Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 73
by Little PandaVolume 3: Courtly Winds and Clouds, Each Finds Their Place
I lost out
Ji Qingchi held her for a full quarter of an hour1 before, mindful of her physical condition, she reluctantly let go.
Having not moved for so long, Su Yi felt like her whole body was about to go numb. She smiled and said, “It’s a good thing Your Highness let go quickly, otherwise I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been able to walk today.”
Ji Qingchi used her zhenqi to help invigorate Su Yi’s meridians. After hearing this, she pulled Su Yi back onto the chair, held her, and sat down, burying her face in Su Yi’s neck and humming, “This Palace feels This Palace has lost out.”
Su Yi raised an eyebrow. “Is Your Highness regretting what you just agreed to? In that case, it can also be…”
Ji Qingchi quickly explained, “This Palace doesn’t regret what This Palace just agreed to. What This Palace meant was, This Palace only held you for a little while just now, so This Palace feels This Palace has lost out.”
How could someone claim to have lost out like this? Su Yi was at a loss for words. “Isn’t Your Highness holding me again now?”
However, Su Yi’s constitution was delicate and weak; if held for a little while, her body would become sore and numb. If it went on for too long, she probably wouldn’t be able to move at all.
Ji Qingchi held her and sighed deeply. “Previously… Miss Feng asked This Palace for a Silver Pearl Kou, saying it could cure illness. This Palace later found out she used it to help you suppress the poison in your body. According to her, that medicine is only effective for a year… This Palace remembers This Palace seems tohave given her the medicine late last summer. How much longer is that medicine effective for now?”
She hadn’t expected Ji Qingchi, usually so busy, to still remember this matter.
Su Yi’s heart stirred slightly. Gazing at the vibrant life of the trees outside the window, she said, “It’s already the Start of Spring. What does Your Highness think?”
“This Palace will definitely help you recuperate as soon as possible.” Ji Qingchi smiled and nuzzled her neck. “Otherwise, you can’t take it after being held for just a little while. This Palace always feels This Palace is really losing out.”
Su Yi pinched her. “So, Your Highness is treating this like a business deal, even bringing up losing out or not.”
Ji Qingchi glanced sideways at her. “Isn’t This Palace just that sort of person who haggles over every last bit in your eyes?”
Su Yi smiled. “Your Highness truly has self-awareness, knowing what you look like in my eyes.”
“Hmph.” Ji Qingchi hmphed, but hugged her even tighter, nuzzling her a few more times until the itch in her heart subsided before letting go.
Su Yi, having been used as a hug pillow, rubbed her own exquisitely beautiful face and made a funny face. “Your Highness truly kicks people to the curb after they’ve served their purpose2. Is that it after the hug? I feel like my body has gone stiff.”
Ji Qingchi quickly helped invigorate her meridians. After a round of warming zhenqi, and confirming Su Yi felt no discomfort, she pulled her up to stand and talk about serious matters. “Let’s go to Eldest Imperial Brother’s manor for the banquet together. But before that, we need to prepare masks.”
Speaking of this, Su Yi was no longer sleepy.
She had someone bring over the handsome silver phoenix-carved mask she had prepared long ago and put it on. Then, she took out a pig-head mask so ugly it would anger gods and men and placed it on Ji Qingchi’s face.
Her mask only covered her eyes, revealing her high-bridged nose, fair skin, and pale pink lips, but Ji Qingchi’s face was completely hidden by the mask.
“Actually, I prepared it long ago! Your Highness, take a look, does it suit you?”
Ji Qingchi took the mask off her face, looked at her own, then at Su Yi’s, her expression quite subtle. “You wouldn’t… have had this prepared all along, would you?”
“Of course!” Su Yi, wearing her mask, recalled the previous banquet and said pensively, “Back then, many people said I wasn’t good-looking. But thanks to this mask, I was able to expose Su Tianci’s poisoning. The Eldest Imperial Prince’s flower viewing party at this juncture must have some strange business going on. Wearing this is how one stumbles upon such things, right? Does Your Highness want to try it too, wear this one?”
Ji Qingchi eyed her. “Are you sure this isn’t retaliation?”
“What is Your Highness saying? Didn’t Your Highness want to see what strange business is afoot at this banquet? Then this mask is a great opportunity.”
Su Yi said with a beaming smile, then helped her put the mask back on. “Your Highness is a dignified Imperial Daughter, with a naturally endowed phoenix-like grace. So what if you wear an ugly mask? You still look majestic and awe-inspiring, beautiful and naturally endowed.”
Seeing how Su Yi was practically praising her to the skies, Ji Qingchi smiled and accepted the mask. “Alright, seeing as you’ve put it that way, This Palace will reluctantly accept.”
As a result, when the two of them went to the banquet wearing masks, Su Yi was stopped and they wanted to take her away to be a serving merchant. Ji Qingchi, however, was not stopped by anyone and could proceed to the banquet smoothly.
Su Yi angrily pointed at Ji Qingchi, who was walking in. “Why is the mask I’m wearing better-looking than hers, yet they don’t stop her, but stop me?”
The guard said slowly, “Look at your attire, then look at the ornaments on you. That noble lady is clearly a young miss from a powerful family. As for you, tsk tsk tsk.”
She sized up Su Yi’s plain clothes. “Take a look at your own attire?”
Wearing a pig-head mask isn’t scary; it’s awkward for whoever is poor.
Su Yi was speechless. So it was her fault for not liking to wear those extravagant clothes of the rich and powerful.
Ji Qingchi went in first to wait for Su Yi, but after waiting for quite a while and still not seeing Su Yi follow, she found it a bit strange and turned back. By then, Su Yi had already been taken away by two guards, carried off like a little chick3.
She looked around the entrance but saw no one, then asked a guard, “Where is the lady who was wearing the silver phoenix mask just now?”
The guard shook her head. “My lady, please forgive me. She should have been taken inside, but this Imperial Prince’s manor is so large, I, a mere guard, wouldn’t know where she went.”
Ji Qingchi frowned. Just as she was about to enter to look for Su Yi, she was called out to, “…Ninth Imperial Younger Sister?”
She turned her head and saw several of her Imperial Elder Sisters getting out of their carriages one after another, standing at the entrance, calling out to her with some uncertainty.
“Is it really Ninth Imperial Younger Sister?” The Seventh Imperial Daughter stepped forward. Seeing the mask on her face, she smiled and patted her. “Why have you taken a liking to such masks?”
“Could it be that Little Nine feels that precisely this kind of ugly mask can accentuate her beauty?” The Second Imperial Daughter approached with a chuckle, pinching her mask and examining it from left to right. “Hmm, this idea isn’t bad. This Palace quite likes it too. Next time, This Palace will also wear this.”
Before Ji Qingchi could reply, a cold female voice interjected, “You’re all blocking the entrance. Are you going to let others in or not?”
Hearing this voice, Ji Qingchi immediately frowned deeply. The Fifth Imperial Daughter, however, paid no mind to her expression. Before they could react, she pushed them aside, cleared a path, and entered the gate by herself.
The Seventh Imperial Daughter, having been pushed aside, grumbled, “What’s so great about her? Isn’t she just relying on Mother Emperor’s favor…”
The Third Imperial Daughter quickly stepped forward and covered her mouth. “Forget it, Fifth Imperial Younger Sister has always been like this. Don’t bother arguing with her.”
The Second Imperial Daughter said, “It’s getting late. Let’s go in too, otherwise Eldest Imperial Brother will start nagging again.”
Saying this, she went to pull Ji Qingchi. “It’s been many days since I last saw you, Little Nine. I don’t know what you’ve been busy with. Imperial Elder Sister recently found some interesting things and wanted to show you. Come, come, come, let’s go in.”
“But…”
Ji Qingchi wanted to decline the Second Imperial Daughter’s kind offer and go find Su Yi, but she was no match for the enthusiastic Second Imperial Daughter. The Seventh Imperial Daughter, seeing Ji Qingchi seem somewhat reluctant to enter, also came forward to pull her.
This Ninth Imperial Younger Sister of hers was no longer young, and now she had no one by her side. Not only was Mother Emperor often worried, but they, her sisters, also constantly worried for her.
“Let’s go, Little Nine, let’s go in together.”
The two of them, working together, almost escorted Ji Qingchi under duress, making her enter the gate.
Facing her two Imperial Elder Sisters, Ji Qingchi couldn’t possibly resort to force. She could only sigh inwardly, wondering what kind of excuse she could find to slip away later.
Meanwhile, on Su Yi’s side.
She was taken by the two guards to the same place she had been the last time she came to the Eldest Imperial Prince’s manor. She was quite familiar with this place, knowing her way around with ease. The servant boy in charge of assigning tasks hadn’t arrived yet, so she took a stroll around by herself.
As she reached the corner of the garden corridor and was about to descend the steps, a pair of hands reached out from the side and pulled her over.
Su Yi suppressed the scream in her throat. Looking closely, a strange woman stood before her, eyeing her with suspicion. “Were you sent by the Young Master?”
Su Yi knew in her heart that the woman had mistaken her for someone else, but since she mentioned the Young Master, then even if Su Yi wasn’t that person, she had to be now.
So Su Yi nodded and lowered her voice, “Yes.”
“Good, then follow me.” The mask Su Yi wore had a special mark on it that their Xuanji Tower used specifically for contact. Hearing Su Yi’s affirmation, the woman no longer doubted and led Su Yi, turning left and right, to the back of a house. She had Su Yi go inside and locked the door herself.
Su Yi became vigilant. Could this woman have discovered she was an imposter?
Before she could figure out how to escape, the woman found a set of clothes belonging to a maid from the Eldest Imperial Prince’s manor and had Su Yi change into them.
“I’ve checked. That Ninth Imperial Daughter is currently by the waterside pavilion, accompanied by several other Imperial Daughters. Although I haven’t seen that Young Miss from the Su Manor, if we can take down one, that’s one dealt with4.”
This was the order given to her by Altar Master Chen Zhou5. At the same time, Chen Zhou had also said she would send someone to assist her. Seeing Su Yi, the woman naturally assumed she was the person sent to help.
After Su Yi changed her clothes and went out with her, she thought for a moment and said, “If we strike directly, the Eldest Imperial Prince will quickly find out it was us. If we can’t escape then, that’s one thing, but what if the Young Master’s plans are ruined6?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. The Altar Master already told me that the Chancellor’s son will also be making a move later. We’ll just follow his people. After we’ve done what we need to do, we can pin everything on him, and that will clear us completely.”
After speaking, the woman glanced at her. “Why do you look so frail?”
Su Yi remembered Shui Qing’s tearful and sniffling complaints about the hard days in Xuanji Tower, and opportunistically lowered her head, saying, “Daily training, and also having to endure beatings. I can’t eat.”
The woman was taken aback for a moment, then sighed after a while. “You still have to eat something. People like us, if we’re not careful, we might just lose our lives out there. If you don’t cherish yourself, who else will cherish you?”
“Yes.” Su Yi nodded. “I understand. Thank you for the reminder, Elder Sister.”
“Mm, let’s go.”
In the Su Manor, Shui Qing, who had just finished gnawing on a braised chicken foot and was still wanting more, suddenly remembered something in a flash. She shot up and exclaimed, “Oh no!”
Beside her, Yan Can rolled her eyes at her. “Oh no, what? The roasted meat you ordered is about to be delivered. You won’t miss out on eating.”
“Aiya, it’s not that.”
Although Shui Qing didn’t know how to do disguise, she was an expert mask maker. She had once casually made a mask and was wearing it for fun when Su Yi saw it and exchanged twenty portions of chicken feet and roasted meat for two masks.
But she had gotten so used to making masks in Xuanji Tower that she would subconsciously put Xuanji Tower’s contact mark on them.
She remembered giving Su Yi two masks. The pig one was fine; the mark was hidden by the wild boar’s tusks. But the one on the silver phoenix mask was very obvious.
As Shui Qing was worrying, the roasted meat she ordered arrived. Instantly, she transformed into a happy meal-eater7. While eating, she took a moment to think: with the Ninth Imperial Daughter around, nothing bad should happen, right?
With that thought, she instantly tossed her worries beyond the highest heavens8 and happily ate her meal.
Footnotes
- 一刻 | yīkè | A traditional Chinese unit of time, equivalent to 15 minutes.
- 过河拆桥 | guòhé chāiqiáo | A Chinese idiom (chengyu) literally meaning “to tear down the bridge after crossing the river”; to abandon one’s benefactor once their help is no longer needed.
- Original: 夹小鸡一样带走了 | jiā xiǎojī yīyàng dàizǒu le | Lit. “carried away like a chick being held/clamped.” This phrasing suggests being handled roughly or without agency, implying a degree of coercion or helplessness.
- Original: 能下手一个,算一个 | néng xiàshǒu yī ge, suàn yī ge | Lit. “can lay hands on one, count as one.” The phrase 下手 (xiàshǒu) means to start, to set about, but in contexts like this, it strongly implies taking action against someone, often to harm, capture, or eliminate them. The overall meaning is to deal with whomever they can, one by one.
- Original: 沉舟 | Chén Zhōu
- 付诸东流 | fùzhū dōngliú | A Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to commit to the eastward flowing stream”; for plans or efforts to come to nothing, to be wasted.
- 快乐干饭人 | kuàilè gànfànrén | A popular Chinese internet slang term for someone who greatly enjoys eating, a “happy foodie.” “干饭” (gànfàn) literally means “to do rice” but is slang for “to eat enthusiastically.”
- 九霄云外 | jiǔxiāo yúnwài | A Chinese idiom (chengyu) literally meaning “beyond the ninth heaven and the clouds”; to completely forget something or cast it out of one’s mind.
Her food is gonna disappear like a gust of wind, once the ninth princess learns this LOL!