The Seventh Princess Insists on Making Me Live Off Her - Chapter 1

On the tenth day of the eleventh lunar month, in the Princess’s Residence in Changyong, capital of the Lan Geng Kingdom.

“From now on, you may rest at the Princess Consort’s Residence. If anything comes up, I will summon you.” Inside the bright-red bridal chamber, the woman who should have been dressed in wedding robes had already changed into a moon-white palace gown embroidered with cloud patterns. She reclined lazily against the wedding bed, her posture cold and aloof.

Lian Liejin had already expected this.

The woman not far from her was so proud that she could not even be bothered to spare Lian Liejin a glance.

But that was perfectly understandable. She was the Lan Geng Kingdom’s most favored Seventh Princess and the legitimate daughter of the Empress. She had only married Lian Liejin because of a betrothal agreement the emperor had made years ago.

It was said that the Seventh Princess had once gone on a three-day hunger strike in defiance of the imperial decree. In the end, it was Her Majesty the Empress who persuaded her to relent. As for what methods the Empress had used, only the Seventh Princess, Gao Jingxi, knew.

Now that the wedding had taken place, there was absolutely no possibility of their relationship progressing any further.

Lian Liejin did not mind in the slightest. In fact, she was secretly delighted.

“As Your Highness commands. This humble subject will take her leave.”

In Gao Jingxi’s eyes, the reappearance of Lian Liejin—the Third Young Lady of the Duke of Yan’s household, who had been raised in the wilderness—had dredged up the old betrothal agreement and forced her to marry beneath her station. Someone like that could not possibly be any good.

To be fair, Gao Jingxi’s opinion was somewhat one-sided and unjust. After all, Lian Liejin had still been a child when the engagement was arranged. However, the princess already had someone in her heart. She utterly detested the engagement and, by extension, the person she had never even met yet was expected to marry.

Thus, when Gao Jingxi finally turned around and met a pair of tranquil, unreadable eyes, she was astonished.

It was their wedding night, and Lian Liejin had just been personally driven out by her new wife. Even a clay figurine should have shown some flicker of emotion. Yet the slender eyes of the woman before her remained perfectly calm.

Could she be playing hard to get?

Gao Jingxi had seen this trick far too many times. She sneered inwardly. She had not expected Lian Liejin, despite possessing the cold and ethereal face of a banished immortal, to be no different from all those men and women who had tried to climb into her bed.

Lian Liejin noticed that the princess was examining her with a scrutinizing gaze. She lowered her eyes to conceal the faint amusement within them, then widened them again and began studying Gao Jingxi carefully.

In the end, she concluded that the princess truly did possess the beauty of a disastrous temptress. One glimpse of her was enough to make people forget the mundane world and fall helplessly in love.

Lian Liejin, however, was not among them.

Ever since she transmigrated and was reborn on this continent called Pengqiu, she had lived freely and contentedly for eighteen years.

Heaven and earth could bear witness: she had no interest in women and lived a life free of worldly desires. She had been single since birth for several decades—an ultimate veteran of lifelong singlehood. She had only reluctantly agreed to marry because her family had forcibly dragged her back to fulfill the engagement, leaving her with no other choice.

The people of Pengqiu Continent worshipped the power of the stars. Every child born there could wield the stellar power granted by the Twenty-Eight Mansions in the heavens, and each person possessed a unique star chart.

A star chart could take the form of a flower, a tree, an animal, or a symbol representing the earth, rain, wind, or the vast sky. Different patterns enhanced different kinds of power.

For example, someone whose star chart was related to fire might use flames strengthened by stellar power to cook more delicious dishes or forge superior weapons.

Because star charts were a matter of great importance, everything related to them was placed under the complete jurisdiction of each kingdom’s Directorate of Stellar Observation.

Lian Liejin, however, was an exception.

She could not use the power of the stars.

Even more frighteningly, she possessed another kind of power—one that was purer and far stronger, yet forbidden by this world.

As the saying went, an innocent person could become guilty merely by possessing a priceless treasure.

She still remembered what her good-for-nothing father had told her.

“Becoming connected to the imperial family through marriage may offer you some protection. This was also your mother’s dying wish…”

And so, she had been packed up and hauled away.

Starting today, she would be living off the Seventh Princess.

While Lian Liejin and Gao Jingxi were still staring blankly at each other, Momo Zhao, the household steward, unexpectedly returned and spoke from outside the door.

“Your Highness, Her Majesty the Empress has instructed this old servant to bring you the Many Children, Many Blessings Soup.”

Momo Zhao served at Empress Gao Jingxi’s mother’s side. Gao Jingxi had no choice but to make Lian Liejin sit beside her on the bed before allowing the older woman to enter.

“Your Highness, why have you changed your clothes so soon?” Momo Zhao showed Gao Jingxi no courtesy whatsoever, her tone distinctly aggressive.

“I asked Her Highness to change,” Lian Liejin said, wearing a shy smile. “Please do not blame Her Highness, Momo.”

“This old servant would not dare.” Momo Zhao’s gaze traveled back and forth between the two women.

She had come under the Empress’s orders to remind Gao Jingxi of her duties. No one knew a daughter better than her mother. The princess was proud by nature, and the Empress could hardly allow her to neglect the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Yan.

“Please drink this soup, Your Highness and Princess Consort. May all your wishes come true and your affection endure forever.”

“Momo, this soup…” Gao Jingxi sat upright, her brows furrowing involuntarily.

Could it be that her mother had ordered Momo Zhao to personally watch them drink it?

“Your Highness, these Yusheng Fruits were personally picked by Her Majesty the Empress.”

Yusheng Fruit was something that allowed two women to conceive a child together. Each fruit had two colors, green and red. It would be divided in half, with the princess consort drinking soup made from the green half and the princess drinking soup made from the red half. If the two then consummated their marriage, the princess would have a chance of conceiving.

“Leave it here. I will drink it with the Princess Consort later.” Gao Jingxi smiled, a rosy blush spreading across her cheeks. To anyone else, she would have appeared charmingly bashful.

Momo Zhao, however, naturally knew exactly what sort of foxlike temperament this Seventh Princess—who had been spoiled since childhood—possessed.

“Your Highness, Her Majesty instructed you and the Princess Consort to drink it while it is still warm. The night is deep and the dew grows heavy. It would be best for you to retire early.”

“You!” Gao Jingxi knew that Momo Zhao was conveying her mother’s will. She could not defy it.

The soup released a sweet, intoxicating fragrance. Lian Liejin was about to drink it all in one gulp when she detected a faint woody scent beneath the Yusheng Fruit’s rich aroma.

She sighed softly to herself before slowly finishing the soup.

Momo Zhao left.

Strictly speaking, however, she had not truly left. She said that she would keep watch in the outer chamber throughout the night.

Gao Jingxi, who had been smiling so brilliantly moments earlier, immediately let her expression collapse.

“It appears you will have to remain here tonight,” she said coldly.

Unfortunately, Lian Liejin responded with a perfectly matter-of-fact hum before preparing to lie down on the bed.

“In that case, Your Highness should retire early.”

“You can sleep with your head on the table. You are not permitted to sleep in my bed.”

“The bed is enormous. There is more than enough room if I sleep on the inside.”

Lian Liejin climbed past Gao Jingxi, rolled to the right, and closed her eyes.

The room suddenly seemed to grow unbearably hot.

Just as Gao Jingxi was about to lose her temper, her entire body began burning as though it had caught fire. She tugged impatiently at her collar, her eyes becoming hazy and unfocused.

Before Lian Liejin could even warm the blankets, a broad shadow blocked her vision.

Gao Jingxi had climbed completely on top of her, her cheeks flushed crimson.

Damn it, Lian Liejin lamented inwardly.

She had assumed the aphrodisiac added to the soup would not take effect so quickly. After all, she herself did not feel much of anything yet.

However, Lian Liejin was an alchemist. Her resistance to medicines was naturally far greater than that of this delicate and alluring princess. Besides, the drug might even have been enhanced with the stellar power of an alchemist whose star chart represented plants and herbs, making its effects even stronger.

“Guan Xie…”

Gao Jingxi had thoroughly disheveled the bright-red silk quilt beneath them. She continued murmuring something under her breath, sounding somewhere between a lover’s whisper and a soft moan of pleasure.

Lian Liejin, who was busy fishing a medicine bottle out of her robes, was clearly incapable of appreciating the romantic atmosphere.

“Change shoes? At this hour? You still want to change your shoes?”

She suspiciously glanced at Gao Jingxi’s feet.

It was the depths of winter. Even with the underfloor heating burning, the room was not particularly warm. Yet Gao Jingxi’s bare feet resembled flawless white jade stained with the rosy juice of spring blossoms, soft and pale with a delicate pink hue.

Perhaps finding their clothes troublesome, Gao Jingxi began tugging at Lian Liejin’s wedding robes.

One tried to strip them off while the other blocked her. After several rounds, both women were panting from exhaustion.

Yet Gao Jingxi, under the effects of the aphrodisiac, refused to give up. When she realized she could not remove Lian Liejin’s clothes, she sat astride her and began pulling off her own brocade robe instead.

In the blink of an eye, the princess was left wearing nothing but a pale lotus-pink dudou. Even that was hanging precariously from her body, as though something beneath it might burst free at any moment.

A breathtaking sight, accompanied by an intoxicating fragrance.

Lian “No Interest in Women” Liejin said, “Benefactor, you mustn’t. You truly mustn’t.”

She finally managed to retrieve the medicine bottle from inside her robes and hurriedly poured two pills into her palm.

Unexpectedly, Gao Jingxi immediately bent over her, caught both her wrists, and pinned them against the bed on either side of her body.

Lian Liejin could only watch helplessly as the bottle and pills fell from her hand, landed on the floor, and rolled beneath the bed, disappearing from sight.

She truly had not expected Gao Jingxi to be so strong. The princess had completely forced her into a passive position.

Those were Hundred-Herb Antidote Pills, capable of cleansing the heart and neutralizing poison. A single pill was worth a thousand pieces of gold, yet an entire bottle had now been ruined before her very eyes.

Lian Liejin’s heart ached terribly.

Her already impoverished household had suffered yet another devastating blow.

“It hurts…”

Gao Jingxi’s misty eyes were brimming with tears. Even her voice had become soft, sweet, and seductive, while a bone-melting fragrance filled the air around them.

For a moment, Lian Liejin felt something dampen her knee.

While she was still distracted, Gao Jingxi’s full, rosy lips finally pressed against hers.

So soft. So fragrant.

That was Lian Liejin’s first thought.

The next instant, she tilted her head back and evaded Gao Jingxi, then caught the woman’s wrist with her left hand to check her pulse.

While Lian Liejin was examining her pulse, Gao Jingxi behaved like a kitten, constantly nibbling at her chin and neck. Suspicious damp marks soon appeared across Lian Liejin’s clothes.

Lian Liejin flipped them over and pinned Gao Jingxi beneath her.

Even the corners of the woman’s eyes were flushed an enchanting red. Combined with the faint traces of tears on her face, she appeared both heartbreakingly vulnerable and overwhelmingly seductive.

Lian Liejin sighed deeply to herself.

The drug administered by the Empress was truly vicious. Even if she wanted to help her daughter and her daughter’s consort consummate their marriage, there had been no need to use something so violently potent.

Everyone said that the emperor and empress doted on Gao Jingxi beyond measure. Judging from tonight, however, the princess was merely another chess piece used to win people’s loyalty.

Moreover, in the present world, women were free to marry one another, become rulers, and serve as officials. In the past, nearly everyone had expected Gao Jingxi to become the Crown Princess.

After tonight, Lian Liejin felt that the final outcome was still far from certain.

The medicine that had fallen onto the floor could no longer be used. Left with no other choice, Lian Liejin wrapped an arm around Gao Jingxi’s waist, lifted her into her arms, and carried her toward the bathing pool at the rear of the chamber.