On The Self-Cultivation Of A Favored Concubine - Chapter 69

The spring sunlight was bright and warm. Liu Qinglan spent her days in her Phiphi (mythical leopard cat) form, lounging in the courtyard to soak up the sun. Her paws would cradle her three little cubs as they all napped together beneath the flower bushes.

Because of her unique status, the little Empress was raised in the front hall. Xie Xuanzhao would carry her to the morning court sessions daily. Wet nurses were provided, and Yan Mo and LuLu were sent there to serve as well.

When night fell, Liu Qinglan would transform into her human form. She would place the three cubs into a bamboo basket, cover their tiny heads with a kerchief, and carry the heavy basket to the front hall.

At that time, Xie Xuanzhao would set aside all her work and take her eldest daughter into her arms. The family of six would then gather to eat dinner together.

A large cradle was prepared in the front hall, spacious enough for all the infants to lie together. By this time, having slept and eaten their fill during the day, the four little ones were wide awake. Because the little Empress was born premature, she appeared quiet and refined. The three little spirit beasts, however, were entirely different, paws twitching and tails wagging. Usually, by the time Liu Qinglan walked over, they had already dragged their little blankets away and were pinning them under their bellies.

After the meal came the happiest and most joyful time of the day for Xie Xuanzhao. She would sit beside the cradle, her palace skirts spread out, and cautiously lift a cub whose ear was endearingly flopped over. Because they were so exquisitely small, Xie Xuanzhao could hold one entirely in the palm of her hand. Detecting her familiar scent, the little Phiphi would curl up like a ball of snow white knitting wool in its mother’s palm. Occasionally, two tiny upright ears would suddenly pop out from the fluffy mass and twitch nimbly.

Looking at them made Xie Xuanzhao’s heart melt; she truly felt the sentiment of “holding it in the hand for fear of dropping it, and keeping it in the mouth for fear of it melting.”

After cradling one, she would pick up another from the blankets, ensuring all three received their turn for a gentle grooming.

Liu Qinglan would lean against the other side of the cradle, stroking a paw or a tiny hand. The little Empress had already opened her eyes, and her face was no longer a wrinkled ball, her elegant features were gradually emerging. Lying in her swaddling clothes with her hands tucked inside, she neither cried nor made a fuss. She simply stared with her small, beautiful phoenix eyes, occasionally pursing her lips into a tiny, refined, and demure smile.

The kitten cubs grew very quickly, in about ten days, they could stand up and stagger around.

The little Empress, however, could still only lie in her swaddles. Her hands couldn’t grasp objects yet, let alone crawl or even roll over.

Liu Qinglan soon noticed this difference. She sat before the cradle looking quite melancholy. “When will A-Yin grow up?”

As she spoke, the three cubs were nestled in her arms, tugging at her sleeves with their tiny claws and poking their heads out curiously to watch the motionless infant under the small blanket.

Xie Xuanzhao stroked her eldest daughter’s soft hair and smiled. “Human growth is naturally this slow. A-Yin won’t be able to roll over until she’s five or six months old, crawl at eight months, and she won’t walk until after her first birthday.”

Liu Qinglan did the math and gasped. “A whole year! By then, our little Phiphis could already be dating!”

Xie Xuanzhao looked at the three little ones silently, completely unable to accept the idea of them looking for suitors in a year’s time!

Suddenly thinking of something, Xie Xuanzhao’s phoenix eyes sparkled with amusement as she looked at the little fox spirit before her. “What about you? What were you like at one year old?”

Liu Qinglan scratched her ear, trying hard to remember, and soon realized the issue. “When I had just reached adulthood at one year old, before I even had the chance to find a mate, I accidentally swallowed a pill that fell from the sky. By a stroke of luck, I began my cultivation. Let me think… by the time I came out of the stone cave, several hundred years had passed, and I hadn’t changed much at all.”

“That’s it, then. Our children won’t grow that fast either. Perhaps they’ll even be slower than A-Yin.”

Liu Qinglan fell into a rare moment of deep thought and realized it was very likely true. She had seen “second-generation demons” before who inherited their parents’ demonic power, their growth was incredibly slow. They couldn’t even manage a human transformation until they were seven or eight, and even then, the transformation wasn’t complete, they would retain some animal characteristics. They could only shift freely once their magic improved, but even then, their human forms matched their physical development, if they were five years old, they looked five.

While the little Empress was still sleeping soundly in the cradle or sucking on her fist and drooling, the three little Phiphis had already begun crawling and scurrying all over the courtyard of Chenxin Palace.

Liu Qinglan discovered this one afternoon. She had just woken up only to find that the three cubs, who usually slept obediently in her arms, were gone.

She stood up quickly, using her sharp hearing to track down the mischievous runaways.

“Xiaobai, Luoluo, Chu’er…” Liu Qinglan, the “old mother,” called out their nicknames one by one. She crawled through grass, dove into flower bushes, and even climbed the phoenix tree, perching on her forelimbs to look around.

“Meow, meow, meow~” “Meow-woo, meow-woo~”

The three little ones were currently squeezed into a dog hole in the wall, none of them willing to yield as they all tried to be the first to crawl through.

The second born, Xiaobai, insisted that since she was the “eldest” (of the three), she should go first. The third, Luoluo, was elegantly licking her paw while blocking half the hole; she claimed she didn’t care, yet she didn’t budge an inch.

The fourth, Chu’er, was the clever one. She squeezed right between her two sisters and wiggled forward bit by bit, eventually successfully plugging the hole entirely.

When Liu Qinglan finally found them, she saw three fluffy balls jammed into the tiny dog-hole, squeezed so tightly that a few strands of fur were falling off.

The fox-spirit Liu Qinglan was genuinely angry. She spent every day grooming her daughters, keeping their fur glossy and smooth, yet here they were, showing absolutely no regard for their own coats. She leaped in front of them, her feline face stern, and let out a most authoritative “Meow!” The three little ones immediately drooped their ears, frozen in place.

Liu Qinglan stepped forward, picked up Chu’er by the scruff of her neck, and carried her back to the shelter of the flower bushes. Then, she hurried back, intending to retrieve the others one by one.

Suddenly, Luoluo let out a series of meows, alerting her mother that Chu’er had already slipped away from the flower bushes again.

As Liu Qinglan scrambled to chase after the tiny, staggering figure, Luoluo shot a glance at her second sister, Xiaobai. The two of them quickly squeezed through the dog hole and vanished into the distance.

By the time Liu Qinglan returned, carrying a now compliant Chu’er, she saw the empty spot and nearly bristled with rage.

Chu’er tumbled onto the ground in front of her and whispered softly, “Mommy, let me go play too! We promise to be back by dinner time!”

Chu’er’s eyes looked exactly like her own. Looking into those shimmering green eyes, Liu Qinglan’s heart softened instantly. “Fine, then Mommy is commissioning you to bring your sisters back. You must complete the mission, understood?”

Chu’er blinked, nodded earnestly, and then spun around, her little legs scampering off joyfully.

In the front hall, Xie Xuanzhao sat behind her desk, focused on her official duties. Beside the desk was the small cradle where Yan Mo and Lu Lu were tending to the little Empress.

Before long, the sound of “meowing” drifted in from outside.

Xie Xuanzhao paused, knowing her daughters had come looking for her again. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. These three little spirit beasts were so adorable that if they lingered around her all day, she knew she wouldn’t get a single thing done. Moreover, the outer palace was crowded, if these three little cuties ran out, there was no guarantee someone wouldn’t snatch them up to keep as pets. Thus, Liu Qinglan kept them in Chenxin Palace during the day, only bringing them over in the evening when the crowds dispersed to enjoy their family time.

However, ever since the three little Phiphis learned to run and think for themselves, they had grown impatient. They wanted to come find their eldest sister every day.

Eldest Sister A-Yin’s silent response: Sorry, I’m still a baby. I can’t play with you yet.

Luoluo stood elegantly outside the hall, a half-ear of sweet corn dangling from her mouth, while Xiaobai was in charge of meowing to catch their mother’s attention.

Xie Xuanzhao had no choice but to set down her ink brush and beckon them over. The two little ones lunged forward like lightning, skillfully jumping onto her lap. Luoluo spat the small piece of corn into Xie Xuanzhao’s palm and squinted her eyes with a polite meow, signaling that the corn was a gift for Sister A-Yin.

Xie Xuanzhao was amused. “Your sister can’t eat corn yet. She can only drink milk.”

They have a sister who drinks milk and looks even smaller than them. This was the three Phiphis’ deepest impression of their eldest sister, and from it grew the collective idea: We must raise our big sister together.

One afternoon, they coordinated a plan. While Mother Liu was fast asleep, they snuck through the dog-hole again and ran all the way to the peach tree in the corner of the Imperial Kitchen.

The Peach Blossom Spirit was awakened by a chaotic chorus of meows. Opening her eyes, she saw Liu’s three cubs huddled under the tree, paws tucked in and tails wrapped around them, each wearing an expression as solemn as a tiny adult.

The Peach Spirit smiled and leaned against a branch to watch them “deliberate.”

“Mommy says eating and sleeping are the most important things. From now on, we’ll take charge of those two things for Sister,” Xiaobai declared, stepping into her role as the leader and getting straight to the point.

Chu’er asked weakly, “But… we don’t have any milk.”

The two older sisters fell into a mysterious silence.

Finally, Luoluo flicked her tail and said, “You two just keep watch. I’ll be in charge of making Sister happy~” After speaking, she blinked her feline eyes with elegant composure.

Thus, one morning when Xie Xuanzhao and Liu Qinglan woke up, they found three snowy-white beasts huddled around the little Empress on the neighboring bed. Their fluffy tails were draped over their sister as if terrified she might catch a cold.

By mealtime, the three Phiphis were already able to feed themselves. They ate quickly and immediately jumped onto the bed afterward, their bright eyes staring intently as the wet nurse fed the baby. The wet nurse only knew that the two Empresses kept three kittens and pampered them like precious treasures, so under that intense feline gaze, she simply had to brace herself and finish the feeding.

One of the kittens suddenly swallowed hard and let out a few meows. She was saying: I want to drink milky-milk too~

The other two looked at her simultaneously. Luoluo reached out her little paw and bopped her youngest sister on the head. “Pathetic.”