The Seventh Princess Insists on Making Me Live Off Her - Chapter 31

That soft rebuke sounded half annoyed and half angry. Lian Liejin jumped, realizing that she had indeed behaved a little too boldly. “Your Highness, I was just… checking your pulse while I was at it. Look, your hand was already sticking out.”

Gao Jingxi finally understood what it meant to be rendered completely speechless, with no possible argument. “I truly must thank you. You’re remarkably dedicated.”

“You flatter me, Your Highness. Your health has improved considerably, and the hidden injuries within your body are also recovering. It appears you truly have been taking the pills I made. Combined with yesterday’s medicinal decoction, the results have been especially—” Seeing Gao Jingxi’s face darken, Lian Liejin immediately fell silent and prepared to flee. Unexpectedly, Gao Jingxi caught her wrist.

A smile that was not quite a smile appeared on the Seventh Princess’s face. She exerted a little strength and pulled Lian Liejin off balance, causing her to fall forward onto the bed.

“Does taking someone’s pulse normally leave powder behind?” Gao Jingxi sat up and leaned against the headboard, looking down at Lian Liejin, who had taken the opportunity to lie there and pretend to be dead. “Explain yourself. What powder were you sneaking onto my hand?”

Gao Jingxi raised her arm slightly and tilted her head, carefully examining the pale pink powder on her wrist. This sort of powder… She had grown up within the imperial palace, where countless filthy matters took place, some even debauched and absurd beyond belief.

Coercion, schemes, and forceful seizures were all common occurrences. Yet no matter how she thought about it, she could not believe Lian Liejin would do such a thing.

After all, even if something had truly happened between them on their wedding day, despite Gao Jingxi’s status as a princess, she would have had no way to openly punish Lian Liejin for it.

Therefore, if Lian Liejin truly wanted to drug her… why wait until now?

A thought suddenly occurred to Gao Jingxi, and embarrassment flooded her heart—could Lian Liejin have been provoked by the low score on the Princess Consort Evaluation Form and gone astray because of it?

Or was Lian Liejin truly incapable, forcing her to resort to such a method to preserve her dignity as a woman?

“Um, Liejin, don’t worry. I truly don’t mind at all.” Gao Jingxi shook off the powder and stroked Lian Liejin’s glossy black hair. “Problems with the body should not be treated too aggressively. Once we return to Changyong, we can discuss it carefully and take our time, all right?”

“Huh? Your Highness, there’s nothing wrong with my body.” Lian Liejin turned her head and saw the disbelief written across Gao Jingxi’s face. She sat upright on her knees and said solemnly, “If you don’t believe me, I can prove it. I’m a physician myself. How could I not know?”

The more she denied it, the guiltier she sounded. Gao Jingxi patted the top of Lian Liejin’s head, the corners of her eyes curving. “I believe you, I believe you. Just don’t use such crooked methods again. You grew up in the mountains, and no one taught you about those matters before marriage. I neglected that.”

“Taught me?” Seeing Gao Jingxi press a hand to her forehead with a troubled expression, Lian Liejin secretly rejoiced that she had managed to muddle through the matter of the powder. Following the Seventh Princess’s words, she continued changing the subject. “Your Highness, could you explain in detail exactly what sort of instruction you mean?”

A layer of pale pink spread across Gao Jingxi’s fair face, yet she still forced herself to remain serious. “I remember that before the wedding, Momo Zhao should have spoken to you about it. Perhaps she was not thorough enough. After we return, you can consult some books and study.”

“Books?” Lian Liejin immediately found herself in difficulty. The pure stellar-power script used across the Pengqiu Continent was full of twisting, winding strokes. Since childhood, staring at it for too long had made her dizzy, and in severe cases, she would even vomit. Because of this, she had endured plenty of mockery and ridicule.

Therefore, she had worked hard to promote simplified characters within the Stellar Medicine Sect, although they could still only be used to encrypt prescriptions. When she first studied medicine, her master had taught her every character one by one, after which Lian Liejin rewrote the information in simplified characters.

Over the years, she had also translated most of the medical books here into simplified-character versions.

Thus, asking her to read books written in this world’s script—aside from medical texts, which were somewhat easier—was practically torture.

After hesitating and considering it repeatedly, Lian Liejin ultimately decided to tell the truth. “Your Highness, actually, I can’t read very well. Why don’t you teach me personally instead? Please don’t leave me to read alone. If necessary, you could even demonstrate it yourself.”

Shock flashed through Gao Jingxi’s eyes. She softly cursed Lian Liejin for being shameless, yanked the quilt over herself, and kicked her off the bed. In her eyes, Lian Liejin’s excuse was far too clumsy.

“Your Highness, why did you kick me again?” Lian Liejin brushed the dust from her clothes. The smile faded from her face, and her expression turned cold. “Does being unable to read well make someone shameless? Aren’t you being far too judgmental?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Lian Liejin lowered her eyes. Her ink-dark lashes fluttered several times, casting shifting shadows beneath them. Without saying anything else, she turned and strode out of the room.

Gao Jingxi was left alone amid the cold silence, both confused and helpless. After a long while, she finally slipped her already-cold left hand beneath the quilt again. So Lian Liejin was angry with her?

Hugging the quilt, Gao Jingxi recalled Lian Liejin’s cold expression and final words. Her brows gradually drew together into a small mountain. It seemed the two of them had not been speaking about the same thing at all. Yet Lian Liejin’s sudden anger had truly caught her off guard. Perhaps she had genuinely misunderstood her.

Looking at the sky beyond the window, Gao Jingxi abruptly climbed out of bed, slipped on her soft gold-threaded shoes, and quickly walked toward the door.

Just as she was about to open it and find Lian Liejin to explain, she hesitated again. No one had ever dared show her such a cold face. Besides, Lian Liejin was the one who had inexplicably walked away first. It was outrageous and deeply disrespectful.

She refused to take the initiative to bring Lian Liejin back, and she certainly would not make peace with her! She absolutely could not encourage this habit of running away without explaining herself. Gao Jingxi gripped the doorframe, brows slightly furrowed, struggling with herself until her legs went numb. Only then did she quietly open the door and peek outside.

The sky was growing dark, and shadows from the trees swayed everywhere. She could not tell whether anyone was nearby. Resisting the urge to step outside, Gao Jingxi angrily shut the door, returned to the bed, and tossed and turned, completely unable to sleep.

The side room farthest to the left of the courtyard was where Lian Liejin usually handled the accounts.

She stood in the courtyard beneath the bare osmanthus tree and remained there for a long time without entering.

The cold air outside helped calm her considerably, and she also began feeling regret—why had she inexplicably lost her temper with the Seventh Princess? In the past, others had said far harsher things to her, yet she had never felt much of anything.

Why had a single accusation of shamelessness from the princess provoked such a strong reaction?

She looked back from behind the tree toward the bedroom. The sun was setting, the door tightly shut, making the room appear increasingly cold and lonely.

Lian Liejin pursed her lips and began walking in circles around the courtyard. By the time she completed twenty laps, heat rushed straight to her head, and she wanted nothing more than to slap herself.

To distract herself, Lian Liejin hurriedly summoned a carrier pigeon, hastily wrote several words, and sent the gray bird away with the message.

Half a shichen later, Lian Liejin reclined in a soft chair inside the side room, one leg crossed over the other, a piece of candied jackfruit in her mouth. An agate abacus rested on the small wooden table before her.

Beside her sat a plainly dressed young woman of twenty-one or twenty-two, carrying herself like a capable steward and shopkeeper.

“Eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer. Remember to have every major hotpot restaurant offer our Emerald White Jade Medicinal Broth Base.” Lian Liejin flicked the abacus twice. “The white-jade radishes grown by our Stellar Medicine Sect are nourished with natural fertilizer. Radishes will be our star product at the beginning of this year.”

“Yes. We have already arranged for the most popular courtesans and leading performers from the major pleasure houses to include radish sets in their eating broadcasts. There are radish cakes, beef stewed with radish, hot-and-sour radish…”

“We also need radish accessories—radish jade pendants, radish sachets, and the like.” Lian Liejin spoke earnestly. “Our financing plan has already begun. Collaborating with the leading enterprises in every field is the first step toward expanding our market share!”

“Yes, yes. However, our eating broadcasts have only been operating for two years, and the leading courtesans and performers we work with are always afraid they’ll gain weight. Senior Sister Guan Xie?”

Lian Liejin had drifted off again. The shopkeeper called her five or six times before finally bringing her thoughts back.

“Ah. Every one of them is as thin as a bamboo pole. How could they possibly be fat? Apart from that, Guanxie Residence’s personnel procedures also require further rational planning…”

The shopkeeper listened while recording everything, completely unable to understand why they needed to make radish accessories. Sweat unknowingly gathered across her forehead. “By the way, are we truly moving the headquarters to Changyong?”

“That’s right. But our medicinal ingredients and crops will still be supplied by the Stellar Medicine Sect.”

“Yes. Anything supplied by our Stellar Medicine Sect will certainly be of the highest quality.” Although the shopkeeper did not understand, she trusted Lian Liejin completely. After all, the Stellar Medicine Sect had once faced such a severe financial crisis that it nearly disbanded.

At that time, Lian Liejin, only ten years old, had personally founded Guanxie Residence Pharmacy and sold the sect’s entire unsold supply of banlangen, carrying them through that difficult period.

Therefore, both banlangen and Lian Liejin held extremely high positions within the Stellar Medicine Sect—one was its signature medicinal ingredient, while the other was its genius disciple.

In only a few short years, her ideas had emerged endlessly, yet every one of them increased Guanxie Residence’s profits. Therefore, in matters of business, all frontline workers obeyed Lian Liejin without question.

“By the way, I previously asked Little Radish to pass along instructions to sell a batch of osmanthus flowers. How are the sales?”

“Ahem. Following your instructions, we wrapped the osmanthus in stellar power and shaped them like umbrellas, naming them Starlit Osmanthus. Sales are limited each day, and we have already earned a net profit of ten thousand taels of silver.” Taking advantage of a brief pause, the shopkeeper glanced at the moon outside. It was already nearing the third watch. Even when they inspected accounts in the past, it had never taken this long.

“Mm. Aside from that, you must speed up production of battlefield medicines for the military.” Lian Liejin repeatedly tapped the edge of the table with her left hand and occasionally took a deep breath. “The priorities are portability, strong effectiveness, and no side effects…”

“But developing anesthetics is extremely costly. I’m afraid the gross profit margin will be very low. Besides, military medicine supply has always been controlled by members of the imperial clan.”

Lian Liejin shook her head. “I’ve said before that Guanxie Residence intends to steal food directly from the tiger’s mouth. I’ll handle the military supply qualifications when the time comes.”

The candles inside the room were nearly burned out. Lian Liejin put down the small abacus and originally intended to rest, but her heart still felt unbearably unsettled. She therefore lit another red candle and said calmly, “There’s nothing else. Go and rest. I’ll calculate the accounts once more.”

The shopkeeper yawned, gathered a stack of rice paper filled with writing, and rushed from the side room without looking back.

At last, everything became quiet. Lian Liejin pulled the account book closer and had calculated only two lines when her thoughts drifted away again.

Outside, the wind howled.

Then someone suddenly began pounding on the side room’s door.