Volume Two, Chapter Twenty-Three

"Zhao Huangpu."

"Huh?" The unfamiliar three syllables made Zhu Bafu lift her head and look up at His Majesty in confusion.

"My name."

"..." Why was he telling her his name? Apart from its use on the Jade Seal, those three characters could hardly be seen anywhere.

"Outside the palace, call me that from now on."

"How could I?!"

"Don't like it? Then call me Young Master Piao, as you used to."

"..." That was even worse! Back then, she had courted death without knowing any better. But now that they were emperor and subject, carrying on like that would be strapping her head to her belt, ready to become her Old Man's neighbor in prison at any moment. Still, there was no "Piao" in His Majesty's name. Why had he called himself Young Master Piao?

She wanted to ask, but on second thought, the name recorded in the royal ancestral temple was no business of a subject's. Besides, she had something more pressing to settle than what His Majesty was called. "Why did the Prime Minister suddenly agree to release me and the Young Master? Is he no longer pursuing the matter of the poem? Will the Young Master be in danger after the Prime Minister takes him away?"

At that, displeasure flickered across His Majesty's face. "Pig Kid, you still have time to worry about Little Jing?"

"I only feel that Prime Minister Li acts too ruthlessly. I don't know—"

"Pig Kid, everyone in the Imperial Court now considers you my confidant. You should be worrying not about the Prime Minister's Son, but about yourself and... your family." His Majesty closed his folding fan and tapped her on the head. "Do you know where your younger brother is?"

Zhu Bafu froze. Why would His Majesty ask that unless