<div align="center">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/04/FengBao.jpg)</div><br/>As the politician simpered and used his words to squirm out of a public and humiliating punishment he greatly deserved, Feng glanced at him now and then, unable to keep an unbroken gaze for fear he might do something idiotic. Like waste good wine by dashing it in the bastard's face...<br/><br/>He sipped the liquid, the comforting bloom of warmth from his first and rather hastily downed goblet spreading through him. Tai berated Lǎo but seemed happy with leaving it at just words. Tai didn't have his father's ire - or, rather, the deep bred aggression that had goaded the dead man to act under his anger's influence. It was always something Feng had been grateful for, but sometimes Tai could have done with a show of power. If Lǎo had feared Tai's retribution, he would not have gone behind Tai's back... but he was not about to criticise his friend doing what he was born to do.<br/><br/><em>"Feng. It's okay, trust me."</em><br/><br/>Feng looked at his emperor and turned his back on the minister so he could drop his courtly mask and smile back. "Don't teach your grandmother how to suck eggs, Tai." The teasing words were said in the same calm seriousness of Tai's own words.<br/>