Inside the secret chamber of Cheng Wang Manor.
The forty-five-year-old Prince Cheng looked at the secret report presented by his subordinate. A smile appeared on his authoritative face upon reading the contents, followed by loud laughter.
“Excellent, excellent—it wasn’t in vain that I sacrificed so many death warriors and spent a fortune to obtain the Thousand-Thread Bone Serpent Poison. Wei Rong is finally dead!”
The entire chamber echoed with Prince Cheng’s slightly maniacal laughter.
“Your Highness, without Wei Rong, the young emperor has completely lost his right-hand man. Your ascension to the throne is within reach!”
Seeing how delighted Prince Cheng was, Staff Cui knew that Prince Cheng’s men had succeeded. Wei Shizi was likely already dead!
Prince Cheng laughed even more triumphantly, as if he could already see himself wearing the Dragon Robe and Golden Crown, seated upon the Dragon Throne.
In the night, a yellow figure dashed across the rooftops, moving so fast that only a blur could be seen.
Wei Rong was tormented by the Thousand-Thread Bone Serpent Poison until he lost all consciousness. The heart-wrenching pain was accompanied by a bone-deep itch, as if millions of worms were wriggling inside his bones.
Just as he thought he was about to enter the Hall of Yama, his mouth throbbed with pain. In the next moment, a sour and astringent juice flowed through his lips.
He instinctively tried to spit it out, but a series of sweet, cooing meows sounded in his ears.
“Meow, meow, meow, meow!!!” Don’t you dare spit it out! I went through so much trouble to find this!
Seeing that the man was about to spit out the Wu Lin Fruit she had worked so hard to obtain, Yun Fu quickly raised her paw to press against his mouth.
Wei Rong felt something soft pressing against his lips. Unable to spit out the sour and astringent juice in his mouth, he swallowed it as it flowed down his throat.
After swallowing the unknown substance, Wei Rong clearly felt the raging pain and itch in his body beginning to subside.
Yun Fu clearly saw the beautiful man’s prominent Adam’s apple move and knew he had swallowed it.
Then, repeating the previous action, she carried the remaining Wu Lin Fruit to the man’s mouth, extended her plump paw pad, and slapped the dark fruit firmly.
With that slap, the fruit’s juice splattered everywhere, flowing through the man’s lips. The dark red juice thoroughly stained his mouth and chin.
Sensing that this bitter and astringent juice might counteract the poison, Wei Rong no longer resisted. Instead, he opened his numb, slapped mouth and cooperatively consumed it.
After slapping four fruits in a row, Yun Fu’s paws ached. Her originally pink paw pads were now stained dark red by the Wu Lin Fruit. But seeing the green veins on the man’s neck and hands gradually fade, Yun Fu breathed a sigh of relief.
Her paws stained dark red, the cleanliness-loving Yun Fu found it somewhat unbearable. But when she looked up and saw the man’s mouth completely messy with fruit juice, her own paws didn’t seem so hard to endure anymore.
By then, the horizon was turning pale with the first light of dawn. The long street paved with bluestone was still damp with dew, and the sound of a watchman’s clapper came from the end of the alley, followed closely by the crowing of roosters.
At the street corner, steamers were uncovered, releasing white steam that rose straight to the eaves, accompanied by occasional shouts of vendors hawking their wares.
Yun Fu could no longer hear any of this. Curled into a ball, she nestled on a broken crate in the corner of the wall, sleeping soundly.
Having worked all night—running to find the Wu Lin Fruit, covering up the bloodstains outside the small broken house, and suppressing the poison in the beautiful man—Yun Fu was nearly exhausted to death.
Not even the clamor of the marketplace could wake her, much less the sound of falling knives.
As the sun rose higher, the noise from the streets grew increasingly boisterous. The scents of frying oil, sweat, grass, dew, and moisture mingled together, drifting past the wine banners and tea houses with their tiled roofs.
Wei Rong opened his eyes again, only to be stung by the sunlight streaming in. He instinctively raised a hand to shield them.
The wounds on his body burned fiercely, but the poison inside him seemed… suppressed?!
Turning his head to survey his surroundings, he found himself in an abandoned hut.
The straw mat beneath him was dry and soft, even carrying the unique fragrance of grass and wood, though this scent was tinged with a hint of blood.
Wei Rong looked at the bloodstains speckling the straw mat—it seemed he had coughed them up.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a small, curled-up figure in the corner, and Wei Rong recalled the little creature he had seen before losing consciousness.
Had he accidentally intruded into this little cat’s territory? Even taken over its… nest?
Wei Rong propped himself up, leaning against the wall as he struggled to his feet.
His clothes were dirty and torn, the smell of blood mingling with an unknown sour and astringent odor, making him frown in discomfort.
His lips felt swollen and painful, sticky to the touch. When he raised a hand to wipe them, it came away stained with a dark red juice.
Bringing it to his nose, he sniffed—the sourness mixed with a pungent astringency, exactly like the taste in his mouth.
Had eating this strange fruit suppressed the poison in his body? Who had saved him?
It was widely known that the Thousand-Thread Bone Serpent Poison had no antidote. Even the world-renowned Miracle Doctor Poison Doctor Zi had not found a cure.
And yet, here he was, poisoned by it, not only alive but with the toxin suppressed, his life spared.
Yun Fu, sleeping on the broken wooden crate, felt uncomfortable no matter how she lay. She turned over, her body involuntarily stretching into a yawn.
As she stretched, she lost her balance and tumbled off the crate.
“Meow!!!”
A somewhat shrill cry interrupted Wei Rong’s thoughts. Seeing the little creature in the corner about to hit the ground, he hurried over, dragging his heavy body, to catch it.
But he was too slow—the cat had already landed.
The little one nimbly righted itself, landing steadily on all fours, its tail held high and its small ears flattened back.
From its round, wide eyes, Wei Rong could see it was still shaken.
His gaze lowered, and he noticed the cat’s front paws were stained dark red, exactly the same color as what he had wiped from his lips earlier.
Yun Fu looked at the man who could now rise from the straw mat, both surprised and delighted—the handsome man was alive!!! Her efforts last night had not been in vain.
When her eyes fell on the man’s mouth, smeared with Wu Lin Fruit juice, adding a touch of absurdity to his beautiful face, she felt relieved.
Fortunately, Yun Fu was currently a cat; even if she laughed, the man wouldn’t be able to tell.
Wei Rong could only see the warm, yellowish plump cat swishing its tail rapidly, vaguely sensing that this little cat before him was different from any he had encountered before.
Leaning forward despite his injuries, he looked down at the little creature standing not far away and tentatively reached out a hand.
Yun Fu watched as the man extended his hand toward her, clearly intending to pet her.
Having been a cat for over a month, Yun Fu was well-acquainted with this routine—who could blame them, given how adorable she was?
Many who saw her wanted to reach out and stroke her, but Yun Fu didn’t allow just anyone to do so.
The elderly woman on the street who often gave her warm steamed buns, the old fisherman who occasionally tossed her a fish, the gap-toothed child… Yun Fu allowed all of these people to touch her.
But for those malicious individuals with sinister grins and ill intentions in their eyes—those who wanted to capture her to sell for money or even torment her—Yun Fu not only refused to let them touch her but would also scratch them with her claws.
Now, facing this handsome yet peculiar man, Yun Fu hesitated for a moment.
Which category did he belong to? She couldn’t tell.
But Yun Fu’s attention was suddenly captivated by the hand the man extended.
His fingers were slender and elegant like bamboo joints, with distinct knuckles resembling pine branches on a snowy ridge. Sunlight filtered through, casting a faint glow on the back of his hand, where pale blue veins shimmered subtly like ice cracks tracing across white jade porcelain—so beautiful it made one want to treasure it forever.
Enchanted by the sight before her, Yun Fu found herself unconsciously leaning toward that hand.