Chapter Index

Prickly…

 

 

The sound of the window screen being pulled tightly shut resounded, Jiu Shu only saw a flash of silhouettes, and then his eyes were flashed by the piercing sunlight above his head.

 

 

He blinked, under the stimulation of the sunlight, a layer of water mist covered his azure-colored eyes, it was as clear and beautiful as a glass bead, from afar, it was dazzlingly beautiful.

 

 

Even through the gap of the window screen, he could see the unforgettable beauty of this blonde hair and blue-eyed youth.

 

 

This young skin bag, as those who were infatuated with it said, had unparalleled charm that was both captivating and desirable to pursue.

 

Even if they were to break their bones for it.

 

 

In the dimly lit room, there seemed to be someone who clenched his fingers, pale knuckles slightly white, as if he couldn’t believe that he actually produced such shameful thoughts.

 

 

Surprisingly, there were thoughts that only vulgar people who had always been disliked and excluded by themselves had.

 

“……”

 

 

On the bench, Jiu Shu looked at the curtained and closed window and withdrew his gaze thoughtfully.

 

 

After a moment of silence, he lowered his eyes and began to organize the books beside him, seemingly intending to return to his room to rest.

 

 

A few noble youths in the garden pavilion next to him noticed his movements and also got up to go back to their rooms.

 

 

Their eyes seemingly circled around the blonde-haired young man not far away.

 

 

Some of them were very subtle, but most of them were very straightforward, their gazes were burning, as if they were waiting for him to look back at them.

 

 

Jiu Shu didn’t pay attention to the people behind him, and walked straight towards the castle not far away.

 

 

He didn’t know if it was because of the Industrial Revolution when civilization was in its infancy, the people of this world were generally much more open-minded than in the previous world.

 

Faced with the right person, regardless of whether they were male or female, they always openly expressed their affection, especially for these pampered aristocratic youths whose private lives were exceptionally corrupt, with both men and women smearing their makeup and indulging in chaotic physical relationships.
 

This had become the consensus of the aristocracy in this country, and even the ordinary civilians were affected, very keen on these love affairs.

 

 

The chaotic relationships brought about distorted values, and the entire society was extremely respectful of those who possessed beauty as well, with the degree of exaggeration being completely no less than the people’s pursuit of music in the previous world.

 

 

As long as you had a perfect face, even if you were just a lowly commoner, you could be favored by the nobles, become the guest of honor at their banquets, and even become a socialite who wandered among the many nobles.

 

 

Judging from the newspapers and other information media, there were even many people who could cross the ranks and become the new nobles just by virtue of their faces, enjoying endless glory and wealth.

 

 

There were even cases of beautiful people being pardoned for felonies, as if they could be forgiven for all their sins if they were beautiful enough.

 

The whole society was immersed in a kind of extravagance, and they were incredibly obsessed with anything beautiful, with a kind of insanity that people couldn’t understand.

 

For example, his current appearance seemed to fit the aesthetics of this world, and in just a few days of coming to this world, he had already encountered several harassing accosting gestures.

 

 

Thinking of the undisguised desire on those people’s faces, even Jiu Shu was slightly overwhelmed.

 

 

This body was originally featureless before his arrival, with ordinary features and dull skin color, even with blonde hair and blue eyes, he was an unimpressive commoner son in the family.

 

 

That was why he was kicked out of his family to find his own way to come here.

 

But perhaps it was influenced by the angelic elves and other fantasy qualities attached to Jiu Shu’s soul, in just a few days his appearance changed, although his features didn’t seem to have changed much, his skin became delicate and snow-white, his light golden hair was smooth and pure like gold, and his eyes became clear and transparent from their original cloudiness.

 

 

it wasn’t much to Jiu Shu, but to outsiders it seemed perfect to the extreme.

 

 

“Are you going back? We’re having a private party tonight and you’ve refused many times.”

 

 

Someone blocked Jiu Shu’s way forward, Jiu Shu raised his eyes, his blue eyes filled with detached coldness, looking at it, the man was embarrassed for a moment.

 

 

Jiu Shu bypassed the disgruntled noble youth in front of him and continued to walk towards his room.

 

 

He had long wanted to go back, there were still many things to be busy with, and he had no time to pay attention to these people.

 

 

Returning to his room, Jiu Shu sat in front of his desk and turned on the slightly dimmed electric light.

 

 

Although this world was in the midst of the first industrial revolution, it had made a strong technological jump, and had already begun to use electricity, which would only appear in the second industrial revolution on Earth, to invent electric lights.

 

 

Aside from the fact that there was no modernized machinery yet, it was actually already very convenient.

 

 

However, such a fast pace of development had brought about a lot of negative impacts, pollution was very serious, not only did the sky have a perennial gray haze, even the sun also looked gray.

 

 

In recent decades, many deformed children had been born, and beautiful-looking people were becoming rarer and more sought after, falling into a vicious circle.

 

 

Of course, Jiu Shu felt that this worldview was the same as the last world, and that it was there for the sake of plot development.

 

 

After all, the original didn’t describe the female lead’s beauty much.

 

 

But due to her beauty, she fell in love with the male protagonist at first sight, and was helped by many servants and farmers in the process of escaping the old count’s oppression, all because of the heroine’s kindness and beauty.

 

 

Even the old count’s madness was related to his own ugliness, everyone was too concerned about appearance.

 

 

Jiu Shu furrowed his brows, looked at the newspaper on the desk, and opened the system panel once again.

 

 

He looked through the original’s portrayal of the old count, and since the original was mostly from the female protagonist Julie’s perspective, the old count’s image was mostly negative.

 

 

There was no detailed description of his appearance, but he could see between the lines that the old count was ugly and perverse, a typical antagonist.

 

 

[Julie came to the main hall of the castle with apprehension, pale and beautiful face with a heartbreaking melancholy, she seemed to anticipate her miserable fate, this eighteen-year-old girl had had enough of fate.

 

 

But she still walked into the main hall to face her miserable life thereafter.

 

 

Upon entering the hall, Julie saw a man with a straight posture standing in the main hall, his standing posture carried the unique elegance of an aristocrat, in his hands was a cane made of golden heather, the upper half of his face was wearing a mask, only revealing the lower half of his face that showed deep wrinkles.

 

 

 

Even though the man’s jawline was still hard and beautiful, and the handsome beauty of his youth could be vaguely seen, those fine wrinkles that revealed his age were undeniably visible on this face that was as pale as a water ghost.

 

 

Compared to Julie’s youthful and energetic figure, the old Count Augustus’s old and decrepit aura could no longer be concealed.

 

 

The old count seemed to be very dissatisfied with Julie’s tardiness, the downturned corners of his mouth was like a haughty peacock, revealing only a pair of dark eyes from the slit of his mask, as he scrutinized this helpless young girl who had arrived for the first time.

 

 

Meeting that condescending, haughty gaze, Julie was startled, almost as if she had seen a fearsome old wizard from a storybook.

 

And her averted gaze seemed to enrage the old Count, who uttered a low rebuke, with deep anger in his picked-up accent, “Insolent!”

 

 

The pale fingers holding the cane pointed at Julie like branches of a dead tree.

 

 

What happened after that was like a nightmare for Julie, she was thrown into an unattended room, no one even came to bring her food, she had to go out and look for it herself, like the pathetic pauper she was.

 

 

Julie sobbed lowly.]

 

 

This was the original depiction of the first meeting between the old count and the heroine, and after that it was the heroine who escaped from the manor in commiseration to meet the hero, Reid.

 

 

And now the plot seemed to have developed to the point where the romance between the hero and the heroine was discovered by the old count.

 

 

The old count drove the male lead Reid out of the manor and also imprisoned the female lead Julie, Jiu Shu thought of this and picked up a letter next to the table.

 

 

This was an invitation sent out by the old Count, inviting all those who were interested in coming to run for the position of heir to the Augustus family.

 

 

After Reid’s affair was revealed, the old count obviously hated this adopted heir, preferring to give the entire family to other unrelated nobles than to give Reid, the white-eyed wolf.

 

[TN: White eyed wolf — used to describe a particularly cold-hearted, cruel person.]

 

 

Although the old Count’s reputation in the empire wasn’t considered good, the wealth of this family was still there for all to see, and a lot of people were rubbing their hands together.

 

 

However, the old count seemed to find none of them reliable, and only chose some of the commoners who were not popular in their family, and it was for this reason that this original body was invited here.

 

 

In the original story, it seemed that the old count eventually failed to choose a candidate who looked good to him, and in the end, Reid took the seat of the heir apparent.

 

He himself died alone and unattended in the old castle.

 

 

Thinking of this, Jiu Shu flipped through the letter and pondered on his next plan.

 

 

Since he and those noble youths just now were invited but delayed in receiving the count, he didn’t have much personal freedom now.

 

 

Just like just now, whenever it was the old count’s nap time, they, the nominal heir candidates, had to be driven to the garden to bask in the sun, lest they disturb the sleep of the old count who had sensitive hearing.

 

 

It seemed that this time the target of discipline was even more defensive than before, and after thinking about it, Jiu Shu vetoed his original plan to approach the count.

 

 

 

Although part of the reason was that he hadn’t gotten out of his last relationship yet, it was actually more about the fact that to change the old Count’s fate didn’t necessarily require how close he was to him, as long as his abilities were sufficient.

 

 

He needed to gain enough of a position of power within two years, enough to influence the Imperial Emperor’s decisions.

 

 

By the time the old count was behind bars under the inertia of the plot he could easily be rescued, and then it was a matter of observing whether the old count would change as he did in that horror novel, Blood of Madness.

 

 

There were many ways to gain power in these obscurantist times, but if the count would be grotesquely changed as described in Blood of Madness, then another power would be needed.

 

 

Perhaps it was time to study the occult while plotting for power.

 

 

Jiu Shu fell into a deep meditation and didn’t sleep until late at night, and when he rose the next day he was suddenly notified that the castle authorities were no longer restricting their personal freedom.

 

 

The old count seemed to be lenient and allowed them candidates to wander around the castle, but Jiu Shu didn’t have any thoughts of going out and wandering around, and remained quiet in his room, continuing to think about his next plan.

 

 

After a few days, word came back that the noble youths were messing around in the castle, causing the count to become furious.

 

 

The old Count’s temper didn’t seem to be becoming tolerant.

 

 

“Too brutal! Damn ……”

 

“Hush – what if it’s heard!?”

 

 

“So what if it’s heard, that old undead thing, he’s lived to this age, who in the empire doesn’t know that he’s about to die, and when he dies the property will be ours!”

 

 

“You’re really bold, he hasn’t even determined the heir yet! But that guy does deserve to die!”

 

 

Outside the door, the noble youths who had been grounded and punished discussed the old count angrily, and Jiu Shu raised his head from the table, stopping the fountain pen that kept moving in his hand, and the white paper filled with words under the fountain pen was stained with ink spots.

 

After being interrupted from his thoughts, he was unable to continue for a moment.

 

Jiu Shu rubbed his throbbing brow with his long, white knuckles and picked up the occult book on the side, ready to go out into the sunshine, perhaps he would have more ideas if he went out to look around.

 

 

Walking down the dark red carpeted corridor, Jiu Shu’s brow was furrowed, seemingly in some sort of distress, his light blonde hair swayed on either side of his cheeks with the movement, the sorrow on his face was so obvious that one couldn’t help but want to smooth it out.

 

 

Splat–

 

 

There seemed to be the sound of something falling, Jiu Shu turned his head, but only saw the vase that had fallen on the floor.

 

 

The carpet was a mess, the vase water stained the carpet and one eye-catching jeweled cufflink.

 

“……”

 

 

Picking up the cufflink and looking around, there was still no one there, but as if Jiu Shu realized something, blinking, he put it away and turned away from the place.

 

 

And in the room behind him, a tall, well-built man seemed to have only now snapped to the realization that he was engaging in disgraceful acts of voyeurism, and his grip on his cane clenched so tightly that it almost cut through his glove.

 

 

His brow furrowed in a frown as he once declared himself disgusted with all young men, but now he seemed to be at a bit of a loss.

 

It was a far cry from yesterday when he had reprimanded those noble youths who had been messing around in his nap room, full of disgust and with a condescending tone.

 

At this moment, the only thing in his mind was the blonde-haired youth’s slightly melancholic side face that he had just seen, and he couldn’t get rid of it no matter what.

 

 

He seemed to be becoming enamored with a young skin as well.

 

“……” An exceptionally beautiful skin.

 

 

The room fell into an eerie silence, and the old count seemed to be a bit annoyed.

 

 

He paced back and forth in the room, his masked face made it impossible to distinguish his emotions at this time, only his taut jaw and the corners of his lips could be seen, revealing his unsettled mood at this time.

 

 

And in the intense mental activity, the old count seemed to finally compromise.

 

 

As he remembered the youth’s beautiful face, his fingers trembled, then he walked to the room in front of the mirror and sat down.

 

 

Looking at his masked face in the mirror, after some hesitation, he first took off the gloves on his hands, revealing his palms which appeared pale and withered under the dim light.

 

 

His palms without much flesh were long and bony, without wrinkles, and seemed to be the same as when he was young.

 

 

But when he removed the mask from his face and looked up again, his fingers tightened violently, as if he had seen something unpleasant.

 

 

The man in the mirror revealed his true face behind the mask, pale and lifeless, dense fine lines spread at the corners of his eyes, old and ugly to the core.

 

 

It didn’t match in the slightest with that extremely beautiful youth.

 

Bang–!

 

 

The mirror was smashed into pieces, and he unpleasantly covered his face with his palms, it was unknown whether he was angry or sad.

 


TN:

See ya tomorrow ✌️

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  1. Every world the ML’s starting self-esteem is in the gutters due to the settings… 🙁

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