After Mistakenly Provoking The Soft, Unhinged Princess O - Chapter 6

“Your Highness, this is the gift list I chose. See whether it is suitable.” Yu Qingci handed over the gift list she had just finished writing.

Yan Lingshu rose and shook her head slightly. “There is no need. Qingci may decide. It is getting late. We should go to the Yu Estate earlier.”

“All right.” Yu Qingci passed the gift list to Chunhe.

Xiaxi needed to stay in the residence to organize the storeroom, and Yu Qingci was not familiar with the other maidservants, so she simply had Chunhe accompany her back to the estate.

Seeing Yan Lingshu walk forward, Yu Qingci hesitated for a moment, then still took a step closer. Through the layers of clothing, she gently supported Yan Lingshu’s arm and said almost in a whisper, “If Your Highness truly feels uncomfortable, I can support you while you walk.”

This time, she did not ask where Yan Lingshu was uncomfortable. Clearly, she already knew.

Yan Lingshu lifted her eyes to look at her. There was only sincerity in the Qianyuan’s eyes, without the slightest hint of teasing.

Before she could speak, Yu Qingci added, “When I came back, I had someone carry over a sedan chair. That way, Your Highness can be more comfortable too.”

The princess’s residence occupied a vast area. Walking from the bedchamber to the main gate would take quite a distance.

There were maidservants all around them, so Yan Lingshu did not pull her arm away. Instead, she allowed Yu Qingci to support her into the sedan chair.

Yu Qingci bent at the waist, reaching both hands around her body to arrange the cushion behind her, making sure she could lean against it comfortably.

The Qianyuan was too close. The faint jasmine fragrance on her drifted over with the wind.

This was the scent pheromone naturally escaping from Yu Qingci’s body. Unlike the rich fragrance released intentionally, this scent was very light. Once carried by the warm spring breeze, it was like a fine calming incense, somehow relaxing both body and mind.

Yan Lingshu lowered her eyes, feeling the changes in her own body—her body was settling into peace because Yu Qingci was near.

The instant Yu Qingci rose to leave, Yan Lingshu lifted her hand and tugged at her sleeve.

Yu Qingci lowered her eyes to look at her. “What is it? Are you leaning uncomfortably?”

“Are you not sitting in here?” Yan Lingshu answered with a question of her own.

Yu Qingci shook her head and said frankly, “I want to walk a little. I ate too much at breakfast, so I need to digest.”

“All right.” After Yan Lingshu said this, she let go of Yu Qingci’s sleeve without the slightest intention of asking her to stay.

Clearly, that question just now had been asked for outsiders to see.

Yu Qingci let out a breath of relief in her heart. She knew it. How could Yan Lingshu truly want to share a sedan chair with her?

Most likely, Yan Lingshu was disgusted with her to death inside.

Yu Qingci decisively withdrew from the sedan chair and waved for the curtain to be lowered.

A spring breeze blew over, scattering the last bit of jasmine fragrance left inside the sedan chair.

Yan Lingshu closed her eyes, calming that hint of reluctance that should never have been born in her heart.

Yu Qingci walked beside the sedan chair with long, vigorous strides. Several times, she walked too quickly and left the sedan behind, only to slow down again afterward, making sure she obediently stayed beside it.

Only after walking the whole way did she feel her body loosen a little. At last, she no longer felt so stifled.

When the sedan chair touched the ground, Yu Qingci immediately stretched out her arm, dutifully acting as Yan Lingshu’s human walking stick.

Yan Lingshu reached out and lightly rested her hand on Yu Qingci’s arm without using any strength.

Yu Qingci understood. Yan Lingshu did not want too much physical contact with her, yet had no choice but to keep acting.

Fortunately, the carriage they were taking had a spacious interior. After Yu Qingci got in, she consciously sat off to the side, so quiet it was as if she did not exist.

However, the jasmine fragrance drifting from her body was everywhere.

Kunze were naturally sensitive to a Qianyuan’s scent pheromones. The natural scent the other person could not detect herself became even more vivid and impossible to ignore inside the carriage with its windows shut tight.

Yan Lingshu could bear it no longer. She opened her eyes and looked at the Qianyuan.

Yu Qingci was boredly admiring the decorations inside the carriage. Sensing Yan Lingshu’s gaze, she looked over with an innocent expression. “Your Highness, what is it? Is it uncomfortable to lean there and sleep?”

Ever since Yan Lingshu got into the carriage, she had kept her eyes closed. Yu Qingci had thought she was too sleepy, so at first she had watched her with great concern, afraid she might accidentally tip over after falling asleep.

In the end, after watching for quite a while, the other person’s posture as she leaned against the soft cushion had not changed in the slightest. Her sitting posture was even much straighter than Yu Qingci’s.

Yu Qingci guessed that she was probably thinking about something, so she moved her gaze away and looked around.

Now that Yan Lingshu was staring at her closely, she instead hoped Yan Lingshu would close her eyes and keep thinking. Otherwise, being watched by her like this was honestly a little frightening.

Yu Qingci subconsciously straightened her posture and put on an eager-to-learn expression. “Does Your Highness have some question?”

Yan Lingshu could see that she was somewhat nervous.

Before outsiders, Yu Qingci was calm and at ease, yet in front of Yan Lingshu, she would always unconsciously reveal a little restraint. Was she afraid of showing her fox tail in front of her?

“I was thinking,” Yan Lingshu deliberately spoke very slowly, “why Qingci’s scent pheromone has changed.”

“Ah?” Yu Qingci looked at her blankly, as if she had not understood her meaning at all.

Yan Lingshu had no intention of beating around the bush with her. She leaned forward, closing the distance between herself and the Qianyuan, and lightly scented the fragrance at the Qianyuan’s neck, directly pointing out the flaw. “I remember that during the Lantern Festival palace banquet, the scent pheromones Qingci released smelled of rosemary. Why have they now become jasmine?”

Yu Qingci’s pupils shook. Her scent pheromones smelled different from the original owner’s? Why did she not know?!

Yu Qingci desperately searched through the original text in her mind, trying to find even a word or two describing the original owner’s scent pheromone. Very soon, she discovered in despair that with the way she had skimmed ten lines at a glance, there was simply no way she would have noticed that detail!

So after putting in all that effort to act until now, she had actually exposed the greatest flaw long ago?!

It was not that she had never thought of honestly confessing to Yan Lingshu and saying that she was a soul from another world, not the original scumbag woman at all.

But doing that was far too risky. Something like transmigrating into a book would be too difficult for the people of this world to understand. They had been born here and raised here, only to suddenly be told that the world they lived in was a book. Who could believe that?

And if she did that, it would be the same as placing herself completely under Yan Lingshu’s control.

Yu Qingci did not want that. She wanted to keep a certain amount of initiative.

Yan Lingshu was extremely close to her, her breath falling almost oppressively across Yu Qingci’s cheek.

Yu Qingci suppressed the shock in her heart. She looked directly at Yan Lingshu and said without changing expression, “That day, Your Highness was dazed and muddled. Perhaps you remembered wrongly, mistaking the scent of the sachet I carried with me for the scent of my pheromones. After all, on that day, I did not release much of my scent pheromone either.”

Because on that day, the empress and the others had arrived too quickly.

On the day of the Lantern Festival palace banquet, “Yu Qingci” had received a note. In Yan Lingchu’s tone, the note had invited her to meet in a certain side hall. She had gone without the slightest doubt, only to run into Yan Lingshu changing clothes inside that side hall.

At that time, Yan Lingshu’s condition had already been somewhat wrong. Her face was flushed, and the scent pheromones at the back of her neck were spreading uncontrollably.

When “Yu Qingci” smelled her scent pheromones, she had also released some of her own scent out of control.

When the empress and her entourage rushed into the hall, they just happened to see the scene of “Yu Qingci” helplessly moving toward Yan Lingshu.

The scent pheromones of the two of them filled the room. Even without any physical contact, it was already enough.

In such a chaotic situation, she had every reason to say Yan Lingshu had remembered incorrectly.

There was not the slightest trace of guilt in Yu Qingci’s eyes. Before someone this intelligent, what she had to do was not craft perfect wording, but let the other person see her ability to adapt.

What kind of person Yu Qingci truly was—did that really matter so much to Yan Lingshu?

No, it did not.

What truly mattered was whether she, as a person, was useful to Yan Lingshu, and whether she could be used.

Sure enough, the probing look in Yan Lingshu’s eyes slowly faded. She drew back, the corners of her lips curving faintly. “Qingci is right. I must have remembered wrongly.”

Yu Qingci lowered her head to avoid her smile, deliberately putting on a shy manner. “As long as Your Highness likes the true scent of my pheromones, that is enough.”

To say “likes” at a time like this carried quite a hint of provocation.

Yan Lingshu’s expression did not move. She reached out and pushed open the window on one side.

A gentle spring breeze entered, dispersing the faint jasmine fragrance and also calming the slight restlessness that had risen in their hearts.

Seeing that Yan Lingshu no longer paid attention to her, Yu Qingci finally let out a complete sigh of relief.

She must have gone mad. During that tense moment just now, as she looked at Yan Lingshu so close at hand, there had actually been an instant when she felt the urge to kiss her.