Chapter 1: Secret Talk

The ninth year of Yongtai, spring.

The overcast clouds that had persisted for days finally began to disperse, revealing the long-absent sunlight.

The spring day was brilliant; the river gurgled, the grass grew lush, and orioles took flight.

"Meow!"

A yellow-striped tabby cat, pot-bellied yet agile, leaped into the air from the grass with a *whoosh*. It vaulted over the moat, squeezed through a dog hole in the city wall, crossed patches of verdant vegetable plots, and arrived before a somewhat aged and dilapidated residence.

The estate carried an air of decline, yet the vermilion gates, the crimson tiles on the roof, and the upturned eaves peeking over the walls all bore witness to the luxury, nobility, and solemnity this residence once possessed.

The orange cat, familiar with the route, found the dog hole in the corner of the wall and slipped inside.

It passed through a courtyard planted with crabapple trees, crossed a covered walkway, and glanced at a pond floating with lotus leaves. *Tsk*, no fish. The fat orange cat shook its tail in disappointment and headed toward the inner courtyard.

The rockeries, pavilions, and towers in the pond were all laid out with ingenious craftsmanship; one could say there was a new view with every step.

However, perhaps due to years of neglect or the crumbling state of the times, the flowers, plants, and scenery in the courtyard all exuded a sense of decay.

It was like a dynasty on the verge of collapse, or a family that had long since fallen from grace.

Having wandered outside for most of the day without finding any fresh food, the fat orange cat had no choice but to return to this place inhabited by a "little devil."

There was no helping it; although the little devil was mischievous, she was also generous, always providing it with delicious fish, meat, and pastries.

"Ah Li! You're running around again!"

The fat orange cat had just rushed into a small courtyard when it heard a familiar, milky little voice.

The voice was sweet and soft, like a delectable rice dumpling, yet the cat’s small ears couldn't help but twitch.

A flash of helplessness and resignation flickered in its round, vertical pupils.

It was here! The little devil was here!

Sure enough, the next moment, the fat orange cat was firmly pinned down by a small body that pounced on it.

"Meow!"

With its neck tightly constricted by a pair of chubby little hands, the cat stuck out its tongue.

"You must be hungry!"

The little devil, who had nearly strangled the cat, was completely oblivious.

She continued to play happily with the cat. "You're not being good! Mother said there are thieves everywhere outside, searching for food across the mountains and plains. If a chubby, fleshy tabby like you gets caught by those thieves, they'll just stew you and eat you!"

"...You're hungry, right! I saved you some roasted lamb! It's extremely delicious, we don't usually have it. The wet nurse said a distinguished guest came to the house, so the kitchen roasted one, and I only got a small plate. I saved half a plate for you..."

The little devil, a fair and tender girl of five or six, kept one hand clamped around the cat's neck while the other reached into a small basket at her waist to pull out an oil-paper parcel.

The paper unfolded, revealing golden-hued, succulent roasted lamb.

The distinct, gamey scent of the lamb instantly wafted through the air, causing the cat, which had been gasping with its tongue out, to struggle desperately.

"Be good! Listen to me! Only if you don't run around will you get meat to eat!"

Seeing that the cat was famished, the little girl muttered her negotiations while loosening her grip.

The fat orange cat didn't run away; it let out a purring sound in its throat, anxiously waiting for the little devil to put down the oil-paper parcel.

Seeing this, the girl didn't delay and hurriedly placed the parcel in front of the cat.

*Nom! Nom!*

The cat ate ferociously. There wasn't much meat, only five or six slices.

Starving, the cat finished it in a few bites.

As soon as it finished eating, before the girl could pick it up again, the cat leaped away and bolted.

"Ah Li! Not good! Bad tabby!"

The girl was dumbfounded, her large eyes filled with disbelief: This tabby ate her meat, and yet it wouldn't even let her pet it?

Unwilling to give up, the girl chased after the orange shadow.

The girl didn't notice at all that she had run into her grandmother's courtyard, a place she usually avoided at all costs.

*Whoosh!*

The orange figure climbed the courtyard wall like lightning, sprinted along the top, and jumped down the other side.

"Ah Li!"

The girl called out as she chased, but when she realized she was standing in her grandmother’s Cien Hall, she hurriedly covered her mouth with her hand.

Grandmother was the most severe and liked neither her nor her mother.

Everyone in the family thought she was too young to understand.

But she understood!

She knew that her grandmother, born into a top-tier aristocratic family, had always looked down on her mother, who came from a humble background. Consequently, her grandmother also held her, the daughter born to that mother, in great disdain.

Grandmother never said it aloud and never showed it, but the girl just knew.

It was a kind of contempt and indifference that came from the depths of the soul, as if she and her grandmother were not blood-related kin, but two hostile classes!

Perhaps the girl didn't fully grasp these concepts, but she had a feeling: Grandmother didn't like her.

Usually, apart from following her mother to pay morning and evening respects, she rarely set foot in this courtyard.

If she hadn't been so focused on chasing the cat and failed to notice her surroundings, she never would have come in.

Realizing she had entered a place she shouldn't be, the girl covered her mouth and tiptoed, preparing to leave quietly.

Just as she turned, the girl heard intermittent conversation, and among the words, "Ah Jiang" was mentioned.

Ah Jiang?

In the entire Wang family, only her mother was surnamed Jiang.

Was Grandmother talking about her mother?

Realizing it concerned her own mother, the girl froze.

She struggled with herself for a long time, but in the end, she decided to sneak a listen.

Tiptoeing to the steps, she kicked off her shoes and, wearing only white silk socks, climbed the steps silently and arrived at the window under the veranda.

She pricked up her ears and listened carefully—

"Mother, I offered a hundred catties of gold bricks, but that brute still refuses to lend us troops. I truly do not know how to sway him."

"The 'brute' you speak of is no mere uncouth soldier. They claim to be of the Hongnong Yang clan; though it cannot be verified, the Yang family has already been flourishing for decades."

They were barely considered a powerful clan.

If they prospered for another one or two hundred years, and the family produced a few more prime ministers or high officials, they would successfully become an aristocratic family.

The Wang family’s matriarch, Lady Xie, who was over sixty, was born into a top-tier clan; her insight and breadth of mind were naturally not those of an ordinary old woman.

She sat cross-legged, fingering a string of ancient Buddhist prayer beads.

"Yang Chong, the eldest legitimate son of Pillar of State General Yang Qi, is twenty-eight years old and married to a woman of the Li clan."

"Last autumn, the Grand Chancellor incited the Kuimao Rebellion, throwing the world into chaos, and the Yang family took the opportunity to raise an army to 'suppress the rebellion'!"

"Yang Chong started with three hundred personal guards, and in less than half a year, his forces grew to thirty thousand. Now, he occupies Jizhou, Yizhou, and other commanderies; he has truly become a force to be reckoned with."

To avoid disaster, their Wang family had also fled back to their ancestral home in Yizhou at the end of last year.

There was a mutiny in the capital, and Yizhou was not peaceful either; three consecutive years of drought had long since turned this fertile land into a purgatory.

Fortunately, the Wang family had an ancestral fortress, which held the accumulations of one or two hundred years and several generations.

The grain alone was enough to feed the hundreds of people in the Wang family for three years.

But while they lacked no grain, the farmers outside did.

Although it had rained after the start of spring this year and the drought had finally ended, the turmoil of the previous years had already driven the people to the brink of starvation.

The Wang family fortress had grain, and outside the fortress, there were "rioters" laying siege.

The Wang family did have two or three hundred retainers, as well as armor, bows, and crossbows.

And this fortress had sturdy walls, making it easy to defend and hard to attack.

Inside the fortress, there were fields, wells, and workshops.

Even under siege, they could be self-sufficient.

But the rioters were increasing in number, and there were also scattered rebel soldiers; they gathered together, eyeing the Wang family fortress like tigers.

The entire Wang family was trembling with fear, unable to sleep at night.

It was at this moment that Yang Chong led his troops to occupy Yizhou. The Wang family received the news and hurriedly sent someone to deliver an invitation, bringing the distinguished guest to the fortress.

The Wang family was willing to offer a hundred catties of gold, asking only that Yang Chong lend them troops to help eliminate the thieves and protect the fortress.

The head of the Wang family, Wang Lin, who was currently kneeling before the matriarch, had just finished the banquet and seen off the guest, and had rushed over to ask his mother for advice.

"The eldest legitimate son of a Great General naturally does not lack wealth."

The matriarch narrowed her eyes and mused, "However, what a man seeks is nothing more than wealth, power, or beauty..."

If he was not greedy for wealth and held great military power, then only one thing remained... beauty!

Wang Lin's wife, Lady Jiang, was a peerless beauty, renowned as the number one beauty when they were in the capital.

"Mother!"

Wang Lin stood up abruptly, as if stung by something.

Ah Jiang was his first wife!

A wife is an equal.

How could a man of the noble Wang clan offer his own wife to curry favor?!