LI YU WAS KEEN TO WIN Prince Jing over, and for good reason.
Having read the original book, Li Yu knew that, despite Mu Tianchi's
tyrannical character archetype, he didn't start off as an oppressive dictator
who killed people without batting an eye.
When Mu Tianchi was still just Prince Jing, he was at most a little
cold and indifferent. His muteness meant he had long since lost the right to
the throne. But in the end, it was he, the most unlikely heir, who had
climbed, step by step, up to the throne. With a cold, ruthless decisiveness,
he had bathed both his court and back palace with blood, completing his
transformation from a silent, cold prince to a cruel tyrant whom the world
feared.
This change didn't happen overnight; Mu Tianchi underwent a huge
emotional journey before he reached his full tyrannical potential, but it
would be impossible to explain the trials and tribulations he experienced in
just a few sentences. In any case, since Mu Tianchi was still a prince right
now, that meant his personality hadn't changed yet. In other words, this
tyrant hadn't reached the point where he'd chop off someone's head as soon
as look at them. That much was clear just from the fact that Mu Tianchi had
not called for the white cat's execution when he first caught it.
Prince Jing may have punished the white cat for running into him,
giving off a cold and heartless impression all the while, but he did let the cat
go afterward. Not a single drop of cat blood was spilled. If this had
happened after his ascension to the throne, that cat wouldn't have stood a
chance.
But right now, Prince Jing's mindset was simple: "an eye for an eye,"
not "an eye for your whole family." Plus, Prince Jing had saved a fish like
Li Yu. Wasn't that an example in and of itself?
So it wasn't hard to understand why the system wanted him to
complete these tasks and improve the tyrant's personality. Better to start now, while Mu Tianchi was still Prince Jing and had yet to evolve into a
true tyrant.
Li Yu deliberately adopted a humbler demeanor for the purpose of
this task. If he was going to be Prince Jing's pet fish, he had to try to get
into his owner's good graces.
But it was a tall order to ask Prince Jing to recognize devotion just
from the movements of a fish. Li Yu blew bubbles until his mouth was sore.
Prince Jing's eyes flicked over, but his gaze remained impassive, like an
ice-capped mountain that was impossible to melt.
Li Yu very quickly exhausted himself. After everything he did to try
to get into the prince's good graces, he couldn't even get him to crack the
ghost of a smile. Wang Xi-gonggong, however, snorted and chuckled.
"Look, Your Highness, the fish you saved has come back to life. It's
even sneezing." Wang Xi grinned widely from behind Prince Jing, cheerily
watching the little carp blow bubbles.
How intriguing. Wang Xi didn't think the fish would survive, after
seeing how limp and motionless it had been earlier. But in only a short
amount of time, it was brimming with energy again.
Hello? Can't you get it right? I'm not sneezing, I'm saying hi!
Li Yu blew an annoyed bubble at Wang Xi. Oh well, it was pointless. It
wasn't like he could make humans understand fish. Swishing his tail hurt
too much, so he could only continue blowing bubbles.
But this only served to deepen Wang Xi's misunderstanding.
Concerned about the fish's excessive amount of bubble blowing, he asked
Prince Jing carefully, "Your Highness, is the fish sick? Why does it keep
sneezing?"
You're the one sneezing! Your whole family's sneezing!
Before Prince Jing could react, poor misunderstood Li Yu blew a long
string of angry bubbles. Wang Xi immediately grew nervous. "Your
Highness, is this fish choking on water?"
Prince Jing listened silently. He might not be able to speak, but he
wasn't deaf or blind. His mind was as sharp as a knife. How could a fish sneeze or choke on water? Wang Xi was clearly just trying to coax a smile
out of him.
That being said, this fish… It was a little too lively.
Mu Tianchi had never seen a fish this animated before. As he gazed
down at the fish that kept blowing bubbles in the porcelain tank and the leaf
blanketed over its body, his lips involuntarily twitched upwards into a
smile.
"Master! Prince Jing, look over here! Over here!" Lying under the
blanket made moving a little cumbersome. Li Yu hesitated for a brief
moment before abandoning the leaf blanket he had acquired not long ago to
swim happily toward Prince Jing.
The second task in the main quest was to interact with the tyrant.
Despite all the bubbles he'd blown just now, no prompts had popped up, so
the system must not count that as "interaction."
This fish-scamming system never told him what constituted
"interacting." Li Yu had to just keep throwing things at the wall and hope
one of them would stick. He'd barely come face-to-face with Prince Jing
before now, so he really had to take advantage of this opportunity and
complete the second task in one go.
It was strange, though. Prince Jing was born mute and couldn't talk;
Li Yu was a fish, and no one could understand him, effectively making him
mute as well. In a way, he and Prince Jing had the same struggle. But since
neither of them could speak, there was no way for them to communicate
with each other. How were they supposed to interact?
Li Yu went through his mental catalog of tricks. As his eyes landed
on the underwater plant, the cursed seaweed dance came to mind… Maybe
he should do a bit of the seaweed dance for Prince Jing. The more he
thought about it, the more he warmed up to the idea. If he couldn't find a
chance to interact with the prince, he'd just have to create one himself.
But with his injuries this severe, he couldn't just sway his tail
however he liked. He'd just have to keep his lower half still and focus on
moving his upper half, which had seen the least amount of harm.
Imagining himself as a cute underwater plant, Li Yu just went for it,
wriggling the top half of his body up and down in an exaggerated wave.
Mu Tianchi and Wang Xi were at a loss for words.
Prince Jing stared at the little carp. He was starting to think this fish
was a little abnormal…but Prince Jing's face didn't betray any of his
thoughts. He wasn't someone who let his emotions show easily, no matter
how surprised he was.
Wang Xi, who was standing off to the side, felt like his eyes were
playing tricks on him. He swallowed hard and said, "Your Highness, did
this fish…pull a muscle?"
Wang Xi's first thought was that the fish, with all its swaying, was
trying to please Prince Jing, but Wang-gonggong had only ever heard of
cats and dogs who were intelligent enough to connect with humans. Could
fish be that clever too?
Logically, they couldn't; therefore, Wang-gonggong was more
inclined to believe the fish must have pulled a muscle.
Li Yu gaped.
You've pulled a muscle! Your whole family has pulled a muscle!
Wang Xi was such a mood killer. Li Yu didn't want to dance
anymore.
The system didn't say a thing, even though Li Yu had danced for so
long. He stopped dancing out of spite and drifted down to rest on the bed of
white rocks. Swimming was the first ability he'd unlocked after his
transmigration. Now that he could float and sink as he wished, he felt
incredibly comfortable.
Prince Jing's eyes never left Li Yu. Seeing that the fish had stopped
moving, he seemed to be contemplating something.
Wang Xi immediately latched on to a new topic of conversation.
"Your Highness, why did the fish stop moving?"
Li Yu bristled. It was so hard being a pet! Why was there always a
hater?!
Exercising great restraint, Li Yu turned around. As much as he
wanted to sulk, he had a task to complete.
‹Hey, system. What counts as 'interacting'?› Li Yu tried to call out to
the system. If the seaweed dance wasn't enough, this was going to be way
too hard!
Perhaps the system was getting impatient too, because it decided to
offer him a hint. ‹Interacting involves a back-and-forth.›
Li Yu finally understood why, despite all his efforts, he wasn't able to
complete step two. This whole time, he was the only one moving
vigorously, while Prince Jing remained unmoved. That couldn't be
considered a "back-and-forth" at all. But how could he get Prince Jing to
reciprocate?
Li Yu sank deep into his thoughts. Not even the seaweed dance was
enough to sway his tyrant master. Sob sob sob, it was much too hard being a
fish.
While Li Yu was preoccupied with his dilemma, Wang Xi stared at
the fish, pondering.
Wang Xi had served Prince Jing for many years, so he knew well that
His Highness's countenance was cold, and his heart colder. It was rare for
him to care about anything or anyone. But Prince Jing had not only found
and saved this little carp, he'd even brought it here with his own two hands.
So, what did this unusual act of saving the fish mean?
It meant the fish had caught His Highness's interest; His Highness
had taken a liking to this fish. Prince Jing had even ordered him to prepare
the fish tank to put the fish into. Didn't all these signs point to him wanting
to keep it as a pet?!
Wang Xi was so happy he couldn't help smiling. Who cared what
kind of pet he wanted to keep? There was finally a hint of warmth in this
ice-cold prince.
Wang Xi made a few subtle comments but didn't dare to say anything
too pointed. He was afraid that if he overstepped, Prince Jing's temper
would flare up and he wouldn't want the fish anymore. That was why Wang
Xi kept beating around the bush.
He noticed the prince's eyes hadn't left the little carp, steadily
following its movements. While Prince Jing didn't react in any obvious way
when the little carp wriggled around, he also didn't immediately turn around and leave. When the little carp stopped swimming, the prince's
expression remained inscrutable, but the corner of his mouth that had lifted
just a little fell back down. He was slightly unhappy.
Wang Xi fretted on the inside as he watched the scene unfolding
before him. This isn't how you take care of a fish! You can't just look!
Wang Xi guessed that Prince Jing had never kept a fish before, nor
any other kind of pet, and was probably at a bit of a loss. He suggested,
"Your Highness…this fish…might it be hungry?"
Mu Tianchi shot a fleeting glance at him.
Correctly interpreting his silence as a command for him to continue,
Wang Xi explained with a smile, "Humans lose energy when they're
hungry. This lowly servant is thinking perhaps fish are the same. Perhaps
it'll have more strength when it's full. I already prepared some fish feed.
Shall I feed some to it?"
Mu Tianchi mulled it over before giving a small nod.
Wang Xi bowed, then quickly produced two bamboo boxes from his
sleeves. One was filled with red fish feed, the other with green fish feed.
Each piece was the size of a grain of rice.
As Prince Jing watched quietly, Wang Xi sprinkled a few pieces into
the porcelain tank. Li Yu, who had been deeply engrossed in his thoughts,
suddenly smelled food. His stomach immediately growled, reminding him
that he hadn't had anything to eat in all the time he'd spent as a fish.
Was there delicious food here?
Li Yu glanced around at his surroundings, his attention soon catching
on the flecks of red and green floating in the water. Whatever it was, it
smelled amazing, somehow even more tantalizing than the delicacies he had
eaten as a human.
He couldn't complete his quests on an empty stomach, Li Yu
reasoned, and immediately dashed toward the source of the scent, circling
one of the red pieces. This seemed to be…fish food.
He'd heard fish food was made from either flour or bugs. He didn't
know which kind this was, but it smelled so good, he really wanted to eat it.
Li Yu cursed himself for acclimating to fish tastes so quickly, but he was
practically drooling. In the end, his hunger triumphed over his dignity.
Uh…how exactly did fish eat, again?
Li Yu approached cautiously, batting at the fish feed lightly with his
fin. Suddenly, he felt an unyielding gaze on him. Li Yu looked up directly
into Prince Jing's ink-black eyes staring down at him without blinking.
Li Yu froze.
He had originally wanted to use his fin to "hold" the fish feed and eat
like a civilized person. But if Prince Jing noticed something was off…
Prince Jing was mute, sure, but his mind was still sharp as a dagger!
Li Yu hurriedly chomped down on the fish feed, then dove under the
safety of his leaf, too embarrassed to eat like a fish in front of Prince Jing.
Better to hide somewhere while he ate, then get back to working on his
quest.
Li Yu gulped down a few bites, the fragrant food melting in his
mouth. Thank god, it was made from flour and not bugs! But…why did it
smell like fish-flavored shredded pork?5
…Who cared as long as he had food! Fish-flavored shredded pork
was good, so what was there to complain about? He couldn't eat human
food anymore, so this was actually a balm to his soul. Li Yu scarfed down
the entire piece of red fish food, but his stomach was still rumbling. He
decided to sneak out and grab a few more pieces.
Hyperaware that Prince Jing was scrutinizing his every move, and
petrified that he might notice something unusual, Li Yu made sure to take
only one piece per excursion. He would seize one, take it away, and only
sneak out for another once he finished the one he already had.
As he ate, he soon realized the red pieces tasted much better than the
green pieces. The green pieces were a little bland.
Prince Jing watched, his gaze deep, as the little carp ate. For just a
moment, he thought the way the little carp batted at the fish food looked
almost human. But it happened so quickly, he couldn't be sure.