Marry First, Love Later With The White Cat Princess - Chapter 37.1

“I only know it’s called the Blue Ghost Lotus. It’s been growing here since this medicinal garden was first created,” Liu Fenyun replied, half-truthfully. “If its fragrance can induce hallucinations, why am I not affected at all?”

“Perhaps it only works on demons,” Lianyi said. “You’ve never been affected by it before. But when I smell it, I can’t help wanting to roll around the scent is so soothing, it makes me want to completely relax.”

After a moment of thought, she asked, “Can the lotus petals be picked?”

Liu Fenyun remembered the lotus’s star rating and shook her head.

Lianyi looked disappointed, but soon her attention shifted back to Liu Fenyun.

“The competition is tomorrow. Ah-Yun, do you have a goal?” she asked.

Liu Fenyun had already prepared her answer. “I want to win first place and bring back the Jade Bow to show you.”

“What Jade Bow?” Lianyi blinked. “They added a reward?”

After the welcoming feast, the Ceremonial Department had given them a booklet detailing the competition rules and rewards. There had been no mention of any jade bow.

“I heard some attendants talking about it by accident when I went to pick up food at the Hundred Delicacies Hall,” Liu Fenyun said. “Maybe they added it. No matter what, my goal won’t change.”

Lianyi clicked her tongue. “Don’t boast. All the male officials who aren’t in logistics will participate this year including… the Crown Prince.”

Liu Fenyun immediately thought of the fox eyed prince.

“Is Your Highness hoping I give way to him?” she asked, half joking, half serious.

“That won’t be necessary.” Lianyi shook her head. “But the Crown Prince is extremely skilled at hunting… I won’t say more, so I don’t dampen your enthusiasm.”

The two sat by the stream, chatting quietly until Liu Fenyun received a system notification that the dryer had finished. She returned to the research room, retrieved the dried catnip, and began grinding it into powder.

Lianyi was curious about the grinder, but she was terrified of inhaling catnip’s scent, so she stayed outside and once again wandered to the lotus pond, greedily breathing in the fragrance and willingly entering another illusion.

This time she kept some clarity. The clearer the illusion became, the hotter the lotus shaped mark on her back burned.

Before her, the illusion shifted into the form of a person wearing a dark green, wide sleeved robe, with a string of white porcelain bottles decorated with blue lotuses hanging from the waist and the figure extended a hand toward her.

Lianyi instinctively looked up, but she couldn’t see the person’s face, nor could she move any closer.

She tried harder, but couldn’t even touch the hem of the figure’s robe.

Again, it was Liu Fenyun who pulled her out of the illusion, just as before splashing her face with cool water to help her regain clarity.

“Your Highness doesn’t look well did you see something frightening?” Liu Fenyun asked worriedly as she wiped her face.

Lianyi was pale but shook her head firmly.
“I was just in too deep; it’s nothing.” She smiled, though inwardly she pondered the figure’s identity and their connection to her.

Lianyi had lost a portion of her memories. She remembered only that her name was “Lianyi.” She didn’t remember how she’d arrived in Zhuohuang. If she were a wild demon, she would bear no marks but the lotus imprint on her back proved she once had a master.

Moreover, illusions if powerful enough to deceive were always based on one’s memories. That meant the Blue Ghost Lotus’s illusions likely came from her own forgotten past, and her lotus mark clearly reacted during the vision.

Perhaps that really was part of her missing memory.

Holding Liu Fenyun tightly, Lianyi grew increasingly frightened.

She had finally found someone she liked, someone with whom she had already shared spirit and soul someone she intended to spend her life with. She wanted to give Liu Fenyun everything, and she feared any lingering ties from her past.

Liu Fenyun could barely breathe from the tight hug. She coughed and touched Lianyi’s hand with a wry smile. “Your Highness, you’re squeezing me too hard.”

She said it was fine, yet she was clearly terrified.

The catnip powder was packed and ready. Liu Fenyun took Lianyi out of the medicinal garden, brought her to the bed in their sleeping hall, and told her to transform into her demon form.

Lianyi was startled. “Why my demon form?”

“You were frightened and need comforting,” Liu Fenyun said earnestly. “I’m going to comfort you.”

Lianyi laughed. “My human form can be comforted too. It’s not like you don’t know how to set up an isolation barrier. What’s there to be afraid of?”

Liu Fenyun shook her head. “The effect is different.”

She couldn’t explain further. Since Lianyi also offered suggestions, she began setting up the barrier.

Just as she was about to complete it, the sharp sound of something slicing through the air erupted—a weapon cut straight through the barrier she’d created.

Yu Qingyue withdrew her feather blade and landed before them. With a flick of her sleeve, the tear in the barrier was filled with demonic aura and sealed shut again.

“Mas…. Master?!” Liu Fenyun froze in terror and grabbed the cat demon tightly in her arms.

“Don’t be afraid.” Yu Qingyue curled her lips into what might have been a gentle smile. “I only came to ask for something.”

Liu Fenyun steadied herself, wrapped Lianyi in blankets, and got out of bed to bow respectfully. “Master, please ask.”

“The antidote to Xianyun,” Yu Qingyue said and deliberately paused.

“You know the recipe better than I do its main ingredients are all in the demon realm,” Liu Fenyun answered quickly.

“A demon gave you a finished antidote,” Yu Qingyue continued slowly.

Liu Fenyun’s heart skipped. A-Ran had indeed given her the antidote as thanks. How did her master know?

Could the leopard demon have betrayed her?

Realizing she couldn’t hide it, Liu Fenyun bowed apologetically. “Yes. It is true. I kept the antidote without reporting it. That was my fault.”

“You’ve met Qi Ran, then?” Yu Qingyue asked, not reprimanding her.

Liu Fenyun didn’t even know whether A-Ran was Qi Ran. “She called herself A-Ran. Her true form is a black leopard.”

“That would be her,” Yu Qingyue replied indifferently. “How could someone who assists a tyrant still protect the weak?”

Those were exactly the words Liu Fenyun had once spoken.

“She serves the Fourth Princess as a shadow guard that is assisting a tyrant…” Lianyi poked her head out and whispered, “But she’s protected the Fifteenth Princess, Sha Rulang, for many years. Doctor Yu may not know, but the Fifteenth Princess’s mother was killed by the Fourth Princess and her mother. So we shouldn’t rush to conclusions we must find out why she stayed by the Fourth Princess’s side and why she works for her.”

Yu Qingyue nodded slightly, then told Liu Fenyun, “Qi Ran is my junior sister. I came to the human realm because of her. Leave this matter to me. You two need not interfere further.”

She paused and extended her hand. “The antidote.”

Liu Fenyun obediently handed it over. Only after Yu Qingyue left did she realize she was drenched in cold sweat.

“Your master actually knows Qi Ran?!” As soon as she lay back on the bed, Lianyi pulled her close. “No wonder Lihua and the others couldn’t trace Qi Ran’s origins she must also be from Kongmeng City in the demon realm!”

Liu Fenyun knew very little about the demon realm or Kongmeng City. She could only give a helpless smile.

Once certain her master had left, she relaxed, gathered Lianyi into her arms, and soothed her inch by inch.

Yu Qingyue always chose to go out when Luo Binglun was asleep. She didn’t expect that tonight, Luo Binglun had only been pretending.

When Yu Qingyue silently reappeared in the sleeping hall, she turned and her gaze met a pair of deep, ink-black eyes.

“Where did you go?” Luo Binglun asked quietly.

“To retrieve the antidote.” Seeing that Luo Binglun wouldn’t look away, Yu Qingyue didn’t hide anything. She took a small bottle from her medicine pouch and approached the bed. “Take it, and you won’t suffer anymore.”

Smelling faint traces of blood on Yu Qingyue, Luo Binglun’s heart tightened. She grabbed her hand. “You’re injured?! Where?”

“How could I be injured? You think too little of me,” Yu Qingyue said calmly as she removed the stopper and picked up a pill. “Hurry and take it.”

Luo Binglun opened her mouth to ask more, but Yu Qingyue placed the pill into her own mouth instead—then embraced her and fed it to her directly.

Their lips tangled, warm and soft. Luo Binglun’s eyes widened. She instinctively tried to push her away, but Yu Qingyue was stronger leaving her no choice but to swallow the medicine.

But that wasn’t the end. Yu Qingyue continued to ravish every place she touched. Her fluttering eyelashes brushed Luo Binglun’s skin; her warm embrace seemed intent on melding Luo Binglun into her very being.

The night was long and silent.

Yu Qingyue gave her no chance to refuse. She had promised: once she solved the poisoning, she would leave Zhuhuang and not remain.

Time for Luo Binglun to decide whether she wanted to start over with her was running out.

During their closeness, Luo Binglun did think about separation but new doubts weighed on her heart. Until she uncovered the truth, she would not let Yu Qingyue leave.

She desperately wanted to know whether the one she had loved for so many years was human… or demon.

For all her suffering, Yu Qingyue had already become inseparable from her life. She could no longer cut her away.