Chang'an's Most Well-Connected Person

They say that at the top of the Great Zhao dynasty's power hierarchy sits the Empress Dowager.

But the Empress Dowager's weakness is a cat named Chu Zhou.

Chu Zhou is the only child of a famously ill-fated couple: his mother, a God of War, and his father, a man who always takes the blame. He entered the palace at eight and became Great Zhao's most powerful nepo baby!

The apple of the Empress Dowager's eye, his main job is being a grumpy, bristly cat. His hobbies include tattling, tearing up roofs, and keeping a pond full of frogs… for reasons of his own.

Don't like it? One swipe of his paw and your official's hat goes flying!

Go tell the Empress Dowager.

He makes a scene whenever he likes in the palace, using his astonishing skills at acting cute and fake crying to get away with anything. Princes and consorts take detours to avoid him. He's the most untouchable person in Chang'an.

At sixteen, the cat lord got mad in a fit of anger and decided to run away from home. He was determined to head to Yizhou and live off his parents. See ya!

The Empress Dowager waved her hand grandly. "Granted!"

With one condition: he could only wander around Chang'an.

Chu Zhou: You're going too far. Beep beep beep!

You don't want me to leave? This cat won't stand for it! But before he could get far outside the city, someone picked him up, and the kindhearted young Master Lu successfully "rescued" him and took him home.

One pretended to be a stray kitten. The other knew perfectly well that this was the palace's little tyrant.

And so began a not-so-heartwarming tale of raising a cat.

Chu Zhou shamelessly mooched food and lodging, all the while thinking to himself: Is this guy an idiot?

But this was a one-year trial card, with an expiration date.

Once the year was up, the cat needed a new nest.

Off he went again.

War broke out in the northwest. The entire court gave up trying, and an imperial decree arrived: "You're up, Chu Zhou, the Cat Beast!"

"Meow?"

Just as his life of mooching was beginning… someone kicked over the nest the cat lord had just made.

They sent this cat lord, who looked like he wouldn't survive three episodes, off to the northwest to eat sand.

A hellish start? Sounds interesting…

But Chu Zhou said: Did you all forget? My mother is the one and only God of War in the whole game.

Then reality came along and slapped him in the face. He lost battle after battle, and the cat had to learn his lessons the hard way.

Chu Zhou: If I start meowing at Grandma now, can I go home?

He faced an army crying out for supplies, colleagues with ulterior motives, and, the steppe's Yehou, who considered him his destined princess consort. Most importantly, the Yehou seemed to be an old acquaintance from his childhood, and there was something strange in the way he looked at him…

Yehou: Marriage alliance. Get it?

Chu Zhou: Ribbit!

At last, the cat lord returned to court in triumph, ready to lie flat and slack off. But a new chapter had begun in Chang'an: his grandmother was growing old, and his brothers were fighting tooth and nail over who would take charge.

If it's too much trouble, then don't bother!

"You think I'm a sick cat just because the tiger hasn't roared?"

That's exactly what they think!

Smack, the cat jumped straight onto the table and flipped the whole board.

The cat sighed: Another day of wanting to retire~

Enough! Why does everyone keep calling the cat "big sister"?!

Chu the Cat: Call me big brother and I'll give you candy.

Lu Lingyuan: Big brother…? But I'd rather call you… big sister~

[The Little Princess's Growth Diary]

A frail beauty of a top who takes revenge for every slight x a devoted, elegant, and handsome bottom

Chu Zhou x Lu Lingyuan. Beautiful top, handsome bottom.

Warnings:

1. Beginner writing. I write whatever I dream up.

2. Semi-hereditary sexual attraction, with the bottom attracted to the top.

3. Not a wish-fulfillment novel. The top gets put through the wringer, and there's a seven-year separation during the character-growth arc.

4. The bottom sometimes talks about the top as if he were a girl, for example: princess, big sister, or elder sister.

Setting: A hodgepodge of alternate-history elements. The author is terrible at history, so no history buffs, please. The political scheming is elementary-school level, about as sophisticated as a kindergarten fight.

Theme: Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony