The Empress Wants It All: The Empire and Me - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Youqin Mingyue looked at her heavily, her red lips tightly pursed. Her icy lip line indicated that her patience was about to be exhausted.

If looks could kill, Lin Yanran felt she would already be disemboweled with her brains splattered.

Youqin Mingyue didn’t believe her at all. She likely even thought Lin was intentionally toyed with her. Meanwhile, the iron-cutting dagger against her neck was already causing a faint, stinging pain. The blade was sinking into her flesh bit by bit!

Lin Yanran tried her best to calm down. Meeting those predatory, gloomy eyes, she said, “I really was possessed by a ghost before and have forgotten many things. Please guide me on what I need to do for a temporary mark.”

Unexpectedly, as soon as she said this, the blade advanced another millimeter. Lin Yanran immediately felt a sharp sting, followed by the sensation of hot, wet liquid seeping out. She was bleeding. And that spot was the carotid artery.

“I’ll do it!” she blurted out, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably. “But you have to let go of me, otherwise if I die, no one can help you.”

Youqin Mingyue’s gaze turned a degree colder. As she thought, this scum was just acting earlier.

The pheromones were on the verge of a riot. If she didn’t suppress them now, her identity as a top-tier Kunze would definitely be exposed. Combined with her extraordinary natural fragrance, once powerful Qianyuan were drawn to her… the consequences would be unthinkable!

She had suffered enough in her past life. In this new life, she didn’t want to wrong herself. She would make do with this scum for now, then tear her into ten thousand pieces once it was over.

She loosened the blade slightly and said heavily, “Begin.”

Lin Yanran took a deep breath, trying to make her tone sound solemn. “What do I do first?”

Youqin Mingyue’s voice was terrifyingly cold. “Release your pheromones.”

When she was first rescued, she had smelled this scum’s thick, pungent pheromones. To think she was still putting on an act! She closed her eyes. Intense murderous intent surged along with her turbulent pheromones; she was nearly at her limit.

Lin Yanran tried to sense something internally, but there was no movement. However, Youqin Mingyue’s strange, ghostly fragrance kept drifting into her nose. Lin was naturally sensitive to scents and had seen thousands of spices, but this alluring fragrance was something she had never encountered before. Her head felt muddled, and her consciousness grew sluggish.

The person before her was clearly a lethal poppy, yet she was breathtakingly beautiful. Lin Yanran couldn’t help but lick her lips.

Youqin Mingyue was impatient to the extreme. Her ink-black pupils stared fixedly at Lin. She disdained speaking to her and used her fair fingertip to sharply tap the flat of the dagger.

Dong.

Lin Yanran immediately felt the mortal danger of the freezing blade pressing against her blood vessel. Her consciousness cleared for an instant. She was horrified to realize that Youqin Mingyue’s body fragrance actually had a hallucinogenic effect.

She made a snap decision, reaching out to grasp Youqin Mingyue’s wrist, looking at her with an earnest gaze. “Youqin Mingyue, I know you don’t believe me, but I’m telling the truth. I can’t feel my own pheromones—please help me!”

The moment Lin circled her wrist, Youqin Mingyue’s whole body stiffened. It was almost an instinct to slit her throat, but fortunately, her reason suppressed the impulse. She looked at the way Lin Yanran was watching her—sincere? This scum actually had sincerity in her eyes?

Absurd!

She averted her gaze and said frostily, “Let go.”

Lin Yanran let go immediately. Youqin Mingyue glared at her and slowly leaned in. Their eyes met. Lin Yanran watched as that cold, glamorous, and peerless face enlarged in her vision. Her heart rate inexplicably quickened. Fragrance floated, hair brushed against her cheek, and her neck was gently touched.

Youqin Mingyue took the initiative to nuzzle her neck. Her voice came from beside Lin’s ear, bone-chillingly cold. “The gland is at the back of the neck. Bite it.”

“Okay.”

At that moment, the fragrance surrounding them suddenly intensified. The rich, thick scent billowed. Lin Yanran felt as if she had fallen into a magnificent sea of fragrance; her body and mind felt a buoyant sense of pleasure. There was an immediate reaction within her. A surge of heat rushed up from her lower abdomen to her limbs. Her breathing became ragged.

In a heat of the moment, she subconsciously wrapped her arms around Youqin Mingyue’s waist. It was slender enough to hold with one hand and incredibly soft. So beautiful. She involuntarily pulled her closer.

Youqin Mingyue’s body suddenly tensed. The iciness in her eyes was almost overflowing. “Hurry up!”

“Oh, right.”

Lin Yanran tilted her head slightly. Her lips brushed against something soft and tender—Youqin Mingyue’s earlobe. She tentatively reached out, gently brushing aside the long hair, and immediately saw that stretch of white neck, as fair as frost. The silvery moonlight shone in, making the neck look like polished jade or mutton-fat nephrite. The graceful curve, veiled by the moonlight, was beautiful to the point of being bewitching.

Her mouth suddenly felt dry; she subconsciously swallowed. The blade pressed against the other side of her neck immediately drew closer. Youqin Mingyue’s voice carried a hint of suppressed mania: “Settle this quickly.”

Lin Yanran hurried to lift all the hair. She saw the gland on the back of the neck—a delicate, slightly protruding patch of skin. The color was seductive and lush, looking like a decadent paradise that tempted one to fall into sin. She could find no words to describe this soul-snatching beauty.

The gland was slightly open, and its center was seeping with threads of crystalline fluid, like sweet nectar lightly gracing tender pink petals. At this time, the fragrant scent secreting from the gland was so thick it felt like she was being soaked in a liquid ocean.

Her mouth grew drier. Her body and mind were under a lethal enchantment, luring her closer. Forgetting the dagger at her throat, she leaned in, her lips covering that seductive patch of skin. She gave it a gentle lick.

She and Youqin Mingyue both shuddered violently.

Youqin Mingyue’s reaction was more pronounced; her other arm, which had been hanging at her side, suddenly rose to grip Lin’s back. Lin Yanran felt as if the skin on her back was being clawed open. Fingertips pierced through her clothes into her flesh.

“Hurry, bite me,” Youqin Mingyue said through gritted teeth, every word carrying deep hatred.

Lin Yanran’s head was muddled, her composure lost to the temptation. Hearing these words was like hearing divine music. She immediately opened her mouth to bite down—

“Youqin Mingyue has been reborn. Unwilling to suffer the agony of pheromone disorder as she did in her previous life, she sought the scum wife for relief. However, being touched by this person makes her feel as if she’s eating a fly—utterly disgusted. She swears to tear this person into ten thousand pieces! On the day her secret guards find her, she will immediately order that the scum wife be hacked into a pulp and thrown to the dogs!”

Lin Yanran froze.

This line of blood-red text appeared abruptly in her mind like a heavy hammer to the forehead, shattering all her romantic and amorous thoughts into dust. She cooled down instantly, like a parched fish thrown into ice water.

“Youqin Mingyue,” she said quickly. “I know you don’t want me to touch you, and I have absolutely no desire to offend you. There are two ways to alleviate your symptoms right now.”

“First, the well water in the courtyard is freezing. We could try that.”

“Useless.” Perhaps due to the pheromone riot, Youqin Mingyue’s voice had become hoarse and low, alluring and soul-scratching.

Lin Yanran steadied her mind and continued, “I will go fetch Physician Liu immediately to suppress it for you.”

“Her medicine cannot suppress my pheromones.”

Lin Yanran fell silent. She had been naive; if a top-tier Kunze’s pheromones were that easy to suppress, Youqin Mingyue wouldn’t have faced so much greed and misfortune.

At that moment, the red text in her head changed again.

“Youqin Mingyue has been reborn. Unwilling to suffer the agony of pheromone disorder as she did in her previous life, she sought the scum wife for relief. Unexpectedly, this person is despicable and cunning, teasing her in every way. Adding the debt of the previous life to the hatred of this life, Youqin Mingyue hates her even more, wishing she could eat her flesh and drink her blood. On the day the secret guards find her, she can no longer suppress her towering rage and immediately orders that the scum wife be made into a ‘human pig,’ commanding the imperial physicians to keep her alive so that her flesh can be sliced off every day to feed the dogs!”

It’s over! My life is forfeit!

Lin Yanran trembled. She was dead either way; the only difference was the method of execution. If she delayed any longer, she might die even more miserably.

She shuddered, then suddenly leaned down and bit into that lush, magnificent gland. Her sharp teeth immediately sank into an extreme softness. The thick, miraculous fragrance submerged her like a dream-sea; her heart swayed and her soul was mesmerized.

The blade at her neck suddenly loosened. However, the force on her back intensified. Her spine felt a stinging pain as slender fingertips pierced her skin, clawing downward and leaving a shocking blood trail.

Lin Yanran immediately felt the delicate body in her arms turn soft. She leaned in limply, nestling into Lin’s embrace. Her waist, as supple as if it had no bones, hung over Lin’s arm; had she not held her firmly, the woman would have slipped down.

Her hair tangled over Lin’s face; their necks were crossed, their temples pressed together. For the first time, Lin Yanran felt the spiritual tremor brought by the release of pheromones. It was an unprecedented, extreme experience—magnificent, hallucinogenic, like a dream or intoxication.

The tremors came in tiny fragments, like colorful bubbles bursting one after another inside her body. A tingling numbness climbed along her skin, spreading to her entire being. She felt adrift, her limbs as light as if flying, her soul seemingly about to leave her body and dance within those decadent bubbles.

A long time passed.

Only then did the tremors recede layer by layer. Daring not to linger, she moved her lips away and slowly turned her face. She saw a flushed, moving face; the tightly pursed lips had long since parted into a gorgeous slit. As her breath brushed against Lin’s skin, it stimulated a new wave of tremors.

Lin Yanran felt as if her body and mind had been struck by lightning. Her pheromones, which had been late to arrive, only now completely exploded. She found herself uncontrollably wanting to ravage her, wanting to taste her beauty, to crush those red lips. Deep within her heart, she was filled with a soul-deep hunger and possessiveness. This feeling terrified her, yet it made her quiver. Her breathing became ragged as she desperately wanted to taste those tender lips.

“Get away!”

Youqin Mingyue’s voice was still decadent and hoarse, but her gaze was cold enough to kill. Her body was uncontrollably limp, her limbs hanging weakly in Lin Yanran’s arms, but the hand clutching the dagger remained as steady as a rock, never moving a millimeter from Lin’s neck.

Lin Yanran’s amorous thoughts vanished in an instant.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Enduring the pain of her mind being pulled apart, she fled from her side, stumbling toward the main room.

But as soon as she lifted the door curtain, she turned back. Without a word, she picked Youqin Mingyue up. The body in her arms suddenly tensed like a bow drawn to its limit, ready to strike at any moment. The ink-black pupils staring at her were bone-chilling.

“Lin Yanran, what are you doing?”

Lin Yanran lowered her eyes and gazed at her. “Rest assured, I will never hurt you.”

Youqin Mingyue stared at her intently, as if trying to find information in her eyes to confirm the truth of this statement. But no matter how she looked, Lin Yanran’s expression was serious. She was shocked and suspicious, yet she fiercely rejected the feeling, assuming she only felt this absurdly because she had just been temporarily marked and was at her most vulnerable.

Lin Yanran carried her into the main bedroom and gently placed her back into her own bedding. She kept her body hunched to prevent the dagger from scratching her.

“You can trust me, really.” She looked down into her eyes, slowly reaching to hold her wrist. The dagger was moved away bit by bit. She didn’t take the dagger away; she just held her wrist and laid it flat. Then she removed her shoes and socks and pulled the quilt over her.

Youqin Mingyue watched the whole process with a disdainful, superior look, her hand still clutching the dagger. The quilt felt like a shell, giving her a brief sense of security. Only then did her tensed body slowly relax.

Her consciousness immediately vibrated with an intense sense of comfort. The pleasure of being marked had been suppressed until now, and only now did it feed back from the depths of her mind—overwhelming and mountain-moving. It made her dazed, and fine beads of sweat quickly broke out on her skin. Her cheeks burned like sunset clouds.

Fatigue followed immediately, sweeping over her. Yet she dared not relax in the slightest, still staring deathly at Lin Yanran, giving a bone-deep warning. “If you dare try anything, I will surely kill you.”

Lin Yanran didn’t dare speak. She let down the bed curtains and walked out quickly.

As soon as she stepped out of the room, she couldn’t stop herself from sliding to the floor, curling into a ball. The late-arriving pheromone explosion made her feel exceptionally miserable. Her mind was still being pulled by the extraordinary fragrance drifting from the room, causing waves of tearing pain. Her body desperately issued a call, tempting her to rush into the room and brutally ravage the source of the lethal lure.

She forced herself up by leaning against the wall, knocking over a bench and a bamboo basket, and hurried outside.

This felt absolutely terrible! This damn book-transmigration world gave her a hellish start from the beginning! She couldn’t help but think: the fact that she chose to endure the pain rather than take advantage of her should at least lessen some of the hatred, right?

Unfortunately—

Inside the room, Youqin Mingyue heard the commotion and immediately realized Lin’s pheromones had exploded too, just late. The hatred in her eyes deepened.

This scum not only could release pheromones but could also temporarily mark her. She really was pretending earlier!

How hateful! If this person does not die, she will never find peace!