For Li Yu to want to gain Jing-wang’s favor, it’s not completely without reason.
He read the original novel and knew that although Mu Tianchi had the setting of a tyrant, in the original novel, he wasn’t actually a ruthless and cold-blooded tyrant right from the start.
When Mu Tianchi was still Jing-wang, at most he had a solitary, cold personality and apathetic feelings towards others. Because of his natural mutism, he was deprived of the right to inherit the throne a long time ago. But later, he walked towards the position of Emperor as the most unlikely candidate out of all the princes. With swift methods, he purged the court and harem and finally transformed from a silent and cold Wang into a merciless tyrant that was feared by all.
This kind of transformation was a long mental process, not something that occurred overnight. The twists and turns were not something that could be described clearly with a few words. At this moment, Mu Tianchi was still a Wang. That means his personality hasn’t changed to that of a tyrant. In other words, this tyrant hasn’t reached the point where he’d behead people without reason.
This point, Li Yu already managed to observe back then, when Mu Tianchi caught the big white cat, but didn’t choose to execute it.
The big white cat crashed into Jing-wang. Although Jing-wang punished it, and felt rather ruthless while giving the punishment, after finishing the task, he let the cat go and didn’t let the cat’s blood wash the floor. This was something that wouldn’t have happened after he became emperor. It’s evident that the current Jing-wang was only returning an eye-for-eye, not completely merciless. Wasn’t the fact that Jing-wang actually saved a fish like himself also an example?
That’s why it wasn’t hard to understand he received the mission to change the tyrant’s nature from the System.
Acting ahead of time while Mu Tianchi was still Jing-wang was a much better option than trying to remedy the situation after he became a tyrant.
In order to complete the mission, Li Yu specifically let go of his pride. Since he needed to become Jing-wang’s favored pet fish, voluntarily being friendly towards his owner was normal.
But trying to make Jing-wang recognize Li Yu’s friendliness and enthusiasm as a tail waving fish was really too hard. Li Yu blew bubbles for quite a while, his mouth even started aching. Jing-wang’s gaze was following him, but his expression remained apathetic, as if he was an icy mountain that can’t be melted.
Li Yu very quickly became somewhat tired.
He tried so hard to win favor from Jing-wang, but Jing-wang’s expression didn’t change at all. It was actually Wang Xi-gonggong, who was standing behind Jing-wang, that let out a light laugh.
“Your highness, look. The fish you rescued is back to life. It’s even sneezing.”
Wang Xi’s big, smiling face appeared behind Jing-wang as he looked joyously at the little carp that was blowing bubbles.
This fish was pretty interesting. Before it was all wilted and unmoving. Wang Xi had thought this fish wouldn’t be able to survive. Who knew it’d be so vigorous and lively after just a short while.
Li Yu: “……”
Hey, don’t misunderstand. This is saying hello, not sneezing!
Li Yu blew a bubble at Wang Xi this time, expressing his protest.
It can’t be helped. No one can understand fish speech. Waving his tail would only cause pain. So he could only do his best to blow bubbles.
This time Wang Xi misunderstood even more. He felt the fish was blowing bubbles too frequently and started to become somewhat worried. He carefully asked Jing-wang: “Your highness, do you think this fish is sick? Why is it sneezing again?”
Li Yu: “……”
You’re the one sneezing. Your entire family is sneezing!
Jing-wang didn’t respond yet when the misunderstood Li Yu already spat out a long series of bubbles in fury.
Wang Xi instantly became extremely nervous: “Your highness, could this fish be choking on water?”
Jing-wang: “……”
Although Jing-wang can’t speak, he’s not blind or deaf. His head was very bright. How could a fish sneeze or choke on water? This crafty Wang Xi was clearly joking deliberately to relieve Jing-wang’s solemnity.
However, this fish……
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Zjrafg. Alcu-kjcu. Obbx bnfg tfgf. Helmx, ibbx bnfg tfgf!”
Laying in the leaf blanket was inconvenient. Li Yu only hesitated for a moment before he abandoned the leaf that he obtained not long ago, and cheerfully swam near Jing-wang.
The second step of the main mission was to interact with the tyrant. He blew several bubbles just now, but the System didn’t give any notifications. This just proved that just blowing bubbles didn’t count.
This screwed up system never told him what ‘interacting’ meant. Li Yu can only fumble around himself and boldly attempt things. Finally gaining a rare chance to see Jing-wang, he needed to diligently grab this opportunity and finish this second step right now.
It was actually fantastic. Jing-wang was a naturally born mute who didn’t talk. Li Yu was a fish who no one could understand, which in actuality, wasn’t that much different than being a mute. To a certain extent, he and Jing-wang share a common ground.
However, since the two of them can’t talk, communication was difficult. How were they supposed to interact?
Li Yu recalled all the little activities he knew briefly. Because of the green water plant beside him, he was struck by a sudden inspiration, the magical hula dance. Why doesn’t he dance hula for Jing-wang for a while? If there’s no interactions, then he can create a chance for interactions?
The more he thought about it, the more it felt like a good idea.
However– he was still injured and couldn’t swing his tail wildly. In order to maintain the same position in his lower fish body, he can only lightly move his uninjured upper fish body.
Doing what he planned, Li Yu imagined he was a cute seagrass and started to twist his upper body in an exaggerated manner, like creating ocean waves over and over.
Mu Tianchi, Wang Xi: “……”
Jing-wang stared unblinkingly at the little carp. He felt even more so that this fish was somewhat extraordinary. However, because Jing-wang’s outward appearance was cold, even if he was somewhat surprised internally, it didn’t express easily on his face.
To the side, Wang Xi thought he was going blind. Swallowing his saliva, he said with difficulty: “Your highness, this fish…… perhaps it has a muscle cramp?”
Actually, Wang Xi’s initial reaction to this fish twisting back and forth was that it was trying to make Jing-wang happy. However, Wang-gonggong has only heard of smart cats and dogs that were sensitive to humans. Can a fish become smart as well?
Reason told him that was impossible. Therefore, Wang-gonggong felt more like this fish had a muscle cramp.
Li Yu: “……”
You’re the one with a muscle cramp. Your entire family has muscle cramps!!
After having Wang Xi wrecking the atmosphere repeatedly, Li Yu was no longer in the mood to continue hula dancing.
He danced for this long, yet the System didn’t make any sound at all. Li Yu might as well stop dancing. Instantly, he stopped on the white pebble bed and rested.
After transmigrating into a fish, the first skill he gained was swimming. Right now he was extremely proficient in floating up and down in the water.
Jing-wang continued to stare at him. Seeing the fish stop moving, he looked rather pensive.
Wang Xi immediately found a new topic: “Your highness, how come this fish stopped moving?”
Li Yu: “……”
Being a pet fish was so hard. Why did he have to encounter this flag bearer all the time!
Li Yu turned himself around with self restraint. He can’t keep sulking. He needed to focus his energy on how to complete his tasks as soon as possible.
“Hey System, what counts as interactions?” Li Yu attempted to summon the System. Even the hula dance didn’t count as an interaction. Wasn’t this task too messed up?
Most likely, the System also couldn’t bear to watch any longer. It reminded him: “It’s called interaction because it involves interactions between the two of you.”
Li Yu: “……”
Li Yu finally understood why he couldn’t successfully complete the second step despite using all that effort. Because from the beginning to end, only this fish was moving nonstop. Jing-wang didn’t do anything at all so how can that count as an interaction!
Then, how can he make Jing-wang do something as well?
Li Yu fell into deep thought. This was a tyrannical master who didn’t even respond to a hula dance after all. QQQ, the life of a fish was too hard.
As Li Yu concentrated on his worries, Wang Xi was still staring at this fish.
Wang-gonggong had his little schemes. This fish was something that Jing-wang found personally, as well as saving it and bringing it back to this palace himself. Wang Xi has followed Qing-wang for many years. He knew clearly that his highness had a cold face and an even colder heart. It’s rare for him to care about anyone or anything. So what did it mean for him to behave out of the norm and save a fish?
It meant that this fish managed to catch his highness’s attention. His highness was slightly interested in this fish. He even ordered Wang Xi to prepare a fish bowl and put this fish inside it. Wasn’t this the attitude of someone planning to raise a fish!
Who cares what he wanted to raise. Wang Xi was so happy he couldn’t stop grinning ear to ear. His cold, frozen highness finally warmed up slightly.
Wang Xi nagged a few times prior, but was afraid to speak bluntly, terrified that if he spoke too forthright, Jing-wang’s stubborn temper would rise and he might refuse to raise the fish again. That’s why Wang Xi made so much unnecessary fuss.
He discovered that Jing-wang’s gaze has been following the little carp the entire time. When the little carp was twisting, Jing-wang didn’t have any definite response, but he also didn’t leave. When the little carp stopped swimming, Jing-wang’s facial color didn’t change, but the rare upward curve of his mouth immediately fell.
So he was a bit unhappy.
Wang Xi saw this and immediately felt worried. This wasn’t the way to raise a fish. What’s the point of just staring at it the entire time?
Wang Xi guessed that Jing-wang had never raised a fish before, and also never raised any other living things. He probably didn’t know what to do. Wang Xi asked carefully: “Your highness, this fish… perhaps it’s lacking energy out of hunger?”
Mu Tianchi swiftly glanced at him.
Wang Xi knew this meant he was supposed to continue talking and explained with a smile: “When a person is hungry, they have no energy. This old servant thinks that a fish should be the same. It probably only has energy when it’s not hungry. This servant already prepared some fish food. Why don’t I try feeding it?”
Mu Tianchi pondered for a moment and lightly nodded.
Wang Xi bowed, then nimbly pulled out two bamboo boxes out of his sleeve. Opening them one by one, the boxes were filled with fish food that were red and green in color. Each was made to be the size of rice grain.
Mu Tianchi: “……”
Wang Xi picked up a few grains of fish food and, in front of Jing-wang, he sprinkled them into the porcelain fish bowl.
Li Yu, who was still thinking hard, smelled the aroma of food. After transmigrating as a fish, he hasn’t eaten yet. His completely hollow stomach immediately started growling.
Was there something good to eat?
Li Yu looked around all over. His attention was quickly absorbed by the red and green grains scattered in the water. These things smelled heavenly, even more mouthwatering than the delicacies he once ate as a human.
He can’t finish tasks on an empty stomach…… Li Yu quickly persuaded himself and swam over, making a circle around a red grain.
This was…… fish food?
He heard that fish food can be made from crushed flour or from crushed insects. He couldn’t tell which kind this was, but it really smelled amazing. He really wanted to eat it……
On one hand, Li Yu disdained himself for adapting to the tastes of a fish so quickly. On the other hand, Li Yu was so hungry he was drooling.
In the end, the craving for food prevailed over his pride.
How…… did fish eat again?
Li Yu hesitantly leaned forward and used his fish fins to move the fish food slightly.
Suddenly– he became aware of an extremely intense gaze clinging to him.
Li Yu looked up and saw Jing-wang’s pitch black eyes staring at him unblinkingly.
Li Yu: “……”
He originally wanted to be more refined and use his fish fins to ‘hold’ the fish food, then eat it. But if Jing-wang managed to perceive something was off……
Although Jing-wang was mute, he was very astute!
Li Yu quickly grabbed the fish food with his mouth and dove under the leaf blanket.
If he had to eat food like a fish in front of Jing-wang, it strangely felt a bit humiliating. It’s better to eat hidden away. Once he finished eating, he can go back to doing the task.
The fresh tasty fish food quickly melted in his mouth. Li Yu took a few bites enthusiastically. Thank god. It’s made of flour!
However, this rich, heavy taste, how come it’s kind of like stir-fried pork and fish?
…… who cares. As long as Li Yu had something to eat. Stir-fried pork and fish was pretty nice anyways. It placated his inability to eat human food.
Li Yu quickly finished eating an entire grain of the red fish food. His stomach was still very hungry so he planned to go out and find the other ones.
Because he knew Jing-wang was watching him and was afraid the other would discover something, he could only snatch away the grains one at a time, eating it sneakily, before returning to search for more.
He slowly discovered that the red fish food tasted better than the green fish food. The green fish food tasted a bit bland.
Over here, Jing-wang watched the little carp eat for quite awhile, gaze heavy.
For a second just now, he felt like the way this little carp used his fins to move the fish food looked somewhat like a human.
But very quickly, it was indiscernible again.
————
The author has something to say:
Jing-wang raising a fish, the one that worries the most is Wang Xi hahaha!
A little scene:
Li Yu: The red fish food is very tasty. Master, I want more red ones! (Raise fish fin)
Jing-wang: Be good, there are even tastier things in future. Do you want them?
Thank You for the chapter (๑°꒵°๑)･*♡
Jing-wang is very observant… Thanks for the update ❤️🐟
What tastier😏
That big meat stick placed under 😏
😏
thanks for the chapter!
I like this concept, but Li Yu seems… painfully stupid. Carp are actually surprisingly intelligent fish. Maybe he should have turned into a guppy instead….
I’ve read a lot of transmigration novels where the MC instantly gets used to their character setting and the huge drastic change to their lives /makes 200 IQ plans for revenge by the next morning. And tbh, Li Yu’s response in this novel is far more realistic and relatable.
I definitely agree. It would be so boring we already knew how to do everything from the get-go
Yep, I agree
(Especially since he was a human before, and probably hasn’t taken care of a fish before)
Not everyone know carps are intelligent fish. Even I didn’t know that. It would be boring if the MC got used to being a fish right away, plus he just transmigrated so him acting on his human instinct (like holding/grabbing food with his hand) is normal.
Jing-wang’s honest reaction:
👁👄👁
LMAO
Thank you for the chapter ☺
The way Li yu cursing at Wang Xi is so funny🤣
i feel like the owner can sense some humanness about the fish
He isn’t a tyrant YET, still time to make him happy with cute little hula dances 😌🤭 Being a pet fish is hard work indeed.
Is it just me, or would it be extremely scary to be a fish in a bowl and having someone stare into your bowl from above? 🥹
“There are even tastier things in the future” oh hohoho 👀