Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 118

Extra

This is the Original Story’s Plot

Spring had already arrived outside, but it was still a bit cold inside the palace.

The head palace maid serving Ji Qingchi’s daily life had the other palace maids wait outside the palace with braziers of charcoal. They were to go in and replace the old coals only when Her Majesty called for water.

Thus, a dozen or so palace maids stood with bowed heads at the palace entrance. From this close proximity, they could vaguely hear a woman’s low, gentle voice from within.

“Spread your legs a little… smack… don’t move.”

Of course, their Majesty’s voice and the other sounds were even clearer.

The palace maids were all red-faced and flustered. A young palace maid, who had just come of age, looked up curiously, peeking inside through the window. She had barely managed a glance before the head palace maid chided her in a low voice, “What are you doing? Do you have a death wish!”

The young palace maid quickly suppressed her curiosity. After waiting at the entrance for another long while, a long moan came from inside. A moment later, they finally heard Her Majesty’s voice summoning them.

The palace maids pushed the door open and entered, only to see Her Majesty wearing just a thin, single layer of clothing, holding a woman in her arms. The two were layered together, sitting on a chair.

The woman’s eyes were closed, her face slick with beads of sweat. She was as beautiful as Her Majesty, and the two of them together were like a painting, a sight that was refreshing to the heart and pleasing to the eye¹.

Su Yi knew that the entering palace maids were all looking at her, but she was in no mood to care. After Ji Qingchi had gotten a taste of sweetness, she came looking for her every few days. Given her personality, such incidents would surely not be infrequent in the future. Rather than caring about the opinions of others, she might as well act as if it wasn’t happening.

As she was closing her eyes to rest, she felt a scorching breath by her ear. “What are you thinking about, hmm?”

Opening her eyes, she was met with Ji Qingchi’s predatory² gaze, filled with plunder and desire. It seemed that if Su Yi revealed even the slightest expression of dissatisfaction, she would be torn to shreds.

“Your Majesty…” Su Yi began, choosing her words carefully. “This concubine³ once had several handmaidens⁴. Before my family fell from grace, I was very close to them. Could Your Majesty… help this concubine find out where they are?”

Ji Qingchi lowered her head and kissed away the beads of sweat on her face one by one, her breathing gradually growing disordered. “There is a price for asking Zhen to do things.”

Su Yi slowly turned around and nestled into her embrace, pressing her body almost completely against hers. When she had been adrift in Fanhua Pavilion, the madam had taught her many ways to please clients. In order to play the part of a docile girl, she had diligently learned quite a few techniques.

“Mmm…” Half a shichen⁵ later, Ji Qingchi was satisfied. She pulled her back into her arms, passed some fresh water to her mouth-to-mouth, and chuckled lightly. “Alright, as you wish.”

Two days later, Gancao and Yanshen were sent to her palace. At the same time, an unwelcome guest also arrived.

Su Tianci.

The person she hated with a vengeance, the person she wished she could cut into eight pieces and feed to the dogs⁶.

She and her mother had gone to the capital to celebrate her great-grandmother’s birthday. Being clever and quick-witted, she was favored by her great-grandmother and was kept in the capital. But he, taking advantage of her great-grandmother’s trip to Linchuan, had hired assassins from the Xuanji Tower to kill her mother. Afterward, he drove their family out of the Marquisate⁷, ordered everyone not to sell them anything, and forced her to go out of the city to trade with farmers just to survive. But there, she encountered traffickers from Xuanji Tower, who knocked her unconscious and sold her to the border. She was originally to be sold to hawkers and laborers who had no wives. She managed to escape, but unexpectedly ended up hiding in a brothel.

If she hadn’t relied on her cleverness to win the madam’s favor and barely preserve her chastity, she would likely have been reunited with her mother in the underworld by now.

“Why is it you?! How are you here?!”

Seeing her, Su Tianci was also greatly shocked, which was immediately followed by fury. He began to curse at her, “You bastard⁸, the imperial palace is no place for you to enter! Scram!”

Su Yi was unmoved. She calmly tugged at her clothes. Only then did Su Tianci notice the mottled marks on the skin beneath her light gauze, and the flames of jealousy in his heart burned even hotter.

He had been in the palace for so long, yet let alone attending to Her Majesty in bed, she had never even given him a pleasant look.

“You! You bastard! On what grounds! This… could this be Her Majesty… Her Majesty actually… You bastard…”

Su Yi quietly watched him go mad. But the calmer she was, the more frantic Su Tianci became. He furiously tore his handkerchief to shreds, pulled out the hairpin from his hair, and rushed toward her. “Bastard, I’m going to kill you!”

No matter how the maids and palace women around her shouted, Su Yi didn’t flinch or dodge, appearing like a lamb ready for slaughter.

Just an instant before Su Tianci’s hairpin could pierce her chest, a person suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking the strike.

Cries of “Your Majesty” erupted from the surroundings. Su Tianci, as if waking from a dream, clutched the hairpin, at a loss. Ji Qingchi’s expression was cold as she quietly looked at her own bleeding arm. “Su Tianci dares to assassinate Zhen. Such brazen audacity⁹. Effective immediately, he is to be expelled from the palace. He certainly wouldn’t have the courage to do this alone; there must be a backer. Men, thoroughly investigate the Pinyang Marquisate for Zhen.”

The guards dragged out the wailing Su Tianci, who was crying about being wronged. The capital guard¹⁰ also mobilized. Su Yi knew that in less than a quarter-hour, they would have the Pinyang Marquisate surrounded.

The palace maids bandaged Ji Qingchi’s wound. She sat on the imperial couch¹¹ and smilingly beckoned to Su Yi. “Why are you looking at Zhen like that? Come here.”

Su Yi lowered her eyes and obediently sat beside her.

As soon as she got close, she was pulled into an embrace, and a fervent kiss landed on the corner of her lips. “Why aren’t you talking, hmm?”

Su Yi looked up. Ji Qingchi’s smile was radiant; it was clear she was genuinely happy.

How could she not be happy?

By using her, a single chess piece, she could pin a huge crime on the Pinyang Marquisate and hold it tightly in the palm of her hand.

Su Yi finally understood why Ji Qingchi had been favoring her so much recently.

To her, the men in her rear palace were also just pawns to be used. After using them to ascend the throne, these chess pieces became obstacles that needed to be removed one by one.

And to remove these people, she needed a pretext, a reason.

And she, with no one to rely on and being clever enough, was the perfect person to be that pretext.

“Why are you unhappy? Didn’t Zhen find those two maids for you?”

Su Yi gave a faint smile. This was the first time she had smiled since entering the palace.

When a secluded orchid in a deserted valley blooms, it’s easy to be captivated.

Ji Qingchi dismissed the attendants. The force with which she held Su Yi’s hand grew stronger and stronger, her eyes darkening with a look that wished it could devour her whole.

“Your Majesty, my name is not actually Yin Su. My surname is Su, and my given name is Yi. Your Majesty should have found out that I am the illegitimate great-granddaughter of the Marquis of Pinyang, framed by Su Tianci and cast out to a brothel in the Huachen Kingdom.”

Ji Qingchi’s smile didn’t fade. “Why are you suddenly telling Zhen this?”

She slowly lowered her head, the tip of her nose touching Su Yi’s, her eyes locked on hers. “Could it be that Miss Su is telling Zhen that you harbor resentment towards Su Tianci, and so you framed him this time?”

Su Yi smiled faintly. “This concubine did indeed deliberately open her clothes to provoke his anger. Didn’t Your Majesty also deliberately let him in to see this concubine? Including the previous incident of him drugging the drink, Your Majesty knew there was a problem with the wine but still drank it, and let bygones be bygones. Wasn’t it all to lure him to his own doom? Your Majesty acted intentionally, and this concubine also acted intentionally. We both want Su Tianci dead. Different paths leading to the same destination, isn’t that so?”

“You’re in this side palace, yet you seem to know quite a lot. Not bad. Then guess again, will Zhen kill you?”

“I guess that Your Majesty will not.”

Ji Qingchi looked at her with great interest. “Oh? And why is that?”

“Because Your Majesty still needs to keep this concubine to deal with the other men in the rear palace. And the High Priest of the Huachen Kingdom. Yesterday, I accidentally overheard Your Majesty discussing matters with several officials. He is threatening Your Majesty with an army invasion, wanting to become Your Majesty’s official consort¹². Your Majesty cannot possibly agree, can you?”

“Very good, very good. You truly have an exquisite mind.” Ji Qingchi laughed softly. Ignoring her injured arm, she pressed Su Yi down onto the couch, stroking her face as if caressing a priceless treasure. But her other hand rested against Su Yi’s neck, right over her pulsing carotid artery. With just a little pressure, she could send her to the underworld. “Guess, are Zhen’s feelings for you false, or are they genuine?”

“Regardless of how Your Majesty feels about this concubine, this concubine’s loyalty to Your Majesty is absolute.”

“Such a sweet little mouth.” Ji Qingchi chuckled in a low voice, shattering her clothes with her inner energy. “Then let Zhen have a taste, and see if the other parts of you are just as sweet.”

For three consecutive days, Ji Qingchi did not leave the side palace.

Su Yi fainted and awoke, slept and awoke again, being tormented back and forth for a long time. It wasn’t until the ministers outside couldn’t find the emperor and were pacing around in anxiety, sending several imperial princesses into the palace to check, that they finally managed to drag Ji Qingchi, who had just knocked Su Yi out, to morning court.

“Miss.”

When Su Yi woke up, she heard a familiar voice. Turning her head, she saw the young girl Gancao holding a bowl of medicine, tears streaming down her face.

Su Yi managed a faint smile. “What are you crying for… Am I not fine?”

“This servant is aggrieved for you, Miss!” Gancao said indignantly. “Miss is clearly the daughter of an innocent family, yet those people outside are saying that Miss is…”

She was cut off by a rebuke from Yanshen before she could finish. Even without her saying it, Su Yi knew how people outside would slander her—a femme fatale, a bewitching demon. Whatever label was heavy enough, they would pin it on her.

“It’s fine.” Su Yi smiled faintly, accepting the tea Yanshen fed to her lips. “I’ll get used to it.”

The weather gradually warmed, but Su Yi’s residence still required several charcoal braziers. A bout of cold had left her so ill she couldn’t even get out of bed.

After court, Ji Qingchi walked towards the side palace, asking the imperial physician beside her in a grave voice, “How is her health?”

“The cold is mostly better, but there’s a risk of illness from accumulated fatigue. Besides, even the healthiest person cannot withstand Your Majesty’s incessant demands day after day.”

“Feng Ruoqing, are you itching for a beating?”

“This official wouldn’t dare. This official just feels that Your Majesty has been a bit excessive,” the doctor, dressed in an official’s robe, replied with a straight face. “As the saying goes, ‘only a tired-out ox, never a worn-out field¹³‘, but this official feels that in your and Miss Su’s case, it ought to be the other way around.”

Ji Qingchi shot her a glare. In the time it took to speak, she had already reached the entrance of the side palace. Looking at the tightly closed palace doors, she hesitated for a moment and did not go in.

Feng Ruoqing was surprised. “Isn’t Your Majesty concerned about Miss Su’s health? Why not go in and see her?”

Ji Qingchi glared at her again, paced back and forth on the spot several times as if her heart was being clawed at¹⁴, and finally sighed. “Forget it… Zhen won’t go in. Zhen… the moment Zhen sees her, Zhen can’t help but kiss her and hold her. Zhen… Zhen is going to take a bath…”

Su Yi took a sip of medicine and glanced at the figure outside the window who had come in a hurry and left in a hurry. She lowered her eyes, stirring the medicine in her hand.

Yanshen said, “Miss… Her Majesty has left.”

“Mm.”

Gancao asked, puzzled, “Miss, why didn’t you let Her Majesty in?”

Su Yi shook her head. Recently, when Ji Qingchi made love¹⁵ with her, she liked to kiss her more and more, tirelessly coaxing her to say “I love you” over and over. The tenderness she showed was far greater than at the beginning. She could feel that Ji Qingchi was growing to like her more and more.

But an emperor’s affection was not enough. Besides love, there had to be a tangle of interests to bind a person.

Ji Qingchi was using her, but wasn’t she also using Ji Qingchi?

Only through mutual use could one feel at ease.

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