On their way back, the mistress and servant took a secluded road and didn't encounter many people. At present, there weren't many people in Kangxi's harem, and she lived alone in Chuxiu Palace.
As soon as she returned, she saw a kitten at the palace gate. It was pure white and looked very cute. Wu Lingzhu took a liking to it at first sight.
When the cat saw Wu Lingzhu, it meowed at her. Wu Lingzhu stared at the cat, frozen in place.
[…Silly human, why are you staring at me? Are you captivated by my figure?]
Am I hallucinating?
No, it really was the cat that started talking.
Wu Lingzhu walked directly to the white cat, suddenly picked her up, and it was clear that the cat was someone's pet, as she did not struggle when she was picked up.
Chunying, who was standing nearby, quickly spoke up: "Princess, we don't know where this cat came from, why don't we let this servant hold it!"
“I’ll do it myself. You find a eunuch to find out whose cat it is. If it doesn’t belong to any master, we’ll keep it. It’ll help pass the time.”
"Yes, Princess."
After saying that, Chunying went to find the little eunuch.
Wu Lingzhu is in a somewhat awkward situation. She is destined to be one of Emperor Kangxi's concubines, but she has no official title yet and is only ten years old.
In principle, among the people in Chuxiu Palace, only Chunying is truly usable. As for the others, if you want to order them around, they will listen if they want to, and if they don't, there's no way to say they're doing something wrong.
Even if it's just to order around a lowly eunuch, Chunying has to negotiate.
However, this situation won't last forever.
Holding the cat, Wu Lingzhu returned to the house and asked the white cat, "What's your name?"
[Meow~ Listen up, my name is Su Bai, isn't that nice?]
Wu Lingzhu tapped his head a few times and said, "So your name is Su Bai!"
She said it so casually, but Su Bai immediately got angry.
[You...you...can you understand me?]
Humans are afraid when they hear animals talking, and similarly, animals are also afraid when they hear humans can understand them.
The reason why Wu Lingzhu was not frightened was mainly because she had experienced a lot of fantastical things, which shocked her but did not frighten her.
"I can understand it!"
[What are you? I heard from other old cats that there used to be spirits and monsters. You're not some kind of spirit in disguise, are you?]
Wu Lingzhu smiled mischievously and said, "Guess!"
Su Bai didn't try to guess, nor could he guess, but he could sense that Wu Lingzhu meant him no harm. After his initial fear and surprise at the fact that there was a "human" who could understand cat language, he relaxed.
[What's your name? Judging from your appearance, you should be a mistress, but since you live in Chuxiu Palace and aren't the emperor's daughter, you must be a concubine. But you look too young.]
“I am the Crown Prince’s aunt, and therefore also one of the Emperor’s concubines.”
The kitten immediately replied, "[I know the Crown Prince. I've seen him from afar several times. He's always surrounded by many people. His mother is the Empress, and you are the Empress's sister.]"
"She is my half-sister."
Su Bai didn't know what a half-sister was; he only knew she was a younger sister, and the Empress's younger sister at that. The cats in the Forbidden City saw more and knew more than the cats outside, so he thought that since she was the Empress's younger sister, she must be of noble status.
[So, you're related to the Crown Prince? Then how come you live such a meager life?]
Wu Lingzhu was speechless at his words. Well, to put it simply, her life wasn't exactly impoverished.
The Crown Prince's wet nurse was in charge of the Imperial Household Department. It was true that she was a tool, but she was still surnamed Hesheli and had a blood relationship with the Crown Prince. Her food, clothing and daily necessities would not be cut off. It was just that she did not have a grand entourage. When she came and went, she was always accompanied by Chunying alone.
In Su Bai's eyes, this was shabby.
Of course, his opinion isn't entirely wrong.
Skipping over this rather awkward topic, Wu Lingzhu changed the subject, saying, "The name Su Bai sounds like it was given to you by someone. Who is your master?"
Su Bai bristled again: "They are not the masters, we are the masters."
Wu Lingzhu quickly corrected herself: "I misspoke. What I meant was, who were you with before?"
[The Dowager Consort Duan Shun raised me, but she didn't really care about me. If I didn't go home for several days, she wouldn't send anyone to look for me.]
Consort Duanshun, a Mongol concubine of the late Emperor, of the Abahai Borjigit clan. When Emperor Shunzhi was alive, these Mongol concubines were not favored. After his death, these Mongol concubines seemed to live quite well under the protection of the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager.
"That's not bad either."
This zookeeper has more prestige than her.
As the man and the cat chatted, Wu Lingzhu learned quite a bit about the events of the late emperor's era. Of course, these were not things that Su Bai had personally experienced; he had only occasionally overheard Consort Duan Shun talking about them with her confidantes.
However, most of these things were from the previous generation and were far removed from her. She didn't need them for the time being; she just listened to them and kept them in her heart.
The two, one human and one cat, didn't chat for long before Chunying returned.
"Princess, who were you talking to just now?"
"You spoke a few words to the kitten, and then sent someone out?"
“He was sent out. It was a boy named Xiaodunzi. He was quite young. I noticed that he seemed to be bullied often, so I secretly gave him some snacks. He is a grateful person.”
There are only so many ways to bribe palace servants. Chunying's method is normal, and it is precisely because it is normal that it is exploited.
She remembered Xiaodunzi; he was a very useful person, but too useful. She couldn't afford to use someone like him, who was just a tool.
When did she realize that Xiaodunzi was untrustworthy?
She was on the verge of death when she discovered that there was a spy by her side, and only then did she understand why she had lost so completely.
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