Chapter 23: I Will Always Be By Your Side
Half-asleep and half-awake, Xiao Luohan heard a cat meowing, and then felt something warm, fluffy, and soft snuggling against her.
At first, she suspected it was a hallucination from dreaming about the large white cat. But as she became more conscious, the sensation became more distinct, and she couldn’t help but reach out towards the source of warmth.
Soft.
Warm, soft fur brushed against her palm, and then the back of her hand felt a soft press, like a cat’s paw pad.
Could it be… there really was a cat?
Xiao Luohan sleepily squeezed the cat. The sensation felt real, so she simply pulled the unresisting cat into her arms.
So warm, she didn’t want to let go.
She curled up slightly, resting her chin on the cat’s furry head, a faint smile appearing on her face.
The “illusory” cat—Jiang Xue—was dumbfounded.
Only when she was very young had her still-childish older sister held her like a doll while sleeping. Her two mothers, afraid of crushing her, had never held her in such a close embrace.
Other than that, she had no other experience like this. Even Xie Xitong, who had grown up with her, had never held her like this while sleeping.
The quilt was thick, and Xiao Luohan’s body temperature wasn’t low. Jiang Xue felt stuffy and hot, as if trapped in an oven.
She felt extremely uncomfortable and struggled to poke her head out of the covers. Opening her eyes, she met Xiao Luohan’s peaceful sleeping face. She froze, and the slight annoyance from being pulled into the quilt vanished instantly.
Forget it, His Highness had just been frightened by the dog of a Crown Prince. Wanting to cuddle a cute cat to “recover” was perfectly reasonable!
Jiang Xue sighed, snuggled back into Xiao Luohan’s arms, and dutifully acted as a qualified large-sized body pillow.
The princess’s heartbeat wasn’t loud, even a little weak. Jiang Xue deliberately pressed her cat ears against Xiao Luohan’s chest, hoping to hear it become a little stronger before she left this dream.
A very faint plum blossom fragrance wafted into her nose, seemingly from the incense Xiao Luohan used.
It was the first time Jiang Xue had smelled this scent. She sniffed curiously, closed her eyes comfortably, and unconsciously moved closer to the Third Princess.
However, the faint fragrance was soon overpowered by the approaching aroma of food.
—It was dinner time at her house. Her older sister, probably worried about her, had brought the food to her room.
Smelling her favorite boiled pork slices, Jiang Xue swallowed hard, wanting to leave and have a good meal while it was hot. But worried about the Third Princess, she gritted her teeth and endured her increasingly loud stomach growls.
Even after the aroma of food faded completely, she remained snuggled against Xiao Luohan.
The sound of washing came from outside. Soon, the quilt was carefully lifted—Shizhu was going to wipe Xiao Luohan down again.
Jiang Xue expertly prepared to move away as she had done before, but before she could take two steps, Xiao Luohan held her belly and pulled her back.
For a moment, she didn’t know if the Third Princess simply loved cats or desperately needed a sense of security.
The embrace naturally made it more difficult for Shizhu to wipe her down. She hesitated, holding the damp cloth, and finally settled for only wiping the area around Xiao Luohan’s collarbone.
Just then, Jiang Xue heard Xiao Luohan cough weakly.
She thought it was because the quilt had been lifted, letting in cold air. She instinctively reached out with her paw to pull it back up. But before her outstretched paw could touch the quilt, she heard Shizhu exclaim in delight, “Princess! You’re finally awake!!”
Jiang Xue quickly turned her head, but before she could see Xiao Luohan open her eyes, everything went dark, then bright.
The soft, warm light of the bedside lamp shone through her eyelids.
She was forced out of the dream.
Xiao Luohan didn’t know how long she had been unconscious. Even after waking up, she felt a little disoriented.
It seemed like the warm thing she had been holding in her arms was gone, but the only soft thing she could hug was the “Shiba Inu” Jiang Xue had sent, and it was still lying quietly beside her pillow.
She weakly responded to Shizhu and, while Shizhu was wiping her down, squeezed the “Shiba Inu.”
…It wasn’t the same, the difference was too great.
“Shizhu…” Xiao Luohan murmured, “Did anyone come here just now?”
“Your Highness! The Great Spirit manifested!!” Shizhu, who had been holding it in, quickly reported, “I was afraid you wouldn’t make it, so I dared to tear off a piece of my sleeve and write a message in blood, placing it on the desk where you usually write!”
“The Great Spirit not only took the message, but also brought you back from under the plum tree! Everyone saw it, and they were all terrified! Fortunately, the Great Spirit manifested and protected you! Otherwise… otherwise, I would have been dragged away and skinned alive…”
A ghost or spirit? Jiang Xue?
“Then… was there a white cat beside the Great Spirit?” Xiao Luohan tried to recall the scene from her dream. “Or… a bright red fox?”
Shizhu looked embarrassed. “To be honest, Your Highness, although the Great Spirit manifested, it didn’t reveal its true form. You appeared out of thin air.”
“As for a white cat or a red fox, I was in the room the whole time and didn’t see anything!”
“Is that so… Thank you for taking care of me.” Xiao Luohan said softly, looking at her hands.
Nothing remained, not even… a single cat hair.
She felt like she had been holding the cat for a long, long time. The soft and warm large white cat nestled in her arms had made her feel exceptionally safe.
“If Shizhu really is Sister Cheng in that world, I think the Third Princess’s condition will stabilize tonight.”
Jiang Xue, starving, leaned against the headboard, shoveling food into her mouth while analyzing the new information for her older sister. “She takes good care of the Third Princess. It doesn’t seem fake. It’s just like how Sister Cheng took care of me when I had a fever!”
She swallowed her food. “I’m only curious about one thing now. She’s clearly not the Third Princess’s personal maid, she’s from Daying, so why would she take such a big risk to help?”
“A stranger’s kindness, perhaps.” Jiang Mei didn’t find it strange. “Or maybe it’s transference. I remember the Third Princess mentioned in the diary that Shizhu’s only daughter passed away. She might be seeing the Third Princess as her own daughter.”
She picked up the diary from the pillow. “More importantly, based on your experience, your interaction is still one-sided. As soon as the Third Princess woke up, you left the dream.”
“Yeah, if I had stayed for a few more seconds, she would probably have made eye contact with me.” Jiang Xue took a sip of vegetable soup. “But you said it too, there’s no rush. This time, I was able to enter the reality of that world through the dream. Maybe next time, we’ll be able to interact?”
Having almost finished dinner, she started stacking the dishes. “I’m more curious about the red fox. Both times I entered the dream, I found the place by following it. It’s no exaggeration to say that without it leading the way, I might still be wandering around in the darkness like a headless fly!”
“Sis, you’ve read more books. What do you think a red fox symbolizes in ancient times?”
In Wangmei Pavilion, Xiao Luohan sat up in bed, holding a brush dipped in bright cinnabar ink, and put it to paper.
She quickly sketched the outline of a red fox, then its fluffy fur and bushy tail, and finally, its bold and beautiful eyes.
If the large white cat wasn’t the ghost or spirit’s pet, but the ghost or spirit itself, then the white cat corresponded to Jiang Xue. Only Jiang Xue could enter her dreams and cause such a commotion to vent her anger.
And the red fox…
It had guided the white cat to her, kneeling under the plum tree, and then guided the white cat to the Emperor of Daying’s bedchamber, indirectly seeking a special kind of protection for her.
Xiao Luohan’s hand trembled.
She suddenly covered her face, unable to stop the tears from flowing, letting them drip through her fingers onto the drawing paper, blurring the image of the red fox.
—”I will always be by your side.”
Even if your physical form has turned to dust in a foreign land, you… are still unwilling to abandon me?
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