Chapter 8 - 8

didn't was right next to King Jing. When he heard that the Imperial Consort was coming, he also wanted to take a look at her.

He had already seen the Emperor, and he looked more or less the same as what was written in the book. Li Yu also wanted to know what the woman who dared to provoke the tyrant looked like.

However, his current position was a bit off, so his line of sight was blocked.

Li Yu swam back and forth, constantly adjusting his angle. After several tries, he still couldn't figure out what was going on.

Just when he thought that he could only listen to the sounds, King Jing, who had been staring at him for a while, suddenly shifted the direction of the fish bowl. It just so happened that it was facing the palace door.

Li Yu, "!!!"

How could there be such a coincidence?

Could it be that King Jing sensed that he wanted to see the Imperial Consort?

However, even if King Jing was occasionally considerate of his fish, he shouldn't be so meticulous. Perhaps he just randomly changed the position of the bowl on a whim.

Li Yu quickly convinced himself not to think too much about these trivial matters. Since he could see, then he might as well do it openly.

Soon, a graceful woman dressed in palace attire, accompanied by a tall and burly young man, walked into his line of sight, surrounded by palace attendants.

Imperial Consort Chou's hair was covered in pearls and jade. She was dressed in a light purple palace attire, and the hem of her dress was embroidered with golden begonias in full bloom. Her skin was whiter than snow, and she was beautiful and moving.

Imperial Consort Chou maintained her appearance very well. If it wasn't for the tall and burly Second Prince following closely behind her, and the Second Prince's eyebrows were somewhat similar to Imperial Consort Chou's, it would be very difficult to imagine that Imperial Consort Chou was already in her thirties.

Li Yu couldn't help but sigh. With such an appearance, it was no wonder that she was the most favored consort in the Emperor's harem in recent years.

According to the book, Imperial Consort Chou was currently at the proudest moment of her life. The Emperor had already privately revealed to her that he intended to make the Second Prince, Mu Tianzhao, the Crown Prince.

Like many ancient emperors, the Emperor hoped that the First Prince would inherit the throne. A few years ago, he had made the First Prince, the son of Empress Xiaohui, the Crown Prince. Unfortunately, the First Prince died when he was seven years old. The Emperor and Empress were sad for several years. Empress Xiaohui then gave birth to the Fourth Prince, and the Emperor was tempted to make another Crown Prince. Unfortunately, the Fourth Prince was unlucky. When he was two years old, he caught a cold and died. Empreiaohui had already experienced the pain of losing her children twice, and her health was already very poor. She desperately gave birth to the Fifth Prince, who was now King Jing. However, God played a vicious joke on the Emperor and Empress Xiaohui. The Emperor and Empress Xiaohui were both born mute. This was a heavy blow to the Emperor and Empress Xiaohui …

After Empress Xiaohui passed away, the Emperor felt that he was not fated to be the First Prince in this lifetime, so he never mentioned the matter of making a Crown Prince again. After more than twenty years, Imperial Consort Chou was wild with joy when she suddenly leaked some information.

Although the Emperor's love for her in recent years was obvioo all, he had never intended to make her the Empress. But so what? As long as her son, the Second Prince, could become the Crown Prince and ascend the throne in the future, it didn't matter if she was the Empress or not!

Imperial Consort Chou felt that she was about to succeed. She even walked with the wind!

Imperial Consort Chou and the Second Prince saluted. The Emperor had ordered the Imperial Consort to come closer. Since he intended to make the Second Prince the Crown Prince, he still had to give her some face.

Imperial Consort Chou smiled tenderly and sat next to the Emperor. She glanced at King Jing with the attitude of a victor. She thought disdainfully, 'So what if he is the son of the late Empress and has a higher status than me?

In the end, I still have to bow my head to the Crown Prince and the future Emperor. '

Imperial Consort Chou and the Second Prince smiled tacitly, but King Jing didn't react.

King Jing didn't look sideways. His fingers were still immersed in the bowl as he casually pinched the little carp's smooth back.

Li Yu was a little angry at being pinched here and there. 'Hey, you're using too much strength. The fish can't take it!'

Li Yu dodged with a whoosh and stared at King Jing vigilantly.

King Jing's fingers missed, and his dark eyes stared unblinkingly at the little carp.

Li Yu: "…"

Li Yu felt the surrounding air suddenly become cold.

… 'Is the tyrant angry because he didn't let me pinch him?'

'Forget it. A good fish doesn't fight with people, let alone its master.'

He knew that King Jing would be unhappy to see Imperial Consort Chou sitting next to the Emperor. Which child would like another woman to replace their mother's position?

Although Imperial Consort Chou was full of smiles, she was just showing off and provoking King Jing.

Seeing that King Jing was in a bad mood …

Li Yu had a good reason to be scared. He leaned over again and rubbed King Jing's fingers ingratiatingly.

'I'll pinch you, I'll pinch you. Just don't use so much strength, okay?'

King Jing pursed his lips at the fish's opportunistic behavior. He continued pinching the fish's spine with his fingers.

Li Yu endured silently. When he felt that King Jing was too strong, he couldn't take it anymore. He dodged to the side and wagged his tail gently. However, after a while, he swam back again and let King Jing vent his anger.

King Jing also realized that the little carp didn't seem to dislike his touch. But why did he dodge and come back again?

… Was it because his strength was too strong for the fish?

King Jing's fingers unconsciously became gentler.

Li Yu suddenly felt comfortable. 'That's more like it. Being pinched on the back doesn't seem to be too uncomfortable. It's just a little itchy …'

Li Yu curled King Jing's fingers with the tip of his tail to show that he liked it.

King Jing: "…"

King Jing realized that this little carp wasn't too difficult to understand.

The man and the fish were immersed in their own world and didn't care about the reactions of the people around them.

The emperor had already seen King Jing like this before. He watched the interaction between King Jing and the little carp with great interest. He never knew that this cold-hearted son of his also knew how to play with fish.

Madam Chou's smile froze on her face. King Jing treating her as if she didn't exist was a silent humiliation to her.

"What's wrong with His Highness King Jing?" Madam Chou tried to let the emperor notice King Jing's rudeness.

However, the emperor smiled and said, "Imperial Consort, King Jing has recently reared a fish. What do you think?"

Madam Chou: "…"

Of course, Madam Chou didn't think much of it. She had her own purpose for coming here. How could she let a dirty fish divert her attention?

The emperor was most likely acting like this because he had forgotten her previous advice and was soft-hearted towards King Jing.

Imperial Consort Chou had already prepared a response. She gave a look to her trusted servant beside her. The servant understood and retreated. After a while, she returned to the palace hall with a snow-white thing in her arms and quickly walked over.

Madam Chou's face lit up with joy. She hugged the snow-white thing in her arms and gently said, "Could it be that Your Majesty has seen King Jing's fish and forgotten about this concubine's snowflake?"

At this time, the emperor also remembered his purpose of summoning King Jing. He rubbed his nose and smiled.

The snow-white thing in Madam Chou's arms cooperated with its master's actions. It meowed and slowly raised its head.

Li Yu, who was playing with King Jing, was so shocked that all the fish scales on his body almost exploded whento he heard the cat's meow.

Why was there a cat in the Palace of Heavenly Purity?

Li Yu carefully swam to the surface of the water to investigate. He saw the imperial consort holding a huge white cat in her arms. Her sapphire-like blue eyes immediately turned towards him.

This size, this voice, wasn't this his enemy cat?!

Li Yu trembled and quickly dived into the water. However, it was too late. The big white cat found him and meowed excitedly. It broke free from the imperial consort's arms and pounced on him as fast as an arrow.

Li Yu: Ow, help! The cat wants to eat the fish!!

Originally, he thought that if he met his enemy cat again, he would definitely find a way to slip away. If not, he would use his tail to hit the cat. However, when he met the cat again, he realized that his fish instincts and the pain of being bitten by the cat made him tremble.

Li Yu was in the bowl and had nowhere to run. In a moment of desperation, he jumped under King Jing's palm and curled up into a ball, hoping that the big white cat couldn't see him.

However, he was only deceiving himself.

The big white cat pounced on him in the blink of an eye. Cats weren't afraid of water. It raised its mouth to pick up the fish. Seeing that the fish was about to fall into the cat's mouth, King Jing's hand quickly gathered the small carp into a ball to protect it. The white cat only had time to bite into the wind.

"Meow?"

The white cat missed. It looked up in confusion and saw a face that it would never forget.

"Meow!!!"

For a moment, the white cat felt that its cat life was hopeless.

King Jing's face was as cold as frost. With a light flick of his finger, the white cat was flung away and hit the leg of the palace servant who brought it into the hall.

The palace servant let out a painful cry. The white cat was dizzy for a moment. It stood up and shook its head. It didn't dare to think about the fish again and turned back to run into the imperial consort's arms.

Li Yu hid under King Jing's hand and peeked through the gaps between King Jing's fingers. He was laughing so hard that he swayed back and forth. As expected of the tyrant's master. The big white cat was defeated again!

When imperial consort Qiu saw that King Jing actually hit the cat in front of the Emperor, she was secretly delighted. She bent down and picked up the white cat, pretending to check on it.

Madam Qiu pretended to be distressed and scolded, "Piao Xue, you evil creature. You've been taught a lesson once, so why didn't you learn from it? Why did you provoke King Jing again? You're looking down on me."

Li Yu was originally quite happy, but when he heard this, he was so angry that he wanted to stomp his feet. On the surface, the imperial consort was scolding the cat, but in fact, she was trying to remind the Emperor that King Jing had taught her pet a lesson more than once and didn't take her seriously.

Since the imperial consort had spoken, the Second Prince Mu Tianzhao naturally supported his birth mother. He said, "Fifth Imperial Brother is just young and playful. He doesn't have any bad intentions. Imperial Father, Imperial Mother, please don't blame him."

Li Yu, "…"

Li Yu rolled his eyes and blew a big bubble. He pointed his tail at the Second Prince in disdain.

The Second Prince's voice sounded gentle, but it was even more ruthless than the imperial consort's. If the imperial consort was trying to slander him, the Second Prince was even helping King Jing admit his crime. He even said that King Jing didn't have any bad intentions. Was he afraid that the Emperor wouldn't think that he had bad intentions?

These vicious cannon fodders!

Although he knew that King Jing would ascend the throne in the future and that Mu Tianzhao and Imperial Consort Qiu wouldn't have a good ending, Li Yu was a little anxious when the mother and son echoed each other and bullied King Jing because he couldn't speak. King Jing also didn't bring Eunuch Wang Xi with him. King Jing had saved him a few times, so he couldn't just watch King Jing get bullied, right?

But in the end, he was just a fish. What could he do to the imperial consort and her son, who were at the peak of their power?

Li Yu was so angry that he pouted and anxiously circled the bowl.

The imperial consort and her son's words were effective. The Emperor recalled the imperial consort's tearful complaints and said with a sullen face, "King Jing, I heard that you once threw the imperial consort's cat on her birthday. Is that true?"

On the day of her birthday, the imperial consort had wept and told the Emperor that King Jing had thrown her beloved pet, Piao Xue. Now that the Emperor had seen King Jing attack Piao Xue with his own eyes, he somewhat believed Imperial Consort Qiu's words.

It wasn't that he liked Piao Xue that much. It was just a plaything. So what if King Jing killed it? The Emperor didn't care about his selfishness, but it involved the imperial consort. In any case, the imperial consort was King Jing's concubine mother and had the Second Prince behind her. She was the Emperor's ideal candidate for the Crown Prince. The Emperor didn't want King Jing to be at odds with the future Crown Prince because of this, so he summoned King Jing to clarify things and give the imperial consort an explanation to appease her.

King Jing coldly glanced at the imperial consort. He didn't have any intention of explaining and continued to play with his little carp.