Liu Xie had barely finished speaking before he was proven wrong. Unable to quite save face, he silently lowered his bow and arrows, then changed the subject. "Have you made any progress investigating the rumors lately?"
At the mention of this, Jia Xu's expression stiffened slightly, and his gaze grew evasive. "Why do you suddenly ask about this, Your Majesty?"
The source of the rumors had actually already been traced.
But he did not dare say it.
Liu Xie gazed steadily at Jia Xu and said, "If you've found out, you've found out. I never intended to keep it from you forever."
"But you must still cooperate and keep up appearances."
Given the Embroidered-Clothes Envoys' capabilities, it was hardly surprising that they had traced the source of the rumors. He had never intended to conceal it for very long himself.
He had previously kept Jia Xu and Guo Jia in the dark and sent Gao Lan to handle the matter, not because he distrusted the two of them, but to make it look more convincing.
Jia Xu respectfully assented, and Guo Jia continued, "Your Majesty, the Great Aristocratic Families have also been suppressing the spread of the rumors these past few days. It seems they have realized it too."
"But... is this really wise? Could it provoke a backlash?"
This move by the Son of Heaven amounted to finding a pretext to condemn them.
Of course he could see its purpose.
Whether this debate ended in victory or defeat, the Son of Heaven would hold the initiative. It was just that the method was rather shameless.
"So what if they guess I was behind it?"
Liu Xie spoke lightly. He looked at a rabbit leisurely nibbling grass among the trees nearby, then slowly raised his bow and arrow.
"I intend