A fierce-sounding meow echoed through the air.
Shao Yanzhe, who had been diligently writing with his head lowered, jerked his hand, causing a large blot of ink to spread across the paper.
Setting down his brush, he walked to the study window and leaned out to look around. Finding nothing, he withdrew his head with some disappointment.
The moment he turned around, his movements froze, his pupils trembling as he struggled to form an appropriate expression.
Reflected in his widened eyes, a figure clad in white slowly emerged from a scroll painting. Her translucent white gauze dress fluttered gracefully with her movements, appearing like a fairy descending under moonlight in the dim lamplight.
At this moment, Shao Yanzhe’s mind completely blanked, leaving him staring dumbfounded at the court lady who had stepped out of the painting.
Noticing his reaction, the court lady’s eyes flashed with satisfaction – no man could resist the allure of her entrance.
She drifted lightly to the floor and made an elegant bow toward Shao Yanzhe. Her gaze shifted about as if slightly shy, and she turned her head slightly away as she spoke: “Young master, the night is fleeting. Why not join me in ascending Wushan?”
Her words trailed upward like a tantalizing hook, one finger twirling a lock of black hair while her eyes gazed at him with enchanting charm.
A crisp popping sound suddenly erupted from the oil lamp on its stand, jolting the stunned Shao Yanzhe back to awareness.
Shao Yanzhe: …
Different species, thanks but no thanks!
His expression remained dazed – had he really seen correctly?
Did this white-clad court lady truly emerge from the painting scroll?
If he weren’t certain he was in ancient times, he would have suspected the scene was created with projections.
So this ancient world wasn’t ordinary, but one filled with ghosts and supernatural beings!
Shao Yanzhe: Trembling in fear.JPG
Beautiful Court Lady: Confused.JPG
“Young master?”
The court lady, whom Shao Yanzhe perceived as a supernatural being, called out questioningly, bringing him back to reality.
“Sorry, I can’t! I need to study!”
Shao Yanzhe screamed internally – what human could entertain such thoughts when facing a ghost?
Certainly not him!
He’d rather read books!
The court lady opposite him froze in astonishment. This was her first time encountering such a reaction. She scrutinized the scholar before her – pale complexion, dark circles under his eyes, frail build – well, perhaps he really was incapable.
Lowering her eyelids, her gaze inadvertently swept across the rice paper on the desk, quickly scanning its contents.
Her expression instantly turned serious as she extended a slender jade-like finger to point at a particular section: “What you’ve written here is incorrect.”
“What’s wrong?” Shao Yanzhe asked instinctively.
That shouldn’t be. Although he was from modern times, he often read books and practiced calligraphy in his leisure time. The content he’d copied to familiarize himself with the original body’s handwriting was a recent political essay the original had completed, which seemed perfectly fine to him.
The court lady, whose demeanor had completely transformed, said earnestly: “Look at this examination question – ‘The gentleman is ashamed to let his words outrun his deeds, while the petty man acts without restraint.’ The first half comes from The Analects – Xian Wen, the second from The Doctrine of the Mean. These are two independent statements, yet you’ve joined them as a cause-and-effect sentence, distorting the original meaning of Confucian ‘relationship between words and deeds’ and ‘comparison between gentleman and petty man.'”
She spoke while extending her right hand to pick up the brush resting nearby, gently gathering the drooping sleeve of her left hand before beginning to write on the rice paper.
Shao Yanzhe hesitated for a moment, then finally approached and lowered his head to carefully examine the characters written on the paper.
The script on the rice paper was the Guange Style he was quite familiar with, with the opening argument of the topic at the very top.
“A gentleman’s shame lies in words exceeding deeds, not merely out of modesty, but truly…”
As he read further, his eyes grew brighter with each line.
After all the content was written, he looked at the Court Lady with deep admiration and praised without hesitation: “Your talent is extraordinary, Master! I am ashamed of my own inadequacy. Had you participated in the Imperial Exam, you might have achieved the Zhuangyuan title!”
Then he saw the ancient Court Lady, who had been poised and scholarly, suddenly darken her expression. The brush in her hand shattered abruptly, a fierce wind swept through the room, and her long draped hair scattered wildly around her as her black pupils suddenly turned crimson.
Her face contorted with pain, her body suddenly became drenched, and murky water stains spread across the floor.
“The Imperial Exam?”
“How do you know I nearly became Zhuangyuan in the Imperial Exam?”
“Are you mocking me?”
Resentment erupted from the Court Lady, the temperature in the study plummeted, and a faint layer of white frost appeared on the ground.
“Gasp! No no no no! I’m not, I didn’t! I truly didn’t mean that!”
Shao Yanzhe kept retreating, trembling all over, unsure whether from fear or the suddenly dropping temperature.
“Sophistry!”
“All men are worthless!”
“Go die, all of you!”
Ignoring him, the Court Lady clenched her right hand, causing the remaining half of the brush to instantly crumble into fragments. With a wave of her hand, a new brush appeared in her grasp.
This brush had a shaft made of translucent white jade, and judging by the softness and hardness of the brush tip, one could immediately tell it was a high-quality Jade Shaft Jian Hao Brush.
The next moment, the Court Lady held the brush in her right hand and lightly tapped it before her. A stream of characters flowed from the brush tip.
“The sage evaluates people, valuing substance over words. The gentleman takes shame in speaking much but doing little, while the petty man suffers from having no fear… These are originally the two wheels of the gentleman’s establishment in life.”
After reading these words, Shao Yanzhe’s eyes immediately lit up – this argument was more concise and fluent than what the Court Lady had written earlier.
Then, the black characters suddenly converged and, following the movement of the Court Lady’s brush tip, transformed into ink-black blades that shot toward Shao Yanzhe.
“Wait! I don’t quite understand this phrase ‘the petty man who has no fear’ – could you explain…”
Before Shao Yanzhe could finish speaking, the Court Lady’s expression darkened sharply: “Explain what? I want to kill you right now!”
“After you’re dead, I’ll explain it to you!”
As she finished speaking, her movements suddenly accelerated, and the ink-black blades shot straight toward vital spots on Shao Yanzhe’s neck and chest.
“Meow!”
Following the cat’s cry, a black shadow suddenly darted in through the study window, landing precisely on Shao Yanzhe’s head before quickly jumping to his shoulder. The black tail lightly swept in front of him, dispersing the ink-black blades.
The Black Cat glanced at the unharmed Shao Yanzhe before withdrawing its gaze, assuming a haughty demeanor.
“Tch! Stupid biped, why didn’t you dodge earlier? So eager to die?”
Shao Yanzhe froze for a moment, tilting his head to look at the black cat. He immediately recognized it as the same one he had fed fried small fish in the county town.
“A cat actually spoke!”
His shock was tinged with a sense of numbness—this world had ultimately become something he could no longer comprehend.
Only then did he remember to answer its question: “It’s not that I don’t want to hide—my legs have gone numb, I can’t move!”
Black Cat: …
“Stinky cat! Get lost!”
The Court Lady’s dark, sunken eyes fixed on the black cat. Their strengths were not far apart; if they truly confronted each other, the outcome would be hard to predict.
The black cat crouched on Shao Yanzhe’s shoulder, its eyes flashing with disgust as it stared at the Court Lady. “Stinky painting ghost, the stench on you is suffocating! You leave! You’re not welcome here!”
“Then let’s die together!”
As soon as the Court Lady spoke, resentment surged around her. She swiftly drew a circle in midair with her jade-handled brush.
In the next moment, torrents of ink-black energy gushed forth from the circle.
The black cat’s eyes filled with gravity. With a powerful push of its hind legs, it kicked Shao Yanzhe backward, sending him flying out of the study window, then charged forward to meet the attack.
Gritting his teeth, Shao Yanzhe stomped his feet vigorously before crouching by the window to peer inside.
The entire study was engulfed in black mist. He narrowed his eyes, trying to make out what was happening within.
Suddenly, a white shadow flashed past, followed closely by a black one.
“Stinky cat! Die!”
“Stinky painting ghost! Perish for this mighty cat!”
Instantly, the study echoed with shouts and curses, interspersed with furious meows.
Shao Yanzhe felt a twinge of worry for the black cat. After all, the Court Lady was likely a ghost, and even if the black cat could talk, it had probably only just stepped into the realm of demons, right?
He could only pray silently, hoping the black cat would be safe.
The black cat swiped its claws across the Court Lady’s face, scratching it. While dodging her attacks, it accidentally caught sight of the foolish human peeking in through the window and grew even angrier.
What was this two-legged creature doing?!
Why hadn’t he run yet?!
The Court Lady, locked in combat with the cat, also spotted Shao Yanzhe outside the window. Her eyes shifted cunningly. Feigning an attack on the black cat, she took advantage of its evasion to swiftly dart toward the window. With a flick of her jade-handled brush, she left an obstruction behind for the black cat.
Seeing the danger, Shao Yanzhe turned and fled.
“Run! Keep running and I’ll break your legs!”
The Court Lady let out a sinister laugh. Even if her plan failed today, she would kill this detestable human who dared to mock her!
Soon, the human and the ghost were side by side.
Out of the corner of his eye, Shao Yanzhe caught the fluttering white gauze, like a pale butterfly. He whipped his head around and came face to face with the Court Lady’s ghastly, twisted visage.
Author’s note: