LI YU ANALYZED all the quests he'd done so far. The fish-scamming
system's titles had all been a little clickbaity. The quests weren't hard to do
—so long as he was able to dispel the clouds and see what the quest was
really asking.
"Interacting" and "getting along" just meant daily interactions with
Prince Jing. "Clear, Bright Pearl" might have looked challenging at first
glance, but there were no specific requirements on how it needed to be
completed. Touching the luminous pearl was all he needed to succeed. He
just got unlucky and ran into a string of stupid accidents in the process.
By that logic, he shouldn't have to think too hard about sharing a bed.
As long as he was in the same bed as Prince Jing, using the same pillow, it
would probably be all right. The system didn't even say they had to share a
blanket, nor did it mention actually sleeping. There was plenty of wiggle
room there.
Li Yu thought about it for a moment and concluded perhaps it was
only the title of this quest that was a little insane. It should be doable.
His confidence received an enormous boost when he repeated his
analysis to the system and all it said was: ‹The user just has to complete the
quest.›
Very good. It didn't deny me outright, so it must be okay.
Now all he had to figure out was how to get into the same bed as
Prince Jing and share a pillow. Obviously he would have to do it when
Prince Jing was sleeping!
Fish couldn't leave the water. Even if they could stay out of water for
a short while, a fish had to stay wet. Could a sopping wet fish share a bed
with Prince Jing? Of course not. Even if he somehow managed it, Prince
Jing would never forgive him. Dirtying his owner's bed was probably a
much more reprehensible crime than taking advantage of his owner.
This left Li Yu with no other choice but to complete the task while
Prince Jing was sleeping, so he wouldn't know. And so, the task had now
changed into a plan to sneak into Prince Jing's bed while he was asleep and
wriggle around on his pillow.
The crystal fish tank was quite a distance away from Prince Jing's
bed. He would have to aim carefully for this jump. And he'd still have to
find some way to return to the tank once he'd touched the pillow. This
wasn't a normal level of difficulty.
Last time, the countdown kept him in a state of fear, but there was no
time limit this time. He could practice a few times in preparation.
When no one was around, Li Yu secretly started practicing his
jumping from the crystal fish tank to the bed.
The first time, as expected, he fell onto the floor. He was still several
feet away from Prince Jing's bed. He had braced himself for it to hurt, but
no pain came. The award for "getting along" came to mind; perhaps his
physical fitness had also gone up.
Since falling didn't hurt him, he could give it a couple more tries…
Wait, he didn't have to jump over in one leap. He could attempt a triple…
jump…
Li Yu jumped toward his destination once more, each hop getting him
one step closer to Prince Jing's bed. Jumping several times wasn't hard. The
little carp was a little exhilarated. But he didn't manage to get to Prince
Jing's bed before he wasn't able to take it anymore and was forced to
scamper back.
Once he was back in the fish tank, Li Yu realized there were a bunch
of puddles on the cloud-patterned floor tiles. He didn't know what to do
about that.
It seemed like jumping back and forth posed a problem. There was
also the noisy issue of his tail slapping against the floor. If he thought that
was loud, wouldn't it be much more frightening to hear it in the middle of
the night? What if he woke up Prince Jing?
It's too difficult to complete this mission as a fish, Li Yu lamented. If
he were human, none of this would have to be so difficult.
…Did this mean he had to change back into a human to complete the
task?
Li Yu was a little hesitant. He did have the transformation
medicine…and this task, which was so difficult for a fish, would be a piece
of cake to a human. But he had wanted to spend those two hours doing
something meaningful, not just forced to complete another quest on a time
limit.
The fish-scamming system had said there was only one
transformation elixir. Completing the main quest would turn him back into
a human too, but there was no knowing how long that would take. Did he
really have to use the medicine now? What if there was a quest later that
required him to be human?
Making this decision was even harder than jumping around. Li Yu
decided to try a few more times as a fish. He hadn't tried any other tactics
yet, after all.
Perhaps the heavens decided to help him out this time. Wang Xi
noticed the puddles the little carp had left all over the floor and thought it
was funny. Chuckling, he told Prince Jing, "Your Highness, it seems like
the little thing likes to take walks."
This was how Prince Jing found out the fish had left its tank.
Prince Jing had already seen the little carp chasing after the luminous
pearl on Qianqing Palace's golden floor tiles; taking a walk was nothing in
comparison. But even such a large fish tank couldn't contain him… Prince
Jing's gaze on the little carp was somewhat complicated.
Li Yu feigned innocence, blowing bubbles: Master, it's not that I like
taking walks; I just want to jump into your bed.
Prince Jing's response to this development delighted Li Yu. He really
indulged his pet fish: he ordered Wang Xi to arrange a few tea bowls filled
with clear water on the floor, in case the fish jumped out and needed water
halfway. Prince Jing had no problem with the fish taking walks; he just
didn't want to return home to a fish corpse.
As soon as the master's order came down, the servants had to go out
of their way to figure out where to put the tea bowls. There had to be some
strategic thought behind the bowls' placement, so the little carp could use them, but also so Prince Jing wouldn't step in them. Wang Xi studied it for
quite some time and consulted Prince Jing as well. The tea bowls were
placed in areas that the prince didn't frequent, with most of them gathered
around the fish tank. One of them just so happened to be on the way to
Prince Jing's bed.
The little carp wiggled gleefully. He didn't expect happiness to arrive
this soon. His tyrant owner just opened up a cheat for him!
Wang Xi even switched out the carpet in the room for a water-
absorbent one, in case the little carp got the floor wet from jumping around.
This really was a godsend. Li Yu had been worried that he'd leave a
wet mark on the pillow, but he had nothing to fear with this new carpet. The
day the carpet was laid out, Li Yu returned the water in his inventory back
to the fish tank for the time being and surreptitiously stole a piece of carpet
to put in his inventory instead. This way, he could use the carpet as a
cushion whenever he wanted, so he didn't have to worry about dirtying the
pillow anymore.
All the preparations were complete. Now Li Yu just needed to wait
until the prince was sound asleep to make his move, so that he wouldn't be
woken by all the tail slapping.
Prince Jing returned very late that night. Li Yu heard the door, but the
prince didn't order anyone to light the lanterns after he entered. Instead, he
felt his way to the bed and slipped under the covers, knocking over a few of
the tea bowls on the ground in the process.
Li Yu chuckled. Did Prince Jing get drunk somewhere? Drunk was
good; it'd be easier for him to complete his task.
Li Yu waited a while, long after the bed had gone quiet. He was
already familiar with the route, and with a few hops, he arrived at the head
of the bed. He whipped out the water-absorbing cushion, put it to the bed,
and, with a light bounce, landed on the cushion.
Prince Jing had his back turned to him, his head shrouded by the
blanket. He was very still, with half of his jade pillow peeking out.
Li Yu couldn't have asked for a better scenario. As an extra
precaution, he touched the jade pillow with his fin, being careful to not get it wet so Prince Jing wouldn't notice the next day. "Sharing a Bed" should
be complete.
With all that taken care of, he waited for the system's prompt. But
nothing happened. Li Yu was a little flustered and very confused. What had
gone wrong?
Li Yu was on the verge of climbing completely on top of the jade
pillow—or, if that didn't work, burrow into the blanket. He was already
very close to the person on the bed when he suddenly smelled a light
fragrance.
Li Yu froze. Since when did Prince Jing start using women's
perfumes? Last time, when he pecked Prince Jing on the lips, Li Yu was
sure he hadn't smelled such a cloyingly sweet scent.
At the same time, the person on the bed flipped over and stared at Li
Yu with dazzlingly lustrous eyes. Li Yu got a good look at this person's
appearance in the moonlight filtering through the window lattice. It wasn't
Prince Jing—it was a beautiful woman.
No wonder the main quest didn't update. It wasn't Prince Jing on the
bed at all!
Startled, Li Yu fell backward and slid off the jade pillow.
The unfamiliar woman was shocked as well. She raised her hand,
tucked under the blanket, as if she was about to retrieve something. But
when she realized it was just a fish, she scoffed lightly, then lay back down
under the blanket with one pale shoulder sticking out.
Li Yu froze. The moment the woman had lifted her hand, Li Yu saw
what she wanted to grab. It was a blade, and one so shiny that Li Yu was
almost blinded!
This was…
At first, when he realized it was a woman in a state of undress in
Prince Jing's bed, he thought it was just some servant who wanted to seduce
Prince Jing to climb the social ladder. But this woman had hidden a knife
underneath the blanket. That complicated matters. She wasn't here to climb
any ladders; she was likely a female assassin trying to take Prince Jing's
life!
No wonder this person knocked over a few tea bowls. Prince Jing
would never have done that!!
Li Yu curled up in the blanket, doing his best to make himself
inconspicuous to the assassin. At the same time, he was confused. In the
book, Jingtai Hall was described as being like a fortress, so how did this
woman skirt around its guards and break into Prince Jing's bedroom?
Before he could rack his brains further, Wang Xi's voice could be
heard faintly from outside the door, calling out, "Your Highness." Prince
Jing was about to come in.
Li Yu panicked. How could he let Prince Jing know that there was an
assassin in the bed?
Oh right, this woman wasn't dressed properly—she likely wouldn't
kill him right off the bat. Prince Jing also knew martial arts, and he had
servants too, so she'd definitely wait until his guard was down.
As long as she didn't go for the kill immediately!
The door was pushed open lightly. Li Yu and the assassin both held
their breaths.
Wang Xi lit the candles. Prince Jing glanced inside the room and
immediately caught sight of the shape lying on his bed.
"How dare you!"
As soon as Wang-gonggong saw there was someone else here, he was
livid. Who dared crawl into His Highness's bed?
The woman on the bed acted as though she was deaf. She sat up, still
wrapped up in the blanket, and revealed her beautiful visage. She let out a
seductive laugh, her voice ringing like silver bells. The sweeter her laughter
sounded, the colder Li Yu felt. He desperately prayed in his heart for Prince
Jing not to be bewitched by this woman.
Wang Xi was about to rush forward and drag the woman away when
Prince Jing stopped Wang Xi mid-step, ordering him to stand to the side.
The woman laughed smugly. "Your Highness likes me."
Prince Jing approached, face completely devoid of expression. He
glanced at the woman, while Li Yu watched nervously, desperately hoping he would throw the woman out. But to his horror, Prince Jing raised a hand
to caress the woman's face!
The woman smiled as she leaned into his touch. Although the prince's
fingers were so cold they made her shiver, she knew he had fallen for her,
hook, line, and sinker.
Stupid Prince Jing! There was obviously something wrong with this
woman!
Li Yu was so furious that he was about to jump up to reveal himself
to Prince Jing, when things suddenly took a turn. A cold light flashed
through Prince Jing's eyes, and quick as lightning, he wrapped his hand
around the woman's throat.
Prince Jing might not have been able to speak, but he didn't need to.
Anyone who dared enter his room always had an ulterior motive. There was
only one way this would end for them: death!
The woman didn't expect him to strike so swiftly when everything
had been fine just a moment ago. Ignoring the burning pain in her throat,
she reached into the blanket, scrabbling for the knife that she had hidden in
a desperate bid to save herself. But something inside the blanket bit her
harshly.
Startled, she lost her focus, and before she could scream, Prince Jing
pierced through her chest with a sword.
She stared down at the hole in her chest in shock and then looked
back up at Prince Jing's impassive face. She didn't even get a chance to say
what her owner sent her to say—she'd thought the prince would at least
spare her life so he could question her. But the prince didn't care at all! He
just wanted her dead!
Prince Jing twisted his sword viciously, and the assassin slowly fell
over. He pulled out his sword and glanced at the blood on it in disgust.
Wang Xi heard the commotion and ran in, with a group of people following
closely behind, only to see the woman on the floor. He sneered, "She must
have had a death wish."
Prince Jing recalled seeing the woman searching for something in the
blanket, but she had let go for some reason. Figuring she had hidden
something in the blanket, he flipped over the blanket and found his fish
curled up, trembling.
What was going on?
Prince Jing reached out to pick up the fish, but the little carp, who
normally loved to curl its tail around his finger, flinched away in fear.