After the kitten had won him over with its wheedling for a good while, Chong Yin finally reached down and picked up the cat clinging to his leg, setting it on the dining table to eat on its own.
Chong Yin leaned back lazily against his chair, watching the kitten eat with amused interest.
Apparently finding it too tiring to eat standing up, the little tyrant had taken to sitting up like a person, cradling an entire fish in its paws, a fish that looked bigger than the kitten itself, making for a thoroughly ridiculous sight.
After watching for a while, Chong Yin suddenly recalled something and turned to Liu Huan beside him. “Have you looked into it?”
Liu Huan nodded. “We found out. It was a cook who’d recently joined the kitchen staff. After some interrogation, he confessed he was jealous that Xiao Niangao had won your favor, so he fed him a dried fish laced with rat poison.”
Chong Yin shook his head with a cold sneer. “We’re demon cultivators, not demons devoid of any sense. Break his legs and toss him into the Beast Garden.”
Which meant, in other words, feeding him to the spirit beasts.
Liu Huan nodded. “Understood.”
Beside them, Bai Xiaonian, eating with one ear perked up to catch their conversation, couldn’t help clicking his tongue in approval.
Just like Chong Yin, growing ever more ruthless and merciless with time. Still, that cook had brought it entirely on himself, daring to lay a hand on him, Bai Xiaonian.
At least this way, Bai Xiaonian wouldn’t have to bother dealing with the man himself.
Once his belly was full, the kitten sprawled on the table, unable to move. Chong Yin glanced at him with a look of distaste, frowned, and instructed, “Have water prepared. Give this filthy cat a wash.”
At those words, the kitten refused to accept it. He’d only just eaten a meal, how did that suddenly make him a “filthy cat” again? Besides, Bai Xiaonian had no intention of ever taking a bath, licking his own fur clean was more than sufficient.
With that thought, the kitten scrambled up, meaning to make a run for it.
But he hadn’t accounted for just how heavy his belly had become, round and swollen, dragging him down so much he could barely walk.
The plump little ball of fur staggered two steps before toppling sideways with a thud, landing on his back, paws in the air, unable to right himself again.
Chong Yin let out an amused laugh, reached out, and scooped up the kitten. Ignoring its protests entirely, he plunged the cat into a basin filled with warm water.
The kitten thrashed all four paws wildly, then clung tightly to Chong Yin’s hand, absolutely refusing to sink into the water. Chong Yin shook his hand, but the kitten still wouldn’t budge.
Chong Yin’s brow furrowed, his expression turning stern. “Bathe for me properly, or you won’t be sleeping in my bed tonight, filthy cat.”
The little tyrant couldn’t care less, if he wanted to get onto that bed, he had plenty of other ways to manage it, there was no need to humble himself by taking this bath.
So the moment Chong Yin finished speaking, the kitten instead scrambled up his arm in a flash and, with outrageous nerve, plopped himself down right on top of the Demon Lord’s head, leisurely licking one of his little pink paws as if nothing were amiss.
The expressions on the attendants’ faces could no longer even be described as horrified. They simply stared, slack-jawed, at the man and cat, until someone, no one could say who first, dropped to their knees in fear.
The rest of the attendants quickly followed, kneeling in a wave.
No matter how furious His Excellency might be, kneeling first was never the wrong move.
Chong Yin’s expression turned dark and menacing. After several deep breaths, he reached out with a long arm and seized the kitten firmly by the tail.
This time, the little tyrant had nowhere left to run, and could only cling desperately to Chong Yin’s hair with his paws, refusing to let go.
Chong Yin pulled the kitten downward, but the cat only ended up yanking his hair into a tangled, birds’-nest mess in the process.
In the end, the kitten’s strength was simply no match for the Demon Lord’s. After a brief struggle, Chong Yin finally wrenched the cat down from his head. Thoroughly furious now, he plunged the kitten straight into the water without hesitation. The kitten flailed about in a panic, bubbles gurgling up from its mouth.
After a fierce battle of wits and strength, the kitten was finally washed clean, while Chong Yin, soaked from the splashing, wore an expression of pure displeasure.
Afraid that looking at the cat any longer might make him lose control and beat it to death, Chong Yin lifted the dripping kitten out of the water and handed it off to Liu Huan, who hurried over with a towel and carefully wrapped the kitten up.
Once the kitten had been dried with spiritual energy, Liu Huan finally let it out of the towel.
Thoroughly displeased at having been forced into a bath, the little tyrant lifted his head high, turned away from Chong Yin’s dark expression and the row of kneeling attendants, and sauntered off on his own.
Chong Yin let out a cold laugh, pressed his lips together, and swept off toward the bathing pool with a flick of his sleeve.
…
The next day, Bai Xiaonian woke to find Chong Yin already gone. The servants had once again forgotten to prepare his food. With a sigh, the little tyrant had no choice but to head to the kitchen to fend for himself.
By now, everyone in the Demon Palace knew that the snow-white kitten belonged to the Demon Lord and was doted upon beyond measure, no one dared cross it. So no matter where the kitten wandered, any servant who happened to pass by would step aside to let him through.
Bai Xiaonian had recovered a bit of that old feeling from his days as Demon Lord. Tail held high, he strutted proudly into the kitchen.
Today, the little kitchen was bustling with activity, people coming and going, smoke curling through the air, the stove crackling with fire.
Everyone in the kitchen was chatting away as they worked, talking about this and that, but the moment they noticed the white kitten walk in, they all fell silent at once, too guilty to say another word.
Half the people in the kitchen had been among those gossiping the day before, back when they hadn’t yet realized how favored this kitten truly was. It was only after hearing that the cook who’d poisoned the kitten had been maimed and thrown to the beasts that they broke out in a cold sweat, feeling immensely fortunate they hadn’t done anything to the cat themselves.
The white kitten leapt up onto the stove and settled down, watching everyone work. The others swallowed nervously, hearts pounding, terrified of provoking this little tyrant somehow.
The kitten simply sat quietly by the stove, watching everyone, doing nothing in particular, yet the others found its gaze uncannily unsettling, breaking into a cold sweat despite the sweltering kitchen.
Just then, the soup on the stove finished cooking, and one of the cooks had no choice but to approach the kitten to tend to the pot.
Fortunately, the kitten did nothing at all, in fact, it even shifted its position slightly to make room for the cook to ladle the soup.
Once the cook finished and was about to hurry off, the kitten suddenly let out a single meow. “Meow~”
The cook flinched and looked at the kitten, only to see it reaching a paw toward the lid of a nearby pot, tapping it lightly, then quickly pulling back, having burned itself, and sticking out its tongue to lick its own tender little paw.
There was chicken thigh in that pot. The cook understood at once, hurried to lift the lid, pulled out a chicken thigh, set it on a plate, and presented it to the kitten.
Satisfied, the kitten let out a pleased meow and patted the back of the cook’s hand with its paw, as though offering praise.
Everyone breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Just then, a servant appeared at the kitchen door, poking her head in anxiously. “Is Consort Yi’s food ready yet?”
The head cook in charge of the kitchen hurried to answer, “Coming right up, coming right up.”
The servant shot the head cook an irritated glare. “Hurry it up. If you make her miss her mealtime, don’t blame her for taking your heads.”
The head cook forced an obsequious smile and kept nodding.
The kitten on the stove blinked, unable to help feeling a bit puzzled.
Were there other masters in this Demon Palace besides Chong Yin?