章 128: 4.42

Da Gong was indeed not happy about being babysat. For one, being asked to be babysat was very demeaning in itself. For another, he also wanted to have a date with his little worm!

Seeing the pairs of humans wave good bye to them with no intention of bringing them away Da Gong immediately understood and fluffed his feathers indignantly.

Even Ye Cheng his most trusted human just gave him a playful wink before running off with the crippled male human with a woman's face.

Aaaaahh! Humans! were! terrible!

Pan Shuchun also did not know how she managed to agree to pet sitting to these relative strangers. But she liked both Tang Muxin and Ye Cheng a lot, and the moment the idea was voiced, even the sullen and reticent large man, and the rude, scowling but annoyingly beautiful man, immediately voiced their enthusiastic approval.

However it was true she was very curious about these animals. Ye Cheng told her that Da Gong was incredibly smart for a chicken and more or less understood human speech and Tang Muxin said Jin Bao was just as intelligent as any adult human.

Looking at them she obviously notices that the large rooster was fluffed up. It was kind of cute. She heard birds do that when they get emotionally high strung or something. Could the rooster be getting separation anxiety?

Pan Shuchun felt a little softhearted at that and reached to pat the bird. To be honest, every girl has the dream of having a super fluffy, sentient animal friend at least once in their life. Da Gong was a large bird and he was not only a very good looking rooster but even his feathers were clean, glossy and lustrous, it looked very good to touch.

Jin Bao was also very cute, but he was still a reptile. Pan Shuchun liked birds and cats the most so subconsciously she was more interested in Da Gong.

Jia Hyson: Suddenly I inexplicably feel like my affection for this transmigrator has plummeted.

Even though Da Gong was upset, he forced himself to accept the humiliating head pat obediently. No matter how he cursed the humans, he knew they understood their place on the hierarchy and would never wrong him like this without a reason. From his observation Tang Muxin and his small worm seemed interested in this human. He should therefore have been assigned the important task of determining if this new human was trustworthy.

After all, the two male humans chosen by his little worm were pretty fucking useless things. It wasn't good to bring in more shady pig teammates that bring nothing but numbers to the flock ah.

Shady pig teammates Yan Huizhong and Duan Mengyao: '...Sorry we've been so fucking useless.'

Unexpectedly though, the moment Pan Shuchun touched him, she immediately pulled her hand back like she had experienced a shock of electricity, her expression contorting. If she hadn't been wearing contacts, they may have seen her eye colors flicker and flash.

However they didn't so other than her strange and abrupt action, both Da Gong and Jia Hyson didn't notice anything else, merely confused at her reaction. This... was she suddenly disdaining Da Gong's head?

How audacious!

Seeing the looks of increasing blame toward her, Pan Shuchun chuckled dryly and touched her glabella*, "Sorry, sorry, I just suddenly had a neck spasm as I was leaning down. I get them a lot lately, I suppose I've been working too long on my designs."

*The smooth part of the forehead above and between the eyebrows

Da Gong's hackles lowered at the explanation and nodded his head regally to show his understanding. If it was due to an injury then he could not be petty and begrudge the human for such coincidental timing.

Jia Hyson however couldn't help but look at her perplexedly. Before she was treating them as pets and didn't really understand how smart they were which was understandable. If you hear that a dog is smart you would still be inclined to treat them like a dog. It's only after a while of interaction can one fully understand their comprehension abilities. So how come all of sudden she was giving them a proper explanation like equals?

It was suspicious.

However even with Bebe's basic scan it couldn't pick up anything. Jia Hyson was tempted to ask for an advanced scan but quickly dropped the idea. Bebe could get a lot of permanent skills but apparently in order to prevent there being a saturation of permanent skills and a lack of systems buying, some things like scanning had to be bought by plan. Basic scanning was free but more intricate stuff you needed to get an advanced scan subscription plan or higher.

They were a little rich now but Jia Hyson had the mindset to try save all the points where he could. Pan Shuchun's reaction was odd but not enough to pay 550p a month okay?

Bebe: 'To be honest, Bebe had an ultra-premium platinum-class scanning membership before that could be supported by Bebe's large wallet of system points alone ah. Tsk, it's a little sad thinking about it.'

Jia Hyson: '...' Seriously how fucking expensive was that laser cannon? ( º言º) Were you fucking scammed?!

Hearing Bebe reminiscing about its past riches Jia Hyson was so angry he completely pushed the matter from his mind.

Da Gong also ignored it after the initial offended outrage. The misunderstanding was cleared up and he was too lazy to fight with some human he had to accompany for a day. Instead he sulkily rubbed his head against the smooth scales of his little worm for comfort.

Only Pan Shuchun looked dazed and unable to get over it, looking at her hands like it was the first time she had seen them. Only after being impatiently pecked by Da Gong did she snap out of it and left to show the two animals where she usually worked.

Keeping a calm face Pan Shuchun inwardly let out a torrent of abuse in her mind.

That's right, even though Da Gong wasn't stimulated, she was. As a shard with both yin and yang present she was considered at a 'stable and balanced' state. Only after touching an 'unstable' yin shard like Da Gong can she be provoked.

However to Da Gong he will be unaffected by the reaction unless he interacts with his 'unstable' yang counterpart and is stimulated by a split second change in state from 'unstable' to momentarily 'stable'.

Simply put, its a matter of triggering a change of state that is one of the rules to stimulate the shardpiece.

It is like if a neutral zero is added to a negative one, the result is the state of the zero during this interaction becomes negative and the negative one is unaffected. However if a negative one is added to a positive one, the result is a neutral zero meaning both numbers have changed their states.

Pan Shuchun glances at the fierce but ultimately oblivious eyes of the rooster and curses harder in her mind.

What the fuck happened?! Why did she end up in an ancient Chinese world?! Out of all the mistakes how could the world's consciousness pick her ahhhhh?!

Even though she had this panic attack once, this second time was because she grasped about 80-90% context thanks to her new memories. Her life as Pan Shuchun was seriously not meant to veer in this direction! She wasn't meant to be a transmigrated character at all! She was meant to be the great rival character turned best friend to a protagonist in a fashion-based world plot!

This was really beyond fucking ridiculous. Unfortunately while she had gained self awareness and a new understanding to her identity she had not gained any power other than a small boost in intelligence and a more in-depth knowledge in computer programs and hacking.

Of course... given they were in ancient china that sort of skill might as well just lay down and die ah. _(>:3」∠)_

Honestly, if this was a story where she had to fulfill her character obligations this would be a glitch that would cause an automatic fail. Luckily, that wasn't so.

After venting in her heart she quickly calmed down and gestures the two animals to follow her closely. Walking toward her shop Pan Shuchun felt upon some self-reflection that in retrospect there wasn't anything wrong.

All she needed to do was live her life until this life ends. In a way this twist in fate was also a fortune in itself.

After all, experiencing such a rare occurrence will undoubtedly put her at an advantage against those 'unstable' idiots. Though...

She glances at Da Gong with mixed emotions. She only knew she was a shard of something called a Royal system as well as the identity of this body in accordance to the world the body belonged to and finally, the reason she, a shard, was here in the first place. As a shard she had a simple mission. This Da Gong was in the same situation as herself though completely unaware for now.

She was still blind to the information about this world and what part this rooster leads or doesn't lead. However the shard occupying that body is quite cruel to himself to choose such a life for himself.

Though to be honest, Pan Shuchun intuitively felt that was quite natural for a yin shard ah. Pragmatic, cold, ruthless.

But that has it's benefits clearly. Being a rooster, consorting with a dragon, experiencing a journey- what a unique life, one hard to replicate and copy.

For the sake of the goals of her shards that have both yin and yang, wouldn't it be best to try... shorten such a rare life?

The thought passes her mind for a second before she shrugs it off. While she has this new information, the memories of this life is still hers. Her perspective and morality on things are of a normal young lady's in modern times. To kill someone for the sake of hindering a rival is too pathetic a reason for such a harsh crime.

She sighs. It's really a pity how good her three world views are. Once Da Gong lives out his life it could be said that the yin faction would probably temporarily surpass the yang faction and herself.

The only comfort was a rooster shouldn't live very long ah, their lifespans are generally about 5 to 8 years. Pan Shuchun didn't know what's wrong with Da Gong to be so big and domineering but she predicted that at the very least the rooster would have two to three years left at most. As long as she lives a good long life and gain many experiences and joys and sorrows, she should be able to narrow the gap a bit given her own unique situation.

By the time Pan Shuchun mentally sorted everything out more or less, they had arrived at her store. No matter her newfound memories and amazing identity, she was still Pan Shuchun and had great pride in this store that she ran with her blood, sweat and tears.

Just seeing how there were women and even some men waiting in line in front of her door was enough to make her energetic like she was being injected with chicken blood.

Some of her regulars immediately noticed her and greeted her with a raised voice. While it was considered quite vulgar to shout on the streets, sometimes pride was more important than manners. Many noble men and women loved to show off their connections, especially if they brought friends as well.

Pan Shuchun immediately understood and gave a large smile, trotting up to greet the people who called out to her. Her mouth was slick and sweet like honey and not only did the people save face in front of others, under the barrage of praise and a promise to give them and their friends a discount they even earned some looks of envy and admiration making them even more satisfied with the shop.

Meanwhile the other customers could only grit their teeth and wish for this sort of treatment. After all everyone, no matter how shy or introverted, will feel good when they have something they perceive as 'special' to them. This is especially the case for the upper class who love face.

To be personally greeted by the upcoming and controversially successful clothing shop Pure Beauty Designs was considered the modern equivalent of being online friends with a famous YouTuber and even being mentioned on their videos. It wasn't particularly prestigious but it was enough to brag about and feel smug over. It was especially effective in bringing in the melon seed eaters*, stabilising customer loyalty and promoting a positive public opinion.

*bystanders

Jia Hyson who was being soothed by Da Gong's large feathery body, didn't really care about this sort of simple business strategy. After all, it was pretty similar to his own publicity stunts and strategies to promote his books, both online and offline, this sort of personal fan interaction was always a basic must.

Da Gong was even more simple. She wasn't his worm, or his human, so he didn't really care unless she does something suspicious.

Pan Shuchun, who was ignored by the animals: '…'

Seeing that her queue and visible popularity did not interest the two at all, Pan Shuchun's professional business smile stiffened slightly.

Aiyah, she missed her number one fan ah. She and the cute friendly young man would probably be impressed with her.

Instead she was showing around a pair of animals who rather show off their interspecies romance. Worse than that, one of those animals interested in hardcore interspecies romances was technically once a part of herself. How depressing.

….

Pure Beauty Designs was neither small nor very large. It was two floors with the bottom floor the main shop where various outfits and accessories were shown off. Only a few of each article of clothing was available for people to touch and admire, all in slightly different sizes.

This was to minimise any loss in possible theft. If anyone wanted to buy something, they would have to ask one of the clerks to come and take the clothes of their preferred size from the storage room, similar to how shoe shops work.

The top floor was considered the 'exclusive' area. Only VIP members could enter and see the newest designs which have been drawn up or even see them half-done on mannequins, and pre-order them with the promise to be the first people to wear them for a week. There was also unique one off limited edition accessories and clothes they were able to claim as VIPs and can even book fashion consultations with Pan Shuchun herself.

Jia Hyson who climbed up the staircase with Da Gong decided to explore this floor as it wasn't crowded and provided more access to Pan Shuchun's thought process. Looking at the sleek but slightly cluttered room, it gave off an artsy vibe that barely just skimmed the threshold of disgustingly messy. However maybe because of this, it made one feel more comfortable and relaxed, easier to let down their hackles and let the conversation flow.

'It's not bad,' Da Gong reluctantly praised as he flapped his wings and jumped onto a large and comfortable looking lounge chair. Jia Hyson raised his body up and gave the bird a soft snout nuzzle on his feathery chest before dropping back down on all fours and choosing to crawl around the area to explore.

Da Gong snorted with faint dissatisfaction but immediately jumped down from his comfortable perch to follow his curious little worm. After all, it wouldn't do if he got hurt ah.

Da Gong: Aiyah the things he does for his silly little worm. <(,,ಠ ⊝ ಠ,,)>

After a while Jia Hyson explored further to the back of the room. It was quite clever actually, there was a somewhat hidden space at the back of the rather open floor design. Because of it's more cluttered design, it was hard to notice the room was actually smaller than it should be.

However what sort of dragon would Jia Hyson be if he couldn't see through such a trick? Maybe in his original body, or even Farrell's body with its high physical specs, he would have some trouble figuring it out for a while, but a dragon's specs simply could not be compared to humans. His spatial memory among other things had seemed to improve the more he develops.

…It's a pity he couldn't keep this increase given since he technically didn't earn it ah.

Bebe: 'You're right, it is a pity.'

Jia Hyson: 'Speaking of things people technically didn't earn, how much have you abused our unlimited wi-fi plan huh?'

Bebe: '…Bebe misses the times host thought Bebe was cute and flawless.'

Jia Hyson: 'Oh. Then it's clear you didn't miss anything ah.' ╮(╯∀╰)╭

Bebe: ;-;

Curious Jia Hyson walks around to try find if there was any faint indent or crack or some sort of optical illusion in the walls to suggest an opening or hidden door. Tapping his tail on the surface just to make sure. However there didn't seem to be anything.

There were two relatively large wardrobes on either side of the wall he was investigating, however when he opened them, it was merely filled with clothes and a full length bronze mirror on the inside of the doors. Of course now that he had scoured the walls, Jia Hyson felt like he needs to revisit these two wardrobes.

Opening the first one which was facing opposite the staircase Jia Hyson went past the clothes rack and looked around. There was a small five drawer storage unit in the corner of the wardrobe. Opening the lowest drawer, Jia Hyson just saw an assortment of lovely necklaces and bracelets placed lovingly on the surface.

The drawer above was a bunch of scarves and some more necklaces. And then the top three were a variety of shoes. Jia Hyson immediately dropped back down onto all fours after seeing them, bored. Other than Cinderella's Glass slipper, he had never been very interested in shoe fashion.

Da Gong who was silently following him merely glanced around and couldn't be more disinterested. It seemed the bird was very unenthusiastic about all these clothes. A little annoyed he bent down and lightly pecked Jia Hyson's tail before lifting it up with his beak, pulling childishly like a kid tugging at his mother's clothes for attention.

Jia Hyson squeaked in surprise before twisting his body around and lightly clawing at Da Gong in a coquettish admonition. "Don't bully me ah~" He whined, the tip of his tail wiggling without force in Da Gong's mouth. It curled and lightly tickled Da Gong's face each time it moved back and forth, teasing the bird.

Finding something finally of interest to him, the rooster shook his head stubbornly and continued to hold the tail within his beak. However he was still very considerate, giving his little worm freedom to move around as he obediently follows behind, not letting his little worm feel uncomfortable or too stretched out.

Jia Hyson: 'I kind of feel like I'm taking a dog out for a walk ah.'

Bebe: 'Really? Bebe see's the opposite ah.'

Dog Jia Hyson: … 눈_눈

Reaching the back of the wardrobe didn't take long as it wasn't a very deep wardrobe and Jia Hyson was already quite large in size. Using the back of his claws he knocked against the wooden wall, his sensitive ears pricking up and confirming his conjecture. There was empty space behind the wooden wall of the wardrobe.

With a bit more force, Jia Hyson tries to push the wall. Sadly it wasn't so simple.

He wasn't willing to exert anymore force lest he break the whole thing entirely. But he did at least determine this wardrobe, maybe even both of them, led to a hidden space. After a few seconds of thought he put his claw up against the wall and tried to slide it. The wood shifted a little with his movement but ultimately stalled after a few millimetres, clearly blocked by something.

Jia Hyson's eyes lit up. So there was some kind of mechanism. Pan Shuchun really was a clever little cookie ah. She would probably get along well with Yan Huizhong given the opportunity. The only person in the group she didn't have overlapping interests in was Meng Meng really.

And really, who even cared about him ah?

Meng Meng who nobody cares about: '….' Why was this story so cruel to him? QwQ

Circling around the area with a rooster plodding behind, Jia Hyson touched his snout in some frustration, unable to figure out what could be the mechanism to open the door.

"Baby?" Sensing his irritation, Da Gong finally let go of his tail and comfortingly brushed his wing feathers against his scales, making Jia Hyson shiver a little at the ticklish sensation. "What's wrong?"

Jia Hyson hesitates but finally decides not to say. For one thing, he wanted to exercise his brain muscles and figure it out himself. For another… it would be awfully embarrassing if he got outshone by his handsome and domineering rooster boyfriend in intelligence.

"Just trying to think about something," Jia Hyson explains, before his bright golden eyes glitter with mischievous flirtation as he brushes his tail teasingly around the bird's magnificent tail feathers. "But I wouldn't mind a cuddle to destress."

Da Gong clucked, a little flustered, his worm was being so forward! Asking to cuddle in the closet where anyone could see them. How perverted.

He… quite liked it, tsk. (,,ಠ⊝ಠ,,)

Bebe: (¬_¬) ….Da Gong, you've changed.

After a few minutes of cuddling, Jia Hyson could feel his mood visibly improve. Somewhat reluctantly he extracted himself from his entanglement with a sleepy Da Gong who clucked his dissatisfaction before closing his eyes and continuing to nap.

Now refreshed and more clear-headed, Jia Hyson realised that there was something off with the drawer in the wardrobe. Generally shoes are placed on the bottom of the drawers and such beautiful, pricey looking necklaces would be more on the upper levels. It's strange to have it as the reversed.

The drawers weren't really too high, below Pan Shuchun's shoulder at least. That meant she put the shoes up there for easier access for herself. However those shoes were more or less very modern style.

The wedges might become a bit popular but those stilettos and pumps wouldn't have caught on well given the amount of walking, standing and such women have to experience. Plus everyone still wears long robes, there wasn't much appeal in decorating what is always hidden to the more pragmatic ancients and the roads were unpaved and bumpy too. No one was willing to risk unnecessary injury from these shoes given the rather questionable success rate of recovery. Therefore they shouldn't be as popular as the basic accessories and jewellery which conversely should've be placed in a position of better accessibility.

So clearly there was something there right?

Standing up and extending his body, Jia Hyson reached up with his claws and opened the third drawer. There were three rows of six pairs of shoes of varying design and type. The only thing that they shared was a similar cool colour scheme. Underneath the shoes was a pattern of polka dots that covered the inside of the drawer that he didn't pay much attention to before. Looking closely, these weren't just polka dots like he had initially thought but small holes of varying size and depth.

But now he felt it was more than a bit strange. After all, polka dots weren't a popular pattern choice for a lot of things, especially in ancient china which preferred nature inspired patterning. And even then there was no need to cause indents into the wood like this.

Many small black holes in such an enclosed space as well can also easily inspire Trypophobia in people and arouse feelings of disgust and repulsion. Jia Hyson doesn't really suffer much from this fear but even he felt a shudder of disgust the more he looks at it.

He's read that research has believed that this sort of phobia stems from an evolutionary basis in humans, causing biological revulsion as a result of associating these trypophobic shapes with danger or disease to the body.

While he doesn't know for sure, he's fairly confident in the hypothesis that ancient people would probably have a higher chance at triggering some level of trypophobia in them. After all, disease, insects, and such were all much more prevalent during this period and unlike in modern times the associated danger was much more profound. Logically their ingrained fears for this sort of visual stimulation would therefore be greater.

He opens the bottom two drawers and notes that the inside of the drawer was painted completely back, different from the shoe drawers. The trigger was most likely the three drawers then.

Aiyah, Pan Shuchun should try introducing escape rooms here. Jia Hyson felt like she would be pretty good at it.

Swinging his tail enthusiastically Jia Hyson uses his mystery solving skills and powers of observation before zoning on a pair of rather inconspicuous black kitten heels. The shape of the heels was a bit strange and after tipping over one of them he noticed the heel cap* was sharp and had a faint indent on it.

*bottom/tip of the heel

A key. And the lock was probably one of these holes.

Normal people would definitely struggle with this unless they were given enough time, and even then the ensuing step would be incredibly frustrating to say the least. Luckily Jia Hyson was not only a dragon, but a lucky dragon.

"One, two, three, four, five…" Jia Hyson mutters under his breath as the tip of his tail wavers between the various holes all around the drawer. "Climb the Mountain to catch the tiger… cannot catch a tiger… caught a small squirrel… Um.. How many squirrels?"

Bebe: 'This is how you're going to pick? You're so fucking childish.'

"Shut up," He snaps, "Where was I? Ah, right… Let me count, Count them forward, count them backward, one, two, three, four, five*… This one!"

*A chinese children's counting rhyme a bit like eenie meenie minie mo. This is the rough pronunciation below.

Yi er san si wu, 一二三四五,

shang shan da laohu 上山打老虎,

laohu da bu dao, 老虎打不到,

da le xiao songshu 打到小松鼠;

songshu you ji zhi? 松鼠有几个?

Rang wo shu yi shu 让我数一数.

shu lai you shu qu, 数去又数来,

yi er san si wu. 一二三四五.

With that he triumphantly sticks the heel cap into the hole. After a bit of twisting there was a faint click sound.

Trying to slide the door again there was a bit more rattling but it still stayed put. It seems he needed to do the same for the other two drawers. Jia Hyson expected as much ah.

Testing his good luck he didn't even bother to look as he used his flexible prehensile tail to grasp a random shoe and fit it into whatever slot he felt like. Both times it worked perfectly. And just when he turned around to go try slide the door again, his tail accidentally hit a shoe, causing it to twist into a nearby hole causing a clicking sound.

Jia Hyson and Bebe: '…' Huh.

It seems there were four mechanisms, not three like he had thought.

'Fuck me. It's a pity there's no lottery in this world ah.' Jia Hyson sighs, stunned even by his own luckiness. After all his lucky powers have manly manifested in helping Tang Muxin. As a salted fish character who is just selling meng and cracking jokes he really didn't have much he wanted to do that luck could help with until now.

'Agreed.' Bebe also sighs, 'There's a weekly BeBay shop lottery which starting price is at 200p but that's only applicable to bronze rank member shoppers and above. Even then to apply for membership a host has to go through at least seven worlds to be eligible.'

'Fuuuuck. Why would you tell me that?' Who doesn't know the system shop lottery would have good things? And with his current lucky constitution there was a guarantee he wouldn't eat a loss. It was okay when he didn't know about it but now that he did he was filled with all sorts of regret and yearning ahhh. 'Is there some sort of mystery gift box or something then we could buy?'

'There is.' Bebe answers, 'But it always comes onto the market randomly ah. It hasn't even appeared in the last few decades you know? If it did come up Bebe would have told you immediately. Unfortunately it only comes when you least expect it. That's what makes it extra mysterious~'

Jia Hyson: '…' Fuck your extra mysterious.

Giving up in trying to do something more with his luck, Jia Hyson slid open the now unlocked hidden door. Despite his previous mood he was still quite excited to see the inside.

Jumping down from the drawers Jia Hyson circles around the napping Da Gong and softly nuzzles him with his snout. "Darling? You want to follow me inside?"

Da Gong opened his eyes and shook himself awake like a dog shaking away the water from his fur. "Tsk, is there any need to ask?" He would follow his little worm anywhere.

The hidden room turned out to be Pan Shuchun's personal office which was pretty expected. The most eye-catching thing was the physical items she had gained from the system side tasks. Most notably was the large Beautiful Goddess's Manual Sparkling Sewing Machine. It was pink and covered in glitter and you could even see what looked like some seriously obnoxious anime sparkle effects.

Jia Hyson stared at it, then stared at his own rather sparkling gold body and fell silent.

What's this strange feeling of self-conscious anger for being out-sparkled by a sewing machine?

"Da Gong, whose shinier? Me or that?" Jia Hyson demanded, claw pointing at the accused sewing machine, still throwing out anime sparkles like rice at a wedding.

Da Gong who had never experienced or learnt about the classic minefield questions in a relationship that television has constantly told people were impossible to answer such as 'Do you think I look fat in this x?' or 'If you were to choose between your mum and myself, who would you choose?' or 'How's your ex doing?' did not think and honestly clucked, "Isn't it obvious that the other thing is clearly shinier than you?"

Jia Hyson: "Heh." (•‿•)

With a humph, Jia Hyson turns his face away from the confused bird and trots around the room. Obviously he would not take it out on Da Gong, after all, he knew that Da Gong would still rather look at his cute self than some metal machine, but that didn't mean he was pleased by this answer either. It was fine to act sulky for a few minutes before coming back to educate the bird on the best way to answer this question for future reference.

Bebe: 'And what's the best way to answer?'

Jia Hyson: 'It is okay to honestly admit the truth but you have to make it up with other honest praises and maybe a few lies such as 'The machine is shinier than you but it is too much, so gaudy and harmful to the eyes, unlike you who shines beautifully and soothes even blind men's eyes.'' As a veteran playboy he more or less knew how to skillfully handle such questions.

Bebe: '…' 눈_눈 Well, you do you Bebe supposes.

Da Gong, sensing the sudden cold attitude of his usually sticky worm panicked for a moment and tried to think about what could cause such a sudden change in attitude. Luckily it seems his worm was not too upset and stayed in the room with him, so while the rooster was a bit flustered he knew he didn't do anything too bad. After some careful thought he felt like…. It was his response to the question?

Immediately he glares at the sewing machine. How dare it be so shiny and make his little worm upset! Tsk! He will remember this! ⋋(╬⓪⊝⓪)⋌

Beautiful Goddess's Manual Sparkling Sewing Machine: I'm really being fucking wronged here.

Pan Shuchun's room was filled with various sketches and boxes of money. Some of the boxes were easily accessible and there were some that were well hidden, probably a countermeasure. It showed that the woman was careful, maybe bordering on paranoid. But honestly it was probably a good thing all things considered.

Jia Hyson wasn't too interested in the money, after all, he was a man who has seen wealth. And while he covets it he knows when to be greedy and when not too ah. Besides.. since he was planning to recruit Pan Shuchun this will be all his later hehehehehehehehehe.

Instead he climbs up onto the table and looks at the various papers. For some reason paper wasn't expensive as hell here but hey, dragons also exist and now so does counterfeit Hello Kitty hair clips, so he supposes there's no point in nitpicking is there?

Looking at the sketches he could see a wide range of clothing designs. From normal classic beautiful han fu with a few alterations to fabric and pattern, to more modern and controversial designs that were just tiptoeing on what could be considered acceptable clothing in this period. However there were even more papers crumpled up or violently scribbled scattered across the room and desk.

Jia Hyson uncrumpled a few and looks at the rejected designs and sighs emotionally.

Every designer has their own style and aesthetic. Unfortunately it seems like Pan Shuchun's preferences were not suitable for this conservative time. The rejected drawings were full of wild and handsome clothing. Men's designs had some touches of femininity yet the overall look was still striking and sexy. The female's in contrast were full of masculinity yet not to the point that it completely smothered a women's sex appeal, showing off the handsomeness of a woman rather than the petite beauty.

In short her style seemed to be based on something similar to the concept of 'androgyny' or at least a mixture of gender norms with a punk-ish, rebellious flair. Unfortunately ancient china was never well known for their punk aesthetic ah.

'It's pretty good stuff,' Jia Hyson comments internally to Bebe. 'Really a pity.'

Bebe makes a noise of agreement.

After a while of admiring fashion, Jia Hyson realised that he had forgotten something quite important.

That was the call of nature that every complex living organism has.

Without Tang Muxin, he couldn't communicate with anyone but Da Gong about his need to go to the bathroom.

This usually wasn't a big deal of course. He was a big baby dragon and knew how to do his business on his own ah. However this was the middle of the capital city, it wasn't like he could go behind a bush right now. It was all shops and road and such.

Not only was he, himself, more eye-catching, so was his… excretions. If he went out to try find somewhere private he would almost certainly be a victim of kidnapping that may or may not end up with either Jia Hyson killing someone thanks to his current rather homicidal mood swings, or Da Gong killing someone because let's be honest, he's always a little homicidal especially in regards to people taking his people.

And while personally, Jia Hyson doesn't really care about the life or death of dragon kidnappers, he doesn't want that sort of over the top brutality and gore in this rather laid back plot. Especially when it all starts with him needing the toilet.

Call him crazy, but he isn't exactly a fan of knowing that people will be reading about how he takes a shit okay? Scat was not his thing. Watersports was a tentative okay though. Unfortunately dragons, like a lot of reptiles, don't produce liquid urine so that was off the table ah.

Bebe: 'You know, you being Bebe's host must be the accumulation of a lifetime worth of sins.'

Jia Hyson: 'Oo~h baby, what sort of sins have you been committing? You naughty system, you~?'

Bebe, monotonously: 'Oh no. You caught Bebe. The truth is Bebe has been brutally slaughtering all the hosts Bebe finds beneath Bebe. Congratulations on being Bebe's eighteenth victim. (∩❛ڡ❛∩) Teehee. Would you like to die by your anus exploding or a castration gone wrong?'

Jia Hyson: '...' Bebe you've changed.

Jia Hyson wisely decides to stop talking to Bebe for a while. After all, he knew this was probably due to his own crazy rubbing off on the other but you know what they say, the hardest person to deal with is a person just like yourself ah.

After some thought he also silently increases Bebe's monthly game allowance. Hopefully that'll put the system in a better mood when it finds out ah. At least in a mood where his cute anus and dick won't be threatened.

And so the system-host relationship was once again barely maintained.

Unfortunately the same couldn't be said by Jia Hyson's dignity and his bowels ah.

…

Pan Shuchun finally managed to pull herself away from the ground floor. It was hard ah, she was still training her new workers and people were more inclined to ask for her than the others given the high degree of trust she cultivated. Usually she wouldn't mind, but Pan Shuchun knew she had a yin shard running around upstairs and was a little worried.

Seeing no bird or dragon was present, Pan Shuchun felt the veins in her forehead throb before immediately running to the wardrobe across from her. Flinging open the door, the sight of the messed up drawers and open sliding door made not just her veins throb but the corner of her mouth and her eyes too.

She got twitchy when stressed and anxious. Sue her.

However, surprisingly enough, the room was fairly untouched. The rooster with the yin shard was sitting and facing the corner of the room like he was in a time out corner. However seeing her, he immediately raised his wings angrily, clucking furiously.

Confused, and a bit intimidated, she turns her head and sees…

A pair of wide, shocked golden eyes stare up at Pan Shuchun, a shiny golden tail lifted upwards toward his corner of the room. Because the floor was wooden, everyone could hear the audible 'clink' sound of a jade nugget hitting the floor.

Jia Hyson: …

Pan Shuchun: …

Jia Hyson had to say, this was definitely one of his most mortifying moments right now.

After he was done he scuttled away to Da Gong and buried his face into his feathers. Da Gong immediately did his best to cover his little worm up with his wing feathers in distress, as if he could protect him from the world. Silver eyes glare accusingly at Pan Shuchun while Jia Hyson whimpers and whines in his wings. It was the sort of glare one would give to the pervert who defiled their daughter.

Pan Shuchun: ...

Helplessly she ignores the pair of distressed animals and grabs a discarded sketch of hers from the ground to use to pick up the poop. She had a lot of things to say but it can all wait until she can clean up whatever mess dragon poop makes.

However when she got closer to the corner, she realised there was no mess at all.

Squatting down, she picks up a steaming lump of… warm jade. It was almost transparent, with a vibrant emerald green colour and was smooth to touch. As a chinese fashionista she could tell this was probably the finest quality of jadeite. Imperial jade. One of the most expensive gems in the world.

She had been recently looking for a jade supplier, especially because she recently had gotten a custom order for a young but doted on princess' birthday who loved jade.

Who knew it could be supplied like this?

Out of a dragon's asshole?

Pan Shuchun: ....

Suddenly she didn't know what to feel about jade anymore.