LI YU HAD SWITCHED to a completely new dwelling. The new fish
tank was several times larger than the old one, and it was sculpted from a
solid piece of crystal. Such a large piece of crystal was a rare find in ancient
times, and these kinds of treasures were reserved for the royal family. But to
Li Yu, who was from modern times, crystal like this wasn't particularly
uncommon. He was used to seeing large transparent fish tanks everywhere,
so Li Yu had no concept of the price of his new residence. And no one
would ever think to point this out to a fish.
All the little carp knew was Prince Jing had moved his familiar white
rock bed into the new tank, using the exact same kind of stone to expand his
sleeping area. The water plants were moved in as well; not a single leaf was
missing. Prince Jing had also added an ornamental mountain for him to play
in, with part of the mountainside made to resemble a lounge chair. When Li
Yu lay on it, there was room for him to move around, and he wiggled a few
times to express his enjoyment. Lady Qiu's luminous pearl had been placed
in the corner of his new tank. Perhaps Prince Jing was worried he'd get
bored with just the one pearl, because the prince gave him plenty of other
jewels in different colors and sizes.
Li Yu didn't know how expensive the crystal was, so of course he
wouldn't be able to tell that all these other balls were made from precious
gems. The craftsmanship in ancient times wasn't sophisticated enough to
cut the gems perfectly; most of the time, gems were only carved for the
purpose of being inlaid into decorations, and so the gem's natural beauty
and shine wasn't as prominent. Li Yu could only recognize something as a
gemstone when it sparkled and shone, so he assumed all these rounded
jewels in the fish tank were just regular rocks—just unusually colorful
regular rocks.
Wang Xi-gonggong, who often came to look after the little carp, saw
it build a pile out of the jewels that had been scattered in the tank and pick out a pigeon blood ruby. The little carp swung its tail vigorously, sending
the pigeon blood ruby into the stack of jewels and knocking them all over.
The corner of Wang-gonggong's lip twitched, watching this scene.
These were the premium gemstones the emperor had given the prince some
time ago. His Highness had ordered the jewels to be made into spherical
shapes, because he assumed the little thing had taken a liking to round
things. It appeared as though the little fish did indeed enjoy them—he even
started playing with the noble consort's luminous pearl less once he
received the jewels that His Highness gave him.
Li Yu spent a long time just getting used to his new tank. By the time
he realized it, there was less than half a day left in the "getting along" quest.
Holy shit, why did he start playing for real?
Li Yu hurriedly chucked away the jewel he was playing with and
looked around for Prince Jing. The crystal fish tank was transparent enough
that he no longer needed to jump up high in the air to see him: the prince
was currently reading a book at his desk. The sunlight scattered through the
window lattice, enveloping the beautiful youth in a gentle, golden glow.
Li Yu stared, dumbstruck. Before, whether he was in the porcelain
fish tank or the tea bowl, he always had to look up to see Prince Jing, and
by now Li Yu was used to his cold expression. He had no idea that the same
face could look so gentle and soft.
Li Yu stared at Prince Jing blankly, feeling an inexplicable ache in his
heart.
In this world, the person he spent the most time with was Prince Jing,
and the time they'd spent together had been filled with happiness. In
another few hours, his fish life was going to come to an end; Prince Jing
would never know that his pet fish had been a person from another world.
An absurd idea suddenly popped up in Li Yu's mind. Maybe he
should just forget everything and use the transformation medicine. So what
if he caused a little bit of chaos? He was human. It was so unfair that he had
randomly transmigrated into a fish. It wasn't so unreasonable for him to
want to say goodbye to this world as a human.
Li Yu was about to enter the system as a fish who had nothing to lose,
when Prince Jing put down his book and approached the tank. Li Yu had probably stopped by the walls of the tank for too long, long enough that
Prince Jing had taken notice while he was reading.
Li Yu wagged his tail listlessly at the prince, waving goodbye to him
for the last time. But Prince Jing misunderstood and thought the fish wanted
to play again. Although it was easy to see the fish through the crystal tank,
the tank was larger and taller, which made it much more difficult to put his
hand in the water and play with the little carp the way he did before.
A bit of a shame, Prince Jing thought. His hand itched to play with
the fish but had to settle for pressing against the walls of the crystal tank.
Li Yu paused, then swam over slowly. He was currently a fish who
was in a dangerously volatile mood—it wouldn't be easy to make him
happy.
He instinctively blew a bubble toward Prince Jing's fingertip.
A corner of Prince Jing's lips quirked up as he slid his hand a little
further. The little carp hurried to follow.
Li Yu had already forgotten about his revenge on society as Prince
Jing played with him.
Ahhhh, there's really not much time left.
Fine. The prince was treating him so well, he…he shouldn't cause
trouble for him.
Separated by the crystal wall, the little carp could only rub longingly
against the spot where Prince Jing's finger was. He spent his final two hours
with the prince like this.
‹User, time is up,› the system interrupted.
Li Yu realized in a daze that he had already entered the fish-
scamming system. He wasn't quite sure what had happened to make him
suddenly enter the system. He didn't turn into fish bone and fish ash before
Prince Jing's very eyes, right?
‹Please don't be nervous, user. You're still alive,› the system assured
him.
Still alive? That was good.
Li Yu didn't get to relax for long before realizing something wasn't
right: shouldn't he have failed, since he ran out of time?
The system explained: ‹The time limit for the task meant you had to
use the entire duration of the countdown.›
‹…Why didn't you say that earlier! You're messing with a poor fish
again!!›
‹I've already reminded the user to be patient,› the system told him.
‹You needed to wait until the allotted amount of time had passed, at which
point the system will determine whether or not you've failed the quest.›
Li Yu thought back. The system did prompt him to be patient before,
but who on earth would get such a vague hint?!
‹So did I succeed?› Li Yu asked unhappily.
The system answered: ‹Please look at the main quest.›
Following the system's prompt, Li Yu went to check the "getting
along" step of the "Priceless Pet Fish" main quest. The countdown had been
replaced with a little square that was flashing different colors.
The system continued: ‹This time, the criterion for success is how
satisfied the tyrant was over the last few days. Green means success, red
means failure.›
‹Can you talk normally? Enough bullshit! What exactly is my result?›
The system suddenly stopped. The little square that kept continuously
changing colors also stopped.
If he failed, he would turn into fish bones and fish ash!
Gathering his courage, Li Yu went to look at the final result. To be
honest, he was quite confident. Although he'd caused a lot of trouble for the
tyrant and taken advantage of him, the tyrant had grown quite fond of Li
Yu. He probably wouldn't get red.
Li Yu quickly glanced at it, only to see that the result the system had
given him was—multicolored.
Li Yu's heart was shaking from top to bottom. ‹What does
multicolored mean?›
The system spoke: ‹Congratulations, user, for completing 'getting
along.' The reward is heightened healing powers.›
Li Yu brushed aside the reward. His mind was fixated on one thing:
wondering if the splendid colors meant a splendid job.
‹It means he was very satisfied,› the system said.
Li Yu beamed. Was the prince very pleased with him? Ha ha ha ha ha,
thank the heavens. Thank Prince Jing!
The little carp trembled and exhaled loudly, relieved, before jumping
high into the air.
Li Yu exited the system and realized he was lying in Prince Jing's
hand. It turned out that he had been in the middle of playing with Prince
Jing when he entered the system. The stupid system hadn't taken care of
anything for him, so he sank to the bottom without any warning. Right in
front of the prince.
It had been a shocking sight, leaving Prince Jing to assume the fish
must have fallen sick again.
The servants waiting outside Prince Jing's room already had
experience with this, since a similar thing had happened before. The fish
had already gone stiff, but other than that, there didn't seem to be anything
wrong with it. The servants just had to vaguely tell him that his fish was
asleep.
Prince Jing's face remained grim as he waited for the fish to wake up.
As soon as Li Yu saw Prince Jing, he felt the corners of his eyes
prickling. Prince Jing didn't know that the fish in his hand was actually a
human, nor did he know that Li Yu had just gone through a life-or-death
situation—and yet it was his love for him that had saved Li Yu.
The little carp stared at Prince Jing's handsome face, emotions
welling up inside his chest.
Fish couldn't cry, and they couldn't speak. No matter whether Li Yu
was happy or sad, as a fish all he could do was swish his tail and blow
bubbles. But Li Yu wasn't just any fish. If he felt excited, he had to show it
in some way, and right now, he wanted to show Prince Jing just how
grateful he was.
Li Yu thought about how animals like cats and dogs expressed their
affection. There wouldn't be anything wrong with him nuzzling Prince
Jing's face like that too. Plus, Prince Jing was holding him in his hand right
now. He wouldn't get a better opportunity than this!
Li Yu did his best to straighten out his body, but fish were not the
same as cats and dogs. Cats and dogs could stand up and lay their paws on
their owner's shoulder, but no matter how tall Li Yu stood, his fins were still
nowhere near long enough, and he couldn't reach anything. He just
struggled uselessly for a while and then toppled back into Prince Jing's
hand.
Li Yu wasn't discouraged. He still had a powerful tail in his arsenal.
As long as he aimed for Prince Jing's face, he was going to make it. He just
had to remember not to use too much force; he wanted to nuzzle up to
Prince Jing's cheek, not slap him in the face. He had to be gentle.
This time, Li Yu didn't miscalculate the force required. But his sense
of direction wasn't very good; he missed the mark and jumped too far to the
side.
Unfortunately, the little carp didn't notice at all. As he sprang
forward, Prince Jing's face grew larger and larger. The little carp was
secretly filled with joy. Without any regard for everything else, he leaned in
with his mouth and randomly wiggled around.
His sharp little fish mouth rubbed against something incredibly soft.
Prince Jing's face feels so nice, he thought. But shouldn't cheeks be
flat? Why does this feel kind of wavy and a little hot?
Li Yu paused. No way. What was he rubbing against?
Li Yu's eyes widened in shock as he realized his fish lips were
pressed against Prince Jing's man lips. Prince Jing's dark, pitch-black pupils
stared back at him unblinkingly.
Once again, once again, once again, he made a mistake!
Shuddering, the little carp slid down from the prince's lips. He never
wanted to see the prince again.
Prince Jing held the fish in one hand, then rubbed his lips, his mouth
a little sore thanks to the fish bumping into it. Was this little fish up to no good again? He could already picture the fish slipping into a deflated state
again for the next few days.
Li Yu, who had finally completed a small step in the main quest,
entered an even deeper state of self-reflection than before. He was just in
the middle of preparing a second round of apology fish food to the prince
when the fish-scamming system dropped another bomb on him out of the
blue.
‹Hello, user. The fourth step of the main quest 'Tyrant's Priceless Pet
Fish—Share a Bed with the Tyrant' has already begun. Please complete the
quest carefully.›
Were his gifts for Prince Jing not enough for the system? Now he had
to share a bed with the tyrant? Fish couldn't even leave the water! How on
earth was he supposed to sleep with a human?!
But the system never answered him; that was what made it a fish-
scamming system.