Daily Survival After Inheriting a Harem (GL) - Chapter 11

“Really?”

Qiu Qi smiled.

“Let me see, let me see.”

Pei Yuqing handed over the small bronze mirror in her hand. The not-very-clear smooth surface reflected Qiu Qi’s face. She moved closer to the light and looked carefully.

It really was exactly the same as before.

After changing back to her familiar face, Qiu Qi’s mood improved a lot. She leaned sideways on the bed, propping up her head with one hand, lying there in an extremely carefree posture. Then she patted the spot beside her and spoke to Pei Yuqing in a very domineering CEO tone.

“Madam, come sleep.”

Pei Yuqing lowered her body slightly but did not move.

“Steward Yan sent word that from now on, my lord will only draw my plaque. This does not follow the rules.”

“Ah, that.”

Qiu Qi spoke with righteous confidence.

“I said that from now on, I’ll only have Madam alone. Of course I can’t keep getting entangled with all those other pretty flowers.”

Qiu Qi was so self-righteous that even Pei Yuqing was momentarily speechless. After speaking, Qiu Qi even confirmed with Pei Yuqing in a showing-off tone,

“Madam, I’m loyal to you, right?”

Pei Yuqing raised her head and met Qiu Qi’s eyes. The other woman’s entire face was filled with the words “please praise me.”

“Actually, my lord need not do this. Yuqing is not a jealous person.”

“That way of thinking is wrong. Have you heard the saying, ‘one pair for one lifetime’? That is the kind of view on love we should have.”

“…”

Pei Yuqing had already learned to get used to the strange words Qiu Qi occasionally blurted out.

“Hurry and come up. Let’s sleep early. Tomorrow morning, I’ll go with Steward Yan to Ruyi Pavilion to buy some Guluo Sacred Water for Madam. Then we can prepare properly and remove the rings with peace of mind.”

Qiu Qi straightened her upper body and reached out to pull Pei Yuqing’s hand.

“Hurry and sleep, Madam. Early to bed and early to rise makes the body healthy. You need to nurse your illness properly so you can be healthy.”

Pei Yuqing’s heart shook, and her eyes flickered. She had not expected Qiu Qi to truly intend to remove the rings for her, and to move so quickly at that. She had even already found out about Ruyi Pavilion.

With such attentiveness, what exactly was the other party’s goal?

Pei Yuqing already had a guess in her heart.

“Madam?”

Qiu Qi looked at Pei Yuqing, who was frozen in place, and called out softly.

“Mm, I’m here.”

Pei Yuqing quickly came back to herself.

Qiu Qi wrapped herself in the blanket and rolled over on the bed.

“All right, don’t think too much. With me here, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Pei Yuqing laughed lightly in her heart.

You can barely protect yourself right now. Where exactly does your confidence come from?

But she did not expose it to her face, which counted as leaving Qiu Qi a bit of dignity.

Very soon, under Qiu Qi’s gaze, Pei Yuqing stood up. Her fair, scallion-white fingers rested on the ties of her clothing and gently tugged. The soft fabric piled up at her feet. Before long, only a thin, translucent inner garment remained on her body.

Qiu Qi unconsciously blinked faster, keenly sensing that the atmosphere in the air had become unusual.

She remembered that last night, when Pei Yuqing undressed, she had clearly folded each piece very carefully and placed it on the clothes rack. So what was this now?

Before she could figure anything out, the jade-like person whose whole body carried a thin, cool aura had already bent down and pressed over her.

Pei Yuqing’s butterfly-wing-like long lashes drooped, and the look in her blue eyes became unreadable. One hand braced beside Qiu Qi’s ear, and her gaze lingered on those slightly parted, full pink lips.

Pei Yuqing gave herself a shot of courage. At least with this face now, she could bring herself to kiss her.

In Qiu Qi’s eyes, Pei Yuqing’s beautiful face enlarged infinitely. She only saw the other woman slowly lower herself and approach. That long hair, carrying a rich fragrance, fell down and brushed across the skin beside her face, bringing a light, tingling itch.

Her hand beside her could not help gripping the bedsheet tightly. Qiu Qi’s sluggish nerves finally calculated what might happen next, but by then, that kiss had already fallen.

Before their lips touched, Qiu Qi could never have imagined that Pei Yuqing, who looked so cold and hard on the surface and seemed to reject people from a thousand li away, would have such soft lips.

Pei Yuqing only touched her once before moving away. It was just a dragonfly skimming the water, yet it did not stop Qiu Qi’s heart from pounding like thunder in that instant.

“M-Madam!”

Qiu Qi covered her mouth in surprise. Her moist eyes widened into round circles, carrying a faint accusation.

“You… why did you… kiss me?”

Her entire face flushed bright red. Heat burned from the roots of her ears all the way down. Even her snow-white slender neck was flushed over a large area, making one unable to help wondering whether the body beneath her collar was also like a boiled shrimp, tinted with an enticing pink.

Pei Yuqing had not expected her to react like this.

“Is this not what my lord wanted?”

She had endured humiliation and built up so much resolve in her heart, only for the other party to look at her with an expression as if she had been taken advantage of.

“Me?”

“If not because you wanted to be intimate with me, why would you issue the order to draw only my plaque every day, and even spend hundreds of gold to seek Guluo Sacred Water for me?”

Pei Yuqing straightened her expression.

“The price for removing the rings for me—is it not this?”

After hearing Pei Yuqing’s words, Qiu Qi finally realized that the other woman had always believed her kindness toward her carried ulterior motives.

All right, she admitted she did have her little schemes, but those were for the sake of preserving her own life. She had never once steered the wheel in that dirty direction!

“No, you misunderstood.”

Qiu Qi shrank her reddened face into the blanket, revealing only a pair of eyes, but even those did not dare look at Pei Yuqing.

“Removing the rings is something I promised you long ago. I’m also willingly buying the Guluo Sacred Water. I said I wanted to compensate you, so that’s why I’m treating you well. You don’t need to… sacrifice yourself.”

“Are you serious?”

Pei Yuqing frowned, her gaze fixed on Qiu Qi, not wanting to miss even the slightest movement.

“Of course.”

Pei Yuqing silently looked at Qiu Qi for a while and found that the other woman’s gaze was open and honest, without the slightest evasion.

“I was overthinking.”

She lifted the corner of her mouth slightly and withdrew from that overly aggressive posture pressing over Qiu Qi.

At the same time, Pei Yuqing’s hand behind her back flexed a few times. Her fingers moved nimbly, silently returning the knife hidden in her sleeve to her waist.

In fact, as early as when Steward Yan had gone to inform Pei Yuqing that her plaque had been drawn, Pei Yuqing had already prepared to carry out the backup assassination plan.

This knife was different from ordinary ones. It had been forged by the greatest blacksmith after countless rounds of heating and hammering, taking ninety-nine times eighty-one days to complete. Its special feature lay in the final step. Pei Yuqing had taken Qiu Qi’s blood and mixed it with silver at high temperature before coating the blade tip with it. The blacksmith had named it the Demon-Slaying Blade, meaning that it was the only dagger capable of injuring Qiu Qi’s indestructible body.

Now, Pei Yuqing had already obtained the study key, and through Yan Wan’s disclosure, she knew where the Mystic Ice Ring key was hidden. With the mermaid blood and Guluo Sacred Water as well, removing the rings no longer had to rely on Qiu Qi.

Although, because of the servant contract, she could not directly kill Qiu Qi, she could injure her until she had no ability to resist, then imprison her so she could no longer commit evil.

This was the foolproof plan the few of them had come up with. Pei Yuqing would not have to die, and the others in the courtyard would no longer need to live in constant fear.

This dagger had been prepared long ago, all for the sake of waiting for the day when she could get close to Qiu Qi. The reason they had prioritized the human shaman’s plan before was that they had originally wanted to destroy Qiu Qi together with the Beast Core Pearl. But now that plan had already failed, they could only risk using Plan B, which had a higher chance of failure.

“It’s okay.”

Qiu Qi softly comforted Pei Yuqing, took her hand, and placed it over her own heart.

“Madam was treated that way. It’s normal for you to be suspicious. You can choose not to trust me, but you should trust yourself. When you suspect me, just touch me and read my heart. I won’t hide anything from you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Madam never needs to apologize to me.”

Qiu Qi trustingly leaned her head on Pei Yuqing’s shoulder and stretched out her arms to wrap around her slender waist.

Pei Yuqing’s body visibly stiffened.

“Wait…”

“Mm?”

Qiu Qi’s puzzled voice sounded. With an innocent and curious expression, she touched Pei Yuqing’s waist.

“Madam, why is there something hard tucked at your waist? Won’t it hurt if you sleep like this?”

“It is fine.”

Pei Yuqing’s throat moved nervously, and she stiffly forced out two words.

Author’s Note:
These might be the fastest two protagonists I’ve ever had kiss.

P.S. Yesterday, someone asked whether Sister Pei had ever done it with the original body. To clarify: no, she hadn’t. The first time serving in bed was at the beginning of this story. She had originally intended to perish together with the original body, but Sister Qiu cut in midway. Same logic applies this time. Sister Pei is not someone who would suffer losses for nothing.