After Mistakenly Provoking The Soft, Unhinged Princess O - Chapter 11

The inner chamber fell quiet.

Yu Qingci allowed her scent pheromones to spread. She was too close to Yan Lingshu, so close that it was as if she could smell the faint green plum wine fragrance on Yan Lingshu.

Yu Qingci closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, forcing herself to stay clear-headed.

Her body wanted to get close to the Kunze. It wanted to smell the Kunze’s scent pheromones. It wanted to be as unrestrained as it had been last night.

But Yu Qingci did not want that.

If she truly let scent pheromones control her mind and acted without any restraint, then how would she be any different from a beast in heat?

No matter whether Yan Lingshu hated her or not, she could not do that again.

The breathing beside her ear was suppressed and hurried. Yan Lingshu lowered her gaze and saw that Yu Qingci’s hands, braced on either side of her, had already clenched into fists.

Yu Qingci was leaning over her, enveloping her from above, yet stubbornly maintaining that tiny bit of distance between them. Only the strands of hair falling from her shoulder drifted in front of Yan Lingshu, tangling with the loose hair by her temples.

The increasingly rich Qianyuan scent pheromones circled the gland at the back of her neck.

Yan Lingshu’s fingertip lightly rested beside Yu Qingci’s gland. The scorching heat of the Qianyuan’s gland passed to her fingertip, exposing its owner’s agitation and vulnerability.

She had clearly been pinched there once, yet she still dared expose her gland before Yan Lingshu.

Yan Lingshu’s fingertip shifted lightly and touched the Qianyuan’s gland.

Yu Qingci felt her movement, and her entire body could not help tensing. All the charming, reckless thoughts in her mind immediately stilled.

Was Yan Lingshu going to pinch her again?

Had she misunderstood? Did Yan Lingshu not need her scent pheromones?

“Your Highness?” Yu Qingci called tentatively.

Yan Lingshu lightly closed her eyes. She no longer touched the Qianyuan’s burning-hot gland. Instead, her warm palm moved downward and pressed against the back of Yu Qingci’s hand, where blue veins stood out.

Yu Qingci’s arm trembled.

In the next instant, she smelled the rich fragrance of green plum wine.

Yan Lingshu had released her scent pheromones.

At the same time, Yan Lingshu’s voice came beside her ear. “Qingci, today at the Yu Estate, your scent pheromones lost control once.”

Yu Qingci’s mind grew sluggish. She could not hold herself back from taking in the Kunze’s scent pheromones in deep breaths. Her whole body felt dizzy and disoriented, as if she had drunk wine. Finally, her body could no longer support itself. She leaned forward and directly knocked Yan Lingshu down onto the couch.

That tiny bit of distance between them vanished completely with this fall.

Yu Qingci lay against Yan Lingshu, feeling the softness pressed against her front, and the tips of her ears instantly burned red.

Flustered, she tried to climb up. “I—I didn’t do it on purpose…”

Yan Lingshu’s scent pheromones were too powerful. They simply could not be smelled. One breath and they went straight to her head.

Yu Qingci held her breath and tried to get up. She had only lifted herself a little when Yan Lingshu pressed down on the back of her hand, her lips moving slightly. “Don’t move.”

“Ah?” Yu Qingci looked at her blankly.

Yan Lingshu could not help furrowing her brows. “As a Qianyuan, do you truly know nothing about the effects marking a Kunze will bring?”

Yu Qingci honestly shook her head. She did not dare open her mouth, because the moment she did, all she would taste was the Kunze’s scent pheromones.

“Qingci.” Yan Lingshu looked at her face, which had turned red from holding her breath. “You need my scent pheromones, and I need yours. Only this way will our glands not suddenly lose control.”

Yu Qingci had held her breath to the limit. Hearing this, she abruptly let it out, and the rich Kunze scent pheromones surged into her nose, striking her until her mind grew unclear.

Her gaze fell on Yan Lingshu’s lips.

She slowly lowered herself, closing the distance she had just pulled open once again, until the tips of their noses touched.

As long as she moved one step closer, she could kiss Yan Lingshu’s lips and turn that mad thought into reality.

Yan Lingshu did not push her away. She watched the Qianyuan lose control, watched the Qianyuan helplessly draw close to her, wanting to go one step further…

The resistance that had already vanished suddenly surged up again.

Before her eyes, a blurry image flashed past—a Qianyuan’s throat pierced through, warm blood covering her hands…

Yan Lingshu’s fingers, resting at her side, shifted slightly.

Yu Qingci abruptly bit down on her own lower lip. After just barely brushing past Yan Lingshu’s nose, she flipped to the side and lay on her back on the couch, gasping for breath in great mouthfuls.

No. This really would not do.

Yan Lingshu’s scent pheromones were far too attractive to her. Being that close was practically fatal.

The weight pressing over her suddenly disappeared.

The killing intent that had risen in Yan Lingshu’s heart fell back like receding waves, and for a moment, she was actually stunned.

She had thought Yu Qingci would definitely lose control.

Were the Qianyuan of this world not all like that?

They only pursued the pleasure brought by scent pheromones and never thought about whether the Kunze was willing.

“Your Highness, I really can’t keep smelling it.” After lying there for quite a while, Yu Qingci turned her head to look at Yan Lingshu. Her tone was as pitiful as could be. “No matter how good a scent pheromone smells, I can’t smell it forever.”

The way she said it made it sound as if the Kunze were the one forcing her.

Yan Lingshu withdrew her scent pheromones.

Yu Qingci immediately withdrew her own as well.

However, the inner chamber was filled with the scent pheromones the two of them had released. After the two scents merged, the fragrance grew even sweeter and richer, making one’s heart restless.

Yu Qingci sat up. She sat cross-legged on the soft couch and tugged her collar loose, letting herself breathe more smoothly.

It was not convenient to open the window right now. Once the window was opened and the scent pheromones drifted out, it would be the same as openly telling others what the two of them had done.

Even though they had not done anything.

“Your Highness, let’s talk properly.” Yu Qingci looked solemnly at Yan Lingshu across from her.

Yan Lingshu lifted her eyes to look at her.

Yu Qingci went straight to the point. “I know Your Highness already has someone in your heart, so from now on, you don’t need to keep pretending to admire me.”

This was what she had wanted to say from the very beginning.

Fortunately, the topic had finally returned to the proper path.

“Your Highness, you like General Ding’an, Ning Guanlan, don’t you?” Yu Qingci asked without the slightest attempt to hide it.

The character Ning Guanlan did not have much page time in the original book.

The reason Yu Qingci remembered her clearly was because, at the very end of the original novel, Ning Guanlan died protecting Yan Lingshu. Until the final moment of her life, Ning Guanlan had still been searching for a way for Yan Lingshu to survive.

She rebelled for Yan Lingshu, and she died for Yan Lingshu. Such devotion was hard to find a second time in this world.

Of course, Yu Qingci was so certain for another reason as well—

Ning Guanlan had entered the palace as a study companion in her youth and had grown up alongside Yan Lingshu. They had known each other since childhood. After Ning Guanlan came of age, she had even asked to marry Yan Lingshu. But at that time, she was only the eldest daughter of the second branch of the Wenchang Earl Estate. Not only did she lack the right to inherit the title, she was also a Zhongyong. How could the empress possibly agree to such a marriage?

After the marriage proposal was refused, Ning Guanlan left in anger and traveled far to the northern frontier. In just a few years, she climbed higher and higher, eventually reclaiming the six northern prefectures and receiving the title General Ding’an.

In the original novel, Ning Guanlan returned too late, which was why she had not had time to stop the marriage between Yan Lingshu and Yu Qingci.

The matter between Yan Lingshu and Ning Guanlan was not exactly a secret in the capital either.

Yu Qingci said it openly because she wanted to tell Yan Lingshu that she did not mind.

She asked so frankly, as if the person who had kept saying she liked Yan Lingshu earlier had not been her at all.

“Did Qingci not say you liked me?” Yan Lingshu asked in return.

“Yes. I like Your Highness.” Yu Qingci answered with a smile.

That was not exactly a lie. In fact, when she had been reading the book, the character she liked most had been Yan Lingshu. At first, it was because Yan Lingshu’s lack of control over her own life made Yu Qingci ache for her. Later, it was because Yan Lingshu’s patient concealment and biding of time had delighted her. By the end, when she saw Yan Lingshu fail and saw Yan Lingshu’s inevitable fate of death, she had even started feeling indignant on her behalf. That was why she had never finished the original ending.

But liking a character in a book and being inside the book were two different things.

Not to mention, she had begun in a catastrophic situation, so it was inevitable that she would worry over her own circumstances.

But now things were different. She could be certain that Yan Lingshu would not develop killing intent toward her again in the short term.

Because they needed each other’s scent pheromones.

“But does liking someone mean possessing them?” Yu Qingci’s tone shifted. A starlike smile floated in her eyes as she spoke slowly and seriously. “Your Highness, when I like someone, I hope that every day of her future can be peaceful, free of worry, happy, and smooth. So even though I like Your Highness, I still hope that one day in the future, Your Highness can spend her life with the person she truly loves.

“Even if that person is not me, it doesn’t matter.”

Because what she wanted was only freedom.