Clasping hands with Mulan after their high five left Shire exhilarated. Hope rose in his heart, sweeping away his earlier gloom, and he asked Mulan a question full of anticipation.
"Then can I call you Mulan from now on?"
"Hahaha, I'd like nothing better, my partner! By the way, I've always called you Shire, but I don't actually know your name."
At Mulan's question, Shire smiled with a hint of embarrassment.
"My name is Jinipi Shire. Actually, you'd better keep calling me Shire. Really, I'm sensitive about it."
"Pfft!"
Mulan wore a strange expression, while Farolynch couldn't help laughing from the sofa. In some old Dierjia slang, the name sounded a little like certain unflattering terms, something along the lines of "dog scraps" or "little mudball."
"Don't laugh. I know the name invites misunderstandings. The main thing is, hardly anyone in the Shire Family's direct bloodline lives very long. My father heard somewhere that giving a child a lowly name makes them easier to raise, less likely to die young, and more likely to live a long life, so he gave me this name. I used to have an older brother whose name was more normal, but he died of illness when he was nine. So I've kept this name ever since."
"Hahahaha, such simple yet weighty fatherly love. It actually sounds quite nice, but I'll keep calling you Shire."
Mulan comforted Shire with a laugh, while Farolynch shamelessly called out again.
"Baron Jinipi! I think that has a nice ring to it, too. It's sure to stand out in the Dilga Empire!"
Shire couldn't be bothered to stoop to Farolynch's level. He now knew that the man didn't even qualify as truly alive, and the coffin he had slept in earlier belonged to him. Why argue with someone who