Chapter 43 The Evil Cat Princess Who Bewitched the Kingdom 4

"Quickly...put out the fire! Quickly save the emperor!"

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. The palace servants inside the hall were in a panic, some holding up the screens, some putting out the fire, and some calling for the imperial physician.

The newly appointed chief eunuch standing nearby nearly fainted from fright.

He hadn't even settled into his position as the chief eunuch when this happened right under his nose!

Fortunately, a palace maid brought a basin of water in time and poured it onto the table.

The fire was extinguished, but their emperor and the kitten in his arms were soaked to the bone.

[The host is truly amazing! Not only did they burn all the important memorials, but they also drenched the protagonist in cold water. Protagonist's pain level +5!]

Xie Rong shook his head vigorously, splashing all the water droplets from his head onto Lu Wenjing.

He tilted his head back, gave the emperor an angry meow, and then continued to shake his head.

"Your Majesty," Eunuch Liu bowed and stepped forward to offer a handkerchief.

Lu Wenjing stared expressionlessly at the troublesome cat, his chest heaving from the water for a long while before taking the handkerchief from Eunuch Liu's hand. He then pressed one hand against the back of Xie Rong's neck and sternly wiped the water off the stray cat.

After wiping the hair on its back, turn it over and wipe the white hair on its belly.

Unfortunately, this cat has been heartless since it was a kitten; not only is it disobedient, it also meows at him.

He wiped it and then yelled in a foul voice.

He really thinks he can't tell that this is an insult.

Lu Wenjing simply wrapped the small, stray cat in a handkerchief. The heartless cat struggled to paw at itself inside the handkerchief, unable to get out.

"Stupid cat," he scoffed.

Xie Rong's paw got caught on the thread of the brocade handkerchief, and he couldn't pull it out no matter what he did, so he cried out repeatedly.

Lu Wenjing placed the cat on his lap, casually wrung out the water from his sleeves, and sneered, "Being cute won't work."

"Your Majesty, the hot water is ready. It's easy to catch a cold at night, so why don't you take a bath and change your clothes quickly?" Eunuch Liu said in a low voice.

Lu Wenjing put down the cat, got up and left the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Before leaving, he specifically warned the little stray cat not to run around.

When he returned, the cat was nowhere to be seen in the palace.

"Your Majesty, shall I go and search for it?" Eunuch Liu, observing the situation, stepped forward with a bowl of freshly brewed ginger tea.

Lu Wenjing picked up the lid of the cup, stirred the tea, gently blew on it, and said nothing.

Eunuch Liu led the group away silently.

But after just one cup of tea...

The emperor, his face dark, pushed open the palace door, his tone irritated:

"Still haven't found it?"

Eunuch Liu chuckled awkwardly, inwardly groaning in despair.

His Majesty's thoughts are truly difficult to fathom.

"His Majesty's cat loves to play hide-and-seek, and we servants can't do anything about it for the time being."

Lu Wenjing frowned slightly, a hint of gloom in his expression: "I will go myself."

After saying that, he strode out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Eunuch Liu and a group of palace servants hurriedly followed behind.

It was already late at night, and finding a kitten the size of a palm was already difficult enough, but with the palace being so large, it was like finding a needle in a haystack.

But since Lu Wenjing did not return to the palace, they, as servants, dared not utter a single word.

One hour later.

Lu Wenjing walked around the artificial hill in the Imperial Garden that the little stray cat loved to climb, glanced hurriedly to the side, and suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Following his gaze, one could see that the cat that had just caused trouble in the Hall of Mental Cultivation was now being held in the arms of a tall and handsome young man.

The young man fed it a small dried fish, and it rolled around and started to whine and meow incessantly.

In the dead of night, a lone man and a lonely cat, in his private garden, who knows what shameful things they did.

Lu Wenjing's face was so dark it could drip water, and a fierce look appeared at the corners of his eyes.

“Kittens under six months old aren’t really suited to eating dried fish,” he said casually, taking a few steps closer and standing with his hands behind his back. “Gu Qing probably doesn’t know that, does she?”

Gu Qiansi turned around, put down the cat, and bowed, "Your Majesty, this humble subject greets you."

Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet. Today, after Gu Qiansi returned to the capital with her father, she was rewarded by the emperor and stayed in the palace.

He had only heard that this young emperor had been busy with state affairs since his ascension to the throne and rarely went out. Even when he left the Hall of Mental Cultivation, he was going to the martial arts training ground. He never expected to run into him so late.

"Aren't you coming over here?"

Gu Qiansi was stunned for a moment, then realized that Lu Wenjing was actually talking to the cat.

Xie Rong seemed not to hear, and lay down at Gu Qiansi's feet with his furry body, exposing his soft belly, his eyes fixed on the dried fish in the young man's hand.

"Meow." Mimi wants to eat dried fish.

After waiting for a while, he noticed that the hairless cat was still kneeling on one knee, not giving him any dried fish.

So when did that patience for pretending to be well-behaved and acting cute run out?

Xie Rong scratched at Gu Qiansi's hand with one claw, then jumped up and bit the small pouch containing dried fish.

Lu Wenjing walked over with a cold face, pinched the little stray cat by the scruff of its neck, and said, "Let go. Have I been short of food or water?"

Xie Rong held on tightly, refusing to let go.

Mimi wants to eat dried fish!

"A stupid cat that betrays its own people."

Lu Wenjing, his face dark, finally managed to pry Xie Rong's mouth open with his fingertips, only to have those two cat paws grab onto his purse again.

"Your Majesty, let it eat some dried fish, it won't hurt," Gu Qiansi said, unable to bear it.

"You know how to be a good person," Lu Wenjing thought. Fortunately, he had just trimmed the cat's nails yesterday. Without nails, the cat couldn't hold onto the purse properly. He pressed the disobedient cat into his arms, seemingly unaware of the bloodstain on the back of his hand as he looked down at Gu Qiansi with a cold gaze.

"Whether it's my cat or anything else, no one else has the right to interfere. You and your father have been in the northern frontier for many years, so it's inevitable that you don't understand the rules of the capital. This is a one-time exception."

Gu Qiansi responded softly, clutching the purse with a hole chewed by the cat.

"Your Majesty, this humble subject respectfully sees you off."

Lu Wenjing carried the cat back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Throughout the journey, the emperor remained silent, his expression inscrutable. The palace servants following behind all bowed their heads, not daring to speak. Only the cat in Lu Wenjing's arms howled fiercely, scratching countless loose threads off the golden dragon embroidery on the man's chest.

Inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Lu Wenjing sat on the edge of the couch, his eyes meeting Xie Rong's.

"Meow!" Xie Rong opened her cat mouth wide and meowed at him.

Lu Wenjing pinched his cat-like face, gritting his teeth as he said, "You are my cat. Stay away from those people, understand?"

His response was a claw.

Lu Wenjing seized the opportunity to grab his two front paws and buried his nose in Xie Rong's soft belly fur.

"If I didn't bathe you every day, would you smell so good?" he said in a deep voice. "It's just a few dried fish. What the Gu family really wants is not you, you stupid cat."

How could a cat possibly understand the undercurrents and turmoil within the imperial court?

But perhaps because he was too tired today, Xie Rong would initially raise his hind paws and step on the man's face, meowing in protest.

After being sniffed by the man for a long time, she gradually fell asleep in Lu Wenjing's arms.

When Xie Rong woke up the next day, he was surrounded by darkness, but he could hear wine cups clinking, wine sloshing, and laughter.

He poked his head out from the emperor's wide sleeves.

"Meow?" After looking around, Xie Rong smelled something and jumped onto the imperial table.

Lu Wenjing paused in his act of drinking, then lowered his eyes to look at her.

The silly cat held an orange with all four paws and bit the peel with its two sharp teeth, but instead of tasting the sweet and sour flesh, it stuck out its tongue because the peel was so bitter.