The King's Dancer

Chapter 22

When Xie Lian followed Pei Ming into the throne room, there was quite a bunch of people already there. No doubt the whole court was present, as well as a sufficient number of guards. Mei NianQing was there as well, standing right beside Feng Xin. Xie Lian could only see the back of him, but to his horror, the Guoshi looked indeed quite battered, with parts of his slightly bloody robes ripped, and his hair in disarray. Xie Lian felt extremely remorseful just looking at what he'd caused.

And then there was the king, sitting on his throne and throwing daggers with his eye at everyone and everything. Pei Ming had been right, too. It did smell rather intensely like angry alpha. Xie Lian was already feeling down, and that smell caused him to physically sink in on himself as well. It was indeed rather intimidating to see Hua Cheng like this.

Nobody acknowledged they had entered until Pei Ming had led Xie Lian to stay in front of the throne, though they stood a bit off to the right side, while Mei NianQing and Feng Xin stood further towards the left. Xie Lian also noticed that Pei Ming and Feng Xin were standing in between the Guoshi and himself, most likely as a precaution.

" What... . is going on?", the king asked through clenched teeth and with a bit of a growl.

Pei Ming stepped forward, and explained that he'd been called to the scene because everybody else had failed to get the feral omega under control, detailing why exactly Xie Lian had to be knocked out in that moment.

When 'a feral omega' was mentioned, Hua Cheng shot a quick look at Xie Lian, obvious worry flashing in his eyes.

However, Xie Lian listened intently to the damage he had apparently caused while his instincts had overtaken him, and it sounded like quite a monetary loss for the Guoshi. Even with what was left of his savings he couldn't even hope to pay Mei NianQing back for what he had destroyed in his fit. He lowered his head in shame, still somewhat disbelieving of the fact that he'd lost himself to his instinct to such an extent. He'd always excelled in self control, no matter in which area, and he'd definitely never gone feral before. It was almost laughable that such a small comment should have been able to cause such a disaster.

When Pei Ming was done giving the account of monetary as well as physical damages to all the guards that had tried to stop Xie Lian, including the ones Pei Ming himself had received, Hua Cheng looked even more livid than before, but there was also some apprehension in his eyes.

"You keep talking about a feral omega. I want to know why that omega went feral in the first place", he demanded with a cold voice, and looked at the Guoshi somewhat severely.

"I'm not quite sure. I don't think I said anything provoking enough to have earned such an extreme reaction", Mei NianQing said, and he did indeed sound confused.

The king sighed, and turned to look at Xie Lian. However, it was really much too obvious how soft his whole face suddenly turned. It caused quite a few whispers to start before Hua Cheng had even spoken.

"Gege... what happened?", he asked, his voice full of concern.

Xie Lian stepped forward, and tried to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to say not only in front of so many strangers, but also Hua Cheng himself.

"We were arguing, because the Guoshi was against me reducing my training time to every second day", he started, and was promptly interrupted by Hua Cheng lifting his hand in a sign for him to stop.

"What was there to argue about? It was my order", Hua Cheng told Mei NianQing, who looked a bit startled at that detail.

"He didn't say it was your order, Your Majesty", the Guoshi immediately defended himself.