Marry First, Love Later With The White Cat Princess - Chapter 33.1

Watching the small cat demon pull and shoot effortlessly, hitting the bullseye, Liu Fenyun clapped and had the system monitor Xian Lihua’s internal demon energy.

The results surprised her: Xian Lihua hadn’t enhanced her limbs with demon energy at all purely her own strength.

Amazed, Liu Fenyun studied the petite cat demon closely, seeing no unusual traits.

Seeing it directly, Xian Lihua’s heart trembled as she returned the bow to her, her drooping cat ears reminding her, “Liu… Liu-daren, please, show some restraint! Don’t look at me like that, or Lianyi-daren will get angry…”

Liu Fenyun: “……”

While she followed Xian Lihua to practice diligently, Lianyi had taken the other cat-yokai subordinates to the hunting grounds.

By the time Liu Fenyun rested, Lianyi had already lit a fire and requested a roasting rack from the beast-tamer to cook the wild boar they had just hunted.

In previous years, they had hunted privately. The game was paid for by weight, and the beast-tamer managing the grounds was happy to make the deal and even provided them with secret seasonings of different flavors.

Liu Fenyun sat beside Lianyi with her arms dangling, picking up a skewer of meat and a seasoning jar. Her hands trembled as she sprinkled the seasoning.

“Leave it, just rest,” Lianyi suddenly said.

Obediently, Liu Fenyun put down the skewer.

Before Lianyi’s skewer was cooked, the fat orange cat next to her, seeing this, tried to hand the cooked skewer to Liu Fenyun.

However, the skewer was stopped halfway by a bamboo stick. Meeting Lianyi’s cold, dark blue gaze, the fat orange cat immediately froze, hurriedly retracting its paw and biting a piece of the still-hot meat, blowing on it as it ate.

Liu Fenyun, drinking water, did not notice the little interaction between the two cats.

The meat sizzled with oil, Lianyi sprinkled some white pepper and turned it over before handing it to Liu Fenyun, smiling, “A Yun, eat.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.” Liu Fenyun took it, cut a piece with a small knife, let it cool slightly, and offered it to Lianyi, “Would Your Highness like to try?”

Seeing Lianyi open her mouth to accept it, Liu Fenyun cut a second piece and began eating herself.

The seasonings provided by the hunting grounds were simply too delicious. After eating her fill, Liu Fenyun went back to the archery field, feeling that the smell of roast meat clung to her riding clothes.

The afternoon passed in a flash, and there was a cleansing banquet in the evening. After tidying up the site and paying the silver, they returned to Chenxing Palace.

Liu Fenyun sat on the back of the large white cat, looking at her hands wrapped in bandages. The wounds from practice still hurt, and she needed to treat them before the banquet.

The guards at Chenxing Palace saw a white cat as large as a tiger rushing toward them, carrying their prince consort on its back, followed by seven smaller cats, and hurriedly made way.

“It’s been a long time since Your Highness looked this happy,” one guard said, still trembling.

“Yes, I didn’t expect the prince consort could really be allowed to ride on Her Highness’s back!” another guard said enviously.

Once back in the bedroom, Liu Fenyun immediately took out her medicine kit and asked the maid to bring a bowl of clean water. She sprinkled a little salt into it, and while it dissolved, carefully removed the bandages.

Seeing her still bleeding hands, Lianyi was startled.

“How did you get hurt like this?” she asked, worried. “I gave you hand guards, why didn’t you wear them?”

Liu Fenyun forced a smile, “It’s fine. This is called ‘body conditioning.’”

The system had instructed her not to use protective tools for now, to train her hands directly with the bow. Getting injured was acceptable and would help unlock the [Archery] skill.

Liu Fenyun felt the system was trying to trick her, but if she wanted to quickly master mounted archery, she had no choice but to follow its instructions making the best of a bad situation.

Lianyi glared at her. Seeing her calmly wash her wounds, apply medicine, and rewrap the clean bandages, she felt a strange discomfort in her heart, like being scratched by cat claws, yet there was nothing she could do regret welled up.

“Don’t practice anymore. You can just put on a show during hunting. We have magic; killing some wild animals doesn’t take much effort!” She hugged Liu Fenyun, “I lied to you. Even if you get first place in spring hunting, people will still gossip. Because you…”

Liu Fenyun turned her face, and in the instant their eyes met, Lianyi looked away.

“…Because you… married a yokai,” she murmured. Her face warmed as the scent of ointment wafted in.

“Let them talk,” Liu Fenyun gently pinched her face, “I have cat-cuddling, do they?”

Lianyi hesitated, “They… don’t?”

“If I don’t use magic and get first place by myself, will Your Highness be happy?” Liu Fenyun asked again.

Seeing Lianyi nod, she smiled, “Then I will get first place to make Your Highness happy.”

Suddenly standing, she bent down and scooped Lianyi into her arms, spinning around the room.

“What are you doing?!” Lianyi shouted, lightly patting her shoulders to make her set her down.

Liu Fenyun smiled, letting her stand, then reached to touch her hair. Worrying the ointment smell would transfer, she instead circled her in her arms, bending down to kiss her on the forehead.

“You don’t need to worry, Your Highness. I can do it.”

Her forwardness made Lianyi feel awkward, and she quickly wriggled free.

The door slammed behind them. Liu Fenyun wiped her lips with the back of her hand, completely confused.

She had tried to imitate the romantic lines from stories, yet somehow it backfired.

Frustrated, she organized her medicine kit and sat on the bed edge to check the system panel.

After bandaging her wounds, the [Archery] skill was indeed unlocked. Liu Fenyun quickly allocated her strength points and stopped only when her skill proficiency reached eighty percent.

“Is this enough?” she asked the system.

“Yes. From now on, host, whenever you take up the bow, whether shooting at a stationary or moving target, you will hit eight out of ten arrows,” the system replied. “However, your physical constitution is not suited to archery. Without yokai energy enhancement, you won’t be able to reach 100% accuracy in the short term.”

“That’s fine. Eight out of ten is enough,” Liu Fenyun said, closing the skill panel and turning to tend to the herb garden.

At dusk, a sudden rain fell. After changing into their banquet attire, Lianyi instructed the cats to stay inside Chenxing Palace to avoid the rain, and she and Liu Fenyun rode in a carriage to the hall where the cleansing banquet was held.

During the journey, Lianyi kept an eye on Liu Fenyun’s hands.

It was normal for men to get hurt during hunting or training, but people here saw Liu Fenyun as a delicate, fragile woman. If at the banquet, other gossip-prone princesses or princes saw her hands, she would likely be ridiculed again.

Thinking of this, Lianyi suddenly took Liu Fenyun’s hand, holding it in her palm while chanting a spell.

Looking down, Liu Fenyun saw both hands enveloped in a gentle green glow. She could feel the surface wounds healing, though the underlying tissue was still damaged.

“I know some magic to heal external injuries,” Lianyi explained to Liu Fenyun’s surprised gaze, “but it only heals the wounds.”

Healing spells were very physically and mentally taxing. When Lianyi released her hands, she felt fatigue.

Liu Fenyun quickly hugged her, expressing gratitude.

“You can remove the bandages now,” Lianyi gently touched her hands.

“I will,” Liu Fenyun nodded. “Would Your Highness like to rest a bit first?”

Lianyi shook her head, yawned, and opened the curtains to look outside, “We’re almost at Jiayao Hall. We need to eat something, or it will look inappropriate. Then we can leave early.”

Seeing her little tongue circle around her lips, Liu Fenyun couldn’t help laughing.

Truly a little foodie!

Author’s Note: I saw in the comments people saying this is a “master chasing his wife fire cremation scene” lol. Actually, they like each other already~

Here’s another book I personally consider a true “chase your wife” palace story:

“Breaking the Rules” by Nine Imperial Uncle

The young emperor had been suppressed by his aunt, Grand Princess Yuan Qiao, for five years.

After a banquet, she got drunk, and he took advantage, detaining her in his chamber.

The Grand Princess never imagined the emperor would dare rebel.

What she hated most was that she didn’t strangle him back then.

Those palace days became her greatest humiliation.

After being drugged once, Yuan Qiao didn’t recognize the person in the bed and actively fell into his embrace, later regretting not doing it properly.

The young emperor took the opportunity, repeatedly saying outrageous things, driving Yuan Qiao nearly to depose him.

Young Emperor: “I’m not wrong, you kissed me first!”

Imperial romance, rebellion follows.