Right now was not the time to bicker about this messed up thing– Li Yu quickly straightened his runaway thoughts and focused on looking at the “revitalize” main mission.
The next step: Be joined at the hip with the tyrant, stuck together like glue.
Hint: None.
Li Yu was just thinking that he will stop playing smart tricks and start to solve the main mission seriously as quickly as possible. Upon seeing the update to the main mission, Li Yu: “…….”
System, you come out right now. I promise I won’t beat you to death!
Li Yu can mistake “wind, flower, snow, and moon” into drinking together, but how was he supposed to “be joined at the hip” with Jing-wang? The two of them didn’t even start a pure and innocent romance yet!
Furthermore, this main mission should be split into several steps. If It already required them to be joined at the hip, then what will he need to do in the future?
Li Yu’s eyes twitched terribly. He kept feeling like this kind of development wasn’t a good sign. This “joined together at the hip”……. can wait for now.
Li Yu left the System like his tail was on fire.
Whenever he was inside the system, his actual fish body would temporarily lose awareness. When Li Yu returned to his body, he immediately saw an enlarged handsome face.
Jing-wang, who said he had urgent business, was back already and currently holding a jade scepter, about to feed fish.
Li Yu: “……”
Just now when he was squished inside the carriage and kissed repeatedly, he didn’t notice, but now that he was suddenly seeing the person he liked, fish actually started feeling somewhat embarrassed!
With this embarrassment, his head and fish fins both started to crash; fish immediately started to sink to the bottom of the water.
Jing-wang hastily reached in a hand to support fish.
Li Yu looked at him foolishly, heart feeling like spring water being blown by the breeze, creating ripples and ripples of happy waves. No wonder he always felt that this person looked extremely pleasing no matter from what angle or perspective. So it was because Li Yu liked him!
……. So this kind of feeling… was like.
Li Yu suddenly jumped up in shock. He randomly swam around two circles where he was and then dove straight into a fake mountain cave, only revealing the tip of his tail. This speed this time was even faster than when he was running away in anger.
Good thing fish was covered by fish scales all over. Or else, fish would have flushed visibly red all over.
Fish was hiding inside the fake mountain cave again. Jing-wang was a bit worried that maybe fish got stuck again or was throwing a temper at him again.
He attempted to flick the fish’s tail briefly. The fish’s tail trembled violently and then pulled completely inside the cave.
Jing-wang: “…….”
These last few days, Jing-wang figured out that the rule here was to slowly coax the fish and not act too hastily.
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.
Efmjiilcu atf xlrr lcrlvf atf mjggljuf, Alcu-kjcu rwlifv rilutais.
Ciatbeut Wljb Te kjr ralii ecjyif ab rjs fnfgsatlcu tf kjcafv lc atf fcv, Alcu-kjcu’r wbbv kjr fzmfqalbcjiis ubbv.
Ol Te tlv lcrlvf atf wbecajlc mjnf, bmmjrlbcjiis fjnfrvgbqqlcu atf jmalnlas bearlvf. Lf jirb mbcalcefv ab atlcx jybea tlr oeaegf qijcr. Qtfc tf ralii vlvc’a gfjilhf tlr bkc offilcur, tf wluta tjnf ofia mbcoilmafv jcv lcvfmlrlnf. Dea bcmf tf gfjilhfv la, jii olgra alwfgr kfgf ygjnf jvnjcmlcu kjgglbgr. Rb wjaafg tbk vjcufgber bg vloolmeia atf oeaegf mjc yf, la kjr cbatlcu ab atf meggfca tlw.
When he finally realized that he liked Jing-wang, this was when he realized just how deep this ‘like’ was. Just reuniting everyday normally and seeing this person again made him feel extremely delighted.
‘Like’ was what made him want to give this romantic relationship a try. Even if this road wasn’t easy, without trying and walking down it, how was he supposed to talk about the future?
However, being a fish ultimately wasn’t enough for dating someone else. Right now, he only has two short hours to be human. Using it to date probably won’t even be enough time to feel embarrassed.
Therefore, it’s best to change back into a human as soon as possible and also not get too close to Jing-wang before then. Even if he liked the other, he still needed to maintain a certain distance. He definitely can’t allow Jing-wang to discover his secret.
…… got it. He can lay down 3 basic rules with Jing-wang! According to his observation of Jing-wang in the last few days, Jing-wang would most likely agree to his requests!
Holding hands was fine. Going on dates was fine. Kissing…… it’s not like they haven’t kissed plenty of times already, of course that’s fine too.
Then… then what about the unspeakable?
Li Yu, who had secretly peeked into the little yellow book before, felt a bit eager. He was only a normal boy after all. Of course he also had things he was looking forward to doing. To be honest, he was not against Jing-wang’s intimacy towards him. Before was all a misunderstanding. He didn’t realize his own feelings on time. Right now, not only was he not against this kind of thing; he was secretly a little hopeful. Everyone was all adults here. Logically, with feelings, this kind of thing came naturally as well.
With a reddened face, Li Yu uncontrollably thought about a certain exciting and intense activity reaching a certain climax, and then himself in the middle of the xxxx process suddenly turning back into a fish……
That scene definitely would be so beautiful, it won’t be able to be viewed directly. He and Jing-wang might both have blood exploding everywhere.
In order to avoid that kind of accident, Li Yu ended up giving a big X to unspeakable activities for now. With a regretful face, he thought. Men…should still control their lower half. But once he finished doing the main mission, he won’t have anything to worry about!
Both excited and emotional, Li Yu laid on a small rock inside the cave and restlessly turned around until his fish body practically polished the little rock smooth, before finally managing to fall asleep.
After waking up, Jing-wang was no longer present. Apparently Jing-wang received the Emperor’s summons bright and early in the morning. The Emperor had ordered Jing-wang to enter the palace to discuss something.
Yesterday night when Jing-wang returned, fish was too embarrassed to leave the cave. When Jing-wang got up this morning to receive the Emperor’s verbal orders, fish was sleeping soundly and completely unaware. Jing-wang stroked the fish tail that was exposed outside of the cave and thoughtfully entered the palace himself, afraid of waking the fish up.
Li Yu was pretty aware of the big picture. He understood that meeting the Emperor was important. However, now that the novel plot has been completely messed up, Li Yu thought for quite a while but still can’t think of what kind of event could be occurring right now. The 3rd Prince and 6th Prince both received corporal punishments and were now learning to behave properly with tails between their legs. The Emperor might be just feeling like a benevolent father and wanted to catch up with Jing-wang. Also, it’s possible that the results of the investigation on the nursery rhyme and fake monks finally came out. Perhaps the Emperor was giving Jing-wang something for compensation.
Li Yu felt this trip into the palace shouldn’t be a bad thing. His heart gradually calmed down.
He calculated the time for Jing-wang’s return and changed form. Placing the fish pillow inside the crystal tank, Li Yu picked a silver colored robe that he liked a lot and put it on, tidying the lapels himself.
He still had the hairpin that Jing-wang gave him. To use it, he had to wear his hair in a bun. Li Yu didn’t really know how to do it. Wang-gonggong had also accompanied Jing-wang into the palace. He didn’t feel comfortable asking others, so he could only improvise. Finding a silver hair tie, he made a little pony tail and then stuck the jade hairpin into it, leaving the round fat fish outside.
Li Yu nodded as he looked into the bronze mirror, feeling that he looked pretty good.
Jing-wang still didn’t come back. Li Yu sat in front of the table, spread a piece of paper and wrote down everything he thought about during the night while he waited for Jing-wang.
Ganqing Palace.
Li Yu wasn’t wrong. The imperial guards of the Emperor just discovered that the people who first spread the nursery rhyme used to defame Jing-wang were the 3rd Prince’s subordinates. They also found many civilian witnesses and brought them in front of the Emperor for the Emperor to question them personally. After a break of several days, the Emperor was once again enraged by the 3rd Prince. At this time, the head divinator, Sun SiMiao, from the astronomy department came forth and reported that according to their investigations, one of the members of the astronomy department had received a bribe; meanwhile the person who provided the money for this bribe was also the 3rd Prince, Mu TianMing!
The Emperor finally realized why the 3rd Prince would suspect the astronomy department that day without any apparent reason. Was he trying to create an opportunity for the person that he bribed?
The 3rd Prince attempted to use a nursery rhyme and fake monks to hurt Jing-wang. He also attempted to extend his hands into the astronomy department. These actions pretty much violated all of the Emperor’s taboos. The Emperor was just looking for a suitable chance to punish the 3rd Prince again. At this time, the 3rd Prince practically asked for it by doing another stupid thing.
So after all of these days, the injury that the 3rd Prince had received from the beating got much better. He started to order a personal servant to watch the reports heading towards the Emperor everyday. The 3rd Prince was very unwilling to read and study together with the little princes. The Emperor made it sound nice, saying it’s to let him study, but he wasn’t a little kid anymore. In the royal family, adult Princes should help the Emperor share his burden and participate politically. Yet he was only allowed to read. If the Emperor didn’t say anything, how long was he supposed to read until? Wasn’t this the same as ordering him to never get involved in politics ever again?
When the 2nd Prince made a mistake before, he was only sent to solitary confinement, but ended up being confined until he went insane. Even then, the Emperor still didn’t let him out and even stopped mentioning the 2nd Prince after that.
The 3rd Prince finally knew fear and felt extremely regretful. He went to ask the 6th prince for help. The 6th prince, who also received the beating and was recovering, asked him to go into hibernation. But the 3rd Prince was unwilling to keep wasting time. His birth mother, concubine Zhang, frequently contacted several of the wives of government officials who supported him. Through this layer of relationship, Mu TianMing(3) asked those officials to beg for mercy for him in court and ask the Emperor to allow him to take assignments again. He didn’t particularly hope for any grand task. Whatever was fine, as long as it allowed him to appear before the Emperor and prevent the Emperor from forgetting him.
The court officials discussed and then wrote a report stating basically: the 3rd Prince learned from his mistakes and regretted sincerely. He was willing to help the Emperor share his burdens. They even specifically invited an extremely articulate scholar from the HanLin academy to write the 3rd Prince’s recent experiences extremely pitifully, in hope that their father-son relationship would gain the 3rd Prince some tears of sympathy.
The officials didn’t know if the Emperor felt touched upon reading the report, however, the Emperor was rather infuriated by the fact that several of his officials joined together to write and sign this report. He had just received information that the 3rd Prince bribed a member of the astronomy department. Now there were a bunch of officials in court begging mercy for him. One of the Emperor’s specific taboos was regarding princes having personal dealings with his court officials. The 3rd Prince wasn’t even near the crown prince position, yet he was already attempting to pressure the Emperor?
The Emperor only ordered the 3rd Prince to go study and read for a few days to polish his impatient personality. Did the 3rd Prince not even understand this? How was he supposed to reflect on his mistakes then!?
The Emperor remembered all of the officials involved. The 3rd Prince waited left and right, but didn’t manage to receive the Emperor’s pardon. The Emperor not only ordered him to study together with the two little princes #7 and #8. He also ordered the 3rd Prince to copy the Book of Filial Piety everyday, which was to be inspected by the imperial tutor.
The 3rd Prince lost all face. The officials that the Emperor noted were also either transferred or demoted later on. After a long time passed, the 3rd Prince finally realized that he made another mistake again. He went in search of his trusty advisor, the 6th Prince, again; the 6th Prince also couldn’t do anything.
It’s easier to lose things than to regain them. I told you to hibernate, but you refused to listen. Who let you make things worse until everything was useless?
Angered by the 3rd Prince, the Emperor thought, none of his capable sons had any proper mindsets at all. His two small sons were still too young, so it’s too early to tell. The imperial guards already confirmed that the 6th Prince was working for the 3rd Prince. The Emperor was already disgusted with the 3rd Prince. But with some heavy pointers and stern guidance, perhaps the 6th Prince can still be remedied. However, if he had to switch to grooming the 6th Prince for the next ruler, for some inexplicable reason, the Emperor just couldn’t do it.
The Emperor inevitably thought of another one of his sons, Jing-wang. Thinking of Jing-wang’s name, and the chess games they’ve had, the Emperor knew that Jing-wang was very talented. But just because he was a naturally born mute, and also to protect Jing-wang, the Emperor has never given Jing-wang any important positions.
But who can even understand all the troubles he’s gone through? The 2nd Prince and 3rd Prince were all shortsighted, constantly attempting to hurt Jing-wang and people close to Jing-wang. Perhaps they felt like the unimportant Jing-wang was someone who would be bullied.
These people didn’t consider showing respect to the Emperor. In return, he won’t consider their feelings anymore. If Jing-wang wanted to establish a place in front of the new ruler in the future, it didn’t have to be based on the pity of the new ruler. It can be something that he, the current Emperor, builds for him.
In any case, choosing a crown prince was not urgent to the Emperor at the moment. Now that the 3rd Prince had done all those despicable things, he needed to appease Jing-wang again.
The Emperor summoned Jing-wang into the palace and rambled for a long time to Jing-wang once again. In the end, he ordered Jing-wang to go to the Ministry of Works and accept assignments.
Jing-wang, whose thoughts were on immediately returning to the estate, but was abruptly smacked in the face by a meaty pie: “…….”
The Emperor spoke with convictions: “Plenty of things have happened in court lately, each causing me worries. TianChi, why don’t you come help me? If I remember correctly, TianZhao(2) and TianMing(3) started listening to politics at the age of 12. It’s already very late for you.”
Wasn’t it just doing some busy work? Jing-wang nodded with a wooden face.
The Emperor felt like Jing-wang didn’t seem very happy. Was there actually a Prince who’d be unhappy to work for me?
However, this was just Jing-wang’s personality. Not affected by favors or insults. If Jing-wang were like the 2nd Prince or 3rd Prince, the Emperor thought, he’d probably be a disaster as well.
The Emperor said internally: luckily, he still had one capable son, it’s only–
It’s only, no matter how capable this son was, it’s not necessarily a blessing for him.
The Emperor remembered that not long after Jing-wang was born, the imperial physician diagnosed him as a naturally born mute, unable to speak for the rest of his life. The imperial physician said some heartfelt words to the Emperor.
Naturally born muteness often passed on through generations.
Therefore, no matter how capable Jing-wang was, he still couldn’t help the Emperor shoulder the burden of ruling a nation. The Emperor still wouldn’t commit the crime of choosing Jing-wang to be the next ruler.
The Emperor thought about how after he became ruler, he had always placed great importance in first sons and hoped that his first wife would birth him sons. However, the three sons that Empress Xiao Hui gave birth to were all plagued with misfortunes. Perhaps this just wasn’t his destiny…… The Emperor thought disappointedly.
Jing-wang accepted his assignment and bid the Emperor farewell, returning to his estate.
This assignment was the Emperor’s compensation to him. Jing-wang was very clear about this in his heart. Therefore, he didn’t particularly feel happy about it.
However, when he pushed open the door and saw Xiao Yu, who had a strange bun on his head, Jing-wang couldn’t help but smile.
“Your highness, look!” Proud of himself, Li Yu pointed at the inserted hairpin on his head.
Jing-wang saw it already. Hairpins were often used as tokens of engagement. Since Xiao Yu put on the hairpin himself, doesn’t that mean…… he was willing to be engaged with Jing-wang?
Standing there, Jing-wang was unable to calm down even after a long time.
“Your highness, there’s more!” Li Yu sat on the side of the bed and beckoned at him.
Recalling the almost drowning sweetness inside the carriage yesterday, for once, Jing-wang’s ears started turning slightly red.
Xiao Yu was sitting on the side of the bed and calling him over. It was still broad daylight. Was the carp demon planning to start absorbing essence here and now, just like this?
…… if that’s what Xiao Yu wanted, Jing-wang had no objections at all.
Jing-wang sat down over there.
Li Yu also had a reddened face. Jing-wang didn’t even manage to touch his hand yet when Li Yu swiftly whipped out a piece of paper from his sleeve and said with a wide smile: “Let’s agree on three basic rules together, your highness!”
Translator note:
Thank you for sharing all the fanart again here!
LMAO— Jing-Wang thinking he’s gonna get laid, when in actuality, he’s about to be told that he definitely can’t have sex with is boyfriend!
💀
+2 💀I can’t help but imagine LY transforming into little koi in the middle of their sequence…I’m ded
Thank You for the chapter (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
thanks for the chapter!
Rules!
Omg! The fanart was so cute! Thank you sm for the chapter!!
I’m seeing new fan creation contents in twitter 😍😍
Wasn’t third prince’s mom concubine Qian and concubine Zhang was sixth prince’s mom? Or am I remembering wrong??
He’s like the meme “no horny” lol 😂😂
i feel bad for this emperor hopefully number 7 or number 8 become good seeds, but having these brothers… i don’t have high hope T^T
Jing Wang’s always thinking about getting his ‘essence absorbed’. Like chill, man. 😭
man really really really wants a BJ