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.

"We'll talk about this later. Go on, gege."

"We argued, and I was-... I wasn't happy with how the Guoshi talked about you- Your Majesty and-"

"Gege, what did he say exactly?", Hua Cheng asked softly, though Xie Lian really didn't want to answer that particular question.

When he kept quiet, it was the Guoshi who answered for him.

"I told him Your Highness is a bad influence, and that Xie Lian will have a disastrous future if he keeps engaging with you."

Hua Cheng looked furious for about a split second, before his face turned neutral.

"You keep telling me that on an almost daily basis. Is this why gege got angry?", Hua Cheng asked him now.

Xie Lian shook his head, to which Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? So there's more?", he asked Mei NianQing again, this time with narrowed eyes.

The Guoshi frowned for a few moments, before realisation dawned on him.

"I informed him that, given Your Majesty's birth star, Your Majesty shouldn't be alive by now", he eventually said.

Having to hear it again was hard, and he could feel himself growing angry again, but Xie Lian managed to keep himself under control this time.

"Is this it, gege?", Hua Cheng asked, though by the look on his face he already seemed to know the answer.

Xie Lian nodded anyway.

"I… I got so angry because… in that moment… I don't know why, I just thought that-... I thought how I'd already lost so much- my country, my parents, my friends, my comrades, my dignity, my freedom… and I couldn't bear the thought of- of- of losing my alpha, too", he explained his thought process, though his face had grown incredibly red by the end of it.

The reaction of everyone attending was immediate, everyone broke out in protest of his audacity to call the king his alpha, his shamelessness at using such tactics to get out of getting punished, his unreasonable self confidence to think that the king would choose a mere dancer as his omega.

Xie Lian tried his best to ignore the accusations, but he feared that his face wasn't quite as thick as he needed it to be in a situation such as this.

"Silence!", Hua Cheng roared, livid to the point of standing up from his throne. Everyone obeyed immediately, and not a single sound could be heard afterwards.

From what Xie Lian could tell, he was even shanking in his anger, or maybe in his attempts to not let it overtake him.

"Gege", he growled dangerously with clenched fists, and Xie Lian was about to pass out from fright. "Come here. Sit", he demanded, though it had absolutely nothing in common with the playful orders he'd used in the entertainment room before. So of course Xie Lian hurried up the steps, and kneeled beside Hua Cheng as fast as he could, though still making sure to face the alpha, and not the crowd.

Unexpectedly however, Hua Cheng proceeded to put his hand on top of Xie Lian's head, much more gently than Xie Lian had thought him to be capable of in that very moment.

"None of you", Hua Cheng started growling, still as furious as he'd been before. "Not a single one of you has the right to talk about my omega in such a degrading way. If I hear comments like that again, don't think I won't punish the living hell out of you", he snarled, and Xie Lian's eyes widened in shock at hearing those words.

Since Hua Cheng had called him over, he had known that he wasn't in trouble for thinking of the king as his alpha, but he really hadn't expected Hua Cheng to cover him like this! Against his own court, too! Was that even- allowed!?

The guards who had thrown their words at Xie Lian just a moment ago now fell to their knees, and the members of the court who had left snide comments bowed, all of them apologising. Xie Lian felt that this was rather unreal.

There was a long moment of absolute silence, before Hua Cheng eventually huffed, and sat down on his throne again, his hand still on Xie Lian's head.

"Mei NianQing", he said simply, and it had the Guoshi straightening up.

"Your Majesty."

"The way I see it, you not only defied my order, which was being delivered to you by my omega, you also caused my omega to become severely stressed, even to the point of going feral. Do you disagree?"

"I don't", Mei NianQing said, and even looked like he meant it.

"Then I assume a proper apology from my omega for attacking you will suffice."

"Of course, Your Majesty", the Guoshi agreed lightly.

Hua Cheng took his hand off of Xie Lian's head then, and instead used it to push against his back lightly.

"Go apologise, gege", the alpha ordered him in a soft voice.

Thus, Xie Lian rose and went down the steps again, walking until he stood in front of the Guoshi. Once there, he got on his knees again, and kowtowed. Nobody had told him to go this far, but Xie Lian did indeed feel incredibly remorseful, and felt that this was the only appropriate way to apologise.

When he was done and got on his feet again, Mei NianQing put one of his hands on Xie Lian's shoulder and squeezed it.

"Let's take a break from training for a few days. I'm not angry at you, Xie Lian. But I think you will need some time to clear your head. I obviously underestimated the relationship between you and His Majesty, and I want to apologise for upsetting you so much. That wasn't my intention. You may come back to my quarters when you feel like it, but in three day's time at the earliest. Understood?"

Xie Lian nodded, feeling incredibly relieved that he had been forgiven so easily. Even though he didn't quite think he deserved it.

"The hearing is concluded. Everyone may leave", the king ordered, and the people immediately started filing out of the throne room.

Xie Lian wasn't sure where he should go now, because clearly, Hua Cheng wasn't home, and training wasn't an option either. He wondered if he should pay Banyue a visit, but remembered that she did have training right now.

Hua Cheng must've noticed his hesitancy to leave, and called him back to his side. Once Xie Lian was in reach, Hua Cheng grabbed his hands and pulled him closer until he was standing in between the king's legs. He wasn't told to sit this time, however, it felt much too strange to look down on the king, especially when said king was sitting on his throne. So Xie Lian knelt again.

"Gege, why do you keep kneeling down whenever I tell you to come over and sit?", Hua Cheng asked, and even though he frowned, he still sounded amused.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?", Xie Lian asked, honestly curious.

"You can sit down next to me, of course. Or on my lap, if you prefer that", the king said much too seriously. "Surely it can't be nice for you to keep looking up to me like this?"

The way Hua Cheng had said it made Xie Lian blush in embarrassment. After all, he really thought that it was quite nice to kneel for the alpha. Not only because he enjoyed the view from down here, but also because it was easy to create physical contact. He could just lean against Hua Cheng's leg, or easily hug his middle, which he quite liked. There was nothing soft about Hua Cheng's body, but when he was sitting down, and not tensing his abdominal muscles, his skin, and the little amount of body fat he did have, created that very small soft area on his stomach, and Xie Lian absolutely loved nuzzling his face into it. There was really no better position to get to that area, than kneeling in front of a sitting Hua Cheng.

"I like kneeling like this", Xie Lian admitted, and because of his somewhat uncouth thoughts, his head turned bright red.

Hua Cheng raised his eyebrow, before he chuckled.

"Well, if gege likes kneeling, I won't tell him to stop it", he said, and patted Xie Lian's head, before he continued. "However, let's keep this sort of behaviour to inside my chambers, okay? Nobody else should see you kneeling to me, I don't want people to get the wrong impression of our relationship", Hua Cheng explained gently.

Xie Lian understood where he was coming from, and nodded.

"Then… I'm sorry I did that earlier…"

Hua Cheng shook his head.

"No need to apologise, gege. However… we do need to talk about… that."

Xie Lian immediately knew what Hua Cheng was referring to, and blushed an even darker shade. He had nothing to defend himself with however, and anxiously waited for Hua Cheng to keep talking.

"Gege… really thinks of me as his alpha?", the king eventually asked cautiously.

Xie Lian lowered his head, because he didn't think he could say this while looking the king in the eye.

"I… didn't consciously. Before the incident happened earlier… I never thought of you as specifically my alpha, especially not since I know you like your harem, but… I don't think… when I thought of you as my alpha after Mei NianQing had said… that… it was just before my instincts took over. So I think that maybe, I… I felt like you were my alpha... even before that. It- it seems like, unconsciously, I... ", for the first time in his life, Xie Lian had trouble voicing his feelings.

In fact, he wasn't quite sure what it was that he was feeling. He knew he liked Hua Cheng, a lot in fact, and he knew he felt exceedingly comfortable around him as well. He knew he wanted to stay close to him whenever he could, and he knew he felt a certain amount of adoration towards him, which he tried to suppress quite unsuccessfully. And since Hua Cheng's rut had happened, he had to admit that the desire he felt for him on a more primal level was stronger than he had thought beforehand as well. Really, it wasn't that he didn't know what he was feeling; it was just that he didn't know how to express his feelings appropriately.

Unfortunately, Hua Cheng didn't give him an easy out this time, and just waited patiently for Xie Lian to find his words.

"It… seems like I… I've been wanting… that", he finally managed to say ineloquently.