Chapter 2: The Civet Cat Leads the Way

The Civet Cat Leads the Way

"Raise your head."

Ruan Ci raised her head to let the Empress look at her. She was very careful and did not look around—there was nothing to see anyway. She had been to the Forbidden Palace in Song Jing several times; the Empress's palace was just a bit larger, nothing special.

Ruan Rong was talented and beautiful, with a clear reputation, but the Crown Prince did not want her and chose Ruan Ci. The Empress naturally looked at Ruan Ci critically, but after looking for a long time, she could not find any faults, so she had to hold her tea and sigh, "Still a bit young after all."

The female official beside her smiled and said, "It's rare that the Crown Prince likes her."

She was a concubine personally appointed by the Crown Prince, and the Empress had no choice. She just shook her head slightly, thought for a moment, called her to stand up and sit beside her, and asked her a few questions, which Ruan Ci answered one by one.

She was articulate, had a sweet voice, and looked good. After the Empress spoke a few words, she couldn't help but like her. She held her hand and sighed a few times, saying, "A good child—it's just that you've been wronged. If you want to blame someone, blame the bad world."

It was common for children not to understand what adults said. Ruan Ci blinked her eyes and pretended to be ignorant, but in her heart, she roughly understood. The Crown Prince appointing a concubine was something that happened after Second Madam's visit. It was probably that a major event was already brewing, and her marriage was nothing more than a part of it.

Song Guo had been fighting endlessly for seven hundred years. The daughters of noble families lived in luxury and rarely saw the light of day, not having to endure the grinding of fire miasma and dry wind, so they naturally had to pay a price. Ruan Ci had no opinion on her marriage; everything was just part of the game of the great families. She had already bowed to the Emperor, and now she bowed to the Empress to thank her, and then went to pay respects to the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince was reading and cultivating his mind in the small study of Bihua Pavilion. He asked all the attendants to retreat outside, let Ruan Ci sit closer, and gave her some spirit jade to eat. "How is your sister?"

Ruan Ci had entered the palace with Ruan Rong when she was young. Ruan Rong was two years older than her, and the Crown Prince was three or four years older than Ruan Rong. The age gap between them was large. Ruan Ci was in her early teens, and the Crown Prince was already of weak crown age. Sitting together, they felt like they were a generation apart, with no romantic thoughts for each other. Ruan Ci said, "Sister must be very sad. I don't know either. I got the news yesterday and came to thank him early this morning. I haven't seen her yet."

Ruan Rong would naturally blame the Crown Prince; Ruan Ci and he both understood this without saying it. The Crown Prince smiled. He seemed a bit sad too, but he had already resolved it. He just said slowly, "There's no help for it. It will all be fine. Doing this is best for the Ruan family. Your father will explain it to her."

Ruan Rong was a direct descendant, the only eldest daughter of the Ruan family's main branch. There were not many noble families in the world who could match this background. If she married into the Imperial family, she would naturally be the Crown Princess and future Empress. Ruan Rong wanted to be Empress, so she hid her talisman cultivation. But the dowry of an Empress would naturally be more precious than that of a concubine. Ruan Ci had thought about it all night last night and vaguely had a guess. At this time, she couldn't help but ask, "Is it related to the Kun Pendant?"

The Crown Prince couldn't help but look at her differently. After pondering for a moment, he did not hide it from her and nodded. "General Zhou submitted a memorial asking to choose a match for me. This is a good thing; the Eastern Palace cannot easily refuse."

General Zhou was the head of the Zhou family in the north. Ruan Ci's shoulders trembled; she already understood everything. "Second Madam came to the palace to pay respects yesterday, and the Empress mentioned this to her."

The Empress was related to both the Zhou and Ruan families, and it was difficult for her to mediate. It was also difficult for the Ruan family to refuse the Imperial marriage proposal, and even harder to take the initiative to offer someone other than Ruan Rong. If the Imperial family opened their mouths and Ruan Rong was appointed as the Crown Princess, what dowry should the Ruan family take out? If the Emperor was bewitched by General Zhou and opened his mouth to ask for the Kun Pendant as a dowry, should the Ruan family agree?

Only the Crown Prince could have some say in his own marriage, so it was most appropriate for him to come forward. He did not marry Ruan Rong, and he probably felt a bit of loss in his heart. To choose someone else, besides Ruan Ci, he had never seen any other Ruan girl of appropriate age. Ruan Ci did not speak, just sighed. The Crown Prince touched her forehead, not without apology. "The Chengqian Palace has few people, and I will naturally take care of you."

Ruan Ci dared not accept it and bowed gracefully. "It is I who should thank Your Highness for taking care of the Ruan family." Although her marriage was ruined because of this, the Crown Prince had good intentions. In such a troubled world, the Kun Pendant was far more important to the Ruan family than the lifelong happiness of one or two daughters.

The Crown Prince had previously seen her as Ruan Rong's little sister, but this time he looked at Ruan Ci with new eyes. He not only looked at her carefully for a long time but also told her many things that the Ruan family would not tell Ruan Ci.

"The three sects jointly guard Song Guo for a hundred-year term, taking turns to send true cultivators to manage the Talisman Gate. Fifteen years ago, the high Daoist from the Panxian Sect went into seclusion, but the Lingxiao Sect did not send the former Immortal Master Chen back to the capital, but instead had Upper Master Liu take office. As far as I know, the Ruan family is on very good terms with Immortal Master Chen, but has no friendship with Upper Master Liu."

"So, the great noble families of our Great Song all have Immortal Masters to worship?" Ruan Ci asked. "Our family worships Immortal Master Chen, then... which one does the Zhou family worship?"

"It is the newly appointed Upper Master Liu." Ruan Ci understood immediately. The Crown Prince felt relaxed talking to her and said in a low voice, "I heard that Upper Master Liu appreciates General Zhou very much and even accepted him as an outer disciple, passing down a set of body-refining techniques."

"Body-refining?"

Ruan Ci's confusion lessened, but her questions grew more numerous. "What is a body-refining technique? Is it martial arts? Panxian Sect, Lingxiao Sect, Yuxi Sect, why have I never heard of these sects? Do they all cultivate talismans?"

The Crown Prince smiled helplessly. "I'll tell you about these things slowly in the future. You just need to go back and tell your family these words."

Ruan Ci was reluctant but could only bid farewell. The Crown Prince held her hand, personally sent her to the door, and suddenly sighed.

"A young lady like you, if you want to know everything, it is naturally very appropriate to come to my Chengqian Palace."

To prevent sandstorms, noble mansions were all built with winding corridors and eaves, with connected pavilions for family members to walk. The Forbidden Palace was naturally the same. The Crown Prince looked through the deep corridors at the ray of sunlight falling into the courtyard. He was born fair and handsome, with a jade-like grace. He looked into the distance, while Ruan Ci looked at his profile. For a moment, both were a bit dazed.

"In the future, you will know many things that many people will never know in their entire lives."

The Crown Prince sighed softly and said slowly, "But after knowing too much, perhaps you will wish you didn't know anything at all."

Ruan Ci had always felt that although he had a noble status, he was not arrogant at all. But she did not expect that the Crown Prince would have such sorrow and hesitation. She couldn't help but feel a tightness in her heart—what kind of thing could make the Crown Prince of a country act like this?

#

Regardless, Ruan Ci was extremely favored by the Crown Prince, which was obvious to all. She was kept by the Crown Prince when she entered the palace to thank him, and personally sent off when she left. These rumors seemed to have grown wings, dancing in the Ruan mansion. Ruan Ci felt that the servants in the mansion treated her very differently after she returned from the palace. She did not take pleasure in this, hugging the adopted big civet cat and dazing off, not wanting to eat dinner. Her maid, Xiao Li, smiled and said, "Ci Gu, eat. After dinner, Eldest Master should be free, and you have to go pay respects."

Ruan Ci remembered the Crown Prince's words, "tell your family these words," so she sat up and ate dinner with Xiao Li. The people of Song Guo only ate one kind of rice, and there was no difference between master and servant. This was the "grain rice" that grew alongside spirit jade. It was buried in the soil in pieces, gray and dull. The people of Song boiled jade to drink, and after the spirit jade was boiled, they put in the grain rice. When the rice was cooked, it naturally shed its shell. They discarded the rice skin, drank the soup, and chewed the rice, which was a full meal.

Ruan Ci couldn't eat after two pieces of grain rice. She drank a few sips of soup, took the cat bowl, and poured the leftovers into it. The big civet cat "meowed" and leaned over to eat and drink. After licking the bowl clean, it stretched out its claws and licked its fur. Xiao Li complained, "Ci Gu always feeds it like this, so it has become even more spoiled. After eating cooked grain rice, it doesn't want to eat raw ones anymore."

"Who said that?" Ruan Ci took a piece of spirit jade from her bosom, broke it, and handed it to the civet cat's mouth. The civet cat stood up, hugged her hand, and ate one piece after another. Xiao Li stomped her feet in anger, calling the civet cat a flatterer. Ruan Ci felt very proud and couldn't help but giggle, forgetting the turbulent twists and turns of the past few days for a moment.

Eldest Master had not sent anyone to call her over. Ruan Ci paced back and forth in the room for a long time, still hugging the civet cat and slipping out to find Ruan Rong. Ruan Rong's complexion was not good, and she was listless, but she still saw her.

"Did he only ask that one sentence?" She asked Ruan Ci about what she saw in the palace in detail. When she heard that the Crown Prince only said "How is your sister," she couldn't help but be angry. "This man really has no conscience."

Ruan Ci hoped she would only blame the Crown Prince, so she desperately agreed, "Indeed, men are very unreliable."

Ruan Rong was amused by her and flicked her forehead. "I'm not blaming you—am I such an unreasonable person? It's just that your temperament needs to change. The Forbidden Palace is not a good place. Since you've gone, I have to talk to you properly."

Although she said so, she was still inevitably melancholy. It was rare that Ruan Rong did not vent her anger on Ruan Ci. Ruan Ci did not dare to open up to her rashly, sitting carefully beside Ruan Rong, looking out the window and dazing off. She hadn't seen the sky for several months. There were many noble girls in Song Guo who had never stepped out of the roof from birth to death.

But Ruan Ci wanted to go out and see. Her heart was filled with many questions. Panxian Sect, Lingxiao Sect, Yuxi Sect, the three sects jointly guard Song Guo, why use the word "guard"? Could it be that Song Guo had some evil spirits? But no one had ever said this. Even what the Crown Prince said, Immortal Master Chen, who was on good terms with the Ruan family, Ruan Ci had never heard of his affairs.

The big civet cat had been held by her for a long time and became impatient, moving around. Ruan Ci put it on the ground. Ruan Rong said, "This cat is quite fat, but it has been spoiled by you."

Almost every household in Song Guo kept civet cats. Civet cats loved to eat grain rice, could chew spirit jade, often helped in exploring mines, and liked to prey on fierce crows born from the fire miasma in the wild. They were the first auspicious and useful beneficial animals. The Ruan family was no exception. There were hundreds of cats in the mansion. This one beside Ruan Ci was adopted by her when she was young. Like her, it had not been out of the house for a long time, doing nothing but eating and sleeping every day. Ruan Ci said, "I didn't spoil it. I'm very strict with it. Isn't that right, big civet slave?"

The big civet cat let out a long "meow" and walked to the door, looking back at her. Xiao Li laughed, "It wants to go back."

Ruan Ci was already awkward staying there, and Ruan Rong would give her a lecture in a while. If she didn't leave now, when would she? She got up to catch the cat. The civet cat twisted its body and ran out. Ruan Ci lifted her sleeves and chased after it, shouting, "Civet slave, where are you going?"

She followed behind the civet cat and ran for a while, stopping to catch her breath. The big civet cat stopped walking and looked at her from afar. Ruan Ci chased after it, and it turned and ran away again. Ruan Ci was teased and ran and laughed. She felt an indescribable relief in her heart, as if all her worries were temporarily forgotten in the running. Ruan Ci didn't know what a young girl of ten or so should be like. In this troubled world, it seemed that no one had the capital to be innocent. Even Ruan Rong and the Crown Prince were not carefree. But she really wanted to rush out of these heavy buildings and run under the starry sky and moonlight, or do nothing, just enjoy that feeling of freedom.

If it were normal times, Ruan Ci would not dare to run like this. The Ruan mansion was an ancient house of a thousand years, with many places where children were not allowed to go. But she was no longer the adopted daughter of the Ruan family. The Ruan family had raised her, and she had also paid for the Ruan family with her own life, and was about to rush into the Forbidden Palace so tenderly. Ruan Ci was no longer careful tonight. Her laughter echoed in the heavy corridors, chasing the civet cat and not knowing where she ran. Only then did she find a gap, pounced from behind, and hugged the big civet slave.

"You're asking for death!" She hugged the cat and rubbed it. The big civet slave lay lazily in Ruan Ci's arms. The cats in Song Guo were all tall. If the big civet slave stood up, it would be almost more than half the height of Ruan Ci. Ruan Ci couldn't rub it hard. The civet cat was rubbed for a while and instead purred. Ruan Ci pretended to be angry, "What a thick face, I'm punishing you."

She couldn't help but laugh. After laughing, she slowly bent down, leaned her face on the thick fur of the big civet slave, and stretched out her hands, looking at her fingertips. The green talisman power was flowing, taking away the sweat and dirt. Ruan Ci was dazed for a while, then suddenly felt sad again, and said in a low voice, "You are so wild, taking you into the palace is harming you. But you are so lazy, if I don't take you in, what should you do?"

She seemed to be asking herself, and also asking the civet cat. "Tell me, will Sister Rong treat you well? Will she think of me when she sees you, and secretly take it out on you?"

In the Ruan family, although her food and clothing were the same as Ruan Rong's, she had no parents after all. The care of her uncle and aunt was always different from that of her biological parents. The only one who had accompanied Ruan Ci since she was young was this big cat. Ruan Ci dared not take it into the palace, but she was very reluctant. She was not happy when she was suddenly chosen as the Crown Prince's concubine. She was not sad when she knew that her marriage was just the result of a game today. Only when she thought of separating from the civet slave at this moment, she really couldn't accept it. She hugged the cat and cried for a while, wiped her eyes, and hugged the cat to go back to her room. "Sigh, where are we, it's dark again, I can't find the way."

She put the civet cat down and told it to lead the way. The civet cat did not move, its four feet standing steadily, looking up at her, its big eyes wide open. Ruan Ci was surprised. This big civet cat of hers had always been very smart and could understand human speech. If she asked it to lead the way, it was impossible for it not to distinguish the direction.

"What's wrong, are you throwing a tantrum with me?"

She turned around to find the way herself, and the civet cat ran in front of her to stop her, looking up and letting out a long, shrill cry. Ruan Ci was frightened by it and stepped back, sitting on the ground, suspiciously saying, "What happened?"

The wild areas of Song Guo were very desolate, with only a few kinds of strange beasts growing, each with its own miraculous aspects. Civet cats were known for their sensitivity to changes. Ruan Ci had heard many legends and stories. Many great disasters that shook the earth had civet cats giving warnings. It was just that she had never thought that a great city like Song Jing would have any great disasters like earthquakes or star falls. Just as she was at a loss, there was a sudden noise in the distance, a "clang" sound, the bell rang, and there was a faint neighing of horses, but it soon fell silent.

When the Ruan mansion welcomed guests, the gate bell either didn't ring, or there was no reason for it to ring only once. There was no reason for honored guests to visit at night. Ruan Ci's face turned pale: over the years, Song Jing had been turbulent, and she had heard such noises several times, all of which were the movements of neighbors. She knew what had happened—

This was the sound of soldiers coming to the door to ransack the house and exterminate the clan.

She also understood the melancholy on the Crown Prince's face—the crime of possessing a jade, the situation was pressing. This time, something major had happened to the Ruan family. I'm afraid the Crown Prince also vaguely felt it. This time, maybe even he couldn't protect the Ruan family.

The civet cat "meowed," stood up, and led Ruan Ci to run deep into the corridor. The further she ran, the deeper it went, and even the moonlight couldn't shine in. Only the green talisman on Ruan Ci's chest emitted a hazy light. Ruan Ci took off the green talisman and barely illuminated the road ahead. The big civet cat turned back from time to time, its eyes glowing with a faint light like a candlestick floating in the air. Ruan Ci endured the fear in her heart, stumbling behind the big civet cat. After running for a while, the civet cat stopped, stood up, and its claws kept scratching the door panel in front.

To avoid sandstorms, noble families connected their buildings with corridors. These corridors were winding and tortuous, like a labyrinth. As they were added generation after generation, there were many secluded places that were rarely visited. It was not strange for children to get lost, not find their way back, and die in some desolate courtyard after their talisman power was exhausted. Ruan Ci had never been to this place before. She pushed the door and used the talisman to illuminate it. "The door is locked."

The iron lock was firm, reflecting a snow-white light under the green talisman. Ruan Ci rubbed her fingers, feeling surprised: this place was so remote, it should have been covered in dust long ago, but the talisman power had no reaction at all, so it should be cleaned by someone often.

Behind her, the sound of killing started, and there was fire in the far distance, illuminating half the sky. Faintly, fierce crows of fire miasma could be seen flying back and forth in the sky, their hoarse cries drifting in the air, "Death, death," making people feel irritable. Ruan Ci looked back, then lowered her head to look at the civet cat. The big civet cat sat squatting and tilted its head to look at her, as if pondering something. The cat's face had few expressions, and it didn't seem to be moved by the chaos, still very calm.

Ruan Ci watched it for a while and said in a low voice, "Civet slave?"

She didn't know what she was asking, but the civet cat seemed to understand. It slowly stood up, arched its back, shook its fur, and swiped its claws. Ruan Ci's eyes blurred, and she didn't see anything clearly. She only heard a "clang," and the iron lock fell to the ground. She lowered the green talisman and took a look. The lock was neatly broken into several pieces, as if cut by a sharp weapon.

Ordinary civet cats could not do this in any way. If it were like this, the people of Song Guo would not dare to keep cats. Ruan Ci didn't know what to think and couldn't speak while looking at the big civet cat.

The big civet cat yawned, licked its claws, and darted through the crack of the door. Ruan Ci suddenly came back to her senses, looked back at the fire in the distance, gritted her teeth, pushed the door and entered, turned back, and bolted the door in the dark.

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Updated, updated, I'll come to send red envelopes after eating, let's update for three consecutive days, thanks for everyone's enthusiastic comments!

Although this is a cultivation novel, the rhythm is still relatively fast! I see that some readers asked me what kind of comments I like. I like all kinds, haha. Discussions about the plot and characters are my favorite, after all, it was carefully written by me!

This chapter is very fat, right! (Don't know why I felt proud)

In short, thank you for your support! Hehehe, suppressing the impulse to spoil in the author's notes... Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution from 2020-06-22 11:54:48 to 2020-06-23 12:00:14~

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