◇ Chapter 77 Turning Point
Before Miller could react, Grand Duke Imur suddenly came up to him, grabbed his collar and half-lifted him up.
The Grand Duke narrowed his eyes, his lake blue pupils were as deep as the sea, and for a moment Miller even had an illusion that the eyes staring at him turned into cold vertical pupils.
Yimuer asked coldly: "Where is Bai Yu?"
Miller said with difficulty: "In the wine cellar..."
Imur pressed forward and asked, "Where is the wine cellar?"
The wine cellar of the Grand Duke's Palace covers a large area, and it is not easy to find someone in it.
Miller lowered his eyes and trembled, not daring to look directly at the Grand Duke. He opened his mouth and was about to tell Bai Yu's location, but suddenly swallowed it, lowered his eyebrows and said: "I followed him, and then I was a little flustered when I came out, and I didn't remember the way."
The Grand Duke wanted to go to the wine cellar to hold someone accountable. If he didn't know the location and couldn't find the person, the longer he looked, the angrier he would naturally become.
Imur glanced at Miller, wondering if he had seen through his trick, but he said nothing and walked straight past him at the speed of wind.
"Butler, bring the porter who is familiar with the wine cellar and come here to stand by."
The tone was very cold, as if he was angry.
Miller lowered his head and couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips.
Any bottle of wine in the wine cellar is worth a fortune. Bai Yu broke so many of them, enough for him to drink a whole bottle.
He didn't notice the anxious expression on Grand Duke Imur's face at all.
Imur didn't even take the stairs. Wearing the complicated costume of the Grand Duke, he supported himself with one hand and jumped down from the edge of the railing like a light cat.
The butler and the guards were unable to catch up with him. The Grand Duke had already walked through the entire garden and entered the wine cellar.
There are thousands of wine cellars in the Duke's Palace, more than the wine collection in Bai Yu's previous Bordeaux winery. The roads are winding and divided into scattered spaces. Oak barrels are stacked layer by layer like high walls. Even if you shout, the echo will interfere with you and it is difficult to determine the direction.
Imur was distraught.
…Where the hell is the doctor?
If the wine was broken, it was broken. Why didn't he come out with Miller? Would he blame the doctor for such a small matter?
Or was he hit by a wine bottle and couldn't get out for the time being?
Most of the staff in the mansion were preparing for the banquet, and the personal guards were not at home. It was somewhat difficult to turn this huge wine cellar upside down. By the time the butler gathered the staff, it would probably be more than half an hour.
Imur couldn't wait that long, he was eager to know the doctor's condition.
After looking around, the Duke set his sights on the stacked oak barrels.
The oak barrels are very tall and connected to each other. If you can climb up and patrol along the barrels, it will be much easier to find someone.
But climbing up...
The gap at the top of the wooden barrel is less than half a meter, so people cannot move around. Even if they go up, the barrel cannot bear their weight.
The Duke curled up his fingers slightly and rubbed them unconsciously.
He looked around, dodged and hid in the shadow in the corner, touched the buttons on his waist with his fingers, and gently bit his lower lip.
He unbuttoned his shirt.
Soon, the laces were untied, and the robe slid off his body, and finally the inner garment fell off as well.
The luxurious and solemn dress fell to the ground, splashing dust.
A platinum kitten with lake blue eyes crawled out from the dress, pushed aside the layers of clothing with its claws, jumped lightly on the edge of the oak barrel, and climbed up.
It is a very dangerous move to rashly turn into a cat in the Duke's Mansion. Once the Grand Duke's clothes are picked up by someone, combined with the fact that Imur is missing, the identity of the kitten is at risk of being exposed at any time. At that time, how the upper class of Illia will view this duke who was born a slave will be bad.
But Imur was too anxious.
He trotted along the oak barrels, his eyes sweeping across every corner of the wine cellar, and with a few big leaps he crossed the gaps. Then, at a corner, he paused slightly, changed his limbs from running to walking, and shook his big tail to keep his balance, and after a few breaths he slowly stopped.
He saw the doctor.
The doctor sat quietly among the debris, his vision unfocused, just staring blankly ahead. At this moment, his eyes were slightly lowered, without glasses, and the cold and stern pupils hidden under the lenses softened for no reason, looking quiet and lonely.
His shirt was soaked through and stuck to his body, with the curve of his waist and abdomen clearly visible, but Imur had no time to look at it. The traces of wine left on the shirt were bright red and looked like a diffuse bloodstain at first glance. His glasses fell beside him, with the lenses broken into pieces and obviously unusable.
Ymur choked.
The ground was littered with broken bottles, the transparent glass reflecting a blinding cold light, sharp as a dagger. The deep red wine spread all over the ground, and the doctor sat in it, as if sitting on a knife blade and blood.
A layer of cold sweat broke out on Bai Yu's forehead. He didn't move or speak, and even his breathing was very light. He was as quiet as a lifeless wax figure.
...How did it turn out like this?
Imur didn't understand. It was just a few insignificant wine bottles broken, so why did the doctor have such an expression?
My heart felt like it was being grabbed by a hand, and a silent bitterness spread.
Next to the wine cabinet, Bai Yu raised his hand and pressed his eyebrows.
Human beings rely on vision. Once they lose this sense, they will fall into confusion and panic. In front of the doctor's eyes was a large area of mottled colors with blurred edges and double images. Bai Yu couldn't even tell what those were. He didn't know where he was, how to get out, or how long he had to wait. In the endless silence, even someone as cold as him felt a little anxious.
But there was nothing he could do but wait.
Having lost his eyesight, his hearing became extraordinarily sharp. Bai Yu frowned slightly, as if he heard the sound of squeezing and rubbing of the oak barrel, and above his head, there were slight footsteps - very light and gentle, not that of a human, but more like a kitten.
...Dumpling?
Bai Yu didn't pay attention to the footsteps of Platinum Tuanzi, but from the sound of them, he intuitively knew it was a short-legged kitten.
But how come there was a kitten in the wine cellar of the Duke's Mansion?
He immediately looked up and actually saw a platinum block on the top of the oak barrel. However, before he could distinguish it, the color disappeared quickly, like a bubble-like illusion.
Bai Yu shook his head slightly and smiled bitterly.
My glasses were broken and I even had hallucinations.
On the other side, Imur noted down the route, turned back in a hurry, fastened his clothes hastily, and returned to the wine cabinet.
Bai Yu raised his head.
There were hurried footsteps all around, coming straight towards him. Someone must be coming.
Bai Yu thought: I wonder if the person coming is the royal guard, Miller, or the butler?
He then stood up, leaning on the wine cabinet, and smiled politely. : "I'm sorry for knocking over the wine cabinet, I——"
Someone held my hand.
Bai Yu's hand was originally hanging naturally by his side, but someone leaned over and grabbed it roughly, then pulled it up.
The force that gripped him was incredibly strong, leaving no room for rejection, and he was not able to check for a moment, staggered two steps, and was pulled directly away from the center of the debris.
“…”
Bai Yu was slightly surprised.
The knuckles of the fingers holding him were long and slender, and even after she had pulled him up, she still held on tightly.
Bai Yu: “You?”
He recognized the owner of these hands, Ymur.
For some reason, the fingers of Iberia's most precious Grand Duke trembled slightly. He grasped Bai Yu's wrist and said in a hoarse voice, "Follow me."
Bai Yu paused slightly.
He is now equivalent to a blind man and can only follow Imur. If Imur lets go of him halfway or leads him to crash into the wine cabinet, he will be completely helpless.
Due to the disorder and nervousness, Bai Yu's palms were covered with a thin layer of sweat, and it was uncomfortable to hold the hand, but the Grand Duke obviously had no intention of letting him go. He walked in front, holding the doctor who could not focus and walked stumblingly, and walked through the stacked wine cabinets.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Bai Yu felt the sunlight.
The entrance to the wine cellar was right in front of him. The dark block in his sight was replaced by a bright one. Although he still couldn't see clearly, the doctor's tense nerves relaxed quietly.
They came out.
Ymur: "Don't worry, I'll have someone find you a new pair of glasses. Put on your coat first, it's very cold in the wine cellar."
This was the scene that Miller and the butler saw when they finally arrived.
The servant who had made the mistake stood aside quietly. Imur took out the lens from the box. Due to time constraints, there was no time to match them, so there were only empty lenses. He made a simple single lens. The Duke adjusted the angle, raised his hand slightly, and carefully placed it on Bai Yu's nose.
The vision gradually became clear, Bai Yu blinked, and the first thing that caught his eye was the Duke's extremely gorgeous face.
Imur's eyes were clear and beautiful. He was concentrating on handling his glasses, as seriously as a doctor observing a patient's lesion.
The two of them were very close to each other. Bai Yu was slightly taller, so he only needed to lower his head slightly to touch the Duke's forehead.
“…”
Carefully adjusting the angle, Imur took a step back: "Okay."
Bai Yu: “Wait a moment.”
He also raised his hand and placed it on his waist in front of the Duke's surprised gaze.
Imur's buttons were crooked.
He turned into a kitten, took off his clothes, found Bai Yu, and hurried back to put on his clothes naked.
A dignified Duke of a region undressing and exposing his body in a wine cellar was even more indecent than those young men and women having sex in a brothel. Imur was anxious and ashamed, and inevitably made mistakes in his haste.
And now, the doctor was lowering his eyes and adjusting his belt.
Imur froze, not daring to move.
Although the doctor was nominally his manservant, Imur still blushed when he saw him doing such a thing with such a gentle and ascetic face.
Bai Yu's hands were holding the scalpel, and he was extremely steady. His knotting movements were focused and beautiful. Imur obediently let him do the work, like a pretty kitten being dressed up by its owner. But the Duke's eyes fell on Bai Yu's fingertips, and he suddenly frowned.
There was a wound there, still bleeding.
He suddenly grasped the doctor's wrist.
Bai Yu raised an eyebrow, startled by him, and immediately asked, "What's wrong?"
Imur held the finger, opened his mouth, pursed his lips and said: "You are injured."
The wound hung on the doctor's cold white fingertips, bright red and dazzling. As a kitten, Imur's first reaction when he saw this unsightly mark was to lick it.
His eyelashes trembled slightly, and he suppressed his instinctive impulse and said hurriedly: "I'll go get you some medicine."
The Duke fled away, as if something bad would happen if he stayed one more second.
Bai Yu didn't move.
He stared at his fingertips for a while and said nothing more.
Such a trivial wound actually does not require any medicine. Duke Imur was a little too nervous about him.
In the following days, the Duke did not arrange anything for him because of the insignificant injury on his fingertips. Imur believed that he needed to rest, while everyone else in the mansion was busy preparing for the regular meeting. For a while, Bai Yu became the only idle person in the mansion.
His roommate Miller disappeared all day, and later, when Bai Yu occasionally chatted with the old butler, he learned that Miller had angered the Duke because of a trivial matter and was exiled from the mansion.
The old housekeeper reminded: "Miller is a little too thoughtful and not honest enough. When I sent him out of the house, he glanced at your room with a bit of resentment in his eyes."
Bai Yu nodded indifferently.
Although he was expelled from the house, Miller was of noble birth after all, and his family heritage was still there. Going home and becoming a rich and idle person was also a good choice. Bai Yu only regarded him as a passerby and had no resentment towards him, so he didn't dwell on it anymore.
The days passed like water, Bai Yu counted the days and felt that the completion of the task was a long way off.
On the day of the regular meeting, a turning point suddenly came.
As a male servant, Bai Yu needed to accompany the Grand Duke closely at the regular meetings. He tidied the Duke's clothes and stood beside him. Guests came in one after another, and the waiters brought cold and hot dishes and served them one by one.
Everything was in order, and just when everyone was seated, the Grand Duke was about to raise his glass to congratulate, but his personal guard suddenly stepped forward and whispered in Grand Duke Imur's ear.
The guards of the Duke's Palace are exclusively for the Grand Duke. During important banquets, unless it is extremely urgent, they will not show up rashly.
Bai Yu raised his brows.
The guard leaned over and deliberately avoided Bai Yu, whispering to the Grand Duke,
Imur's expression changed unpredictably, and finally froze into an incredibly pale look. His eyelashes trembled, and the hand holding the wine glass shook unsteadily. Finally, he raised his eyes vaguely.
Looked at Bai Yu.
The author has something to say:
Countdown to the double exposure.
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