Jia Hyson hugged Da Gong. He wished to never leave his warm embrace and face the cruel reality that he somehow let some strange woman he had only met today see him shit completely naked for the third time in his life.
Bebe: '….' There's something wrong with this, but Bebe absolutely refuses to think about it.
Pan Shuchun was also very embarrassed as she picks up the jade with her scrapped designs and struggles to decide what to do with it.
On the one hand, this was the best quality jade. Even the royal family had a limited supply and would be willing to give her some face in order to gain this.
On the other hand, this was literal shit. The literal shit of a dragon.
Pan Shuchun: '…What sort of crazy world have I come to?'
In the end, after soaking it in hot water to assure herself that the jade was sterilized and clean, Pan Shuchun kept it.
'It's okay; poop can be an expensive commodity anyway.' She comforts herself. After all, isn't the high-class Kopi Luwak coffee she liked back in her original modern world also from poop? In comparison, this is really nothing ah.
After adjusting her three views, Pan Shuchun quickly got over it and became excited about the potential money she could make from this. She had never seen or heard about anyone else having a dragon or that dragons were even real before, so it's fair to say her little fan Tang Muxin should definitely be a protagonist.
A protagonist with a golden dragon that shits imperial jade, three men of varying handsomeness-
The three men of varying handsomeness: '...'
-and a gigantic intelligent rooster thanks to the yin shard.
Pan Shuchun silently decides she must hold their golden thighs. It would be stupid not to. At the very least, by leeching off them, the yin shard will lose some advantages and that in itself was an advantage to her.
But to be honest, in her mind, the ambitions of the system shard inside her are only secondary to her own. The information she has is vivid, and she doesn't doubt the authenticity, but in terms of emotional investment, it's a little worse than gaining memories of a past life or something.
The system shard is her, but the life she leads is Pan Shuchun. Though she wouldn't turn down an opportunity to help herself while helping the overall goal of her existence at the same time, she didn't really feel the need to go out of her way to do anything either ah.
Thinking about that, she looks at the rooster. Da Gong, who was still comforting Jia Hyson, glances at her, then at the jade cupped in her hand before giving her a disgusted look full of repulsion. Even though he was only a bird, Pan Shuchun could clearly see the 'It turns out this human has this sort of interest. What a degenerative pervert. We must protect the children!'
Pan Shuchun: ….
Well… maybe she could go out of her way to sabotage a little ah.
…
When the couples came back from their respective dates, they surprisingly did not look so good.
Ye Cheng merely looked down and depressed, holding a small unconscious puppy carefully in his arms, but Tang Muxin and Duan Mengyao had very ugly expressions on. Yan Huizhong was wearing a mask, but any could tell from his eyes that he was probably no less than furious.
Pan Shuchun by then had sort of given up on being a good host to the two animals after the initial tour and had just been chilling with some orange tea on the ground floor while watching with faint disgust as Da Gong and Jin Bao openly threw dog food in her face by feeding each other the snacks she got for them. It was unfortunate that there was literally no entertainment in this place, so this bitter single dog could only let her eyes be blinded.
Why was she on the ground floor babysitting this damn interspecies couple?
Because if she was going to get blinded, then she damn well will drag others down with her!
Customers: …You'll lose us with that attitude, you know?
Of course, ancient people were still people. At least 70% of them can be conquered by cute animals. For Pan Shuchun's customers that were primarily young people with less conservative tastes, there was really no resistance.
Plus, everyone here was superstitious, and Jin Bao was clearly a dragon. Even without the meng being sold, there was many who flocked to the shop once word spread. Most people who came were disbelieving or felt this shop was committing fraud, but for Jia Hyson, who was a genuine mythical beast that could bless people with good luck, this sort of face slapping was only too easy.
Pan Shuchun, who saw her clothes being sold out at record speed, reaffirmed her desire to hold onto golden thighs. Sipping her tea, she sighs meaningfully. Even if the blatant PDA was too awful, she could endure for her wallet.
Only when most of the clothes from storage were gone did she finally chase out the majority of the people, leaving only some close regulars she allowed the privilege to stay a bit longer and continue staring at the animals. Luckily Da Gong and Jin Bao weren't the sort of animals that were intimidated by the crowd and were uncomfortable being gawked by onlookers. As long as they had enough space neither of them cared much and both quite liked having a wider audience to stuff their dog food to.
It was at this moment did Tang Muxin and her group finally arrived.
Seeing their dark faces, Pan Shuchun jumped out from her seat and chased out the remaining customers as she prepared herself to hug thighs.
Customers: …No, seriously, you'll really lose us like that ah.
With a flattering smile she offers the two couples some fresh mint tea. "The scent and flavour of mint is very refreshing, cooling and soothing the body." She explains as she closes the shop and offers them a seat. Glancing at the dog in Ye Cheng's arms, she frowns, "I don't have much in the way of medical equipment right now. I do have some herbal poultice* that I made to treat inflammation and promote healing and some things with antibacterial properties. We can also use spare cloth for any open wounds."
*A poultice, also called a cataplasm, is a paste made of herbs, plants, and other substances with healing properties. The paste is spread on a warm, moist cloth and applied to the body to relieve inflammation and promote healing. Some can be spread directly on the skin.
Ye Cheng flashes her a grateful smile while the other three's faces ease up with the offered tea and active help. They look to Tang Muxin who was their resident medical expert, seeing she nodded in agreement, Ye Cheng immediately thanked Pan Shuchun.
Seeing their group return, Da Gong and Jia Hyson stopped being an obnoxious couple and trotted to them. Jia Hyson stands up to his full height, which was actually pretty high now, nearly a metre, and raised his arms at Tang Muxin, asking to be picked up.
Da Gong: '…' Baby you'll lose me like this ah. ( ಠ⊝ಠ)
Half way being lifted by Tang, Jia Hyson must have sensed Da Gong's gaze, and twisted himself downwards like the makings of the shiniest pretzel ever and boop-ed the top of the rooster's head before twisting back upwards.
Da Gong: (,,ಠ⊝ಠ,,) ♡ Never mind, you'll never lose me baby.
Tang Muxin who was suddenly stuffed face first with dog food again: Why must you hurt me so?
While Jia Hyson tried to find a comfortable position, Ye Cheng, who was helping treat the puppy with Pan Shuchun began to talk about his date with Yan Huizhong.
"-it's really awful!" He complains to her emotionally, "Just because they have some relation to the royal family, they think it's okay to abuse everyone."
Apparently, for most of the day, Ye Cheng and Yan Huizhong had a lovely and romantic time, however near the end, Ye Cheng had saw some noblemen and ladies bullying a little stray puppy and was very indignant. By coincidence, the nobles had some relation to the crown prince and were incredibly arrogant.
Yan Huizhong also personally knew them beforehand, but his impression of them were snivelling useless yes-men who were cowardly and were full of flattery and praise. He did not know they were such domineering bullies on the streets.
When they saw him, the group of idiotic cannon fodder clearly didn't recognize himself and instead chose to jeer at the disabled rich man Yan Huizhong and his servant boy Ye Cheng, angering them both. Maybe because the group had been oppressed by Yan Huizhong so badly before, they immediately felt great dislike for the disguised version of him, this haughty rich cripple, and wished to beat the pair up.
The capital was full of riches, but at the same time, it was also full of apathy. This group of nobles were troublemakers that had only gotten worse in recent times, nobody dared to step out to help. However could the proud Yan Huizhong and protective Ye Cheng take this standing?
Of course not, they beat them until they called them their grandaddies.
Both were supplemented with spiritual energy and were already fairly strong to begin with, these cannonfodders who rely on their names and connections to bully didn't stand a chance. I'm the end they cried and left, threatening them that they won't let this grievance go. This sort of thing, it would be weird to say the romantic atmosphere wasn't ruined from it.
For Tang Muxin and Duan Mengyao, it was a similar occurrence that happened to them as well. However, it was not the crown prince's cronies but soldiers of the third prince that Duan Mengyao had served with.
Because Duan Mengyao also chose to be disguised, he was not recognized and saw the ugliness of three people he had considered close friends with and a few men he swore loyalty with to the third prince. While they didn't abuse a dog, they did try to attack and disgrace Tang Muxin and two young girls in the few minutes he separated with her in order to surprise her with flowers.
The mood was also gone afterward.
In contrast, Da Gong and Jia Hyson didn't get to go on any date, but their romantic mood was stronger than ever.
Ah, life was so hard.
So fucking hard.
Jia Hyson listens and can't help but calculate in his heart. This is clearly foreshadowing and the imperial arc will most likely be pushed up thanks to this.
Not to mention, the third prince, who has been rather forgettable seems to actually be quite shady. The most likely reason is that the third prince and his followers were never good people in the first place, and the righteous and strong Duan Mengyao had probably grown to be a thorn to their sides, so either the followers got rid of him or the prince himself ordered the kill. Either way he couldn't be trusted with the crown.
Bebe: 'Bebe is surprised you remembered.'
Jia Hyson: 'Of course uwu.'
He had already accepted all the side missions. Even though he's lazy and fickle, generally, if he says he'll do it, he'll do his best to do it. That's why he tries to make minimum promises in relationships.
Bebe: 'That is both admirable and yet super scummy.'
Jia Hyson: 'That's pretty much my slogan at this point isn't it ah?'
Anyway. One of Jia Hyson's side missions required him to pick a good ruler for the country, aka a male lead. In retrospect, picking picking a male lead shouldn't necessarily mean he was picking an emperor, they weren't technically related, but generally in these sorts of stories, 95% of the time, the male lead is usually the emperor by the end of the book. If not, he's probably a god or something stupidly OP.
Looking at Tang Muxin's choice though… it seems we're going against the grain heh.
Duan Mengyao: While I admit it's true, I still don't appreciate the implication of that 'heh'.
That meant Jia Hyson had to find someone else to play monarch. The best option is Yan Huizhong, to be honest. He's smart, decisive, and his cruelty could be softened by Ye Cheng's kindness.
However Jia Hyson liked Ye Cheng. He wouldn't want to throw him into the imperial harem unless he literally ran out of all options. The harem is messed up okay? It's like the only fucking genre which has the trope of killing babies and drowning beloved pets and small children. Jia Hyson knows he's not all there morally, but even he knows people who are super into reading about all that are definitely a bit fucked in the head.
And since the story was unfinished, the rest of the setting was very true to ancient China where a harem was indeed necessary for the palace.
There's a lot of modern people who think it's stupid to see emperor protagonists keep a harem when they already finally gained their true love female leads, and they will scold the male lead, but the fact is, the harem is more than just a way to indulge carnal desires. The harem was symbolic in many ways, such as showing the emperor's vitality and helped settle the court official's anxieties about producing an heir.
There were also pragmatic reasons to a harem, such as being useful in promoting and controlling relations both in and out of the court. Sure there are other ways, but this was not only easy but effective. It wasn't a case of two birds one stone, establishing a harem was like killing a whole flock with a pebble. The only emperor in China that didn't have consorts or concubines was less due to love and more due to trauma than anything else.
Jia Hyson personally felt this was a bit fucked but wasn't a lot of history like that anyway? Ultimately while it definitely dehumanized woman, which part of history didn't screw the fairer race over? At least the reasons behind it was logical and made sense, unlike some other more tragic old ideas like the whole witch-hunting thing in Europe.
Thusly he didn't feel the need to try to change the harem system they've got going at all. Even when he reads about how the protagonist asks the male lead to throw away the harem or is jealous about the idea the future emperor must make a harem, he felt it was emotionally understandable but overall unreasonable in a more realistic viewpoint. The new emperor needs the harem to stabilize and appease the court, and to be honest in this situation, it was better to have more children than putting all their eggs in one basket.
Even if it was Yan Huizhong who ends up on the dragon throne he wouldn't prevent him making a harem either. Of course, this is only on the precedent that he becomes emperor. In other situations there really no need for a harem like in the noble houses ah, those are merely to follow the trends and indulge in desire while securing sons. The stakes are far less high, so Jia Hyson becomes much less forgiving about this sort of thing.
Bebe: 'Are you saying if you were in that position of being the emperor's beloved you would still let him have a harem of 3000 beauties?'
Jia Hyson: 'It would be better if he let me play with them too, but yeah, I think I'll be pretty fine with it. It's not like I haven't had multiple sex friends at once, isn't that the modern more consensual equivalent of the same thing anyway? Besides ancient times is so boring, a lot of ancient men are also quite dull, if I constantly spend every day with the guy I may actually end up killing him ah.'
Bebe: '…' Wow. Bebe shouldn't be surprised, but somehow Bebe still is.
Future arc Emperor gong: '...' I seem to see myself putting on multiple green hats due to my harem in the far future ah.
Shard Sefu: 'Heh.' He knew one day someone else would share his pain.
Bebe: '....why are you so smug?' Clearly the future emperor Gong is going to be a Yin Yang bitch like Sefu ah.
Future arc Emperor Gong: '...….'
Shard Sefu: '...…..'
Jia Hyson: 'Um.' Why are we telepathic? No wait, are we crossing the boundaries of space and time right now? What is with this conversation?
Bebe: 'Host is right.' This joke has clearly gone too far off the deep end.
Author God LBL: 'Sorry.' Not sorry.
Jia Hyson: 'EVERYONE GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD.' ┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻
Honestly, though, even ignoring all that, it would be best if Jia Hyson could pick someone decent to be in charge that wouldn't go batshit insane the moment their emotional pillar gets a little hurt. After all, he was trying to create a relaxing and lighthearted transmigration story with some face slapping and plot drama, he didn't want a story about overthrowing the monarchy of a despotic, oppressive or obsessive man.
Despotic, oppressive and obsessive man Yan Huizhong: '…'
Duan Mengyao can't do it because that meant they'll have to kill like eight princes and do the prince regent thing where they raise a baby prince. Yan Huizhong is a last option because of the previous things said, but is still more of a valid option than Meng Meng who carried no royal blood.
The cannon fodder villain crown prince is obviously not an option. The third prince seems like a hidden villain, most likely some sort of fake white lotus bitch or something.
Third Prince: I haven't even come out yet and you're already dissing me?
That left the second and fourth to seventh princes, as possibilities plus any baby princes who are currently not under consideration due to their ages. Jia Hyson had two hundred years to live at minimum so he could always try groom an emperor but…. With his [Corruptor of children] skill, he felt like he'll definitely produce a tyrant instead ah.
Unfortunately, that fucking spicy chicken skill stays as a passive skill until it hits level 10, which is it's level cap.
While the dates were essentially ruined, Pan Shuchun successfully gained a good impression from the group and managed to wiggle her way into the dynamics quickly with her high EQ and overlapping ambitions with the others. After a week Ye Cheng and Tang Muxin both felt she was very compatible with themselves. So while Yan Huizhong and Duan Mengyao weren't looking, the three had established a sisterhood of sorts, and Pan Shuchun had told them various love advice while complaining all about the scumminess of men while fixing their nails and hair.
Tang Muxin: "Shuchun talked with me for a bit and… I decided I will accept your courtship."
Duan Mengyao: "Oh!" Thank you so much, miss!
Ye Cheng: "Sister Shuchun told me that we should take things slower and enjoy physical intimacy without sex for a bit."
Yan Huizhong: "Oh…" That miss is fucking dead to me.
There was even talk about trying to buy the building next door to Pure Beauty Designs and sharing the land to create a large store for Pan Shuchun's clothes, Ye Cheng's treasures and antiques, Pan Shuchun's medical consultations and maybe even a small cafe area. It was all very exciting, and the three young people full of ambitions could only wish to run over and go through with the plan right now!
Yan Huizhong and Duan Mengyao both switched to being doting boyfriends and a pair of detectives slowly uncovering a huge government conspiracy. In short, it was a busy time for everyone. The cannonfodders that had ruined their dates were almost completely pushed from their minds.
However Jia Hyson knew they would come to play soon. After all, this was a story. If there was no aftermath, then it would just be a pointless scene.
Finally, a week after the first dates, an elderly man came to the Fairy Garden Inn. He was dressed in good clothes, and it could be seen that his position was not low. However, everyone there had good senses and could smell the faint smell of urine underneath the heavy perfume the man wore.
Da Gong, who sat in the corner to watch the show tsk-ed, "What is this human? Smells bad."
Jia Hyson who was lazing on top of him lightly slaps his tail in admonishment. "Don't be mean, Brother Gong, he's injured and he's what the humans call an eunuch."
Looking at the eunuch Jia Hyson felt great pity for the man. After all, not only does he lose his manhood to enter the palace, but the man still has to endure the after-effects of such disfigurement. Ancient China never claimed it held a mastery over surgery or anything, so eunuchs not only ran the risk of infection but also had trouble completely controlling their pee.
There were a few ways to castrate an eunuch, one of them was using a special numbing agent on the genitalia, and simply slicing it off. However that was literally the easiest part.
They then plug up the urethra, wash the wound with boiled pepper and can't eat or drink for 2-3 days to avoid aggravating the wound by excretion. On the fourth day, they unplug the urethra and if he can urinate, then the surgery is considered a success. However, even then, there is problems controlling their bladder and there is inevitably leakage that occurs.
This is why many eunuchs will choose to use perfume to cover up the scent and why quite a few people eventually associated a lot of eunuch roles to be flamboyantly gay, acting like women, etcetera.
Jia Hyson as a man, obviously was very sympathetic to these people. However, this sort of thing was completely voluntary, and in these hard times, many men were willing to do this in order to earn money, some status and even a bit of power if they were competent enough, things that they couldn't dream of in their current situations. The price was high, the risks were higher, but the potential rewards were truly good, at the very least, the standard of living was higher.
Da Gong was still just an animal and could only be disgusted as Jia Hyson tries to give him a simplified explanation of what an eunuch is. After all animal neutering wasn't as big a concept compared to modern times so Da Gong also had no references to such a hideous act either and could only be appalled.
"Tsk, humans are really unfathomable." Da Gong disdains, "Baby let's go to the stables. I want to check how the children are doing."
Jia Hyson hesitates but shakes his head. "You go ahead, I'll be with Mu Mu for a bit."
This old eunuch managed to live so long, he had good clothes and his head was held up high. He was not a simple man and could not be taken lightly even if he was missing a very important part of anatomy.
Da Gong clucks disappointedly before lightly and affectionately pecking Jia Hyson's head and leaving. Jia Hyson climbs up onto a nearby table and mentally calls for Tang Muxin to pick him up.
Tang Muxin rolls her eyes but she does excuse herself from the group as she goes collects her dragon companion.
"Greetings," the old eunuch replies, his voice slightly raspy with age, but the words were smooth and full of culture, making it quite pleasant to listen to like a posh, doting grandfather reading a bedtime story. "I heard that you have recently procured a grey puppy with a dark flower marking on the back of its head?"
The grey puppy was the one Ye Cheng had rescued on his first date with Yan Huizhong.
Because the barn was already fairly full with the animals they had, Ye Cheng reluctantly decided to put this puppy for adoption. After all right now their living situation was in a transitioning period and their lifestyle was not stable and busy, he didn't have the attention to care for a small puppy and the animals would be too stressed if they don't have enough space in their living quarters.
Pan Shuchun drew up the flyers, and while there have been some people interested, nobody was willing to really care for the dog. The poor were too poor to feed another mouth, and the rich would rather have purebred dogs to raise. And the working class in the middle were trying to mimic the rich upper class so they wouldn't want to raise a mutt either lest they give others another reason to look down on them.
"Yes, that is indeed correct." Ye Cheng steps up with a smile. As the metaphorical mother hen… though maybe not that metaphorical considering he has raised a lot of hens as well as Da Gong, he insisted on vetting everyone who wished to adopt the puppy. That was also another reason why people chose not to adopt.
Because Ye Cheng was the archetypal overbearing father interrogating his daughter's boyfriend.
"Are you interested in adopting?" His chatty mouth began to shoot rapid fire questions, "What do you do? Do you know what puppies eat? Where would you put him to sleep? Don't let him stay up past Xūshí* or he'll be lethargic."
*Xūshí is ancient china unit of time for 7 to 9 pm.
Eunuch: '…'
"Actually that puppy is mine," The eunuch smiles with a little embarrassedly. "My dog Ming-Hua finally gave birth to a puppy after much effort but the little thing ran off when we let it out in my courtyard for a walk."
Pan Shuchun, Ye Cheng and Tang Muxin all had relatively high EQ levels, and none of them felt like the man was lying or was not genuine. However they still couldn't let down their suspicions completely. After glancing at each other and seeing that nobody thought he was a fraud, they all, in unison looked at Jia Hyson who was now lying lazily around on Tang Muxin's neck like a very large gaudy golden necklace.
Sensing their gazes, Jia Hyson blinked and slowly opens his eyes before activating his skill [Karmic Insight] and scanning the room.
The eunuch couldn't help but gasp and step back a little at the sight. He had heard there was a dragon here, but like literally everyone who was sane, he thought it was a big hoax. Especially when he heard that the group of people claiming such a matter were merchants. After hearing that, many also thought this was some sort of attempt at grabbing fame and money.
…Which it probably was, but the point was- the dragon was fucking real! Not a puppet or an exotic serpent or some sort of statue with a bullshit backstory, but a real dragon!
How come the emperor doesn't know such a thing yet?!
World's consciousness: Sorry ah, boss' orders.
Boss Jia Hyson: Tee Hee.
Bossier Bebe: Tee Hee.
With glowing eyes he surveys the trio before looking at the eunuch. Everyone's auras were bright and strong and shimmering gold blended at the edges. Gold meant good fortune or riches ahead on whatever decision they were thinking of.
There was some wavering in the golden outline from Ye Cheng who was more wary of the eunuch suggesting he was more hesitant in helping him, but there was no dark foreboding colours in the places where the gold outline disappeared from, meaning that there was most likely no negative effects from declining either.
The eunuch's base colour was a pale orange that was a bit weak, however the colouration got stronger as it moves further out into the edges, almost like a vibrant splash of paint had dripped a drop of water in the middle of it.
From Jia Hyson's understanding this could be interpreted as the eunuch was weak and nearing the end of his lifespan but if he followed through with whatever his current decision was, he would become healthier. This made sense if he was thinking of holding Tang Muxin's thighs given she would then conversely help him with her super doctor abilities.
it seems their meeting would bring nothing but good things if it goes well.
Jia Hyson nods at them before going back to closing his eyes. He had drunk a lot of spiritual energy lately thanks to the reluctant contribution of the Heavenly Path, in fact, he had practically drunk their stash of high-quality energy half-dry much to everyone's dismay. It was really a tragic case of one being too hungry and the other being too goddamn poor.
Jia Hyson now had enough energy to develop and grow another stage larger if he minimizes his energy output for a while and absorbs as much as he can during this period. Thus his current salted fish appearance.
Seeing their little luck oracle has affirmed their thoughts, they broke into a smile and invited the eunuch to follow them to the stables.
The eunuch was very polite and agreed happily. As they went out, a small group of guards led by a haughty looking young man in doctor garb followed. The eunuch gave the trio an apologetic look, "Sorry but the… my mistress insisted I have to bring my guards and doctor where I go. I have some health issues you see."
Tang Muxin's gaze flickers down to the unmoving dragon and probes him mentally. Jia Hyson ignores her, too lazy to respond but pointedly tickles the back of her neck with his tail. Tang Muxin didn't fully understand the intention but felt settled either way.
Her anxiety was eased by half and she forced herself to ignore the strangers as well as the coincidental fact the eunuch has some sort of illness, and trues to join the conversation Ye Cheng and Pan Shuchun was making with the old eunuch.
Even though she wasn't sure if treating the old man's illness and gaining benefits for it was the main reason why Jin Bao said he trusted the eunuch, Tang Muxin trusted he wouldn't lead her wrong.
As they walk closer to the stables everyone could hear the increasingly loud and chaotic sounds of various animals running and prancing around the large area. It sounded like the group was energetically playing around. Only Jia Hyson could hear what was really going on.
Da Gong: "Crouch down! Don't let the stupid humans catch you! Now catch and run! Move it! Move it! Move it!"
Animals: "YES BOSS!"
Da Gong: "Tell me! What do you do when you see a bad human?!"
Animals: "PECK THEIR EYES OUT!" "SHRED THEM TO PIECES!" "BITE THEIR FLESH OUT AND SWALLOW IT!"
The human group: "Ohoho the animals are so cute running around aren't they?"
Da Gong: "When I say humans, you say-?"
Animals: "MAKE THEM KNEEL!"
Da Gong: "Humans?"
Animals: "KNEEL!"
The eunuch who saw this couldn't help but chuckle. "It's like the rooster is teaching the animals to sing, how cute."
Guards nodding: "Yes, very cute."
Ye Cheng, proud: "That's Da Gong, he's the leader, a bit fierce but very nice really."
Tang Muxin, nodding: "En. Sensible and good."
Pan Shuchun, a bit doubtful but not willing to break the united front: "….Indeed." Well, it was a little cute ah.
Jia Hyson: '…' (¬_¬) Ignorance sure is bliss huh.
The moment they reach the stables and open the door, the activities inside had more or less subsided. It made sense, the sense of hearing and smell in animals was far greater than humans. If it wasn't for all the ruckus they caused by screeching and letting feathers and fur fly everywhere, they probably would have noticed earlier.
However they didn't completely stop their activities, instead they all smartly put on their 'disguises' and began to play like baby animals. Da Gong had told them with some disgust that they still were not good enough for head to head attacks with the humans. It was better to sneak attack by lowering the guard before pouncing.
So when the group opened the door they were really greeted by a metaphorical sucker punch full of cuteness.
Xiao Shua the cat was hugging a small sleeping rabbit, occasionally licking it's fur and showing off the true power of interspecies fluff friends.
Little Fatty and three baby mice Heng Kai, Heng Dishi, Heng Jian were nibbling food, their mouths super chubby and adorable as they nibbled their seeds and grain with their tiny paws.
Da Shen the dog was acting like he was one year old and pretending to play with the horses' tails while the horses indulgently played along. A small grey puppy who didn't fully understand the scheming minds of these animals merely watched Da Shen and excitedly copied him.
And Little Paddy the paddy snake…. well he wasn't very cute so he was hiding in a corner.
Not cute Little Paddy: '…' This is fucking racist that's what this is.
The eunuch and the others that had never seen so many animals act so cute in such a small area, could not handle the pure concentrated meng. Even Pan Shuchun who was a little more resistant, couldn't help but take a step back.
Fuck, this cuteness was too poisonous!
Da Gong clucks happily as he sees the arrival of the group of mostly stunned silly humans. Well, that's not true. To be more accurate, Da Gong clucks happily as he sees the arrival of his little worm that happened to have brought a group of mostly stunned silly humans.
Currently his little worm has been very lazy so he had to take it upon himself as the husband to go back to the stables to further train his subordinates before their skills get rusty. His worm wife was very vulnerable right now, its best to strengthen his defences ah.
Jia Hyson, sensing Da Gong's arrival finally opens his eyes and sees the rooster standing by Tang Muxin's feet, looking up at him and clucking expectantly. With a ticklish sensation in his chest, he finally moves and unfurls from his resting position on Tang Muxin to jump down onto Da Gong.
Tang Muxin who barely got any response from her dragon this whole time: '…Oi, whose the one exactly soul bonded to who ah?'
"Wan Wan!" The eunuch suddenly calls out, breaking into a large joyful smile.
The puppy, Wan Wan, immediately stops jumping around and sniffs the air before wagging his tail excitedly as he runs up to the old man. The eunuch crouches down, completely disregarding his status and lovingly picks the puppy up, laughing as Wan Wan starts to slobber all over his face.
It was a very warm sight and nobody no longer suspected the dog didn't belong to him.
After a few minutes of watching an old man reunite with his puppy, everyone sort of got a bit bored and awkward. If watches had existed at this time, everyone would have probably checked theirs thrice already ah.
Maybe he was unable to bear the gazes of the others, the eunuch picked up the happy, wriggling puppy and turned to others with a faintly embarrassed smile. "Thank you so much. I see Wan Wan has been clearly well taken care of and I will not forget this kindness."
The eunuch lightly but politely bowed, surprising Tang Muxin, Pan Shuchun and Ye Cheng.
After all the status of an eunuch, as an imperial servant, is naturally higher than a commoner. Especially one that could be accompanied by so many guards.
Not to mention they've only somewhat established their presence and hadn't really shown off any power moves yet to be worthy of incurring respect. There was no need for this person to give them any face.
Duan Mengyao and Yan Huizhong weren't present during this time, but even if they were, they would also be shocked. In fact, they would be far more shaken than the others because they actually knew this man and his reputation.
He was none other than Shi Xiaosi, one of the empress's closest people. A eunuch who followed her since she was young and still relatively naive about the ruthlessness of the imperial harem.
The fact he was still here, healthy enough and able to maintain the position of serving by her side, spoke a lot of volumes from that alone. There were rumours that behind his kind old man face he was a poisonous snake who came from a family of assassins, a raging bear with the strength of thirty men, a watchful owl who could see all.
Nobody knew if these were truth or baseless lies, but nobody understood what methods he used to stay where he stood. No matter how the other people tried, they couldn't dig out anything but the barest facts. In a way wasn't that even more terrifying than any rumour?
Even the arrogant crown prince wouldn't dare not give him some face. However, generally most people preferred to avoid such a dangerous smiling tiger, and so there had been little in the way of any necessary confrontations anyway.
Jia Hyson also didn't think he would be so OP until Bebe gave him the gossip. Listening to the information Jia Hyson felt a little bit strange. 'So that's what the outside world sees this man as, but what is he really like?' He mentally questions Bebe.
Bebe paused. 'How could you tell?' It finally asked, a bit curious.
'You just said this is what the people say about him, not what the world's consciousness said about him, dumbass,' Jia Hyson scorns. His system was so old, yet the little tricks it played could be seen through easily ah.
Truly, age does not necessarily indicate one's wisdom. 'Besides, the man clearly has some means, but it can't possibly be as perverted as what the rumours say ah.'
'Well that's bullshit, you can't figure that out just by first sight,' Bebe refused to back down, it was rare that it would play a prank on Jia Hyson and now it was a bit too embarrassing to fail on the first try, 'Maybe he's even more perverted than the rumours.'
Jia Hyson smiles, disdainful and proud, 'Peh, don't try to fool me, I have a good sense for pervertedness. As a pervert myself I can more or less feel when someone else is similar to me.'
Bebe: '…At least you have self-awareness.' Unfortunately, the man is clearly unrepentant about it.
Bebe was too lazy to try trick it's perverted host anymore and caves, 'The truth is, this old man is really Shi Xiaosi and it's true many of his enemies have disappeared without a trace, and any scheme against him is swiftly sidestepped and dealt with, however only a small fraction of those could be attributed to his own ability.'
The true perpetrator behind this was actually the empress herself. The empress was very close with Eunuch Shi* and they were actually something akin to childhood friends. Shi Xiaosi was a servant in her family's household who was a few years older than her, and often protected her from the schemes of her cheap sisters and other concubines when she was young due to a debt he had with her mother.
*Shi is Shi Xiaosi's last name.
The empress who hadn't been an empress yet, was very moved by this man's kindness and his silly sweet temperament that had only been revealed to herself and secretly vowed that she would be the one to protect him in the future. She wanted to marry someone strong and bring Shi Xiaosi to follow her for a few more years before matchmaking him with anyone he was interested in that also wouldn't bully him either.
Unfortunately she caught the eye of a prince and then the prince became an emperor. Shi Xiaosi did not hesitate to become a eunuch despite having a fairly luxurious life serving a noble household, and continue serving her. The empress had been very saddened at this and was also very worried for Shi Xiaosi who may have been able to fight well in the courtyards, but was only a small fish in the ocean in this new battleground.
The empress was very shrewd, and quickly became a big boss the other concubines would not carelessly fight against. She won the emperor's heart and became empress, and she cultivated many people, earning their loyalties through kindness and cruelty.
People naturally overlooked women in this era, and it was both a blessing and a curse. Shi Xiaosi was simple and absurdly loyal to the empress and merely did the things and say the words as the empress instructed and suddenly everyone thought he was the big boss that couldn't be provoked while the real mastermind was very satisfied sitting in the background.
Hearing the real story, Jia Hyson was a little speechless.
Jia Hyson: Fuck me this world is really full of powerful women huh.
There's really just no room for the men to shine here.
He looks at Da Gong.
Da Gong: ?
Okay, maybe there's just no room for the human men to shine here.
Suddenly there was a cry of alarm from one of the guards.
Eunuch Shi suddenly collapsed.
…
...
A/N: Hey guys, so I'm having some serious family issues recently and I gotta go to the hospital every weekend now which does hurt my writing time (since I write mostly on the weekend orz). I'm going to try change up my writing schedule a bit but I should still be able to keep my usual 1x chapter a week thing, it just may be on a different day or something I dunno.
Anyway this is quite a stressful time for me ah. And I want you all to remember that I don't lock chapters so the money I earn is like…. it's not much okay. I solely rely on ko-fi donations and I can't take your gift money until I make $200 on gifts which after over a year I haven't been able to make ah (I made less than $4 this month on gifts and I average at like $6 apparently hahahaha it's funny because it hurts;-;).
So roughly I can make, from both donations and gifts maybe $40 if ya'll are generous. And that's like ridiculously so much less than other stories on the same level/popularity as me ah.
So please donate to me on https://ko-fi.com/hweichan when you have some spare cash. And I totally understand if you don't have money- that's why I don't lock chapters, because I very much understand that pain of being poor :,3 - so if you can't donate then just drop in a review once in a while to show your support please~
I mean, don't spam reviews because that's not cool but just every once in a while just write a review ah. Also you can do it more than once (I don't know why some people thought otherwise). It will mean a lot to me to remember that while I don't make a lot of money compared to other readers, our reader base is the most interactive! I mean, look at our paragraph comments and such! So good! You guys rock!
We may be the poorest but we are the strongest! Probably! Maybe!
My aim is to have the BL story with the most reviews and collections! (because I literally can't win in anything else) HELL YEAH! (breaks down sobbing) WOO!!!