"Marquis! Marquis! Wonderful news! It's two little masters!"
The curtain was suddenly flung open. The sweat-soaked midwife rushed out, carrying two babies wrapped in brocade quilts. The smile on her face had barely begun to bloom when it was as if an invisible hand had clamped around her throat. The rest of her words caught in her mouth, and her face turned deathly pale.
The Marquis of Jingyuan's heart leapt. He strode over and first took the loudly crying baby boy. The little one was all wrinkled, with features just like his own when he was young. Half the worry that had weighed on him all night had just lifted when his gaze fell on the other baby, a quiet little girl in the midwife's arms.
The child neither cried nor fussed, curled into a tiny ball in her brocade blanket. Her newborn hair was black, and her cheeks were as pink as if they had been dipped in peach blossom dew. But when the midwife accidentally opened her tiny clenched fist, everyone in the room froze.
That was no ordinary infant's palm.
The pink, tender palm had several soft, plump pads, and a fine layer of silvery-gray fuzz covered her knuckles. They looked exactly like the paw pads of the three-eared snow cat kept in the marquis's rear courtyard. In the wavering candlelight, they gleamed with an indescribably eerie sheen.
"C-cat... cat... cat demon!"
All the color drained from Shen Yunting's face. He reached out without thinking. The moment his fingertips touched the soft pads, the little girl gently curled her fingers around his. The touch was as light as a feather, yet it made him feel as if he had fallen into an icy abyss.
"This must remain secret. If even a single word gets out, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
