Seeing the doctor sit down on the edge of the bed, Imuel paused, looking a bit stunned.

Bai Yu sighed, "Weren't you going to sleep? Go to sleep."

It was rare for him to be so soft-hearted.

Bai Yu took away the Duke's pillow and replaced it with his thigh, making room for him to sleep.

Imuel was still in a daze.

He stared blankly at the doctor, observing his expression, then lay down extremely carefully, rubbing his cheek against the side like a cat testing its territory.

Could he really sleep here?

Just a minute ago, he had clearly seen annoyance and displeasure in the doctor's eyes.

Imuel lay on it, keeping his neck stiff for support, not daring to press his weight down. Bai Yu didn't look at him; instead, he casually picked up a book from the bedside table and, just like every other night in the clinic, lowered his eyes and began to read. Imuel let out a sigh of relief. Confirming that the doctor had no feelings of disgust or impatience, he finally rested his head down gently.

The thigh muscles were of the perfect firmness, and since he was used to sleeping on them, Imuel felt like a cat returning to its familiar territory, completely surrounded by a sense of security. He closed his eyes, and it wasn't long before drowsiness washed over him.

When steady breathing could be heard, Bai Yu lowered his eyes and examined the young man resting on his lap.

The rumored Duke was a man of deep, unfathomable thoughts who loathed having others close to him. He was a formidable figure who slept in his armor and allowed no one to rest beside his bed. Yet now, this beautiful young man was sleeping on his lap as if no one else was around. His bright, stunning eyes were lightly closed, revealing a tired expression. He slept so peacefully, as if he was naturally meant to sleep soundly beside Bai Yu.

"..."

The doctor pushed up his glasses and thought, 'Strange.'

The young man's neck was right next to his hand. If Bai Yu really was an undercover agent for the Black Robe Society, he could snap the Duke's neck right now.

Thinking this, Bai Yu reached out his hand and placed his fingers on the Duke's neck. Right beneath his fingertips was the artery, pulsing steadily with every beat of his heart.

If the Grand Duke had even the slightest bit of wariness towards him, he would have woken up by now and ordered the guards to arrest him.

But Imuel did not.

He trusted Bai Yu wholeheartedly. Feeling his body warmth, he even turned his face to the side and nuzzled against that hand.

Like a coquettish kitten.

"..."

Bai Yu sighed softly and withdrew his hand. He massaged the space between his eyebrows and thought, 'With a personality like this, how on earth did he survive in the treacherous Grand Duke's Mansion, let alone inherit the title?'

He maintained his reading posture, waiting until Imuel fell fast asleep before Bai Yu finally got up and left.

Unexpectedly, the light in the valet's room was still on. Miller was sitting in the living room, staring at the door with a darkened expression, his thoughts unknown.

Seeing Bai Yu, he raised his eyebrows: "What? The Grand Duke didn't ask you to stay the night?"

Bai Yu walked past him without even sparing him a glance: "Why would he ask me to stay the night?"

Miller sneered: "I just didn't expect that, considering how favored you are, you wouldn't even get the chance to stay the night."

His gaze lingered over Bai Yu's waist and hips, circled around his tailbone, and then shifted to his thighs, noticing that his walking posture was a bit off and unsmooth.

Miller clenched his fists.

Bai Yu gave him a cold glance.

—Imuel had slept for too long, making his legs go numb.

There was naturally no need to tell Miller this. He went back to his room to sleep without a word. Under the weight of exhaustion, he had a good night's rest.

The next day, Bai Yu was awakened by the sound of shears outside his window.

He pushed open the window. The gardeners were pruning the garden lawn. Today, the Duke's Mansion was noticeably busier. Attendants were bustling in and out, and carts were transporting goods, leaving varying depths of tracks in the garden soil, as if preparing for an important gathering or banquet.

The Black Robe Society had mentioned that the Grand Duke's Mansion would be hosting the regular Illyria council meeting.

The regular meeting was held once every three months, convened by the Duke to gather all the nobles within the territory of Illyria, along with authoritative figures from the political and judicial fields, to discuss domestic issues together. It was somewhat akin to the imperial court assemblies of ancient China.

Today, the old butler specifically called for Bai Yu and Miller to delegate household matters. As personal valets, they needed to share a portion of the inventory paperwork.

Illyria had cumbersome etiquette. Depending on the noble titles of the attendees, the wines and beverages served at the banquet would vary. Bai Yu and Miller's task for the day was to check the required wines in the wine cellar.

The Duke's Mansion had a massive wine cellar with a constant temperature all year round. It housed both vintage wines sealed and aged in oak barrels, as well as liqueurs stored in small glass bottles.

Bai Yu stepped into the wine cellar. The area was vast, full of twists and turns, and fragmented into smaller spaces by oak barrels. There were many nooks and crannies, and since it rarely saw sunlight year-round, a chilling, gloomy aura wafted right into their faces.

He slightly narrowed his eyes.

Bai Yu had poor eyesight and relied entirely on the pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose. Without his glasses, he couldn't distinguish a person from an animal within ten meters. The dim lighting of the wine cellar made him feel a bit uncomfortable.

Bai Yu stood still in front of the wine cabinet, cross-checking the wine list. 55 suddenly said, "Host, Miller is staring at you."

The System sounded timid: "I feel like he's plotting something bad."

Miller's petty little schemes couldn't be hidden at all, but Bai Yu didn't care. He put the disorganized wine vessels back in place: "Let him look."

If Miller could use his petty tricks to make the Grand Duke despise Bai Yu and help him complete the task early, that would be for the best.

When the butler assigned the task, he didn't see Bai Yu and gave it to Miller, who then relayed it. At this moment, Miller was clutching the wine list, his fingers curling nervously. He then took a step forward, leading Bai Yu deeper into the wine cellar.

The wines here were much more precious. Some were tribute wines from neighboring states, while others had been cellared for years. A single bottle was worth several years' worth of food for an ordinary family.

Bai Yu casually copied down the details. The writing on the wine bottles had grown slightly blurred over the years, making it difficult to read. Halfway through, his eyes felt sore, so he took off his glasses and gently rubbed them.

By this point, he had already guessed what Miller wanted to do.

As expected, he had stood in front of the wine cabinet for less than two minutes when a massive force came from behind, striking heavily on his shoulder.

Bai Yu was prepared; he merely tilted his body slightly and stumbled a couple of steps. However, he didn't straighten up. Instead, he went along with Miller's intentions, letting his body fall forward and crashing straight into the wine cabinet.

The wine cabinet tilted, followed by the sounds of glass bottles toppling and crashing to the floor. Accompanied by a continuous series of crisp shattering noises, a rich aroma of wine dispersed through the air. Just from the fragrant scent alone, one could tell that these wines were aged vintages of exorbitant price.

Bai Yu had knocked over the most expensive cabinet of wine in the Duke's Mansion.

55 was startled: "Host? What are you doing?"

The Host had clearly stabilized his footing, so why did he still crash into it?

Bai Yu steadied himself and held onto something, his expression as calm as ever: "This is an opportunity."

The monthly regular meeting was the most important grand event at the Duke's Mansion. This was the first regular meeting Duke Imuel was holding since his injury, making it extraordinarily significant. By knocking over the most expensive liquors at this time, Bai Yu would definitely draw blame upon himself.

He had already delayed too long in this world. Duke Imuel's attitude was unclear and inexplicably ambiguous. It seemed he really did harbor some unhealthy thoughts toward Bai Yu.

In Illyria, it wasn't rare for the upper class to keep male pets. In all fairness, the Duke was very beautiful. If they had met in a bar or café in his previous life, Bai Yu would have been willing to buy him a drink. Unfortunately, he was a pure top. If the Duke wanted to top him, he wouldn't play along.

He needed to finish the mission as early as possible so he could extract himself.

Behind him, Miller swept a glance over the devastated wine cabinet, took two steps back, and soon, messy footsteps rang out, gradually fading into the distance.

He had left.

The wine cellar fell quiet for a moment. Bai Yu's gaze struggled to focus, leaving his eyes completely blank. Looking around, he could only make out the faint white light at the entrance.

He raised his hand to press the bridge of his nose, but it was completely empty—nothing was there.

The moment he was pushed, his glasses had fallen off.

Without his glasses, Bai Yu was basically half-blind.

Bai Yu held onto the wine cabinet. Most of his clothes were soaked with liquor, the liquid blooming into large crimson wine stains, making him look quite a mess: "55, can you point me in the direction of my glasses?"

55 floated out: "Okay."

The ground was now covered entirely with broken glass, and the glasses were buried within it, making them somewhat difficult to find. After scanning, 55 said: "Host, they are at your 3 o'clock position on your right-hand side, pinned under the glass."

So Bai Yu half-knelt down, his fingers lightly groping around. The pad of his finger pressed against the sharp edge of a shard, instantly splitting a small cut and seeping a bit of blood.

The blood mixed with the wine, looking inexplicably beautiful and vibrant.

55 panicked: "Host, stop searching. Let's wait a bit. Miller definitely went to tattle. We can wait for the attendants to come and clean up."

Groping through a pile of broken glass with bare fingers was no different from self-harm.

Bai Yu: "Point me in the right direction."

At this moment, he was unexpectedly stubborn.

55 had no choice but to continue: "Host, it's exposed now. The frame is exactly 30 centimeters to your left, but..."

"But what?"

"But it's shattered."

Bai Yu's original glasses were iodine-coated and blue-light blocking, but since Illyria's glass-making technology was not yet mature, that pair looked too out of place here. So he had switched to the original owner's round, silver-rimmed glasses. The lenses were made using the most primitive techniques; they weren't very sturdy and shattered easily.

"..."

Bai Yu exerted force in his fingers, silently gripping the edge of the wine cabinet.

55: "Host? Host, are you okay?"

The light in the wine cellar was dark, so 55 couldn't see his expression clearly, but inexplicably felt that he looked rather awful.

Bai Yu paused slightly and said calmly: "...I'm fine."

The wine cellar fell into dead silence. For a moment, only the sound of his breathing remained.

55 shrank its screen, not daring to speak.

Bai Yu was different from its previous two hosts. His features were on the cold side, and when his face darkened and he wasn't smiling, he gave off an exceptionally strong oppressive aura.

His field of vision was a blur; he couldn't distinguish north, south, east, or west. All that remained were the blurry silhouettes of the wine cabinets, standing like dormant beasts.

Bai Yu utterly despised this feeling of losing control.

Ever since he was a child, he liked to plan everything he did. From major things like his life path and major choices, to minor things like his diet, fitness routine, and reading—everything fell within his plans. He was always clear and methodical when handling matters. Only in very rare circumstances did things deviate from his predetermined track.

Like now.

55: "I feel like you're not doing too well right now..."

Bai Yu's expression remained as plain and cold as ever, seeming no different from usual. Yet, his eyes were slightly closed, and a bit of cold sweat even seeped from his forehead, rolling down his chin to the ground. The fingers pressing against the wine cabinet also unconsciously tightened, his nails even digging into the wood varnish.

Bai Yu took a deep breath: "I'm fine. I just remembered some things from the past, that's all."

He had hereditary myopia and had poor eyesight since childhood. Ever since middle school, his glasses never left his side. Because of his cold and aloof personality, he didn't quite fit in with the crowd. Coupled with the fact that his grades were often used by teachers as the benchmark for everyone else, he was exactly the type of student the boys in the back rows hated the most. As a prank, his classmates had once taken away his glasses.

That was during a PE class. Bai Yu wandered around the classroom like a headless fly for over half an hour, tripping twice before finally finding his glasses hidden under the teacher's podium.

This incident happened several times later on. The teacher had even called the parents of those delinquents, but since they were all underage students, what could the teacher really do? In the end, it was left unresolved.

Bai Yu leaned against the wine cabinet and sat down quietly: "Let's wait for the attendants to come."

With glass all over the floor, walking around blindly when he couldn't see clearly was too dangerous.

Darkness and silence infinitely prolonged the sense of time. The wine cellar was terrifyingly quiet. For a moment, one could even hear the sound of the spilled wine flowing—drip, drop—endlessly, making one's hair stand on end.

55 hesitated before speaking: "Should we talk about something?"

Bai Yu was far too quiet. The way he leaned against the wine cabinet made him look like a decorative sculpture. Even though he was normally this quiet, 55 still felt that something was wrong.

Bai Yu shook his head: "It's nothing."

His eyesight was still the same as it was back then, but Bai Yu was no longer the young Bai Yu. He groped the wine cabinet and stood up, saying in a relaxed, casual tone: "Why don't we guess what punishment the Duke will give me for knocking over such expensive wine?"

55: "Execution?"

Bai Yu habitually reached up to push his glasses, only to grasp at empty air. He then smiled slightly: "I hope it's execution."

Imuel had just finished handling his official duties, stacking the documents and setting them aside.

Today, he had deliberately sent Miller and Bai Yu away to take inventory in the wine cellar, keeping only the old butler and his personal guards by his side. The Grand Duke pretended to be nonchalant: "Go investigate someone. She is a beautiful woman in her early thirties who lives on Xike Street. She visited the doctor's clinic yesterday."

This description vividly matched the Madam.

Imuel was no fool. Bai Yu had not avoided him at home, but his actions had been slightly unusual. Although he wouldn't go so far as to suspect him, he still needed to investigate things clearly.

Having assigned the task, he ordered the old butler and the guards to step down. From a distance across the windowsill, he saw Miller walking over with large strides, his pace hurried, looking as if the sky were falling.

He bypassed the personal guards and the butler, bowed hastily, and said anxiously: "Duke, earlier you asked Bai Yu and me to take inventory of the wine cellar, but a massive accident has occurred."

Imuel's eyebrows twitched: "What accident?"

When it involved the doctor, he was more nervous than anyone else.

Miller feigned panic and lowered his head: "The fine wines stored deep within your wine cellar were... entirely knocked over by Mr. Bai. They shattered all over the floor. I watched from the side, and I'm afraid they are unsalvageable."

Imuel stood up abruptly.