The Seventh Princess Insists on Making Me Live Off Her - Chapter 27

Lian Liejin considered the matter for a long while. She had originally returned to the sect to find her senior sister and investigate the matter concerning Immortal Powder. She also intended to review the accounts of Guanxie Residence Pharmacy.

Who could have expected Gao Jingxi to come straight to her door and catch her red-handed after she had run away from home?

However, Eldest Senior Sister happened to be absent. Gao Jingxi had not brought a single guard with her this time, so Lian Liejin did indeed have a responsibility to escort the woman back to her residence.

“Naturally, I’ll return with you—with Your Highness.”

“Hmph.” Gao Jingxi was somewhat displeased and gave an indignant snort. “Did you really need that long to answer? Didn’t you say only last night that you belonged to me for this entire lifetime?”

“Your Highness, I did say something like that…” Lian Liejin felt that something about Gao Jingxi’s expression was not quite right, and her words sounded rather strange as well. “But I don’t think that was exactly what I meant…”

In daylight, fully dressed, Gao Jingxi had once again become the Seventh Princess Lian Liejin knew—cold, proud, rational, and impossible to read. Her occasional coquettish charm was as fleeting as a night-blooming flower.

Looking at Lian Liejin’s same innocent, blockheaded expression, Gao Jingxi sighed inwardly once again. She advised herself to take things slowly. For now, bringing this woman back to Changyong was more important.

After they finished eating, Lian Liejin took Gao Jingxi’s hand with a serious expression and led her toward the western side of the courtyard. “Your Highness, could we remain here for a few more days? I want to investigate the Immortal Powder matter further.”

When the conversation turned to serious business, Gao Jingxi nodded. “After I returned to Changyong, someone delivered that bottle of medicine under the name of Guanxie Residence. I sent people to investigate the person who delivered it, but he was merely a beggar from outside Changyong.”

The two arrived at the Stellar Medicine Sect’s medicinal storehouse. It was as large as an entire inn, with all the ingredients neatly arranged in rows of medicine drawers.

The drawers were connected through a system of rotating axles. The ingenious mechanism allowed any drawer to be brought directly before them using weighted levers.

When Gao Jingxi first entered the storehouse, the overwhelming quantity of medicinal ingredients left her speechless for quite some time. “Liejin, there are so many medicines here. Will a few days truly be enough to find Immortal Powder?”

Lian Liejin smiled faintly. “There definitely won’t be any Immortal Powder here. But there may be its antidote.”

“Why is that?”

“The ingredients used in the antidote are also exceedingly precious and difficult to preserve. Across the entire Pengqiu Continent, only places like the Stellar Medicine Sect have the conditions necessary to store them properly.” Lian Liejin led Gao Jingxi into a small compartment containing a medicine furnace, a pot, a pestle and mortar, and a grinding wheel. “During the process of making Immortal Powder, the medicine refiner will inevitably absorb some of it and develop a degree of dependence. It harms others without benefiting oneself, so an antidote is essential.”

“You suspect someone from the Stellar Medicine Sect made it?”

“I hope not.” Lian Liejin lit a fire striker, strengthened the flame beneath the medicine furnace, then scooped up a ladle of water and poured it into the pot.

Gao Jingxi watched until her eyes blurred. Then Lian Liejin handed her the pestle and mortar, which contained several dark and unappealing medicinal ingredients.

“Your Highness, use your stellar power to grind these for me. You’ll be faster.”

As a princess who had never personally ground medicine before, Gao Jingxi found the task somewhat novel and entertaining. She accepted the mortar and diligently began grinding, occasionally pausing to watch Lian Liejin inspect the ingredients drawer by drawer.

During that time, Junior Sister Zhao, dressed in green, continually brought Lian Liejin lunch, hot tea, a cloak, an umbrella, and an endless stream of nagging.

“Senior Sister Guan Xie, you need to eat. And drink some water.”

“Senior Sister Guan Xie, you need another layer of clothing. It’s snowing outside.”

“Senior Sister Guan Xie, why were yesterday’s clothes torn into pieces? You mustn’t fall ill. Otherwise, when Master and Eldest Senior Sister return, they’ll skin me alive.”

“Senior Sister Guan Xie…”

Unable to endure any more, Lian Liejin shoved Junior Sister Zhao outside and locked the wooden door behind her.

When she turned around, the Seventh Princess had already stopped grinding medicine. She was leaning against the daybed inside the small compartment, her red lips curved into a smile. “Why would your master skin her alive if you fell ill?”

Lian Liejin became somewhat embarrassed. After mumbling for a long time, she finally explained, “When I first arrived at the Stellar Medicine Sect, Mother had only recently passed away, and my health wasn’t very good. Master favored me more because of it. Once, I sat by the lake crying. Junior Sister Zhao saw me and kindly fed me a large piece of crispy candy. Since I was eating while crying, I nearly choked to death… Ever since then, whenever anything happens to me, Master and Eldest Senior Sister blame Junior Sister Zhao. So no matter what happens, she can never escape responsibility.”

Gao Jingxi did not know whether to feel sorry for her or laugh. However, she keenly noticed the presence of a third important person. Pretending to look casually at the icicles outside the window, she asked, “And who is Eldest Senior Sister?”

“Master’s first disciple. She isn’t at the sect right now.” Lian Liejin washed the ground medicinal ingredients, added them to the pot, and lowered the flame. “Master rarely accepts disciples and has extremely high standards. She has taken only five in total, and I rank second. She teaches us medicine, refining, and how to guard our hearts.”

“Guard your hearts?” Gao Jingxi watched Lian Liejin intently through the steam rising from the medicinal pot. “Is it related to star charts? The star archetypes within them are divided into Tanlang, Pojun, Ziwei, Tiantong, and Qisha. Benevolence, discipline, delusion, and violence form the heart of a star archetype. Is that what you mean?”

Lian Liejin nodded. “Master said many things. She said physicians should uphold righteousness and drive out evil. We need not aspire to save all living beings, but we must show compassion to all things and never take a life. Anyone who violates that principle will fall into the abyss of hell. But I still haven’t discovered which heart I’m meant to guard.”

“Unlike you, I determined the nature of my heart when I was very young.” Gao Jingxi rolled a medicinal leaf between her fingers, the corners of her lips rising slightly.

“Haha, I know what lies in the princess’s heart. You frequently keep military strategy texts and historical books beside or beneath your bed. Thinking about it, the Seventh Princess galloping on horseback, commanding thousands of troops, contending for the realm, and achieving great deeds would possess a unique charm of its own.”

Gao Jingxi was surprised that Lian Liejin knew of her ambitions. Ripples spread through her heart, and all she wanted was to gaze gently at the woman.

As Lian Liejin looked at Gao Jingxi’s heroic and ambitious expression, she placed a medicine bowl in front of the Seventh Princess with a sharp tap. “Before you can ride into battle and kill enemies, you must drink your medicine.”

The bowl of pitch-black liquid gave off an intense medicinal odor. A single glance was enough to know it would taste both bitter and astringent. Gao Jingxi immediately pushed the bowl far away, turned her face aside, furrowed her brows, and whispered, “I don’t want to drink it. It’s bitter.”

“Then we’ll wait until it cools before you drink it.”

Gao Jingxi: “…”

Would it somehow stop being bitter once it cooled? What a liar. All liars were like this.

“Your Highness, there’s something else I want to ask.” Lian Liejin stopped herself. She had intended to ask about the mole again, but Gao Jingxi had refused to answer twice already. She therefore changed the subject and asked about another matter that had been bothering her. “Do you know about the Princess Consort Evaluation Form?”

The Princess Consort Evaluation Form.

Gao Jingxi remembered it. Momo Zhao had given it to her on the second morning after the wedding, saying it was intended to evaluate the Princess Consort’s specific performance. She had even been required to provide honest scores in three categories: endurance, strength, and technique…

At the time, Gao Jingxi had carelessly drawn three circles.

She absolutely could not tell Lian Liejin about that.

Gao Jingxi pulled the medicine bowl back toward herself.

Apparently, after waiting for a while, the medicine truly did become less bitter.

Seeing the princess’s face alternate between pale and red before she voluntarily lifted the medicine bowl, Lian Liejin could not help suspecting that Gao Jingxi was employing some tactical medicine-drinking maneuver to avoid answering the question.

Unfortunately, Gao Jingxi had underestimated Lian Liejin’s persistence. The moment she put down the bowl, Lian Liejin forcibly fed her a sour plum.

Like a magician performing a trick, Lian Liejin produced several sour plums from a small doucai porcelain dish hidden behind her. She hummed teasingly at Gao Jingxi. “Is there really a Princess Consort Evaluation Form or not? Your Highness, tell me quickly. Now that you’ve eaten the sour plum, your mouth isn’t bitter anymore, so confess everything honestly.”

“Your Highness, hurry and tell me. You won’t escape today. This concerns my reputation for the next hundred years. Mmph—”

Seeing that Lian Liejin would never stop until she received an answer, Gao Jingxi acted decisively. She picked up a sour plum and stuffed it into Lian Liejin’s mouth to silence her. However, her finger accidentally brushed against the woman’s nimble, warm, and moist tongue as she spoke.

The warm, soft sensation made the Seventh Princess jerk her hand back as though struck by lightning. She attempted to lift the medicine bowl again to hide her face, but Lian Liejin caught its rim first.

Before Lian Liejin could speak—

Gao “Wrong but Still Righteously Confident” Jingxi said, “What? You’re allowed to feed me, but I’m not allowed to feed you?”

Lian Liejin: “…”

Whenever the princess used her ability to blame the victim, there was no possible rebuttal.

Nothing was more frightening than a sudden silence.

Knowing she was in the wrong, Gao Jingxi’s thoughts turned countless times. Partly to change the subject and partly because she genuinely wanted to ask, she put on an expression as though nothing had happened and smiled faintly. “You were the one who injured that assassin’s hand, weren’t you?”

“Of course. Although the assassin had reached the rank of Astrologer…” Lian Liejin casually twisted her right hand through the air in an elegant flourish and instantly removed the golden-magpie necklace from Gao Jingxi’s neck. “I know the vital points of the human body extremely well. My ‘empty hand’ technique was more than enough to deal with her.”

“Empty hand?” Gao Jingxi smiled slyly and waved the black jade in her own hand. “Liejin, what do you think of this technique?”

“Wow, Your Highness, I didn’t expect you to know tricks like this too.” Lian Liejin widened her eyes and felt around her waist with both hands. Gao Jingxi had truly taken her paired-badger black-jade pendant. She lowered her head and carefully examined Gao Jingxi’s slender, pale hands, sighing, “It would be a pity if hands this skillful never played mahjong.”

“What is mahjong?”

“Tsk, tsk. Your Highness, come with me.” Lian Liejin extinguished the furnace, picked up a blue paper umbrella, grabbed Gao Jingxi, and hurried out of the storehouse. After several twists and turns, they entered a small path lined with plum trees.

The light snow had already become heavy. As the two jogged along, swirling snowflakes drifted toward their brows and settled on eyelashes shaped like the wings of swallowtail butterflies.

Gao Jingxi remained half a step behind Lian Liejin. Along the way, she watched plum blossoms torn from their branches dancing among the thin, falling snow.

They resembled white convolvulus flowers and scattered specks of cinnabar weaving through Lian Liejin’s cloudlike hair.

The wind in the mountains was already strong, yet the two ran hand in hand directly into it. The cold air cut like knives against Gao Jingxi’s delicate skin, but an unprecedented sense of freedom and peace suddenly filled her heart.

Between heaven and earth, only this narrow path remained, covered in fallen snow and blooming plum blossoms—

Along with the foolish smile Lian Liejin revealed each time she looked back.

At the end of the path hung a thick, dark-blue cloth curtain that swayed wildly in the strong wind. A large character could faintly be seen written across it:

Sparrow

Beside it was a smaller line:

Possessed by the Mahjong God