That murderous baleful qi made the cat, a stray already well-practiced at sensing danger, puff up into a bristling little ball, ears flattened sideways in fright.
Rendong dropped low to the ground, wriggling forward with a wriggling shuffle.
A cowardly cat.
A frightened cat.
But first, the cat had to answer Tantai Tian’s question.
The cat is here!
The next instant, Rendong sprang up and bolted forward with everything he had. The flying pounce was absolutely perfect, except that one paw slipped at the sharp turn, sending him drifting wide, and he tumbled and crashed straight into Tantai Tian’s boot.
Unluckily, he ended up braking with his face.
The scruffy little cat crouched on the toe of Tantai Tian’s boot and let out a tiny whimper.
Braking with his face, Rendong was used to that!
He gathered himself again, then opened his tiny, ferocious little maw.
“MYAAOW!”
Rendong meowed at maximum volume.
He even forgot to muffle the sound.
Human! The cat is here!!!
Drowning out Tantai Jun’s pained screams, Rendong’s ear-splitting yowl buried the human’s cries, that shrill sound overpowering the chaotic murmuring like a blade cutting through fog, driving itself deep into Tantai Tian’s ears.
Expressionless, he lowered his head and stared at the cat pressing heavily down on his foot.
The cat had grown a little.
Before, it had been the size of two fists. Now it had swelled a full size around, with a bit of weight to it. Pressed against the top of his foot, it gave off a strangely solid warmth.
And yet the cat was still small, light enough to be flung off with a single lift of the foot.
Seeing that the human was finally looking at him, the cat perched on his foot seemed somewhat satisfied. He paused to lick the fur on his chest, then tipped his head back, fixing those brilliant golden cat eyes on Tantai Tian.
A pure, wild gaze.
That settled weight, that familiar warmth, as if this cat really were a living creature.
Not a figment of Tantai Tian’s imagination.
Warmth. Texture. And the irrelevant little noises.
The whispering that had grated on and on fell silent in that instant, as if the bewildering veil that had shrouded these past days had been torn away by a pair of hands.
Tantai Tian stared at the creature on his foot without a trace of expression.
Black.
Fluffy.
Golden eyes.
A long, curling tail.
Small. Bonelessly soft.
Like a pool of water.
A cat, that is.
A living, warm cat.
A real cat.
Ah.
So that’s how it was?
A bone-chilling smile spread across Tantai Tian’s face.
A truly living thing.
Tantai Jun, who had been cowering off to the side with his head in his hands, had finally gone quiet. But the moment he saw Tantai Tian’s smile grow ever more terrifying, he shrieked all over again.
“M-madman!” In that instant, the shadows of the past seized Tantai Jun completely, leaving him no room to consider what he was blurting out in his terror. “Is that it? You think I’m the fake one? Are you going to kill me again?” His voice tore apart under the fear, as though he were facing the most horrifying existence of his entire life, and he trembled like a reed thrashing in a gale.
“…I knew it. That thing… they all said I made it up, that it was nothing but a nightmare… But you’re the one who’s sick! It was always you!”
Tantai Tian had any number of chances to stop Tantai Jun’s mouth.
Cutting out his tongue, gouging out his eyes, any of those cruel methods would leave this fragile body convulsing and curled in on itself, incapable of making further noise.
But Tantai Tian did not care what he said.
At this moment, Tantai Jun’s agonized howls were nothing but background noise. With icy detachment, he watched the cat still crouched on his foot.
“Rendong.”
Tantai Tian spoke.
His soft tone brimmed with an eerie delight.
The cat found it strange.
Without meaning to, his fur bristled, and he stared at Tantai Tian through a puff of fluff. This was the kind of danger that, back in his days on the streets, would have sent him rocketing away at the first sight of it.
It was the first time he had ever felt danger this intense.
Rendong licked his nose and sniffed, puzzled.
No doubt about it. This was his human.
Rendong could never mistake that scent.
So he cowered and bristled all at once.
And yet, without a moment’s hesitation, he answered the call.
“Mew~”
Yes! Rendong is here!
And this time, the cat remembered to keep it down!
Carrying that strange, unhinged pleasure, Tantai Tian called for Rendong several more times.
And every single time, the cat answered with tremendous generosity!
As though finally sated, Tantai Tian bent down and scooped up the grimy cat, entirely unbothered by how many paw prints those pink little pads stamped across his immaculate clothes.
Just like that, he carried the cat toward the door, having completely forgotten the kneeling Tantai Jun.
It was the cat’s curiosity that saved the moment. Wriggling in Tantai Tian’s arms, Rendong clambered up the arm holding him, propped his head on the man’s shoulder, and peered backward. Only then did Tantai Tian come to a stop, as if he had just remembered something.
In a languid, offhand tone, Tantai Tian passed down his judgment.
“The Sixth Prince has shown disrespect before the Emperor. Sixty strokes of the rod, and half a year confined to his quarters.” Then he tilted his head slightly and added, indifferent as frost, “As for the rest… slaughter them.”
In the silent room, a sob slipped out, one that couldn’t quite be stifled.
It was the fear of death.
Rendong’s sharp ears caught a thread of familiarity in that sound.
The cat wriggled crookedly in Tantai Tian’s arms, squirming from his left shoulder to his right, and peered back over the man’s shoulder.
Ah!
The Two Qingqings!
Qinglian and Qingyun had also collapsed to their knees among the crowd, their prostrate bodies trembling.
The paw pads planted on Tantai Tian’s chest couldn’t help themselves and began to knead, once, twice, over and over, followed by pitiful little mewls. While mewing, Rendong rubbed his small head back and forth against Tantai Tian’s chest, leaving behind even more black fuzz.
Tantai Tian dimly remembered scenes like this.
When Rendong didn’t want a bath. When the cat came back from doing battle with the writing brush and paperweight on his desk. When the cat had gotten himself filthy, a grubby little dirtball… This was how he wheedled.
A show of affection. A plea for mercy. Pitiful little mewls of poor me.
A truly wicked tactic.
“You want them to live?” Tantai Tian murmured in a voice that was ice-cold and faintly malicious. “Then so be it. They’ll only come to regret it.”
Having heard what should not be heard, having learned what should not be known.
Even if Tantai Tian spared them, their lives would never be comfortable again.
Perhaps, when that day came, they would wish they had simply died.
Naturally, Tantai Tian would never consider any of this his own fault.
A frozen malice bloomed in him, and in this moment an evil, strangely gorgeous madness flowed through his veins.
Of course, he would still tear out Tantai Jun’s tongue.
Just a little later.
Rendong, squirming and nuzzling away in Tantai Tian’s arms, knew nothing of the human’s many strange thoughts. As far as a cat was concerned, staying alive beat everything else.
Besides, two of his Qingqings were among them.
The cat pressed his little furry face against Tantai Tian’s chest and let out a soft whimper from deep in his throat.
Please, please, please!
Tantai Tian fell silent for a moment. Then a large hand covered the small furry face, blotting out those brilliant golden eyes completely.
“Fine.”
Just like that, the Emperor reversed his own decree.
“Lock them all up for now.”
Yu Zeming, who had not dared so much as breathe until now, quietly let the tension ease from his taut nerves, and answered in the softest of whispers.
