After Mistakenly Provoking The Soft, Unhinged Princess O - Chapter 5

When Yu Qingci arrived near the storeroom, she heard a burst of shouting and arguing—

“Don’t think I don’t know! It’s you wretched girls who’ve been egging Young Miss on! I’d like to see who dares get past me and barge into the storeroom today! One of these days, I’ll have Young Miss drive all of you out of the residence!”

“Sister Zhuling, that isn’t how things are. Sister Xiaxi also came on Young Miss’s orders to pick out a few gifts to bring back for the visit. If you don’t accept it, you can go ask Young Miss yourself. Why make things difficult for us?”

“Yesterday, I personally heard Young Miss say there was no need to prepare gifts today. Yet you lot just kept whispering in Young Miss’s ear.” Zhuling planted her hands on her hips and blocked the storeroom entrance, her brows raised and her voice sharp as she scolded them. “The way I see it, you’ve all accepted benefits from the marquis estate and spend all day thinking about sending Young Miss’s things over there to fill their holes! Even if I, Zhuling, am scolded by Young Miss today, I absolutely won’t let your scheme succeed!”

Yu Qingci stood not far away and watched. Although Zhuling was blocking the storeroom like a vicious fiend, every word she said sounded as if she were thinking for her own mistress’s sake. Instead, it made her seem like a loyal servant.

Chunhe, the young maidservant who had followed all the way over, grew anxious when she heard this and hurriedly explained, “Consort, Sister Xiaxi has followed the consort since childhood. She absolutely has no disloyal intentions toward you…”

“Young Miss! Young Miss, you’re finally here!” Out of the corner of her eye, Zhuling saw Yu Qingci. She immediately changed her earlier arrogant manner, and her aggrieved tone came closer and closer as she reached Yu Qingci in two quick strides. Turning, she pointed at Xiaxi and the others. “Young Miss, look at them. A whole group of them joined together to bully me alone. They’re all eyeing the things in your storeroom. You must not be deceived by them…”

The few people who had originally followed Zhuling had no choice but to stop after hearing those words and stand off to the side to avoid suspicion.

Xiaxi and the others stood opposite Zhuling with ugly expressions.

In the past, whenever this sort of thing happened, Yu Qingci had always sided with Zhuling. Even though Zhuling had reversed black and white so many times, she had never once been reprimanded.

That was why, when Zhuling stopped them from entering the storeroom today, Xiaxi had tried to persuade her as much as possible without alarming Yu Qingci.

Once Yu Qingci was alerted, the ones punished could only be them.

Seeing the people opposite her lose momentum, Zhuling could no longer keep up her crying act, and the more she spoke, the more pleased she became. “Young Miss, you must properly punish these servants who defied their master’s orders, lest they see no one but the masters of the marquis estate in their eyes.”

“You’re right,” Yu Qingci said, as if agreeing. She fixed her gaze on Zhuling. “A servant who defies her master’s orders should be punished. Then tell me, how should she be punished?”

Zhuling’s brows lifted. “They acted on their own. In my opinion, they should be struck dozens of times across the palms…”

“That isn’t enough, is it?” Yu Qingci interrupted. “Defying their master’s orders, plus acting on their own authority. How about being expelled from the princess’s residence?”

“Young Miss is wise!” Zhuling nodded excitedly. “I’ll have them—”

“Zhuling, pack your things and prepare to leave the princess’s residence,” Yu Qingci said, suddenly changing direction.

Zhuling’s throat jammed, and her whole person went blank. She suspected she had misheard. “Young Miss, what are you saying?”

“Was I not clear enough?” Yu Qingci lowered her eyes to look at her, coldness sharp in her brows and gaze. “Xiaxi and the others came to open the storeroom on my orders. You blocked them again and again and refused to let them in. That is defying your master’s orders. I hadn’t said a single word, yet you said a whole pile of things. That is called acting on your own authority. Tell me, if I don’t expel you from the princess’s residence, who should I expel?”

“No, no, it isn’t like that.” Zhuling panicked and grabbed at a lie at random. “It was Xiaxi. Xiaxi and the others didn’t explain clearly. I thought they wanted to enter the storeroom on their own…”

“Zhuling, stop quibbling!” Xiaxi, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up, her words clear and well-founded. “From the very beginning, I said it was the consort’s order. All the sisters here heard it clearly. Yet you insisted on blocking us. In the past, whenever anyone wanted to enter the consort’s storeroom to take something, you made things difficult in every possible way as well. Which one of us sisters would have that kind of courage? Could we possibly dare steal things from the consort’s storeroom?”

Yu Qingci listened, raising a brow.

Xiaxi had said that rather skillfully. If Yu Qingci did not become suspicious after such a hint, it would be an insult to Xiaxi’s effort.

“Where is the storeroom ledger?” As soon as Yu Qingci asked, someone immediately searched out the storeroom ledger and keys and handed them over to her.

Yu Qingci casually flipped through a few pages, then handed the ledger to Xiaxi. “Take a few people and inventory the things in the storeroom. See whether anything is missing.”

The moment those words were spoken, Zhuling’s expression visibly panicked.

She wanted to say something else, but Xiaxi gave a look, and several maidservants firmly restrained Zhuling, dragging her toward the woodshed.

This small disturbance did not last long.

When Yu Qingci entered the storeroom to choose gifts, a maidservant who had been hiding in the shadows and observing quietly slipped away.

Inside the bedchamber, Qinhe reported to Yan Lingshu the news she had heard from the maidservant. “Your Highness, this servant keeps feeling that something is not quite right with the consort.”

According to the reports from Wangyou Tower, the people Yu Qingci trusted most were the nursemaid surnamed Zhu at her side and the nursemaid’s daughter, Zhuling.

Outside, she acted kind and amiable, but everyone in the marquis estate knew that Yu Qingci actually had a violent temper. Aside from Zhuling, who relied on Yu Qingci’s trust to curry favor by her side, any other maidservant who made even the slightest mistake before her might be heavily punished.

She had handed the keys to her private storeroom to Zhuling for safekeeping, not knowing that Zhuling had secretly been taking things from the storeroom and pawning them outside. No one knew how much silver she had swallowed inside and out.

How could someone so poor at judging people, so biased and easily swayed, suddenly become clever enough to drive Zhuling out of the princess’s residence?

Yan Lingshu’s eyes were lightly closed. Her fingers slowly massaged her temples, as if she had not heard Qinhe’s words.

Seeing her brows furrow, Qinhe asked worriedly, “Does Your Highness have a headache? This servant has already invited Physician Qin Shuang over. Would you like to take a pain relief pill first?”

Qinhe could guess what had happened last night. She was a Kunze as well, and she could smell the dense Qianyuan scent pheromones on Yan Lingshu’s body.

But Yan Lingshu’s constitution could not tolerate the scent pheromones of Qianyuan. If she smelled too much of a Qianyuan’s scent, she would suffer from an unending headache, to say nothing of being temporarily marked and having a Qianyuan’s scent pheromones injected into her body…

Qinhe took out a pain relief pill.

Yan Lingshu swallowed it. Yet for some reason, the pill that usually took effect very quickly had no effect today. The dull pain at her forehead continued without end, and a faint restlessness began to rise in her heart.

Yan Lingshu’s expression did not change. In a flat voice, she instructed, “Send people to watch her closely. See whether she has any contact with Yan Lingchu. Have Wangyou Tower investigate as well, and check whether there has been anything unusual in her recent movements.”

As long as someone was a fox, sooner or later, they would show their tail.

Qinhe answered in assent.

Very soon, a burst of footsteps sounded outside the chamber.

“Your Highness, I’m back.” Yu Qingci pushed open the door and entered.

Yan Lingshu lifted her eyes to look at her. The instant her gaze met the Qianyuan’s, her restless, uneasy emotions calmed in a breath, and even the pain at her forehead vanished along with them.

Yan Lingshu suddenly realized something—

Her headache had only appeared after the Qianyuan left.

And now, it had disappeared because of the Qianyuan’s return.