This was probably the longest kiss Li Yu has ever experienced. Midway, he was even somewhat regretful. He just realized that he liked Jing-wang after all. It’s not like he had already agreed to be together with him. So they shouldn’t be kissing until they were completely breathless right at the start.
But the few times he wanted to yell stop, the man holding him would start kissing him with a smile. Li Yu has never seen Jing-wang smile so happily. And it’s all because this was the first time Li Yu didn’t push the other away, and instead accepted him.
The other had his eyes closed, eyelashes faintly trembling. Like having grown little hooks, the other scratched and plucked Li Yu’s heartstrings nonstop. One kiss later, Li Yu felt as if the door to his heart was opened wide. Immeasurable excitement and sweetness stumbled over each other as they rushed outward. He felt like he really did like Jing-wang. That’s right. This kind of rolling, burning sensation, other than like, what else can it be?
Heart trembling, Li Yu suddenly thought everything through.
So he did like Jing-wang. It’s all his fault that it took him some time to realize. He was unable to see his own heart clearly before.
Li Yu’s eyes felt a bit wet. With a shaky finger, he touched Jing-wang’s lips.
The kiss stopped. Jing-wang turned to devotedly kiss Li Yu’s finger. Then he moved Li Yu’s hands around his neck. Before it was only Jing-wang holding Li Yu around the waist. Now, they were embracing each other back mutually.
Jing-wang gently held the slim waist of the person in his arms. Hesitating for a moment, he decided to temporarily hold back from pulling on the pearl belt on the youth’s waist.
The entire world quieted down, leaving behind only the little space inside this carriage where the two of them were kissing each other clumsily.
The moving horse had stopped some unknown time ago. The moment of affection didn’t even feel enough.
Li Yu suddenly yelled ‘Ah,’ because the countdown warning of transformation sounded in his head at this time.
No time left. He needed to leave immediately!
Li Yu was still pursing his lips just now, looking very reluctant to stop. But in an instant, he pushed Jing-wang away, pulling off Jing-wang’s hand, which was touching the pearl belt around his waist. Li Yu shot Jing-wang an angry glare.
But the words that he said completely lacked all fury.
“I… I have things to do and must immediately leave. Next time, no, tomorrow. I will talk to you then!” In panic, Li Yu wanted to jump off the carriage. Jing-wang realized that Xiao Yu was about to transform here. However–
Jing-wang quickly glanced at the crystal bottle that was placed by his side. The carp demon’s doppelganger floated quietly inside it.
But the crystal bottle was here, where else can Xiao Yu go?
He can’t let the carp demon absentmindedly change back outside! Jing-wang decisively pressed Li Yu back down on the seat. Seeing this fish completely confused, he knew the other still wasn’t ready to come clean. However, to be able to obtain a kiss from Xiao Yu, Jing-wang was already very satisfied.
Jing-wang lightly patted Xiao Yu’s shoulder and pointed at himself. Then he pointed outside of the carriage and promptly got off the carriage himself!
Wang-gonggong, who was outside of the carriage waiting, received his master’s eye gesture and explained loudly for his master: “His highness has urgent business and needs to rush back immediately. The carriage and fish will both be entrusted to gongzi to look after.”
“……. ok.” So Jing-wang needed to leave as well. Then Li Yu will just stay within the carriage.
With the time limit close at hand, Li Yu didn’t bother to think too much and hastily acknowledged it. Seeing Jing-wang’s figure leave, Li Yu paused for a moment. Gathering together a courage that he didn’t even expect, he yelled loudly at Jing-wang: “Your highness, I… I wasn’t angry just now!”
Hearing this, Jing-wang also felt his heart tremble. He turned his head to give Li Yu a smile.
Li Yu waved goodbye wildly, put down the window curtain, and opened the cover of the crystal bottle. Pretty much the next second, he changed back into a fish.
Really too close. Almost didn’t manage to make it!
Li Yu nimbly placed the clothes that had fallen onto the floor and the fish pillow back into his interdimensional space. After doing all of this, he originally planned to immediately jump into the crystal bottle. However, a hairpin rolled right next to his side.
The hairpin that Jing-wang bought for him! Can’t lose that!
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.
Ktlr kjr j qgfrfca. Ol Te vlvc’a kjca ab qea la jkjs lwwfvljafis. Xgjyylcu atf tjlgqlc klat tlr wbeat, tf ygbeuta la klat tlw jr tf pewqfv lcab atf mgsraji ybaaif.
Scafglcu atf kjafg, Ol Te megifv tlr olrt ybvs jgbecv atf pjvf tjlgqlc, cehhilcu la tjqqlis klat tlr wbeat. Ktf fcv bo atlr tjlgqlc jirb tjv j olrt jcv kjr pera jr meaf jr tf kjr. Djmx atfc ktfc tf gfmflnfv atf tjlgqlc, tf vlvc’a tjnf alwf ab qijs klat la. Dea jmaejiis, tf’r yffc kjcalcu ab jii atlr alwf.
Li Yu played with the hairpin for a while before finally storing it away in his interdimensional space. Next, he needed to start thinking about the thing between Jing-wang and himself.
The most unexpected matter in his entire life was him liking Jing-wang. Although Li Yu’s response was somewhat slow, as soon as he realized his feelings, Li Yu immediately felt like the huge stone pressing down on his heart in the last few days finally rolled off.
So what came after extreme distress was a total sense of relief. So his abnormality prior was all because he liked Jing-wang as well.
Li Yu laughed stupidly. Becoming aware of this fact felt a bit sweet, so sweet that fish blew a long series of bubbles. There was nothing else to play with inside the crystal bottle, nor was there a fake mountain to handle his troublemaking. Fish can only excitedly spin around in circles, almost accidentally breaking the crystal bottle.
No No, stop thinking about this ahhhhhh. Li Yu hastily controlled himself.
What he should be thinking about now was that since he liked Jing-wang, what should he do next?
Before he was completely at a loss as to why Jing-wang would like him. He didn’t really actually consider what if they both returned each other’s affections. He only thought vaguely that their distance was too far and being together didn’t seem too possible.
After all, he was a fish. Jing-wang was human. He was a transmigrator. Jing-wang was a character in a novel.
Li Yu still remembers placing all sorts of reasons before himself. Now that he was recalling them again, weren’t these all stumbling blocks on his emotional path?
He originally used these to convince himself that they weren’t suitable, that being together meant facing innumerable risks.
If he really decided to be together with Jing-wang, he can no longer be an observer of this novel world. He would need to be a participant– a part of this world.
This meant that he needed to completely integrate into the world inside this book and assimilate into Jing-wang’s life.
But he was fundamentally a person from the modern era. In many areas, he had a completely different outlook from Jing-wang. The two of them most likely will disagree. Perhaps they will even argue.
Many people of the modern era knew that falling in love was only falling in love. Liking someone didn’t mean staying together forever because of people, environment, and society. Whether a relationship will end up wonderful or tragic relied on too many factors. It can’t completely depend on “like” to overcome all hardship.
When modern people got into a relationship and it didn’t work out, they would break up at a suitable time. However, if he assimilated into Jing-wang’s life, then it wouldn’t be up to him.
In the ancient world, the ruler had the final decision. His life would be completely in the hands of Jing-wang, branded by Jing-wang’s mark. Right now they liked each other, but what if one day, they became unsuitable to be together. Li Yu wouldn’t be able to back out, and there would really be no place to go.
He knew and also understood, these were all reasons that obstructed him. There were a thousand reasons blocking in front of him, wanting him to stop. But the reason for him to continue walking towards Jing-wang– only one was enough.
They liked each other. It was mutual.
Li Yu remembered that someone once said in the modern era: in a person’s life, to be able to encounter someone who liked you, and whom you also liked back, is such a fortune.
Li Yu was only a youth who was getting his first taste of love. This was the first person he liked. To have him give up on love immediately after he first realized love and tasted love was really not possible.
“Li-gongzi, Li-gongzi!”
Li Yu already changed for quite a while. According to Jing-wang’s instructions, Wang Xi waited for a teacup of time before coming over to help Li Yu.
However, very clearly, Li-gongzi couldn’t possibly answer.
Wang Xi lifted the curtain to the carriage and only saw a crystal bottle placed properly inside the horse carriage. Next to the crystal bottle was a letter.
Wang Xi picked it up to have a look: “Did Li-gongzi leave again?”
Every time Li Yu changed, it was pretty much, pat dust off his butt and “disappear.” If it kept happening, people might start suspecting him. This time before leaving for the trip, Li Yu specifically wrote a letter of absence.
The general gist was that he had urgent business again and must head off in advance.
Wang Xi already didn’t find it strange anymore. He had to hand Li-gongzi’s letter to his highness anyway. Picking up the letter, Wang Xi also held up the crystal bottle and said with a smile to the little carp inside: “Master Xiao Yu, Only this old servant is left now. I will bring you back immediately.”
The carriage started moving again. Behind the carriage, only a few distance away, a tall and upright figure traveled on horseback, following the carriage the entire trip back, silently guarding the person inside the carriage.
When Li Yu returned to the estate, he immediately entered the System.
He hasn’t been inside the cute pet system for a long time. The System still remained on the page where he left it last time– examining the missions.
Facing the system, Li Yu felt somewhat complicated. After all, the person who didn’t want to do missions ever again was him. Now the person who returned in search of the System was also him.
System, how do I completely turn into a human? Li Yu asked.
The System said: “Complete the “revitalize” main mission. After the main mission is completed, the reward will allow host to completely turn back into a human.”
So it’s like this.
On one hand, Li Yu rejoiced that the system didn’t have any feelings and didn’t understand how to feel awkward; therefore, the system didn’t ignore him or ridicule him for their disagreement before. On the other hand, if there were no cute pet system, maybe he would have become part of Guifei-niangniang’s thousand carp soup a long time ago.
Now that he understood his own feelings clearly, he had to admit that although all of the missions that he completed were part of the system’s plot, his feelings of like for Jing-wang and Jing-wang’s care towards him were all real and genuine. He can no longer deceive himself.
Li Yu: …… alright. As long as I can return to being a human. I…… I will still continue to do the main mission.
Since he liked Jing-wang, there was no longer any mental barrier to doing these missions. And it can help him completely return back to being a human. Why the heck not?
Who would have thought that by looking at stuff from another perspective, bad things can turn into good things.
The system asked: “Then would you like to receive the reward for ‘Wind, flower, snow, and moon’?”
Surprised, Li Yu immediately recalled that the reward for this mission was to obtain one of Jing-wang’s secrets and a fish pillow.
The fish pillow he already accepted before. Meanwhile, Jing-wang’s secret– this person, did he even have any secret that Li Yu didn’t know about?
Now that his way of thinking has changed, he also unconsciously wanted to know even more about the person that he liked.
Li Yu coughed softly: Since it was a reward, it’d be a waste not to accept.
A page jumped out in front of him. Li Yu realized this was actually another disguised multiple choice question. The number of secrets he could choose from was four, each covering a small square area. Finally it wasn’t the color set that the system regularly used. Instead, each of the secrets was a tiny sized scene that changed continuously.
The first one was a palace. Li Yu found it unfamiliar and jumped over it.
The second one was a courtyard. Li Yu thought it looked rather familiar.
The other two, one was a constantly revolving swirl. The last one was the side profile of a person’s face.
Li Yu surprisingly recognized that this person was actually himself.
One of Jing-wang’s secrets was actually related to him?
What… What could it be?
Li Yu remembered the pile of ‘like’s on the walls of the Jing estate and felt like his head was about to start smoking. He thought to himself, this last secret wasn’t really a secret anymore to him.
At this moment, Li Yu felt like this was a hard to come-by chance that shouldn’t be wasted. If he picked a secret that he was somewhat familiar with, it’d be better. Therefore, he picked number 2.
After confirming, Li Yu suddenly found his surroundings covered in fog.
Was he entering another illusion again?
Li Yu looked around all over and discovered that this was not the same as the illusion he had with the little fatty before. In the illusion with the little fatty, he was in the shape of a fish and could swim around. This time, the scenery and reality was very similar, however, no matter what he did, he couldn’t swim around at all.
Li Yu realized that since it was Jing-wang’s secret, he naturally became a complete observer. These were only memories.
The courtyard that he chose was right before his eyes. With a closer look for identification, Li Yu said uncontrollably: wasn’t this the house that the 2nd Prince was confined in?
No wonder he thought it looked familiar!
Very quickly, he saw Jing-wang walking over with a crystal bottle.
Li Yu: “……”
Li Yu realized. This was the scene where Jing-wang brought him to teach the 2nd Prince a lesson. Was there some secret that occurred here he didn’t know of?
Li Yu watched the scene where Jing-wang dropped the fish pillow into the 2nd Prince’s bowl of soup again. Seeing it a second time, Li Yu still found it very satisfying.
He remembered that after Jing-wang finished punishing the 2nd Prince, he quickly brought Li Yu away. Did something else happen after that?
Li Yu continued watching. He noticed that Jing-wang held the crystal bottle in one hand; at the same time, he gave a hand gesture towards Wang Xi with his other hand. Then Wang Xi brought some people and waited until Jing-wang left before force feeding the 2nd Prince plenty of wine. While the 2nd Prince was completely delirious, they pushed the 2nd Prince into the pond.
Li Yu: “…….”
So the 2nd Prince didn’t accidentally fall into the water. It was something Jing-wang had orchestrated.
The memory in this illusion ended here. Li Yu returned to the System.
A secret was called a secret because it was something that Li Yu didn’t know. Li Yu actually can understand why Jing-wang would act against the 2nd Prince. Jing-wang and the 2nd Prince had a lot of personal grudges after all. The 2nd Prince also attempted to harm the ChengEn Palace Estate. However, Li Yu was only a fish. If Jing-wang wanted to get rid of someone, he could do whatever he wanted. Why did he specifically take fish away to do it? Can Li Yu interpret this as, Jing-wang didn’t want fish to see it?
But clearly, Jing-wang allowed Li Yu to watch as he punished the 2nd Prince with the fish pillow.
And he… he–
No wait!
Li Yu suddenly remembered. It’s been a long time since Jing-wang did anything brutal in front of fish.
Li Yu thought carefully. Before, Jing-wang once killed a female assassin and scared fish. Ever since then, there had not been any fighting or killing after that.
Or perhaps, that’s the real meaning of this secret.
Li Yu thought that Jing-wang’s temperament was getting better. But in actuality, it’s not that those things didn’t happen. Jing-wang lived in this ancient time period. He had his own principles and methods of dealing with things. There were some things he had to do. However, because fish would get scared, he shifted all of these things underground, just to give fish a peace of mind.
Li Yu really didn’t know if he should feel angry or thankful.
…… no wait. Why did it feel like this big scoundrel treated fish even better than him?
If he chose the last one, it probably would be that Jing-Wang found out he was a “Carp Demon”
Yep, he would probably find out about the mirror being used to spy on him too
Oh definitely and I can’t wait for it.
Thank You for the chapter (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
thanks for the chapter!
Hahahaha!
Ayoo.. getting jealous on your own self huh Yuyu?
Thanks for the chapter ☺️.
I love love LOVE that Jing-Wang didn’t have a major personality shift, it feels much more grounded and satisfying as a character development.
What was the revolving swirl secret about..?👀I’M CURIOUS!!!🏃🏻♀️💨
Huh I thought Li Yu already settled on Jing-wang being an actual living person pretty early on