Chapter 10

Fu Yingsheng knelt on the floor, his face streaming with blood. However small Rendong the cat might be, those claws were razor sharp, and the little beast had raked them deep in a fit of true savagery, marring his features outright. Blood splattered across the floor, and the other ministers drew sharp breaths.

Fu Yingsheng had always been somewhat insolent before the New Emperor, and equally arrogant and overbearing in front of Emperor Changle. He had ability, certainly, but his swagger had long since gone too far.

Had Emperor Changle not died, he had in fact been planning to deal with the man within the next year or two.

Fu Yingsheng was not blind to the Late Emperor’s intentions. But who could have imagined that the Emperor would drop dead without warning, and that in the blink of an eye, the once-weak Crown Prince would ascend the throne?

Judging by the New Emperor’s words and conduct these past days, he showed none of that domineering temperament. He seemed quiet and reserved instead, perhaps beaten down by the Late Emperor’s suppression until all his early edge and backbone had worn away.

A subject must bow his head before his sovereign, of course. But if one could take advantage while the Emperor was still weak… when the ruler is feeble and the ministers strong, why should that not be a pleasant arrangement?

Accustomed as he was to smooth sailing, this sudden bloodbath left Fu Yingsheng in agony, and the more he hurt, the more his humiliation curdled into rage. He had lost face so spectacularly today. What must the others be thinking of him now?

“Your Majesty!”

Hysterical, Fu Yingsheng lowered his blood-soaked palm, exposing his torn-open face. “Such a vicious beast must be beaten to death and skinned at once, as a small punishment and a great warning.”

Rendong opened his mouth, ready to unleash some heartfelt meowing.

The moment his little muzzle tipped up, a hand gently pinched it shut.

“None of that filthy language.”

The cat squirmed and wriggled, but that hateful Tantai Tian still would not let go.

His human was just too big. None of the other humans were this big!

Tantai Tian stroked along the fur of Rendong’s back. “Isn’t Rendong a good boy?”

Hateful. Cats were not good boys.

Cats were all evil demon kings!

Rendong shook himself left and right, but he could not shake that hand loose no matter what.

Watching the exchange between His Majesty and the vicious cat, Fu Yingsheng clenched the ivory court tablet in his grip, seized by both shock and fury, and by some inexplicable sense of foreboding.

At last, His Majesty finished soothing the vicious cat.

“Vice Chancellor Fu is truly devoted to his duties,” the Emperor said idly. “But Zhen does not care for anyone coveting Zhen’s possessions so attentively.”

This attitude was far sterner than expected.

Fu Yingsheng’s mouth twitched into a stiff smile. “So this cat is Your Majesty’s little pet. It is only… this subject feared the outside world might disturb Your Majesty.”

“Vice Chancellor Fu is neither a tutor nor a regent,” the Emperor said, the corner of his lips curling. “Such unbridled arrogance. You truly do not keep This Emperor in your eyes at all.”

He was smiling as he spoke, but his voice was cold through and through.

Like some man-eating ghost.

Fu Yingsheng’s face twisted for an instant, the movement tearing fresh pain through his wounds. Alarmed and furious, he realized the little Emperor was deliberately using this cat to play at temper.

A minister facing his sovereign was born at a disadvantage.

Kneel he would, whether he wanted to or not. He dropped to his knees and knocked his head hard against the floor.

“…Your Majesty speaks with perfect wisdom. This subject knows his guilt and begs Your Majesty’s punishment.”

Hearing the resounding thud of that kowtow, the cat’s head-shaking stilled. Rendong blinked drowsily, vaguely feeling that this person deserved it… a crocodile… a Crocodile Fawning!

He must be very ugly and very strange, which was why he had to be sealed away by crocodiles.

【That is called sycophantic flattery.】

The System quietly corrected the illiterate cat.

Mm, mm, mm, it was Crocodile Fawning. A cat knew his pronunciation could never be wrong.

Rendong nodded his head very hard, indicating that he was a diligent, earnest cat.

“What does Rendong want to say?”

Tantai Tian pinched one of the cat’s squishy paw pads, asking with some curiosity.

Magnanimously, the cat forgave the human for his earlier sacrilege in pinching his muzzle. He drew the paw pad free and planted it on the back of Tantai Tian’s hand. “Crocodile Fawning!”

Rendong pronounced every syllable with perfect precision, certain the System would praise him.

He had recited it so accurately.

【…】

Tantai Tian: “Hahahahahaha…”

Baffling.

Why was he laughing so loudly?!

The human could not even understand cat speech.

Rendong strained to tug his paw pad free, wounded pride flaring as he readied himself to pummel the man. But looking up at the figure laughing so heartily, he froze for a moment.

Tantai Tian was handsome, but his features were deep-cut and he so often wore that cold, stern face. Smiles were rare on him, to say nothing of open laughter.

That sudden smile hanging on that beautiful face made Rendong’s paw pads itch, for some unfathomable reason.

Kneading up and down on the human’s thigh, the cat found himself inexplicably cheered as well.

When the laughter subsided, Tantai Tian finally lifted the cat, letting Rendong see over the desk to the front, then turned his gaze to Fu Yingsheng.

“Since there is fault, there must be punishment.” He appeared to ponder a moment, then said offhandedly, “Then let him confine himself at home and reflect on his failings.”

It did not sound like any grave sentence.

Yet both Fu Yingsheng and everyone else present could not help but stiffen.

Fu Yingsheng above all felt a storm gathering on the horizon.

Confined to reflect for how many days? When would he be allowed to return? Was this merely a small punishment to serve as a warning, or an omen before the axe fell? No one could say.

His Majesty meant to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys… and was he, then, that chicken?

But a newly crowned Emperor who had barely secured his throne, rushing to strike instead of consolidating his power. Did he not fear stirring up a catastrophe?

Unwilling to accept it, Fu Yingsheng knocked his head against the floor several more times from where he knelt. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the New Emperor’s voice drifted down, feather-light.

“If Vice Chancellor Fu is dissatisfied, he is welcome to resign his post.

“If you cannot do the job, there are plenty who can.”

In that instant, Fu Yingsheng was like a chicken with its throat seized, letting out a faint strangled squawk before daring not to say another word.

By the time he passed out through the hall doors, the Imperial Physician had already dressed the wounds on his face, leaving behind only pulses of stinging pain.

But this was nothing more than a slap followed by a sweet date.

Shock and fury churned in his chest. The Emperor’s sudden strike felt deeply, strangely wrong.

When things defy all reason, something rotten is always hiding underneath.

At that moment, the Vice Minister, who had lingered a few steps behind, came forward two paces and murmured, “His Majesty has been summoning quite a number of people these past days.”

Fu Yingsheng had known of this as well.

A newly crowned Emperor wishing to grow closer to his ministers was only natural.

He even knew the list of names.

Most of them had attached themselves to the Crown Prince’s faction before the ascension.

Fu Qingshu, for instance.

Fu Qingshu was the Vice Censor-in-Chief. Apart from the Chief Censor, a largely honorary post, he was the man who actually ran the day-to-day affairs of the Censorate. And he, along with Bai Ziliang and their circle, had long been running errands for the new sovereign.

But even with the New Emperor holding the Censorate, it amounted to only a fraction of power. Even Bai Ziliang was merely a Minister, nothing more. So what exactly did all this add up to… Fu Yingsheng suddenly stopped, running back through the list of those summoned one by one, and his face turned utterly dark.

A name had just surfaced in Fu Yingsheng’s mind.

In the hall, which had fallen quiet, a sneeze rang out, neither loud nor soft. Before long, a figure ambled out, bowing to Tantai Tian, his voice tinged with helplessness.

“Fu Yingsheng is no fool, you know. Your Majesty has been diverting the flood toward him.” Xu Zhao spoke in a low, lingering tone. “I suspect he’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Every faction at court harbored its own schemes these days. Seizing Fu Yingsheng was nothing more than killing the chicken to scare the monkeys.

But to kill the chicken, one first needed the strength to do it. Otherwise, an imperial authority that could not stand would be nothing but a castle in the air.

The new sovereign, cowed and weakened under the Late Emperor’s suppression, had invited many to grow restless. There were far too many who shared Fu Yingsheng’s ambitions.

Not to mention the several elder Imperial Princes still watching and waiting like wolves.

The Emperor did not answer Xu Zhao. He was watching Rendong bounce and pounce across the desk.

The cat was batting away at a writing brush.

Grrr-grrr. The brush rolled off the edge, and the cat retracted his paw without a care in the world, as though none of it had anything to do with him.

Tantai Tian scooped the mischievous troublemaker into his palm and rose to his feet.

Xu Zhao, silently enduring the Emperor’s cold shoulder, watched the man about to leave and hastily committed the disrespect of blocking His Majesty’s path. “Your Majesty, that plan of yours. You still haven’t settled on a course.”

Tantai Tian glanced at him without much interest. “Isn’t the Capital Garrison due for a Grand Military Review in a few days?”

Xu Zhao blinked, then suddenly burst out laughing.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

His Majesty had spoken with perfect wisdom.

He bowed deeply to the departing sovereign, now fully understanding what His Majesty had decided.

An Imperial Carriage waited outside the Hall of Reverent Governance. The moment the cat was carried inside, a whole string of tiny sneezes overtook him.

Tantai Tian lifted the corner of the carriage curtain to let in air, then his gaze settled on the incense burner tucked in the corner. “Put it out,” he said quietly.

Yu Zeming hurried to obey, seeing to the incense with his own hands.

Only when the cold breeze swept away the cloying fragrance inside the Imperial Carriage did Rendong’s nose finally feel better. He rolled about on the Emperor’s robes, lazily sharpening his claws.

Skrriiitch, skrriiitch.

Precious fabric plucked out pitiful little threads under the cat’s sharp claws.

Tantai Tian watched with perfect leisure.

Kneeling in the corner, Yu Zeming could not help marveling inwardly. This cat from who-knew-where truly was a Little Ancestor. Ever since it arrived, His Majesty had seemed far more settled these past days.

“Being Emperor is so hard.”

Nestled in Tantai Tian’s arms, Rendong meowed softly to the System.

“The human’s staff never listen.”

Only that one who had just come in seemed like he might barely be usable.

In the dramas he watched curled up on the sofa, things never seemed to go like this.

【Tantai Tian ordered Fu Yingsheng confined to reflect on his faults, but named no length of time. When he returns rests entirely on Tantai Tian’s whim.】 The System knew that, being a cat, Rendong understood nothing of the unwritten rules of human society. Not that courtly struggles were something ordinary humans could parse either. 【It means the punished one will stay suspended in dread, unable to sleep in peace.】

Oh. Rendong understood now.

As long as the human hadn’t been wronged, that was fine.

Rendong sprawled across Tantai Tian’s thigh, curling both front paws in and tucking them beneath his fluffy chest, managing to disguise himself as a little black loaf of bread. Unhurried, he began licking the fur on his chest.

He had barely gotten in a few licks when a hand caught him under the chin.

The little pink tongue, following its natural course, lapped right onto Tantai Tian’s fingers, apparently without noticing that the target had changed.

Slurp, slurp…

Rendong savored carefully. Such thick fingers.

Slurp, slurp…

That stinky ink smell seemed to be gone.

A cat’s tongue is barbed, and licking human skin is not a comfortable experience, but Tantai Tian did not pull his hand away. He let Rendong lick away, diligent and earnest, while his other hand stroked the slightly damp chest fur and coaxed out one of the cat’s paws.

Haah, humans were so annoying.

One little black paw was teased out by Tantai Tian and left resting softly on the back of his hand.

“Does Rendong hate him that much?”

“He stinks.” Rendong spat out the fingers, then reflexively licked them twice more. “Human, why not fire him?”

The human couldn’t understand cat speech anyway, so a cat could say whatever he liked.

Tantai Tian accepted the wet handkerchief Yu Zeming offered, patiently wiping down Rendong’s paw pads, erasing every trace left behind from clawing Fu Yingsheng.

“Then how about I give him to Rendong as a live scratching post?” Tantai Tian said idly, his palm cradling the cat’s plump little paw. “The Imperial Cat Bureau says cats need proper things to sharpen their claws on.”

Whoa, so the human keeping a cat actually wanted to use people as a cat-scratching board!

Rendong shook his head like a rattle drum.

No, no, no!

“Is that so?” There was, strangely, a trace of regret in Tantai Tian’s voice. “Rendong is far too merciful.”

A sudden chill ran through the cat, an inexplicable sense of having wandered, unwelcome, into a Fierce Beast’s territory.

Merciful?

Rendong had ferociously clawed up that villain just now. What nonsense the human was talking.

But.

The human’s voice was gentle, his tone light and unhurried… so why was Rendong’s fur quietly standing on end? Danger pressed in from every direction, giving him the strange certainty that there was nowhere safe to go.

The cat balled himself into a tiny puff of fur.

But the little furball couldn’t work out where the danger was coming from, so all he could do was bristle and burrow into the folds of Tantai Tian’s robes, pitiful and aggrieved all at once.

What a perfect little bird, flying straight into the net.

Tantai Tian’s fingers twitched, spasming for a single instant, as though in that heartbeat he had crushed down some violently surging urge. His fingertips brushed over Rendong’s ears, and he began to laugh, soft and low.

“Good boy.”

So good, so warm, his Rendong.

Pitiful, and utterly adorable.