The empress commanded that the person inside the bedchamber also be brought along to the pool for a quick wash. Chunba picked up another set of robes, and when she opened the bedchamber door, a palace maid was busy tidying up the bedding.
Surveying the room, she finally spotted the alpha sitting in a huddled ball in the corner of the palace, hugging a pillow and nodding off to sleep.
Suddenly informed that she was heading to the bathhouse, Jiang Wu shook her head, her obsidian pupils blinking with lingering haze and drowsiness.
She stared straight at Chunba, taking quite a while to process the meaning of her words before nodding and obediently trailing half a step behind her.
Aside from the mist in those pretty phoenix eyes, there was a sort of unpolluted, innocent denseness.
Had she not known how much the alpha had put the empress through the previous night, she truly would have looked completely harmless.
Chunba gave a soft huff, tossing the robe over. “Lord Jiang, just put this on.”
In terms of status, Pei Yu’s personal attendants ranked immeasurably higher than concubines.
Well aware of her own insignificant position, the little dog nodded. When changing clothes in the side chamber, she stumbled quite a bit, clearly unaccustomed to the attire. The blue-and-white waist ribbon was tied all crookedly. Aside from those bright, sparkling obsidian eyes, everything else about her was a mess.
Chunba glanced at her sideways, quickly withdrawing her gaze.
The empress’s first alpha certainly was good-looking.
It was just that she looked completely spineless, lacking opinions and any real usefulness. But that was fine, because the empress had enough opinions for both, and the empress’s alpha only needed to obey orders.
Besides, since both parents were attractive, the empress’s little imperial daughter would surely be exceptionally pretty.
Noticing the sound of footsteps at the corner, the woman in the pool crushed a flower petal between her fingertips, her peach-blossom eyes, flushed from the steam, lowering gently.
The dizzy, sleep-deprived alpha followed right behind the girl in the saffron skirt, looking half-asleep. Her sheer V-neck robe hung open to her chest, and upon her fair, delicate collarbone remained the tooth marks left behind when Pei Yu had lost her focus the previous night, very faint, yet striking against her smooth skin.
The blue-and-white silk was tied haphazardly at her waist with a messy knot, making it seem as though a gentle tug would send the entire sheer robe slipping to her feet.
Pei Yu lowered her gaze, her fingers selecting among the flower petals and aromatics nearby.
What kind of scent suited a little dog?
The crabapple blossoms from previous nights were decent, but too refined and plain, always seeming mismatched with someone so foolish.
The woman’s fingers brushed past petal after petal, finally resting on an iris-scented sachet.
Picking up the sachet, a pleased curve formed on her lips. She handed it over, instructing Chunba to light it.
Along with the moon-white long robe she had personally chosen for the little dog, it was hung right beside the sachet’s hook.
The water temperature in the pool was just right for Pei Yu, but the newly descended little dog was scalded by the heat, shrinking back and nearly leaping out of the water.
Then, she forced herself to endure it, burying herself into the water while a layer of mist crept into her eyes.
Grieving again?
Pei Yu hooked her finger toward the little dog. Drowsy, burning hot, and deeply uncomfortable with the waterproof bandage sealing her chest wound, the alpha buried herself in the water, leaving only the top half of her head exposed, staring intently, yet refusing to budge closer.
Such a warm and comfortable environment easily brought out the worst in people, and all the lingering resentment from being stabbed with a dagger flared up once more.
Right now, Jiang Wu really, really wanted to bite Pei Yu.
She wanted to leave marks everywhere, just so the other would know what it felt like to be in terrible pain.
She hadn’t managed to get a decent night’s sleep in days.
Pei Yu half-closed her eyelashes, pinched a piece of pastry from the platter beside the flower petals, took a small bite, and set it down by the edge of the pool.
The person who had ignored her just moments before locked eyes with that piece of pastry, swimming over in less than five seconds. Before she even fully arrived, her hand had already snatched the pastry, shoving the whole thing into her mouth before Pei Yu could react, preparing to paddle right back to her spot.
A gentle, unhurried voice drifted down lightly from above.
“There is plenty more here.”
“Are you going back?”
True to form, the little dog stopped, obediently drifting close to her side.
Furious, yet utterly spineless, a single bite of food was enough to sell out all her temper.
Pei Yu lowered her gaze, her line of sight drifting as if by chance over the alpha’s chipmunk-like, food-stuffed cheeks.
That piece of pastry, she had bitten into it.
Consuming food that someone else had already bitten into was, by any measure, an act devoid of manners and boundaries.
Yet strangely enough, she felt no aversion whatsoever. In fact, she felt an extraordinary sense of amusement at the alpha’s unhesitating act of shoving the pastry straight into her mouth.
She decided not to hold the stupid Alpha’s recent disobedience against her.
Without the slightest realization that it was her own use of food that had coaxed the little dog back, Jiang Wu hooked her index finger around Pei Yu’s waistband. With just a tiny tug, the silk unraveled with a soft rustle.
Water ripples spread outward, causing the blue-and-white robes to drift backward like a butterfly struggling as it fell into a pool. Pei Yu’s appreciative gaze swept past Jiang Wu’s collarbone and chest, finally resting upon her lean, muscular waist and the distinct abdominal lines above it.
Thank goodness that apart from her brain, Jiang Wu was top-tier in every other physical aspect, otherwise it would have been hard to convince herself that she had already conceived a child with this absolute fool.
The word scoundrel looped around her tongue several times before the now slightly wiser alpha forcefully swallowed it back down. Jiang Wu hurriedly covered her chest, a flush of crimson blinking at the roots of her thick, feathered eyelashes.
So bashful, and yet, so alluring.
It was rare to see an alpha act this vulnerable in front of their omega, and the smile curving Pei Yu’s lips grew even more intriguing.
Moments later, Jiang Wu realized Pei Yu wasn’t looking at her chest at all, because the woman’s gaze had lingered on the V-cut lines of her abdomen for quite some time, looking thoroughly satisfied.
That sparked a wave of dissatisfaction.
What was that supposed to mean? Who admired someone’s body purely for their abs? Were the rest of her features not attractive?
Before she could voice her grievance, the woman had already pulled her sheer robe back together. The blue-and-white shadow swaying on the water surface was reeled back in around Jiang Wu’s waist, and Pei Yu tied a neat, pretty butterfly bow for her with the silk ribbon.
Much like a gift waiting to be unwrapped.
The woman picked up the cup from the wooden tray, took a small sip to moisten her throat, and spoke in a clear, cool tone.
“Mediocre.”
Quite, flat, out, mediocre.
Mediocre where?!
Having been praised from childhood onward, the person edged closer, opening her obsidian pupils wide in a mix of fierceness and grievance.
“Pei Yu, you are being completely unreasonable.”
“How am I mediocre? Do you know that the girls chasing me could form a line from your estate all the way to the neighboring country?”
Pei Yu tilted her head back, evading the overwhelmingly scorching breath, a familiar ache and weakness stirring in her lower abdomen.
“Does the crown require me to be reasonable with you?”
Under normal circumstances, addressing her directly by her given name was a grave act of disrespect punishable by immediate banishment.
Today, however, Pei Yu was in a remarkably good mood.
At such close proximity, alongside the natural peppermint pheromone scent of the little dog, she could also catch the lingering trace of her own iris fragrance.
The two scents intertwined, the iris gradually overpowering the peppermint and enveloping Jiang Wu entirely, like a thin, confining cocoon.
Trapped within her own pheromones, the alpha remained completely oblivious.
As for how many people chased Jiang Wu, she cared not a single whit.
Once inside the palace and carrying her child, regardless of whether this infant would eventually inherit the throne or whether she herself had any use for her, Jiang Wu was bound to spend her entire life deep within the imperial walls.
Beyond the palace walls, everything from her past, including her status, her background, and her experiences, was wiped clean. She belonged to her and her alone, merely one of the many inconspicuous items among her private possessions.
The dejected little dog seemed to finally grasp her own status, gloomily sinking her entire body into the pool until only her eyes remained above water.
Pei Yu truly had no need to be reasonable with her, and she hadn’t even apologized for stabbing her with a dagger.
Oh well. She wouldn’t press the matter openly.
Lowering her gaze, the woman looked at the thoroughly aggrieved person before her and let out a soft sigh.
She pulled the plate of pastries closer, a smile curving her lips as she watched the child’s eyes instantly brighten.
“Eat them over there. Do not let crumbs fall into the pool.”
She had no habit of eating pastries, and leaving them about always led to waste, so giving them to Jiang Wu was far more practical.
Besides, it was a convenient way to toss her a scrap of comfort.