Pan Shuchun at this time stayed with the emperor. What else could she do? Her identity was fashion designer wrongly transmigrated, she really didn't have the capabilities to track down a hidden master like Chef Wen.
However for the shard counterpart to Da Gong be a traitorous chef who specialised in cooking white meat… hah, it seems the antagonistic relationship between the original personalities she belonged to was still going strong.
Pan Shuchun whose yin-yang shard represented the balanced and technically neutral aspect of the Bipolar Prince system, tsked disdainfully and wished to pop a few melon seeds in her mouth*. "Heh."
*Eating a melon/melon seed is associated to watching a good show/drama/gossip. Similar to how we would say we wished to eat popcorn right now.
Truth be told, if Pan Shuchun was really a neutral shard she would have felt some concern or something for the other two. But overall Pan Shuchun instinctively felt a an irrational irritation, and a sense of faint loathing and condescension.
It could be said, that the yin-yang aspect, the part of the bipolar prince system that wasn't interested in separating the two personalities and wished to merge peacefully, also disliked and looked down on the yang and yin shards. However they didn't like to admit it because it would make them seem just as bad as the other groups.
In short, the Bipolar Prince was really just an awful emotional mess of a system with clearly a lot of self-love issues.
Bipolar Prince shards across the worlds and universes: …Suddenly feel like I've been shot while lying down ah, what to do?
The emperor who was still not great physically due to illness had to forcibly calm himself on his throne. Chef Wen's abnormal response and sudden reveal of his amazing qiggong skills, plus his previous points of suspicion were enough for him to declare him a criminal in his mind. He was even more emotional because the small dragon Jin Bao had also rushed out after the group to chase Chef Wen and his rooster friend.
Ah! Ah! The poor baby! What if he gets hurt!
Seeing the emperor's bad state, Pan Shuchun shows a worried look and busies herself in helping the rest of the servants stabilise the man. This guy was their biggest golden thigh here ah! Can't let him die and cause the princes' infighting to escalate until they were fighting openly!
Meanwhile Ye Cheng was also not looking so good. To be exact he was so worried to the point he looked like was going to throw up.
Fortunately, Eighth Prince Yan Huizhong was present and served to calm him for now with his presence. He and Duan Mengyao had already gotten evidence against the crown Prince and the third prince for plotting against them before, so he also joined the group in entering the palace as another dragon envoy. During the banquet, they planned to publicly rip the crown and third princes' faces off with their arrival.
However for now, Yan Huizhong felt no anticipation for revenge. He only felt distressed as he hugged his agitated lover tightly into his arms, letting the bigger man sit on his lap like a distressed child while he whispered softly in his ear.
To be honest, Yan Huizhong had expected a lot when he finally came back to the palace. Anger, bitterness, regret, vindication, determination, ambition, satisfaction. He had been treated poorly as a child, he had struggled as he grew up, and he was finally betrayed by the only brother he really trusted. Now he came back with a powerful backer, and a way to achieve revenge.
However, no matter how he hyped it up in his mind, it was a bit… well… he did feel those things. It was just a bit hollow. Weak. Yan Huizhong even felt a bit repulsed. Like going back to a shitty family reunion with the majority of the family members you found hateful at worst, nosy and boring at best, after a year of experiencing what it was like to live happily alone in a new place.
With Ye Cheng in his arms, the emotions that felt so muted and apathetic since coming back seemed to blaze with a vivid and colourful pain. Ye Cheng was sunny and a bit cunning but ultimately was a kind, lovely and simple soul, and a commoner with ambitions to be a merchant. He was everything unsuitable for the palace life and Yan Huizhong couldn't bear to force him into it either.
To be honest he didn't know what to do before with Ye Cheng. He had wanted to defeat his brothers. Let them bow and beg at his feet, they who had scorned him and looked down on him, now beaten and forced to concede defeat. He wanted power, ultimate power, so nobody could ever think he was a bastard, a lowly unfavored prince, so easy to be bullied with no one to care. For this he planned to fight for what he was always able to claim, his birthright, and he planned to win no matter what. While he didn't wish for it, Ye Cheng could not be part of those plans.
But ambitions in the face of reality can crumble. And the reality is that Yan Huizhong's heart was already happy and content with the simple but strange life he had been leading till now. He realised now he didn't want to stay any longer than he had to in this disgusting place full of nothing but bad memories. He didn't want to relive the palace intrigue, the subtle scheming and cruelty. He didn't want to fight for the throne. He just wanted to leave.
Leave and live simply with Ye Cheng.
Well.. as simple as living with a man in ancient times that has a small zoo worth of animals as well as a giant black cock who could easily pin him down on the ground and fuck him up thrice over.
…Da Gong aside, Yan Huizhong was now very confident in his revelation. For him, while the power of the crown was tempting, very tempting, a life without Ye Cheng was something worth sacrificing that temptation.
"Huizhong…" Ye Cheng's voice wavers, even though his stature was large, right now he looked like a small and fragile thing in the eighth prince's eyes.
"It'll okay," Yan Huizhong could only helplessly say, wishing he could do more. Then again, even if he had the ability to move, he still knew compared to the others like Tang Muxin and Duan Mengyao he would not be as swift and his abilities were strongly based in analytical thinking, politics and intelligence. Staying behind to monitor and comfort Ye Cheng's emotional well being was really the best he could do, the best he could do for Ye Cheng really.
Still, he couldn't shake the helplessness away. He could only hug Ye Cheng tighter and do his best to analyse the likelihood of Da Gong coming back safely. Fortunately, the likelihood was really high and after a while, Ye Cheng had calmed himself down and reluctantly pull away from the prince's hug. Still, even though he was a bit embarrassed for making a scene in front of so many people, Ye Cheng did not distance himself from the other and continued to stubbornly hold Yan Huizhong's hand, ignoring the strange glances being sent their way.
Yan Huizhong smiled faintly and lightly drew circles on the other's hand affectionately with his thumb.
Yes, he wouldn't regret his decision at all.
Pan Shuchun glanced at the two big men holding hands and gritted her teeth so hard they were about to crack.
These damn gays! Flirting in her face and shoving dog food down her throat while she's trying to help stabilise the emperor of this country! Ahhhh just leave! Go get a room! Fucking hell!
Suddenly something like an invisible wave seemed to crash into her, distracting her angry single dog thoughts. Even though there was no pressure or force, Pan Shuchun almost stumbled and took a shaky step back to steady herself. Her expression had become confused and a bit fearful.
What was that?!
Another wave seemed to hit her, however, she was better prepared and no longer showed how affected she was. Only the cold sweat and tight jawline gave her away. She looked upwards and knew something was coming. This feeling was most likely some sort of fluctuation of energy.
Though Pan Shuchun was a shard of a powerful royal system, she shouldn't be so sensitive about energy flow, given her untrained human body. However that only emphasized how powerful whatever was happening was. Even the emperor and some of the more intuitive servants almost instinctively felt something was wrong and looked upwards…
And her face immediately changed from shock to horror.
What the fuck was happening ah?
…
"-you're sure you can pull this off?" Chef Wen stresses. "Remember I can't complete my part of the deal if I'm dead ah." No matter what he felt a little doubtful of the plan.
Because one, as a yang shard he almost instinctively dislikes his counterpart and has a nagging feeling that the other could very well just be ruthlessly stringing him along like a fool, ready to throw him away once his use is done. And two…
Well, this was a giant rooster he was talking to.
Chef Wen, the larger part of him who has been a human for the past half a century, still felt very ridiculous talking so seriously at Da Gong.
"I should be asking the same, tsk." Da Gong tsk-ed disdainfully. "After I help you out you'll do your best not to poison my, and my little worm's eyes, until I finally have use for you?"
Chef Wen: ...
"Yes." Chef Wen agreed through gritted teeth. Inwardly he was chanting, 'roast chicken, boiled chicken, drunken chicken, stir fried chicken, diced chicken…'
Da Gong suddenly turned his head, "Did you hear that?" He suddenly clucks.
Guiltily, Chef Wen immediately denied it, "I didn't say anything, I mean hear anything!"
Da Gong ignores the idiot human, he stares upwards silently. As an animal he was more sensitive to the changes.
Chef Wen may not be as good but he was both a shard and a talented person in utilizing spiritual energy so just like Pan Shuchun he also quickly felt the waves of pulsating energy and also looked upwards. Unlike in the palace he had hid them on the second floor of a building and had a much better view of the sky. Face paling quickly he trembling pointed upwards and could only spit out one word.
"…Fuck!"
…
'Jin Bao froze helplessly, completely lost and unsure where Da Gong and the kidnapper have gone. His body which was going through a lot of development was dragging him down. He deeply regretted being so lazy and un-energetic in the past, relying on Da Gong heavily like a spoiled baby. Full of panic and turmoil he- uh, activates?
No, no that's too robotic a word. Plus it's too out of the blue, after all there was no hint that Jin Bao had this skill… Chalk it to instinct? The sudden influx of spiritual energy? Triggered by entering the palace? Tsk, it's better to have a mix and use luck as an excuse maybe.'
Jia Hyson waved his tail nervously. Mentally his mind was throwing various plot options at Bebe for it to write into the digitalized notebook which could be used to more heavily prompt or explains or provide suggested edits to scenes. Usually, he didn't really use the notebook other than to rewrite descriptions better, point out basic mistakes and some character plot holes and so on, however, the summoning of dragons he just did was too sudden. He was doubting himself a bit for his choice.
Jia Hyson absentmindedly touched a claw to his snout, tapping it with faint anxiety.
Maybe he was a little more panicked then he had thought when Da Gong was suddenly kidnapped ah.
During the time he thought he was being clear-headed but honestly if you were being muddled and stressed it was hard to truly tell if what you thought was logical or tainted with bias. Jia Hyson felt like his three views were a bit twisted and his emotional ability to love was even more so, but overall he felt he was still more or less normal in a lot of ways.
Summoning the dragons wasn't exceptionally hard, it just took a lot of energy and some dragon blood. Maybe because of that, the exhaustion afterwards had actually cleared his mind and the panicked tension somewhat which made him realise objectively the problem at hand.
While it was a bit annoying, he couldn't scold himself for being stupid or regret it right now.
He had to think of what to do with the plot.
Calling the dragons was a big overreaction honestly. He had been planning to do this sort of thing during a big injury protecting Tang Muxin or something life-threatening. It would've been suitably dramatic and impressive under a tense situation with appropriate build-up.
Sudden chicken-napping does not fit any of the criteria he had previously wanted to fulfil.
'Maybe I, well, Jin Bao, wasn't very aware of what he was doing but to save Da Gong who had been by his side for so long he followed his instincts and called for help. Because he was much stronger and the palace has a strong connection to dragons plus his own lucky constitution, his confused attempt works. En. That seems okay.'
Jia Hyson reluctantly decides to suggest this, 'Bebe, make sure to add a note for the Author God to add in some appropriate flashback scenes to add flesh to the emotional dilemma and justify the extreme reaction. Also, consider hinting that Jin Bao had been purposely suppressing some sort of agitation in his heart since entering the palace the first time, this would bring a smoother transition as it indicated that even though he wasn't fully aware of it, his bloodline knew that he finally had enough power and could rejoin with his kind or something along those lines.'
To be honest there's inevitably going to be people who will dislike this sudden turn of the story even with this foreshadowing. After all a good plot needs good pacing. The presence of the dragons should've been best introduced in the later part of the story when the Dragon's Horde shop had been already opened and established. This will give the opportunity to bring in new characters, concepts and faceslapping after everyone had become more or less familiar with the last new group of characters from the imperial arc.
The plot now was a bit too rushed for Jia Hyson's liking. While he was confident the story so far at the very least already is greatly improved from the original, with its unique twist, comedic and with the quite trendy plot point of multiple transmigrated characters that has the slight freshness that none of them are the antagonists- that didn't mean there wasn't flaws and trigger points.
For example, people may be turned off of Jin Bao the mascot character, they may not appreciate Da Gong, the male leads are too boring, Tang Muxin isn't the strong Mary Sue typically found in these types of stories etc etc. Therefore depending on the Author God's skills and the audience's tastes this story may or may not have a higher rating than how it was before.
Jia Hyson knew he wouldn't die from a few failures but ugh as a writer used to success and someone with a slight need for control in these sort of things, he didn't feel good at all.
Fuck! Who knew losing Da Gong would affect him so fast?! Was he an ESA*?
*Emotional Support Animal
He didn't really have an opinion about emotional support animals honestly. Other than his mother and grandmother, and to some extent his brother, who he was very comfortable and close to, he was fairly independent in his original life and only would find others when he craved affection. In terms of pets he had some insects and fish because he didn't dare let himself handle more animals lest he suddenly felt the urge to do something bad. Jia Hyson was a bit of a psycho but he was a self aware one with principles.
Sure, one could argue, if he was self aware about it, it should be fine since he's going so far to avoid hurting any non fish or insect type animals. However, taking in a pet was a responsibility. Jia Hyson deeply felt that if he wasn't sure he could handle it, if he wasn't sure he wouldn't abuse, hurt, neglect or just ignorantly do something harmful to an animal, then he shouldn't take that responsibility at all.
Of course insects and fish were the exceptions he allowed himself ah. And tiny shrimp. Because they were cute. And sometimes he would watch the bigger fish eat them. It was quite fascinating and oddly calming to watch firsthand the cruelty. But to him they were hardly 'emotionally supportive'.
Bebe, listening to his internal monologue: …If you felt emotionally supported by that, Bebe feels like that's even worse you goddamn vicious bastard.
So Jia Hyson hadn't personally understood this concept. In fact, with a lot of news he had read and listened to about how there was groups of people in A country with increasingly ridiculous pets being taken on planes with the excuse of being 'emotional support animals' he had even had a slight negative and cynical impression of the topic. After all the idea was good but the constant abuse of this idea as well as the clear downsides against people with physical illnesses and allergies toward animal dander made impossible not to look down on it and question the validity of it.
He knew there were people who genuinely required animals to help with anxiety, and he knows they've been clinical studies on how animal companions help with depression and blood pressure and so on, however the more you see how others ruin and take advantage of this concept the more people will be frustrated and less understanding. There was a period where ESA was very controversial due to these issues, one could argue isn't that why people have pets? Since they're not officially trained like service animals why give it a special status? Are these people really so dependent on an animal they must carry them with them everywhere and anywhere? And yes for people with crippling anxiety or PTSD it may be true but they were hidden under so many liars and entitled people who dragged their pet kangaroo or peacock or turkey on a plane, not considering the other passengers or even the animals themselves.
The news about real ESAs and how they helped people could not even pick up a percentage of the popularity about a woman whose fake emotional support* llama caused someone to have an allergic reaction on the train. People's perceptions naturally get skewed when others bring in their misrepresented animals and claim it to be part of a group they don't really belong to, making it harder for the people with legitimate problems and properly trained animals to continue to have the privileges they need.
*Technically not fake but not real either. Because to get your pet approved to be an ESA from what I understand is very easy and there's many fraudulent cases about it. Generally you just need a therapist's letter saying the animal helps your mental well being but if you don't have a therapist you can go online to ask and pay for one as well, regardless of how healthy your mental state actually is. They aren't service animals and are closer to pets so there's not much laws and regulations for them ah. It's really a shame how so many people seriously ruin such nice ideas honestly, also I have no idea where this rant came from lol this shit is outdated news, I think they're only recently talking about establishing proper regulations now but again I only did a bit of research.
However now that he lost Da Gong, even for only a short while, he realized how important an emotional support animal was to some people! He had trouble keeping his thoughts together, doubting himself, his heart was pumping but his chest was tight which made it feel like it was hard to breath… Da Gong has been by his side for so long, he's provided him with affection, always gave him the best pieces of meat, took care of their 'babies', fought bandits, willingly carried him everywhere, seduced him with his handsomeness and mating rituals, ran hot baths for him when he wanted…
Ah! So this was what an emotional support animal was like! He understood now!
Bebe: …Well, it's was mostly right until the end there. Then it became less emotional support animal and more sexual support beast. Peh.
However it was clear it's host was doing his best to fix the problem he created so Bebe wisely did not spit out it's poisonous thoughts and instead gave it's opinions as a reader to his ideas.
One of the reasons it was accepted to be a Beta system was due to it's experience and resume as different types of systems, it was also because during the exams systems were tested on their aptitude for various things and Bebe had done very well in social media, water army fighting, critiquing, predictions of the trends of society and so on. In short one of it's strength was helping determine the popularity of things which while relatively a bit useless in a lot of other system jobs was quite good for Beta-ing.
As they traded ideas and added notes and suggestions, the sky began to tremble and shake as dark clouds seemed to cover the entire city in an eerie dimness. The rumblings of thunder began to pound through the air like a heavy drum marching through the deserted streets of the capital.
Even the most insensitive humans could feel the change and nobody dared to go out, but at the same time many couldn't restrain their curiosity and peeked out in curiosity, like they knew something unimaginable will be happening soon. Something that they will never forget in all their lives.
Then, the lightning crashed.
Like blinding arrows lighting fell from the sky, however oddly enough these lightning strikes didn't seem to harm anyone, like mirages that served to brighten the darkness. It was strange and terrifying. Many people who directly saw the lightening had to yell in pain and fear as they went temporarily blind for a few moments.
However what happened next was much more shocking than any lightning strike.
After the rain of lighting slowly started to lose it's ferocious momentum people began to realise the clouds above have begun to slowly dissipate from wherever the lightning left from. Even though the sky above was so high up, the lightning had already caused large gaps in them, making it easy for everyone to see what was hiding above.
Eyes.
Hundreds of pairs of large eyes were watching them.
It was enough to give them nightmares.
After more lightning fell, and the clouds were slowly weakening, creating bigger and bigger gaps, one of the creatures finally, impatiently made their move.
Even though the gap in the clouds was so large, to everyone's horror, the creature, who must have been standing tall and upright before, when moving closer, could barely squeeze through the clouds. Like the dark clouds were solid cement, they could see golden claws seem to grip tightly onto the opening, as a golden horse-like snout tried to force itself through.
Even though they were ancient people, the citizens of the era still understood the concept of distance and how small things get bigger when closer. While they couldn't comprehend exactly how big this thing was, they could understand just by being so easily able to see the general details of the creature in the sky that it was gigantic, bigger than any tree, building or even mountain they had ever seen.
Clearly disgruntled at the tight fit the creature made a low roar of dissatisfaction that caused many children to clutch their ears and cry, and curled it's claws, piercing the cloud and dissipating it.
With more space, it finally dived down.
Despite the darkness, the lightning was more than enough light to reveal the golden shimmering appearance of the beast. It was familiar and yet so terrifyingly unfamiliarly alive.
It was a dragon.
A dragon descended from the heavens.