Jiang Yingcheng looked so quiet and well-behaved with her head lowered as she browsed the gossip that Xi Zhenghao took it as a sign he had found the right answer.
He broke into a grin and was about to offer a few more words of persuasion when the little girl opposite him abruptly raised her head.
"You mortal," Jiang Yingcheng said, keeping her voice as steady as she could, her round little face unusually solemn. "Do you doubt that I would manifest before you?"
Xi Zhenghao did not say whether he believed her or not. He merely kept respectfully urging Jiang Yingcheng to come out. "Your Little Highness, please come out. This really isn't a place to play."
Had there not been so many ministers around whose ranks far exceeded his, he would have rushed straight inside and carried the little princess out of the hall.
Several people in the crowd looked approving. Jiang Yingcheng fixed her gaze on their faces one by one, then gave a sly smile.
She made a few random calculations on her fingers in midair and said mysteriously, "Xi Zhenghao, when you were five, you thought your younger female cousin's little dress looked pretty, so you tricked her into believing she was actually a boy. You coaxed her into swapping two sets of new clothes with you, then hid in your room to wear the dresses!"
Xi Zhenghao froze.
He did not remember much of his early childhood, but this incident was so humiliating that it often returned to haunt his midnight dreams. Every time he remembered it, he felt so embarrassed that he wanted to claw holes in the floor with his toes.
But he had concealed it extremely well at the time. Even in his own household, hardly anyone knew. How had the