Xi Xiuran’s sleep quality had always been quite good. By the time he opened his eyes again, it was already broad daylight.
When he first woke up, he was still a bit dazed, thinking his roommate had pulled a prank and yanked his curtains wide open. It wasn’t until he saw the domestic robot pruning the lawn outside the massive floor-to-ceiling window that he regained his senses.
Oh, right. I transmigrated into a novel.
Xi Xiuran sat up, rubbed his eyes, casually grabbed the water on his nightstand, and took a sip to soothe his throat. He sighed: “Alright then, looks like I can’t go back. I’ll just treat it as playing a live-action VR game…”
Xi Xiuran put down the water cup, flopped back onto the bed, hugged the blanket, and prepared to go back to sleep.
One minute later, Xi Xiuran bolted upright with a whoosh.
Wait, did I forget something?
Just then, Butler Wang’s voice came from outside the door: “Consort, are you awake?”
Xi Xiuran finally remembered the matter of accompanying Shi Xingzhou to the royal palace for a banquet today. He turned his head to check the time. Oh boy, it’s 10:00 AM.
Xi Xiuran: “…”
Excuse me, what should I do if I oversleep on my second day on the job, especially when I have a scheduled business trip with the boss?
Xi Xiuran thought about it for three seconds and decisively gave up.
Forget it, just let it rot. Since the boss hasn’t called to roar at me, I’ll just pretend nothing happened.
Xi Xiuran sluggishly got dressed and opened the door, only to see Butler Wang standing there with domestic robots, pushing three entire racks of clothes. His gaze was incredibly eager and fiery as he looked at him. “Good morning, Consort. Would you like to try on clothes first, or have your meal? The Admiral said there is no rush regarding the banquet at the royal palace; everything can proceed at your pace.”
Xi Xiuran: “???”
I just took a nap, why do I have the illusion that I slept for a century?
If this were a game, Xi Xiuran definitely would have clicked open Butler Wang’s character profile by now to see where this massive, inexplicable spike in affection points came from. Yesterday, Butler Wang was still politely respectful and courteous toward him—an affection level of 50 at most. But today, it had skyrocketed straight to 70!
Stat inflation is terrifying; players would definitely file complaints about this game!
Just as Xi Xiuran was thinking this, his stomach suddenly grumbled.
“It’s already ten o’clock. How about you dine first, Consort? We can conveniently select your outfit for the royal banquet while you eat.” Butler Wang chimed in at the perfect moment with a suggestion, saving Xi Xiuran from embarrassment. While pushing the clothes into the room, he notified the kitchen to send over the delicacies that had been prepared long in advance.
Upon entering the room, Butler Wang spotted the used towel on the nightstand, a look of gratification appearing in his eyes.
Last night.
The moment Shi Xingzhou’s Mental Sea began to riot, Butler Wang received a notification on his terminal. He hastily grabbed the pheromones left by the Old Madam and went to find Shi Xingzhou, only to discover the room completely empty. Butler Wang led the personal guards on a frantic search, nearly making himself sick with anxiety, before finally remembering to check the surveillance cameras.
As a result, he saw Shi Xingzhou go to Xi Xiuran’s room.
He had charged in looking manic and ready to kill, and ultimately walked out with a peaceful expression.
The surveillance footage was ultra-high-definition. Through the holographic screen, Butler Wang could even clearly see that Shi Xingzhou’s originally soaked hair had become smooth and dry—evidently carefully dried with a towel by someone. He knew all too well how little his Admiral cared for his own body; there was absolutely no way he would carefully dry his own hair.
As for who did it, that naturally went without saying.
Drying hair—what an intimate gesture only shared by a deeply loving couple!
Butler Wang thoroughly filled his head with a melodramatic narrative of “marriage first, love later” and “love at first sight.” His gaze upon Xi Xiuran grew increasingly loving and gentle.
Seeing Butler Wang’s current appearance, Xi Xiuran was a bit bewildered: “?”
Huh?
What happened now?
Why does it feel like his affection level just went up again?
I haven’t even done anything yet, and your affection level is shooting up so fast; you’re making me panic. The last time Xi Xiuran encountered a situation like this, it was with a yandere upperclassman in a dating sim. One day her affection was at 90, the next day it inexplicably dropped to -50, and she brought a knife to the school rooftop and hacked him to death.
Hiss… Butler Wang isn’t that type of person too, is he? It’s a bit scary. Xi Xiuran silently decided to keep his distance from Butler Wang in the future.
The two each harbored their own thoughts. The more Xi Xiuran looked at Butler Wang, the more he felt the man might have a hidden “yandere” tag. Conversely, the more Butler Wang looked at Xi Xiuran, the more satisfied he became. Although the Consort couldn’t cure the Admiral, he just might be able to leave behind a child with him.
Heaven knows how much he adored soft, cute human cubs. Back in the day, he had especially looked forward to the birth of the little Admiral, but… forget it, the past is too unbearable to recall. He would just look forward to the child of the Admiral and the Consort. The Consort was so good-looking and had such a good personality; the child he gave birth to would definitely be incredibly soft, cute, and adorable…
Xi Xiuran remained completely unaware that Butler Wang had already daydreamed all the way to a cozy daily life of raising a cub. His attention was entirely focused on the dining table, where the personal guards were laying out the delicacies meticulously prepared by the chef.
Breakfast at the Admiral’s manor was relatively light. It consisted of the common millet congee paired with soup dumplings, steamed buns, and five-spice tea eggs. Though simple, it smelled absolutely incredible—truly worthy of the Admiral’s chef.
Especially that five-spice egg. The marinade itself smelled fragrant, and combined with the chef’s meticulous seasoning, it was even more delicious and enticing.
Just by smelling the aroma, Xi Xiuran felt he was hungry enough to eat a cow.
Without using the robot’s help, Xi Xiuran blew on it to cool it down while peeling the five-spice egg himself. Eating eggs just had more “soul” when you peeled the shell yourself.
The chef’s skills were excellent; the shell was perfectly detached from the egg membrane. Xi Xiuran only needed to gently break open a small gap to peel the shell off entirely, revealing the tender white egg inside, adorned with beautiful light-brown marbled patterns like a work of art.
Taking a bite with an “Ah-woo,” Xi Xiuran chewed carefully. He found that the egg white was tender yet possessed a bit of elasticity—fresh, smooth, aromatic, and delicious, growing more flavorful with every chew. Savoring it carefully, Xi Xiuran could also taste faint hints of clove and tangerine peel, with absolutely no eggy smell. After swallowing, a faint aroma of fennel spread through his mouth.
Sob, sob, it’s so delicious!
This is the best five-spice egg I’ve ever eaten in my life!
Just for the food at the Admiral’s manor alone, let alone being a widow for Shi Xingzhou in this life, he’d be willing to do it in his next life too!
Xi Xiuran scarfed down the rest of the five-spice egg in two bites and immediately took a sip of the millet congee. The rice fragrance was light and sweet, perfectly neutralizing the strong aroma of the five-spice egg. Xi Xiuran couldn’t help but narrow his eyes, happily humming a cheerful tune—the theme song from a certain game he had developed.
Butler Wang hadn’t left.
He stood quietly to the side, observing Xi Xiuran while mentally matching outfits for him to wear to the royal banquet.
Hearing the tune Xi Xiuran was humming, the corners of Butler Wang’s mouth rose uncontrollably, his gaze turning even more loving. He knew it! He had never heard the tune the Admiral was tapping out last night; it turned out he had heard it from the Consort!
The Admiral’s manor will definitely have a little master very soon.
***
As for the sense of fashion… well, it’s not something everyone possesses. There’s always a group of people whose aesthetics are perfectly fine normally, but the moment it comes to styling their own clothes, they are completely blind.
Xi Xiuran was a classic example.
His aesthetic sense regarding clothing coordination had never been great. On the one hand, his parents had been very controlling; ever since he was little, they managed everything down to the color of his socks. Lacking autonomy, he just grew accustomed to wearing whatever his parents gave him. On the other hand, he simply wasn’t very interested in it. He never put much thought into it as a kid, and after growing up and becoming a gaming otaku, he was even less willing to spend mental energy on it.
Aside from a few sets of “corporate slave” work outfits put together by his roommate, his entire closet was filled entirely with ita-shirts[1]T-shirts printed with anime characters jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2022518_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2022518_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
For an occasion as important as attending a banquet at the royal palace, Xi Xiuran knew deeply that he couldn’t embarrass Shi Xingzhou; a salted fish had to perk up. And so… he laid flat with absolute peace of mind, leaving himself entirely at Butler Wang’s mercy to be dressed up.
He wasn’t slacking off; he was merely implementing the principle of: “If you don’t know how to do it, don’t mess around—lie flat and leave it to the professionals!”
Xi Xiuran firmly believed that all the butlers and stewards in the novel world shared a hidden name: “Sebastian.” Meaning: This butler is omnipotent!
However, our certain salted fish miscalculated one tiny detail in his myriad calculations: the desire to play dress-up does not discriminate by age or gender.
In a certain popular dress-up game, male players made up 20% of the player base!
Inside the fitting room, having just changed into yet another ocean-blue formal suit, Xi Xiuran was adjusting his bowtie in front of the mirror when he suddenly let out a yawn and violently snapped back to reality.
Wait!
Something is wrong here!
He clearly wanted to be lazy and lie flat, so why was he changing outfits one after another? Had he laid flat from beginning to end? Let alone lying flat, had he even sat down to rest?!
Didn’t we agree we would head out after trying this set?! Didn’t we agree this was the last set?!
He completely couldn’t remember how many sets of clothes he had tried on!
Because he hadn’t gone out shopping for clothes ever since becoming financially independent, and all his online clothes shopping was done tagging along with his roommate’s orders, he had completely forgotten the childhood terror of being surrounded by his mother and elder relatives, who dressed him up endlessly because he was “too cute.” Actually, when he first started trying on clothes, Xi Xiuran still remembered the “choose one out of three” rule, thinking he would try three sets at most and then bolt. But every time he came out in a new outfit, Butler Wang would blow five minutes of “rainbow farts”[2]over-the-top flattery jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2022518_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2022518_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); at him. It blew him away until he was dizzy, light-headed, and floating on air, completely forgetting to refuse when the other party suggested trying just one more…
And the result was this!!!
This Butler Wang definitely has a problem! He’s too terrifying; I must take a detour around him in the future!
Xi Xiuran’s head ached with anger. He secretly cursed himself for being so disappointing; he had only been a salted fish for a short while, and he had already completely lost his vigilance.
But he really is too good at talking, and what he says sounds so incredibly nice! Who could refuse such high-end rainbow farts?!
Yeah, who could refuse?
Xi Xiuran barely managed to console himself. Taking a deep breath, he opened the fitting room door, ready to confront Butler Wang. Even if they beat him to death, he absolutely would not change clothes again!
By coincidence, Butler Wang came knocking on the door, bowing as he spoke: “Consort, the Admiral has finished his business and sent someone to ask if you are fully prepared—”
“I’m ready!”
Xi Xiuran hastily interrupted. He was terrified that if he spoke a second too late, Butler Wang would drop the line, “If the Consort isn’t ready, let’s try this outfit instead.”
Butler Wang smiled. “Since the Consort is ready, then let us go. Allow me to offer one final word of praise: this suit suits your temperament perfectly. By coincidence, the Admiral is also wearing an ocean-blue suit today. You two are an incredibly perfect match.”
Xi Xiuran: “…”
Why do I feel like I’ve been played?
T/n: You can support the original author here. Happy Reading 💅
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