After Accidentally Marking the Cold and Elegant Eldest Princess - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Playing Hard to Get

Yuan Jingxue’s knees rested over the girl’s shoulders, her back suspended in mid-air. Yan Yunti knelt upright, looking down at her from above, her lips a moist, vivid red.

At this moment, the Qianyuan seemed like a beautiful, seductive spirit capable of sucking away one’s very soul. Yuan Jingxue could not push her away, nor did she have the strength to try.

Inside the room, the scents of magnolia and cedar merged and harmonized, peaking in intensity before gradually fading.

Yan Yunti picked the woman up, gathering the crumpled and soaked inner robe along with her. Seeing Yuan Jingxue glance toward the carpet, she said considerately, “Rest assured, Your Highness, the carpet is clean.”

Yuan Jingxue had never felt so exhausted. She wanted to scold the Qianyuan, but her strength was spent; she didn’t even want to speak.

After Yan Yunti carried her to the rear hall for a bath in the hot spring and brought her back, she was already on the verge of sleep. In her blurred consciousness, she felt the Qianyuan’s aura receding. Closing her eyes, she reached out to snag something, murmuring softly, “Don’t go.”

Yan Yunti’s heart skipped a beat. She looked down at her hooked finger and asked in a low voice, “Does Your Highness want me to stay?”

“Mm.” Yuan Jingxue leaned into her embrace, her voice thick with weariness, sounding as though she wasn’t fully awake.

Yan Yunti had intended to go put the carpet away, but with the person in her arms clinging so tightly, she couldn’t bear to leave. She simply lay down to accompany her, her hand resting on Yuan Jingxue’s back, patting gently. “Sleep, Your Highness. I’m here with you.”

Feeling the gentle comfort against her back, Yuan Jingxue’s consciousness grew even more heavy. Even knowing she shouldn’t, she held onto Yan Yunti and wouldn’t let her leave. She would treat it as a punishment for the Qianyuan—making her stay and sleep properly as compensation.

When they woke, it was already evening. Yuan Jingxue woke up surrounded by a familiar scent, the fatigue from before sleep completely gone. Looking up, she saw Yan Yunti with her eyes closed, her nose nuzzling lightly toward her as she murmured a name: “Jingxue.”

The gland at the back of Yuan Jingxue’s neck throbbed. This call was so intimate; who knew what the Qianyuan was dreaming about.

Yuan Jingxue backed away slightly to create distance. As her ankle moved, she felt the beads shift on her left foot, suddenly remembering that the emerald bracelet on her ankle had not been removed. She moved to the inner side of the bed and sat up to take off the jade bracelet. Naturally, she saw the undeniable faint red marks and shallow tooth imprints on the inside of her thighs. She couldn’t help but curse softly, “Truly a dog.”

Yan Yunti had just been nudged awake when she heard this choice insult. She sat up and embraced Yuan Jingxue from behind, her nose rubbing against the Kunze’s nape. “Then can ‘Little Dog Yan’ have another bite of the Eldest Princess?”

At this slight touch, the pheromones from the Kunze’s nape leaked out again.

The middle two days of the Rain and Dew period were the most frequent. Yuan Jingxue did not want to be too absurd. She pushed the girl away, found a cold-scent patch to apply, and gave her a cold glance. “Miss Yan should also learn the meaning of ‘knowing when to stop.'”

“I don’t understand the meaning of ‘stopping,'” Yan Yunti toyed with a stray hair at the woman’s temple, her lips curling into a smile. “I only know how to ‘give an inch and take a mile.'”

Yuan Jingxue had no desire to argue with her and prepared to climb over her to get off the bed. Yan Yunti saw her chance and pulled; Yuan Jingxue fell unprepared into her lap, her voice tinged with anger: “Yan Yunti!”

Yan Yunti raised her hand to touch the cold-scent patch at her nape. “Does Your Highness truly not want me?”

“No need.” Yuan Jingxue brushed her hand away.

Yan Yunti retracted her hand decisively, set the woman down to one side, and stood up from the bed. She said flatly, “Then I shall return to the side hall. If Your Highness needs anything, just come find me.”

It wasn’t as if every release of pheromones was accompanied by the onset of body chill. Perhaps because enough of her own pheromones had been injected over the past two days, Yuan Jingxue hadn’t suffered a chill once today. Yan Yunti was reassured and left without the slightest hesitation.

Yuan Jingxue froze for a moment. By the time she turned around, Yan Yunti had already stepped out of the inner chamber; she was gone in an instant.

Yan Yunti’s meaning was clear: if she wanted help, she had to go to the side hall and invite her personally.

Yuan Jingxue pursed her lips. She didn’t call the girl back, allowing the bedroom door to remain open as the Qianyuan’s aura grew further and further away.

Yan Yunti wasn’t certain if Yuan Jingxue would actually come to invite her. She hadn’t burned her bridges, leaving herself a way out—after all, she was soft-hearted.

Yan Yunti held her hand over her heart, but when she saw Bawei personally deliver three “Pheromone Pills,” she felt her heart “clatter” into pieces.

Bawei said, “These are the Pheromone Pills that Physician Xu Su personally handed to Imperial Physician Xu. Imperial Physician Xu rushed them here by horseback today. Her Highness instructed that you must keep them safe and not lose them.”

The three pills were placed in a silver incense box. As soon as Yan Yunti opened it, she smelled a rich scent of pheromones. She took the silver-filigree spherical sachet from Bawei’s hand and asked, “What is this?”

Bawei replied, “Try twisting the bead on top of the sachet, Miss.”

Yan Yunti gave the bead attached to the silver chain a light twist. The originally sealed silver sphere revealed a large filigree opening. Opening it from the middle, the space inside was exactly the right size to hold one Pheromone Pill. It appeared Yuan Jingxue had specially prepared this sachet for the pills.

Yan Yunti put one pill inside. After Bawei left, she opened the sachet’s mechanism and held the silver sphere to her nose to sniff it carefully. The scent of one pill was a bit lighter; from a distance, it smelled like the elegant, faint fragrance when a Kunze’s pheromones first emerge. Smelling it deeply, it became increasingly intense and stimulating.

Yan Yunti suddenly snapped the sachet shut and pushed open the window to take a deep breath of the fresh air outside. These pills could indeed suppress desire, but the more she smelled them, the more she missed the scent from the Kunze’s neck. She could even distinguish the subtle differences between the two.

The main hall was brightly lit. Yan Yunti gazed at the windows of the main hall, silently wondering: now that the Eldest Princess has the Pheromone Pills, will she still come to find her?

Through the gap in the slightly open window, Yuan Jingxue could see Yan Yunti standing there wearing her veil. Knowing the girl couldn’t see her, she felt no urge to close her own window, idly smelling the silver sachet in her hand.

The similar cedar scent seeped into her body, flowing like a cold spring through her limbs, suppressing much of the restlessness within. It was indeed effective.

But… it was also different. No matter how similarly the fragrance was blended, there was a subtle discrepancy. More importantly, the feeling it gave her was entirely different.

The Pheromone Pills brought clarity. But the Qianyuan’s actual scent… invited surrender.

Yuan Jingxue closed her eyes and held the sachet closer, attempting to let the pill’s scent erase the memories left by Yan Yunti’s fragrance.

The night grew deeper. Some of the candles in both the main and side halls had been extinguished, leaving only the light in the inner chambers burning.

Yan Yunti leaned against the window-side couch, flipping through her storybook page by page. “Playing hard to get,” she thought—with this “letting go,” she feared the Kunze would never come for her again. Surely those indecent storybooks weren’t to be trusted.

Snap. She closed the book.

Yan Yunti stood up, intending to go to sleep, when she suddenly heard a faint sound by her ear. Was that a woman’s footstep?

The window before Yan Yunti didn’t face the inner courtyard; it looked out over a small garden on the west side. At this moment, flowers swayed in the night breeze, their fragrance drifting in with the slightly restless air.

Yan Yunti’s movement to stand up paused. After a thought, she hid the storybook and pulled out a volume on military strategy instead.

The door was pushed open. The light footsteps seemed to step directly on Yan Yunti’s heart. She kept her eyes lowered on the book, as if her entire soul were focused on military tactics, as though no sound could startle her.

Yuan Jingxue entered the inner chamber and saw exactly this scene. The Qianyuan, dressed in plain white inner garments, held the military book without even raising an eye.

Yuan Jingxue saw through the act and exposed her softly: “Stop pretending. With your hearing, how could you not hear my footsteps?”

During that time they hid in Yaohua Hall, Yuan Jingxue had already realized her hearing was exceptional.

“Your Highness?” Yan Yunti put down the book at the right moment, her eyes full of surprise. “Why has Your Highness come? Do you need me for something?”

Upon seeing Yuan Jingxue dressed in light crimson robes, the surprise in Yan Yunti’s eyes turned into pure admiration. She remained seated, motionless.

Yuan Jingxue took a step forward and held out her palm. “Give me the scar-removing medicine.”

Yan Yunti blinked, pretending not to understand. “What does Your Highness want the medicine for?”

“What do you think?” Yuan Jingxue’s eyes narrowed slightly, an imposing aura pressing down. “Yan Yunti, must you insist on asking what you already know?”

Yan Yunti wasn’t intimidated in the least. She sat up, reached out with a long arm, and pulled the woman—who was already close—straight into her arms. She gazed at her with shimmering eyes. “Did Your Highness come so late just to ask me for medicine?”

Yuan Jingxue did not push her away. Smelling the familiar scent on the Qianyuan, the sense of unease that had been lingering finally dissipated. This was the instinct of a Kunze during the Rain and Dew period—the attachment and dependency. If the partner wasn’t there, that unease would follow like a shadow, reminding her every second of the Qianyuan’s absence.

She had originally intended to endure the night, but the more she smelled the Pheromone Pills, the stronger her desire to see Yan Yunti became. At one point, a thought occurred to her—she was clearly the one in power, so why should she let Yan Yunti control her emotions? Even if she acted a bit recklessly for a few days, what of it?

Perhaps this was a thought urged by her body, or perhaps it was Yan Yunti’s boldness influencing her. Regardless, once a decision was made, she would not regret it.

Before Yan Yunti’s eyes, Yuan Jingxue reached out and tore off the cold-scent patch at her nape, allowing her pheromones to scatter freely. Her fingertips moved to Yan Yunti’s collar, pulling the already loose fabric off her left shoulder to reveal the tooth mark. “Give me the medicine. I will apply it for you.”

Yan Yunti felt the change in Yuan Jingxue’s aura. Smelling the increasingly rich scent, she handed the medicine bottle to her. Yuan Jingxue’s fingertips, dabbed with the ointment, slowly stroked the left shoulder. The fragrance of the cool ointment was accompanied by the provocative Kunze pheromones.

Yet the Kunze releasing the scent focused only on applying the medicine, as if she cared about nothing else—she didn’t even ask to close the open window.

Yan Yunti tightened her grip on the woman’s waist and looked up at her. “Does Your Highness only want to help me apply medicine?”

Yuan Jingxue finished carefully, smeared the remaining ointment on Yan Yunti’s collar, and raised an eyebrow with a light smile. “Yan Yunti, do you think the one who loses control has to be me every time?”

“What does Your Highness mean?” Yan Yunti looked at her, eyes wide.

Yuan Jingxue touched the corner of the girl’s eye and leaned down, her voice becoming low and soft: “This time, I want to see what you look like when you ‘lose your composure.'”

That look of eyes filled only with her—a look of obsession and infatuation. She ought to see it properly for once.