire lives uprooted because of someone else's choices is not something she wanted to have in common with anyone, least of all someone she actually likes.]

This might have delayed my studies a bit, but I don't intend to allow it to derail them entirely. I'll take great pleasure in seeing the looks on their faces when they realize that rather than being quaint, getting treatment from either one of us would be entirely necessary for them.

[for their survival. she's not going to wish illness on anyone involved in this, but she'll definitely feel better about it later if any of these idiots comes crawling back for treatment later...]