Sending Shi Chun out of the city in a carriage from the City Lord's Manor? Yin Xu turned her head and searched out Chief Steward Hu Gongxian. He lowered his head, avoiding her gaze, confirming her suspicion beyond doubt. He had leaked it.
Yin Xu demanded angrily, "You and I belong to the same clan, the same branch. I've never treated you poorly. Why did you betray me?"
Hu Gongxian looked up, helplessness written across his face. "Sister Hong, I really did it for your own good, and for everyone's good..."
The Western Emperor cut in. "If I couldn't keep track of what went on here, how could I simply grant you favors? So he's right. If he hadn't bowed his head, how could you have established yourself here? Surely you didn't actually think I lacked women to serve me?"
Yin Xu seemed unable to accept it. Her voice trembled as she asked, "You said you would marry me. Was that true?"
The Western Emperor countered without a ripple of emotion, "You agreed when I told you to suspend that business. Why did you keep doing it behind my back?"
"I..." Yin Xu had no answer, but she grew hysterical, still pressing the same question. "You said you would marry me. Was that true?"
Seeing that she refused the offered wine only to drink the penalty cup, the Western Emperor lifted his chin toward Ying Gang. "Deal with her as you see fit."
He had been loving and intimate with her not long ago, yet now he discarded her like a worn-out shoe. Madness spread across Yin Xu's face, and she lunged at him like a lunatic, seemingly ready to fight to the death.
But she never touched so much as a hair on him. Ying Gang pinned her down