Snake and Rabbit (3)

By the time Yin Mei had roughly planned out what she was going to do, the sun had already risen. She was feeling just as mentally exhausted as she was before going to sleep, but there was nothing she could do. Bai Yu's mother, Bai Lin, had already come to fetch her to start the day.

Actually, as the demon king's servant, the work wasn't really that hard. Since they were cultivators, things like laundry and cleaning could be done with a simple wave of the hand. These magic arts were really useful. Yin Mei, as a free person of modern day Earth, was slightly uncomfortable with the identity of "servant", but thinking of it as just an ordinary job, she felt that it wasn't too bad after all. The work was easy, the pay was good, and best of all, they had access to the demon king's treasury! Of course, they had to keep records of whatever they took out, and this treasury didn't keep the truly powerful and rare treasures, but it was still a pretty good perk.

Once again, today, she was inside the treasury. It had been a week since she had started working, and her mother had already left most of the duties to her - after all, they were pretty easy and weren't many, just cleaning, laundry, and doing a few errands like delivering food or messages. Since she had a lot of free time, she used it to either relax in the garden (the only place that wasn't dark and gloomy), or to come here and clean out the treasury. She cleaned the treasury manually, just so that she had an excuse to touch and feel each treasure one by one.

This wasn't just because she was vain. Rather, she was figuring out what each treasure was. Who knew if she would find something useful in here that could help her out with going up against the male and female leads? For example, this appearance changing brooch would be a good choice. There was also a cape that could manipulate shadows and darkness when worn. Yin Mei felt like if she was going to steal something, these two items would be absolutely necessary. She felt that if she was stealing from the female lead, then with these two items, she wouldn't even need the help of the demon king. That being said, she would still need to gauge the skill level of the hidden guard that the ninth prince had placed on her first before taking action...

"System, let me check the situation of the female lead again," Yin Mei spoke up.

The system didn't say anything, but a holographic screen appeared in front of her. On it was the female lead. Yin Mei had been observing the situation of the female and male leads like this for the past week. When she had first seen the female lead, Yin Mei had actually been a little bit disappointed. Although she was pretty, she wasn't the sort of country destroying beauty that she had expected her to be, instead being a step lower in good looks when compared to Bai Yu. Nowadays female leads seemed to prioritize strength and talent over good looks. Oh well. Even without the good looks, the female leads still had the Mary Sue aura to make up for it.

Currently, the female lead and male lead were at a point where the male lead only felt the female lead was interesting, and the female lead thought that the male lead was suspicious. It was a good place, but Yin Mei was worried, since the two would get engaged in the next month. The female lead was still currently engaged to the crown prince, but soon, through the scheming of her illegitimate half-sister, that engagement would be broken and the emperor would engage her to the ninth prince after he requests it.

Yin Mei knew that once they were engaged, it would be much harder to have the demon king get together with the female lead. She felt an invisible sense of pressure weighing down on her. As she was wavering back and forth on what to say to the demon king to convince him to accompany her to Li Kingdom, she heard a voice in her head, 'Xiao Yu, please come and fetch the snacks to deliver to His Majesty's room.'

This was the voice of the chef uncle, whom she had gotten friendly with over the last few days. Of course, it wasn't because she wanted to eat free sweets. Not at all.

Although the kitchen was pretty far from the treasury, Yin Mei was able to reach it in less than a minute. She had figured out why the rabbit clan was a favorite to serve the demon kings... it's because they were simply one of the fastest demon clans. Because of that, they made the best errand boys.

The chef uncle was an older tiger demon that looked more like a warrior than a chef. Contrary to his appearance, his food and sweets were extremely delicate and beautiful. Yin Mei thought that this must be an inner reflection of his personality.

The chef uncle wasn't even able to say anything before Yin Mei had already grabbed the tray of snacks and left, though not before she stuffed her mouth with one of the leftover sweets. She could barely stop herself from pausing to appreciate the sheer deliciousness of it. As expected, the skills of the demon king's personal chef really weren't ordinary! Not only that, but the ingredients used definitely also played a part. The ingredients used in the food were all from spirit plants or magic beasts, and had a very pure spiritual qi inside them. Eating this sort of food not only tasted good, but also felt very refreshing and could improve one's cultivation by a little.

Yin Mei had finished eating the pastry by the time she reached the demon king's room, her chewing speed as fast as her movement speed. Knocking politely, she entered without waiting for an answer. Bai Yu's mother had said that they didn't need to knock at all and could just enter without any worries, but Yin Mei felt that was too rude after all.

Going inside, although the decorations still inspired awe and admiration in Yin Mei, since she had already gotten used to the luxury of the palace after this time, she only looked around a little before placing the tray of snacks down on the nearby table. She went ahead to grab the teapot in the room to brew some tea as well to accompany the snacks. Before this week, she had never brewed tea before in her life, but she was glad that Bai Yu had been very good at making tea. Relying on Bai Yu's memories, she had used this week to familiarize herself with brewing tea and was now on a similar level as the past Bai Yu.

While she was doing this, the demon king remained in bed. Don't be deceived by appearances, it only looked like he was sleeping. In reality, he was cultivating. At least, that was what Bai Yu's mother had said. Well, after all, the demon king needed to hurry up and ascend before he died, so she thought it was pretty believable.

In all honesty, Yin Mei felt this demon king was pretty weird. Though he claimed he was in closed cultivation, he still had servants constantly coming over with snacks and tea. It was a little different from the image of closed cultivation portrayed in the novels. After all, weren't closed cultivators meant to be completely isolated from others so that they could fully focus on just cultivating? A cultivator at the demon king's level already didn't need any food or water, so what was he doing asking for so many snacks and tea? Could it just be that he had a sweet tooth?

Yin Mei shook her head, still unable to comprehend. Although he had the aura of an expert, the actions he took didn't really fit that image he gave off.

"What are you thinking of?" The demon king's amused voice sounded from behind her, causing Yin Mei to jump in fright.

She naturally turned around, to be faced with the half-dressed demon king. Although she had seen this scene now many times in the past week, it was still not enough to get used to this image of a bare chested beauty. F*ck, can't you cover up a little? She never thought there would be a day that she would think about this of a man.

Though she still hadn't gotten used to seeing this dazzling sight, she did think that she was getting better at covering up her reactions. Seeing him now, her eye only twitched a little and her face stiffened up slightly, but aside from that, there was no other reaction. She felt by the end of her time in this world, perhaps she would have finally mastered the art of the poker face?

"Your Majesty," she quickly bowed her head to the man, backing away a couple of steps.

"I asked what you were thinking about," the demon king said again, sitting down on the chair by the small round table where the snacks were placed.

Yin Mei quickly poured him a cup of the freshly brewed tea, while selecting a few of the snacks randomly to place on a plate in front of him. She wasn't worried that she would choose something he didn't like, as the chef wouldn't make a snack like that in the first place.

"I was just thinking that I was finally getting a little used to serving here," Yin Mei said, taking a peek at the demon king's expression while she spoke. He was the true master of the poker face here, always having on a completely unreadable expression. Well, it wasn't like Yin Mei was good at reading faces in the first place, but his cold eyes and wooden face really didn't help.

She Ming raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything more, merely taking a sip of the tea. Actually, the tea of the little rabbit's was quite to his tastes, but he didn't show it on his face. Elegantly taking small bites out of the tea snacks, there was silence between them as Yin Mei held the teapot and stood behind the demon king, ready to refill his cup at any moment.

She actually really hated these moments, because she couldn't tell what the demon king was thinking at all. She would always curse and wish that she had the ability to read minds, but too bad such an ability didn't exist. Though she wondered if there might be a technique like that among the ones in the male lead's ring.

Yin Mei continued to sneakily glance at the demon king, fidgeting a little as she thought whether she should bring up the matter of the female lead yet. Although she initially wanted to wait until she had solidified her position as a trusted servant more, she felt that such matters couldn't wait. After all, the engagement event was going to be approaching soon. And anyways, even she herself knew that she was just using that as an excuse to procrastinate on the matter.

"Do you have anything you want to say?" The demon king said, as if he couldn't stand Yin Mei's fidgeting anymore.

"That, no, well, yes, but, that is..." Yin Mei's words tumbled out, as she tried to think of a good way to say things. But both her tongue and her nonexistent courage were failing her. She glanced again at the demon king's cold face, which made her feel even more timid. But she knew it would just get worse the more she delayed, so she took a deep breath, cheering herself on before speaking out, "While in the human world I encountered a girl who has a Pure Yin constitution that I believe is very suitable for Your Majesty to dual cultivate with and could aid you in ascending to the upper realm so I think that Your Majesty should go and take a look." Everything came out all at once in a rush, but after she said all this, she felt relieved, as if a great burden had been taken off her shoulders.

"Hmm... is that so?" The demon king replied.

This reply made Yin Mei stiffen up again, and she could practically feel her stomach cramping from all this stress. "Y-y-yes!"

"I heard a lot about you from your mother and father," the demon king suddenly said, and Yin Mei had a confused look on her face, not sure where this was going. "They said that you had a penchant for running away to play in the human world, and like to wander and run about, causing them endless worries."

"Well, that is..." Yin Mei felt slightly embarrassed. Although the person who had run off to go play wasn't her, but Bai Yu, she still felt the embarrassment like she had been caught red handed stealing cookies. What could she say, those cookies were real good.

"It's only been a week, and you already want to go out to the human world?" Yin Mei felt that she could hear a little bit of amusement in his voice.

"Uh..." She felt like there was something wrong with this, but at the same time, she really did want to go out to the human world. It just wasn't the reason that the demon king thought it was. But, maybe she could use this reason to her advantage? "The human world really is fun, but I'm telling the truth! There really is a girl with a Pure Yin physique in the small Li Kingdom. Your Majesty should definitely go check it out!"

"Even so, there's no reason for me to personally make a move, right?" The demon king said.

That was true, but Yin Mei couldn't possibly say that everyone he sent would get defeated and lead to him personally making a move anyways, right? Or that the fact that he sent minions to kidnap the female lead had led to him making a horrible first impression on her, and so led to the female lead despising him?

The demon king looked in amusement as Yin Mei became flustered, her expression changing a thousand time a second. He seemed to have endless patience as he waited for the reply she would come up with.

"Well, you see, this girl has a really powerful backer with her! He's super powerful! That's why you have to personally go, since he'll be able to defeat anyone else you send." She could only reveal the existence of the male lead.

"I see..." The demon king drawled. Yin Mei's hopes rose up with the sound of the pondering in his voice. "But even so, I'm too lazy to go out." Yin Mei almost wanted to curse out the demon king, but reigned herself in at the last moment. She could only stomp her feet in anger. Weren't you impatiently cultivating so that you can ascend before dying? Is being a shut-in more important than your life?? Upset that she couldn't voice her anger, she sulked in place, thinking she was doing a good job of hiding her blaming glare, not knowing that all her little actions were clear to the eyes of the demon king.

"Well, alright." He finally said, feeling that he had teased the little rabbit demon long enough.

"Eh?" She looked at him dumbfounded, her big watery eyes opened up wide.

"I said alright. We can go take a look at this girl you're talking about." He said again, a sly smile on his face. But, Yin Mei was too excited to see it, cheering inwardly over the fact that the demon king had actually agreed. She Ming was actually rather curious about the Pure Yin furnace that Yin Mei had mentioned, but above all, he just thought that it would be amusing to play with this little rabbit for the moment.

In the future, Yin Mei would definitely regret ever teaming up with this black-bellied big boss. Play? More like torture! ;A;