After Accidentally Marking the Cold and Elegant Eldest Princess - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Incense as the Catalyst

The window lattice of the inner room was half-open. Outside, a fine rain fell silently; inside, the air grew increasingly chilly and fresh.

Yuan Jingxue sat on the soft couch, a volume of sutras in her hand. She read through the pages one by one, yet her mind remained restless.

The image of that girl’s flushed, peach-blossom eyes flashed through her mind from time to time, inexplicably causing waves of emotion to stir within her.

Yuan Jingxue remembered clearly—she was the one who had taken the initiative to kiss the Qianyuan’s lips.

Partly to quench her thirst, and partly because… the Qianyuan possessed such a striking appearance that she had been momentarily bewitched into losing herself.

Yuan Jingxue did not like the feeling of losing control. Thus, the moment she regained clarity, she had drawn a sharp line between herself and the Qianyuan.

However, the wound on Yan Yunti’s left arm was her doing. That bottle of medicine and that “merit” of saving the princess served as compensation and repayment.

“Your Highness.” Jinsi entered the inner room.

Yuan Jingxue turned a page, her tone indifferent: “Well?”

Jinsi stepped forward and whispered: “Rest assured, Your Highness. Miss Yan has accepted the medicine without saying much.”

This fit Yuan Jingxue’s impression of Yan Yunti. She was a clever person; since she had accepted the credit for saving her, she naturally understood what should and should not be said.

“Your Highness, the person has been found.” Song Lang’s voice rang out from the outer room.

Jinsi took a step forward to follow up: “Where? Where is she?”

Song Lang paused for a moment before answering: “The girl Jinwu has been found drowned in the lotus pond.”

Jinsi’s face turned deathly pale, her expression unsightly.

Yuan Jingxue closed the sutra, her tone calm: “And the others?”

“The palace maids and attendants involved today have all been taken into custody. Their lips are sealed tight, and we haven’t interrogated anything out of them yet,” Song Lang paused slightly before continuing her report, “That young master of the Xiang family also insists that it was a momentary impulse—that he intended to have a chance encounter with the Eldest Princess and was merely wandering around the bedchamber with no other intentions.”

Yuan Jingxue’s face instantly turned frost-cold.

A fine “no other intentions” indeed.

“Since that is the case, cripple him,” Yuan Jingxue said dismissively.

Song Lang replied, “Yes,” and turned to leave.

Jinsi, barely digesting the news of Jinwu’s death, turned and knelt before Yuan Jingxue, her voice filled with bitter regret: “This subordinate has shared nearly ten years of sisterly friendship with Jinwu; I never expected she would betray Your Highness. Today was my negligence. I fell for their trap and allowed Your Highness to fall into danger. This subordinate deserves death.”

As Jinsi spoke, she kowtowed heavily, her forehead striking the floor.

Yuan Jingxue placed the sutra on the side table, her expression returning to composure: “Get up. Now is not the time for self-reproach.”

The reason for Jinwu’s betrayal was no longer important—perhaps it was for profit, perhaps she was threatened, or perhaps she had been a mole from the very start. From the moment she was exposed, she became a discarded pawn; her end was expected.

Now, what they needed to investigate was how the drug had been administered.

“Before Your Highness entered the bedchamber, the incense and tea in the room were checked and found to be fine.” Jinsi stood up and stood to the side, recalling carefully. “But Your Highness’s discomfort began after entering the bedchamber. Perhaps there is something we overlooked.”

Yuan Jingxue lightly closed her eyes, her fingertips slowly tapping the table.

Yaohua Hall was the palace where she had lived before moving out. After turning eighteen, she moved into the Eldest Princess Manor; except for her birthday, she rarely stepped foot in Yaohua Hall. Despite this, some of her people remained there. Now it seemed that five years was enough time for those people to be slowly eroded and replaced.

She also hadn’t expected that someone would dare use such lowly methods within the palace.

What oversight had she missed…?

Reflecting on the day’s events, Yuan Jingxue suddenly realized something. She opened her eyes and said: “Send someone to the incense hall to fetch the incense candles from within.”

Yaohua Hall contained an incense hall where a portrait of the late Empress was enshrined. All the attendants in Yaohua Hall knew that every year on her birthday, the Eldest Princess would go to the incense hall to “accompany” the late Empress, often staying for a full hour.

If they had tampered with the incense candles, it was indeed possible!

Jinsi immediately dispatched someone to fetch the candles. At the same time, the Imperial Physician Xu Yuqing arrived.

Yuan Jingxue looked at the candles, her suspicion confirmed: “The burning length is wrong.”

The candles had been replaced. To be so desperate to eliminate evidence—it seemed there was indeed a problem with the candles.

“The candles were also checked beforehand,” Jinsi remained puzzled. “If there really was a problem, Her Highness stayed in the incense hall for an hour, then spent over half an hour at the banquet. What kind of drug takes that long to take effect?”

Uncertain, Jinsi turned to ask Xu Yuqing: “Physician Xu, what are your thoughts?”

Xu Yuqing listened to their analysis and nodded: “Perhaps Your Highness could describe the events before and after the drug took effect in detail to me.”

Only then could they untangle which link in the chain had gone wrong to prevent falling into the trap again. Xu Yuqing was a trustworthy person.

Yuan Jingxue did not hide the truth: “After returning to the bedchamber from the main hall, I intended to read. However, as I smelled the incense in the burner, I felt increasingly drowsy and even somewhat feverish…”

Yuan Jingxue had instinctively realized something was wrong. Resisting the drowsiness, she rose to extinguish the burner and looked out the window, only to find the bedchamber almost unguarded. At the time, Jinsi had been sent by her to fetch a lost painting of the late Empress. Only Jinwu was guarding outside.

Yuan Jingxue called Jinwu in to serve tea, took the opportunity to knock her unconscious with a silver needle hidden in her hairpin, and left the bedchamber. Afterward, the Xiang family’s young master likely found an empty room; those people realized something was wrong and began searching for her in the shadows. Later, when she was nearly exhausted and hiding in the rockery, she encountered Yan Yunti…

Yuan Jingxue stopped her story at the point of leaving the bedchamber.

Xu Yuqing inquired carefully about the symptoms of the drug. After reflecting for a long while, a theory surfaced: “According to Your Highness, before entering the bedchamber, you had no symptoms. You felt drowsy and feverish because you smelled the incense in the burner. Since both the candles and the incense had been checked beforehand, perhaps… it was the combination of the two that caused the trap to spring.

“Your Highness stayed in the incense hall for a long time; the drug in the candles seeped into your body silently. The incense in the bedchamber acted as a catalyst to trigger the effects of the drug already within you. Checking them separately would, naturally, reveal no issues.”

“They certainly planned this well!” Jinsi muttered through gritted teeth after hearing this.

The mastermind behind today’s events wasn’t hard to guess. The appearance of the Xiang family’s young master already explained much. His father was the Minister of Works, ostensibly neutral but actually aligned with the Second Princess, Yuan Lianhua. Yuan Lianhua was born to Noble Consort Rong; with the Noble Consort currently managing the inner palace, setting such a trap in Yaohua Hall was not difficult.

Now that the trap was broken and all evidence destroyed, even if they interrogated something out of the attendants, Noble Consort Rong would never admit to it.

“Your Highness, what should we do next?” Jinsi was unwilling to let it go. They had plotted against the Eldest Princess like this; how could they not pay a price?

Yuan Jingxue was exceptionally calm. She likely knew why Noble Consort Rong was so desperate to set this trap. Yuan Lianhua had suffered too heavy a loss previously, losing her post in the Ministry of War, leading them to take a desperate risk to manipulate Yuan Jingxue through marriage.

They thought far too simply.

“Withdraw the Imperial Guards from the main hall. Let Song Lang continue the interrogation,” Yuan Jingxue said as she rose. “I shall go to Chonghua Hall to have an audience with the Empress Mother.”

As she took a step, she sensed something and her brow knitted slightly.

Jinsi only then remembered a more important matter. She stepped forward to support Yuan Jingxue and asked in a low voice: “Does Your Highness require medicine to be applied?”

The collar of her current dress was higher, capable of hiding the reddened gland on the back of her neck.

Yuan Jingxue let out a light breath and shook her head: “No need. We shall speak of it after leaving the palace.”

That Qianyuan was truly too “wicked.” Drawing a line between them was the wisest course of action.

The Imperial Guards in the main hall received the order and withdrew one after another. The guests could not wait to leave the palace.

Yan Yunti saw that Fang Li wanted to say something to her, but she had more important things on her mind and no interest in pleasantries.

“Aunt and Second Sister, please go back first. I have some matters to discuss with Miss Tan.” Without waiting for Fang Li’s response, Yan Yunti turned and boarded Tan Ning’s carriage.

Once inside the carriage, Tan Ning’s posture was no longer as dignified as it was outside. She leaned lazily against a soft pillow and looked at Yan Yunti with a smile: “I recall someone saying they weren’t curious about the Eldest Princess earlier? So how did a ‘life-saving debt’ suddenly appear?”

Yan Yunti extended her wrist and got straight to the point: “Check my pulse and see if I’ve differentiated into a Qianyuan.”

The teasing on Tan Ning’s face vanished, and she sat up straight: “Differentiated? You’re already eighteen, how could you differentiate now?”

As she asked, Tan Ning placed her fingers on Yan Yunti’s pulse. “Tell me, what symptoms did you have before and after?”

Yan Yunti omitted the part about the drug and described her condition roughly: “Before differentiating, my whole body was feverish, my gland was burning hot, and my energy seemed excessively high…”

The drug in the imperial wine likely had a dizzying effect. When she first left the main hall, she had symptoms of vertigo, but they disappeared later. A Qianyuan’s physical strength is naturally better than a Kunze’s or a Zhongyong’s; it was highly likely her differentiation neutralized that part of the drug’s effect. That was why she could run so fast while carrying someone.

“Turn around, let me see your gland.” Though a Kunze, Tan Ning did not shy away. After a careful examination, she said in shock: “You really did differentiate into a Qianyuan. But this gland of yours… it’s quite severely red.”

“Is it?” Yan Yunti reached out to touch her nape but felt nothing unusual.

Tan Ning stared at her and whispered with great interest: “If I haven’t misdiagnosed, Eldest Miss Yan, you just marked a Kunze.”

A bolt from the blue.

Yan Yunti coughed heavily, her voice also lowered: “Don’t talk nonsense.”

“Whether I’m talking nonsense or not, you know it in your heart.” Tan Ning leaned back against the pillow. She didn’t pry further but offered a kind reminder: “You’ve only just differentiated as a Qianyuan and immediately marked a Kunze; be careful of the after-effects.”

“A temporary mark has after-effects? I’ve never heard of that.” Yan Yunti felt a growing sense of unease but still found it hard to believe.

“Normally, after a Qianyuan temporarily marks a Kunze, both parties develop subtle emotions and a sense of dependency on each other,” Tan Ning explained. “For example, the Qianyuan will feel a certain possessiveness toward the Kunze, and the Kunze will want to cling to the Qianyuan. Of course, these feelings can be suppressed by reason. If you don’t see each other for seven days, the feelings will naturally dissipate.”

Yan Yunti was about to let out a sigh of relief—not seeing each other for seven days was easy.

But then she heard Tan Ning continue: “However, there is an exception. If the pheromone compatibility between both parties is too deep, they will enter a ‘dependency period’ for each other’s scent for a period of time.”

The sense of unease in Yan Yunti’s heart suddenly intensified. It seemed she and the Princess had a very rapid pheromone fusion—fast enough to easily shatter her sanity.

Yan Yunti: “What happens during a dependency period?”

Tan Ning’s voice dropped even lower, each word striking Yan Yunti’s eardrum: “During the dependency period, both parties will constantly need the other’s scent for comfort, the touch of each other’s warmth, or even another marking… In other words, your bodies have fallen in love with each other.”