[ the answer is so unexpectedly honest that hua cheng laughs for it—maybe he's been spending too much time around the officials of the heavenly capital, but he'd almost expected some prevarication about how noble it was to deny oneself the pleasures of life in the name of refining one's spiritual energy, blah blah blah. ]

How refreshing. [ his eyes sparkle with amusement. ] Then we're in agreement. We're stuck here anyway, I think it's only right that we at least make ourselves comfortable.

[ which—to be honest—hua cheng is not. nothing about this has been comfortable since the moment he arrived, and no amount of pampering from whoever is running this scheme will make him so. he wants rank not because it will make any of this easier, but because it'll put him in a better position to destroy this whole damned place. his easy smile, of course, gives none of this away. ]