That palace servant was still shouting: “Your Highness the Crown Prince, don’t pee there! Come down quickly! Come down quickly!”
Meng Fu pressed her lips together without speaking; she tried her best to remain calm, not allowing herself to show an expression of someone who hadn’t seen the world.
“Your Majesty?” Gao Xi, who was following at her side, called her upon seeing her stop and not move.
Meng Fu snapped back to awareness and said to Gao Xi, “I… I’ll go over and take a look first.”
She followed the direction the voice was coming from, and soon saw two little eunuchs jumping up and down beneath the rockery, looking anxious. On top of the rockery stood a cat and a dog — the cat was a snow-white, long-haired Persian lion cat, with jade-green eyes; the dog was a black native stray dog, its paws and belly white, its size not much bigger than the cat.
When the two little eunuchs saw the emperor had arrived, they hurriedly knelt down to pay respects.
Meng Fu told them to rise, then raised her head to look at the cat and dog on the rockery. She pressed her lips together and somewhat hesitantly called out: “Guifei?” [Guifei (贵妃): Noble Consort, a high-ranking imperial concubine.]
The cat sat there licking its paw nonchalantly, completely ignoring Meng Fu. The little dog, on the other hand, was panting with its tongue out, looking at her with a pair of moist eyes, as if it had suffered some great grievance.
Seeing that neither the cat nor dog responded, Meng Fu slightly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that His Majesty couldn’t be that absurd — but then again, if it wasn’t His Majesty being absurd, which palace servant would dare to call them that randomly?
Meng Fu tried calling out again: “Crown Prince?”
“Woof!”
Sure enough, the little fat dog, like a black furry ball, very nimbly jumped down from the rockery and rushed to stand in front of Meng Fu, panting and wagging its tail. The wagging was so vigorous the tail practically turned into a blur.
Meng Fu still couldn’t quite believe it. She called again: “Crown Prince?”
“Woof woof!”
The Crown Prince even stood up on his hind legs with his front paws raised.
“Crown Prince…”
“Woof woof woof!”
Every time Meng Fu called out, the Crown Prince barked once in response. When she stopped speaking, the Crown Prince lay down in front of her, rolled over, and exposed its snow-white belly — a look of asking for Meng Fu to pet it.
This was truly something she had never seen before. Who in the world names a little dog Crown Prince? Just what was His Majesty thinking?
This matter had actually started some time ago. When His Majesty had just ascended the throne, the hundred officials were constantly urging him at court to open the harem broadly and continue the imperial bloodline. His Majesty quarreled with the ministers for several days. At that time, the ministers didn’t yet fully understand His Majesty’s temperament, and no one was willing to yield.
One night, Li Yue was so angry he drank some wine and went to the imperial garden to practice martial arts. When he was in high spirits, he saw a Persian lion cat lying on a tree, its tail hanging down and gently swaying. In the hazy moonlight and swaying tree shadows, even the cat looked graceful and elegant. Li Yue immediately pointed at that Persian lion cat and declared he would confer the title of Guifei upon it.
The palace attendants were shocked when they heard and rushed to stop him. Even Gao Xi tried to persuade him that this wasn’t right — not to mention this would damage the dignity of the royal family, how could the Li clan ancestors rest in peace in the nine springs below, and just letting the ministers at court find out would surely cause quite a stir for some time.
Li Yue was extremely rebellious by nature. Upon hearing all their reasons, he slapped his thigh and said: “That’s just perfect then!”
So not only did he make a Guifei out of the cat, he also named a newly born little dog Crown Prince.
The palace attendants were dumbfounded — Guifei was one thing, but now a Crown Prince too? His Majesty was really treating both ancestors and ministers as nothing.
And when he sobered up, he didn’t take back either name. He only said: “Words from the golden mouth are as good as jade — just accept it.”
Gao Xi had no choice, could only see it through, all right then, call it what you want — at least His Majesty hadn’t had them enter the Crown Prince into the imperial jade register. That’s right, the matter of the jade register must absolutely not be mentioned in front of His Majesty. If one day His Majesty caught wind of it and got into a temper, who knows — he might really register the Crown Prince on the jade register.
Gao Xi strictly ordered the palace servants not to speak nonsense. If anyone outside the palace found out, he’d rip all their mouths off. So to this day, the court ministers still didn’t know that their emperor already “had a wife and a child.”
For the ministers, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
His Majesty had only this one Guifei, yet the Guifei never showed him any favor. Even though His Majesty had good skills and could catch the Guifei in the imperial garden, the number of times he succeeded could be counted on one hand. As for wanting the Guifei to stay obediently in the Zichen Palace to attend to him in bed — that was simply a dream.
The Crown Prince, however, was very enthusiastic toward His Majesty. Whenever he saw His Majesty, it was like seeing his biological father.
At this moment, the Crown Prince seemed to have completely forgotten about the injury on his ear and was crazily flattering Meng Fu.
The previously lofty Guifei, who knows what wind blew it wrong, actually leapt down from the rockery in one bound. It walked over gracefully in four-square steps, circled around Meng Fu twice as if conducting a full-body inspection of this human, then finally stopped, lifted its head, and with an air of noble condescension, used its furry, fluffy big tail to brush against Meng Fu’s boot. At the same time, it raised a paw and gave the nearby Crown Prince’s injured ear a fierce smack.
The Crown Prince, who had just been gleefully wagging, immediately collapsed to the ground, even his bark changed tone — whimpering pathetically, as though grievously hurt. He looked at Meng Fu with pitiful eyes, begging her to take his side.
Seeing him like this, the Guifei couldn’t help baring its teeth, eyes fiercely fixed on the Crown Prince’s wounded ear. Its body arched, tail stood erect, and its mouth let out a “huff-huff” sound, while the Crown Prince raised his little white paw to cover his own head, whining in the most pitiful manner possible.
The palace attendants were puzzled — weren’t these two just going toe-to-toe on the rockery earlier? Trading hundreds of moves without a winner? Why did the Crown Prince turn into such a coward the moment he got in front of His Majesty?
Moreover, this scene looked… strangely familiar.
Meng Fu raised her hand and quickly had the palace attendants separate the two of them.
She really didn’t want to witness another cat-and-dog battle in the imperial garden. If the Crown Prince got bitten by the Guifei again, the emperor might as well bestow him a new title later — “One-Ear.”
Meng Fu sighed silently.
Gao Xi went over, squatted down to check the ear, and said to Meng Fu: “The Crown Prince’s ear isn’t seriously injured, just a bit of bleeding. In a moment, let the servant girls bandage it, and it’ll be fine.”
Hearing how smoothly even Gao Xi called him Crown Prince, Meng Fu felt there was so much she wanted to say right now — yet had no idea where to begin.
The Guifei crouched atop the roadside stone lantern, slightly tilting its head, gazing at Meng Fu.
Gao Xi asked: “Your Majesty, how about trying to bring the Guifei back to Zichen Palace tonight?”
“No need,” Meng Fu refused.
Gao Xi was puzzled. Normally the Guifei avoided His Majesty like the plague. Now it had finally come up to him on its own — and His Majesty wasn’t hurrying to seize the opportunity to bring it back to bed? Why the cold shoulder now? Surely His Majesty wasn’t trying to play hard-to-get with a cat?
What Meng Fu was thinking was: this Guifei was personally conferred by His Majesty. If she were to bring it back to Zichen Palace, wouldn’t that count as putting a green hat on His Majesty?
“Prepare the imperial carriage to Cining Palace,” Meng Fu said.
The night was cool like water. The evening breeze carried the overwhelming fragrance of flowers, filling the sleeves.
Inside Cining Palace, the young prince was, as usual, sitting properly at the desk, obediently writing and drawing with a brush. Meng Fu walked over and sat down beside him. She had prepared many books on arithmetic, all to lure this little prince into speaking — yet this little prince had astonishing self-control, resolutely refusing to open his mouth.
During the evening meal, the Empress Dowager’s face was filled with a constant smile. She looked at Meng Fu, then looked at the little prince, and said with a laugh: “Seeing him like this, my heart is at ease.”
Even though the little prince still didn’t speak and didn’t like to interact with people, at least it let the Empress Dowager know that he wasn’t completely unaware of things.
The Empress Dowager kept picking dishes into Meng Fu’s bowl with her chopsticks: “Let’s not talk about him anymore. Come, come, try this lotus root, see how it tastes.”
Meng Fu knew she couldn’t dissuade her, so could only accept the Empress Dowager’s goodwill one by one. During casual conversation, she said to the Empress Dowager: “I took a glance just now at the clothes and jewelry the Imperial Household Department delivered to you — the designs all look a bit old-fashioned. You might as well have them make something new.”
The Empress Dowager said: “You’re thoughtful, but this old woman is already at this age, wearing anything is all the same.”
Though she said so with her mouth, the corners of her eyes and brows were full of smile. In the past, the emperor never noticed such things. As expected, once someone has a beloved in their heart, they become much more attentive than before.
Thinking of this, the Empress Dowager suddenly realized something — could it be the emperor wanted the Imperial Household Department to make some new styles so he could give them to his sweetheart?
Meng Fu didn’t know the Empress Dowager’s thoughts had already drifted somewhere else. “You don’t look a day over thirty — dressing in bright colors wouldn’t be excessive at all.”
The Empress Dowager lifted her hand to stroke the corner of her eye, smiling: “You, huh. You even know how to say things like that to coax your imperial mother into being happy.”
The emperor had avoided women for so many years, and now he even knew how to make people happy. When would her youngest son be able to give her a bit of response too?
The Empress Dowager was just thinking this when the little prince, who had been watching them for a while, mimicked her gesture and picked up a slice of lotus root and placed it into Meng Fu’s bowl.