Lose My Heart to the Lovely Kitten Princess - Chapter 63
Chapter 63 So glad he was here!
“Get in the water and pull out the insolent slave who offended the imperial consort!”
A voice so hoarse that it sounded like sandpaper rubbing the ground came from the shore!
“Yes, Ma’am!”
The sound of people diving into the lake could be heard.
Chu Yunshen happened to arrive just in time to see this.
Chu Yunshen felt angry about saving a palace maid after she stole food. He was planning on taking a walk elsewhere to ease his drunkenness when he suddenly heard imperial consort Su’s piercing scream. Hence, he came over to check.
A set of palace maid’s clothing floated atop of the lake while a white cat could be seen thrashing beside it.
Chu Yunshen’s dark eyes stared fixedly. Wasn’t that his lion cat?
What was she doing in the lake?
Chu Yunshen ordered the guards in the lake, “Save the cat!”
“Yes, Your Highness!” replied a guard when they heard Prince Jing. Then he quickly reached for the white cat and held her up before swimming back ashore.
Another guard picked up the uniform floating in the water and told Nanny Liu as she stood on the shore, “Nanny Liu, there are only garments here and no one else!”
“No one is there?” Nanny Liu looked at the drenched white cat the other guard was holding as he went ashore and narrowed her eyes.
Since it was too dark, Nanny Liu only saw something running into imperial consort Su. Fortunately, she reacted quickly and shoved it just in time!
However, she didn’t get a clear look at it.
Since they couldn’t find anyone in the lake, the cat must have been the one who offended imperial consort Su.
Chu Yunshen strode forward and took the wet kitten from the guard’s hands and placed the shivering cat in his embrace.
“How did you get in?”
Chu Yunshen glanced at the little fellow in his arms.
“Meow”
Thank God Chu Yunshen came!
Cheng Xiaoxiao meowed weakly at Chu Yunshen as she held on tight to his robes.
Nanny Liu headed over to Chu Yunshen at this very moment to bow and greet, “Your Highness!”
Then she straightened her back and looked at the cat in Chu Yunshen’s arms and continued, “Your Highness, the cat in your arms offended the imperial consort, so please hand it over to me.”
Chu Yunshen ignored her and patted the lion cat’s head as he said sternly, “Let’s see if you’ll misbehave in the future. How could you have disappeared while I was drinking?”
Chu Yunshen walked over to imperial consort Su with the cat in his arms.
Chu Yunshen halted when he reached imperial consort Su. He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips slightly as he bowed and paid respects, “Greetings, Imperial Consort Su.”
He stood up with his eyes slightly darker as he said, “It was too dark, so I didn’t manage to see you here. Pardon me!”
“It’s not your fault since you couldn’t see. I won’t hold it against you.”
Imperial consort Su smiled coldly as her eyes landed on the cat in Chu Yunshen’s arms.
Nanny Liu had hurried over too. She glanced at imperial consort Su before she said to Chu Yunshen firmly, “Your Highness, the cat offended Imperial Consort Su, so please hand it to me!”
“Oh? Didn’t Nanny Liu say it was some dumb servant who offended Imperial Consort Su? But this is my cat,” said Chu Yunshen as he laughed coldly and glanced at Nanny Liu, leaving her shivering.
“Nanny Liu!”
Hongchang hurriedly stepped forward and helped her up.
Nanny Liu pointed at the white cat in Chu Yunshen’s arms as she trembled and said, “The cat was the only thing in the lake, so it must have offended Imperial Consort Su! There are rules in the imperial harem. Since you are His Majesty’s son, you have to set a good example. You can’t flout the rules and ruin the royalty’s reputation. Even if we don’t kill the cat, we will have to skin it to appease Imperial Consort Su!”
Chu Yunshen’s face sank, and a vicious look swept across his face.
Nanny Liu grabbed Hongchang’s arm hard. Prince Jing’s dark threatening aura had made her legs go soft.
Sure enough, Prince Jing had changed after coming back from the battlefield.
Chu Yunshen felt so intimidating when she wanted to skin the cat. It felt as though she had said they wanted to skin him.
“Nanny Liu, didn’t you say it was some servant who offended Imperial Consort Su? Why are you blaming my cat?” Chu Yunshen glanced at the drenched cat in his arms and continued angrily, “I haven’t even held you accountable for throwing her into the water yet, but here you are, blaming her for everything. I know you are eager to take credit. However, things don’t have to be so blatant, right?”
“Your Highness, how could you say that? I was just following the rules. However, you keep refusing to hand the cat over. Are you trying to defend the cat after it broke the rules?”
“Of course not,” said Chu Yunshen with his dark eyes glinting. Then he suddenly curved his lips and gave her a fake smile, “Imperial Consort Su got a scare, but you couldn’t find the culprit. If you want to take it out on an animal, I will follow the rules. I will hand the cat over now and leave her at your mercy if that’s what it takes to make Imperial Consort Su happy.”
Chu Yunshen disregarded Cheng Xiaoxiao’s shivering and handed her over with both hands as he spoke.
Imperial consort Su’s eyes glinted. Although she found Chu Yunshen’s sudden change of tune strange, she said nothing and merely nodded at Nanny Liu.
However, Chu Yunshen casually spoke before Nanny Liu smugly reached her hands over.
“But I should’ve told you the truth sooner, Imperial Consort Su. The lion cat was sent as a tribute by Wu and is a symbol of our close ties. If anything happens to her on your watch, you will probably get roasted by the public just like me.”
“Erm…”
Nanny Liu was caught in a dilemma and looked at imperial consort Su.
Imperial consort Su glared angrily at Prince Jing with her face stiff. She finally witnessed how scheming and calculating Prince Jing was. In a few words, he managed to leave her cornered.
No wonder the empress feels secretly threatened by him and acts friendly to him. If a prince like him couldn’t be in their own pocket, he had to be killed!
Imperial consort Su turned to glance at the lion cat Prince Jing had lifted up as she contemplated.
She would get stuck with such a huge problem if she killed the cat tonight. The consequences were unimaginable if someone wanted to use this to their advantage.
Yet, she couldn’t appear so easily threatened by a junior just because of some things he said.
Chu Yunshen already detected the look of dilemma on imperial consort Su’s face. She just needed an excuse to walk away from the problem and drop the conflict.
Just as he was about to speak up…
A rough voice came from behind, “Her Majesty is here.”
Chu Yunshen calmly straightened his body to pull the cat into his arms and used his broad sleeves to cover the cat tightly like a blanket.
Cheng Xiaoxiao lay against his chest while she reached her little damp head out.
Then she saw an old lady helping a woman with a phoenix hairpiece on her head and dressed in a crimson outfit walk over towards them.
She wore matching gold jewelry that was embedded with gems and looked dazzling.
Cheng Xiaoxiao was delighted to see the empress!
Things were getting interesting now!
Imperial consort Su’s arch enemy was here!
“Greetings, Your Majesty!”
Everyone instantly knelt and paid respects.
“Rise!” acknowledged the empress calmly. Then she walked up to imperial consort Su and said with concern, “I heard a servant offended you, so I hurried over. Are you okay?”
Imperial consort Su bowed lazily to the empress. “I’m fine. I was just teaching this stupid cat a lesson.”
Then she glanced at the cat in Chu Yunshen’s arms coldly as the cat craned her head out of his embrace.
“Is that so?” The empress glanced at the dripping wet cat in Chu Yunshen’s arms and nodded to him. She walked up to imperial consort Su and said, “We begged His Majesty to let us hold this victory banquet for Yunshen. Didn’t you say you wanted to love him like your own son, considering how he pitifully lost his mother at a young age? Why throw such a temper over a cat then? If His Majesty caught wind of this…”
Then the empress curved her lips into a smile and continued, “What is he going to think?”
“Lu Luo.”
Anger flashed across imperial consort Su’s eyes swiftly as she scoffed in her heart. The empress was so pretentious that this façade of how close she was to Chu Yunshen made her lose all appetite.
However, she didn’t want to kill the cat Wu sent as a tribute, so this was her chance to wriggle out of the situation.
“Yes, Imperial Consort Su.”
Lu Luo bowed.
“I only wanted to scold the cat and let things slide. Since Your Majesty acceded on behalf of Yunshen, I certainly have no reason to hold a grudge. Your Majesty, I’m tired and would like to retire. Allow me to take my leave.” Imperial consort Su bowed to the empress before she glanced at Chu Yunshen and reached her hand to Lu Luo as she said, “Help me back to my palace.”
Lu Luo hurriedly took imperial consort Su’s hand.
Cheng Xiaoxiao watched as imperial consort Su left angrily and almost wanted to clap her hands triumphantly.
Hmph! The wicked never end well.
The empress asked with concern, “Are you okay, Yunshen?”
The empress looked at Chu Yunshen as though he were her biological son.
“Thank you for helping, Mother!”
Chu Yunshen knelt and thanked the empress with Cheng Xiaoxiao in his arms.
Cheng Xiaoxiao pulled Chu Yunshen’s robe and gestured for him not to get fooled by the woman.
If Cheng Xiaoxiao didn’t overhear things when she sat behind the dragon seat, she would have thought she was an exemplary empress!
Was she really trying to help Chu Yunshen?
Everyone knew what the empress was up to!
“Behave.”
Chu Yunshen lowered his head and looked at the little fellow as she pulled him. Then he pressed her head down with his large hand. It appeared he had no choice but to punish her.
The empress glanced at the restless cat in Chu Yunshen’s arms and reminded him out of the so-called goodness of her heart, “Yunshen, the cat got into trouble, so you better get rid of it. If it offends His Majesty or any of his favorite children, I won’t be able to help even if I wanted to.”
“Thanks for the suggestion, Mother.” Chu Yunshen bowed and thanked her.
“It’s late. Why don’t you go home, Yunshen?”
The empress could tell that Chu Yunshen didn’t want to talk to her, so she spoke perfunctorily before heading back to her palace.
“Farewell, Mother,” said Chu Yunshen as he bowed.
“Master!”
“Brother Yunshen!”
“Yunshen!”
Xiaowu, Chu Hongyi, and Princess Qianqian’s voices suddenly came from in front. Chu Yunshen glanced in their direction with Cheng Xiaoxiao in his arms.
“Oh my! Brother Yunshen, where did you go?” Chu Hongyi was the first one to notice Chu Yunshen. He strode over quickly to Chu Yunshen. “Xiaowu said you had too much to drink and went for a walk, but you didn’t come back, so we got worried and came to look for you.”
Chu Yunshen calmly nodded as he walked out with Cheng Xiaoxiao in his arms.
“Master!”
Xiaowu walked up to Chu Yunshen and bowed.
Princess Qianqian wrung her handkerchief as she looked both a little angry and sad. She sighed when Chu Yunshen walked past her with the cat in his arms.
