Shang Yinyu had only just made out that the person sweeping toward him was Nineteen when Nineteen flashed to his side, back to him, blocking the light coming in from the window.
The light distorted and broke for an instant, a dazzle of light and shadow. As Shang Yinyu was about to ask, a large cat with long white fur flew over Nineteen’s shoulder, its coat so white in the light that it seemed to glow.
The big cat had a clear target. Passing Nineteen, it pounced straight into Shang Yinyu’s arms.
Nineteen’s body turned, and his hand chased after the big cat.
The reflexes of wild beasts are extremely sharp. Before Nineteen had touched the big cat’s fur, the white cat twisted its body in midair and likewise stretched a fluffy paw toward Nineteen.
Although this big cat was a little over a meter long and extremely quick, in strength it was no match for a martial artist.
After a very brief exchange, Nineteen took a few scratches from the big cat and succeeded in pinning it to the ground.
After all, it was the Empress Dowager’s beloved pet. Nineteen did not dare let the cat be hurt without an order, so with one hand pressing the cat and the other lifting his robe, he knelt on one knee to the emperor. “Please deal with it, Your Majesty.”
The cat, held by the scruff of its neck, no longer struggled, but kept meowing short, soft meows in the emperor’s direction, in a milky voice that did not match its huge body at all.
But Nineteen would never relax his vigilance because of its cry. He had seen with his own eyes this cat pounce at His Majesty, and in the process of taking down the big cat he had also experienced the lethality of its claws.
Deal with what?
Shang Yinyu did not mind being pounced on by a cat. He was only surprised by Nineteen’s arrival.
Had Nineteen put on the medicine? Did it still hurt?
Shang Yinyu’s fingertips moved slightly, and he suppressed the urge to ask. He had to deal with the cat problem first and turned to look at the big cat. “Is this the cat from Shou’an Palace?”
Before transmigrating, he had been the type especially attractive to cats. Sitting on a park bench for a while, groups of cats would come to play “cat pile” on his lap; walking down the road, cats would also run over from time to time, hug his leg and fall on his shoes to “shake him down”; being pounced on by a cat was routine.
It was only after transmigrating, spending years in the palace and almost never seeing a cat’s shadow, that Shang Yinyu was free of the trouble of being clung to by all kinds of cats.
The first time he saw this big white cat, Shang Yinyu recognized it as the one presented to him by the overseas Maine merchants. The day he saw these animals he picked out the ones with gentle temperaments and had An Dezhong send them to Shou’an Palace.
Shou’an Palace was the residence of the late emperor’s consorts. The dowager consorts willing to leave the palace he had had sent out; those remaining were either used to palace life or no longer had familiar family outside.
Even if they stayed in Shou’an Palace, they had around them only the palace maids who had accompanied them for years and the consorts they once contended with for favor. Shang Yinyu wanted them to raise pets they liked to relieve boredom.
Shang Yinyu was wondering how this cat had gotten out of Shou’an Palace when he saw An Dezhong walk over with trembling legs. “Is Your Majesty hurt?”
It was only a cat. How could it hurt him?
Messy shouts came from outside, “Protect the emperor” and “Protect His Majesty” one after another, along with the sound of footsteps rushing this way.
What a fuss over nothing.
Shang Yinyu was about to have An Dezhong handle it, but the other seemed so frightened that he could hardly stand steady.
All right, I’ll go myself.
Shang Yinyu walked to Nineteen and bent down to scoop up the big cat that Nineteen was pinning.
“Your Majesty, be careful. This big cat’s claws are sharp.” Nineteen did not let go, but stared intently at the hand of His Majesty approaching the cat.
“Meow-ow, meow-ow.” The white cat rubbed anxiously against Shang Yinyu.
Seeing His Majesty’s slender, jade-like fingers about to touch the big cat’s high-raised head, the string in Nineteen’s mind suddenly snapped. He scooped up the cat first and hugged it into his arms, half carrying and half shouldering it.
“Your Majesty, this cat is heavy. Please let this subordinate do it.”
I can even pick you up and take you, so can’t I carry a cat?
Nineteen in his close-fitting black shadow guard clothes looked quite thin, but once the clothes came off one knew that his martial artist’s muscles were exact to the last bit, and he had a good weight when carried.
With a Nineteen like this, Shang Yinyu had been able to carry him into the Nine Dragon Pool while taking him; he did not think he could fail to hold a cat whose body length, tail included, did not reach Nineteen’s height.
Ah, in front of Nineteen I thought of a not very good picture.
Shang Yinyu was a little awkward, coughed dryly, and no longer argued with Nineteen about being able to carry it, only had Nineteen bring the cat and follow him.
The big cat’s two fluffy paws rested on Nineteen’s shoulder. This time it no longer scratched Nineteen, only kept turning its head to look at the emperor walking in front.
Nineteen did not mind people or beasts looking at His Majesty. The dragon is king of all beasts; His Majesty was the true-dragon Son of Heaven, and likewise master of these beasts.
He wished to be held by His Majesty, to be touched by His Majesty’s beautiful fingers, but he would never offend His Majesty in the slightest.
As long as this big cat kept to its place, Nineteen was willing to join it in being awed by His Majesty’s bearing and manner, and to bathe with it in His Majesty’s glory.
Shang Yinyu walked out of the imperial study, and the Imperial Guards had already rushed up the steps.
The few guards at the front were all stunned on seeing Shang Yinyu, then saw the shadow guard who came out half carrying and half shouldering the big cat, and immediately understood the problem had been solved and knelt in unison to salute.
“Your subordinates came late to save the emperor. Please forgive us, Your Majesty.”
Shang Yinyu excused them from the salute. He did not like having too many people around him, and when shadow guards followed him he would arrange the Imperial Guards at a distance.
But this did not mean the Imperial Guards need not do their job. This time they had let a cat into the imperial study; next time might they let in spies from another country?
Shang Yinyu swept over the group. “Half a month’s salary docked, and each go collect twenty lashes.”
The commander of the Imperial Guards was about to lead the group in thanking him for his grace when he saw His Majesty’s gaze fall on him.
Shang Yinyu remembered this man. His surname was He. In two years he would leave his post in the palace to go to Yumen Pass, and after that he would become Qiao Beiji’s Deputy General, a confidant among confidants.
The Imperial Guard commander broke into a cold sweat under the look, feeling his life was not safe, and almost wanted to kneel again.
Shang Yinyu considered that he and Nineteen had made up and could be ruler and minister in harmony, and had no thought of cutting off Nineteen’s future right arm, so he withdrew his gaze and had Nineteen bring the cat forward.
“Commander He, a pet of Shou’an Palace has run over to me. Take it back to Shou’an Palace and don’t let it run off again, and don’t let it hurt the dowager consorts’ pets.”
The Imperial Guard commander glanced at the big cat and met the big cat’s emerald slit-pupil eyes, and all of his muscles immediately went tight.
His Majesty’s word was an imperial decree. As the commander thought that he would be injured, if not killed, under this big cat’s claws today, he forced himself to salute the emperor calmly and then looked at the shadow guard.
Shang Yinyu could not understand it either. It was only a cat; why did everyone look as if facing a great enemy?
Could it be that large house cats like this were rare in Great Xia, and the attendants had all taken this white-furred, gray-striped big cat for a tiger-lion-like animal?
He did not say anything, and just watched the future confidant of Nineteen stiffly extend his hands toward Nineteen.
Shadow guards are the emperor’s most secret force. The Imperial Guard commander could only judge from the clothes on the other that this was probably a very high-ranking shadow guard, and said fairly politely: “Please, sir, give me the big cat.”
Nineteen nodded slightly, stepped forward two paces, handed the cat to the Imperial Guard commander, and instructed in a low voice: “Hold it steady.”
Don’t let it break free and pounce on His Majesty.
The white cat seemed to know it was about to be taken away. Its emerald eyes met the Imperial Guard commander’s eyes, and the white cat suddenly opened its mouth wide: “Hah!”
The commander’s head went slightly back, and he glared in extreme tension at the big cat level with his line of sight.
He had already prepared to fight this big cat in front of His Majesty when the big cat suddenly narrowed its eyes, a purring sound came from its belly, and the whole cat’s air softened.
Shang Yinyu withdrew the hand that had been stroking the cat’s head. The cat’s head tilted back, chasing the hand as it moved aside, until at last it tilted so far it couldn’t go further, and the big cat raised a paw.
Nineteen was about to flash in front of His Majesty when he saw the big cat slap the Imperial Guard commander’s face with a “pop.”
Nineteen relaxed and stopped his forward-leaning body.
Seeing that nothing was wrong, Shang Yinyu took Nineteen back to the imperial study. He still had to check Nineteen’s physical condition.
He should not have hurt Nineteen, but Nineteen had said he was in pain.
Even without the earlier matter, when Nineteen had just now moved to seize the cat, he had been scratched quite a few times, and that also needed medicine.
He wondered whether personally applying the medicine to Nineteen could boost Nineteen’s loyalty a notch, make Nineteen devoted to him, and let him in the future be a well-behaved Guardian General who never stepped over the line.