The palace attendants serving in the Hall of Blessed Tranquility had been forced to grow used to this little creature that appeared and vanished like a ghost. A cat’s head would mysteriously poke out from some knotted corner no one ever thought to check, then pop right out, and with perfect composure stroll past the feet of the attendant it had just frightened.
With that tail held high and swaying slowly, it was hard to say whether Rendong was actually enjoying himself.
The few attendants assigned to care for him had gradually figured out this Little Ancestor’s temperament.
Small as the cat was, what he loved most was tearing around every corner of the palace.
Aside from mealtimes and after nightfall, when the cat could actually be seen, he spent the rest of the day outside somewhere.
The cat’s absolute favorite thing to drink was Baa-Baa Milk.
Every time he came back, he would drain an entire basin.
A cat with a full belly was the laziest cat, and that was when the Little Ancestor could finally be brushed.
Qinglian had the best grooming technique. She could brush the cat into a soft, puddle-like blob, purring away with tiny snores. Qingyun’s skills were nothing to sneeze at either; since being transferred to care for the kitten, she had already knitted several small blankets.
That black-and-white little blanket speckled with all sorts of spots had recently become Rendong’s new favorite. No matter which nest he slept in, he would carry it over in his mouth to sleep with.
The Little Ancestor might have a cat’s temper, but he was the easiest Master to serve.
All day he mewed and purred in his delicate little voice, and hearing theirs, he would chirp back, even rubbing his face against them in delight.
Yu Zeming also kept a close eye on the Little Ancestor, checking in from time to time and handing out extra rewards. In the eyes of the others, this cushy assignment, given to those Qing-generation attendants serving Rendong, filled them with regret.
Earlier on, they had known such a job existed, but word was that it involved a black cat, and with plenty of vacancies opening up around the New Emperor, everyone naturally assumed that scrambling for those positions was the proper path.
Who could have guessed the New Emperor was so fond of this little pet?
And so the people serving at the cat’s side had basked in the reflected glory, living the easy life.
…
“A cat?” In the Side Hall of the Palace of Peaceful Longevity, Dowager Consort Wang repeated the word with shock and doubt. “How could he possibly…”
The rest went unsaid, swallowed back down.
She remembered that before, while Gao Jinzhong was still alive, word had come back that a cat had appeared at the Hall of Peace and Ease, with speculation that it might be the same one that had injured the Emperor some time before.
Dowager Consort Wang had noted it down, but what mattered then was plotting her son’s way out. She planned to raise the matter with the Emperor once the affair of leaving the palace and establishing his residence had settled, so that the Crown Prince would suffer another heavy blow.
Who could have imagined that before that day ever came, the Emperor had become the Late Emperor, and Dowager Consort Wang, mired in the endless complications of presiding over the funeral rites, had no spare moment to recall it.
It was not that a careful woman like her would simply forget. In her view, such a living creature could never stay by Tantai Tian’s side for long anyway.
“Your Ladyship, that is what Cao’er said,” Danzhu replied, perched on a little stool as she kneaded Dowager Consort Wang’s knees. “And moreover, she said that His Majesty seems rather concerned about that cat.”
Dowager Consort Wang wearily rubbed her brow.
These days of mourning rites had truly worn her ragged.
And then there was that business of snakes stirring in the palace in the middle of winter, of all things. If the attendants hadn’t patrolled so rigorously, more than once Dowager Consort Wang would have been bitten by the snakes roused from the heated floor.
To everyone else, Tantai Tian entrusting these matters to her was a sign of letting bygones be bygones. But Dowager Consort Wang knew full well that such work only looked prestigious on the surface, while underneath it was nothing but bitterness.
The Empress… that Empress Dowager, hadn’t tasted a drop of hardship!
All she had to do was sit in the Palace of Compassionate Origin eating vegetarian meals and chanting sutras, while she and Zhang’er knelt daily before the coffin, nearly kneeling their legs raw.
Tantai Zhang, as the eldest, had been handed the burden as well. He wept at the spirit tablet with one hand and managed the affairs of moving out of the palace with the other, working himself nearly to a husk.
Speaking of moving out to establish his residence, Dowager Consort Wang felt a surge of relief in her heart.
Thank goodness the matter had been settled before the Late Emperor’s death, and the household had already moved out.
If it had dragged on until now, Tantai Tian might well have refused to let the older Imperial Princes leave the palace.
At this thought, Dowager Consort Wang swept away her fatigue and confusion, and her spirits rallied. So what if he had ascended the throne? She had controlled the Inner Palace all these years, and the Late Emperor had steadily dismantled the Eastern Palace’s connections in the court. Even seated on the throne, what could a puppet who couldn’t command his own officials possibly accomplish?
Wanting to hold power in your hands was one thing. Having the ability to was another!
…
[Quest Three: Thwart Dowager Consort Wang’s Plot.]
When the quest appeared, Rendong asked, “Dowager Consort Wang? Who’s that?”
How could Rendong not remember such a person?
[She was the former Imperial Noble Consort. After Tantai Tian ascended the throne, he only promoted the late Emperor Changle’s consorts according to standard protocol. Since she received no noble title, she is addressed by her family name.]
Rendong suddenly understood. Oh, so it was that household he often visited to dump snakes.
If a human wanted to frame someone, how would they go about it?
And how did an Emperor even frame someone? Wasn’t the Emperor already the most powerful person there was?
Rendong stretched his neck out, poking his muzzle onto the windowsill, wondering curiously.
Plenty of TV dramas had shown it, but when Rendong tried hard to recall, he could not seem to remember a single one.
The cat had watched them.
But the cat had forgotten.
Infuriating.
With his terrible memory, Rendong’s paws flew through the air as he tried to snatch dust motes floating by, but one careless move went too far, and the whole cat toppled off the windowsill.
An attendant who had long since spotted the black cat yelped and rushed over, only to see the cat twist in midair with an emergency flip…
Thud!
All four paw pads landed perfectly!
The commotion was considerable, though. Just as Rendong tried to slip away, a pair of hands scooped him up, and that faintly familiar scent set off the cat’s tiny tantrum.
Hiss!
Everyone who gives cats baths is a bad person!
Hissed at, Tantai Tian fell into thought for a moment, then offered his finger to the cat’s muzzle. Rendong, caught completely off guard, froze as he bit down, and his little pink tongue gave an involuntary lick.
Ptui, ptui, ptui! Why does it taste so gross!
Rendong spat the finger out in fury.
“Not eating?” Carrying the cat, Tantai Tian strolled back inside. “Can you really survive on nothing but ordinary food?”
The Emperor murmured to himself, and not a single attendant dared lift their head.
This was the first time the cat had been caught since the bathing incident.
“Cats don’t eat people,” Rendong grumbled. Ever since Tantai Tian ascended the throne, the food had undergone a qualitative leap, so fresh that the cat spent far less time hunting.
“Really won’t eat it?”
The Emperor couldn’t understand Rendong’s words, yet his responses seemed to line up perfectly with the cat’s chatter. There was even a trace of regret in the human’s voice.
Wow, what a scary human.
The little cat head rubbed up against the human’s chest, tilting back to stare hard at Tantai Tian.
Humans really are tyrants.
Tantai Tian sat down and placed the kitten beside him.
The stinky ink smell grew even stronger. Rendong wove in and out along the human’s sleeve, then finally shoved his whole head into the sleeve’s opening, where only the faint, light fragrance of the human reached him.
Perfect. The stink was completely blocked out.
The cat flopped over and fell asleep.
Cats really are a strange species.
Falling asleep wherever they roam. One moment disgusted with a human, the next moment snoring away.
When the Great Cat King groggily awoke, his bed seemed to be swaying. He blearily opened his eyes and found he was still hiding inside the human’s sleeve.
The cat yawned lazily and burrowed around inside the sleeve.
Ugh, why were human sleeves so baggy? No matter how Rendong squirmed, he couldn’t get out! The cat thrashed about excitedly, punching and kicking, until little bumps popped up one after another.
Suddenly, a firm grip closed around Rendong’s paw from outside.
“Awake?”
The mewing little muzzle was pressed right into that rounded palm.
Rendong’s awake! Let the cat out!
Soon the dim tunnel of fabric was lifted away, and with a great feline leap, Rendong charged out, only to bump straight into the human’s palm.
That hurt a little.
Rendong nuzzled the human’s palm.
So pet the head too, then.
Tantai Tian had more or less learned the cat’s habits by now. Seeing the kitten act clingy the moment he woke, he scratched the cat’s chin until Rendong was purring so hard he nearly melted into the human’s hand.
“Your Majesty, this is unseemly!”
Rendong, blissfully enjoying the pets, shot upright at once. Who was barking over there?
Raising his little head from Tantai Tian’s lap, Rendong could see only the towering desk. He could hear the human’s voice but couldn’t tell where it came from, since from beneath the desk a cat could only see everyone’s lower halves.
The candlelight flickered, so it must still be night.
How is a human still working overtime in the middle of the night!
Tantai Tian was occupied with petting the cat and paid the speaker no mind, and the voice grew even more forceful. “Your Majesty, you should chase it out at once. A place of such quiet dignity cannot tolerate this creature’s wanton behavior.”
The cat would not stand for it. Shoving hard against Tantai Tian’s palm, Rendong flowed out across the human’s hand like water, and with a great feline leap charged right up onto the desk.
Let the cat see exactly who was barking. The cat was going to pound him into a mute.
Five or six people stood at the front, their official robes more or less identical, their beards equally abundant. They all looked ancient, and the man at the far left was glaring at him most viciously of all.
At present, the power of the court rested mostly in the hands of the Secretariat-Chancellery.
Though the Six Ministries under the Department of State Affairs still existed, they answered to the Secretariat-Chancellery.
The Grand Chancellor was in effect the chief minister, and the Vice Chancellor his deputy.
Fu Yingsheng was one of the Vice Chancellors. The other ministers present tonight were either Vice Ministers of the Six Ministries or the Vice Censor-in-Chief, all of lower rank than Fu Yingsheng, so they kept their eyes on their noses and their noses on their hearts.
Fu Yingsheng cupped his hands in salute. His manner looked perfectly respectful, but there was a thread of condescension in his voice. “Your Majesty has only just ascended the throne, so perhaps you are unaware. In the days of the Late Emperor, such disorder was never permitted in the Hall of Reverent Governance. It must be these insolent servants growing careless, and so…”
Before he could finish, several sharp, urgent yowls rang out.
Not sweet. Not soft.
The piercing cat cries carried an unmistakable aggression.
Fu Yingsheng, still speaking with lowered hands, sensed something wrong. He had only just raised his head when a black blur came hurtling straight at his face.
Startled, he swung the ivory court tablet in his hand at the thing on reflex, but his raised arm suddenly went numb, aching so badly he could barely hold the tablet.
A piece of jade dislodged by the blow went rolling across the floor, its modest contributions lost amid the uproar.
Deprived of its aim, the swinging tablet missed, and the black blur seized the opening to go straight for his face.
“AAAAAH!”
Hidden within Rendong’s squishy little paw pads were claws honed with great care. The instant he struck, he was fierce and merciless, like a bolt of black lightning.
Having shredded Fu Yingsheng’s face, Rendong took advantage of the man’s howling to spring off his shoulder. Twisting in midair, he pounced back toward the desk, skated all the way across the cool surface, and slid to a stop in front of Tantai Tian with a sweet, delicate mew.
Human! Quick, hide the cat!
Whether Tantai Tian truly understood the cat’s meaning or had simply been prepared all along, the human opened his arms the moment the cat pounced.
The cat darted contentedly into the human’s embrace, scrambling all over his knees. With Fu Yingsheng’s screams as background music, the kitten mewed and chirped, “He was barking. Human, you’re not allowed to listen.”
Did he take the cat for a fool?
That was obviously pointing at the cat to insult the human!
An employee who won’t even listen to the boss is incompetent and ought to be fired!
