Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

After the old eunuch finished speaking, he stood to the side. Several plates of porcelain bowls filled with pastries were placed in front of Wen Yu. They were light in color and decorated with osmanthus petals. A faint fragrance permeated the air, filling it with aroma.

Wen Yu paused for a minute or two before picking up the pastries from the table.

Shen Yu watched as he reached out his hand. Wen Yu was clearly not interested. He went through the motions, taking a piece of pastry from each dish and chewing it expressionlessly.

After eating a few pieces, Wen Yu stood up. Just as he was about to leave, the eunuch next to him brought over a bowl of white fungus soup.

"Your Majesty, are you thirsty?"

Wen Yu stopped in his tracks, his face visibly pale, and said, "I'm not thirsty."

The old eunuch chuckled ingratiatingly, standing in front of Wen Yu without moving an inch: "Your Majesty, this is His Majesty's decree. Your Majesty has been eating little these past few days and hasn't been going out much. His Majesty is showing concern for Your Majesty."

Silence reigned all around, and the palace maids standing nearby all bowed their heads in silence. Wen Yu's eyes flashed with an even sharper light as he stared at the hunched eunuch before him, as if he were about to drag him out and beat him to death at any moment.

Shen Yu stood silently to the side. Seeing Wen Yu's complexion getting worse, he took a step back at the opportune moment.

To Shen Yu's surprise, after a few seconds of standoff with the eunuch, Wen Yu picked up the white fungus soup on the table. He held the porcelain bowl with one hand and swallowed all the white fungus soup in front of the eunuch.

"Eunuch Chen, are you satisfied?" Wen Yu tilted the bowl, revealing that there was very little soup left inside.

The eunuch glanced at it and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, this old servant is also acting under imperial decree."

Wen Yu suddenly smashed the porcelain bowl to the ground, and the ceramic shards shattered, startling the palace servants waiting around.

"That's all he's capable of," Wen Yu said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

After he finished speaking, he turned and left, his figure quickly disappearing from everyone's sight.

The old eunuch remained standing in the center of the courtyard, a sight he had long been accustomed to. He turned and ordered the palace maids to clean up all the broken pieces of bowls inside.

Shen Yu deliberately tried to minimize his presence throughout the entire process.

As the old eunuch left, he glanced back. Shen Yu lowered his eyes, using the shadows of the pavilion to conceal most of his figure.

The eunuch couldn't see very clearly, but he simply remembered the names of Shen Yu's palace maids and left Kunning Palace with the other maids he had met earlier.

Wen Yu only ate a few pieces of the pastries on the table; the rest had to be stored in the inner palace.

Shen Yu put the remaining pastries into the food box. He smelled the fragrance of osmanthus mixed in the air and suddenly paused in closing the food box.

The palace maids who had stayed around the villa had all left. They were responsible for monitoring Wen Yu's whereabouts, and after Wen Yu left, they automatically followed him to another place.

Seeing that no one was around, Shen Yu inserted the silver needle into one of the white jade cakes.

A few seconds later, Shen Yu took out the silver needle. The tip and center of the needle were completely black, indicating that the concentration of toxins mixed in with these pastries was quite high.

Shen Yu frowned slightly. He squatted down and picked up a shard of broken porcelain bowl.

There were still some remnants of the tremella soup that hadn't flowed out. Shen Yu mixed the tip of the silver needle into it, and sure enough, the needle tip turned black rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Everything in this is poisonous.

Shen Yu put away the silver needles, swept up all the broken pieces of the bowl on the ground, and then walked into the inner hall with the food box as if he didn't know anything about it.

It is said that the Yue emperor favored Wen Yu, and his infatuation with her led to several major defeats in his battles against the Sheng Kingdom.

Why would he poison Wen Yu?

Shen Yu turned his gaze to the inner hall, where the doors and windows were tightly closed, preventing any light from entering.

After returning home, Wen Yu lay down on the bed without taking off his clothes, sleeping motionless in the corner with his back to the door and window. His black hair, which he had just combed that morning, was messy and fell down because it was too long, eventually dragging down to the ground.

Shen Yu looked at him for a few seconds: "Your Majesty, these pastries..."

Wen Yu: "I'll give it to you to eat."

Shen Yu: "..."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Shen Yu, holding the food box in his hands, walked out from the inner hall.

He closed the hall door and saw the dark figure still leaning against the wall. Shen Yu glanced up, then closed the door and returned to his room.

His original mission was to kill Wen Yu, but now that Wen Yu is poisoned, he probably wouldn't live much longer anyway.

The pastries delivered in the morning were mixed with deadly poison. Shen Yu had encountered the same poison before when he worked at the photo studio. This type of poison usually takes effect within five hours.

Shen Yu seemed to be deep in thought. If that were truly the case, then Shen Yu only needed to wait for Wen Yu's poison to take effect.

Shen Yu returned to his room and pulled the red book out from under his bed, wanting to see if there were any new additions.

[A bunch of idiots.]

Shen Yu: "..."

Shen Yu flipped through several pages, but the content remained blank as usual.

Only two sentences have been added to this red book so far. Shen Yu read the two sentences together but couldn't find any clues.

[What's this? ]

A flash of black light appeared before Shen Yu's eyes. Before he could react, the coal ball appeared in front of him.

The coal ball seemed to be seeing this kind of book for the first time. Its body was pressed tightly against the pages of the red book, and it made a sound like an alarm from time to time.

Before surviving, it had instructed Shen Yu that these two books were a special perk for him. If Coal Ball discovered this, it would judge Shen Yu as having cheated, thus depriving him of his chance for rebirth.

Shen Yu didn't know if Gouqie Tousheng's words were true or false, but seeing that the alarm on the coal ball kept going off, he hesitated for a moment and said, "This is the diary I borrowed from Gouqie Tousheng. I write things in it when I have nothing to do."

[Yeah?]

Coal Ball was somewhat suspicious. It flew around the red book once and flipped through dozens of pages. Apart from the first two sentences, the red book contained no other content and indeed looked like a brand new diary.

[Ha. Truly, your very nature is as it is; even the books you produce while clinging to life reek of cowardice, utterly rotten.]

The coal ball made no attempt to hide its bullying behavior. As it spoke, it smashed its head open and pulled out a golden notebook.

[Don't use that notebook, use mine. See? The cover of this notebook is made of fine gold powder; it's the finest diary.]

Shen Yu caught a golden notebook falling from above, his face dazzled by the fine, pure gold powder on it.

Coal Ball snorted, closed its cracked forehead, and flew back to Shen Yu.

Tell me, which is more reliable: me or simply clinging to life?

"..." The coal briquette crackled with electricity. Shen Yu looked at it, paused for a few seconds, and then said, "You."

The coal ball was smug and proud. It turned around and finally flew away to another place, completely satisfied.