The team left the embassy with a few bruises and bandages, but big smiles.
"Okay, how did you do that?" Xuanji asked Liwu.
She laughed and replied, "I hold in all my bad luck and then make a wish on a coin for it to be transferred to the guiltiest person in the room."
Xuanji snorted. "That sounds like nonsense."
She shrugged. "So did systems, until they fell."
The team laughed, re-entering the car to be whisked away to another destination.
"This whole thing has put me in the mood for strudel." Weijun mumbled.
Nobody groaned or laughed. They all went for strudel!
****
Meanwhile, back at home, another storm brewed--this one over coffee. Tai Alix and Madam Xu, sat elegantly in a garden cafe in Beijing. Madam Xu had taken a private flight to the city to meet her in-law. They were sitting with porcelain cups in their hands, measuring each other.
