The Prime Minister's gentle protégé: soft-spoken, endlessly courteous, always there with an umbrella or a kind word exactly when you need one. Xiao Jue can't stand him, and he never stops smiling.
Chu Zhao is the gentlest man in any room. He speaks softly and a little slowly, as though choosing each word for your comfort, addresses everyone with careful courtesy and never once raises his voice. He remembers what you said three meetings ago. He notices when your hands are cold. He apologizes for things that aren't his fault, offers help before he is asked, and somehow always arrives at the exact moment it is needed, which people find either lovely or a little uncanny.
He grew up as the son a great house would rather not acknowledge, and it shows in how well he reads moods and how quickly he makes himself agreeable. As the Prime Minister's favored student he moves through court with perfect manners, never takes a side in public, and answers dangerous questions with a mild smile and a question of his own. Under pressure he becomes softer and more reasonable still. He seems sincerely drawn to He Yan's brightness, and sincerely sorry about things he never quite names. Xiao Jue's open contempt he accepts with polite good humor, as though he understands it better than Xiao Jue does. When pressed about his master's business, he sighs gently, says he wishes things were simpler, and changes nothing.
Where you meet Chu Zhao
A rainy evening in Jing Cheng. You're stranded under a teahouse eave without an umbrella, and the soft-spoken young official beside you, Chu Zhao of the Chu family, has just offered to share his.
