Ahhhhh!
Shen Muyu suspected Old Man Shen was still making things difficult for him over that business a while back, when he’d urged his father to retire and return to his hometown.
How had making friends by drinking and chatting merrily, then sleeping side by side, started to sound so strange coming from his father?
Good grief, was this the adult world?
Madam Shen and Old Madam Shen silently stepped aside. Shen Muyu, still lamenting the filthy adult world, was left exposed before Shen Yangyu. A cane whipped across his backside, and he was grabbed by the collar and tossed into the ancestral hall.
“Kneel before the ancestral tablets and reflect on what you’ve done! You can come out when you’ve finally learned your lesson!”
It was the first time Shen Yangyu had spoken so harshly to Shen Muyu, and he regretted it as soon as the words were out.
Shen Muyu was the Shen family’s only legitimate son. He’d never suffered a day in his life, and he was so frail a gust of wind could knock him over. If he died kneeling in the ancestral hall, wouldn’t his father have to repent for letting the family line die out?
Shen Yangyu opened his mouth, then swallowed the words he’d been about to say.
No. The boy needed to suffer a little. He dared provoke anyone and everyone. If no one reined him in, sooner or later he’d get the entire Shen household executed!
Shen Muyu had no idea that his father was tying himself into knots outside the door, or that he’d somehow been saddled with the blame for the entire family’s execution. After kneeling on the cushion for a while, he suddenly pressed his palms together before the ancestral tablets.
“Ancestors, please bless me so I can meet Prince Jing soon, before our family is wiped out.”
According to the original novel, Shen Yangyu had already started making contact with the puppet emperor around this time. In less than a year, they would be secretly conspiring, colluding, and joining forces to assassinate Prince Jing and seize power.
By then, his head would be rolling away alongside his stupid father’s.
“Not even a dog could get into Prince Jing’s residence.” The white snake slithered out of some hole, flicked its tongue, and spat.
“Xiaobai!” Shen Muyu sat back on his heels and stroked the white snake’s head. “I won’t let you call yourself a dog.”
The white snake fell silent.
Had this host really gotten into a top-tier university on his own?
Oh, right. University students these days were innocent and stupid.
The white snake told him how it had snuck off to Prince Jing’s residence and tried to stir up a commotion as a spirit snake to get the prince’s attention and lure him over. But there wasn’t even a dog hole to be found, and the snake was thoroughly dejected.
The walls were bare, and there was no way a little snake without limbs could climb them. There was a back gate, but guards stood watch there, swords at their waists. It didn’t dare go near.
The system couldn’t die, but its snake body could still feel pain.
The white snake resigned itself to coiling around Shen Muyu’s hand and biting its own tail. After a moment’s thought, it mumbled, “How about we run away?”
“No.” Shen Muyu shook his head without hesitation.
The white snake mused aloud, “True. You borrowed someone else’s body, so there’s already a karmic connection. If you just leave and let the whole Shen family be executed, maybe the ghost of the body’s former owner will come after you.”
“That’s not really it.” Shen Muyu froze, then lowered his head in embarrassment.
He simply didn’t want to become a vagrant.
With a computer science degree, the only job he’d be qualified for in ancient times was begging.
It was the scholar’s long gown he could never take off.
The white snake said, “Huh?”
Shen Muyu clenched his fist. “But now it is!”
That was what he’d say from now on!
Thanks, reading comprehension. Thanks, Xiaobai!
The white snake fell silent again.
Shen Muyu was kept in the ancestral hall for two days. Even though the head of the family was still angry, the servants didn’t dare mistreat him. They found all sorts of ways to bring him delicious food, drink, and amusements every day.
Shen Yangyu knew, of course, but he turned a blind eye.
Madam Shen made chicken soup herself. She felt Shen Muyu’s slender arm and looked heartbroken. “You’ve lost weight.”
There was a kind of thinness that existed only because your mother thought you were thin.
Shen Muyu bent over his bowl of soup. Madam Shen twisted her handkerchief and let out a soft sigh. “Muyu, be honest with Mother. Do you really like men?”
“Pfft!”
Shen Muyu spat out a mouthful of chicken soup.
Madam Shen rubbed his back and carefully wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth with her handkerchief. She said earnestly, “If you like men, Mother won’t mind. But, dear, Prince Jing isn’t an ordinary man. He’s not suitable for you. I won’t mind who else you like.”
No wonder the original owner had been spoiled into such a notorious dandy, bold enough to openly flirt with a male courtesan. The Shen family really did spoil him. They could even talk themselves into accepting their only son liking men.
But Shen Muyu couldn’t accept it.
After watching so many videos of adult film stars, he was sure he liked women with curves in all the right places.
Yes, curves in all the right places, the mature older-sister type.
“I don’t like men.” Shen Muyu pressed his lips together and muttered, “Father slandered me that day. I just want to be friends with Prince Jing.”
“Friends? But your father said last night… said you wanted to sleep with him?”
Madam Shen’s gaze flickered. Clearly, Shen Yangyu had embellished the story.
“I meant sleep side by side and talk by candlelight!” Shen Muyu insisted. “Like good brothers!”
Madam Shen sighed with relief. As long as he didn’t like Prince Jing, that was fine. As for wanting to be friends…
She didn’t know why Shen Muyu had suddenly decided to befriend Prince Jing, but as long as he didn’t do anything foolish, he was quite likable.
Prince Jing now held all the power at court. If Shen Muyu could win his favor and they truly became close as brothers, the family branches that had scolded her for giving the Shen family a menace would have to eat their words.
Madam Shen looked at Shen Muyu with concern and hesitated. “Your father invited Prince Jing to the residence today. Be good, and I’ll ask your father to introduce you.”
Shen Muyu’s eyes lit up. He tugged at Madam Shen’s sleeve, laying on the charm. “I knew Mother was a beautiful woman with a kind heart. Father really hit the jackpot.”
“What a sweet talker.” Madam Shen gave him a playful glance, but she was genuinely smiling.
Shen Muyu said a few more things to make her laugh, then obediently saw her out.
The white snake stirred on his wrist, slipped through a crack by the wall after Madam Shen, and returned before long with bad news. “Your father says you’re still up to no good, so he’s made you face the wall for another month.”
Shen Muyu fell silent.
The white snake added, “But I think I heard your father saying he’s going to show Prince Jing around the Shen residence.”
Shen Muyu’s dimming round eyes lit up again.
“I’ve got a plan, Xiaobai!”
“This way, Your Highness.”
Shen Yangyu smiled as he personally led the way.
The man beside him wore a deep-purple robe embroidered with a python, its jade-studded belt clasped around his waist. He was tall and straight-backed, his handsome, rugged features sharply defined. His narrow, upturned eyes radiated an air of nobility, and his nose was high-bridged. Only his pale, thin lips added a touch of aloofness, making him seem all the more unapproachable.
Shen Yangyu cupped his hands. “My foolish son is young and ignorant. He offended you more than once. I hope Your Highness won’t hold it against a child.”
Prince Jing gave a derisive chuckle, its meaning unclear. “A seventeen-year-old child. Lord Shen’s family standards are truly impeccable.”
Shen Yangyu fell silent.
In an ordinary family, a seventeen-year-old could already be sent out to buy soy sauce.
How could Shen Yangyu not hear the sarcasm in Prince Jing’s words?
But Shen Muyu had been in the wrong, and Shen Yangyu had failed to discipline his son. He deserved the mockery.
Shen Yangyu gave an awkward smile and sighed inwardly. Prince Jing was no easy man to fool.
How had he ended up with such a little menace for a son?
“This humble official failed to discipline him properly.” Shen Yangyu bowed and gestured for Prince Jing to proceed, stepping back half a pace. “I’ve already confined that little menace and ordered him to face the wall. Your Highness can rest assured. If he bothers you again, I’ll break his legs myself!”
Prince Jing gave a short, low chuckle, his rich, resonant voice seeming to rumble from his chest. “Is that so?”
Shen Yangyu paused, a sense of foreboding rising within him.
Sure enough, the next moment, he heard a clear young voice shout, “Look out!”
Shen Yangyu watched as Shen Muyu, who was supposed to be doing penance in the ancestral hall, came rushing toward them in a moon-white brocade robe, dressed to the nines, sleeves rolled up.
Shen Yangyu’s head started pounding again.
Shen Muyu sent the white snake a signal through their mind link. Just as he charged forward, a snake two fingers thick, black and white in alternating bands, stealthily climbed up a tree branch. It opened its crimson mouth and aimed for Prince Jing’s neck.
But before Shen Muyu could reach Prince Jing and play the hero by capturing the black-and-white snake, the man’s expression turned cold and he caught it right behind the head with his bare hand.
He moved so fast that all that remained was a blur of purple sleeve.
Shen Muyu skidded to a stop. “!!!” Aaaaaah!
Bai Tu went rigid. “!!!” Aaaaaah!
Shen Yangyu’s breath caught in his throat. He nearly fainted.
The snake didn’t look venomous, but if Prince Jing got bitten at the Shen residence, Shen Yangyu’s position would be in jeopardy.
Where had a water snake come from?
“Guards!” Shen Yangyu called urgently, meaning to have the servants carry off the audacious snake and execute it. Shen Muyu received Xiaobai’s distress signal and shouted even louder, “Leave it to me!”
Shen Muyu didn’t dare look at his father. Forcing a smile, he edged toward Prince Jing one step at a time.
Prince Jing’s expression chilled. He shook the limp, playing-dead snake in his hand, the corner of his mouth twitching. His voice was icy. “The Director of the Secretariat’s family standards truly open this prince’s eyes.”
Shen Yangyu fell silent.
It wasn’t him! He hadn’t done it! He knew nothing!
Shen Yangyu gave his deeply filial son a resentful look. Shen Muyu instantly felt as if needles were pricking his back.
A snake’s reflexes were five times faster than a human’s. X.
Shen Muyu stood ramrod straight, picking at his fingers like a schoolboy caught eating in class.
Bai Tu’s anguished cry rang in his mind: “He’s about to squeeze me to death!” Feeling guilty, Shen Muyu pursed his lips, then smiled. “Your Highness is so graceful and quick. Amazing. Leave the rest to me.”
As he spoke, he reached for the snake’s tail.
It wouldn’t budge.
Bai Tu roared in his mind, “That hurts, that hurts! I’m never helping you again!”
Prince Jing gave a scornful laugh. “And if I hand it over, you’ll let it attack this prince again?”
Shen Muyu said, “If you know, don’t say it. That’s what friends do.”
Prince Jing said, “A friend who sneaks up on this prince.”
Shen Muyu fell silent.
Couldn’t they just have a nice time together?
Had the Prince Regent in the original novel really been this sharp-tongued?
Shen Muyu suddenly looked up and met a pair of long, dark, deep-set phoenix eyes, carrying a hint of undisguised killing intent.
Maybe he didn’t want to hide it. Maybe he didn’t need to.
Shen Muyu’s scalp prickled. At last, he had a clear understanding of the Prince Regent, a man who stood above everyone else and wielded power like a weapon.
He really would kill Shen Muyu without the slightest reason!
Bai Tu looked at him miserably, its tail swishing back and forth, like an instinctive plea for help from something near death.
Shen Muyu came to his senses and declared, “Let it go!”