Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 107

Volume 4: The Perils of the Jianghu

Wutong¹

As if sensing Ji Qingchi’s icy gaze, Hua Wushang finally came to his senses. He carried the medicine over to her side, opened his folding fan with a flourish, and said with the air of a dashing rogue, “Ninth Highness, it’s time to take your medicine.”

Ji Qingchi leaned coolly against the doorframe, saying nothing. Hua Wushang chuckled. “Having Your Ninth Highness as a guest here certainly is a grievance. Once the Emperor agrees to my father’s request, I will naturally send Your Highness back.”

“Scram.” His long-winded rambling had exhausted what little patience Ji Qingchi had left, and she coldly ordered him to leave.

Hua Wushang’s ingratiating smile had yet to fully bloom before he was given the cold shoulder². He wasn’t annoyed, though. Roses are fragrant, he thought, but they tend to have thorns.

He wasn’t in a hurry. As the saying goes, a fierce woman fears a persistent suitor³. With time, even the coldest heart would melt.

Smiling, he set down the bowl of medicine and slowly departed.

Ji Qingchi didn’t trust a single thing he brought. She promptly dumped the contents into the flower bushes outside.

Only after pouring out the medicine did her mood improve slightly. She took out the injury balm and detoxification pills that Feng Qing had told them to carry at all times, then sat down to regulate her breathing.

The assassins from Xuanji Tower were sinister. Not only had they used several streams of true qi to lock her meridians, but they had also poisoned her.

And Su Yi was captured too. I have no idea where they’ve taken her. She’s so delicate and frail; I don’t know if she can endure it.

The more she thought, the more chaotic her mind became. Suddenly, her qi went astray, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“It’s best not to let your thoughts run wild when circulating your internal energy.”

A figure slipped in through the door. Ji Qingchi looked up and saw it was the woman who had ensured she was spared.

“Your Excellency… cough… may I have the honor of knowing Your Excellency’s name?”

Jing You began to heal her as she spoke. “I have no surname, only a given name. I am called Jing You.”

Ji Qingchi frowned. “Why did you save me?”

“You are still imprisoned here. How can you say you’ve been saved?”

“But my martial arts weren’t crippled, and aside from my internal injuries, my body is intact. This is all thanks to you, Miss Jing You.”

Jing You didn’t answer. She didn’t know why either.

It was just that the look on Ji Qingchi’s face as she held Su Yi and leaped from the cliff had been so utterly resolute, it had shaken her to the core.

I have no parents. I grew up in this Xuanji Tower, training numbly, obeying orders numbly, even killing numbly. I never knew the meaning of my own existence; I was just living in a daze. When I saw them jump, I realized for the first time that a person could live like that, that a person could actually fight back.

When Jing You suddenly fell silent, Ji Qingchi assumed she had unspoken difficulties and didn’t press her further.

After finishing the treatment, Jing You stood up. “Your Ninth Highness should focus on recuperating here. The Tower Master has already reported to your mother. You will be able to leave soon.”

Ji Qingchi nodded, though she thought otherwise.

My Imperial Mother has several daughters, and I’m not the most important one. I’m expendable. It’s not worth trading something that might destabilize the interests of the Yanxue Kingdom for me. I’ll have to find a way to save myself.

After seeing Jing You out, Ji Qingchi suddenly heard a crisp, chirping sound. She turned in surprise to see a Chinese hwamei⁴ perched on her windowsill.

The bird tilted its head, hopping back and forth on the sill, pecking at something.

Ji Qingchi walked over and found a tiny bamboo tube. A slip of paper was tucked inside. She unrolled it and saw it was from Hua Wuying.

“Brother likes Your Highness. Play along with the plan. —Hua Wuying.”

Ji Qingchi frowned at the note for a moment, then, suppressing her disgust, reluctantly agreed to the scheme.

The priority was to save Su Yi. Nothing else mattered. A little personal grievance was nothing.

Thus, she tore the slip of paper, leaving only the character for “likes” (悦), stuffed it back into the bamboo tube, and let the bird carry it away.

Jing You had just reached the main tower when a familiar voice called out from behind her. She turned and bowed. “Eldest Miss.”

“I’m hardly an ‘Eldest Miss’ right now.” Hua Wuying smiled faintly and pointed to the guards outside. “Being watched by so many people right after a major illness? What kind of Eldest Miss is that?”

Jing You didn’t know what she meant and simply kept her head lowered in silence.

“Aiya, Jing You, you’re really no fun at all,” Hua Wuying said, casually linking her arm with Jing You’s. “It’s rare that I’m well. My father has permitted me to go out and have some fun. Why don’t you come with me?”

“But…”

“Sigh, don’t worry, it’s fine. I spoke with my father about it beforehand.”

Hua Wuying beamed as she led her out. Just as they were leaving the main building, they ran into a familiar face. “Eldest Miss, to have so much energy right after recovering from a serious illness!”

“Protector Yang is looking quite energetic herself. Long time no see. I heard that not only did Protector Yang fail to get promoted to Hall Master, but she was even demoted two ranks to become a teacher for the new assassins?”

She deliberately poked where it hurt⁵, enraging Yang Wan. “The Eldest Miss is certainly well-informed.”

Hua Wuying gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “But of course. If I weren’t, I wouldn’t have managed to get all my subordinates promoted to Hall Masters, now would I?”

Without another word, she practically dragged Jing You away.

Yang Wan’s face turned purple with rage. She was about to curse Hua Wuying when she recalled her last words.

All her subordinates have been promoted, and many are now more powerful than me. And now she’s getting close to that little twit Jing You, who can’t squeeze a word out to save her life⁶. Could it be that she’s taken a liking to Jing You and wants to help her climb the ranks too?

The more she thought, the more plausible it seemed. Yang Wan seethed. That dead girl Jing You is a full generation younger than me! If even she can get promoted, doesn’t that just make me look even more useless?

Without a second thought⁷, she immediately chased after them.

Hearing the faint footsteps behind her, Hua Wuying’s lips curved into a slight smile. Excellent. The fish has taken the bait.

Yang Wan has plenty of people under her. She’s desperate to climb the ladder but doesn’t know how. As long as I can create a rift between her and that ‘good brother’ of mine, she’ll surely join my faction. When that happens, this Xuanji Tower will be filled with my confidantes. With me and Ji Qingchi coordinating from the inside and outside, even if my damned father’s martial arts are peerless, he’ll be powerless to turn the tide.

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It was only after leaving the palace with Xue Zhining that Su Yi realized just how vast the imperial palace of the Huachen Kingdom was.

The complex of palaces stretched on endlessly, one after another, with no end in sight. What was even more stunning was that the palaces were constructed from white marble. They stood dozens of meters tall with arched domes. Even in the pitch-black of night, the expanse of white was enough to reveal their magnificence.

Su Yi couldn’t help but reach out and touch a wall tile. “This is breathtaking,” she marveled. “The palaces here are so beautiful.”

The palaces of the Yanxue Kingdom were already grand and glorious, but they were nothing compared to those of the Huachen Kingdom. It was like comparing a firefly to the moon⁸.

Yue Ling nodded. “The imperial palace of the Dongli Kingdom can’t compare at all.”

“This is nothing,” Xue Zhining said with a faint smile, gesturing for them to follow. “Come, I’ll take you to a place that’s even more astounding.”

The two followed her, avoiding the patrolling night guards, and slipped into an area nestled amongst the palaces.

It was an even more spectacular palace. Its exterior walls were pure, flawless white, and from a distance, they seemed to emit a faint white glow, as if shrouded in a hazy white mist.

The moment Su Yi got close to this palace, she felt a profound sense of peace, like the security of hiding under the covers with a doll during a childhood thunderstorm.

She stared at the palace in a daze. Yue Ling looked around and whispered, “Why aren’t there any guards at this palace?”

“Because there’s no need for them. Besides the priests, no one else can enter.” As Xue Zhining spoke, a fiery light glowed at her fingertips. With a dull rumble, the stone doors of the palace opened.

Xue Zhining waved them over. “Quickly, come here.”

The group slipped through the crack in the door.

Upon entering, they saw a colossal tree.

The tree was so thick it would take four or five people to encircle it with their arms. Its canopy blotted out the sky, soaring dozens of meters high, its trunk gnarled and twisted. The tree was surrounded by clear, transparent water, standing alone in the center while streams radiated outwards from it.

How to describe it? Su Yi felt it looked like the simple stick-figure suns she used to draw in elementary school—a circle with lines extending from all sides.

Yue Ling gasped. “This tree… it’s huge.”

“This is our clan’s divine tree.”

Xue Zhining gazed at the tree and began to explain. “Legend says this is the Wutong tree where the Phoenix of the Nine Heavens once roosted. Only a true phoenix would alight upon it. The phoenix is a noble creature, drinking only the dew from the wutong and eating only its seeds. Later, for reasons unknown, the phoenix suddenly perished. Our clan, who were its guardians, slowly ventured out to make a living. A few generations ago, our clan leader saved the life of the Huachen Kingdom’s emperor and was named the High Priest by him. With his help, the rest of our clan also came to the Huachen Kingdom and became priests.”

Yue Ling listened intently, recalling a legend she had once heard. “I’ve heard that the priests of the Huachen Kingdom know the secrets of the heavens and the earth⁹, can divine fortunes and misfortunes, and can even predict natural disasters and human calamities. Is that true?”

“Of course, it’s true.”

Before Xue Zhining could speak, a gentle male voice, laced with laughter, answered for her.

Yue Ling immediately drew her saber, her gaze fixed on the area behind the massive tree from where the voice had come. “Who’s there?!”

Two figures slowly walked out from behind the towering tree.

Both were men. One was tall, dressed in white brocade robes adorned with a chi dragon¹⁰ motif and wearing a golden crown, with sharp, defined features. The other had red lips and pale skin and wore the same style of clothing as Xue Zhining. When Su Yi saw his face clearly, she was shocked to realize he was the man from her dream!

The man spoke with the same tone he had used in her dream, but this time he was addressing Xue Zhining, shaking his head with regret. “Zhining, you are truly too stubborn. How many times have I told you that this is not a place you should come to?”

Xue Zhining’s smile remained. “The ancestral teachings say that anyone who can open the great doors of the Sacrificial Hall may enter. Since I can open them, why shouldn’t I be here? High Priest, your repeated objections to my presence… could it be that you are hiding something here that—”

She paused slightly, then continued with a nonchalant smile, “—cannot be spoken of?”

Xue Cong¹¹ shook his head, not bothering to waste any more words. He simply raised his hand, and dozens of armored soldiers instantly appeared from behind the great tree. “Seize them.”

As the soldiers charged, Su Yi got a clear look at their uniforms and stared at the men in astonishment. “You… where are you from…”

As mentioned before, the dynasties of this world were a mixture, but they largely adhered to an ancient world setting. The soldiers here should have been wearing ancient-style armor, but the equipment on these Huachen Kingdom soldiers was clearly closer to that of modern soldiers.

“Wait!” Su Yi shouted, and only then did the two men notice her.

The man from her dream looked somewhat pleased. “I have been searching for you for a long time. I never thought you would deliver yourself to my doorstep. Excellent. This time, we can finally resolve this.”

The man in the chi dragon robes’ eyes lit up. He quickly ordered the soldiers to halt, his eyes fixed on Su Yi with a look of half shock, half infatuation. “Celestial maiden¹²?”

Su Yi was utterly baffled. “What the heck?”

The man beside him hadn’t expected this turn of events. His expression changed as he grabbed the arm of the man who was about to step forward. “Crown Prince, do not go over there! That woman… she is the one I told His Majesty about, the one who will bring disaster to the world! Your Highness must not have any contact with her!”

The Crown Prince hesitated. “But…”

Seizing the chance while the two were struggling, Yue Ling grabbed one person with each hand and ran.

The Crown Prince was still hesitating, wanting to speak with Su Yi, showing none of the composure of a future ruler, which made Xue Cong’s brow furrow tightly. He was about to say something when a flash of movement in his peripheral vision caught his eye. “Damn it! They’re getting away!”

He barked at the soldiers, “What are you standing around for? After them!”

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