"Your Majesty, you've misunderstood! I truly didn't mean anything by it. I only heard the two lords say they'd entered the palace to seek an audience with you. I'd just come from Cining Palace, so I knew you were keeping the Empress Dowager company and probably wouldn't be free for a while. They looked hurried and tired, so I thought I'd take them somewhere to rest until you came out, and then they could pay their respects. I swear I had no improper intentions!" The moment Feng Tingye put her down, Xia Yuqing clung to his leg and wailed. To make it convincing, she secretly pinched her own thigh. Tears sprang to her eyes. Ow... I pinched too hard!
Most of Feng Tingye's anger had faded on the way back. Once his head cleared, he caught the gaps in what the two men had said and had a fair idea of what had happened. Before he could speak, though, Xia Yuqing had started wailing.
Well, now Feng Tingye was interested. He took Xia Yuqing by the chin and lifted her face, smiling in a way that seemed to make the heavens change color. "Hearsay is unreliable; seeing is believing. Could what I saw with my own eyes be false?"
Xia Yuqing shuddered at his devilish smile. She pursed her lips, then decided she might as well smash the broken pot. "What will it take for Your Majesty to believe me?"
The big bad wolf hummed thoughtfully and began hoodwinking the little white rabbit without batting an eye. "Just now, I saw you behaving intimately with those two lords and speaking to them rather suggestively. If you insist you have no improper closeness with either of them, you should produce solid evidence. I have always been fair and strict. I certainly