Before Miller could react, he saw Grand Duke Imuel suddenly step forward, grab his collar, and lift him halfway up.

The Grand Duke narrowed his eyes, his lake-blue pupils deep as the sea. For a moment, Miller even had the illusion that the eyes staring at him had turned into cold vertical slits.

Imuel asked coldly, "Where is Bai Yu?"

Miller said with difficulty, "In the wine cellar..."

Imuel leaned in and pressed, "Where in the wine cellar?"

The wine cellar of the Grand Duke's Mansion covered a vast area, making it no easy task to find someone inside.

Miller kept his eyes downcast, shivering, not daring to look directly at the Grand Duke. He opened his mouth, just about to report Bai Yu's location, but suddenly swallowed his words and said submissively, "I followed him in, but I was a bit flustered when I came out and didn't remember the way."

The Grand Duke was going to the wine cellar to demand an explanation. If he didn't know the location and couldn't find the person, the longer he searched, the greater his anger would naturally grow.

Imuel glanced at Miller. It was unknown whether he had seen through his trick, but he said nothing, only walking right past him with steps as swift as the wind.

"Butler, bring the porters who are familiar with the wine cellar and come stand by."

His tone was extremely cold, as if he was angry.

With his head lowered, Miller couldn't help but curl up the corners of his lips.

Any random bottle of wine in the wine cellar was worth a fortune. Bai Yu having smashed so many would be enough for him to suffer the consequences.

He completely failed to see Grand Duke Imuel's anxious expression.

Imuel didn't even take the stairs. Wearing his intricate Grand Duke attire, he propped himself up with one hand and jumped down from the edge of the railing, like a nimble cat.

The butler and the personal guards couldn't catch up with his pace; the Grand Duke had already crossed an entire garden and stepped into the wine cellar.

The Duke's Mansion had tens of thousands of bottles in its wine cellar, even more than the collection of the Bordeaux winery in Bai Yu's past life. The paths were twisting and turning, densely divided into scattered spaces. Oak barrels were stacked in layers, like high walls. Even if one shouted, the echoes would interfere, making it difficult to discern the direction.

Imuel was frustrated and restless.

...Where on earth is the doctor?

If he broke the wine, he broke it; why didn't he come out with Miller? Could it be that he would blame the doctor for such a trivial matter?

Or was he injured by a wine bottle and couldn't come out for the time being?

Most of the manpower in the mansion was preparing for the banquet, and the personal guards were also not in the mansion. It would be somewhat difficult to turn this huge wine cellar upside down. By the time the butler gathered the manpower, more than half an hour would probably have passed.

Imuel couldn't wait that long; he desperately wanted to know the doctor's condition.

Looking around, the Duke fixed his gaze on the stacked oak barrels.

The oak barrels were very tall and interconnected. If one could climb up and patrol along the barrels, finding someone would be much more convenient.

But to climb up...

The gap at the top of the barrels was less than half a meter, so a person couldn't move around. Even if someone got up there, the barrels couldn't bear the weight of a person.

The Grand Duke slightly curled his fingers, rubbing them together unconsciously.

He looked around, dodged into the shadows of a corner, touched the frog clasp at his waist, and gently bit his lower lip.

He unbuttoned the clasp.

Immediately after, the sash was untied, his robes slipped down from his body, and finally, his inner garments also fell.

The luxurious and solemn formal attire fell to the ground, kicking up dust.

A platinum-colored kitten with lake-blue eyes burrowed out of the formal attire. He pushed aside the layered fabric of the clothes with his paws, leaped lightly onto the edge of the oak barrel, and climbed up.

Recklessly turning into a cat in the Duke's Mansion was a very dangerous move. Once the Grand Duke's clothes were found by someone, coupled with the fact that Imuel was missing, the identity of the kitten would be at risk of exposure at any time. When that happened, it wouldn't be good for how the upper echelons of Illyria would view this Duke of slave origin.

But Imuel was too anxious.

He trotted along the oak barrels, his gaze sweeping over every corner of the wine cellar. He cleared the gaps with a few large leaps, and then, at a certain corner, he paused slightly. His four limbs slowed from a run to a walk, his large tail swaying to maintain balance, and after a few breaths, he slowly came to a stop.

He saw the doctor.

The doctor sat quietly amidst a pile of shards. His gaze was unfocused, just staring blankly ahead. At this moment, with his eyes slightly lowered and not wearing glasses, those cold and austere pupils hidden beneath the lenses softened for no reason, looking solitary and lonely.

His upper garment was completely soaked, clinging stickily to his body, making the curves of his waist and abdomen apparent at a glance. But Imuel had no time to appreciate this; the traces left by the wine on the shirt were a glaring bright red, looking at first glance like a spreading bloodstain, and his glasses lay near his hand, the lenses shattered and clearly unusable.

Imuel held his breath.

The floor was covered with wine bottle fragments. The transparent glass refracted a dazzling, cold gleam, sharp as daggers. The deep red wine spread all over the ground. The doctor sitting among it all looked as though he was sitting in blades and blood.

A layer of cold sweat seeped from Bai Yu's forehead. He neither moved nor spoke, even keeping his breathing very light, as quiet as a lifeless wax figure.

...How did it turn out like this?

Imuel didn't understand. He had just broken a few insignificant wine bottles; how could the doctor show such an expression?

It felt as if his heart was gripped by a hand, and a silent bitterness spread through him.

Beside the wine cabinet, Bai Yu raised his hand and rubbed the center of his brows.

Humans relied too much on sight. Once they lost this sense, they would fall into bewilderment and panic. In front of the doctor was a large patch of mottled color blocks, with blurred and ghosted edges. Bai Yu couldn't even distinguish what they actually were. He didn't know where he was, didn't know how to get out, and didn't know how much longer he had to wait. In the boundless silence, even someone as aloof as him gave rise to a bit of anxiety.

But there was no other way; he could only wait.

Having lost his sight, his hearing became exceptionally keen. Bai Yu frowned slightly; he seemed to hear the sound of oak barrels squeezing and rubbing against each other, and above his head, there were faint footsteps—very light and gentle, not human, like a kitten.

...Dumpling?

Bai Yu had never paid attention to the footsteps of the Platinum Dumpling when it walked, but from the pattering sound, his intuition told him it was a short-legged kitten.

But how could there be a kitten in the wine cellar of the Duke's Mansion?

He immediately looked up, and on top of the oak barrel, he actually did see a patch of platinum color, but before he could make it out, the patch of color vanished like a bubble-like illusion.

Bai Yu shook his head slightly, revealing a bitter smile.

Having broken his glasses, he even started having visual hallucinations.

On the other side, Imuel memorized the route, hurriedly turned back, hastily tied his clothes, and returned to the wine cabinet.

Bai Yu raised his head.

Hurried footsteps sounded around him, coming straight towards his direction. It must be that someone had arrived.

Bai Yu thought to himself, 'I wonder if the person coming is a personal guard, Miller, or perhaps the butler?'

So he propped himself against the wine cabinet and stood up, revealing a polite smile. "Apologies for knocking over the wine cabinet, I—"

His palm was grasped by someone.

Bai Yu's hand was originally hanging naturally by his side, but someone leaned over, forcefully grabbed it, and pulled it up.

The force gripping him was surprisingly strong and brooked no refusal. Caught off guard, he stumbled two steps and was pulled directly away from the center of the shards.

"..."

Bai Yu was slightly surprised.

The fingers holding his had slender knuckles, and even though they had already pulled him up, they still held on tightly and refused to let go.

Bai Yu: "You...?"

He recognized the owner of these hands: Imuel.

The most precious Grand Duke of Iberia, whose fingers were trembling slightly for some unknown reason, gripped Bai Yu's wrist and said hoarsely, "Come with me."

Bai Yu paused slightly.

He was now equivalent to a blind person and could only follow Imuel. If Imuel were to let go of him halfway and ignore him, or lead him to crash into a wine cabinet, he would be completely helpless.

Due to the disorder and tension, a thin layer of sweat broke out on Bai Yu's palms, making it uncomfortable to hold, but the Grand Duke clearly had no intention of letting go. Walking in front, he held the doctor—who couldn't focus his eyes and stumbled as he walked—and navigated through the layered wine cabinets.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Bai Yu felt the sunlight.

The entrance to the wine cellar was right before their eyes. The pitch-black color blocks in his vision were replaced by a stretch of brightness. Although he still couldn't see clearly, the doctor's tense nerves quietly relaxed.

They had come out.

Imuel said, "Don't worry, I'll order someone to find you a new pair of glasses right away. Put on a coat first, it's quite cold in the wine cellar."

When Miller and the butler belatedly arrived, this was the scene they saw.

The manservant who had committed the mistake was standing safely to the side. Imuel took a lens out of a box—time was too tight to have one fitted, so there was only a bare lens made into a simple monocle format. The Duke adjusted the angle, slightly raised his hand, and carefully placed it on the bridge of Bai Yu's nose.

His vision gradually cleared. Bai Yu blinked, and the first thing to enter his sight was the Duke's extremely gorgeous face.

Imuel's eyes were clear and beautiful, completely focused on handling the lens, as serious as a doctor observing a patient's lesion.

The two of them were extremely close. Bai Yu was slightly taller, and he only needed to lower his head shallowly to touch the Duke's forehead.

"..."

Having carefully adjusted the angle, Imuel took a step back. "Done."

Bai Yu: "Wait a moment."

He similarly raised his hand and, under the Duke's surprised gaze, placed it at the side of his waist.

Imuel's clasp was fastened askew.

He had turned into a kitten, slipped out of his clothes, hurriedly returned after finding Bai Yu, and put his clothes back on while stark naked.

A dignified Grand Duke of a domain unfastening his clothes and exposing his body in a wine cellar was simply more indecorous than those young men and women secretly engaging in illicit affairs in scandalous tales. Imuel was anxious and ashamed, so it was inevitable to make a mistake in his haste.

And now, the doctor was lowering his eyes to adjust the sash for him.

Imuel stiffened his body, not daring to move an inch.

Although the doctor was nominally his manservant, when the other party did this kind of thing with such an elegant and ascetic face, Imuel still blushed.

Bai Yu's hands were meant for holding a scalpel, extremely steady, and his knot-tying movements were focused and pleasing to the eye. Imuel obediently let him tidy up his clothes, like a pretty kitten being dressed up by its owner, but as the Duke's gaze fell on the pad of Bai Yu's finger, he suddenly frowned.

There was a cut there, still bleeding.

He abruptly grasped the doctor's wrist.

Bai Yu raised an eyebrow, startled by him, and immediately asked, "What's wrong?"

Imuel held that fingertip, opened his mouth, pursed his lips, and said, "You're injured."

The cut hung on the doctor's cold, white fingertip, glaringly bright red. As a kitten, Imuel's first reaction upon seeing this eyesore of a mark was to want to lick it.

His eyelashes fluttered slightly as he restrained this instinctual urge and hurriedly said, "I'll go get you some medicine."

The Duke fled as if escaping; it seemed that if he stayed even a second longer, something bad would happen.

Bai Yu, however, didn't move.

He stared at his fingertip for a moment and said no more.

Such a trivial cut actually didn't need medicine. Duke Imuel was a little too nervous about him.

For the next few days, the Duke didn't arrange any tasks for him. Because of that trivial little cut on his fingertip, Imuel determined that he needed to rest. While everyone else in the mansion was busily preparing for the regular meeting, for a time, Bai Yu became the only idle person in the mansion.

His roommate, Miller, was nowhere to be seen all day. Later, while occasionally chatting with the old butler, Bai Yu learned that Miller had angered the Duke over some minor matter and had been banished from the mansion.

The old butler warned, "Miller has too many schemes and isn't honest enough. When I escorted him out of the mansion, he glanced toward your room, and his gaze was somewhat venomous."

Bai Yu nodded indifferently.

Although banished from the mansion, Miller was of noble descent after all, and his family's foundation was still there. Going home to be a wealthy man of leisure wasn't a bad choice either. Bai Yu only treated him as a passerby, harbored no resentment toward him, and didn't dwell on it any further.

Days passed like water. Counting the days, Bai Yu deeply felt that the completion of his mission was nowhere in sight.

On the day of the regular meeting, the turning point suddenly arrived.

As a manservant, Bai Yu needed to closely attend the Grand Duke at the regular meeting. He tidied up the Duke's attire and stood firmly by his side. The guests entered one after another, and the waiters carried cold dishes and hot food, setting them on the table one by one.

Everything was in perfect order. Just as everyone had taken their seats and the Grand Duke was about to raise his wine glass for a toast, a personal guard suddenly stepped forward and leaned close to Grand Duke Imuel's ear.

The personal guards of the Duke's Mansion belonged exclusively to the Grand Duke. During major events like a banquet, unless it was a matter of utmost urgency, they wouldn't appear rashly.

Bai Yu raised an eyebrow.

The personal guard leaned down, deliberately avoiding Bai Yu, and whispered to the Grand Duke.

Imuel's expression fluctuated unpredictably, finally freezing into a look of unbelievable pallor. His eyelashes trembled, and the hand holding the wine glass shook uncontrollably. Finally, he obscurely raised his eyes.

And looked at Bai Yu.