Jing-wang carried Li Yu and headed off to Ganqing Palace. In the middle of the trip, the inactive System suddenly gave Li Yu a notification.
“Side mission– ‘The Iridescent Pearl’ has reached its requirements. Does the host wish to start it?”
Li Yu: “……”
What’s going on? He hasn’t even ‘gotten along’ with Jing-wang yet and here comes another task? And it seems like a side quest?
It’s hard to tell just by looking at the task name itself. Li Yu didn’t really want to give more trouble to himself. Worrying about the main task and then adding on a side task as well, this fish’s head would be under a heavy strain. Yet out of curiosity, he still asked about the reward.
System: “The reward of this quest is a temporary shape shifting medicine. It can help the host temporarily change back to a human. The duration of the medicine is 2 hours. If the side task fails, there is no punishment.”
Li Yu: !!!
So there’s actually a medication to change back into a human? Such a good thing, how come you didn’t say that earlier! Li Yu thought astutely, even if it’s only two hours, he can do this kind of task a few more times and save up on the reward to use in the future. Then, wouldn’t he be able to maintain a human shape continuously!
“This is a one time reward.” In face of the host’s naivety and stupidity, the System sternly notified.
Li Yu: …… alright, I just knew you’re a shitty system.
Nevertheless, he must do this side quest . It didn’t matter if he failed after all. If he had the shape shifting medication, he can pick a suitable day. In two hours, he can eat many different human foods and also say many different things. He could even go wherever he wanted–
He was originally human, not fish. It was only after he turned into a fish that he realized how carefree and happy being human was.
Although it was only a mere two hours, how great would it be to experience being human again!
Li Yu: …… isn’t it just doing one more task, I’ll do it.
There was only a one sentence description for this ‘Iridescent Pearl’ task. Obtain a night pearl.
The shitty System has always been unclear and vague. Li Yu was already used to it. He didn’t know at all what a fish like him had anything to do with a night pearl. But because the system explained previously that side quests opened when certain requirements were reached, and this new side quest refreshed as Jing-wang was carrying him to Ganqing Palace. This indicated that this task might be related to meeting the Emperor.
In other words, this task wasn’t completely out of the way.
Although Jing-wang was royalty, he didn’t like to ride on a palanquin. He carried the little carp fish with Wang Xi following behind him, and strolled casually to Ganqing Palace.
Luo Ruisheng, the head manager of the personal servants, had already been waiting at the entrance of Ganqing Palace for a long time. As soon as he saw Jing-wang, he headed forward to welcome him and lead him into the palace. Wang Xi couldn’t enter inside, so he could only wait anxiously outside.
Finally arriving, Li Yu deliberately swam to the surface to take a look, enjoying the view of Ganqing Palace briefly. As expected of the sleeping quarters of an Emperor. There was a sandalwood aroma coming in waves. The area was splendid and magnificent, filled with various rare and priceless decorations. This fish’s eyes almost started staring, transfixed.
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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With a random stumble, he really managed to sneak right into the tyrant’s nest. Li Yu felt a bit proud of himself.
Looking around all over, Li Yu didn’t discover any night pearls. The branch task appeared suddenly anyways. Li Yu could only hope the System would give some more hints. However, ever since opening this branch task for him, the shitty System no longer gave anymore notifications.
Li Yu can only set aside the branch task along with the main task. Without any leads, he can only follow the flow. Seeing the Emperor was more important here.
In the book, the Emperor and Jing-wang had several background plots between them. Jin-wang’s birth mother, Empress Xiao Hui, had poor health even before giving birth to Jing-wang. After giving birth, she suffered another blow after learning her son was a mute, and ended up passing away. The Emperor had a lot of respect and love for Empress Xiao Hui. Towards this son of his, his feelings have always been complicated. He was never close to Jing-wang. As soon as Jing-wang became 16 years old, the Emperor gave him an outside estate immediately. He didn’t even care that Jing-wang wasn’t married yet. The other princes all received their estate at the same time as their wedding. Therefore, many people thought that Jing-wang was extremely unfavored.
Of course, these people didn’t include Li Yu, who understood the entire plot of the story very well.
The Emperor was distant with Jing-wang not because he didn’t love Jing-wang, but rather as a covert method of protection. Jing-wang was born of Empress Xian Hui, with a respectable family background. But because he was mute, no matter how precious his family background was, it was impossible for him to inherit the throne. Ordering Jing-wang out of the Imperial Palace and into his own estate early was only to protect this son of his. The Emperor didn’t like to be close to Jing-wang because of his beloved wife’s death. Yet deep down in his heart, he knew that this was his beloved wife’s flesh and blood. He had hopes that this son could live peacefully for the rest of his life.
Not to mention, Jing-wang’s personality actually wasn’t that harmonious with others. When he was younger, whenever similarly aged princes ridiculed him for being mute, he would immediately roll up his sleeves and beat the others up. After people complained about his behavior to the Emperor, the Emperor punished everyone. Yet privately, he warned the other princes to be nicer to Jing-wang.
Jing-wang can’t speak. It was much more difficult to educate him. The Emperor specifically appointed a strict teacher that specialized in teaching the deaf and mute.
These were all ways that the Emperor showed favoritism towards Jing-wang. It was just never said out in the open.
Therefore, Li Yu didn’t worry about this trip at all.
Inside the main hall of Ganqing Palace, the Emperor wore his distinctive yellow dragon robes and sat properly on his dragon engraved throne. Seeing Jing-wang, he nodded his head: “Tianchi, you’re here.”
Jing-wang carried the ocean bowl with the little carp, placed it on the tea table nearby and gave a serious and courteous bow.
With a smile, the Emperor permitted him up, glancing at this son from afar. Jing-wang was still the same, cold and emotionless. The Emperor’s gaze naturally landed on the ocean bowl that Jing-wang brought.
To the Emperor’s knowledge, bowls were most often used to carry soup. Most people who carried bowls into the Ganqing Palace brought them to present soup for him. The Emperor mistakenly thought that Jing-wang was admitting his wrong here and specifically brought a bowl of soup over as a gift to him.
Smiling, the Emperor said: “You’re rather considerate.”
Jing-wang, who was unexpectedly misunderstood: “……”
The Emperor didn’t usually exchange affections with this son. For Jing-wang to want to make him happy, the Emperor felt an indescribable peace in his heart. He immediately ordered Luo Ruisheng to carry over the ‘soup’ that Jing-wang brought.
Because Jing-wang couldn’t speak directly, his ability to stop the other was slowed. Luo-gonggong already skillfully picked up the ocean bowl. To the side, another servant handed over a needle.
This soup looked just like wolfberry fish soup. Per protocol, Luo-gonggong needed to test it for poison. He accepted the needle, lowered his head, and unexpectedly crossed gazes with the lively little carp fish who surfaced to check out the activities outside.
Luo-gonggong was quite startled. Hands shaking, he almost dropped the bowl: “Aiyo, Jing-wang your highness, what is this… What is this that you brought?”
Li Yu was also scared terribly by Luo-gonggong who suddenly appeared and sank to the bottom of the bowl with a pew!
It’s actually alive? Luo-gonggong was awed. So it’s not fish soup!
“What did Jing-wang present?” The Emperor was far away. With Luo-gonggong’s cry of alarm, he also became confused.
Luo-gonggong really didn’t know how to answer. Jing-wang got up, walked to Luo-gonggong and silently took away the ocean bowl from his hands.
The Emperor: ???
Jing-wang personally brought the ocean bowl in front of the Emperor. However, he supported the bowl tightly in his hands, not holding it out with the intention of giving it to the Emperor.
The Emperor: ……
The Emperor then saw that inside this large, wave painted, ocean bowl was filled with a lot of water. And inside the water, a palm sized carp was currently swimming around.
The Emperor was stunned: “Jing-wang, what do you mean by this?”
Mu Tianchi smiled, fingers casually dipping into the water and stirring it slightly.
At this time, Li Yu was secretly looking at the Emperor’s appearance from inside the water. The Emperor was a short bearded, square faced big uncle looking character. Li Yu was just secretly thinking, good thing only Jing-wang’s eyes looked somewhat similar to the emperor, while everything else was inherited from Empress Xiao Hui. If it was inherited from the Emperor, then the beautiful man might have experienced a big drop in appearance.
To Li Yu, it seemed like he was just criticizing Jing-wang internally when Jing-wang suddenly placed his hand in, scaring him terribly.
After finally recovering, Li Yu noticed that Jing-wang was actually only teasing him. Yet this was in front of the Emperor, what was Jing-wang trying to do?
Ever since Jing-wang switched him into a new bowl, Li Yu knew that Jing-wang didn’t plan to give him to the Emperor. Because the outward appearance of a gift was most important. A small jade bowl was clearly much more pleasing to a ruler’s eye than a gruffy big ocean bowl. Yet Jing-wang abandoned the jade bowl and decided not to use it. That indicated that he wasn’t going to use Li Yu to make the Emperor happy.
Then why would Jing-wang bring him to see the Emperor? Why would he make this gesture in front of the Emperor?
Who cares. If a master teased their pet, then the pet should…… respond.
Li Yu endured his shame towards Jing-wang. It’s not like this was the first time he deliberately acted cute towards Jing-wang anyways. Li Yu arrived between Jing-wang’s fingers, hesitated briefly, then used his fish mouth to intimately rub against Jing-wang’s fingers.
Oh…… there’s a fish food taste. It’s even the good tasting red colored ones.
At first, his actions were a bit stiff. In the end, he willingly chased the other’s fingers, frolicking.
Eyes lowered, Jing-wang watched the happily frolicking little carp, a faint light appearing in his eyes. For a second, the Emperor thought he saw wrong. Jing-wang was usually cold and hard. He never revealed any emotions in front of the Emperor before. Yet now he can be described…described as gently playing with a fish.
Before the Emperor had thought Jing-wang was antisocial and secretly ordered someone to move over several cats and dogs from the animal house to accompany Jing-wang. Yet Jing-wang didn’t even spare them a single glance, getting rid of them all. At that time, the Emperor felt that Jing-wang probably didn’t like pets. But today, Jing-wang actually made an exception for a fish??
The emperor pondered several possibilities in a daze and after a long time, he finally said with difficulty: “Are you trying to tell Zhen, you’re raising a fish?”
Mu Tianchi nodded his head.
Jing-wang really was raising a fish. The Emperor was very surprised. However, now this son of his was finally more humanlike, this could be considered a good thing.
The Emperor looked at this fish again…… this fish wasn’t even a precious and auspicious koi. Just a completely ordinary little carp, looking exactly like the kind used to make soup.
…… Jing-wang’s taste was really hard to describe with words.
At this moment, the Emperor had already forgotten why he had summoned Jing-wang. With a twitch of his mouth, he said dishonestly: “Raising a fish is not bad.”
Jing-wang: “……”
Li Yu also saw Jing-wang nod his head. He felt like a pony was galloping across his heart with its head held high. Although Wang-gonggong and he himself already made certain that he was Jing-wang’s pet before, this was the first time Jing-wang acknowledged this fact himself. To actually recognize Li Yu as his pet fish in front of the Emperor, wasn’t he making this fish too famous?
Li Yu almost felt like he was floating away. The main mission of ‘The Tyrant’s Guppy Pet Fish’ was just for him to become Jing-wang pet fish. Now that Jing-wang acknowledged him in front of the Emperor, didn’t that mean the main mission was completed?
But after waiting for a while, Li Yu didn’t hear the notification of a mission completion at all. Looks like acknowledging personally was no help. The shitty System didn’t accept it. He still needed to continue following this ‘Get along’ mission.
A servant came swiftly inside to report, saying Guifei and the 2nd Prince were outside asking to see the Emperor.
With this, the Emperor finally remembered proper business and gave Jing-wang a long and profound look. Back straight and properly upright, Jing-wang continued playing with his fish without any reaction. With a slight sigh, the Emperor said: “Let them in then.”
——–
The author has something to say
A small scene
Li Yu: Why would his highness bring this fish to see the Emperor?
Jing-wang: To let everyone know that you’re my fish.
Kiss the fingers that taste like food hahahahaha!
😏
i feel the emperor’s confusion abt his sons taste
The Emperor: I’m re-evaluating my son’s judgment now…
Thank You for the chapter ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ)
thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter 😊
this is really cute ah~
li yu is so confused,,,
How about “(fish) pitting system”?