Chapter Text
Six hours, forty-three minutes, and thirty-two seconds.
Six hours, forty-three minutes, and thirty-two seconds after he first sat down at his desk, and Jinshi is just barely halfway through the pile of papers Gaoshun delivered to him this morning.
He sets down his brush with a clack, practically dropping it in its case with trembling fingers and an aching wrist. The paper in front of him swims — some letter, a request from a noble and his friends for a bill to be considered, or something like that — the characters fuzzy and blurring together like watercolors.
He blinks, and oh, that’s not good, even his eyelids are sore. A single glance to one of the covered windows beside him reveals the dim, honey-colored glow of an afternoon sunset. It’s soft and muffled behind the screen, yet just bright enough to keep his exhausted brain from passing out on him.
Jinshi looks back at his work and can’t help the scowl that crosses his face. The stack looms, rather threatening for a pile of dead wood. A few scrolls and tablets are set neatly beside it, which is funny, because he doesn’t remember those being there. Gaoshun must have brought them in earlier without him noticing. The half-drunk teacup at his side has long grown cold.
Jinshi sits up, feeling his neck crack, each individual vertebrae popping back into its proper place. It should be satisfying, but it just makes him feel deflated. He stands with some difficulty, his legs taking a moment to wake up, aching with pins and needles, and he briefly glances at the ink brush before tearing his gaze away.
He knows better than to attempt to get anything else done like this. Last time he tried, a maid found him knocked out at his desk, mouth open with his cheek half-glued to a minister’s complaint. Completely dead to the world.
Jinshi shudders at the memory. Apparently Gaoshun got there just in the nick of time before she could say anything. He hated to think about what might have happened if anyone less innocent had stumbled in.
The process of putting away the remaining papers into his desk goes by without issue, the motions so tired and familiar his body just acts automatically. By the time he’s opening his door to leave this accursed box and all its bland, annoying, boring busywork, Jinshi is already thinking about what Suiren might make for dinner. Hopefully something not too light, as he has an awful feeling he might need to skip breakfast tomorrow, if the last letter he read was any indication.
Gaoshun doesn’t greet him by the door. Jinshi briefly panics, because he’s never been absent before, what on earth could have happened to make him abandon his post—
…But then he remembers that he sent him away an hour prior, to help Basen with… hm. What was it again? A minister who needed something or other, done somewhere he can't recall. He shakes his head with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. He must really be out of it if he can’t remember. Maybe future-Jinshi will have better luck once he can lie down.
A bone-cracking yawn catches him not two steps outside the office, and he ponders the idea of convincing Suiren to let him sleep in an extra hour. If he looks tired enough, she might just pity him…
So caught up in wistful thoughts of his comfortable bed, Jinshi almost misses the tiny shadow darting past his feet.
He does not startle like a serving girl, as that would be most unbecoming of the manager of the rear palace. He doesn’t catch his foot on his robes and bang straight into a support beam either.
Rubbing the side of his head, Jinshi whirls around to try and catch… whatever it was. The shadowy thing. Surely people didn’t move that quickly, or were that small, so it couldn’t have been a person. An animal maybe? They were banned in the rear palace, for sanitary reasons mostly, but it wasn’t unlikely that something could have snuck in. A runaway pet, perhaps? That'd be a whole other problem if it was.
Jinshi scans the pavilion, finding it shockingly empty (which, thank the heavens nobody saw that, but just how late was it?). There’s no sign of the mystery creature anywhere. He checks around corners, pokes his head back into his office, even peers into the tiny gap underneath the steps, but no luck. Whatever it was clearly didn’t feel like sticking around.
He tries not to feel too upset. It’s probably for the best, an animal infestation would be a real issue, especially if it got out of hand. He sincerely hopes it wasn’t a rat.
A little put out, Jinshi sighs and turns to make the decent trek back to his villa. He could easily call a carriage, but the thought of being stuck in another wooden box for longer than a minute... it makes him want to wilt. How he hasn't gone stir-crazy yet is beyond him.
At least the weather is nice. Just warm enough to be comfortable, without any of the typical humidity, and the sunset looks truly lovely, turning the sky a rich orange-yellow-purple. It's a tad blustery, and his robes do nothing to keep the winds from cutting through him, but he's too tired to care. There's the ever-present smell of incense and flowers in the air, but it's been sufficiently diffused by the wind, nowhere near as choking as it would be indoors. In fact, it's almost pleasant this way. Jinshi doesn’t get much time to himself outside of work, so he might as well take advantage of this.
What if Suiren made soup today? Jinshi ponders, the sunset's colors bringing to mind the image of broth. He inhales the sweet summer air as he passes by a small row of flowering bushes, almost sleepily content. I could go for something light… something for sleep would be nice too…
Suddenly, a sharp, animalistic yowl lances through the air, shattering his reverie.
Jinshi shrieks loud enough to match it, jumping so badly he falls back right into another support pillar. Clutching at it to avoid embarrassing himself any further, he frantically whips his head around, expecting to see a rat, or an assassin, or a toy, or something equally dangerous.
What he does not expect to see is a pair of wide, green eyes, shining like cut flint, and just as sharp.
“Oh,” Jinshi breathes, because there’s a tiny black cat in front of him, hunched over amongst the branches of a decorative bush. It has a leaf of some kind poking out of its mouth, and it’s fixing him with the most irritated, hateful glare he’s ever seen, human or otherwise.
A glance down tells Jinshi exactly why the cat might be upset. He grimaces.
“Ah. Sorry about that,” He says awkwardly, watching the cat pull its crooked tail into the bush. “I, uh, didn’t see you. You’re... tiny.”
Jinshi must truly be exhausted, because the cat seems to glare even harder, flicking its tail. He almost shivers at the intensity. It turns and crouches low to the ground, that odd leaf still hanging from its jaws, watching him like a hawk. Where the sunlight hits the bush, he can catch the edge of what appears to be a dark green ribbon tied around its neck. Despite being half-hidden, Jinshi can tell it’s worryingly skinny, even for its small size. He could probably wrap his whole hand around its middle. Would it be light enough to carry that way, too?
Jinshi tilts his head, to try for a better look. “I don’t remember any of the consorts getting a cat. Do you belong to someone?”
The cat's ears flatten against its skull. Jinshi’s never been much of an animal person, mainly because he’s never encountered many beyond the occasional bird or stray dog, but something compels him to lower himself into a crouch. The cat’s eyes follow him warily, the fur on its back puffing up as a pitched growl starts to rise in volume. He slows down and raises his hands.
“It’s alright, I’m not doing anything. I just wanted to get a good look at you.” He hums, unable to keep the soft smile from tugging at his lips. It really is quite cute, despite the harshness of its glare. He’s never seen such a rich shade of green. They're almost sparkling. “Now where did you come from, I wonder? Outside the walls perhaps?”
A beat. The cat, of course, does not respond, because it's a cat. It flicks its ears, and Jinshi has to be projecting or something, because he swears it's giving him a horribly flat look, as if to say “What were you expecting, dumbass?" Whatever that expression is, it's making him feel awful silly.
The cat continues to watch him, its growl gradually fading when he doesn’t move any further, but its eyes never leave his face. Jinshi stares straight back, a little mesmerized at the way its pupils widen and narrow, from snakelike slits to perfect circles. The green of its irises really are like gemstones, faceted and flecked with so many colors he couldn’t possibly name. Forest, algae, leaf, toxic, jade, every shade he can think of, none of them seem to match.
The cat shifts on its paws, restless. By contrast, Jinshi is almost perfectly still. It’s strange; he has never felt this calm while being so closely observed. He’d heard cats are popular because of their aloofness, always doing what they please with little care for the humans feeding them. Something to do with how you can rarely tell what they’re thinking, despite their huge, expressive eyes.
Jinshi doesn’t want to assume, but he could make a solid guess of what this particular cat is thinking. Probably something along the lines of “Fuck off and stop staring at me, you creep.” He huffs a quiet chuckle.
As if reading his mind, the cat suddenly spits, fur bristling. Jinshi pulls his hand back, blinking. When did he reach out? Part of him wants to apologize, but he’s too worried about spooking the creature to try.
He’s also heard that they’re apparently very soft to the touch. It’s like velvet, the palace doctor had once told him. Very soothing, and the perfect reward once you win them over. Jinshi had wondered what it would feel like to pet one back then, though with the real deal watching him like how one would regard a poisonous snake, he feels less curious and more worried for the little thing.
When was the last time it took a bath? Can cats even bathe? He eyes the cat’s body, where he can spot tiny ribs poking out from its fur. Something clenches in his gut. When did it last eat, for that matter?
His knee gently thumps against the stone path beneath him as he leans forward, and sadly, that was all it took for the timer to finally run out. With a crack of broken branches and a flash of black and green, the cat bolts. It springs from its place beneath the bush and takes off running, its skinny body skillfully weaving around him like a fish through water, and then it’s dashing toward another arrangement of bushes at the edge of the pavilion, a shadowy streak in the grass.
Jinshi moves to follow it, but by the time he’s risen to his feet, it has already vanished. He catches a brief glimpse of its tail slipping between a pair of rose bushes, the afternoon glow reflecting on its glossy fur like glass, and then just like that, the little stray is gone. He takes a single step in the cat’s direction, before a sound almost makes him jump out of his skin for a third time.
“Master Jinshi?”
Jinshi turns, his usual glittering smile already plastered on his face at the sound of his title. “Yes? May I help you?”
Thankfully for his patience, it’s only Basen. He looks sweaty and slightly out of breath, like he ran all the way here, poor guy. Jinshi almost falters when the young aide goes from looking confused, to deeply concerned, his brow furrowing as he gives him a once-over. He’d laugh at how Gaoshun-like he looks if he weren’t so weary.
“Is something wrong, sir? You look a little disheveled.”
Jinshi blinks, then glances down at himself. His hair is a bit of a mess, his robes are all bunched up, his collar is crooked, and there’s a spot of dirt near his legs. He doesn’t even want to picture what his face might look like, the ache in his eyelids scratchy like sandpaper and his sparkle taking some serious effort to keep up. Somehow he’d forgotten he was supposed to be exhausted, and the weight of it collapses over him like a bucket of water. Basen’s frown deepens when he visibly deflates.
Jinshi manages a smile, hopefully unbothered enough to waive off suspicion. “No, I’m alright. Just a little tired. I was about to head home, is something the matter?"
Basen doesn’t look convinced, but nods either way. “I see. My father sent me to collect you in his stead, actually. Something came up and he had to stay with the minister later than expected.”
Jinshi sighs internally, mourning his short-lived solitary walk. He turns to leave, Basen easily falling into step behind him as he goes, but his eyes flick over to the rose bushes as if drawn there. There’s no movement within, at least as far as he can tell from here.
“You see something, sir?” Basen suddenly asks, craning his neck to follow his gaze.
Jinshi is quiet for a moment. Not a single leaf twitches. Eventually, they turn a corner and the rose bushes are out of sight.
“It’s nothing.” He says, though his steps feel a little heavier. Heavens, I'm tired.
The sensation of eyes boring into his back remain, until he passes through the gate to the outer palace.