【Surveillance Camera】: Worried that your master might get injured or die while out hunting? Buy this camera now for real-time footage!
It was a small ball of light that only Rendong could see.
It drifted lazily in midair, waiting for the cat to designate its target.
The cat stared at the little box that had popped up in front of him and asked the System, “Empty box?”
【The host must bind a person of their choosing. Just fill in a name.】
Rendong froze.
The cat could not read.
So the System offered an alternative.
All Rendong had to do was say the name out loud.
Voice control!
Now, what was the human’s name again?
Tantai Tian.
The System taught him.
The pronunciation was extremely accurate.
“Shu~gar~is~too~sweet~”
Rendong sat up straight, tail curled neatly beside his front paws, his little head bobbing along as he repeated it with tremendous diligence.
The pronunciation was extremely inaccurate.
The System corrected the cat’s pronunciation a few times, but partway through practice, Rendong just couldn’t hold the accent anymore.
Hmph! How could a cat’s pronunciation possibly be wrong?
Rendong refused to believe it.
“Shu~gar~too~sweet… Sugar, too sweet… Sugar Too Sweet!”
By the end, the cat had worked himself into a furious little tantrum!
How could the verification keep failing?!
With one meaty paw pad, the cat smacked the ball of light away, arching his back and hissing at it.
A tiny fit of rage.
Utterly indignant, Rendong turned around and stuffed his little head under the human’s arm, yowling in frustration and snagging several long threads out of the human’s clothing in the process. He looked like a very naughty kitty.
But this very naughty kitty was also very pitiful.
【The System can apply for a beginner’s literacy crash course for the host. Only 50 Points.】
Rendong squirmed around in Tantai Tian’s embrace a few times, tucking his tail in as well.
“If I buy it, I’ll know how to read?”
【The host would still need to study on his own.】
The System announced, full of regret.
Then forget it.
Rendong decided he would earn the full 500 Points first.
Such a tiny cat, with such an enormous responsibility.
Still sulking, the cat melted into a puddle in Tantai Tian’s arms and fell asleep sprawled every which way, his soft little belly bared to the world, fur rising and falling gently with each breath like a little scoop of iced custard. One small sway, and that tender flesh would quiver ever so slightly.
Xu Zhao, kneeling on the cushioned seat below, glanced over and chuckled as he stroked his beard.
At the sound of that laughter, the cat’s ears twitched. Whether he actually heard it or not, he buried his face even deeper into the human’s chest, letting out a soft, sweet little “mm” as he nuzzled in.
The Emperor cast Xu Zhao a glance.
Xu Zhao stopped laughing.
Yet after a moment, it was Emperor Taichu who spoke first, his voice calm. “How goes the matter with the refugees?”
It wasn’t technically within Xu Zhao’s purview, but he did know a thing or two about it.
Besides, His Majesty had a habit of working men like oxen and horses. Xu Zhao had long since gotten used to it.
“Some people have been stirring things up in the shadows. We’ve already arrested a few of them, so there shouldn’t be any real trouble for now.” Here, his tone softened. “Though it seems some rumors have begun to spread as well.”
Emperor Taichu said nothing, so Xu Zhao continued.
“They involve Emperor Shizong. The story goes that when His Late Majesty met with his mishap, one of his consorts had been cast out and left adrift…” Before Xu Zhao could even finish, his words died in his throat. He had caught it instinctively: that vast, unconcealed Baleful Qi.
Emperor Taichu’s face betrayed nothing. Not a trace of fury could be read on that handsome countenance. And yet the extreme cold radiating from him was more biting than the deathly chill of winter itself.
For all the years Xu Zhao had served at His Majesty’s side, he had rarely witnessed the Emperor in such towering wrath.
He kept his head bowed, and from the corner of his eye caught sight of Liang Ze nearby. The Chief Eunuch, who attended the Emperor’s every moment, was just as silent as he was.
The cat curled in His Majesty’s arms seemed to have been disturbed by that killing cold as well. One fluffy black paw pad emerged, the pink little toes spreading open for a moment before slowly curling back in, and quite by accident came to rest against the front of Emperor Taichu’s robes, stuck fast.
The cat could not have cared less. He simply let his front paw dangle there, purring himself back to sleep.
What a hopelessly thick-skinned cat.
How could he sleep in absolutely any position?
After a long while, Xu Zhao finally heard Emperor Taichu speak again, soft and low, as though that murderous malice had subsided somewhat.
“It seems we have not killed enough people.”
Xu Zhao: “…”
So he had been overthinking it.
His Majesty was still His Majesty.
…
When the cat woke up, by some miracle he was already on the road back to the Imperial Palace.
Wasn’t the Grand Military Review supposed to take ages?
How could the human have only been here for a few days and already be leaving?
The System explained that Tantai Tian had already cowed them all, and the review had achieved its purpose. The one still overseeing the remainder of it was none other than the Eldest Prince.
The cat rested his chin on his own front paws, flicking his tail lazily as he listened to the System go on.
The Capital Garrison was run by relatives of Dowager Consort Wang. They had planned to give Tantai Tian a brutal dressing-down at the review, but as it turned out, the man had produced, from who knew where, a batch of cannons. The results were devastatingly effective, shocking them all into groveling submission. Now the Eldest Prince had been left to handle the follow-up of the review, and was stewing in misery over it.
When he’d heard enough, Rendong washed his face with his paw.
Oho, oho.
So many words just went flying right past him.
Words!
The cat’s licking suddenly stopped mid-motion.
“Shu~gar~is~too~sweet~”
No response.
Hmph! Why was it still not working!
“System, your Surveillance Camera must be broken!”
The cat refused to accept that the problem might be his.
Rendong had tried so hard.
The System fell silent.
This kitten was far too fond of acting cute. Even his speech came with a built-in trill and a soft, syrupy tone, and he always drew his words out long. It would have been strange if the pronunciation had been correct.
But the diligent little cat refused to give up. He began flouncing around Tantai Tian’s side, making mischief.
After all, the journey back was so long, and the human was surely bored out of his mind. The cat knew it!
A modest pile of Imperial Memorials sat within reach of Tantai Tian’s hand. Light filtered through the lifted carriage curtain and spilled over him, those soft halos of glow seeming to melt away a little of the frost upon him. Yet somehow, Rendong still felt that the man, even bathed in sunlight, remained cold.
Stumbling step by tumbling step, the cat rolled his way toward the human. He couldn’t help it, and it wasn’t his fault.
He had woken up on the soft couch beside the Emperor, wrapped in a fluffy blanket with a fluffy cat inside. To Rendong, all these mounds of bedding were nothing short of little mountains.
Ha! Rendong had conquered every single one!
A ribbon of cat pressed himself against the human’s side.
Even though the cat was starting to grow, the moment he was actually picked up one discovered that all that fluff was mere illusion. In truth, he was still just one skinny little strip of cat.
Strip-cat draped himself boldly over the hem of the human’s robe and began practicing again, dragging out each syllable.
“Shu~gar~is~too~sweet~”
Mew.
“Shu~gar~shu~gar~shu~gar~”
Mew mew.
“…Tian!”
Meow!
What a noisy cat.
He mewed and mewed without pause.
Worse, that voice of his was so sweet and delicate that every sound out of his mouth seemed like an invitation to be adored.
Except somewhere along the way, all that adoration curdled into exasperation, and he started sharpening his claws on the human’s clothes again.
That hateful human and his hateful name.
The little cat began assigning blame on a grand scale!
Blaming and climbing the human’s body at the same time.
If the cat couldn’t practice, then the human wasn’t allowed to read either.
Thus the wicked little cat clambered and nuzzled his way up to Tantai Tian’s wrist.
A small dark cloud settled itself over the human’s hand.
Rendong craned his neck to look. Holy whiskers, how come every single word the human read was so fat?
【Those are traditional characters.】
Traditional, my paw. He couldn’t even read the simple ones.
Rendong went limp, chin tucked into the back of the human’s hand, a warm little bundle.
He might as well go back to sleep.
“Can you read it?”
Tantai Tian let the cat hang off the back of his hand, though his grip on the scroll tightened ever so slightly, like some quietly suppressed restraint. His face remained perfectly placid, and he even tilted the scroll a little closer to the cat.
All those fat little characters leaned in as well.
The cat shrank back in awe.
How could anyone write such fat characters so small? Truly terrifying.
“This is the register submitted by the Court of the Imperial Clan.” Tantai Tian spoke with careless ease, flipping the scroll forward a few times. “This here is my name.”
Those slender fingers tapped against a certain line of text.
The cat, who had been planning to play dead and sleep, immediately crowded in close, staring at the fat characters.
Mrr. Couldn’t understand a thing.
The cat let out a pitiful little whine.
Now Rendong knew firsthand the woes of illiteracy.
“Tantai Tian,” the human said, his voice cool and distant. “Tantai is the surname. Tian is the given name.”
What a dummy.
Of course the cat knew the first part was the surname and the last part was the name.
Rendong leaned in, his pink, slightly chilled nose brushing against that line of text, then gave it a little poke. Do it again! More times!
He decided the human’s voice sounded nicer than the System’s!
He wanted to hear it again and again.
The System: …
When the human didn’t react, the cat nearly reached out a fluffy paw to bat at him.
“Tantai Tian.”
At last, the human spoke again.
“Shu~gar~is~too~sweet~”
Mew.
Nothing.
The paw pads pressed impatiently against the back of the hand, like a finger jabbing at a talking-teacher toy.
“Tantai Tian.”
“Thoo~gar~too~sweet~”
Mew mew.
“Tantai Tian.”
“Tan~tai~tian!”
Mew mew mew!
Even Rendong’s white whiskers were quivering.
【Congratulations, Host! Binding successful!】
Rendong was so excited he wriggled all over Tantai Tian, then shot back and forth like a little cannonball, and finally launched himself in a flying leap straight into the human’s arms.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
The little cat’s ultimate victory at last!
