Jade laughed, and gave a small shrug. "At my age, a man needs to have a hobby. I tried building model ships in bottles once, but I wasn't any good at it."

Although the smile lingered, Jade's eyes narrowed slightly behind the glasses as he scrutinized his old friend. The other man's face was as pale as ever... of course, it was midwinter, but Jade couldn't recall ever seeing Fengxiao with a healthy complexion, even after he'd downed several bottles of wine. Communicable diseases could spread quickly in the confines of an airship, but Guo Jia seemed otherwise in good health. Nothing to worry about, then.

"Besides, you can hardly condemn me for my hobbies. Are you still working your way through every woman in the Empire, or are have you already started on a second round?"