“I understand. You may go now.” Chong Yin waved a hand, his expression indifferent, his deep phoenix eyes dark and utterly unreadable.
Consort Yi lingered, reluctant to leave, glancing up at Chong Yin, her voice trembling. “Your Excellency…”
Chong Yin lifted his head and gave her a cold glance. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Sensing the faint killing intent rippling off Chong Yin, Consort Yi gritted her teeth and hurried to withdraw.
Once the room had settled back into quiet, Chong Yin leaned back against his chair, brow furrowed, and let out a slow sigh.
“Meow…”
A soft, thin meow drifted in from the window.
Chong Yin looked up to find a certain white kitten clinging to the windowsill, its obsidian-black eyes gleaming as it stared into the room.
“Get in here.” Chong Yin’s voice was flat, his expression far from pleasant.
The kitten kicked its short little legs, huffing and puffing as it struggled to climb up. It finally made it onto the windowsill, only to tumble straight down into the room, rolling head over tail several times before finally coming to a stop against the toe of Chong Yin’s boot.
Embarrassed by the graceless tumble, the kitten scrambled up and licked its paw, pretending nothing had happened.
Chong Yin let out a mocking laugh. “I told you to get in here, and here you are, rolling right in.”
Hearing this, Bai Xiaonian bristled with anger. That had clearly been an accident.
The little tyrant let loose a stream of furious meows at Chong Yin, teeth bared, cursing him thoroughly.
Unfortunately, Chong Yin couldn’t understand a word the kitten said, no matter how filthy the insults, they meant nothing to him.
Not content with just cursing, the little tyrant reached out a paw and clawed at the hem of Chong Yin’s robe, meaning to shred the fabric out of spite.
But Chong Yin suddenly slid the tip of his boot beneath the kitten’s belly, then flicked his foot, tossing the still-cursing kitten straight up into the air.
“Meow—”
Suddenly airborne, the kitten shrieked in terror, its cry utterly miserable.
Chong Yin extended a long arm and caught the kitten mid-air, frowning. “Noisy thing.”
The kitten curled into a tiny, trembling ball in Chong Yin’s palm, a far cry from the fearless little tyrant of moments ago.
The corner of Chong Yin’s mouth curved into a faint, handsome arc, though he quickly smoothed it away. He set the kitten down on the table and began interrogating it from above.
“Have you truly been causing chaos in the kitchen, and meddling with Consort Yi’s meals as well?”
The kitten lifted its head, seeming to have recovered from its fright, its round eyes once again bright and lively. It tilted its fuzzy little head, its face full of confusion.
“Meow”, who was Consort Yi?
Seeing the kitten’s bewildered expression, Chong Yin more or less guessed what it was confused about.
“Consort Yi is one of my concubines,” Chong Yin said, his eyes indifferent.
Bai Xiaonian froze in shock.
Before his death, he’d never once brought a woman into this Demon Palace. He didn’t expect that after only a few years of his passing, this Chong Yin would already have a whole harem, bringing woman after woman into the palace.
He had once believed Chong Yin uninterested in women, it seemed he’d misjudged the man entirely.
Furious and offended, Bai Xiaonian wished he could claw that hypocritical, deceptively handsome face to shreds.
The little tyrant thought it, and so he did it.
Chong Yin had no idea what had set the cat off, but suddenly it leapt up and swiped a paw straight at his handsome face. Fortunately, his reflexes were quick enough, he caught the enraged little tyrant by the paw before it could land.
Looking at the sharp claws bared from the kitten’s paw, Chong Yin exhaled slowly, then flared with anger. “Foolish cat, are you trying to stage a rebellion?”
With that, he flung the cat down onto the table with force, his expression turning frighteningly grim.
Yet the little tyrant showed not the slightest remorse. He rolled a couple of times on the table, scrambled back up, kicked off with his hind legs, and charged forward again.
Chong Yin simply reached out and pinned the kitten’s forehead with one finger. Unable to advance, the kitten kicked furiously at the air with its stubby legs until it wore itself out and stopped.
“Enough of this. I’m trying to discuss something serious with you.” Chong Yin’s face was stony, expressionless, but killing intent was beginning to churn faintly in his phoenix eyes, looking positively ferocious to Bai Xiaonian.
The kitten’s dark, round eyes darted about, and after a moment, fear finally won out. Ears and tail drooping, he assumed a pitiful, pleading expression.
Chong Yin let out a cold snort, smoothed his wide sleeve, ruffled from the earlier struggle, and finally spoke. “This matter with Consort Yi, does it have anything to do with you?”
The kitten sat obediently on the table, tilting its head slightly at the question, then shook it.
Bai Xiaonian had never even laid eyes on this Consort Yi. Lately, he’d only managed to snatch a few dried fish from the kitchen before fleeing, he hadn’t had the time or opportunity to meddle with anyone’s meals.
Chong Yin met the kitten’s clear, guileless eyes, and the furrow in his brow smoothed away, the corner of his mouth curving upward ever so slightly.
He extended a long finger and gently scratched beneath the kitten’s round little chin, his voice mild. “Behave yourself, and I’ll ensure you live a life of wealth and glory.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than the little tyrant, for whatever reason, flared up again and swiped a paw at him. This time Chong Yin hadn’t been on guard, and the kitten caught him squarely, leaving a red scratch across the back of his pale hand.
Chong Yin’s fury flared instantly, the air around him shifting ominously as he stared down at the kitten, dark spiritual energy laced with killing intent gathering slowly in his palm.
But the kitten seemed to have anticipated this. The instant he landed his scratch, he didn’t linger, he shot straight out through the window. On his way out, he accidentally stepped in a puddle of ink, leaving a trail of dark plum-blossom prints across the paper, the table, and the windowsill.
The crimson-tinged ball of spiritual energy in Chong Yin’s hand slammed into the window, shattering it to pieces.
Taoxi, waiting attendance outside the door, heard the crash and felt a small flicker of satisfaction.
That cat, surely His Excellency had smashed it to pieces by now.
Taoxi had served by Chong Yin’s side for years, and being punished over one little cat had already left her deeply resentful. Watching the kitten grow ever more favored afterward had only deepened her bitterness.
Now, seeing the cat finally fall from grace and face the Demon Lord’s discipline, she felt no small measure of satisfaction.
Taoxi waited for Chong Yin to summon someone to clean up the kitten’s remains, but wait as she might, no such summons came.
Only once His Excellency had finished with his affairs and emerged from the study did Taoxi dare step inside, curious to see what had happened.
Inside, the room lay in complete disarray, black plum-blossom prints scattered everywhere, the window shattered into pieces, and on the desk, a wolf-hair writing brush snapped clean in half by the Demon Lord’s fury.
Taoxi searched carefully, again and again, but found no trace of blood anywhere. At last, spotting a trail of little paw prints vanishing through the window, her heart sank with disappointment.
…
Meanwhile, the moment the little tyrant escaped, he headed straight back to the kitchen to steal more dried fish.
This Chong Yin always forgot to feed him. Over the past couple of days, the kitten had nearly starved on several occasions, and eventually Bai Xiaonian gave up trying to remind him to prepare food at all.
Waiting for Chong Yin to remember to feed him would only get him starved to death sooner or later, better to fend for himself.
Chong Yin’s mind had grown noticeably duller over these past two hundred years, nowhere near as sharp as it used to be. Bai Xiaonian was certain he’d made himself perfectly clear each time he tried to signal his hunger, yet Chong Yin never seemed to grasp his meaning.
That brain of his had degraded by more than just a little.
Grumbling inwardly about Chong Yin, Bai Xiaonian arrived beneath the kitchen window.
The little white kitten leapt with all his strength, claws catching the windowsill, then huffed and puffed his way up on his short little legs.