Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

Shen Yu looked directly into Wen Yu's eyes. Wen Yu was extremely similar to him; even when he looked at Shen Yu so nakedly and gloomily, it was as if Shen Yu was looking in a mirror.

Wen Yu seemed amused. None of the many palace maids dared to look directly at Wen Yu's face, a behavior considered disrespectful in the palace, but Shen Yu was clearly unaware of this.

Even fear and trepidation did not appear in Shen Yu's emotions. All the previous events had not affected him in the slightest.

Wen Yu stood up, walked down the steps, and slowly approached Shen Yu.

"What's your name?" Wen Yu pinched Shen Yu's chin, carefully looking at Shen Yu's face, his fingers quietly touching the skin on the side of Shen Yu's face.

Shen Yu felt the touch on his face. Wen Yu made no attempt to conceal her actions, her fingertips already touching the skin on the side of his face.

"Your Majesty, my name is Danqing." Shen Yu lowered her eyelashes, finally averting her gaze from Wen Yu's sight.

“Danqing…” Wen Yu repeated, his fingers moving down to press lightly on the artery in Shen Yu’s neck. “How old is he?”

Shen Yu curled his fingers for a few seconds before relaxing them again, and said, "Your Majesty, I am only sixteen."

Wen Yu looked at Shen Yu silently, then reached his fingers toward the center of Shen Yu's neck, but didn't pinch anything else.

This palace maid looked young and indeed seemed quite young, but since she was sent to his palace, her actions couldn't be entirely innocent.

Wen Yu withdrew his hand, ignoring the faint red mark around Shen Yu's neck, and frowned as he sniffed the scent on his own hand: "What do you smell like?"

“Your Majesty, this is a scented powder I made myself using wildflowers and herbs from the palace. These days it’s hot, and it’s easy to get bitten by mosquitoes, so I put some on myself,” Shen Yu said.

Although Wen Yu was the Empress of Yue, she was quite interested in the extraordinary people and skills of Sheng, so the Emperor of Yue gave her many rare treasures to play with.

Shen Yu doesn't possess any special skills, but these flowers and herbs growing in the cold mountains have unique scents. Making them into perfume powder might be able to fool Wen Yu.

Wen Yu sniffed for a moment, then lifted her eyelids to look at Shen Yu: "You do have some skill."

"Thank you, Your Highness," Shen Yu said, bowing his head.

Wen Yu returned to the armchair he had been sitting in. He seemed tired and waved to the people below.

"Your Majesty, are you not going to keep these palace maids?" A maidservant stepped forward and asked in a low voice.

Wen Yu half-closed his eyes, his dark pupils filled with wandering thoughts. His gaze swept over the row of maids below before settling on the far corner.

Shen Yu had made no attempt to conceal his gaze at the very beginning, but now, as if he had realized his previous mistake, he kept his head down and knelt below, no longer making eye contact with Wen Yu.

Wen Yu pinched his fingertips, then casually pointed at Shen Yu and said, "He stays."

"As for the rest, return them all to His Majesty." Wen Yu rose and walked into the inner hall.

"Yes."

The head maid stepped forward as instructed and led the unselected palace maids outside, glancing back as she left.

Shen Yu had already stood up. He followed the maid into the inner hall, and the doors of the Kunning Palace's inner hall closed again.

A large pool of blood remained beside the trees. Only after the palace maids had left did the eunuchs come in with buckets of water to clean it up. Bucket after bucket of water was poured onto the ground, finally washing away the bloodstains.

The pungent smell of blood finally dissipated slowly in the air.

Shen Yu was taken to his room in Kunning Palace. This room was specially prepared for palace maids, and several of them lived together. There was only one bed on it, with several quilts on it.

Seeing this, Shen Yu asked one of the palace maids, "Does Her Majesty the Empress not need us to serve her when she goes to bed?"

"Her Majesty doesn't like us getting close to her. Things like going to bed and washing up are all done by Her Majesty herself," the palace maid said.

Shen Yu frowned. Now that he had entered Kunning Palace, he was just a lowly palace maid, at most only responsible for cleaning the outer halls, and still unable to get close to the inner halls.

If he couldn't even get into the inner palace, he would have even less chance of tracking Wen Yu's whereabouts.

"Don't worry, we don't need to worry about these things. The ladies inside are our people too, we'll just pass on the message when the time comes," the little palace maid said, lowering her voice.

"Sister Mingyue was too impatient, which is why the Empress found out and beat her like this. You must not follow in her footsteps."

Shen Yu raised an eyebrow and silently looked at the palace maid's fingers, noticing a black line on the nail of her right index finger.

He clenched his fist and said with a faint smile, "Okay."

These people are not from the photo studio.

Shen Yu observed the outer hall for several days before confirming the identities of these palace maids. There were no such markings inside the photography studio, so these palace maids must have come from another faction.

The dozens of eunuchs and palace maids in Kunning Palace all had such black line markings, indicating that the palace had long been infiltrated and riddled with holes.

Shen Yu was still unaware of the group's purpose. They seemed to be only responsible for monitoring Wen Yu's every move, but had no intention of harming or even murdering the empress.

That very night, Shen Yu drew a black line on his fingernail with ink. He tested the effect with water, and it barely faded. As long as he didn't rub it vigorously with water, it would stay the same.

One night, the cowardly man, Kuqie Tusheng, alerted Shen Yushu to new developments in his book.

Shen Yu had only seen the black book before; he had only flipped through the blank red book once before tossing it into a corner. It was only after the alarm went off to warn him that Shen Yu finally pulled out the red book.

A new line of text has been added to the red book.

[Calm your mind and dispel evil spirits.]

Shen Yu: "..."

He closed the red book and stuffed it under the bed.

*

The next day, while doing her hair, Wen Yu suddenly remembered the maid who had just arrived the day before.

He looked into the bronze mirror. One side of his face was still covered by the golden mask, resembling a wild beast totem, its fangs bared in a ferocious grin. The other half of his face was beautiful, with eyes that slanted upwards at the corners, and pupils that were as black as ink and unfathomable.

The maid behind him, who was combing his hair, dared not speak. She held the wooden comb and secretly observed Wen Yu's expression as she combed his hair.

Wen Yu sat in front of the bronze mirror, looking at his own face, when suddenly a sharp pain shot through his scalp.

The maidservant immediately knelt down, stammering, "Your Highness, Your Highness... I didn't..."

The comb fell to the ground with a dull thud. Wen Yu's expression remained unchanged. His breathing was slightly heavy as he closed his eyes and said, "Get out."

"...Yes." The maid stood up and backed away as she walked out.

"All of you, get out!" Wen Yu suddenly swept all the cosmetics off the table. He frowned and said coldly, "Bring in that maid from yesterday."