“Radish, don’t move.”
April stood in the courtyard with a group of palace maids, softly calling out to Radish, who had somehow climbed up onto the roof.
Radish lay flat on the tiles, completely ignoring the servants below. Looking calm and detached, it leisurely raised a paw and began licking it, one stroke at a time.
“Why hasn’t Xiao Fuzi brought the ladder yet?” April asked softly. “His Highness will be waking up soon. We need to get Radish down quickly.”
No sooner had April spoken than Xiao Fuzi hurried over carrying a ladder.
The ladder was set against the eaves. As soon as Xiao Fuzi climbed up and reached out to pick up Radish, the cat darted away in a flash.
Although the glazed tiles used in the palace were sturdy enough to support a person’s weight, the commotion of chasing the cat was too loud and risked disturbing the noble lord inside the main hall. Xiao Fuzi didn’t dare pursue it further.
“Aunt April, what should we do now?”
April felt a headache coming on.
Radish had run far off, and she could no longer even see where it was.
Just as Ji Rong stepped outside, the first thing he saw was a circle of palace maids and eunuchs all looking up toward the roof.
“What’s going on?”
April hurried over and said with a troubled expression, “Your Highness, this maid didn’t keep a close eye on Radish. In a split second of carelessness, it ran up onto the roof.”
Hearing this, Ji Rong looked up.
Xiao Fuzi stood stiffly on the ladder, unsure whether to go up or down.
“Understood.”
With those words, Ji Rong lightly tipped his toes and vaulted up onto the roof.
Radish was curled up in a sunny spot, catching the warmth. Hearing a sound, its amber pupils spotted Ji Rong, and it lazily flattened itself back down.
Radish offered no resistance to Ji Rong, allowing itself to be obediently scooped up into his arms.
Ji Rong stroked Radish’s fluffy fur, gently tugging at its ears. Without caring whether the cat could understand him, he put on a stern expression to lecture it, “The roof is so dangerous. You are not allowed to run around randomly, do you understand?”
Radish burrowed further into his arms.
“How did it even get up there?” Ji Rong asked. “Wasn’t it still inside the hall last night?”
April shook her head and said, “I don’t know, Your Highness. This maid was doing embroidery in the courtyard today when I heard Radish’s meowing coming from above, which is how I discovered it had run up there.”
Not wanting to stand around in the courtyard basking in the sun, Ji Rong turned and carried Radish back into the hall.
Lately, he had been sleeping in naturally every day, consistently missing breakfast entirely and waking up just as it was nearing noon.
Sleeping, eating, teasing the cat.
He was experiencing a retired, leisurely lifestyle ahead of schedule.
Except for the fact that he was forced to share a bed with that person every single night, and was prone to being woken up in the morning by that person’s movements when leaving for early morning court.
Overall, though, it was quite pleasant.
Today was no exception. After Ji Rong teased Radish for a little while, he heard the commotion of Qi Zhaoxuan returning from outside, immediately followed by the emperor’s calm voice giving orders to serve the meal.
Radish was carried away by April. As soon as Ji Rong walked over, an indistinct scent of blood drifted to the tip of his nose.
He frowned as he took his seat, casting a suspicious look at Qi Zhaoxuan.
“What is it, Imperial Father-in-law?”
Qi Zhaoxuan noticed his gaze and asked softly.
Ji Rong looked away and answered evasively, “It’s nothing.”
That was what he said out loud, but doubts still lingered in his heart.
Prince Duan had been caught in the net, but there were still some individuals whose interests were tied to him who had yet to be dealt with. Ever since returning to the capital from Jiangnan, Qi Zhaoxuan had been continuously purging members of Prince Duan’s faction.
He was very busy, yet Qi Zhaoxuan always managed to find the time to return from the Imperial Study to the Qianqing Palace to share meals with him. After the morning court, he would go to the Imperial Study, and afterward return to the Qianqing Palace, even bringing official business back with him.
Yet every single time at lunch, Ji Rong would catch a faint, lingering scent of blood.
At first, he assumed the wounds were just healing slowly in the summer heat, perhaps seeping or becoming inflamed. But on one occasion when the imperial physician came for a follow-up diagnosis, Ji Rong happened to be standing right nearby and saw that the wound on Qi Zhaoxuan’s arm had already scabbed over, making it impossible for it to be bleeding.
And yet, he could still smell blood.
The scent was extremely faint; if not for his acute sensitivity to the smell of blood, he wouldn’t have noticed it at all.
A trace of darkness flashed across the depths of Qi Zhaoxuan’s eyes, disappearing so quickly that Ji Rong failed to notice it.
“Imperial Father-in-law, let’s eat.”
He spoke softly, a faint smile floating on his surface, though it didn’t reach his eyes.
After finishing lunch, Qi Zhaoxuan went to the main hall to handle official business.
With nothing much to do, Ji Rong hugged Radish and lay down beneath the eaves to watch April do her embroidery.
One large pair of eyes and one small pair of eyes stared fixedly as the needle and thread wove back and forth, slowly taking the shape of a lifelike sparrow.
“Whoa.”
“Meow?”
The two sounds amused April, who covered her mouth and chuckled softly.
Ji Rong set Radish down on the ground, took the handkerchief handed over by April, and admired the bird totem embroidered upon it.
“How magical,” Ji Rong said on a sudden whim. “Is this difficult?”
“Simple totems aren’t too difficult; getting the hang of it is quite easy,” April guessed what Ji Rong was thinking and asked, “Would Your Highness like to try playing with it?”
Ji Rong nodded.
April stood up, retrieved the materials, and handed him a blank handkerchief.
“If Your Highness is just starting out, you can use an embroidery pen to trace an outline first, and then thread the needle and follow the lines to embroider it step by step.”
Ji Rong hadn’t decided what to draw yet.
He thought long and hard, but for some reason, his mind drifted to the cool, ethereal fragrance that always lingered around Qi Zhaoxuan.
A cold yet slightly bitter herbal scent.
Like ink orchid, unlike spring orchid.
The fragrance was heavy without being stifling, somewhat resembling the clear moonlight on a cold night, carrying an unresolved melancholy.
Ji Rong picked up the brush and slowly sketched the appearance of an ink orchid on the handkerchief.
Sword-shaped leaf clusters, with cold, rigid edges on the leaves.
Threading the needle was relatively simple; the difficult part was actually doing the work.
Having just watched April do it with such ease, Ji Rong hadn’t expected that actually trying it himself would be so difficult.
Ji Rong looked at the final product and fell silent.
It was crooked and misshapen, forming no straight lines at all.
Some parts were even pinched into wrinkled little bumps, and the stitch lengths varied wildly.
In short, it looked nothing like an ink orchid.
“Meow.”
Radish, which had originally been rubbing against Ji Rong’s ankles, suddenly let out a cry, whipped its tail around, and bolted away.
Ji Rong glanced at Radish, then looked back at the ink orchid in his hands.
He pondered for a moment, decisively tossed the handkerchief aside, and set off in the direction where Radish had run.
Radish ran very quickly. The palace staff all knew this was the Imperial Noble Consort’s cat and didn’t dare try to stop it, causing Radish to scamper forward with even greater glee.
Ji Rong trailed slowly behind, keeping the cat within sight in the distance.
Radish had originally been running along a small path, but for some reason, it suddenly accelerated and sprinted straight ahead.
Ji Rong had been strolling at a leisurely pace, but upon realizing where Radish was heading, his expression suddenly shifted, and he quickened his pace.
Usually lazy, Radish had turned into a speed demon today, running so fast that Ji Rong constantly lagged a small distance behind and couldn’t catch it.
Until he chased it near the eaves ahead, and Radish completely vanished from sight.
This was the main hall of the Qianqing Palace. Ji Rong didn’t know if there were any ministers inside at the moment, and he wasn’t wearing his veil hat.
Thus, Ji Rong could only lower his voice and call out, “Radish?”
“Radish?”
Radish had run off without a trace.
However, Ji Rong spotted cat fur floating in the air under the sunlight, along with tufts of orange-yellow fur stuck in the crevice of the western side door of the main hall.
Radish had run right into the hall.
Faint voices belonging to a few different people could be heard speaking inside.
Ji Rong wore a deadpan expression.
The western side door was guarded by a young eunuch who usually followed closely behind Li Youde, so he naturally recognized that it was the Imperial Noble Consort’s cat that had just dashed inside.
The young eunuch put on a bitter expression and said, “That cat ran too fast, this servant couldn’t catch it.”
For such a round-looking cat, it was remarkably agile.
Ji Rong wiped his face and resignedly said, “It’s fine. I’ll go inside and catch it.”
The young eunuch reminded him, “Your Highness, important matters of state are being discussed inside right now, and quite a few ministers are present as well. Please be careful.”
Upon entering the hall, the sound of conversation became much clearer.
However, Ji Rong had no mind for any of that; he only wanted to catch Radish quickly without startling anyone and then head right back.
Fortunately, just a few steps inside, he spotted Radish squatting obediently behind a screen, calmly licking its fur.
Ji Rong scooped Radish into his arms and stroked its fur a few times.
April arrived tardily, wearing her veil hat.
“Presently, the imperial harem contains only the Imperial Noble Consort, and it has been a long time since any imperial heirs were born. Furthermore, the position of empress remains vacant. The continuation of the imperial lineage is a matter of great national importance; according to both ritual and system, Your Majesty should issue an imperial decree to select consorts.”
Radish rested obediently in Ji Rong’s arms, while Ji Rong’s fingers rested on Radish’s spine, smoothing down its fur stroke by stroke.
The lighting here was dim. Shrouded in the shadows, Ji Rong’s expression could not be seen.
April also heard the words being spoken inside. She quieted her breathing and whispered softly, “Your Highness?”