"You're quite right. I have felt much better these past two months."
Hearing him admit it himself, Baozhu grew pleased with herself. "My luck has always been excellent," she said cheerfully. "Even Huo Qilang said my face promised good fortune and wealth. If I shared just a tenth or two with you, it would last you a lifetime."
After a moment's thought, she added, "Chen Shigu is long dead. You can choose a nice, auspicious name for yourself now. I'll help you think of one."
Wei Xun laughed. "You've already named Rhinoceros Illumination. There's no need to name me too. Besides, a name is only something people call you. As long as someone calls and someone answers, that's enough. You have a perfectly good name, yet you won't let anyone use it. Doesn't that mean it can only be carved on a stone and taken underground with you?"
Baozhu fell silent. After a long while, she said coldly, "'So exalted are the daughters of Heaven that even historians stand outside their affairs and leave them unrecorded.' How do you know a princess's name can only be carved on her epitaph? Have you robbed other princesses' tombs?"
Wei Xun felt a line of cold pierce him from the crown of his head to his feet. Flustered, he slowly sank beneath the water. Tonight's easy, unrestrained conversation had lulled his vigilance. In one careless moment, he had blurted out the secret he had deliberately avoided all this time.
Chen Shigu had robbed tombs without a shred of restraint, taking particular pleasure in destroying the burial places of emperors, generals, ministers, and powerful noble families. No matter how supreme or exalted they had been in life, countless people had had their bones ground to dust and scattered by him after death. Among them