After Accidentally Marking the Cold and Elegant Eldest Princess - Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Withdrawal Symptoms

Just as they had arrived, the two of them returned together in the same carriage.

Yan Yunti sat near the carriage door, flipping through the book The Eldest Princess. With every movement of the pages, the string of emerald jade beads on her right wrist slid lightly up and down, appearing increasingly translucent and moist under the sunlight.

Yuan Jingxue caught a stray glimpse of the bracelet, and memories she had intended to bury deep in her heart were effortlessly pulled to the surface—she remembered that day when those beads were draped over her ankle, her leg lifted and resting on Yan Yunti’s shoulder. She remembered Yan Yunti stroking the jade beads while leaving light, fine kisses all the way down her ankle.

That sensation of being completely controlled by another… Yuan Jingxue closed her eyes, suppressing the sudden memory.

She hadn’t slept well last night. The unmade bed had been filled with the Qianyuan’s scent; even when she drifted off, her dreams were filled with absurdities. She had eventually gotten up and ordered Bawei to replace every item on the bed. Naturally, the newly changed bedding no longer held any trace of Yan Yunti’s scent.

However, she still didn’t sleep well.

She had always been a light sleeper, yet during these past few days sleeping with Yan Yunti, she had slept quite deeply. Returning to her usual rhythm, Yuan Jingxue sensed a certain lack of adjustment, though it wasn’t overwhelming.

Drowsiness hit her. Yuan Jingxue put her book down and leaned against the soft pillow behind her to rest for a moment.

Yan Yunti was skimming through the content from the day before. In the storybook, the Eldest Princess naturally missed the Consort day and night to the point of insomnia, even changing into the inner robes the Consort had worn and whispering his name in the dead of night… As Yan Yunti read this, the images in her mind involuntarily transformed into Yuan Jingxue’s face, though she shook them off a moment later.

She had essentially stayed awake all last night; she had heard every movement from the main hall clearly.

How could Yuan Jingxue possibly miss her to the point of insomnia? The Eldest Princess would only order people to throw out every blanket and pillow she had slept on—only then would she feel comfortable. Comparing the two, it was increasingly clear that she was not welcome.

Yan Yunti lost the heart for reading. She set the book aside, and seeing Yuan Jingxue napping with closed eyes, she thought for a moment before standing up to pick up a nearby cloak and gently draping it over her.

Yuan Jingxue woke at this slight movement. She didn’t move, wanting to see what Yan Yunti intended to do.

But Yan Yunti did nothing. After draping the cloak, she returned to her original seat. For a moment, the carriage was so quiet it felt as if she wasn’t even there.

Yan Yunti had become well-behaved.

Yuan Jingxue couldn’t tell if her emotion was disappointment or something else. She stopped thinking about it, telling herself this was a good thing. Though this “good thing” didn’t make her heart feel much lighter.

Upon returning to the Princess’s Mansion, Yan Yunti finished packing her things in the East Side Hall. When she went to say goodbye to Yuan Jingxue, she was told she wasn’t in the sleeping chambers. As she was leaving the mansion, she heard the sound of a zither drifting from the garden. Her footsteps turned slightly toward the Moon Gate.

Xiao Ran followed behind her, watching warily, fearing Yan Yunti might slip into the garden again when she wasn’t looking.

To her surprise, Yan Yunti simply stood there for a while listening to the music. She said nothing, picked up her bundle, and left directly.

By the time Yuan Jingxue finished her piece, she learned that Yan Yunti had already departed.

Yuan Jingxue’s hand rested on the strings as she gazed at the garden scenery outside the pavilion. In her mind’s eye, the scene of Yan Yunti dancing with a sword that day seemed to flash by. The image vanished instantly. Yuan Jingxue returned to her chambers; the bedding on the daybed and the bed had all been changed. The air in the chambers, unoccupied for several days, no longer held the Qianyuan’s scent. Everything was as usual.

Only that bed… everything that had happened upon it was vivid in her mind, impossible to forget.

Yuan Jingxue ordered the bed to be moved away, completely severing any chance of her own reminiscence.

Yan Yunti took the Princess’s carriage on a circuitous route, finally stopping at the back gate of the Qiu residence. The servant guarding the gate recognized her and led her inside.

Before Yan Yunti could reach her own courtyard, a messenger from her mother, Qiu Lingyue, arrived to fetch her, insisting she come over without a moment’s delay. Yan Yunti knew immediately that news of her absence from the Marquis’s manor had reached her mother. She was in for an interrogation.

Sure enough, as soon as she entered the courtyard, a woman’s voice rang out with a light chuckle: “Oh? Is this not our little Miss Yan? After vanishing for so many days, you finally deign to see your mother?”

Two lounge chairs were placed on either side of a stone table in the courtyard. Qiu Lingyue sat in the left one, her silver-red spring attire shimmering slightly in the sun. As she looked up, her gentle willow-leaf eyes smiled forward, appearing thoroughly graceful and approachable.

Yan Yunti feigned ignorance of the interrogation in her mother’s tone, walking toward her with a food box. “Mother, look! I managed to snag the very last box of Snowy Cloud Pastries. I brought them specifically for you.”

Yan Yunti laid out the pastries one by one, then poured two cups of floral tea with boiling water. “Isn’t it wonderful, Mother? Eating pastries, sipping tea, and basking in the sun.”

Qiu Lingyue watched her diligence, resting a silk fan against her chin. “Yunti, are you going to keep pretending with me?”

“Mother, what am I pretending?” Yan Yunti opened her innocent peach-blossom eyes, looking at her mother with a face full of sincerity and pathos.

Qiu Lingyue couldn’t stand that look. She lightly tapped her daughter’s head with the fan, her smile fading. “Don’t you start! Speak! Where have you been fooling around these past few days? Who were you seeing that required you to hide it from both the Marquis’s manor and me?”

“I didn’t go anywhere special,” Yan Yunti lowered her head and picked up a piece of Snowy Cloud Pastry. “I just went to see an old friend and accompanied her around the outskirts of the capital. I only just saw her off today, so I rushed back to see you.”

“Still lying to me.” Qiu Lingyue shook her head, seeing her daughter deliberately avoid her gaze. She thought for a moment and gave up, leaning back. “Fine. You are eighteen now; I can’t expect you to report every place you go. I just wonder if this ‘old friend’ is female or male, to make you accompany them so devotedly.”

Yan Yunti breathed a small sigh of relief. She had no appetite, so she put the pastry down and lay back like her mother, looking at the shifting sunlight through the leaves. “She… is a girl with a rather cold personality. It feels like no matter what I do, I can’t warm her up. Though, she probably doesn’t need me to warm her up anyway.”

Hearing this, it sounded like a romantic problem. Qiu Lingyue tapped her daughter’s shoulder with the fan. “It’s alright. Your mother is someone who has been through it. Tell me your confusion; let me help you resolve it.”

“Mother, I suspect you don’t want to help me, you just want to hear the gossip,” Yan Yunti said helplessly. She didn’t want to say too much about Yuan Jingxue for fear her mother would catch on, but with the persistent questioning, a doubt surfaced in her mind. She thought about the wording and asked: “I recently read a storybook and have a question. Mother, do you think a Kunze’s words and actions during their Rain and Dew period are all influenced by their pheromones and body, rather than being from the heart?”

“What kind of storybook is that?” Qiu Lingyue frowned, sitting up with a serious expression. “I don’t know why you’re asking this, but remember: you are now a Qianyuan. You must never use your status to bully a Kunze. Otherwise, even if you offer a sincere heart, they won’t want it.”

Yan Yunti felt these words were like a stab to her own heart. She managed a forced smile. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“As long as you remember,” Qiu Lingyue believed her daughter had a sense of propriety and steered the topic back. “As for your question, I can only say this: if she didn’t like you, a Kunze would never let you near her. Her pheromones would actively reject you. But as for whether there is sincerity… that’s hard to say. You have to see how she treats you after the Rain and Dew period is over.”

Yan Yunti’s heart rose and fell. Did Yuan Jingxue have some feelings for her? That’s why she allowed her to be near during the period. But as for after… remembering the replaced bedding, Yan Yunti’s heart grew cold.

How much of those tiny bits of affection were merely born from the Dependency Period? Yan Yunti felt lost. Since when did she agonize over such questions?

“Mistress, a letter has arrived from the Southern Border.” A maid’s voice rang out in the courtyard.

Yan Yunti snapped out of it at the mention of the “Southern Border,” looking at the letter in the maid’s hand. The words “For Lingyue’s personal opening” were written in a steady, powerful hand. The handwriting was incredibly familiar.

“Is that… a letter from Mother?” Yan Yunti reached for it.

“Nothing worth looking at,” Qiu Lingyue brushed her hand away and told the maid to put the letter in the study, appearing somewhat irritated. “Ever since I wrote to Yan Qiao about your marriage, I don’t know what she’s thinking, but she sends a letter every half-month. She doesn’t mention anything important, just trivial matters. She must think I’m very idle to read her boring letters.”

Yan Yunti blinked and suddenly asked, “You haven’t read a single one of them, Mother?”

“Naturally,” Qiu Lingyue replied.

“Then how do you know they are filled with trivial matters?” Yan Yunti asked back with a smile.

Qiu Lingyue realized her slip and corrected herself: “I only read the first one, then lost interest.”

Yan Yunti didn’t believe her, but didn’t press further. Over the years, many had pursued her mother, but her mother never wavered, saying she had no more interest in love. Love seemed so ephemeral; her mother had loved so deeply, yet the divorce was so resolute and… painful. This was why Yan Yunti had been unwilling to touch romance before.

But it wasn’t as easy as she thought.

During the three days before the Spring Hunt, Yan Yunti’s mind was stuffed with the name “Yuan Jingxue.” She dreamed of her; she woke up thinking of her. Even with the Pheromone Pills in hand, what she craved most was still Yuan Jingxue’s actual scent. It was like a withdrawal symptom—so intense she couldn’t ignore it.

And on Yuan Jingxue’s side, she learned from Xu Yuqing that this was the result of the Rain and Dew period overlapping with the Dependency Period. She had to exercise immense restraint to keep herself from thinking about Yan Yunti day and night.

It is all a bodily reaction; it has nothing to do with my heart.

Finally, the day of the Spring Hunt arrived. Both women, far apart in the Qiu residence and the Princess’s Mansion, breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. At the very least, they could see each other now, couldn’t they?

Yan Yunti thought to herself: Ideally, I can hold her again and take a deep breath of her scent. I wonder if that’s just wishful thinking?