When Zhilhao Shuzi woke up he swore to himself that this would be the last time he passed out in an unknown space as it was far to confusing when regaining consciousness afterward, a perfect example of this was that he was no longer in the carriage, Maling was nowhere to be seen and he was once again bound in a small dark space on top of that he was once again in human form and dressed in oversized and smelly clothes that didn't belong to him, the only plus side of this whole situation being that he had enough light to see this time.
After yanking on the chains a few times, honestly just because it felt like the thing to do in this situation and not because he hoped to escape, Zhihao Shuzi slumped against the damp stone wall and looked around the dimly lit room. The room was roughly the size of a storage closet with a window high up on the walls letting in what looked like pale moonlight, giving Zhilhao Shuzi a clue as to how much time had passed since his kidnapping. His stomach cramped painfully from hunger, reminding him that he hadn't eaten anything since this morning, and his head had a dull ache, presumably a mixture of his concussion as well as the drugs leaving his system. Zhilhao Shuzi tried with little success to get more comfortable, though he found it quite impossible with his hands chained to the wall behind him. he also really needed to pee, which was unfortunate, seeing as he basically couldn't move and there was no bathroom in sight. Zhilhao Shuzi squirmed in discomfort, wishing hopelessly that he could once again fall asleep, if only to escape this nightmare for a few moments
Hours passed, and as the moon rose higher in the sky, Zhilhao Shuzi's cell darkened further with the moonlight no longer shining directly through the window. Eventually, the first rays of sun rose, to Zhilhao Shuzi, still awake, slumped limply on the wall, his stomach hanging with painful hunger and his bladder ready to explode. Throughout the night, to try and escape or at the very least not wet his clothes, Zhilhao Shuzi had tried desperately to turn back into the bunny form that he had taken earlier, only to fail hopelessly each time, feeling the slightest trickle of power within him. After hours of trying, honestly, he didn't care about escaping at this point and was only concerned about peeing without it being in human form, as somehow doing it as a rabbit felt infinitely less humiliating. As Zhilhao Shuzi was bemoaning his awful fate for the umtenth time, the door opened abruptly, scaring Zhilhao Shuzi into straightening up slightly before slumping back down.
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Pang hunda the chanlor of the Senlin provence strode down the underground hallway passing tens of doors each leading to various cells until he reached the end of the hall where a single door stood, inside was the "girl" he had bought from those lousy slave traders not that he was a girl as it turned out because once he had transformed back to a human one of the guards who had been waiting to bind his wrists immediately went to tell the chanlor of this shocking discovery. The chancellor, in a fit of rage, had wanted to bash the heads of those lackluster slavers; unfortunately, they had already left with his money, leaving him to clean up this mess. After venting his anger on several of the servants Pang Hunda had finally calmed down as honestly this boy was his last hope seeing as he was supposed to send out his provinces tribute yesterday, in the end he simply decided the make the boy dress as a girl to compete in the contest and while the stupid boy was buying him time he could come up with another plan to escape once the truth eventually came out. With all this passing through his mind, Pang Hunda slammed open the door to the sight of a beautiful and dainty man, who in all honesty did look like a girl, chained to the wall. The boy's eyes glanced up to see him before lowering his gaze once again in exhaustion.
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Zhilhao Shuzi head still lowered heard the well dressed man who had just opened the door gesture to someone outside only for a flood of female servants to rush in along with some guards who unlocked him from the wall, still keeping his hands chained together and ushered him away to get dressed up and also, much to Zhilhao Shuzi's joy use the bathroom. After using the restroom the guards and servants quickly ushered Zhilhao Shuzi into a shockingly lavish room before pushing him through to another stone room where they roughly doused him in cold water before yanking off his dirty clothes and pushing him into a hot rose scented bath, this entire process was quite uncomfortable for Zhilhao Shuzi as his arms where a) still chained and he b) was very uncomfortable being naked in front of this many people that in addition the the eerie silence as all the woman seemed to work in silence while the guards stood like statues lead to Zhilhao Shuzi basically just moving around like a stiff puppet, it honestly wasn't that he didn't want to fight them off in was just that he found that he was so tired after staying up all night that he was fighting to even be able to move at all at this point and decided he had to save the small amount of energy he did have in case of an emergency as ever since his clothes had been taken once again he had occasionally spotted several of the guards taking leachurus glances at him.
After the bath where the woman had slathered him over and over in fragrant oils before roughly tugging the tangles out of his hair before also oiling that he was quickly removed from hot water and dried off before he was sat down and dressed in a pink robe that while not the traditional marital scarlet did have enough red accents to hint at the fact that he was being sent to the crown prince as a prospect future empress. After combining this heavily ostentatious robe with a jarring amount of hairpins Zhilhao Shuzi found himself stuffed in a carriage with a very fast warning from the chanlor to behave and not let anyone know he's a man as well as being given his attendant, aka a spi for the chanlor he was sent off with a few suit cases of things, not as much as a prospect empress should have but just enough to not make it seem that the chanlor was cheaping out on a "girl" who was supposed to compete for the crown prince.
The carriage took off at a pace far too swift for what kind of vehicle it was, as it was a decorative carriage and not meant for quick transportation. Zhilhao Shuzi finally let his drowsiness overtake him as he was finally alone, with only his new "handmaid" for company who had told him in a quite harsh tone that they should arrive in the capital the next afternoon and not to expect any stops or luxuries like tea as she was far to busy making sure they got there in time for the welcome ceremony to deal with his whining. With those final rude remarks, Zhilhao Shuzi closed his eyes, hoping he'd be able to sleep off the remnants of the drugs that still gave him a headache as well as help him regain any semblance of energy for the day ahead.