Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 24
by Little PandaVolume 2: The Captivating Splendor of Jingdu
Trapped the Female Protagonist in a Predicament
Su Yi secretly sent people to investigate who was destroying her reputation behind her back, while Ji Qingchi was also looking into those who might be framing Su Yi.
The Marquis Manor was under strict guard, and she could only slip out during the Zi Hour [子时 | zǐ shí | 11 PM–1 AM] when the guards were most exhausted to contact her shadow guards.
After marking the meeting spot for the shadow guards, she was returning to the manor when she overheard activity while passing by the courtyard of three generations – Su Wang, Su Cheng, and their family.
First came Su Tianci’s aggrieved voice, “Nainai, how could Tainai let that shu person [庶人 | shù rén | child of a concubine] into our manor? What kind of place is our manor? Does she intend to adopt her to inherit the marquis title?”
“What nonsense,” his mother scolded hastily, “There’s a clear distinction between zheng [嫡 | dī | legitimate] and shu [庶 | shù | illegitimate] children. That sickly plant looks like she’s about to die anyway – how could she inherit the family estate?”
“Then why did Tainai let her move in?”
This question didn’t just perplex him; it had been troubling other members of the Su family for a long time.
During this birthday celebration, after the incident with Su Yi, some calculating illegitimate daughters of the Su family didn’t return home but stayed in Jingdu, wanting to observe why Su Ban would keep Su Yi.
Su Wang sat in a chair, playing with a sword jade [剑玉 | jiàn yù | traditional toy], remaining silent until hearing Su Tianci’s words. She gave him a cold look and said, “I heard you caused trouble again a few days ago?”
Su Wang had always been dissatisfied with not having a granddaughter to inherit the family estate. However, Su Cheng was simple-minded, devoted only to Su Tianci’s father. To prevent her husband from suffering, after having Su Tianci, she had no plans for more children and had consumed countless doses of contraceptive medicine.
Her only daughter’s judgment was clouded by love, leaving Su Wang deeply disappointed.
Su Cheng knew her mother was dissatisfied with her, but being the only daughter, she wasn’t afraid of her mother’s disappointment. “But Tianci is my only child, Mother. Didn’t you say he should marry into another family to inherit the estate? Finding such a marriage match takes time – isn’t he still young?”
Su Wang was so angry she took a while to respond, “Regarding Su Yi, let her stay in the manor for now. Don’t touch her, just have people watch her.”
First, they needed to understand why her mother insisted on keeping that illegitimate daughter in the manor before making further plans.
Su Tianci hurriedly emerged from his mother’s embrace, “But Nainai…”
Su Cheng pulled her son back into her arms, stopping his words, “Just do as your grandmother says.”
She bowed to Su Wang, “We’ll follow Mother’s instructions.”
Su Wang nodded, frowned at Su Tianci, and returned to her chambers.
After she left, Su Tianci called out in confusion, “Mother, why didn’t you tell Nainai that Su Yi and I have a grudge?”
Su Tianci was very resentful. When Su Yi moved into the Marquis Manor, he received the news, went to investigate, and recognized her as his adversary.
He was immediately smoking from seven orifices [气得七窍生烟 | qì dé qī qiào shēng yān | meaning: extremely angry] and wanted to drive them out, but his mother stopped him.
He had told his mother about his grievances with Su Yi, and he couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t take revenge while Su Yi was in their manor.
Su Cheng advised her son, “Enough, I understand your thoughts. That young girl is in our manor now – if anything happens to her, people will certainly suspect us. Just endure it for now.”
“But I get angry just seeing her!”
“Alright, alright, I’ve already had her placed in a remote courtyard. Don’t go out these days – if you don’t see her, you won’t get angry.”
Mother and son discussed how to deal with Su Yi for quite some time. Ji Qingchi, standing at the base of the wall, listened for a while before leaving, finding it uninteresting.
This eavesdropping happened just three days ago. From the conversation between the three generations, it didn’t seem like they were behind the scheme. So who could be framing Su Yi?
Ji Qingchi planned to investigate further the next time she went out to meet the shadow guards. After all, she and Su Yi were now family, their interests intertwined – if something happened to Su Yi, it wouldn’t benefit her either.
Su Yi didn’t know what Ji Qingchi was planning, but since she was willing to help, Su Yi wouldn’t be modest about accepting.
As soon as Ji Qingchi agreed to help with the portraits, she immediately had Yanshen buy several stacks of paper.
Seeing the mountain of paper as tall as a person, Ji Qingchi felt her arms already beginning to ache.
Even with her martial arts skills, after painting on so many papers, she feared she wouldn’t be able to lift her arms.
“Wife Master…”
Before Ji Qingchi could finish her troubled words, Su Yi, supported by Gancao, walked over to her.
Taking her hand with deep affection, she said, “Fulang, I’m truly sorry for troubling you.”
After coughing several times, she continued, “Yanshen, bring the nourishing soup for the Lord.”
“Yes.” Yanshen brought a pot of chicken soup to Ji Qingchi, looking at her with deep emotion, “My Lord, you don’t know, but when our Young Miss heard you would help with the paintings, she worried you’d exhaust yourself. Early this morning, she personally went to the small kitchen to select the chicken and watched over the stove fire to have it stewed for you.”
“Indeed,” Gancao was also moved, “Our Young Miss is frail, and the Family Head usually doesn’t allow her near kitchen smoke, but for my Lord’s sake, she stayed in the kitchen for an entire Shichen [two hours], personally watching over the soup’s preparation.”
Su Yi showed a pale smile, “My fulang has worked so hard for me, this is the least I could do.”
“…”
In the Yanxue Kingdom, tradition dictated that noble women stay away from the kitchen, yet the sickly Su Yi had willingly gone to the kitchen for her.
Faced with Su Yi’s weak, pale countenance, the words of difficulty stuck in Ji Qingchi’s throat, unable to come out.
Ji Qingchi opened and closed her mouth, forcing down her words and managing a smile, “Wife Master treats this slave so well.”
Looking at the mountain of paper, she silently prayed her hand wouldn’t break off, “This slave will not disappoint Wife Master’s expectations.”
Su Yi smiled with satisfaction, “Then I’ll trouble my fulang.”
She pointed at the papers, “Each sheet is divided into two small boxes. My fulang need only paint in one of these boxes.”
Ji Qingchi assumed this was to save paper and didn’t ask further questions. She sat at the writing desk and began painting.
Su Yi lounged lazily on the beauty couch, posing as a model while supervising the work.
After painting twenty sheets, Ji Qingchi’s hand began to ache, her grip on the brush trembling slightly.
Su Yi noticed her discomfort and was laughing internally.
Haha, it feels so good to stand on the moral high ground!
The female protagonist had given her such a hard time lately, now she finally got her revenge.
Using just one pot of chicken soup to make the female protagonist work for her – how delightful!
But she still had to maintain appearances. She coughed once and called, “Yanshen, the Lord has been painting for so long and must be tired. Pour some chicken soup for the Lord.”
“No need.” Ji Qingchi wasn’t one to show weakness. Once she committed to something, even if faced with mountains of blades and seas of fire, she would grit her teeth and forge ahead. “It’s just painting, I’m not tired.”
“You’re working so hard, fulang.” Su Yi suppressed a smile, adjusting to a more comfortable position while maintaining an expression of both remorse and deep affection, “Going through such trouble for me.”
“It’s nothing.” Ji Qingchi avoided her gaze, looking at the pile of papers while internally encouraging herself.
Since Su Yi trusted her so much, Ji Qingchi felt she couldn’t disappoint such earnest expectations. So she buried herself in work at the desk, painting continuously from morning until lamp-lighting time. After completing the first sheet, the rest were just copies of it, so Su Yi’s modeling was no longer needed.
So while she was completely absorbed in painting, Su Yi wandered around outside out of boredom for a while. Upon returning, she found Ji Qingchi still sitting motionless at the desk.
Su Yi secretly called Yanshen and asked, “Has the Lord been painting without moving at all?”
“Yes, even when we servants called the Lord for meals, there was no response. The Lord remained focused only on painting.”
Who would have thought the female protagonist could be so diligent?
But as the saying goes, “People are iron, food is steel” [人是铁饭是钢 | rén shì tiě fàn shì gāng | even the strongest need to eat], one must eat.
She called to Gancao, “Go tell the kitchen to prepare some food.”
Ji Qingchi concentrated intensely until finishing all the paintings, her arms nearly numb.
Enduring the numbing pain, she circulated her true qi through her meridians twice before sensation returned to her right hand.
Finally completing the pile of paintings, she sighed in relief. Looking up, she saw Su Yi dozing lightly at the small table across from her, pecking like a little chicken at rice [小鸡啄米 | xiǎo jī zhuó mǐ | nodding off].
The table was laden with food, and the chicken soup was still steaming.
“My Lord, you’ve finally finished.” Gancao brought over the chicken soup, “Our Young Miss has been waiting to dine with you, but you were so focused earlier that she didn’t want to disturb you.”
Ji Qingchi held the warm chicken soup, watching Su Yi doze, her feelings mixed, “Has the Young Miss been here the whole time?”
Gancao didn’t dare reveal that Su Yi had slipped out to play, and responded stiffly, “Yes, Young Miss has been waiting for my Lord. We’ve reheated the chicken soup several times, but Young Miss’s constitution is too weak to stay up long, so she just fell asleep.”
Ji Qingchi finished the soup silently, “Then let’s not wake the Young Miss.”
Su Yi couldn’t stay up late, and it was already the first quarter of the Hai Hour [9:15-9:30 PM]. If awakened now, she might not be able to fall asleep again. With her weak constitution, it could trigger another illness.
After some thought, Ji Qingchi approached Su Yi, carefully lifted her up, and carried her back to her chamber, gently laying her on the bed to sleep peacefully.
With her martial arts skills, Ji Qingchi moved without Su Yi noticing at all, as she continued sleeping deeply.
However, just as Ji Qingchi was about to leave, Su Yi softly called out, “Fulang.”
Ji Qingchi was surprised, thinking she had awakened, but Su Yi showed no signs of consciousness – it was merely sleep-talking.
During her time at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau [钦天监 | qīn tiān jiān | imperial office for astronomy and divination], she had heard the dream-interpreting Star Officials say that sleep-talking represents what one thinks about during the day.
Su Yi was calling her name in her dreams – what did that mean?
Ji Qingchi dared not think too deeply about it, though her gaze toward Su Yi had softened considerably. “Wife Master, sweet dreams.”
Su Yi remained in deep sleep, her profile as perfect as a stone sculpture.
Ji Qingchi slowly withdrew from her room, planning to have someone bring more paper for painting while she wasn’t too tired yet.
Shortly after she closed the door and left, Su Yi slowly opened her eyes, staring at the bed canopy above with a look of despair. “I’ve really tormented the female protagonist. I hope she doesn’t strangle me tomorrow?”
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