Chapter 32
Li Yu had been on tenterhooks the whole day. Now that the crisis had been resolved, King Jing should not have noticed anything. The little carp was sleeping soundly at the bottom of the tank.
Xiong Feng, who had made a great contribution, was also sleeping soundly against the fish tank.
King Jing was pacing back and forth outside the room. The night breeze was slightly cold, and it blew away all his sleepiness.
He connected all the memories of the young man that he had met.
The fish scales that had been on his clothes before, and the fish scales that had fallen on the cloth now, were undoubtedly Xiaoyu’s. If that was all, he might have thought that the young man had touched his fish. But why did the same fish scales appear on the young man’s feet?
The young man was naked and always dressed strangely. When he appeared, he did not hear any footsteps, but he did hear the sound of a fish tail. He did not know where it came from, nor did he know where it was hiding. It always made him unable to find it, but it always appeared beside him.
He remembered that none of the people that King Jing had sent out to find the young man coul find his whereabouts.
When the young man jumped out of the window to escape, the guards in charge of the ambush also said that they did not see anything.
When he tracked down the messenger, the guards in his room told him that only a dog had left.
All of the above could not be explained with the reasons that he knew.
He felt that he was very clear-headed, but he had a very crazy idea. Once this idea was formed, it would linger in his mind.
Because only this idea could explain everything for him. After eliminating all the impossibilities, there was only one possibility left.
Tian Chi, is there a ghost in your house?
This was originally Ye Qinghuan’s teasing words, and King Jing did not care at all.
But now …
King Jing’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Ye Qinghuan ….. might be half right.
This young man was not a person”.
As for what he was, the fish scales had explained everything.
This young man was most likely Xiaoyu.
The moon was high in the sky. Wang Xi repeatedly asked him to rest. King Jing looked at the room where the fish were kept with a complicated expression and waved his hand.
He had to think clearly. He could not doubt a person or a fish based on his own guesses.
King Jing didn’t care that it was late at night and ordered Wang Xi to find a servant from the imperial kitchen to bring him some fish.
Because Xiaoyu was brought out from the kitchen by Imperial Consort Qiu’s cat, King Jing had specially instructed that he wanted a fish like Xiaoyu.
Wang Xi went to do it. The servants of the Imperial Kitchen, who did not know why, came over with a basket of fish in fear. King Jing looked at them one by one. These fish looked almost the same as the little fish, but their eyes were dull and lifeless. They neither flicked their tails nor raised their heads to look at him. Compared to the little fish, they lacked the most important spirit.
King Jing sighed. He should have known that Xiaoyu was special.
Perhaps it was because he had never had a pet before, so he attributed this uniqueness to the fact that the little fish was lively and had a slight understanding of human nature. Because crows could feed back, he had always thought that it was okay for his fish to be smarter.
No wonder he always felt that the young man looked familiar. He was his fish. No wonder he always appeared in his room and followed him into the palace. He was the one who arranged it.
King Jing became more and more certain, but he was still hesitant about how to deal with it.
After raising Xiaoyu for so long, he had some sincerity towards him.
Now that he knew that Xiaoyu was not an ordinary fish …
King Jing pursed his lips. Although he had saved Xiaoyu from the cat’s claws, Xiaoyu had also helped him several times and saved his maternal family’s Duke Chengen’s Mansion.
King Jing smiled bitterly. How could he explain it clearly? How could he deal with it properly?
Near dawn, Ye Qinghuan finally managed to appease his future father-in-law, Jin Jue Wang, and rushed back to the palace to report to the Emperor. The Emperor was in a bad mood and didn’t want to see Ye Qinghuan anymore. After a few polite words, he drove Ye Qinghuan out. Ye Qinghuan was so tired that he planned to go to King Jing and shamelessly ask for a bed to sleep on. Based on his current friendship with King Jing, King Jing shouldn’t drive him out. But when he hurried into Jing Tai Hall, he saw King Jing, who was always cold and calm, looking very worried.
Ye Qinghuan secretly observed for a while. Although he didn’t know what had happened, he still decided to ask. He had always been concerned about this cousin of his.
“Tianchi, what’s wrong?”
King Jing slowly raised his eyes and looked at him, then handed over the cloth in his hand.
Ye Qinghuan took it in confusion and weighed it in his hand. The cloth was a little rough and wet to the touch. There were even a few fish scales on it.
Ye Qinghuan smiled and said, “Did you use the cloth to wrap the fish?”
King Jing was stunned. As expected, Ye Qinghuan also thought of the fish.
King Jing ordered Wang Xi to bring a pen and paper, then dismissed the people around them.
Ye Qinghuan felt that King Jing was a little serious. This should be a very important matter, so he hurriedly held his breath and waited.
He looked up and saw King Jing stare for a while, then pick up the pen and write, “Have you ever raised a demon?”
King Jing felt that a fish that could turn into a human shouldn’t be a ghost, but a demon – a fish demon. Or rather, the little fish was most likely a carp demon.
Ye Qinghuan, “…”
What kind of question was this? Ye Qinghuan said in embarrassment, “I don’t even have the tir to raise dogs. How could I have raised this….. this kind of thing!”
Didn’t King Jing usually not care about demons and ghosts? Why did he suddenly take the initiative to ask? This wasn’t like the usual King Jing.
King Jing glanced at him in disdain, as if to say, “I know you haven’t raised one.”
Ye Qinghuan, “…”
King Jing paused, then picked up the pen and wrote, “How do you raise a demon?”
Ye Qinghuan, “…”
Ye Qinghuan felt that he couldn’t live like this anymore, “Why are you asking these questions?
Don’t tell me you want to raise one yourself? Stop asking and focus on raising your fish. Even if you’re interested in this kind of thing, don’t touch it. –
Grown Prince Ye was still in awe of ghosts and gods. The demon that King Jing asked about was also in his awe.
King Jing continued to ask, “Why can’t I touch it?”
Ye Qinghuan stammered, “That’s a demon. Do you know what a demon is?”
King Jing had never met a demon before, so he didn’t know much about it.
“I guess you don’t know either.” Ye Qinghuan saw that there was no one around, so he leaned closer to King Jing and whispered, “I heard that demons are very powerful and can confuse people’s minds. If a person meets a demon, his vitality will be sucked away by the demon … This is what many storybooks say.”
King Jing, “…”
King Jing had never read a storybook since he was young, so he felt that storybooks were very boring. After listening to Grown Prince Ye’s serious words, he felt that he was indeed a little shallow.
Ye Qinghuan said, “If you want to know, I’ll send you some next time! You can read storybooks, but you can’t touch a demon …”
King Jing frowned, “Why not? Could it be that demons can kill people?”
Ye Qinghuan thought about it carefully. It seemed that the demons in the storybooks all tempted scholars to marry each other and sucked the scholar until there was only a pile of bones left. In the end, they were taken away by a passing monk or Taoist priest.
Ye Qinghuan said vaguely, “They probably won’t really kill you, but they will definitely make you suffer a fate worse than death.”
King Jing, “…”
King Jing was suddenly curious, “If they won’t kill you, what kind of fate would they make you suffer a fate worse than death?”
Ye Qinghuan was very embarrassed. Why did he have to talk about demons with King Jing? Was a good thing to be associated with demons? Why was King Jing so interested?
King Jing wrote seriously, “How do you absorb the gold aura?”
Ye Qinghuan, “…”
“I’ll send you the book tomorrow!”
Heir Ye, who originally wanted to freeload on King Jing’s bed, couldn’t answer, so he simply kicked himself out of Jing Tai Hall.
King Jing was full of doubts about Heir Ye’s escape, but there were too many things he wanted to know. It seemed that even though Ye Qinghuan had inadvertently inspired him, he still couldn’t completely clear up his doubts.
“Your Highness, are we going back to the Prince’s Mansion?”
Wang Xi came to ask King Jing for instructions. This trip to the palace was originally to help Heir Ye of Duke Chengen. Now that Heir Ye was fine, Wang Xi was good at guessing his master’s thoughts. He felt that his master might want to return to the Prince’s Mansion.
King Jing nodded. He had to hurry back. There were many spies in the palace, and it wasn’t convenient to have a carp demon with him.
Wang Xi ordered people to pack up the things to be taken away. In fact, it wasn’t a big deal. The main thing was their master, Xiaoyu. This time, there was also Heir Ye’s Xiong Feng.
King Jing instructed, “Send the dog directly to Duke Chengen’s Mansion. As for Xiaoyu…”
Wang Xi had already followed King Jing’s habit. He quickly put the little carp into a crystal bottle and sent it to King Jing.
Li Yu was very happy. He was in great spirits after waking up from his sleep. He seemed to have heard Heir Ye’s voice. Did this mean that the Second Prince’s plot to frame Ye Qinghuan had been successfully completed?
Although he hadn’t received the notification that the task was completed, he couldn’t think of anything else.
King Jing hesitated for a moment and didn’t accept the crystal bottle. After all, it was one thing to realize that Xiaoyu was a carp demon, but he still didn’t know how to face this carp demon.
It was a little awkward for him to play with the fish like he used to. But if he was asked to throw the fish away or send it away ….
King Jing’s expression turned cold. He took the crystal bottle from Wang Xi’s hands. After returning to the mansion, he wanted to secretly observe Xiaoyu for a while. Previously, he had been looking for Xiaoyu, who had disguised as a young man, for a long time. Xiaoyu had actually tried his best to erase his traces every time. From this, he could tell that Xiaoyu didn’t want him to know his true identity.
Since Xiaoyu didn’t want to know, he would wait and see. He still didn’t know Xiaoyu’s intentions for coming to him and his plans for the future. It wouldn’t be too late to reveal his cards after he figured it out.
However, Ye Qinghuan said that demons would make people wish they were dead. Would Xiaoyu also make him wish he was dead?
King Jing looked at the little carp jumping around happily in the crystal bottle. From time to time, it would look back and blow bubbles at him mischievously. King Jing couldn’t help but smile from the bottom of his heart. Ye Qinghuan must have been exaggerating.
He could feel that this fish wouldn’t harm him. Otherwise, after knowing that Xiaoyu was a carp demon, he wouldn’t have accepted it so easily.
Li Yu turned around in the bottle and floated leisurely in the water. Ever since he had the crystal bottle, he didn’t have to worry about where he went. Occasionally, he could even bask in the sun.
King Jing always held the crystal bottle steadily. Occasionally, the water in the crystal bottle would sway, and the fish would also feel very comfortable.
Li Yu swayed comfortably with the water, and a piece of scale actually fell off his body. Li Yu thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him, so he quickly shook his head. This was real. He had just noticed that he had been losing scales recently.
Perhaps he had overused his brain or was frightened. After all, he wasn’t a normal fish, so he
didn’t know why fish would lose scales.
Previously, he had mentioned that he would lose scales, but it was just a random thought. Now, it was really falling off. Although he didn’t feel anything when he lost scales, and it wasn’t a big deal to lose them once or twice, if he kept losing scales for a long time, would all the scales on his body fall off?
If a person lost too much hair, they would become bald. Would a fish become bald? But he wasn’t that old.
Li Yu really couldn’t imagine what he would look like without scales. He also didn’t know if the scales could be put back after they fell off.
Li Yu anxiously picked up a piece of scale with his mouth. Where the scale fell off just now, there was a piece of fat and tender… Li Yu poked it with his fin, as if it was his fish. He pressed the scale on the meat, but the scale next to it also fell off.
Li Yu was speechless.
Oh, did the fish get scale-shedding disease?
Wang Xi, who was watching the fish bite the scale, almost laughed out loud. King Jing glanced at Wang Xi, and Wang Xi immediately looked away, indicating that he didn’t see anything.
King Jing also saw the fish’s scales falling off. He thought about the few pieces of scales on the cloth and felt that it was indeed a little serious. Even a carp spirit was quite pitiful.
King Jing frowned and motioned to Wang Xi, “Go find the imperial physician and have Xiaoyu take a look.”
Wang Xi was speechless.
