Tang Muxin and her camp had fell into an unprecedented low mood. The room was filled with all sorts of damages and scattered black feathers but they all ignored it as they sat in various places around with a solemn expression.
Da Gong paced around the room irritably, occasionally raise his wings aggressively and clucking fiercely at the humans like an angry CEO at an emergency company meeting reprimanding his incompetent board members. Ye Cheng tried again to soothe the angry bird but was rebuffed with a powerful flick of the wing. Finally Da Gong ran out of steam and just started to scratch the floorboards in frustration.
Awkwardly patting Ye Cheng's shoulder comfortingly, Cao Huizhong turns to Tang Muxin, "You have a connection with Jin Bao right?" He asks politely enough, however Cao Huizhong's natural overbearing personality clearly had a hint of 'do something' to it.
Tang Muxin frowns slightly at the sight of her friend's tofu sneakily getting eaten by the no-good prince but she ignores it. Shaking her head helplessly she mutters, "At a certain distance I can't communicate with him." The distance that requires them to allow communication is larger than before but it's not enough.
Cao Huizhong sneers. "Then we have to do it the hard way."
"Shouldn't it be the Wen family behind it?" Meng Meng asks.
"Not necessarily," Ye Cheng quietly replies, "One of the followers might have offered to help or even take Jin Bao for themselves or in order to flatter the Wen family. While it's less likely, we need to confirm it in case. If we want Jin Bao back we're going to offend some nobles and we don't have the power to go against them. On the off chance the Wen family didn't kidnap Jin Bao or they used someone else's family to do it, then we would be finished."
She clenches her fists.
Jin Bao was not only a fellow transmigrator but the person who had reached out to her when she needed it. He helped her meet Ye Cheng who she regarded to be one of her closest friends now but Jin Bao will always be her confident, his lively and silly chatter a regular visitor in the back of her mind.
And now he was taken right under her nose.
It could be said the outcome of this small battle was one of the biggest failures of her life.
....
"Tang Muxin should be thinking something along the lines of 'I've been too complacent, this is the biggest failure I've experienced, I need to get stronger!' Or something like that ah." Jia Hyson chirps as he crawls around on the plush and soft mattress underneath him.
'You don't know that,' Bebe replies contrarily as it videos the way those tiny limbs stumble underneath the overly cushiony surface underneath its host. Cute animal videos were popular. Situations where hosts could be baby dragons were very rare. Therefore Bebe had realized after checking its old posted videos that it had really made a killing! The profit was enough to let it happily go shopping for game items without worrying that its stingy mother in law like host would nag at it!
"Tsk, are you a fool?" Jia Hyson snaps. It's been about a full day since being kidnapped and he was so hungry right now. The quality of the food the Wen family has was admittedly very good. He didn't know where they got their rice but there was a faint wisp of spiritual energy in the grains so he wouldn't starve for a week or two at least... but it won't stop him from being hangry as hell.
"Has accompanying laozi taught you nothing? No matter what hardships Tang Muxin has suffered it's undeniable that the mistakes she's actually made are incredibly low. If not how could she become a super blah blah blah in such a short time? A setback like this will hit hard for her and produce motivation, and therefore plot and character development." Jia Hyson sneers before stumbling and tripping over the corner of a pillow. "Fuck! Why are dragon legs so stubby!?"
Even though he was swearing up a storm, externally to outsiders it sound more like, "Mrp! Mreep! Mrp!?"
Seeing the little dragon thrash around in the soft bedding, the second young master Wen Gen stifled the girlish scream that threatened to leak from his mouth and, like the most loyal attendant, approached the dragon and helped lift it into a more stable position.
Jia Hyson who was picked up and repositioned grunted in reluctant thanks before resuming his crawling exploration. It would be wrong to say the Wen family didn't treat him well but it wasn't really right to say the Wen family were treating him right either.
It was a bit like they were treating him like an extremely rare beloved and fragile pet. They loved and worshiped him but subconsciously they still saw him as a small animal with lesser intelligence and treated him as thus.
Even Guard Yi was the same, however it wasn't because he thought all animals had little intelligence. After fighting man to rooster with Da Gong, exchanging fists and feathers, the Wen guards present during the scuffle all had their world views widened a little bit and no longer looked down on animals as much as before.
It was just....
Jia Hyson who had just got back up stumbled again under the overly soft mattress, screeching softly with his little limbs flailing about like a baby who had yet to know how to crawl.
Jia Hyson: 'Fucking fuck, fuck, mother fuck, fuck your mum, fucking legs, Bebe stop fucking filming me, fucking embarrassing-'
Second Young Master Wen Gen: '...so cute!' ＜("0")＞
Guard Yi: '.....really stupid.' (///T__T///)
Compared to the domineering rooster, this little dragon was clearly a silly white sweet*. It was hard not to treat it like a beloved baby.
*Simple, naive and sweet type.
The night before Second Young Master Wen Gen realized his misunderstanding after his father and grandfather scolded him half to death for his hysterical yelling and vulgarities in front of the baby dragon. Wen Gen had felt wrong for about a minute before looking at Jia Hyson's appearance that was bursting with cuteness and had immediately been conquered.
Wen Gen liked to breed dogs and secretly loved the small silly puppies the best. Seeing the little dragon, it really hit a lot of his soft spots ruthlessly.
In the end he also had dropped to his knees and joined his father and grandfather in coo-ing at the baby dragon that was still at Guard Yi's crotch level at the time.
Guard Yi: '...' At least let me move ah.
First young master Wen Shen who had previously been delayed by his fiancée and had only just arrived: '...' Wtf my secret boyfriend is cheating on me with my cheap brother, my father and my grandfather!
Guard Yi who saw Wen Shen: Σ(°△°|||)︴"...No, wait, this isn't-"
First young master Wen Shen: "You fucking scum man! You promised to wait until I was ready!" ・゜・(ノД`)
Second young master Wen Gen who missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime to push his annoyingly talented brother from his heir position, was grinning idiotically: "Awwww, who's a cutie?"
Master Wen Xing who didn't notice that his most trusted guard and the child he was the most proud of are having a secret love affair, wiggles his fingers at the baby dragon: "It's you, isn't it? You a cutie? Come here wanna play with my fingers? Want nibbles?"
Old Master Wen Genming who failed to become aware that his favorite and most promising grandson, was making fishy faces: "Hehe, little cutie look here! Grandpa wants attention too ah~♡ !"
Cutie Jia Hyson: 'Shut up! Shut up! Laozi wants to see the dogblood drama happening behind me!' (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
…Anyway, the point is the second young master Wen Gen had joined his father and grandfather as dragon slaves and had volunteered to take care of Jin Bao with Wen Xia. He didn't even care about stealing the heir position from Wen Xing anymore and even used his lack of talent handling business and family matters to shove off all his work and spend even more time with the dragon, much to the others' dismay and anger.
Because of the Wen family's old loyalties and obsessions, plus the diluted blessing of the dragon, the men and women that carries Wen family blood would instinctively wish to please and serve Jia Hyson. However those that married into the family were not the same.
Wen Geming and Wen Xing had talked quietly through the night, allowing a gloomy Wen Shen and excited Wen Gen to listen in. Finally they decided to allow the men in the family above fifteen to partake in the secret for now*.
*Remember, during this time married women will go to the husband's family so really the only women there are unrelated to the Wen family (possibly distantly related but eh) or young ladies that aren't of marriageable ages which, like given ancient times, is pretty young so fair enough right? (Btw there's different facts but minimum above sixteen is marriageable age for men, and fourteen for women.)
Jia Hyson didn't really care about the specifics of that though. According to human nature, his identity will probably be exposed and leaked to the public soon. Whether it was because a husband confides in a favoured concubine, a servant eavesdrops, a drunk person blurts it out in a tavern, or just a very ambitious person wants to take advantage by sowing chaos, Jia Hyson was sure that the Wen family won't be able to stop it.
It works to his advantage either way as the event will help make the Wen family a stepping stone for Tang Muxin who has the advantage of being soul-bonded to him.
He's set up the event, prepared the conflict, provided motivation, now all he has to do is wait and let the chips fall where they may. In short, it's all up to the protagonists now.
Jia Hyson: 'Jiayou oh~' (ノ^о^)ノ
Protagonists: '...'
...
As expected, in a week someone finally broke and the whole city of Kaifeng suddenly knew that there was a dragon in the Wen family. To be honest the reason for the leak was a bit unexpected though.
Somebody had gone and accused the Wen family of witchcraft as in the past week they had experienced a flow of unprecedented luck. That in itself could be brushed off as a coincidence and keen insight from the talents of the family but Kaifeng was currently experiencing a drought period. In the last few days it had gotten worse and only the Wen family's garden was still vibrant and flourishing. It really looked like they had sucked up the vitality of their surroundings.
Of course this wasn't due to any witchcraft but... *cough* due to Jia Hyson's daily needs.
His poop was made of jade filled with spiritual essence. Since he had been nourished by Tang Muxin's cooking and become stronger obviously their effects would also increase as well. Plus, now that food had gone down in quality and there was a lot of excess indigestible parts of the meal there had been a lot of bowel problems for the little dragon okay???
Thinking about how he scuttled around the garden frantically to do his business and trying to hide it... really too embarrassing!
Even though it was top quality jades valued by everyone, to him it was still his shit! Who would show off and let others parade their shit around ah?
That wasn't his fucking kink!
Only Tang Muxin knew about his unique trait but she was considerate enough not to take advantage of it for monetary gain. In fact it was better for the earth to let the jades be buried and help improve the surrounding soil and plant life. It wasn't like the luck from her protagonist halo and Jia Hyson's lucky dragon physique made it difficult to gain sellable items anyway. There was no need to collect dragon poop.
Anyway, it was due to this that some jealous people tried to incite discord and cry demon. Ancient people are like normal people except far more superstitious and sensitive to supernatural topics. Whether they truly believed that the Wen family has colluded with dirty things*, the fact that they're experiencing good times while others were not were enough to move many people to point their dissatisfaction toward them.
*ghosts and demons if you still don't get it
Wen Xia as the one who found Jin Bao in Tang Muxin's possession, was the only person in the family who was under sixteen that knew about the dragon. No matter what she was an arrogant loudmouthed cannon fodder who was prone to impulsive decisions and an inability to restrain themselves well.
She had always been treasured and doted on, and many people came to flatter her. Now that public opinion had turned, how could she stand it?
Under scathing remarks, she burst out the truth.
Of course people are more inclined to believe the negative rather the positive. Even if she did say the truth, such an unbelievable truth at a troubled time like this, only a dog would believe it.
Still, there are many enemies and many who were just jealous or just wished to put fuel to fire. Soon Wen Xia's outburst spread out so fast that the emperor himself probably wouldn't be able to stop it. In a fortnight it's most likely the news would even reach the emperor's ears which is probably the intended effect for those who wish to bring the Wen family down.
Bebe: 'Fuck! (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ Bebe was really betting on a jealous family member!'
Jia Hyson: 'Heh, I told you Wen Xia would fuck up eventually. Pay up.'(✧≖‿ゝ≖)
If Jia Hyson could predict this sort of thing, Wen Genming and Wen Xing could also do so. While it wasn't ideal, it also wasn't the worst thing in the world. After all, this was similar to the situation of when Wen Xia brought the dragon to the family but on a larger scale. The dragon is real, ergo, there is really no problem except that they've failed to inform the emperor immediately. Even then they can always pretend to play dumb and say they're messenger that they sent might have been met with an accident or something.
Unfortunately for them though, their little beloved dragon had become ill.
Jia Hyson lay listlessly in the sun, his bright golden scales dim and even his growing hair was limp and lost a bit of its shine. The small and intermittent amount of spiritual energy was obviously not enough for him in the long run, especially given he was in an important stage of transitional growth.
To be fair, the food quality was good and occasionally not just the rice but the vegetables and the meat could contain faint spiritual energy but without the ability to keep what little energy inside in the dish from escaping, it was like drinking nothing but water and juice the whole time. He wouldn't die. But after a week he wouldn't come out of it well. Everyone was very worried, whether genuinely concerned or for completely selfish reasons, no one in the Wen family, not even the servants, wanted the dragon to die in their hands.
It was just like Jia Hyson wanted.
No matter what, Tang Muxin and her party's fighting power was too low to compete with the Wen family's martial artists. There was a chance Tang Muxin's luck might have summoned a golden thigh to help them out but Jia Hyson hadn't heard of any large waves being made other than the malicious gossip toward the Wen family so he felt that it wasn't the case.
Fortunately their collective IQ was high and had no pig teammates save for their mascot who was determined to dig pit- *ahem* plot points for them. Jia Hyson placed his bets on that and knew they were most likely waiting for an opportunity to either use public opinion, or find an opening to enter the residence. This was the opening he made for them.
The Wen family were a bit too overconfident they could take care of a dragon, once they see the dragon is getting sick and losing appetite, they will panic and want to find ways to cure him. The limited time before the emperor hears such interesting gossip is not particularly long and they knew that the emperor would want to see the dragon which will only add to the pressure.
After all, people were superstitious. While there's no precedent for this in the last few centuries, having a dragon die during the dynasty is probably a pretty shit omen ah.
Someone would finally bring up the question on how the dragon had survived so long and then everyone will remember Tang Muxin's group.
Jia Hyson tiredly nods in self satisfaction internally. But the truth was, he was really starving here. It seems like the theme every second world he's entered is about constant hunger for him. Honestly it's really just so bullshit. He is not into it.
Bebe: 'But this is pretty much all your own fault…'
Jia Hyson: 'I'm so hungry I'm not even going to argue with you.'_:(´ཀ`」∠):_
Bebe: '…'
Bebe falls silent, a little helpless. It had offered some of their last syringes of spiritual energy left they had saved for an emergency but Jia Hyson refused. It's easy to act listless but his dragon body would give away his lie easily. One had to admire the man's work ethic during these times.
After all, there were many hosts out there who would pretend to go on a depressed hunger strike to fool someone but secretly be pigging out on delicacies bought from the system store and gaming happily, only to quickly slap on an item that changes their appearances to look sallow and of ill health. However Jia Hyson had a super doctor as a protagonist this time, using her skills and basic logical deductions that most people had, they could easily tell whether a person was truly on hunger strike for such a long time or not due to how well a patient's body responds during recovery.
Jia Hyson felt like he could take two birds with one stone through this one week of suffering. On one hand Tang Muxin won't be suspicious and no one would think he was faking, and on the other he would have a better and deeper understanding of how a person recovering from starvation should feel. It may not be the same given that he's a dragon but it's enough to help his acting improve by half a level.
Just as expected, Tang Muxin was summoned.
Unexpectedly, it wasn't Tang Muxin that came.
Jia Hyson: Σ(T□T) ???
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