Wu Zhen, transformed into a tabby cat, silently padded across the rooftop. She paused to examine her front paw, which still bore traces of ink despite young Master Mei’s attempt to clean it. Lowering her paw, she continued forward.
After a few steps, she suddenly heard voices from beneath the eaves. It seemed to be some officials from the Ministry of Justice, huddled together and speaking in hushed tones. Wu Zhen, ever curious, stopped to listen.
Someone asked, “So, you’ve all experienced it too?”
Another replied, “I encountered it once. My mind became foggy, and I had no idea what I was doing. I just stood there until Song Da happened to pass by and snapped me out of it. When I asked, I realized I’d been standing there dazed for over an hour.”
Yet another added, “The same happened to me. Somehow my mind was bewitched, and I lost all sense of the world around me. Deputy Director Zhao even scolded me for neglecting my duties, not knowing I was suffering too.”
Someone else hesitantly asked, “Am I the only one who saw… a woman?”
After a moment of silence, one of the earlier speakers replied in an odd tone, “To be honest, I saw a woman too, but I couldn’t make out her face.”
“I… saw the same,” another chimed in.
Wu Zhen listened for a while and understood. These minor officials from the Ministry of Justice were discussing a secluded storeroom at the back of the ministry building. The room was poorly located, receiving no sunlight this afternoon. Recently, they had been experiencing strange occurrences there. As they described, people would enter and suddenly lose their senses, forgetting where they were or what they were doing. Some even claimed to have seen the hazy figure of a woman.
Since no one had died from these incidents, Wu Zhen usually wouldn’t bother with such minor “hauntings.” She was about to leave when she suddenly changed her mind and headed towards the storeroom. “Since I’m here, I might as well do a good deed,” she thought to herself. “I’ve been too idle lately anyway.”
She quickly found the storeroom, sensing an unusual aura that stood out to her like a bright light in the darkness. The room was locked, with no one inside. Wu Zhen looked around, then leaped to the window. With a push of her paw, the supposedly locked window creaked open, revealing a dark gap. She jumped in and sauntered along the bookshelves, easily locating the source of the strange aura.
As she had suspected, it wasn’t anything powerful – not even a proper spirit. It was merely a type of “impure energy” called “female delusion.” Such entities tended to form in places where ten or more women had died.
Wu Zhen pondered this. Just beyond the palace wall was a dark room where palace maids who had committed offenses were once confined. Many maids had likely died there. The proximity, combined with the poor feng shui of this location, made it easy for such impure energy to accumulate.
“Female delusion” couldn’t truly harm people; at most, it could befuddle their minds. Generally, men with strong yang energy wouldn’t be affected. Only those with weak constitutions were susceptible, potentially seeing hazy female figures – remnants of the deceased women’s lingering resentment and regret.
Wu Zhen opened her mouth towards the blurry shadow. The shadow emitted an inhuman shriek before being sucked into the cat’s mouth. The tabby twitched her ears, then opened her mouth again. The shadow she had swallowed was gone, replaced by a wisp of white smoke that dissipated into the air, leaving no trace behind.
As silently as she had arrived, the tabby cat slipped out after completing this small task.
By the time she left Taiji Palace, it was already late. The entire Chang’an city was bathed in the glow of twilight. The streets were nearly empty as Wu Zhen rode her horse back to Duke Yu’s mansion. Before she arrived home, she heard the curfew drums begin to sound. The resonant drum beats connected from one place to another, echoing through all one hundred and ten wards of Chang’an.
Chang’an enforced a curfew. Except for the first three days of the Lantern Festival, once night fell, the curfew drums would sound. After several hundred drum beats, all ward gates and city gates would close. No one was allowed to wander the main streets without reason. Thus, those still on the main roads hurried to return to their wards – once past the ward gates, restrictions within each ward were less strict, and neighbors could still visit each other at night.
While others on the street hurried, Wu Zhen leisurely rode her horse. By the time she reached Duke Yu’s mansion, the final drum beat faded. Silence suddenly fell over the world, and the last ray of light vanished beyond the horizon.
Duke Yu was waiting at home. Seeing his dark expression, Wu Zhen inwardly sighed. Alas, Father had stayed home for a whole day – why hadn’t he returned to the temple yet?
Duke Yu suddenly shouted, “Were you just waiting for me to return to the temple before dawdling outside until this late hour?”
Wu Zhen went up to her fuming father and took his arm, lying through her teeth, “How could that be? I hadn’t seen Her Majesty the Empress in a while, so we talked for a bit longer, which is why I’m late.”
Duke Yu was half-skeptical, “Really?”
Wu Zhen’s expression was open and frank, “Of course. If I wasn’t thinking about you waiting for me, given my habits, I’d be listening to the courtesans sing in Pingkang Ward by now, not returning to this quiet mansion.”
Duke Yu was speechless. He had raised a daughter, not a young lord! How could she speak so brazenly about visiting brothels?
Seeing he was about to lecture her, Wu Zhen quickly led him inside, pleading, “Alright, Father. I’ve been running around all afternoon and I’m starving. Let me eat first before we talk.”
Duke Yu was temporarily placated. By the time he remembered to admonish his daughter, Wu Zhen had already retreated to her room, closing the door and windows, claiming she was going to sleep. Duke Yu still had some sense of propriety and couldn’t bring himself to pound on his daughter’s door to scold her. He could only purse his lips and go to bed, stewing in silent anger.
But Wu Zhen wasn’t so obedient as to go to sleep. As soon as Duke Yu returned to his room, she immediately opened her window and slipped away, her timing impeccable.
Even in human form, Wu Zhen moved nimbly across the walls and eaves of various wards. The patrol guards on the main streets didn’t notice her at all.
Chang’an was completely silent. Ordinary households would have extinguished their lights and retired for the night by now. The liveliest place was Pingkang Ward, filled with brothels at their busiest hour. Passing nearby, one could hear music from many houses and faint, soft singing – like viewing lanterns from across the shore, it had a unique, ethereal charm.
The East and West Markets, bustling during the day, were now the quietest, with barely any lights visible. Of course, this was only to ordinary human eyes. To non-human beings like Wu Zhen, the East and West Markets now took on a completely different appearance.
The night markets belonged to the world of non-humans. Ordinary people couldn’t see or enter these two supernatural markets.
As soon as Wu Zhen entered the supernatural market, she was greeted by a cacophony vastly different from the silence outside. A small, pointed head suddenly poked out from a roadside shop, enthusiastically greeting her, “Cat Lord! Fresh fish balls, just caught from Qujiang Pool today. Won’t you honor us by trying a bowl?”
“Cat Lord” was the respectful title given to her by the denizens of the supernatural market. Not just her – all those who had held her position throughout history were called “Cat Lord.” Currently, in this market, only two individuals are worthy of the title “Lord.”
The night supernatural market was like a human daybreak. Both sides of the street were lined with shops and stalls selling breakfast foods. The spirits and monsters out for a stroll mostly ducked into these shops to eat something hot first. Wu Zhen had eaten not long ago and wasn’t very hungry, but the enticing aroma drew her in, and she veered into a shop.
The shop owner, with snow-white whiskers and emerald eyes, eagerly came over to wipe the table and chair for her, then swiftly served a large bowl of fish balls with a side dish of sauce.
After finishing the bowl, Wu Zhen wiped her mouth and headed toward the center of the two markets. In the time it took her to eat that bowl of fish balls, the street had filled with pedestrians. Most looked like ordinary humans, with fewer visibly non-human forms. After all, many supernatural beings mingled with humans during the day, indistinguishable from ordinary people.
In the center of the supernatural market stood a tall building shaped like a flying wild goose with outstretched wings. It had red walls and black tiles, with layers of bronze bells hanging under the eaves. This Yan Tower belonged to Wu Zhen, the “Cat Lord.”
More precisely, only the left wing of the building belonged to her. The other half belonged to the “Snake Lord.” The two of them were the maintainers of order in the East and West supernatural markets. They had known each other for a long time and worked well together, despite their vastly different personalities.
Although their status was similar, they had come into their positions of “Cat Lord” and “Snake Lord” through different means. The little white snake’s mother had been the previous “Snake Lord” – she was a supernatural being herself. Wu Zhen, on the other hand, wasn’t originally a supernatural creature. At least, until a few years ago, she had been an ordinary child. It was only after a series of extraordinary events that she came to her current position.
Thinking of the “Snake Lord,” Wu Zhen glanced toward the right side of Yan Tower. It was pitch dark without any lights. It seemed the little white snake wasn’t here tonight, nor were her two assistants.
Wu Zhen climbed up to her side of the tower on the left. She wandered around the upper and lower floors but didn’t see a single soul. She crossed her arms and shook her head, “It’s one thing for Huzhu to be absent, but even that charlatan isn’t here.”
As the respected “Cat Lord,” Wu Zhen naturally didn’t work alone. Like the “Snake Lord,” she had two assistants to help her. However, as the saying goes, like a master, like a servant – she often slacked off, and her two assistants were equally fond of idling. But this wasn’t entirely their fault. After all, it had been a long time since any supernatural beings had caused trouble, so they had nothing to do and didn’t like staying here with no purpose.
Wu Zhen jumped onto the red railing of Yan Tower, one foot on the balustrade. After gazing into the distance for a moment, she smirked and said, “Found them.”
With that, she leaped down from the high tower.