The torture went on for twenty or thirty minutes. Only when the eleventh prince passed out from the unbearable agony did the Crown Prince order his men to stop.
Shen Yangge's initial delight at getting revenge had already given way to numbness.
I can already imagine how that bastard Crown Prince is going to torture me in the future.
System 615: ?
Shen Yangge: It'll definitely make me wish I were dead!
Luckily, he had a pain-off button. Otherwise, even if he had to die, he would never choose to die at the Crown Prince's hands.
After being brought back from the brink of death, Shen Yangge had no idea that the Crown Prince had watched over him all night. When his breathing had grown faint, the Crown Prince had even struggled to resist strangling the eleventh prince outright.
Afterward, he had battled the violent thoughts in his head. Only when he saw Shen Yangge wake up did he regain a little of his reason, and the moment he did, he ordered the servants to torture the eleventh prince.
Only that could vent the brutality suppressed to its limit within him.
Dawn gradually broke. The first ray of sunlight passed through the latticed window and fell across the floor. Having stayed awake all night, the Crown Prince looked somewhat weary.
He wanted to stroke the kitten lying on the soft pillow, but the sight of those little red wounds forced him to withdraw his hand. Instead, he gently pinched a soft, pale-gray ear.
When Shen Yangge woke again, he discovered that the bastard Crown Prince hadn't chained him up this time.
But he couldn't feel happy about it, because instead of chaining him up, the bastard Crown Prince had locked him straight inside a cage.
Shen Yangge couldn't stop cursing.
Goddamn it, does this fucker have some kind of twisted fetish?!
Why did he have to torment this one particular cat?
Having selectively forgotten that a certain Crown Prince had saved his life, Shen Yangge finished cursing and curled up into a ball.
Who knew where that bastard Crown Prince had gone?
Shen Yangge spent the next few days in the cat cage. He was so bored that he and the system in his head were close to reciting the entire "Memorial on Sending Out the Troops" from memory.
On the last day before he was due to turn human again, Shen Yangge was beside himself with anxiety. He was still locked in the cage. How was he supposed to get out?
Who knew what the bastard Crown Prince was doing? He was constantly nowhere to be seen.
With no other options, Shen Yangge could only pretend to be sick and try to get someone to open the cage.
But the servants and palace maids stationed outside the hall didn't dare approach the cage, much less find out whether he was "sick."
In the end, it was the bastard Crown Prince who returned and noticed that something was "wrong" with him.
What followed was a visit from Physician Liu...
Finally, Physician Liu said, "You should let him out of the cage. Otherwise, he may stay like this, and being cooped up for too long could make him seriously ill."
Only then did the bastard Crown Prince follow his advice and let Shen Yangge out.
Night fell. After a gloomy dinner, the Crown Prince gathered Shen Yangge into his arms and prepared to bathe and change.
Shen Yangge was thrilled to realize his opportunity had come.
But he couldn't make it too obvious. After all, he was still supposed to be a weak little kitten!
While the Crown Prince was taking off his clothes, Shen Yangge leaped down from the stand!
The chain was so tight that it nearly strangled him to death.
He hadn't done this out of stupidity. He merely wanted to use it to make the Crown Prince unfasten the chain.
"Meooow-"
He let out a miserable cry, his little feline legs kicking wildly.
Fuck, this is way too tight!
The Crown Prince stopped undressing. Frowning, he walked over to the stand, reached out to support the kitten, and unfastened the chain.
At that very instant, Shen Yangge kicked his four stubby legs and shot out of the Crown Prince's hands.
Even though the movement pulled painfully at his wounds, he had no time to worry about them.
The Crown Prince's expression shifted slightly. He hurried after him, but the kitten was small and nimble, and had already vanished.
"Yangyang."
That was the last call Shen Yangge heard before leaving the bedchamber. He searched along the corners of the walls for a hole, but after running all the way around, he discovered to his horror that the old mouse hole had been sealed.
Fuck, was that really necessary?!
[Countdown until punishment ends: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...]
A beam of white light flared in the corner. A moment later, Shen Yangge crouched on the grass in his prison clothes, too stunned to react.
System 615: [Host, the male lead is coming! Hurry and leave!]
He wanted to, but unless he could vanish into thin air, there was no way out now.
What was he supposed to do?
Shen Yangge scratched frantically at his head. Suddenly, he realized that all his wounds had healed the instant he turned human again, but this was no time to celebrate.
He looked at the Eastern Palace wall and estimated its height.
It wasn't too high. Perhaps because he had been a cat, he found that his jumping and climbing abilities had improved dramatically. Before, he would never have felt confident that he could climb it.
Shen Yangge scrambled onto the top of the wall and leaped down a second before the Crown Prince caught up.
His backside nearly split into four from the fall. He turned and ran.
The imperial palace was silent and eerie at night, like the setting of a horror movie.
As he ran, Shen Yangge realized he was lost again. He bent over, panting.
Just as he was about to keep running, he suddenly remembered that this was the imperial palace...
There were imperial guards patrolling here. What if they caught him and took him for an assassin?
If they branded him a traitor, would the emperor have him executed on the spot?!
He was about to rejoice when System 615 timidly reminded him, [Host, this would violate the original owner's established fear of death.]
"Why? I didn't choose to come here. If someone discovers me, that doesn't mean I deliberately let them find me."
System 615 added, [But you're only here because you turned into a cat. According to the previous plot, you aren't in the imperial palace at all right now. (＞﹏＜)]
Shen Yangge: "..."
Fuck. Why did this bastard system have to nitpick every single thing?!
Now he was stuck. If he went forward, the imperial guards might catch him. If he went back, that bastard Crown Prince was waiting.
Wait. He was human now. Being missing didn't mean he was dead.
So why should he worry about whether the Crown Prince would realize he was the cat?
The Crown Prince hadn't seen him turn human.
Once he figured that out, Shen Yangge hurriedly backtracked.
If the Crown Prince discovered him, suspected him of malicious intent, and executed him on the spot, all the better!
Shen Yangge headed back.
After walking for a while, he scratched his chin.
He seemed to be... getting lost.
System 615 fell silent.
Xue Pingyuan only managed to leave the palace after the curfew had begun. With the emperor's exit token in his possession, naturally no one dared stop him.
He was walking through the darkness with a lantern when he suddenly saw someone jump down from the top of a wall.
At first, he thought it was an assassin.
But the moment he saw the furry ears on top of that person's head, he froze.
This... this was...
Those pale-gray ears stood out strikingly amid the smooth, ink-black hair. Something stirred within him. He couldn't shake the feeling that this person...
No, he probably wasn't human.
Could he be the kitten I picked up before?
The more he thought about it, the faster his heart beat. Keeping out of sight, Xue Pingyuan followed him.
Before you continue