Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“Meow, meow.”
Mother Consort had barely left when Beauty returned.
She anxiously licked my hand. “Mom, what are we going to do?”
Some cats called their owners Mom, something I had found astonishing the first time I heard it.
Ink Pearl did it too. Whenever he said “my mom,” it took me ages to remember that he meant my brother, the Crown Prince.
Other cats were different. The cat belonging to Noble Consort Lu called the maid who carried him Mom. I still had no idea how they decided.
“Don’t worry. Mom has a plan.”
“Your mom is going to marry you to a wolf?”
“…I have a plan for that too.”
Beauty continued muttering about wolves, how wicked and fierce the wolves in the Imperial Menagerie were, and how they went awoo.
I considered my situation. Neither the Empress nor Fifth Sister would actually do much. The greater danger was my own mother’s desperate urge to curry favor and her ability to enter my residence whenever she pleased.
I needed to send Beauty away.
“Are you finished being in heat?”
“I think so.”
“Then hide with Ink Pearl for a while.”
Beauty circled me once and looked up.
“Cat business should be settled by cats.”
I laughed and patted her head.
“Cats have no schemes. Their mothers do. Go on. Be good.”
Mother Consort came back to make trouble twice more. I told her Beauty had run away.
“Do you know Jade Lion has fallen ill?” she raged.
“Then call a veterinarian.”
I thought she was the sick one. Jade Lion was neither her cat nor her patient, yet no one was more anxious than she was.
When she realized I would not yield, she left.
In truth, I had already sent the palace strays to investigate. Jade Lion’s injuries were not serious; Ink Pearl knew how to restrain himself.
According to a young stray, Jade Lion was simply too ashamed to face other cats.
His size had once made him intimidating. Now Ink Pearl had beaten him so badly that he sprayed everywhere, and rumor had it even his testicles had been scratched.
He refused food and water.
The palace veterinarian examined him and suggested that perhaps the tom was frustrated because he had no mate.
Fifth Sister immediately had Frostbrow, a young female cat from Tenth Sister’s residence, brought over.
Frostbrow rejected him too—and laughed in his face.
“Foreign brat. Thought you were tough? Ink Pearl beat you until you peed everywhere!”
With a howl, Jade Lion attacked the cat half his size and mauled her.
Frostbrow was left covered in wounds. Jade Lion, on the other hand, recovered his confidence and resumed terrorizing the palace.
Frostbrow told me all this when I visited Tenth Sister.
Cat affairs were not normally important. When we sisters gathered, we would not even mention them.
Yet Fifth Sister made a point of giving Tenth Sister a precious glazed lamp from her own palace.
“Sisters should always be affectionate,” she said.
Anyone with eyes could see it was hush money. Tenth Sister had burst into tears and run home when Frostbrow was hurt.
Fifth Sister insisted it was merely a reward for a younger half sister. Tenth Sister smiled and thanked her.
That was supposed to settle Frostbrow’s injuries.
Mother Consort even envied the gift and the favor Tenth Sister had supposedly gained.
Only I knew Tenth Sister remained unhappy. Frostbrow told me that too.
Behind Fifth Sister’s back, Tenth Sister had declared, “Sooner or later, I’m going to have him neutered.”
I feigned illness for nearly half a month.
Then, one night, more than a dozen toms gathered at the Eastern Palace. Jade Lion was their leader.
He had finally recovered his masculine pride and assembled a new pack of followers to take revenge on Ink Pearl.
Beauty fled home in the middle of the night.
“Ink Pearl’s mom has come out,” she told me.
She meant my brother, the Crown Prince.
According to Beauty, he had nearly gone mad at the sight of a roof covered in cats.
I swept her into my arms.
“Did you listen to me? You haven’t shown yourself there these past few days, have you?”
I had warned her never to let the Eastern Palace servants see her.
“No, no. Ink Pearl even brought all my food. The most conspicuous cat was that fat white one.”
That night, I heard, the Eastern Palace roof descended into chaos.
The following morning, a young female cat named Golden Butterfly came to tell me Ink Pearl had been injured. He had been attacked by the whole pack.
Beauty sprang from under the bed in alarm.
“Where are you going?”
“To avenge him.”
“Avenge him? Who can you even beat?”
Beauty lifted her chin. “Cats must be loyal.”
So the moment the heat passed, they became sworn siblings?
I caught her by the scruff.
“Don’t make things worse. Mom has a plan.”
Then I locked her in my room.