Yinyin is a cat with remarkably sharp ears. It can tell different ladies and palace servants apart just by the…
Yinyin is a cat with remarkably sharp ears. It can tell different ladies and palace servants apart just by the sound of their footsteps.
Whenever it catches someone trying to be clever and tiptoe around, it pauses mid-groom, ready to circle over and rub against the visitor's ankles.
One lady doted on it so much that she even brought it along to practice the guqin. Then came the day she hit three wrong notes in a row. Yinyin sprang onto the instrument, tucked its claws away, and hooked a string with nothing but its paw pads.
The sound lingered. Right as the last note was about to fade, Yinyin let out a long meow and plucked one more note.
Meow, pluck. Pluck, meow.
Just like that, it became famous.
After that, every lady and servant who came and went knew the name Yinyin: a kitten that could "play" the guqin. If your playing was not up to scratch, you could even ask it to be your teacher. A few snacks as a token fee would do.
Days passed, too many to count. At some point, the lady stopped bringing Yinyin to the guqin. She smiled less. Yinyin often saw her staring at the flowering trees, murmuring things like "the former court" and "old faces"...
Yinyin no longer went near the instrument.
It seemed to turn back into an ordinary cat again, just one with especially keen ears.