Chapter 20
Although he had been mistaken for a scammer, thankfully his privacy had not been exposed.
Yomi decided to stop streaming for the time being and go back to check his tools first. Once he made sure nothing would violate the rules, he would continue.
The tea eggs were already done—five in total.
Yomi ate one himself and found the taste quite good, so he packed up the remaining four, intending to take them back and share them with Karl, the cook, and the others.
As for Ansius… Karl had said before that Ansius could not casually eat food from outside. Even meals prepared by the royal cook had to go through a round of inspection before being served to him.
Before it got dark, Yomi parked the little sports car in the garage and slowly walked toward the main entrance carrying a bag of tea eggs.
The first people he ran into were two maids cleaning the hall. Yomi gave them two tea eggs, then went to the kitchen and gave one to the cook.
At first, the cook thought it was a rotten egg and was about to throw it into the trash for him. Yomi hurriedly explained, “You can eat it! I cooked it with tea leaves and braising spices… try it.”
Only then did the cook lower her head and sniff it, and sure enough, she caught a strange and special fragrance.
She knew this little fellow was timid and good-tempered and would never pull a prank, so she did not overthink it. She peeled the shell and took a bite.
A few seconds later, the cook’s eyes widened. “H-how did you come up with this cooking method? I’ve never eaten eggs like this before. The flavor is so special! It’s really fragrant!”
Yomi finally relaxed and smiled. “It’s the way we make them in my hometown.”
By the time he came out of the kitchen, the two maids had already finished theirs and were wiping their mouths, enthusiastically guessing the origin of the “special eggs”… They had even thought it was some specialty Yomi brought back from Birdman Planet. When they heard the truth, they were astonished.
“You made these yourself? That’s amazing!”
There was one tea egg left.
Yomi found Karl upstairs, holding some documents and preparing to leave. Raising the tea egg toward him, he said, “This is a tea egg. I made it.”
Karl froze, both surprised and flattered. “This is… for me?”
Yomi nodded. Just as he was about to chat with him a little, his light-brain vibrated. It was a call from Lynn.
Yomi immediately returned to his room to answer it.
“Mimi! I’m back in the capital! I just saw the video of you competing and rescuing someone… You scared me to death. Are you okay?”
“That person is already fine, and I’m fine too. I even went on a business trip!”
“That’s good… Oh right, there’s one more thing. After I came back, there was a guy claiming to be a director waiting at my door. He said he urgently needed to find you. I don’t know whether he’s a good person or not… He’s right beside me now.”
On the other end, a man’s anxious voice immediately rang out: “Teacher Yomi, is it really you? I’ve been looking for you for so long! I’m not a bad person, please, you have to at least say a few words to me!”
Yomi froze. “Who are you?”
On the other side, Lynn unhappily passed him the call.
“Hello, Teacher Yomi!” the man shouted excitedly. “M-my name is Kurt! I’m currently preparing a reality show called It’s Okay to Be Different. I saw your brilliant performance in the Yuanqi Star cave-crawling preliminaries with my own eyes—I was right there in the audience! I swear, there is absolutely no one more suited to our program than you! I invite you with one hundred percent sincerity—”
“I already have a job now, so I can’t participate.”
“That doesn’t matter! Each episode only takes two or three days to film, and it updates weekly. You could completely take leave, or we could also communicate with your workplace—”
Yomi’s tone was firm. “Thank you, but I don’t want to join.”
Naturally, Yomi’s reason for refusing was not only because of the timing issue. Back when he had worked as the music-box dancer at the restaurant, he had personally witnessed the filming process of Exchange Life. Later, when he watched it, he found many maliciously edited scenes. Some guests’ perfectly normal actions during filming had been misleadingly cut and rearranged into something entirely different… He had no good impression of this kind of variety show.
Besides, things were different now from before. He already had a decent job and a new career plan. He still had many things he wanted to do.
At the same time, on the second floor, in the study—
Ansius was staring expressionlessly at Karl.
His eye sockets were deep, and within them, those golden eyes trembled, as if they were on the verge of shattering.
“Why?”
Karl, extremely uneasy, placed the tea egg on the desk. “Your Highness Ansius, if you like it, I can have someone preserve it for you. You can even keep it as an ornament to look at.” In other words, you cannot casually eat food from outside. Yomi did not forget you—he simply remembered this point very clearly.
“Why?”
His gaze was like a blade.
The atmosphere was tense.
Karl was sweating already. He knew the Crown Prince had truly been broken by this.
The maids got one. The cook got one. The secretary got one.
Only he did not.
Karl racked his brains, trying to come up with another hundred reasonable explanations for why Yomi did not give him a tea egg. “He has always treated you as his superior. Besides, as the Crown Prince, there is naturally a certain distance between you and ordinary people… In terms of what he thinks a workplace is, if people are sharing food, most would share it with coworkers rather than their boss. In his eyes, perhaps we are his coworkers…”
“……”
Karl lowered his head. After half a day with no response, he nervously looked over.
Ansius was sitting there with a dark face, seriously flipping through a book.
The title was: A Study of Human Social Interaction.
Karl naturally assumed the Crown Prince had calmed down. Letting out a sigh of relief, he bowed and took his leave.
In the study—
Ansius held his breath as he stared at the page before him.
—According to expert research, in past human workplaces, most people were unwilling to date their superior, because once they broke up, the party with the lower position usually paid the heavier price.
“No!”
The next day, Yomi got up very early.
As usual, he spent the whole morning receiving Ansius’s care.
However, the other party seemed to have something on his mind. When wiping Yomi’s face, he no longer had that smile in his eyes like before!
Yomi felt a little worried, since this was directly related to his duties. After lunch, he even deliberately had Ansius carry him on a walk, trying to improve his mood—when Ansius did not have his human-skin suit, he always seemed to enjoy holding Yomi and walking around with him.
After conscientiously finishing a full day of work, once he got off duty, Yomi once again brought his tool bag to the garage. This time he also brought the little cat doll along—other people’s livestream rooms all looked very pretty, so he wanted to decorate his too.
Once everything was ready, he drove toward another secluded spot in the estate.
On the first floor of the villa, in the hall—
At that moment, Karl’s light-brain transmitted a guard’s voice: “Lord Karl, the Empire’s little darling has headed toward the area near the tower… Should we bring him back?”
Karl immediately opened the estate’s full real-time surveillance display.
Sure enough, he saw a little sports car bumping along the riverside road. In the end, it stopped in front of a tall wall covered in green vines. On the other side of that wall, one could see a corner of the tower.
The little one took out a whole pile of tools, as if he were going to have a picnic.
There were many places in the estate more suitable for a picnic than there, and it would also be easier for the servants to look after him there. Karl assumed Yomi simply did not know, and was just about to go over and tell him. But before he could even leave, a sudden series of footsteps sounded from the staircase, followed by an unquestionable order:
“Do not disturb him.”
Karl turned around and looked over, stunned. “…Your Highness Ansius? When did you change into military uniform? Where are you going?”
“The tower.”
