Wu Zhen was ushered out of the Empress’s hall, her sister’s words still echoing in her ears: “Go home and prepare for your wedding.” She shrugged, swinging her riding crop as she sauntered out, contemplating her situation.
As she walked along a corridor, she encountered the Emperor. He was holding several sheets of paper, muttering to himself, completely absorbed. A dozen eunuchs and palace maids followed quietly behind him.
Wu Zhen stopped and bowed, greeting him as “Your Majesty.” Hearing her voice, the Emperor finally tore his eyes away from the musical score in his hands and glanced at her. Seeing her ambiguous attire, he chuckled but didn’t comment. Instead, he asked kindly, “Ah, Second Lady, have you come to see the Empress?”
“Yes, I’ve just left Her Majesty’s chambers,” Wu Zhen replied.
The Emperor waved the papers in his hand mysteriously. “Second Lady, do you know what this is?”
Wu Zhen understood immediately. “Your Majesty’s new composition?”
The Emperor laughed heartily, unable to hide his pride. “Indeed! Even the Noble Consort praised this new piece. I’m quite satisfied with it myself. I’ll have the musicians at Xing Garden learn it and arrange a performance. You must come and enjoy it with us when it’s ready!”
The Emperor’s amiability towards Wu Zhen stemmed from two factors: first, she was the Empress’s younger sister, and second, they shared a passion for music and dance. The Emperor greatly valued her appreciation of the arts and had invited her to enjoy performances at the palace on numerous occasions.
After chatting briefly with Wu Zhen, the Emperor hurried off, heading towards Xing Garden where the dancers and musicians rehearsed.
Wu Zhen continued along the corridor. To return to the Duke of Yu’s mansion, she should have headed towards the Xufeng Gate. Instead, she walked steadily towards the Jianxing Gate, crossing the wide plaza paved with white marble, and made her way to the Taiji Palace.
After the Emperor and Empress had moved to the Daming Palace, many government offices gradually relocated there as well. However, not all had moved. Some departments, like the Ministry of Justice, had such vast archives that they were impractical to relocate. As the Emperor rarely needed to access them, several bureaus remained in the Taiji Palace, along with their staff. The eldest son of the Mei family, who served as a Section Chief in the Ministry of Justice, would be working there.
Wu Zhen, known for her idle ways, had often wandered through both the Taiji and Daming Palaces, familiarizing herself with most of the routes. She easily found her way to the vicinity of the Ministry of Justice offices. However, as a person of leisure, it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to barge in so brazenly. Moreover, both her father and sister had earnestly cautioned her not to frighten the young Master Mei.
Wu Zhen looked around and spotted a nearby unused small palace building. She ducked inside. Moments later, the vermilion door creaked open slightly and out came not Wu Zhen, but a gray and black tabby cat with orange eyes and a clean, fluffy coat. The cat squinted in the bright sunlight, gracefully stepped onto the palace roof, and darted towards the Ministry of Justice offices like the wind.
Inside the palace building, Wu Zhen had entered, now empty of people, only her crimson round-collared robe and riding crop remained, draped over a ceiling beam.
Several junior clerks from the Ministry of Justice were taking a break in the corridor, animatedly discussing the ladies of Pingkang Ward. They paid no attention to the tabby cat calmly walking along the roof, surveying its surroundings from above.
With no one paying attention to the cat walking a straight line on the roof, Wu Zhen leisurely looked around while searching for her target. She wasn’t very familiar with the inside of the offices, having only visited a couple of times before. Now, in her feline form, she couldn’t exactly ask someone where to find the eldest young master of the Mei family. She had to search on her own.
Finding someone proved to be no easy task, especially since she didn’t know what Master Mei looked like. Wu Zhen had been prowling around the offices for quite some time without success. As she rested on a wall, she suddenly overheard a conversation between two junior clerks.
“What should we do with these?”
“Take them to Section Chief Mei. Once he makes a copy and signs it, we can file it away, and that’ll be that.”
The words “Section Chief Mei” immediately caught Wu Zhen’s attention. She sprang up and followed the clerks. As they walked, one of them suddenly noticed the tabby cat following along the wall beside him. His eyes lit up, and he reached out, calling, “Here, kitty! Here, kitty!”
Wu Zhen’s whiskers twitched. When she wandered around in this form, there were always cat lovers trying to coax her over. It seemed this young man was one of them.
However, this clerk’s face was covered in small spots, as if he had buried his face in a jar of sesame seeds, with the seeds sticking all over…
As the clerk called out, he suddenly saw the lazy tabby cat stretch out a paw and flick a small piece of stone from the wall, which flew directly at his forehead, causing him to yelp in pain.
The sesame-faced young clerk could only sigh wistfully, rubbing his forehead as he continued on his way. He kept looking back, noticing the tabby cat slowly following him. But by the time he reached Section Chief Mei’s office, the cat that had followed him all this way had vanished.
The junior clerk delivered the documents and left, but Wu Zhen remained. She crouched on a roof beam directly opposite an open window. Inside, a figure was bent over a desk—the eldest young master of the Mei family she had been seeking.
He wore a light crimson official robe and a black gauze headpiece. From behind, his figure appeared tall and straight. However, Master Mei was facing away from the window, so Wu Zhen couldn’t see his face at all.
The roof where she crouched was still too far from the window. Wu Zhen eyed a tall paulownia tree planted near the window, then swiftly jumped down from the roof and nimbly climbed the tree that stood close to the window.
The paulownia was in full bloom, its flowers at their peak in the late spring, though now nearing the end of their season. The stone pavement below was covered with a layer of white petals. As Wu Zhen leaped onto a branch, a shower of paulownia flowers fell, as if swept by the wind, adding another layer to the ground below.
Wu Zhen inched forward along the branch until it began to sag under the tabby cat’s weight, bringing her close enough to the window. She settled down, tucking her paws beneath her, surrounded by paulownia blossoms, and gazed at the figure inside.
In the warm late spring sunlight, the paulownia flowers released a faint, ethereal fragrance that inexplicably induced drowsiness. The tabby cat in the tree yawned, revealing a set of small, sharp white teeth.
Tail hanging down, nestled among the paulownia blossoms, Wu Zhen observed Master Mei through half-closed eyes. She took in his meticulously arranged hair tucked into the black gauze headpiece, his long neck, and his back—not particularly broad, but undeniably straight. Her gaze traveled down to his waist, cinched by an official’s belt… Not bad, she thought, that waist is quite trim. The tabby cat’s paw twitched slightly.
Perhaps sensing something, the man who had been working diligently at his desk suddenly turned his head towards the window, his gaze meeting that of the tabby cat perched among the paulownia blossoms.
Seeing this sight of a tabby cat amid the flowers, Master Mei showed no surprise. He simply gazed calmly at the cat as it swayed gently with the flower-laden branch in the breeze.
Wu Zhen finally got a clear view of Master Mei’s face and thought to herself, “Not bad, not ugly at all.”
Wu Zhen was no stranger to handsome men; she had seen countless attractive young lords. The Master Mei before her was probably somewhere in the middle—his looks weren’t strikingly handsome, but he was certainly pleasant to look at. He didn’t resemble his fair-faced younger brother, Mei Si, nor did he look like the beautiful Noble Consort Mei. If one had to choose a word to describe him, it might be “upright.”
His gaze was calm and cool, his expression clear with a hint of sharpness. This sharpness wasn’t the cold edge of a newly honed blade, but rather the stern demeanor unique to those who administer justice.
Looking at the young lord’s self-contained and proper bearing, Wu Zhen inwardly sighed. To be honest, she was least adept at dealing with people who appeared so serious.
Master Mei turned his head to look at the tabby cat outside the window, his raised wrist suspended in mid-air, the ink on his brush hesitating to fall, finally dripping a spot onto the paper. He turned back, set aside the ink-stained paper for other use, and took a fresh sheet to continue his work.
Wu Zhen had seen what she came for and should have left, but for some reason—perhaps out of laziness—she decided to stay and continue watching Master Mei’s back.
As time passed, she couldn’t help but muse to herself. While others might take breaks, chat with colleagues, or slack off a bit, this Master Mei hadn’t budged since sitting down. His brush never seemed to pause, and the stack of papers beside his desk only grew taller.
After what seemed like an eternity, Master Mei finally stood up. Wu Zhen, who had been dozing, raised her head to look and inwardly exclaimed again. Sitting down, she hadn’t noticed, but now that he was standing, she realized that Master Mei was incredibly tall. She was considered tall among women and not short compared to many men, but Master Mei towered over her by nearly a head.
Perhaps due to his height, Wu Zhen thought he looked even thinner standing up. This kind of slender build truly befitted a refined scholar.
As Master Mei left the room, Wu Zhen also stood up, leaping from the branch through the window, intending to take a closer look at his desk.
However, still groggy from her nap, she misjudged her landing spot. One of her paws landed squarely on the inkstone, immediately staining her fluffy white front paw with black ink. Without hesitation, Wu Zhen pressed her paw onto the discarded ink-stained paper, intending to wipe it clean.
After leaving several paw prints on the waste paper, Master Mei returned. He had gone to fetch some water, only to find the fearless tabby cat standing on his desk. Caught in the act, the cat didn’t flee but instead pressed another plum blossom-shaped paw print onto the paper right before his eyes.
Master Mei ended up using all the water he had fetched, not for drinking, but to wash the tabby cat’s paws.
Wu Zhen was genuinely surprised when Master Mei washed her paws, as he didn’t seem like the type to be fond of cats.
After washing her paws, Master Mei noticed the tabby cat shaking its wet paw. He suddenly set the pitcher aside and offered his sleeve to the cat.
The tabby cat paused for a moment, then naturally pressed its paw against his sleeve to dry it off.
With its paw dry, the tabby cat leaped out the window, and Master Mei resumed his work.
Outside, the paulownia flowers continued to fall gently.