◇ Chapter 70 File
Bai Yu raised his brows.
He didn't know why Grand Duke Imur suddenly mentioned the dumplings, but it was not a good thing, so he said calmly: "This seems to have nothing to do with you, Duke."
Yimuer was stunned at first, then sneered and said in a gloomy tone: "It's nothing, but I think the tiger skin and tortoise turtle you raise are ugly. I wonder if the doctor's aesthetic taste has always been so poor. Otherwise, if you become a male servant, I am afraid that the items purchased in my mansion will become ugly."
“…”
Before Bai Yu could speak, the Duke's fingers slid across the desk, pinched the only intact teacup, and said casually, "That white and gold kitten must be prettier, right?"
66 poked Bai Yu: "Host, what is he doing, arguing with you, an elementary school student?"
Why is it so confusing and incoherent?
Bai Yu thought: "Maybe this is the character of people with moody tempers."
In his limited career, he has never encountered anyone so troublesome.
But now that it had come to this, Bai Yu couldn't refuse. He recalled Tuanzi's appearance and reluctantly commented, "Very cute."
Although the platinum ball was indeed very pretty, thinking of her short legs, Bai Yu opened his mouth and only said, "Very cute."
Imur scratched the table in dissatisfaction.
He asked, "Is it cute?"
Is it just cute?
Bai Yu thought he was questioning her, so he lowered his eyes and smiled, which he himself could not detect: "Yes, it's very cute."
The doctor seldom smiled, and his expression was naturally indifferent. But when a smile appeared in those dark eyes, it was like ripples spreading across a cold and silent deep pool. Imur held his breath slightly and scratched the table with his claws.
The doctor had never smiled like this in front of him when he was a kitten.
Imur: "...really cute?"
Bai Yu gave him a strange look and said, "Of course, very cute."
Cuteness doesn't seem to be equated with beauty, let alone being liked, but Imur was miraculously comforted. The Grand Duke squeezed his clawless hand with satisfaction, showed mercy, and finally decided not to dwell on the matter.
He smiled and waved his hand: "I have finished asking questions, Mr. Bai, go to your bedroom and rest. Tomorrow is the first day of work, and I don't want my male servant to look exhausted."
It was just revealed so lightly.
The old butler who was about to take the new male servant who didn't know the etiquette away to discipline him: "..."
66 was also dumbfounded: "..."
The system said dissatisfiedly: "Imuir is not going to get angry?"
It thought they would be able to complete the mission and log off smoothly today.
Bai Yu frowned slightly. His plans were also disrupted by the Grand Duke's unconventional moves: "People with mental illnesses may be like this."
But on the surface, he bowed slightly and performed the courtesy of a butler: "Yes, sir."
The old butler took Bai Yu to his residence, which was on the second floor of the building, not far from the Grand Duke's bedroom, so it was convenient for the male servants to serve him closely. The waiters had already prepared everything. There was a large bed against the wall of the house, with a bell hanging on the bed. The rope was in the Grand Duke Imur's bedroom.
The butler handed the room key to Bai Yu and repeated, "Sir, I admire your courage, but I must reiterate that there are taboos in the Duke's Mansion. First, you cannot walk around in the garden, second, you cannot mention cats, and third, you cannot have physical contact with the Grand Duke. Please remember these three points. The Duke did not flare up this time, but that does not mean he will not flare up next time. For your own safety."
Bai Yu responded mildly.
The butler looked at him with complicated eyes and left the room.
"Well, mentioning the cat has been proven to be useless, so which of the remaining two should we do?" The system rubbed its hands excitedly: "Host, should we go wandering around in the garden or force physical contact with the Grand Duke?"
The ready-made taboos in the Duke's Mansion are here. If you want to die, just go against them.
Bai Yu paused, then said in a frown: "Can you speak more normally?"
What does it mean to force physical contact with the Archduke?
Bai Yu: "Grand Duke Imur is still at work. We can't see him now. Physical contact will have to wait until tomorrow."
66: "So are we going to go wander around in the garden?"
Bai Yu: "Go."
There were still several hours before dawn, and with nothing else to do, he might as well go out for a walk. It just so happened that he had a mission from the Black Robe Society to investigate.
The system considerately printed out a map of the Duke's Palace.
The Duke's Palace covers a large area, with gardens and artificial ponds surrounding the building. Swans are luxuriously raised in the pond. Now in the cold winter, the lake is frozen, and the swans have been frozen to the shore, where they are resting.
There are some small red dots on the map, orbiting the Duke's Palace. They are patrolling guards, but there are not many of them near the garden.
Grand Duke Imur likes quietness, so the security of the palace is arranged on the periphery. The several major gates are heavily guarded, and not even a fly can fly into the Duke's Mansion. However, there are no patrols near his residence, which is convenient for Bai Yu.
He was very skilled at it. He pushed open the glass window, flipped out, and landed lightly on the lawn without disturbing anyone.
Bai Yu patted his windbreaker and walked towards the garden.
66 looked through the collected newspaper materials: "According to the rumors in Illia, there is a piece of land under the Duke's Mansion that no one has ever set foot on. It is filled with hatred and blood. It should be a forbidden area, right?"
The lake was quiet and deserted at night, not even a ghost could be seen. He walked around the shivering swan and told the system: "66, start scanning mode."
The system's scanning function is much stronger than Bai Yu's own.
66 switching function, electromagnetic waves silently covered the entire lake surface. Under the extremely high power exploration of the system, it could even cover ten meters below the ground.
After a while, when Bai Yu walked half a circle around the lake, 66 suddenly said, "Host, here."
The system screen flickered, showing a cross-section of the land. "It shows an empty area under the lake, like a dungeon or something."
Bai Yu: "Can you find the entrance?"
System: "Host, please turn around again. Let me see. Hmm... this is it."
It marked a small space on the map, which was covered with lawn. The lawn was well-maintained and seemed to be taken care of by someone. There was also a small hole next to it. Bai Yu estimated that it was big enough to fit only a kitten.
He leaned over, grabbed the edge of the grass, and felt for a protruding lever.
System: "I just checked, the lever is rusted, this place is abandoned, no one has been here for a long time."
Bai Yu lifted his sleeves, half-knelt in front of the pull-up bar, and used his elbows to push hard—
The system was lying next to him: "Wow, host, your forearm muscles look great."
Bai Yu almost failed: "Shut up."
The doctor looked thin, but he had muscular body when he took off his clothes, and he was quite strong. He pulled the edge of the buckle, veins bulged in his elbow, and the rusted edge moved slowly. Soon, an underground entrance that was only wide enough for one person to pass through appeared.
The system floats in front and automatically acts as a small flashlight.
There was an iron ladder leading downwards at the entrance of the cave, which was also mostly rusted. Bai Yu put on gloves to prevent scratches and walked down the stairs. After walking about twenty or thirty steps, he finally landed.
It's a prison cell.
It might not be right to call it a cell, it is more like a cage. Adults need to crawl to get in, and the railings are not the vertical bars commonly used in prisons, but mesh wire.
——It’s like they’re afraid something will come out of the railings, so they need wire protection.
Walking around the cages and the locked cells, Bai Yu looked at each room one by one while holding the system, but stopped at the innermost room.
System: "This wall?"
This wall is covered with scratches, from top to bottom, so densely packed that just one look at it can make people suffer from trypophobia.
The scratches were deep, but not very large in cross-section, and seemed to have been left by something long and sharp, not like marks left by human fingernails.
Bai Yu frowned.
These are cat scratches. And not just one cat, but many cats, over years of pain and despair, could have left so many, such deep scratches on the wall.
66: "Host, there is something at your feet."
Bai Yu bent down and saw an iron basin. He picked up the basin and smelled the faint smell of rotten food.
Bai Yu: "At the latest three months ago, someone came in and put meat on the plate."
66: "But the entrance is locked, no one can get in."
There was only an entrance as big as a bowl, which could accommodate at most a kitten.
But how could a cat get so deep underground and put food in the iron basin?
Bai Yu had no clue, but luckily he was not here to decipher the code. He just wanted to understand the customs and culture of this era as a tourist, so he did not think too much about it. He just picked up the system as a flashlight again and looked around the dungeon.
Outside the cell, there was actually a living area. Bai Yu even found a laboratory and a treatment table, as well as several files that had not been moved away in time.
He brushed away the dust on the file and lowered his eyes to read.
"On July 24, three pairs of 'male cats' and two pairs of 'female cats' were captured."
"On August 30, the cat became pregnant. I told the Duke that the embryo was underdeveloped and might be deformed, but he still decided to keep it."
"On June 17, the female cat gave birth to a cat weighing 64 grams, with platinum fur. Due to 'genetic' problems, the cat was born with congenital dysplasia, and there were varying degrees of problems with the skeleton and heart."
“…”
A trivial and messy record.
66 was puzzled: "Duke Imur keeps a cat here? Isn't this place suitable for kittens to live in?"
They are now underground in the lake, it is damp and cold, there are signs of mold growing on the walls, the kittens are very likely to get ringworm, not to mention there is no sunlight, any living thing living here will become depressed and sick within two months.
Bai Yu: "Looking at the time recorded in this file, it's not Grand Duke Imur, but the previous duke, who should be Imur's father."
In the background of the novel, Imur is not the only son of the Grand Duke. He has several older brothers. However, Imur is very low-key and the citizens of Illia don't even know that there is such an heir. It was Imur who used some means to kill all his brothers and sisters and then ascended to the throne of the Duke.
66 Disgusted: "No wonder Grand Duke Imur is such a moody pervert. It turns out it's inherited from his family. His father also looks sick."
Bai Yu agreed: "Indeed."
He put the files back in place, looked around again, and seeing nothing else worthy of note, he returned the same way.
When he came out of the exit, it was already dawn.
66: "Let's go and implement the last taboo."
—Close contact with the Archduke.
The author has something to say:
I have a cold and a little headache. If I feel better tomorrow, I will write more orz
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com