“The consort went out of the manor as soon as she received the reward silver, heading to the bookstore to buy bamboo paper, an inkstone, and ink sticks. After finishing her purchases, she went to the vegetable market.”
Jiang Sui’s hand holding the scissors paused. “What is she doing at the vegetable market?”
Shadow Five’s typically expressionless face flashed with a hint of complexity. “She went to the goose vendor and bought a few goose feathers.”
“Goose feathers?” Jiang Sui frowned, her expression perplexed.
“Mn. After returning to the manor, the consort used the goose feathers to make a very strange pen and started drawing, only stopping late into the night.”
“Today she took her maid out, visited a blacksmith, a carpenter, a ceramic workshop, a brick kiln, and a toothbrush shop, and bought a batch of ceramic tiles, grey bricks, and custom-ordered some strange things.”
“How strange?” Jiang Sui was somewhat curious.
“They were all things I have never seen on the market. The consort drew them on paper, so I couldn’t bring them back.”
“Upon returning to the manor, the consort went back to her room to draw. She also sowed seeds in the plot of land she had previously cleared, including the tomato seeds the consort brought back from the main kitchen last time.”
“Tomato seeds?” Jiang Sui raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure they are tomatoes?”
“Mn, that is what her maid said.” Shadow Five nodded.
Jiang Sui lowered her gaze. She knew about tomatoes; they were a newly tribute-offered vegetable from the Persian Kingdom this year, and the Agricultural Reclamation Office was still researching how to cultivate them. Ji Kongqing had already found seeds and planted them?
“Did she not go to the Imperial Medical Bureau?”
“No, the consort has stayed in the manor these past few days.”
“Alright, you may step down.” Jiang Sui waved her hand.
Ji Kongqing spent a few more days in her small courtyard, spending all day either reading medical books or checking if the vegetables had sprouted.
She didn’t know where she had inquired, but she learned that the princess’s manor had an estate physician. Whenever she encountered something unfamiliar, she would run to the pharmacy and ask the physician many questions.
After staying in the manor for nearly ten days, Ji Kongqing finally went to the Imperial Medical Bureau to inquire about Zhuo Weiqian’s teaching progress.
Seeing Ji Kongqing, Zhuo Weiqian was pleasantly surprised. “Kongqing, you have finally come. I was just thinking of having you inspect everyone’s learning results.”
“We can look right now.” Ji Kongqing casually selected a few people to demonstrate. Their movements were all correct and very standard, so it seemed they had basically learned it all.
Since the task assigned to her by the Emperor was essentially completed, Ji Kongqing thought of something and opened her system panel, finding that the task [Teach the Heimlich Maneuver] was marked as completed.
Not only that, but a red dot also appeared in her system space. Tapping on it revealed a task reward package.
Ji Kongqing didn’t want to keep staring at one spot for too long, afraid of appearing too strange, so she decided to wait until she returned to see what the reward was.
Before she could leave, Zhuo Weiqian stopped her. “Kongqing, the Imperial Medical Bureau is organizing a free clinic for the commoners recently, and we are short on hands. Would you be willing to come along with us old fellows?”
Ji Kongqing’s footsteps paused as she thought of her system, which was only partially unlocked.
She had unlocked the system by saving someone, so she certainly needed to continue saving people to find out what other undeveloped functions the system possessed.
Thinking of this, she nodded and agreed, “No problem. Send someone to notify me when the time comes, and I will take the princess’s carriage over.”
“Good,” Zhuo Weiqian smiled and nodded in agreement.
Riding the carriage back to the manor, Ji Kongqing had just walked up to the main gate when she was directly dragged away by Cuizhu, who had hurried over anxiously.
Looking extremely worried, Cuizhu said immediately upon seeing Ji Kongqing, “Consort, hurry up and wash up. The lanterns in the Her Highness’s courtyard have been lit.”
Only then did Ji Kongqing notice that the tallest tower of Fenghua Courtyard had red lanterns lit on the top floor.
Returning to her courtyard, she found that Ping’an and Ruyi had already prepared the water.
Ji Kongqing sent the two of them outside, took a quick bath, and had just wrapped herself in an outer robe when she was wrapped in a quilt by people from the princess’s courtyard and carried away, looking remarkably like the imperial concubines waiting to attend to the Emperor in Empresses in the Palace.
At least, compared to them, she was still wearing clothes.
The people carrying her placed her on a bed. Just as she opened her mouth to ask for clarity, someone pinched her nose and forced a bowl of very bitter medicine down her throat.
Before she could ask what medicine it was, her nose caught a strong scent of gardenia flowers. The fragrance rushed straight to her face, and Ji Kongqing felt as though she were immersed in a gardenia plantation, her body uncontrollably beginning to heat up.
As an adult woman who had lived for over thirty years in her previous life, Ji Kongqing knew very well what was happening. She instinctively clamped her legs together, her eyes filled with panic.
What did that person feed her just now? Was it an aphrodisiac?
Where was this gardenia fragrance coming from? Why was it so strong?
Feeling hot, she pushed away the quilt wrapped around her body and prepared to prop herself up against the wall, but her hand touched empty air.
This was because the inner side of the bed was not a wall, but a curtain. Separated by the curtain was another bed, and the source of the fragrance was clearly on the adjacent bed.
Ji Kongqing shook her head and pinched her thigh hard, forcing herself to sober up.
She immediately searched her memories of the original host and realized that the gardenia scent she had just smelled wasn’t real gardenia, but Jiang Sui’s mating marker. No wonder it made her heart race and her face flush.
“Come here,” Jiang Sui’s voice was somewhat hoarse, as if she had already endured it for a long time.
“Wh, what?” Ji Kongqing’s voice trembled slightly. Jiang Sui wouldn’t actually sleep with her, would she? She was so scared! Help! She had never slept with a woman before and didn’t understand anything at all.
“This palace told you to come here.” Jiang Sui’s commanding tone carried an unquestionable certainty.
Knowing that she still had to make a living under Jiang Sui’s thumb in the future, Ji Kongqing didn’t dare to refuse. Pulling back the curtain, she saw Jiang Sui lying right in the middle of the large adjacent bed.
Jiang Sui had obviously already washed up, wearing only a thin white undergarment that completely failed to conceal her curvaceous body contours.
At this moment, she was no longer the noble and cold-looking figure in Ji Kongqing’s impression.
Her black hair was scattered across the bed, her eyes tightly closed, the corners of her eyes flushed, and her fair face tinged with an unusual flush. Her breathing was somewhat rapid, and her proud chest heaved up and down, presenting a rare sight of disarray.
Ji Kongqing’s throat bobbed as she awkwardly shuffled her body closer.
She found that the closer she got to Jiang Sui, the more intense the inner heat raged within her body, and a voice in her mind kept urging her: Bite her, bite her, form a bond with her, make her forever yours.
Just as she was growing more and more bewildered and intoxicated, Jiang Sui on the bed suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze filled with murderous intent, and ruthlessly raised her hand to slap her.
Having practiced martial arts for years and campaigned for a long time, Jiang Sui’s palms were not delicate like those of ordinary kunze, but were instead covered with a thin layer of calluses.
Her strength was also great; although she didn’t use internal energy, the slap still hurt terribly. Ji Kongqing’s cheek instantly swelled up, and she instantly sobered. Holding her cheek, she looked up with a mix of surprise and anger. “Why did you hit me?”
“Your eyes were unrestrained!” Jiang Sui glared at her, the murderous intent on her face undisguised. “If you look at this palace with that kind of gaze again, this palace will gouge out your eyes.”
Ji Kongqing felt a chill run down her spine, realizing that Jiang Sui was definitely not joking, so she could only swallow her grievance. “Then what do you want me to do?”
“Didn’t the matrons teach you how to serve before the wedding?” Jiang Sui glared at her again. “Don’t tell me you, a qianyuan, do not know how to form a temporary bond.”
“A temporary bond.” Ji Kongqing muttered, holding her cheek in thought as the scene of that old matron giving her books flashed through her mind.
The illustrations in those books were quite lively and detailed the affairs of two women. Because she hadn’t yet adapted to this world and felt too shy, she hadn’t looked closely, so she genuinely didn’t understand what Jiang Sui was talking about.
Ji Kongqing shook her head awkwardly. “Your Highness, I do not understand! That book, I did not read that book!”
“Useless thing!” Jiang Sui glared angrily at Ji Kongqing, raised her hand, and directly pinned Ji Kongqing onto the bed. Grabbing a belt from the side, she swiftly tied Ji Kongqing’s hands together, preventing her from moving.
Ji Kongqing felt completely tearful about her current plight. Was she about to be violated?
Amid her panic, she felt the gardenia scent in the room seem to find its target, drilling straight toward the back of her neck.
The refined sandalwood fragrance rapidly escaped from Ji Kongqing’s mark, intertwining with the intense gardenia scent.
Jiang Sui was hooked by Ji Kongqing’s marker to the point where her body went completely limp, pressing tightly against Ji Kongqing.
Ji Kongqing felt she was practically going crazy right now.
Jiang Sui smelled intoxicatingly sweet, her body felt as boneless as water, and her breathing, alternating between deep and shallow, brushed against the crook of Ji Kongqing’s neck, making it impossible for her to control herself.
Her remaining reason told her to hold back, but her body’s instincts told her to bite Jiang Sui.
Opening her mouth, she instinctively found the reddened, heaving mark at the back of Jiang Sui’s neck and prepared to bite down.
Just then, she heard Jiang Sui threaten from above, “If you dare to form a permanent bond, the dagger in this palace’s sleeve will pierce straight through your heart.”
Ji Kongqing pursed her lips and instantly sobered up. Her face still stung fiercely, so she replied immediately, “Your Highness, rest assured, I cherish my own little life very much.”
Only then did Jiang Sui stop speaking.
Ji Kongqing leaned her head forward, placing a hand around Jiang Sui’s waist. Finding the exact position with her mouth, she licked the mark with the tip of her tongue.
Jiang Sui’s breath hitched, and she reached out to pinch the soft flesh at Ji Kongqing’s waist hard. “Do not do unnecessary things!”
Ji Kongqing let out an exclamation of pain. “Understood, understood. I will not lick, alright?”
Jiang Sui loosened her grip. Helplessly, Ji Kongqing clamped her mouth back onto the mark, found the precise spot, and bit down hard with the newly exposed sharp teeth of hers, injecting her own marker into it.
Jiang Sui let out a cry of pain, a look of agony crossing her pretty face as she instinctively gripped Ji Kongqing’s arm tight.
After biting for the span of half a cup of tea, just as Ji Kongqing was about to lose control of her reason, she used her fingernails to dig hard into the soft flesh of her palm. The pain forced her to let go.
When she pulled away, she saw two distinct small holes at Jiang Sui’s mark, which had swollen and turned red. Having recently read medical books related to kunze, Ji Kongqing knew that this area was actually very fragile, and Jiang Sui must be in a lot of pain.
Subconsciously, Ji Kongqing blew on it for her.
Jiang Sui gasped, her body visibly trembling as she forcefully pushed Ji Kongqing away. “What are you doing?”
The previous temporary bond had caused Jiang Sui to stop emitting her marker, and her physical strength had also recovered. Ji Kongqing was originally a qianyuan with no power to truss a chicken, so she was pushed directly back onto the bed, her head bumping against the headboard with a dull thud.
“What are you doing?” Ji Kongqing curled up her body, clutching her head with a painful expression. “There is no one like you! I was just kindly blowing on it for you, afraid you were in pain.”
“No need!” Jiang Sui glared at her, her anger intensifying.
Ji Kongqing grew angry too. “Jiang Sui, do not go too far! Who beats someone right after using them?”
“What did you call me?” Jiang Sui’s voice lowered, her eyes narrowing slightly with dangerous intent.
Ji Kongqing gritted her teeth. “Jiang Sui!”
“Audacious! How is the name of this palace something someone like you can address so familiarly?” Jiang Sui stared down at Ji Kongqing. “Ji Kongqing, is it that this palace has been too lenient with you, making you lose sight of your own status?”