The following evening, after a full day of work, Li Bowen was the first to take his leave. Zhou Xu, meanwhile, had accumulated quite a stack of documents awaiting his approval while he was away, so he was voluntarily working overtime, putting in an extra hour each day to slowly finish all the piled-up work.
"Your Majesty."
Huo Qubing should have finished his work by now, yet even though more than ten minutes had passed since Li Bowen left, he showed no intention of leaving. Clearly, he had something to say.
"Get to the point."
Zhou Xu never even looked up. As he spoke, he picked up another document and quickly flipped through it.
Huo Qubing opened and closed his mouth several times but failed to make a sound. He found the matter somewhat difficult to bring up.
But when he thought of how it concerned the future of Great Zhou, Huo Qubing steeled himself and spoke...
"This humble subject wishes to ask Your Majesty to favor the harem's consorts more often and select more women for the palace, so that the Royal Family of Great Zhou may flourish with many descendants!"
Zhou Xu's hand paused. At the same time, his gaze finally moved away from the document and landed on Huo Qubing below. Then he let out a soft, "Heh."
"Did Li Bowen send you here to remonstrate with me?"
At those words, Huo Qubing hesitated slightly.
"Not exactly. You could say it was this humble subject's own idea."
"Bullshit!"
Zhou Xu spat out the word in exasperation, scaring Huo Qubing into immediately dropping to his knees.
"Your Majesty, forgive me!"
"You don't even have a wife yet. Under normal circumstances, would you have thought of this?!"
Something about His Majesty's words sounded strange to Huo Qubing, but he