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For one heartbeat, both of them froze. They forgot what they had meant to do and stood staring blankly at each other, neither knowing how to handle the spark that had just flared between them.

His cheek burned where those two jade-rose lips had brushed it.

He was dressed as a man, and Young Master Li still had him in his arms. Granted, he had been grabbed against his will, but when it came to that kiss, he had been the one shameless enough to rise on tiptoe and lunge forward.

He clapped a hand over his cheek. Unable to look Li Chenjing in the eye, he shoved him away with all his strength and turned to flee.

But after only two steps, he doubled back and slammed the love letter into Li Chenjing's hand, looking thoroughly furious.

"You said if I let you hug me, you'd accept my love letter! A real man's word is worth nine bronze tripods! Take it, you brat!"

He thrust the letter at him, gave one last indignant snort, then turned and fled in a panic...

His deliberately swaggering, tough-guy act made Li Chenjing raise a handsome brow.

Watching him run off, Li Chenjing lifted a sleeve to cover his mouth. His eyes darkened. A glance toward the windowsill showed that Liu Rongrong was already gone.

He gave a derisive laugh. What he had just done really was ridiculous.

Lowering his gaze to the love letter forced into his hand, he grew curious about what that tough-acting fellow had written.

He unfolded the paper with a finger. Several lines of delicate handwriting appeared.

In secluded woods, the greenwood longs for the view upon its bough;

From afar, it gazes toward the imperial zenith, not knowing how I pine.

Something gave his heart an unexpected little knock.

He had never expected to receive a love poem from a man.

Nor had he expected that brat to have a genuine gift for verse beneath all his wild, unlearned posturing.

And he had never expected... his name could be woven into a love poem like that.

Face burning and heart pounding, Zhu Bafu ran a long way without looking back. He leaned against a wall in the shadows, panting as he tried to calm his roiling emotions. When he raised a sleeve to wipe away his sweat, the faint, serene scent of Aged Greenwood Sandalwood drifted from his fingertips. It had rubbed off Li Chenjing just now.

He lifted his hand and sniffed the lingering scent. Remembering what had happened, he bared his teeth and kicked the wall to vent his frustration.

He really had been swallowed whole in Li Chenjing's embrace, his nose filled with the man's scent. Powerless to resist, he had been held tighter and tighter, as though Li Chenjing needed him that badly.

That damned man! Did being the Prime Minister's Son make him so great? How could he treat someone as if he didn't matter and do whatever he pleased? Blind to everyone else, willful, arrogant! He had been all courteous modesty in front of the Unnamed Young Master, so why had his nature changed the moment he faced Zhu Bafu? Why had he suddenly reached out and hugged him? And then he had worn that look of granting a favor as he reluctantly accepted the letter.

Did Young Master Ba want to throw himself at the Prime Minister's Son? Did Li Chenjing think he fancied him and had been dying to write him a letter? Pah! Did the man have any idea what it meant to do something just to make a living?

Perhaps the rumors going around weren't entirely baseless. The Li Household's Prime Minister's Son must have some unspeakable private tastes, and he preyed on tender, green young boys like him. But... if he was interested in men, why was he at a brothel? From the looks of it, his relationship with Liu Rongrong, that courtesan, was rather murky too.

Could this be what people meant by having a taste for everything, men and women alike?

Yikes! What heavy tastes!

Zhu Bafu shuddered. The thought of being held against Li Chenjing's body made his scalp prickle, and he hurriedly brushed at his clothes with his sleeve.

"I haven't caught some filthy disease, have I? Yikes! I've got to get home and wash, wash, wash!"

Zhu Bafu's home... could hardly be called a home. It was a shabby little house in a corner on the outskirts of the Capital, down a poor alley that twisted seven ways and turned eight.

The lane home was so narrow that two people passing had to turn sideways. There were no flat paving stones, only a rutted path that kicked up yellow dust on clear days and turned to yellow mud when it rained. Every time he went home, he had to roll up his sleeves and trouser legs, then scrape the mud off his feet before going inside.

And at present, only one other person lived there...

"Where have you been?" A deliberately lowered voice rang out at his front door, heavy with reproach.

"Uh? Um... well..." He absolutely could not say he had just come back from a brothel.

"Coming home this late, dressed like that, with your sleeves and trouser legs rolled up—have you thought about how your father would feel?"

"...X-Xiaojiu."

"That couplet you posted outside the house? I tore it down."

"Huh? Why'd you tear down my livelihood? I was planning to take it to Wuya Bookstore and hang it up tomorrow!"

"Why do you think I tore it down? What did you write on it?"

"False name, false surname, false address... swindle food, swindle drink, swindle affections... Horizontal inscription: Willing victims welcome."

"Was I right to tear down such a sleazy, filthy couplet?" With his arms crossed, he arched his fine brows.

"...Yes..." Yes, my foot! How noble to be so honest with customers about what was on his mind! What other merchant was as decent as he was?

"Mm. Good that you know you were wrong. I've made dinner. Come in and eat."

"Oh..."

"Change your clothes before dinner. You're a girl, yet you haven't a shred of proper manners. You spend all day running around in men's clothes, looking like some wandering rogue. I almost forget you're a girl. Honestly!" With a deep sigh, he shook his head, swept his sleeves behind him, and pushed open the door.

"And I almost forget you're only nine years old, little Zhu Xiaojiu!"

Zhu Xiaojiu was male, the head of the household's younger brother, and had just lived through nine years. He didn't even reach Zhu Bafu's chest, yet he held the Zhu Household's power of life and death. He managed every coin they earned and controlled every expense, from firewood and rice to oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. Usually his face was as blank as a mask. The most expression he ever showed was a dry smile that bared four teeth, and even that was rare. It generally appeared only when Zhu Bafu held out a hand for money to buy snacks.