After explaining everything, Zheng Qian gave Hongluan repeated instructions.
"Be careful when you do this," she warned quietly. "Do it discreetly. Don't let anyone know it was you. And don't tell the housekeeper or the other sisters either. Only the two of us know about it."
Hongluan nodded again and again.
"Don't worry, Miss."
Her eyes were shining brightly, filled with the thrilling excitement of doing something mischievous.
Zheng Qian handed her a small silver ingot worth five taels.
Hongluan quickly hid it inside her sleeve and turned to leave.
Just then, Caiyuan came out after changing clothes. Seeing her rushing away, she immediately called out uneasily.
"Hongluan! Where are you going?"
"Oh, I'm just going to borrow a shoe pattern. Can't I step out for some air?" Hongluan pretended to sound annoyed, though she was actually a little nervous. Without turning back she added, "I'll be right back. Miss wants tea."
"Miss wants tea and you're not serving it, yet you're running outside?" Caiyuan was furious. "You—"
She was getting more and more convinced that Hongluan had become increasingly unruly and would one day embarrass their mistress.
Inside the room, Zheng Qian quietly laughed.
Once Hongluan left, the cat still hadn't returned.
Zheng Qian took a sip of tea and planned to enter her storage space again to check her inventory.
Inside that space were medicines and medical instruments of every kind—enough to equip a large top-tier hospital in a major city on a natural planet.
Everything was extremely complete.
Before the accident, she had just returned from the Capital Star with her commander to report in, and she had restocked her space at that time.
When her commander detonated his mech during the battle, Zheng Qian had briefly considered hiding inside her space to avoid the explosion.
But the space could only hold one living person.
Her commander couldn't enter.
She couldn't abandon him and escape alone.
Even if she had escaped, she might not have survived.
Once inside the space, her position could only move within a small range. There wasn't enough food or water stored inside—it meant she would eventually have to come out.
And when she did, the mech would already be destroyed.
She would be exposed directly to the vacuum of space and die within a second.
The two spare space suits she kept in storage couldn't block the radiation outside a mech.
Carbon-based life simply couldn't survive naturally in space.
Besides, it was impossible to store a mech inside the space.
Even the smallest mech was the height of a five-story building.
The giant war mechs that could blot out the sky were even larger.
There was no way such things could fit into her space.
Thinking about it, Zheng Qian drifted into a brief daze.
Perhaps it was because, at the moment of the accident, she had never even considered running away.
For a soldier, fleeing without fighting was a capital crime.
At that moment, her commander hadn't told her to escape either.
Because he knew—
she was a soldier too.
"...Miss? Did you hear what I said?"
Caiyuan's voice suddenly rose sharply.
Zheng Qian snapped back to reality.
"Hm? What did you say?"
Caiyuan fell silent.
Sure enough, Miss had been daydreaming.
Was it really because the Wen family hadn't sent her an invitation?
"Miss, when I scolded Hongluan earlier, it wasn't because I wanted you to feel wronged," Caiyuan said carefully.
She explained her earlier actions again.
Zheng Qian laughed helplessly.
"It's fine. Why would I blame you? If I couldn't even tell who treats me well, I would truly be letting down the hearts you've shown me."
Caiyuan's eyes turned slightly red.
Miss had really changed.
After dying once, she seemed to understand everything.
She could finally tell who truly cared for her—and who only mocked her.
"You should go do your work too," Zheng Qian said. "I want to practice writing."
Of course, that also meant she couldn't close the door and enter her space right now.
She would have to wait until night.
Zheng Qian took out paper and began practicing calligraphy.
She didn't know how to write brush characters well, and living in ancient times without knowing how to write was troublesome.
So she treated it like a vacation.
Practicing calligraphy wasn't bad.
After writing for a while, her hand grew sore.
Zheng Qian set the brush down—and suddenly realized her cat had been gone for a long time.
That had never happened before.
"What is that little thing doing? It's been half a day already… Don't tell me it actually ran away?"
She felt a little worried.
At the same time, Xiao Zhan arrived at the Prince Rui Residence.
The Prince Rui Residence wasn't far from the Marquis Jing'an's mansion.
And cats were fast.
He had run across rooftops the entire way, never touching the ground.
Back when he was human, he hadn't been very familiar with this residence.
But after becoming a cat, he had visited countless times.
Thus he easily slipped through the back courtyard and found his own bedchamber.
The roof was high, with a small attic and a skylight.
He climbed through the skylight and entered the attic smoothly.
Since becoming Zheng Qian's pet, Xiao Zhan was no longer constantly anxious or angry.
His injuries had healed, and he had finally discovered the joys of being a cat.
Cats were incredibly agile.
And since he had practiced martial arts since childhood, his feline body allowed him to climb all kinds of heights with ease.
Secondly, a cat's hearing was extremely sharp.
He could hear even tiny sounds from far away.
At night, he could clearly hear the conversations of the servant girls in the side rooms of Huining Courtyard.
Thirdly, a cat's eyes were astonishingly clear.
Even in the dark, he could see perfectly.
Comparing the two, Xiao Zhan felt that humans were truly clumsy and foolish creatures.
He quietly slipped down from the attic and landed silently on top of the canopy bed.
There were two people in the room.
Yet neither noticed him.
Xiao Zhan looked down.
Through the wooden gaps of the bed canopy and the curtains, he saw—
himself.
His body lay motionless on the bed, his complexion already pale with a faint bluish tint.
Was he about to die?
Earlier, when he was with Zheng Qian, he had suddenly heard a conversation between his imperial brother and his mother.
It startled him badly.
That wasn't something he heard as a cat—
it was something his original body had heard.
Shocked, Xiao Zhan rushed back immediately to check.
And sure enough—
his mother had arrived.
Empress Dowager Qi's eyes were swollen, though she still maintained her composure.
"So many famous physicians have been invited," she said bitterly. "Yet Your Majesty only told me today!"
The Emperor sighed.
"I didn't want you to worry."
"He is my only son! How could I ever not worry about him?" Her voice trembled with sorrow. "What illness does he have?"
"The imperial physicians all say he has no disease," the Emperor replied. "They've used a feeding vessel to give him water, medicine, and rice soup. He can swallow them. He's still breathing."
He paused before continuing.
"There is a sorcerer in Mingyu's household. I summoned him earlier. The sorcerer said… Jingcheng's condition looks very much like his soul has left his body."
The cat stiffened.
The fur along his neck instantly bristled.
There was such a capable sorcerer in Xiao Mingyu's household?
If the sorcerer knew his soul had left—
could he summon it back?
Being Zheng Qian's cat was convenient.
But Xiao Zhan wanted to be human again.
If he were human, he could protect her.
His wealth could support her.
His power could shield her.
As a cat, he might be swift and agile—but he was still only an animal.
Even if he scratched someone hard enough to draw blood, he couldn't truly kill anyone.
During these past days, the only person who had truly saved him and protected him—
was Zheng Qian.
"If his soul has left," the Empress Dowager said firmly, "then hold a ritual to bring it back. We cannot let him lie here like this. He must wake up."
The Emperor hesitated.
"That sorcerer says his abilities are limited. He must seek his master… who lives overseas. It may take half a year."
"Half a year?" Her voice tightened.
Xiao Zhan's heart tightened as well.
Half a year?
Did that mean he had to remain a cat for another six months?
If that happened, the Zheng family would marry Zheng Qian off.
How could he protect her then?
No.
Half a year was far too long.
"Find another way," the Empress Dowager said, finally breaking down in tears. "He must wake up sooner. I cannot bear to lose him."
The cat sighed softly.
Through the gap in the canopy bed, he looked at his mother.
Perhaps… he had misunderstood her all along.
Maybe she wasn't as terrible as he had believed.
But the moment he looked again—
the fur across his entire body exploded upward.
What on earth—
was that thing he just saw?