King Jing took Li Yu to the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The System, which had been quiet all this while, suddenly gave Li Yu a notification.
[The prerequisites for the side mission — Bright Pearl have been met. Host, do you want to start it?]
Li Yu was speechless.
What was going on? He hadn't even gotten along with King Jing yet, and now there was another side mission.
He couldn't tell anything from the name of the mission. Li Yu didn't want to complicate matters. It would be very tiring for his fish brain to worry about the main mission and the side mission at the same time. However, he still asked about the reward out of curiosity.
System: [The reward for this mission is a temporary shapeshifting medicine. It can temporarily turn the host back into a human. The medicine lasts for two hours. If the side mission fails, there will be no punishment.]
Li Yu was speechless.
There was a medicine that could turn into a human? Why didn't it say so earlier?! Li Yu cleverly thought that even if he could only turn into a human for two hours, he could do this kind of mission a few more times and take turns to use the rewards. Wouldn't he be able to maintain his human form?!
[There is only one reward.]
The System meticulously reminded the host of his naivety and stupidity.
Li Yu was speechless. [… Okay, I knew you were a scammer.]
He had to do this side mission. After all, he wouldn't lose anything if he failed. If he had the shapeshifting medicine, he could choose a suitable day. Two hours was equivalent to two hours. He could eat a lot of human food, talk a lot, and go anywhere he wanted.
He was originally a human, not a fish. After becoming a fish, he realized how free and happy it was to be a human.
Although it was only for two hours, it was good to experience the feeling of being a human again!
Li Yu was speechless. [… It's just one more mission. I'll do it.]
This mission named "Bright Pearl" only had one sentence: Obtain a night-luminescent pearl.
The scammer system's missions had always been vague. Li Yu was used to it. He didn't know how he, a fish, would be related to a night-luminescent pearl. The System had explained before that the side mission could only be started after the corresponding prerequisites were met. Since this side mission was refreshed when King Jing took him to the Palace of Heavenly Purity, it meant that this mission should be related to Mr. Noodles.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't have to take a long detour.
Although King Jing was a king, he did not like to ride in a sedan chair. He took the little carp by himself, followed by Wang Xi, and strolled to the Palace of Heavenly Purity.
Head Chamberlain Luo Ruisheng had been waiting in front of the Qian Qing Palace for a long time. As soon as he saw King Jing, he hurriedly came forward and led King Jing into the palace. Wang Xi was not allowed to enter, so he could only wait outside.
Especially when they arrived. Li Yu deliberately swam to the surface of the water to admire the Palace of Heavenly Purity. As expected of the Emperor's bedchamber, the fragrance of sandalwood through the air. It was magnificent and magnificent. At a glance, there were all kinds of rare and precious decorations. Yu Tong's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.
However, although the place was beautiful, there were no fish tanks. Li Yu still preferred places with blue-and-white porcelain fish tanks.
It was only on this trip that he found out that King Jing had arranged for him to stay in the Jingtai Hall. The Jingtai Hall was King Jing's bedchamber in the palace since he was young. Although he was later conferred the title of king and left the palace, the Jingtai Hall was still kept by King Jing. It was truly King Jing's territory.
Li Yu felt a little proud that he had casually stumbled into the tyrant's lair.
After looking around, he did not find the Night-Luminescent Pearl. The side quest had come suddenly. Li Yu only hoped that the System would give him more hints. However, after the System reminded him that he had opened the side quest, it went silent.
Li Yu could only put aside the side quest and the main quest. Without any clues, he could only leave it to fate. Seeing the Emperor was still more important.
In the book, there were many secrets between the Emperor and King Jing. In the original book, King Jing's biological mother, Empress Xiaohui, was in poor health before she gave birth to King Jing. After giving birth, she suffered the blow of her son's muteness and passed away. The Emperor loved and respected Empress Xiaohui very much. He always had mixed feelings about his son, King Jing. He was not close to King Jing. Especially when King Jing turned sixteen, the Emperor ordered him to open the palace. He did not care that King Jing was not married. The other princes all opened their palaces at their wedding. Therefore, many people thought that King Jing was not favored.
Of course, these many people did not include Li Yu, who knew the plot of the book very well.
The Emperor was estranged from King Jing. It was not that he did not love King Jing, but it was a kind of disguised love. King Jing was born to Empress Xiaohui. He was of noble birth. However, because he could not speak, no matter how noble his status was, there was no possibility of him inheriting the throne. The Emperor ordered him to open the palace early just to protect his son. Because of the death of his beloved wife, the Emperor did not want to get close to King Jing. However, deep in his heart, he also knew that this was the flesh and blood of his beloved wife. He hoped that this son could live a peaceful life.
King Jing's temperament was not kind. When he was young, there was a prince of the same age who mocked King Jing for being mute. King Jing rolled up his sleeves and gave him a beating. When the case was brought to the Emperor, the Emperor punished all of them. However, in private, he warned the other princes to be more tolerant of King Jing.
King Jing could not speak, so it was not convenient for him to be enlightened. The Emperor also specially pointed to a strict teacher who taught deaf and mute people.
These were the reasons why the Emperor doted on King Jing, but he never said it out loud.
Therefore, Li Yu was really not worried about this trip at all.
In the main hall of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Emperor was dressed in a bright yellow dragon robe. He sat on the throne that was engraved with flying dragons. When he saw King Jing, he nodded slightly and said, "Tian Chi, you are here."
King Jing put the bowl filled with small carps on a small table nearby and bowed seriously.
The Emperor smiled and asked him to get up. He glanced at his son from afar. King Jing was still the same, cold and cheerless. The Emperor's gaze naturally fell on the big bowl that King Jing brought.
In the Emperor's knowledge, bowls were mostly used to hold soup. Bringing a bowl into the Palace of Heavenly Purity was mostly to serve him soup. The Emperor mistakenly thought that King Jing knew his mistake and specially brought a bowl of soup over for him.
The Emperor smiled and said, "You are very considerate."
King Jing, who was caught off guard and misunderstood, was speechless.
The Emperor was rarely close to this son of his. Since King Jing was willing to please him, the Emperor's heart was indescribably warm. He immediately ordered Luo Ruisheng to bring the "soup" that King Jing brought over.
King Jing couldn't stop him because he couldn't say it out loud. Eunuch Luo had already deftly picked up the big bowl, and the eunuch beside him also handed over a silver needle.
The soup looked like wolfberry fish soup. Eunuch Luo had to check it out as usual. He took the silver needle and lowered his head. His eyes met with the lively little carps that were poking their heads out of the water to watch the show.
Eunuch Luo was shocked. His hand trembled and he almost dropped the bowl. "Oh, His Highness King Jing brought this … what is this?"
Li Yu was also shocked by Eunuch Luo's sudden appearance and sank to the bottom of the bowl with a thud.
It was still alive? Eunuch Luo was solemn. So it wasn't fish soup!
"What did King Jing offer?"
The Emperor was far away. He was also surprised by Eunuch Luo's exclamation.
Eunuch Luo didn't know how to answer. King Jing got up, walked in front of Eunuch Luo, and silently took the big bowl from Eunuch Luo's hands.
The Emperor was speechless.
King Jing personally brought the big bowl to the Emperor. However, he held the bowl firmly with his hands and didn't hand it over to the Emperor.
The Emperor was speechless.
The Emperor saw that there was a lot of clear water in the big bowl with a small carp the size of a palm swimming in it.
The Emperor was stunned. "King Jing, what do you mean by this?"
Mu Tianchi smiled. He casually dipped his finger into the water and gently stirred it.
At this time, Li Yu had secretly taken a look at the Emperor's appearance in the water. The Emperor was a square-faced uncle with a short beard. Li Yu was secretly thinking that it was fortunate that King Jing only had similar eyes to the Emperor. Most of the time, he took after Empress Xiaohui. If he took after the Emperor, his handsome looks would be greatly reduced …
Probably because he was criticizing King Jing in his heart, King Jing suddenly made a move. Li Yu didn't know what to do.
When he came to his senses, King Jing's actions were actually meant to tease him. However, this was in front of the Emperor. What was King Jing trying to do?
Ever since King Jing changed the bowl for him, he knew that King Jing didn't intend to offer him to the Emperor. This was because the appearance of an item was the most important. An elegant small jade bowl was obviously more favored by the Emperor than a boorish big bowl. However, King Jing abandoned the jade bowl and didn't use it. This meant that he didn't want to use him to please the Emperor.
In that case, why did King Jing want to bring him to meet the Emperor? Why did he do this in front of the Emperor?
Whatever, when the master teased the pet, the pet had to … respond.
Li Yu held back his shame and walked towards King Jing. In any case, it wasn't the first time he acted cute in front of King Jing. He came to the gap between King Jing's fingers and hesitated for a moment. Then, he intimately rubbed his fish mouth against King Jing's fingers.
Oh … there was the smell of fish food. It was the delicious red fish food.
At first, his actions were a little stiff. Later, he was completely willing to play with King Jing's fingers.
King Jing looked down at the little carp that was swimming happily. There was a faint light in his eyes. For a moment, the Emperor thought that he had seen wrongly. King Jing had always been cold and hard. He had never shown any emotions in front of him. Now, he was playing with a fish so tenderly …
In the past, the Emperor felt that King Jing was a loner. He secretly ordered people to transfer several cats and dogs from the cat and dog room to accompany King Jing. However, King Jing didn't even look at them. He didn't keep any of them. At that time, the Emperor felt that King Jing didn't like pets. But now, King Jing, who didn't like pets, actually made an exception for a fish??
The Emperor thought about all kinds of possibilities in a daze. After a long time, he opened his mouth and said, "Are you trying to tell me that you raised a fish?"
Mu Tianchi nodded slightly.
The Emperor was very surprised that King Jing really raised a fish. However, this son of his finally had some human feelings. It was a good thing.
Looking at the fish again … this fish wasn't an expensive and auspicious koi. It was just an ordinary little carp. It looked like the kind that could be used to make fish soup.
… King Jing's taste was really hard to describe.
At this moment, the Emperor had already forgotten the purpose of summoning King Jing. The corner of his mouth twitched. Against his will, he said, "Raising a fish is not bad."
King Jing, "…"
Li Yu also saw King Jing nod. His heart was like a small horse galloping with its head held high. Although Eunuch Wang and he had already thought that he was King Jing's pet fish, this was the first time that King Jing had admitted it personally. So, King Jing wanted to bring him to see the Emperor to admit that he was a pet fish in front of the Emperor. This pet was too high-profile, wasn't it?
Li Yu was almost on cloud nine. The main mission of having a million fish pets was for him to be King Jing's pet fish. Now that King Jing had admitted that he was a pet fish in front of the Emperor, did that mean that the main mission was completed?
However, after waiting for a while, he didn't hear the notification that the mission was completed. It seemed that it was useless for his master to admit it personally. The system didn't want to admit it, so he had to continue to "get along" with it step by step.
A chamberlain hurried in to report that the Imperial Consort and the Second Prince were outside the door and were asking for an audience.