When she mentioned leaving the mansion grounds, Zimo had expected that to be just another set of words said by a spoilt girl when she did not receive her favorite things. He did not foresee them actually leaving the luxurious place with no mention of return whatsoever.
The cat demon grumbled inwardly as he was forced to leave the good days of rest and followed the woman to the market street. They passed the place where they had first met, amidst the disgusting smell of durians. Zimo looked up, wondering if Wei Piying recognized their first meeting place, but she seemed distracted.
Curious, he looked to what occupied the spoilt mistress' attention and spotted a procession. Two veiled people; one man and one woman along with a younger woman with her face bare were going across the streets.
There was nothing interesting about them, except for the fact that two of their faces were hidden. But what did that have to do with Wei Piying?
But then she muttered something, her voice full of disbelief and anticipation. "Gege?"
Zimo looked at the three with new eyes. So the veiled man was the "gege" that the woman was so fond of. Perhaps fondness was the wrong word. Obsession explained the true extent of the emotion she felt towards him.
In the weeks that he spent lazing at the mansion, the mention of Han Bingwen, the previous King, was prominent. And the one who led the discussion was almost always Wei Piying.
She would sometimes speak fondly of him but in other times, she would yell his name in fits of rage. Later she would calm down and just talk to herself (and Zimo) about it.
"He was my betrothed, did you know Xiao Zong. We were supposed to be married by now as per the wishes of the Empress Dowager. But when he came to this house for the night, instead of laying down with me, he simply left."
On any other time, he would have ignored her, but that time she had looked so lonely that even the cat demon had felt some sympathy for her.
But that disappeared when on the next moment, she jumped up and narcissistically said, "Perhaps he left because he was so overwhelmed by seeing a beauty like me. After all many men have courted me for months yet I have not even once glanced at their way."
Then why did the one you ultimately glanced at instead of falling to your feet with a bouquet of roses and a myriad of courting gifts instead choose to flee from you, the demon in disguise thought nastily.
"Or maybe he is impotent and was too ashamed of it," she decided, patting her finger to her lips in a mock thinking face.
Zimo had felt a deep sense of sympathy for the runaway King at that moment.
A few days after that incident, Wei Piying got into her head that she would be able to find the King who nobody was able to search for. At that time Zimo had thought that she was way over her head but now he was eating back his words after catching sight of her "gege".
It had nothing to do with him, he thought, until he caught sight of the unveiled woman beside them. She had just turned for a moment, but it was clear who she was.
At least he was happy to say one thing: Lady Jia would not be disappointed of him after all.
***
Half a shichen later found him inside a old, dingy house, rummaging around the place.
When Wei Piying had gotten over the shock of finding the previous King, a cat like grin came in her made up face. She glanced down at Zimo and gave him a simpering smile.
"Xiao Zong, would you not help a poor, pitiful woman like me? You have caught the scent of Gege, have you not? Go scent him and find out where he came from."
There was nothing pitiful about that woman, but he still obeyed her order just so he could get an insight to where the maid had wandered off too. It was all for Lady Jia, after all.
The cat demon had not gotten a whiff of Han Bingwen's scent amongst the crowd but he did remember the maid's scent. And since they were clearly acquainted with each other, it would make no difference whose scent he trailed.
So he followed an imaginary path that the procession had taken. Sniffing every nook and corner, he led Wei Piying to a worn down house.
The spoilt mistress took one look at it and contorted her face with disgust. "What is with this abomination of a living space? How could anybody possibly reside in here? I will not place a foot in this house."
With that being said, she huffed and turned away as if so ashamed to even glance at that shack known as a living abode.
Zimo knew that she was stubborn and would keep her word. If she did not wish to do something she would always make somebody else do the dirty work for her.
In this case, once again, it was the pitiful cat demon. Sometimes he honestly wondered if she knew that he was not what he seemed to be. If so, then she truly was cruel to force him to work like that.
The house was worn and torn and had nothing of importance. No amount of rummaging bore him fruits. Zimo was about to give up when one of the residents, a small boy of maybe five to six years, started running his hands over the floor.
The action was so unexpected that the cat had no choice but to watch.
Suddenly the boy pulled open a slab of the floor and left it aside. Then he carefully placed his hands in a ladder and climbed down into the abyss.
Zimo waited for some time before following the boy down. He nearly slipped multiple times, almost losing all of his nine lives in that process. Why was he risking his frail body for an ungrateful vixen? It truly was not understandable.
But the fact that there was a secret dungeon in the bottom of this broken down house was nothing short other than a miracle. It was obvious that this was the secret hideout of the runaway King.
He left the boy to his own devices and instead moved towards the only thing remaining in that place. A fallen book. The book had no title and its cover was black in color, revealing nothing of importance.
On hindsight it was a completely useless find but since it was the only one, he picked it up with his mouth...
....only to almost drop it.
The book was heavier than a tree! Being a cat, he thought that it might be okay to carry a thin book of about fifty pages, yet it weighed so much. What was this book hiding behind its frail pages?
Apparently it was nothing but words.
Impulse took over the cat demon and he, despite being at risk of exposure, turned back to his humanoid form. Cat ears twitched as he opened the book to the first page and read the title. Every page he turned was more interesting than the last.
He stopped when he came across a page that was marked. The words at the top gave him an ominous feeling. It was only natural; even a demon would shudder if they read the words The Devil's Blood Parchment.
End of the "Devil's Blood Parchment" Arc