After Accidentally Marking the Cold and Elegant Eldest Princess - Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Clearly Audible

“Look it over, Your Highness. If there is anything you find improper, I will revise it.” Yan Yunti handed the stack of papers she had finished drawing that afternoon to Yuan Jingxue.

Sitting on the daybed, Yuan Jingxue flipped through them one by one, her brows gradually knitting together. “What kind of strengthening exercise is this? Why are the poses so strange?”

“Strange?” Yan Yunti sat beside her to look, pointing at the poses to explain the movements and effects. “…These first few movements promote blood circulation and make the body supple. These poses in the middle train leg strength and enhance balance. These final ones are for soothing and relaxing the body.”

Yan Yunti explained earnestly: “If these movements are practiced daily, they can not only strengthen the heart and lungs and increase power, but also enhance Your Highness’s flexibility…” At this point, Yan Yunti realized what Yuan Jingxue meant by “strange.” She let out a low laugh and looked at her. “Does Your Highness think I intentionally drew these poses because I want to take advantage of you?”

“How could I possibly know Miss Yan’s mind?” Yuan Jingxue put the papers back down, neither agreeing nor refusing to practice.

“Rest assured, Your Highness. This system of exercise isn’t something I drew blindly; it was passed down from foreign tribes and is called Yoga. Two years ago, when I traveled outside the capital with my mother, I happened to learn this art and practiced it for a year. It is truly beneficial.” As she spoke, Yan Yunti picked up the stack of papers and offered them to Yuan Jingxue again. “A-Yun’s intentions are pure and sincere, but I do not know if Your Highness is willing to believe me?”

The young woman looked over with eyes that were clear and bright.

Yuan Jingxue did not hold the gaze for long. After a moment of thought, she took the papers and set them aside. “I shall trust you this once.” Having said that, she picked up a white porcelain bottle from the small table beside her.

Yan Yunti recognized it as the ointment for removing scars. She took Yuan Jingxue’s hand, which was dabbed with the cream, and guided it to her own neck. Her tone was quite piteous: “Can Your Highness be gentler with me in the future? In the short time we’ve known each other, calculate it—how many times have you wounded me?”

The hairpin tip piercing the left arm on the day of the Thousand-Year Banquet, the bite on the left shoulder later, and today’s hairpin prick on the neck made three times in total.

Yuan Jingxue remembered clearly. She gently smeared the cream over the small wound on Yan Yunti’s neck, her tone flat: “If Miss Yan could behave herself, she naturally wouldn’t suffer so many injuries.”

“If I truly behaved and did nothing at all, I’m afraid Your Highness would be unhappy again,” Yan Yunti hummed.

Yuan Jingxue gave her a cold look, placed the medicine bottle on the table, and rose to leave. “Apply the medicine yourself.”

With so much to say, her mouth really ought to be sealed shut.

Yan Yunti lowered her head to suppress a smile. She tucked the scar-removing medicine into her robes, but she did not apply it to her left shoulder.

The two shared dinner together. Yan Yunti constantly put food into Yuan Jingxue’s bowl until it was piled like a small mountain, yet she wouldn’t stop.

Yuan Jingxue couldn’t even be bothered to get angry anymore. “Eat for yourself. There is no need to serve me.”

“That won’t do,” Yan Yunti said, holding out a piece of meat to Yuan Jingxue. “With the way Your Highness just eats a couple of bites casually, if I don’t watch over you, I’m afraid you won’t even have the strength to practice exercises tomorrow, let alone do anything else.”

The meat was held right at her mouth; it was impossible not to eat it. Yuan Jingxue bit into the meat, desperately wanting to tell Yan Yunti to shut up. Before she could speak, Yan Yunti offered another bite. Since she had eaten little at lunch and her stomach was empty, being fed bite after bite actually made her forget what she had been thinking.

It wasn’t until the early hours of the next morning that Yuan Jingxue felt an anomaly in her body. When she woke, she had instinctively pressed herself against the Qianyuan sleeping on the outside. Her unconscious rubbing stopped abruptly. Looking up by the moonlight, she could see the suppressed smile on the Qianyuan’s face, her brows already tilted upward.

“Your Highness is finally awake,” Yan Yunti reached out to embrace her, putting on a troubled expression. “If Your Highness hadn’t woken up, I truly wouldn’t have known what to do. If I did nothing, Your Highness would be unhappy; if I did something, Your Highness would be even more unhappy upon waking, and might even retaliate against me.”

The Qianyuan had an incredibly good memory; she still remembered being “retaliated” against the previous night by having to endure her passions.

Yuan Jingxue looked at that mouth opening and closing and finally remembered what she had forgotten.

“Why is Your Highness not speaking?” Yan Yunti leaned in to smell the faint pheromones leaking out. “If Your Highness doesn’t speak, how am I supposed to know what to do?” While saying she didn’t know, her left knee pried open the woman’s knees, and she released the scent from her nape.

Yuan Jingxue was held by the waist and pulled upward. Yan Yunti propped up her upper body, her hands pressing down on either side of the woman. As she lowered her head, her breath spiraled down across the back of the woman’s neck. She continued to feign ignorance: “What does Your Highness want me to do?”

Yuan Jingxue took a deep breath and directly covered the girl’s mouth with her hand. “Yan Yunti, from this moment on, shut your mouth.”

Yan Yunti froze. This move by the Eldest Princess caught her a bit off guard. After the shock passed, she realized the woman was complaining about her talking too much? Yan Yunti opened her mouth as if to say something, but then thought better of it and closed it tight. She blinked innocently at the woman, let her eyes do the asking instead.

Yuan Jingxue didn’t want to look into her eyes. She averted her gaze, her fingertip pressing down on her collar. “Do what you ought to do.”

How was this sentence any different from a command? Yan Yunti hummed inwardly. If I’m not allowed to talk, I can still listen.

As it turned out, the Qianyuan being silent wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Before dawn, everything was dead silent—the quietest time of day. Yuan Jingxue had never felt the sounds by her ear were so clear. Her breath overlapped with Yan Yunti’s, and the sound of heartbeats in her chest was like the beating of drums. The low, irrepressible sounds traveled directly into her ears.

Yan Yunti gazed at her with a smirk, her damp fingertips touching her own ear to imply that she could hear everything perfectly.

Yuan Jingxue suddenly felt a twinge of regret. This was almost worse than letting Yan Yunti talk; at least then the sounds wouldn’t be so exposed. But she never overturned a decision she had made; she simply looked away to avoid Yan Yunti’s eyes.

When a sliver of light appeared in the sky outside, the silent Yan Yunti pressed her lips to the woman’s earlobe. Her lips moved back and forth along the edge of the ear, and suddenly, she leaned in and whispered very, very softly: “Jingxue.”

Yuan Jingxue’s gaze trembled. The moisture in her eyes suddenly turned into a tear that rolled down.

Yan Yunti got up early as usual. Yuan Jingxue slept until the hour of Si (9-11 AM). When she woke, Yan Yunti had already finished drawing the remaining half of the Yoga manual. “These are the more difficult movements. Your Highness should stick to the first half today, so the difficulty doesn’t discourage you right at the start.”

The practice time was set for the hour of Shen (3-5 PM) in the afternoon.

First, Yan Yunti demonstrated all the movements in front of Yuan Jingxue. She did them smoothly and fluently. After one round, she was only breathing slightly faster. She sat on the carpet with her legs crossed, looking at Yuan Jingxue with a slight smile. “Your Highness, I think I smell something.”

What could it be? Naturally, it was the Kunze’s pheromones.

Yuan Jingxue set down her teacup, maintaining a facade of restraint and calm. “Then are we still practicing?”

“Why is Your Highness asking me?” Yan Yunti propped her chin on one hand, admiring the beauty’s cold countenance. “If Your Highness wants to practice, I will teach. If not, I also…”

“Let’s practice.” Yuan Jingxue made the decision and stood up to walk toward Yan Yunti, acting as if she weren’t the one releasing pheromones from her nape.

Yan Yunti raised an eyebrow, standing to make room. “Since Your Highness insists, this servant naturally obeys.” She just wondered—who would be the one tortured?

The first practice was mainly focused on adjusting poses and clarifying how to train. Just like teaching swimming the day before, once Yan Yunti started teaching, she became incredibly serious and focused—at least on the surface. Her movements were as proper as could be. Aside from necessary touches for adjustment, she did absolutely nothing else.

Yuan Jingxue couldn’t tell if it was because of the exercise or something else, but her breathing became ragged. Her heartbeat was as distinct as it had been that morning. By the time they finished, she was covered in sweat and didn’t want to get up.

Yan Yunti brought tea to her lips. After she finished drinking, Yan Yunti sat opposite her and pulled the woman’s leg onto her own knee.

“What are you doing?” Yuan Jingxue tried to pull her leg back.

Yan Yunti gripped her calf with both hands. “Don’t be in a hurry. I’ll give Your Highness a massage to help you relax.”

It wasn’t Yuan Jingxue’s first time experiencing her massage. Since the Qianyuan was willing to serve, she had no reason to refuse. she allowed Yan Yunti to massage her with all her effort. As she pressed, Yuan Jingxue suddenly felt a chill on her left foot. She opened her eyes to see that Yan Yunti had removed her sock, and a bracelet had appeared in her hand at some unknown moment.

The bracelet was strung with emerald jade, translucent and moist. The touch of the jade beads against her foot was icy. Yan Yunti held the bracelet, letting the beads slide over the woman’s foot, and looked up at her. “Does Your Highness remember what you promised me yesterday?”

Yuan Jingxue remembered, of course. She didn’t even know why she had agreed. Now, feeling the urge to go back on her word, she pulled her foot back.

Yan Yunti gripped her ankle and asked with a smile, “What? Is Your Highness going back on her word? I recall that the one who promised me this wasn’t ‘A-Xue,’ but Your Highness.”

She had clearly been awake at that time yesterday but chose to pretend otherwise. Now that Yan Yunti had exposed her, Yuan Jingxue remained noncommittal, but she didn’t pull her foot back again. Yan Yunti had played her hand perfectly; that morning’s episode had shown her that Yuan Jingxue disliked breaking her word. Now that she had the chance, she wouldn’t let go.

The emerald beads slid from the top of the foot to the ankle. The green color contrasted against the delicate white skin. Yan Yunti’s thumb stroked slowly. Holding Yuan Jingxue’s ankle, she bent the woman’s knee. “Does Your Highness remember how to do that leg-lock pose from earlier?”

Yuan Jingxue remembered, of course—lying on one’s back, legs folded and pressed against the front, hands holding the calves. She understood Yan Yunti’s meaning and pulled her foot back with force. “Did you not say your intentions were pure and sincere?” Unable to retrieve her foot, she kicked forward in anger.

Yan Yunti easily caught her left leg and blinked innocently. “Your Highness, I haven’t said anything yet. How am I not sincere?”

“Then let go.” Yuan Jingxue looked at her coldly.

Yan Yunti laughed softly while releasing her pheromones, not forgetting to defend herself: “A-Yun’s heart is absolutely pure, but Your Highness’s scent is truly too intense; it naturally makes A-Yun overthink things.”

“So it is my fault?” Yuan Jingxue wanted to kick her again.

Yan Yunti pressed her ankle forward, pushing her down onto her back, and gave a light sigh. “Your Highness, oh Your Highness, why must you make things so difficult for yourself?”

She couldn’t even control her pheromones, yet she insisted on practicing on schedule—if that wasn’t making things difficult, what was?

“Not everyone is as willfully reckless as Miss Yan.” Yuan Jingxue watched as the Qianyuan’s lips landed on her ankle, her brow furrowing slightly. “You…” She paused, then added, “Your lips are not to touch anywhere else today.”

Yan Yunti was amused by her. Her lips drew close to Yuan Jingxue’s cheek. “Is Your Highness feeling self-conscious?”

“But in my eyes, there is no part of Your Highness that isn’t fragrant.”