The Legend of the Forbidden Slave

I am a cat, a royal cat. To be more specific, I am a civet female cat in the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty. My coat is messy but shiny, and my eyes are golden on one side and blue on the other - people in the palace say these are strange pupils, which are ominous. But I know very well that these eyes can see not only rats and cockroaches, but also the breathing and heartbeat of this great dynasty. It's a long story, I wasn't born a cat. In my previous life, I was a graduate student in the history department of a university in Beijing. I spent all day burying myself in piles of old papers and studying things about the Ming Dynasty. That night, I was staying up late writing a paper about Yongle's move to the capital. There was a thunderstorm outside the window, and a bolt of lightning struck - when I opened my eyes again, I became a little milk cat when the Forbidden City was first built in the 19th year of Yongle. After becoming a cat, I realized that being a human has too many limitations. People can only see the emperor on the dragon throne, the courtiers in the palace, and a few words in the history books; but the cat can see the sobbing of the palace maids in the middle of the night, the whispers of the eunuchs in the corner, the playfulness of the princes when no one is around, and the tiny truths that have been erased by official history. As a cat, I have nine lives—literally. This allowed me to span nearly three hundred years of this dynasty. I will use these nine lives and nine perspectives to record the birth, prosperity and decline of this dynasty. At this moment, I was curled up on the eaves of Fengtian Hall, looking at the newly completed palaces below, with glazed tiles shining brightly in the rising sun. Zhu Di, the emperor who had taken over his nephew's kingdom, was standing on the throne of Emperor Dan, receiving congratulations from hundreds of officials. The wind blew through my beard, carrying the smell of fresh wood and paint. "Meow." I called softly. History has begun.