Volume Two, Chapter Twenty-Two

"...Young Master, could you stop enjoying prison food so much? It's bad luck."

"But it really is delicious. Watching Little Eight while I eat makes it taste even better."

Then she must be one fine sauce, making even prison food delicious. Still, as for their meals, they really had the Young Master to thank. At least she didn't have to worry about anyone poisoning her food and killing her outright.

"Little Eight, open wide."

The Young Master's tender gaze and gentle gesture as he offered her a bite made her instinctively lean back. But then she thought... she'd already blurted out a confession as naked as "I like you." What was the point of acting coy now? She opened her mouth and ate the food he held to her lips.

"Is it good?"

"Mmm... not bad."

"You're two grown men feeding each other prison food, and you think it tastes good? Did you both break your brains when you fell?"

A deep, cool male voice suddenly sounded from the cell door. Zhu Bafu looked back and saw a young man in white standing outside with his hands behind his back. The candlelight was too dim for her to make out his face. His voice sounded both familiar and strange. He calmly ordered the guards, "Open the cell."

The men guarding them were all the Prime Minister's personal guards. They weren't about to obey so easily. They merely stared at the newcomer without a word.

"It seems that, in your eyes, Prime Minister Li's word carries more weight than an Imperial Decree?" The newcomer turned slightly, revealing a bright yellow scroll behind him. Flickering candlelight swept across his eyes. "By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees the release of Zhu Bafu, Minister of Works."

He did not even unroll His