During working hours, the boss spent the entire time subjecting you to a “death stare”? That in and of itself was already suffocating enough.
What made it even more fatal was that this boss… was also an Aorong living king of hell who could crush you—a lowly wage-earner—to death with a flick of his finger over the slightest disagreement. Not only that, but this prince also carried the terrifying rumor of having “once unhesitatingly twisted off a subordinate’s head to use as a soccer ball.”
Yuchi Xiu could now understand those eight predecessors who had fled overnight like there was no tomorrow—oh, they didn’t just understand; his capacity for empathy, accumulated over his twenty-three years of life across both worlds, had instantly spiked to its absolute maximum peak right at this very moment.
Because that Aorong Prince was currently staring at him dead-on with a gaze that felt as though it wanted to burn a hole right through his crown.
Unable to endure this lingering, death-by-a-thousand-cuts gaze any longer, Yuchi Xiu stealthily lifted his head…
And locked eyes directly with the Prince, who was staring fixedly at him.
Those emerald-green pupils, resembling a predatory beast patrolling its territory, were fixated unblinkingly on every single move Yuchi Xiu made.
No wait, what on earth is his problem?!
Yuchi Xiu was genuinely on the verge of going crazy.
From the very first day he clocked in for work, through every single minute and second leading up to the end of his shift, the Prince had essentially subjected him to a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree, dead-angle-free staring contest.
Furthermore, he wore that fierce, menacing face that instantly made anyone look at him and blurt out the self-reflection: “Did I dig up his ancestral graves or something?”
If he felt that Yuchi Xiu had done something wrong, he could just use his golden words to spell it out directly and tell him how to fix it…
Yet this Aorong Prince was like the rumors in the marketplace a pure, unadulterated silent gourd. Even when he glared at people with an awe-inspiring expression of immense oppression, he absolutely refused to open his mouth and state precisely where his dissatisfaction lay.
Was he supposed to meditate, enlighten himself, and figure it out on his own, then?
The former advisors had packed up their bedding rolls and fled overnight without leaving behind a single handover document for official duties, so what on earth did he expect a freshly appointed rookie like him to figure out?
Even with the Prince acting like this, Yuchi Xiu didn’t have the guts to ignore him or go toe-to-toe with him head-on. Because this decisive and ruthless Aorong Prince might suddenly decide one day that “I still find your face displeasing,” and cleanly chop him on the spot.
Word had it that the fifth advisor was actually carried out of the study foaming at the mouth.
Yuchi Xiu didn’t even dare to imagine what kind of psychotic, sanity-shredding atrocities this terrifying Prince had actually committed.
Anyway, regardless of how you looked at it, under circumstances where others held the knife and he was the fish on the cutting board, there was only one thing a weak and helpless newly appointed advisor could do.
That was to maintain a state of high tension at all times and endlessly cycle through self-interrogations: Did I do something wrong? Did I do something wrong? Did I do something wrong…
Yuchi Xiu felt as though he were hugging a ticking time bomb with its fuse lit, keeping his nerves strung tight all day long and carrying out his work while carefully calculating the rhythm of his breathing just to stay safe.
Surviving like this for an entire day, naturally, by the time his shift ended and he dragged his battered body home, he felt utterly exhausted like a tattered, discarded rag.
Consequently.
Sigh… I want to resign…
Having worked a mere five days, Yuchi Xiu’s mind was completely dominated by thoughts of handing over his seal and resigning from office.
However… just like how people shouted about resigning every single day before transmigrating, even as an advisor transmigrated into a book, Yuchi Xiu had zero way of actually tossing his hands up and walking away.
Nonsense, because his entire family was holding onto iron rice bowls right here!
In the Yuchi household, the old man was a general, the old lady was a female general, and his older brother and second sister were elite guards carrying blades his entire family from old to young collected government grain salaries right inside the Prince’s Manor.
Moreover, this was a feudal political-intrigue world where decapitations happened at the drop of a hat. If that brutal Prince happened to be in a bad mood one day and suddenly decided to enact collective punishment against nine familial generations, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Yep, this guy was definitely capable of pulling that off.
Although the members of the Yuchi family weren’t truly his biological kin in the truest sense, he couldn’t just sit back and watch people who treated him like their own beloved son and younger brother, genuinely doting on him from the bottom of their hearts, draw down a death sentence because of him.
Therefore, no matter how immense the pressure was, Yuchi Xiu had to keep showing up every single day at that study where the brutal Prince sat, clocking in for duty.
Even after transmigrating into a book, the workplace remained synonymous with stress; resignation was infinitely out of reach, and he still had to keep laying bricks tomorrow.
This life was truly beyond saving.
Weren’t transmigrators supposed to reach the peak of life upon arriving in ancient times, rising as generals and entering the cabinet as ministers? Wasn’t transmigration supposed to be a “life-restart” welfare package gifted by the heavens?
Why on earth did he still have to sweat and toil as an ox or a horse in a black-hearted Prince’s Manor after transmigrating?
Ever since his first day on the job, every single shift ended with him collapsing onto his bed like a tattered rag, unwilling to do anything other than breathe. This pitch-black, sunless daily cycle had repeated for a full five days.
Yuchi Xiu abruptly reached a decision.
He couldn’t keep rotting away like this anymore.
Despite the tragic weight of his inner monologue, since Yuchi Xiu could neither resign nor reform that terrifying Prince having crossed out all those completely unfeasible options the sole remaining exit left for the little slacker young master Yuchi Xiu was to build up his physical fitness and strengthen his constitution so he could endure a few more beatings with the paddle.
There was no time like the present; thinking of this, Yuchi Xiu bounced straight off his bed and headed out for a midnight jog.
…Little did he know what kind of massive mess this midnight stroll would stir up.
Lately, the Prince had been secretly observing his newly appointed advisor.
This time, it wasn’t for evaluating threat levels like he usually did. This new advisor was weak enough that a single slap could send him packing to see the King of Hell, and he didn’t look like the kind of daring lunatic willing to court death just to seize supreme political power.
While future developments remained unpredictable, for the time being, he posed zero threat to the Prince or the Aorong Principality. Such was the Prince’s judgment.
That being the case, why on earth was the Prince staring him down to death without letting up… The reason was simple: he was racking his brain trying to figure out how to stop this fellow from resigning and running away.
The Prince absolutely could not allow this new advisor to run off again.
Because right now, finding a tenth person in this territory of Aorong Principality who could handle the job of an advisor was practically impossible.
If this one ran away too, he would face the awkward predicament of lacking a civilian official to handle paperwork for a very long time to come. This was bound to impact the stability of Aorong Principality. For this black cat, who regarded his territory as more important than his own life, that was unquestionably a catastrophic disaster.
The problem was… he had zero clue what he needed to do to keep this advisor anchored by his side.
In all his born days, the Prince had never exerted effort trying to make a human do anything; this was definitively the hardest challenge he had ever encountered in his life.
Facing this seemingly unsolvable problem, the Prince had been pulling his hair out in anxiety for five whole days.
If worst came to worst, maybe he could just track the guy down and drag him back the moment he attempted a midnight escape though that might actually be simpler…
Yet he had already tested the waters with the sixth advisor, and the fellow who fled overnight and got dragged back was so terrified he couldn’t even string two words together, straight-up rolling his eyes and fainting dead away on the spot. That method clearly wouldn’t work.
Hence, the conclusion was that he had to nip his urge to escape in the bud right from the very start… But no matter how closely he observed him in secret, he couldn’t figure out a single trick, whereas the new advisor was visibly growing gaunter and more haggard day by day.
Drawing upon his rich experience, the Prince keenly sensed: an advisor exhibiting symptoms like this was just moments away from handing over his official seal and running away.
Just as the Prince was worrying so hard his fur was falling out in clumps.
The answer delivered itself right to his doorstep under completely unexpected circumstances.
Patrolling the city of Aorong at a set time every night was the Prince’s unshakable routine work. As the master of Aorong Principality, he had to meticulously inspect whether his territory was being infiltrated by enemy spies without missing a single day.
However, patrolling in human form was far too eye-catching, so he usually transformed back into his true form—a black cat.
Yet… right while he was patrolling along the rooftops as usual, he ran right into the newly appointed advisor out for a midnight run.
“Oh, a cat.”
Unlike his timid, trembling demeanor inside the Prince’s Manor study, when encountering him outside, the advisor didn’t tremble with fright at all, even though he still looked as fragile as a reed in the wind.
Regardless, this fellow who usually walked on eggshells and remained on high alert inside the study was currently stretching lazily like a cat in its own territory, wearing a completely relaxed expression… which actually looked rather refreshing.
Thus, the Prince squatted atop the wall head and watched him for a while, leading the advisor to apparently misunderstand something.
“Ah, is it being vigilant against me?”
The advisor muttered to himself, then silently averted his gaze and pretended to look at the scenery.
In the feline world, tearing one’s gaze away from an opponent who could attack you at any second was an absolute impossibility.
Witnessing this scene, the Prince had a sudden epiphany.
To his pleasant surprise, the new advisor turned out to be a rare, rule-abiding human.
While the Prince was secretly nodding in approval in his heart, the advisor glanced over sneakily to confirm the situation.
“Oh, still not relaxed yet?”
While maintaining direct eye contact with the black cat perched on the wall head, he slowly blinked his eyes.
Closing one’s eyes in front of a cat master who might claw your face to shreds at any moment. To a cat, this was the ultimate expression of trust.
Naturally, the Prince had already lowered his guard and harbored zero intention of bullying the weak chicken of an advisor… but the fact that this advisor was so sensible and consciously lowered his guard still made the Prince feel immensely gratified.
In high spirits, the Prince mercifully returned a slow blink.
“Aha, it returned my gaze-kill!”
Seemingly moved by the black cat’s magnanimity, the advisor leisurely squatted down.
He was deliberately slowing down his movements so the other party could clearly read his intentions and react accordingly. How considerate.
Though no matter how much he fussed, the Prince could send him off to see his ancestors with a single claw… this attitude was spot-on, upright and proper.
What a sensible and well-behaved young man.
The new advisor, who had initially been slapped with a “temporarily harmless” label by the Prince, was now gradually starting to win the Prince’s favor.
Therefore, when the advisor plucked a piece of foxtail grass from the ground and extended it outward, the Prince sprang down from the wall head without a moment’s hesitation and stepped forward to sniff it. To be honest, had the guy reached his hand straight out instead, the Prince wouldn’t mind gracing him with a rub against it; though judging by this weak chicken of an advisor’s demeanor, he probably didn’t have the guts.
Right from the start, the Prince had felt that the scent emanating from this advisor wasn’t half bad it carried a faint, soothing fragrance of ink.
Since his scent was pleasant, keeping him around wouldn’t feel offensive to the eyes.
The Prince grew increasingly satisfied with this advisor.
However, if this fellow still ran away in the end, wouldn’t all these favorable impressions go down the drain?
Just as the Prince was pondering more seriously than ever on how to thoroughly shackle this kid inside the Prince’s Manor,
“Sigh… in just a few more hours, I’ll have to go back to the Prince’s Manor study to serve that living king of hell again. I really don’t want to go.”
From the mouth of that polite advisor suddenly tumbled out such a treasonous remark.
He didn’t want to go to the Prince’s Manor study? Meaning he wanted to resign and run away?!
This fellow, who was currently the only person barely passing muster as an advisor, who understood rules, was well-behaved, and even smelled decent, actually wanted to run away?
The Prince instantly grew displeased to the absolute extreme, his ears flattening backward into airplane ears as he began plotting whether to sink his teeth into the scruff of this fellow’s neck right now and drag him back to the Prince’s Manor dungeon to lock him up.
Just one second before the Prince was about to put his thoughts into action.
The advisor spoke again.
“Little kitty… tell me, why on earth does the Prince have to torture me like that?”
How on earth did I torture you?!
The Prince dared swear to the heavens that he had never done a single out-of-line thing to this advisor. He had even racked his brains trying to come up with ways to avoid scaring the man off.
Then how could this guy still put on a resentful-wife expression implying “It’s all the Prince’s fault that I don’t want to work anymore”?
“Little kitty, you think so too, right?”
Think your head!
Wearing an expression that screamed “Are you an idiot?”, the Prince stared right at him, but the advisor deeply immersed in his own little world failed entirely to recognize that this was the Prince’s true form.
Then, this kid actually said:
“Come to think of it, your fur color looks pretty similar to the Prince’s hair? Pitch black and shiny. The color of your eyes is very similar too—they’re emerald green as well. You guys even have matching color palettes.”
Isn’t that obvious?! The real deal is standing right here, of course they’re similar!
That wasn’t the point.
Right now, for the Prince, the most crucial question was: Should he immediately clamp down on the scruff of this guy’s neck and bolt right now?
However, Yuchi Xiu who completely failed to read the room or comprehend the situation—was merely examining the black cat before him with fascinated curiosity. As if thinking of something, he let out another heavy sigh.
Immediately following that…
“Sigh… If only the Prince were a cat…”
He dropped an earth-shattering statement.
What? He hoped I were a cat?
The Prince who was already a cat to begin with instantly had his ears snap erect like lightning rods.
Catching the cat’s adorable reaction, Yuchi Xiu let out a snort of laughter and murmured to himself:
“If the boss were a cat, going to work every day wouldn’t be painful at all—it’d be pure, unadulterated happiness, right? Right? You think so too, don’t you?”
If I were a cat… serving in the study wouldn’t just be painless, it would actually make him happy?
Then, as long as I openly and honestly act like a cat, won’t he stop running away? Won’t this rare, rule-abiding advisor who smells pleasant be secured without having to forcefully drag him back to the dungeon?
The world-class dilemma that had plagued the Aorong Prince for five endless days and nights the solution had unexpectedly proven so effortless to obtain.
The Prince’s confidence was currently skyrocketing, and he was absolutely certain he could keep this new advisor tightly wrapped around his paw so he’d never bear to leave his side for even half a step.
After all, damn it, he really was a cat. Roleplaying as a feline was a racial talent deeply embedded in his bones.