After Accidentally Marking the Cold and Elegant Eldest Princess - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Biting Back at the Qianyuan

“Yan—” Yuan Jingxue had only uttered one syllable before she pressed her lips together and held it back.

The Qianyuan was becoming increasingly restless. Finding the touch of the tongue insufficient, she closed her lips together, taking the Kunze’s delicate and fragile gland between them, grinding gently.

It was as if she were carefully holding a piece of soft, pink pastry in her mouth, reluctant to eat it, yet unable to stop rubbing the surface repeatedly to taste it.

A layer of mist overflowed from Yuan Jingxue’s eyes. Her grip on her hem tightened further, and the rich floral fragrance from the back of her neck burst forth. In a moment of trance, her neck shifted slightly backward, pressing more firmly against the Qianyuan’s lips.

Yan Yunti sensed this subtle gesture of compliance from the Kunze. The light in her eyes brightened, and she pressed her fangs against the Kunze’s gland.

As the fangs lightly scraped the gland, waves of numbness accumulated along her spine. Yuan Jingxue felt her body on the verge of losing control.

Yan Yunti’s left hand was pressed against one side of her body. In her hazy vision, Yuan Jingxue covered the Qianyuan’s hand with her own left hand, her neatly rounded nails suddenly digging forcefully into the back of the Qianyuan’s hand.

Pain radiated from their overlapping hands.

Yan Yunti’s precarious sanity was jolted awake by this pain. Yuan Jingxue’s words echoed clearly in her ear: “Smell the scent clearly; do not do anything more.” At this point, pushing her away was useless; it was better to endure and let the Qianyuan identify the scent.

Yan Yunti became a few degrees more sober. She could hear the slight breathlessness in Yuan Jingxue’s voice, and her heart thudded rapidly, beat by beat.

She fought to discard distracting thoughts, using every ounce of her logic to pull back slightly, moving her lips away from the tempting delicacy to focus her attention on sniffing the scent.

At first sniff, it was elegant and ethereal; but the more deeply she inhaled, the more she felt the fragrance become intense, stimulating her to the point of dinitiness, leaving her body and mind intoxicated…

A quarter of an hour later, Yan Yunti rose in a panic. Before leaving, she hurriedly explained: “I am going to see Physician Xu.” The room was densely packed with the Kunze’s scent; if she stayed a moment longer, she would go mad.

The side room door was pulled shut with force.

Yuan Jingxue’s originally straight spine slumped slightly. The gland at the back of her neck was stained a vivid watery red. Her breathing became rapid as she raised her hand to press firmly against her chest, trying to suppress the increasingly intense thirst within her body.

That encounter just now had nearly burned away all of her reason.

She had only endured it with sheer willpower because she did not want to show any weakness before the Qianyuan.

If she had to identify the Qianyuan’s scent later, would she truly be able to mask it?

Yan Yunti walked quickly through the bamboo grove, taking several deep breaths to smooth out her agitated emotions before stepping into the room.

Seeing her flushed face, Xu Su showed no surprise. She laid out the prepared aromatic medicinal ingredients one by one. “Come and smell them. Find the scents that are similar, and I will grind and blend them.”

Xu Su’s collection of aromatic herbs was extremely complex. Yan Yunti carefully recalled the scent she had just smelled and meticulously selected several ingredients.

Xu Su ground them into powder, then adjusted the proportions bit by bit to mix them.

This process took a long time, and Yan Yunti’s heart gradually calmed down. When she smelled a fragrance that was nearly a perfect match, Yan Yunti breathed a long sigh of relief and asked, “Physician Xu, can the Scent Pills be made now?”

Xu Su recorded the proportions. Upon hearing this, she frowned. “How could it be that fast? Blending the fragrance is only the first step. These ingredients you selected each have their own medicinal effects. Next, I need to mix in other useful medicines that won’t affect the scent, constantly adjusting the formula and testing for the best Scent Pill. It will take at least five days.”

“Five days?!” Yan Yunti’s heart sank. “Then during these five days…”

Xu Su knew what she was going to say. She raised an eyebrow, her tone becoming impatient: “As a Qianyuan, why didn’t you think of the consequences before marking someone? There is nothing I can do about your urgency now.”

Yan Yunti decisively shut her mouth, no longer provoking Xu Su.

Xu Su was right. Although it had been an emergency, it was also a fact that she had succumbed to temptation and taken advantage of the woman.

When she returned to the side room, the scent in the air had already dissipated.

Yuan Jingxue was sitting on the couch, her expression restored to normal.

Yan Yunti walked forward and informed Yuan Jingxue that it would take five days to develop the Scent Pills.

Yuan Jingxue’s expression remained unchanged, her tone light: “I see. Let us begin.”

Yan Yunti hesitated. “Then… where should I sit?”

Yuan Jingxue raised her eyes and saw Yan Yunti’s awkwardness. She didn’t understand why the Qianyuan was nervous.

“Sit in the same position as before,” Yuan Jingxue said.

“Alright,” Yan Yunti replied softly. She peeled off the medicinal patch from the back of her neck and sat on the soft couch. This time, however, she sat facing away, positioned sideways to make it convenient for Yuan Jingxue to smell her scent.

“I’m starting now.” Since she couldn’t see the other person, Yan Yunti simply closed her eyes and began to slowly release her scent.

A cool, woody fragrance drifted through her collar toward the Kunze.

Yuan Jingxue leaned her back lightly against the couch pillow, her posture much more languid than before.

She closed her eyes, trying to treat the Qianyuan’s pheromones like incense, savoring the flavor—the initial scent was a piercing, cold fragrance that reached the heart, somewhat like the fresh scent of fir, even slightly bitter. As the scent thickened, the heart-penetrating chill gradually faded, replaced by a sense of being surrounded by warmth, unknowingly making her limbs feel relaxed and comfortable.

If this were truly a type of incense, Yuan Jingxue thought, I would probably like it very much.

The young woman before her had a straight back, sitting as motionless as a statue.

Yuan Jingxue didn’t know when she had opened her eyes to look at the Qianyuan. The suppressed thirst surged up once again. She suddenly wanted to move closer to smell the Qianyuan’s scent.

Yan Yunti heard the slight movement behind her, and her heart slowly rose to her throat.

The Princess should have better endurance than me, right?

The sounds were clearly audible near her ear; the person behind her seemed to be getting closer. Faint breaths brushed through her hair and landed on her nape.

Yan Yunti felt the woman’s cool hand touch her nape. Her heartstrings were violently plucked. Then, she felt her collar being pressed down.

Phew, okay, okay.

Just as Yan Yunti was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she felt the woman’s warm breath getting closer and closer, until it was puffing entirely against her nape. This stimulated her scent to release even more, as if vowing to entwine the Kunze so tightly she would have nowhere to escape.

“Your Highness,” Yan Yunti whispered.

The person behind her did not respond. Moving a step closer, she pressed her warm, soft lips against the gland, then opened her mouth. Just as Yan Yunti had done before, she took the gland between her lips and gave it a slight grind.

Yan Yunti’s eyes suddenly widened. Her canine teeth itched intensely.

Yan Yunti gritted her teeth and called out again: “Your Highness, are you still conscious?”

The Kunze behind her still did not respond. She opened her lips, closed her teeth, and bit lightly into the Qianyuan’s gland.

Yan Yunti’s scent erupted instantly.

The sensation of having one’s gland bitten by another was not pleasant for a Qianyuan, yet she craved the other’s breath.

Yan Yunti felt two forces pulling within her body. Forcing herself to endure, she spoke up once more: “Your Highness, are you smelling my scent?”

If she hasn’t memorized the scent, won’t we have to do this all over again?

Yan Yunti’s body shifted slightly.

This time, Yuan Jingxue finally responded, her voice low and soft: “Don’t move. I am smelling it.” As she spoke, her warm breath puffed repeatedly against the gland at the back of her neck.

Yan Yunti’s spine felt both numb and stiff. She closed her eyes and struggled to endure.

However, once her eyes were closed, her sense of hearing and touch became even more vivid. She heard the Kunze’s suppressed, increasingly rapid breathing; she felt the breath against her nape getting hotter and hotter; she even smelled a faint floral fragrance.

The moment the bone-deep scent entered her nose, Yan Yunti suddenly turned around and pressed the woman against the soft couch. The woman’s face, flushed with spring-like desire, came into view. Her red lips were slightly parted as she panted, and her eyes were brimming with moisture, completely stripping away her previous cold and distant air.

Yan Yunti leaned down, her breath approaching Yuan Jingxue’s cheek, somewhat unsteady: “Why did Your Highness bite me?”

The moisture in Yuan Jingxue’s eyes shifted slightly. She hooked her arm around the Qianyuan’s nape, pulling her down, and whispered into her ear: “Because… I wanted to bite.”

Since things had come to this, she had to make some kind of counter-attack. Otherwise, in the Qianyuan’s eyes, would she not appear as someone soft and easily bullied?

Yan Yunti ground her fangs, desperately wanting to bite the Kunze.

Yuan Jingxue was clearly retaliating against her!

And she wasn’t even afraid of her losing control!

Yan Yunti pressed down further, letting their soft fronts crowd together, even giving a subtle, imperceptible rub. She whispered in Yuan Jingxue’s ear: “Then has Your Highness smelled enough? If not, I can let Your Highness bite once more.”

The flush on Yuan Jingxue’s face deepened. She released the Qianyuan’s neck and turned her head slightly: “You should go out.”

These words were distant to the extreme.

Yan Yunti couldn’t help but feel a spark of anger. It seemed as if she was the one bullying, but why did she feel like she was being used and then tossed aside?

Yan Yunti let out a soft huff and spoke her mind: “Your Highness is truly cold-hearted.”