His use of her name, without title, made her heart skip. She could tell he wouldn't accept vague excuses.
Mei Liang lowered her gaze and took a slow breath. "When I got lost earlier, I accidentally overheard two officials speaking in the forest," she replied truthfully—at least half of it.
"They mentioned that Your Majesty had assigned my father and brother to guard Datong Frontier with their troops."
She didn't dare reveal the rest—that those same men were plotting against her father and him. If she told Xiang Long Wei now, he might act too soon—set a trap for them and capture them all in one swoop.
If that happened, she would lose her only chance to uncover who had truly plotted against her family in her previous life.
Worse still, if Xiang Long Wei began to investigate, it would alert the real mastermind lurking in the shadows, making her enemy even more cautious—and far more dangerous.
"So she kept quiet, her eyes calm even as her heart pounded in her chest."
