Daily Survival After Inheriting a Harem (GL) - Chapter 4

Under the blood-red moonlight, a slender figure dressed in white flashed past the main courtyard. Her long, narrow shadow stretched across the wall and eaves before finally settling beside an inconspicuous artificial mountain in the rear courtyard.

Pei Yuqing walked behind the artificial mountain, lifted the drooping willow branches, and pressed a mechanism. The stone door opened. After she entered, the door quickly closed automatically again. From the outside, there was no trace at all that anyone had gone in or out.

This place was the closest spot in the entire courtyard to the water source. Qiu Qi disliked damp environments, so she rarely came here. Usually, the ones living nearby were also the consorts she had neglected.

But in this man-eating courtyard that did not even spit out bones, being forgotten was actually a kind of blessing.

After passing through the long corridor, she reached the room at the very end. Inside, a room full of people was waiting for news from her.

When Pei Yuqing opened the door and that delicate, cold face appeared before everyone’s eyes, the first reaction of those present was relief. The sorrow in their eyes lessened by a few degrees. But very quickly, they realized that if Pei Yuqing had returned alive, then that meant Qiu Qi was not dead either.

“Sister Pei, you’re finally back.”

Zu Mianmian frowned and looked worriedly at Pei Yuqing, who sat in the seat of honor.

“That demon didn’t do anything to you, right? I heard Yin Ci say that the previous consorts who served in bed screamed so miserably at night. Their voices sounded worse than chickens being slaughtered. Hiss—just thinking about that scene gives me goosebumps all over.”

Zu Mianmian’s beast form was a sheep. In daily life, her personality was much like her gentle appearance. She liked sleeping in, was lazy, timid, and did not like conflict. Judging from her looks, she was the type who seemed especially easy to bully. However, those who looked down on her because of her appearance and provoked her all ended up quite miserably.

Pei Yuqing walked to the main seat and sat down. Yin Ci, sitting to the right, twitched her nose. Lowering her head, she saw Pei Yuqing’s bleeding right hand.

“You’re injured?”

Yin Ci’s beast form was a wolf. Bestial instincts were carved into her bones, and she was especially sensitive to blood and killing intent.

Pei Yuqing lowered her lashes and glanced indifferently at her palm, which still had not stopped bleeding. She nodded without much concern.

“It is nothing serious.”

“But…”

“The plan failed. The demon is not dead.”

Pei Yuqing interrupted Zu Mianmian and used the most time-saving method to convey the result.

Beside them, a gray-blue mountain sparrow that had yet to transform into human form fluttered its wings and flew toward Pei Yuqing.

“Chirp…”

It landed on Pei Yuqing’s shoulder and called weakly to her.

“Master… don’t abandon me.”

It had originally been Pei Yuqing’s mount and had grown up with her since childhood. All its spiritual power came from her. Now that Pei Yuqing’s collarbones had been sealed by Qiu Qi, locking away most of her strength, it had also been dragged down to the point where it could barely maintain a human form.

The plump little sparrow struggled to move its claws. With tearful eyes, it rubbed its round little head against Pei Yuqing’s cheek.

“Wuu… chirp.”

“All right. I’m not dead yet.”

Pei Yuqing could not stand it acting like this. She sighed, reached out, and lifted it in front of her.

“Stop crying. It’s ugly.”

Pei Yuqing knew very well the nature of this thing she had raised. If she had told it the plan ahead of time, it would have cried enough to flood the entire rear courtyard. By then, everyone would know she was going to her death, giving that demon time to prepare, and all their efforts would have been wasted.

—Although the plan had still failed anyway.

“So, what exactly happened tonight?”

Yin Ci spoke up. This was what they were most curious about right now.

Pei Yuqing put down the teacup in her hand.

“Up until I personally saw her swallow the Beast Core Pearl, there were no mistakes in any step. The only possibility is that the human shaman’s curse did not take effect.”

“At first, she did indeed seem to be in extreme pain and passed out.” Because of the servant contract, Pei Yuqing had also felt the life force in her own body draining away. But at a certain point, that oppressive power had suddenly vanished. Along with the sound of Qiu Qi waking, her own consciousness had also cleared. “However, after the demon woke up this time, her personality was completely different from before.”

“How different?”

Pei Yuqing told everyone about how she had ambushed Qiu Qi, yet Qiu Qi had not noticed at all, as well as how her mind-reading ability had stopped working. She successfully received a room full of shocked expressions in return.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg. As for the rest, you may have to see it with your own eyes to understand.”

If she only described it verbally, they would probably find it hard to picture.

“Then could it be that the curse did have some effect? Although it didn’t kill her, it caused a problem with the Beast Core Pearl?”

The Beast Core Pearl inside Qiu Qi’s body was bound with countless wronged souls. If it were placed inside an ordinary person, they likely would not last three days before exploding and dying. The reason the original body had always been safe and sound was because she had an indestructible body that blades and spears could not penetrate.

Although the human shaman’s curse had not instantly killed her, perhaps it had weakened part of her power. That was why Qiu Qi could no longer fully control the Beast Core Pearl, which indirectly caused deviations in her memory and personality.

Zu Mianmian hugged her own arms and trembled.

“She changed again. She won’t become even scarier than last time, right?”

The original body had once lost control and slaughtered half the beastmen in the courtyard for amusement. The reason had simply been that the weather that day was bad.

“For now, I still cannot see through it.”

“Then the assassination plan…”

Pei Yuqing lowered her head and glanced at her mangled palm. With this frail body now, even a small spell that she could once cast with the flick of a finger consumed so much of her strength. It was truly laughable.

“The assassination plan continues as before.”

…

Qiu Qi’s sleeping posture had never been good. In her rented apartment, with a one-and-a-half-meter bed, it was common for her to fall asleep at the head of the bed and wake up on the floor.

So when she woke up this morning and found herself hugging someone’s waist while drooling, she was not surprised at all.

—Mainly, she was embarrassed.

Worried that the person beside her might suddenly jump up and strike her with a palm at any moment, Pei Yuqing had actually not slept the entire night. In the end, however, in the three hours after she returned, nothing happened at all.

If anything did happen, it was that Qiu Qi, who had originally slept at the very edge of the bed, kept getting closer and closer to her as she slept.

Qiu Qi’s clothes had already been loose to begin with. They only stayed in place because of the belt tied around her waist. But no matter how sturdy the clothes were, they could not withstand her changing sleeping positions ten times in the time it took one incense stick to burn. Before long, the hem had been lifted by her own movements all the way to the root of her thigh, only a finger’s distance away from exposing everything.

Pei Yuqing lowered her eyes. Her gaze swept over Qiu Qi’s exposed, smooth thigh. Calmly, she reached out and pulled the hem back down, covering her body again. Throughout the entire process, her expression remained composed, without the slightest trace of desire.

“Mm… hot…”

The person in her sleep murmured, randomly scratched at her neck, then went to tug at her hem again.

The wide collar loosened, exposing her thin, fair shoulder to the air. There were even a few fresh scratch marks on it, contributed by the body’s owner herself.

Pei Yuqing lowered her gaze and quietly helped pull the clothes back again.

“Hot…”

“You will catch a cold, my lord.”

“But it’s really hot…”

The original body liked cold and feared heat. It was a matter of constitution, and Qiu Qi was not used to it.

The two went back and forth like this. By the time Pei Yuqing pulled her clothes back for the eighth time, Qiu Qi, who was very good at sleeping in, finally deigned to wake up.

She opened her eyes, and her first reaction was to reach under the pillow for her phone. As a result, when she reached out, she did not touch the cold rectangular object in her memory. Instead, her hand grabbed a handful of warm softness.

Hearing the restrained muffled groan above her head, Qiu Qi froze. The memories of last night surged back like a tide.

Right. She had transmigrated. She was now the Beast God who possessed an entire harem of lovers—no, killers.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

The first time she said this, it might still have been somewhat believable. But who knew how many times Qiu Qi had already said it now? The title of King of Taking Advantage was probably already firmly established in Pei Yuqing’s heart.

That palm had just happened to press on the shoulder locked by the Mystic Ice Ring. Of course Pei Yuqing assumed Qiu Qi had done it on purpose. Her lips pressed into a cold, hard line, and her tone was icy.

“Yes, my lord.”

Qiu Qi withdrew her hand. When she saw the crimson bloodstains on her fingertips, she finally truly realized what had happened.

“Let me see.”

Qiu Qi frowned and reached out to lift Pei Yuqing’s collar.

Last night, she had only taken a hurried look from behind. Now, observing it up close, the impact of seeing the iron ring pierce through a body of flesh and blood was even stronger. Qiu Qi pursed her lips, her eyes filled with unbearable pity and heartache.

Pei Yuqing lowered her head and saw the patch of red soaking through her clothes at the shoulder. It seemed that the other party had used no restraint at all with that strike earlier. She had clearly done it to torment her.

The Mystic Ice Ring was somewhat better when there was no injury. But as long as there was a single wound, even one as thin as a strand of hair, the thousand-year cold energy would enter the body through the blood and circulate within. For someone like her, who feared cold, it could make her suffer a fate worse than death.

For a fleeting moment, Pei Yuqing had been glad that perhaps Qiu Qi really had lost her memory. But now it seemed she herself was the one who never learned.

Qiu Qi did not miss the way Pei Yuqing’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. She also quickly sorted out the reason from the original body’s pile of chaotic memories.

“I’m sorry. I swear I absolutely didn’t do it on purpose.”

Pei Yuqing closed her eyes. Her gray-white lashes covered her eyes with a layer of icy coldness. The bone-eroding chill followed the blood at the wound, invading her flesh and bones inch by inch. It was as if countless ants and insects were biting everywhere inside her body. The pain was not something that would be fine after enduring it for a while. It gnawed endlessly at her tense nerves.

Under such circumstances, facing this face she hated to the bone, Pei Yuqing could neither say nor act out any pleasant tone.

“What exactly do you want? If you want to kill me or cut me apart, then do it cleanly. Being so wishy-washy is not like your usual way of doing things.”

Qiu Qi met Pei Yuqing’s cold, sharp gaze, and her heart skipped. She knew she had truly caused trouble this time.

She had only just escaped from the tiger’s mouth last night and had not even had time to celebrate the lucky preservation of her life. Yet with one slap this morning, all her previous efforts had been undone. If this misunderstanding was not resolved, she dared guarantee that tonight—yes, tonight!—the greatest restricted comic artist of the twenty-first century would fall right here!

Thus, driven by her survival instinct, Qiu Qi’s mouth curled downward. Watery tears rose in her reddened eyes. The words “pitiful and lovely” were written all over her face as she spoke in a trembling voice.

“Madam, so you’re still doubting me…”

Pei Yuqing looked at her moist eyes and was stunned for a brief moment.

Thinking of the hundred and one possible tragic ways she could die, Qiu Qi threw herself even harder into the performance. With a blink, bean-sized tears slid down her cheeks.

“I know you suffered many grievances in the past, so I truly and sincerely want to compensate you. I like you so much. I want to hold you in my palm and cherish you properly. I dare swear on everything I currently possess that these feelings are absolutely real and sincere. How could I possibly want to kill you?”

A few falling tears landed on the back of Pei Yuqing’s hand. Their temperature was somewhat scalding. She lowered her head and glanced at the crystal drops on her skin. It was undeniable that this thing had indeed disrupted her previously calm rhythm.

If asked to name something that could make this demon laugh, she could immediately list ten examples. But… cry?

No one had ever heard of the current Beast God shedding tears over anything.

Putting aside whether these tears were real or fake, in terms of rarity alone, it was as strange as the sun rising from the west.

Pei Yuqing had also not expected that after sleeping and waking up, this person could suddenly produce so many tricks she had never had before.

“All right, I know words alone are no proof.”

Qiu Qi raised her arm and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

“I’ll go find a way to unlock these rings right now and let you see my sincerity.”

Pei Yuqing found it strange in her heart and could not figure out what trick the other party was playing. But for now, she could only take things one step at a time and respond accordingly.

“I await good news.”

If Pei Yuqing had known how to remove these rings, she would have solved the problem herself long ago. The difficult part was that putting them on was easy, but taking them off was hard.

First, the Mystic Ice Rings had already been buried in her body for many years and had long since fused with the flesh. Removing them would inevitably involve a round of painful torment. But if it were only this, Pei Yuqing could of course endure it. What she was wary of was the second point.

If forceful methods were used to tear the rings off, the pulling of skin and flesh would certainly create large wounds. With her current weak body, facing extensive bleeding on top of the cold poison entering her body, she probably would not last a single night.

And finally, the material of the Mystic Ice Rings was rare. It had a high melting point, was resistant to heat, and was extremely sturdy. Aside from the matching key, it would be very difficult to break them open with external force. As for that key, only Qiu Qi herself knew where it was kept.

Qiu Qi was not thinking that far yet. She only wanted to stop the bleeding on Pei Yuqing’s body first.

She got up and took a bottle of wound medicine from the room’s cabinet. This was the medicine the original body used when injured, so it should be especially effective.

“Madam, bear with it. I’ll help you stop the bleeding first.”

Pei Yuqing nodded and gently closed her eyes, looking as though she was leaving herself at Qiu Qi’s mercy.

Qiu Qi lowered her head and looked at the wound on her shoulder. The moment her gaze touched that red blood, she clearly felt her body tremble. The Beast Core Pearl in her chest began to stir restlessly.

Qiu Qi bit her lip and used all her strength to calm the surging power inside her body. She knew this was proof of the bloodthirsty Beast Core Pearl’s greed for blood. The body’s instincts were urging her to transform into a beast, pounce forward, and devour the frail, innocent beauty before her.

Pei Yuqing waited for quite some time, but the sharp pain she imagined did not arrive. Instead, someone touched her wound with a cotton swab, the force extremely gentle. Then came a cool breath of air.

“Huu…”

After applying the medicine, Qiu Qi gently blew on the wound. Only then did she lift her eyes and softly ask Pei Yuqing,

“The bleeding has mostly stopped. Does it still hurt?”

Pei Yuqing’s gaze landed on Qiu Qi’s face. She did not miss the slightly deep teeth marks on Qiu Qi’s lower lip or the dark red in her eyes that had not yet faded.

As mentioned before, it was already very difficult for the original body to coexist with the Beast Core Pearl for so long, so she had never once tried to suppress it. But now, Qiu Qi had not only done so, she could even continue speaking to Pei Yuqing without changing expression.

“Does it still hurt?”

Qiu Qi blinked, then lowered her head again, pursing her lips to blow.

“Huu, huu… pain, pain, fly away.”

The cool breeze brushed over delicate skin, stirring up an indescribable tingling sensation, as if it wanted to break down the hard barrier Pei Yuqing had built. Her fingers resting on her knees moved slightly…

Then she very decisively raised her hand, covered Qiu Qi’s mouth, and ruthlessly cut off that strange feeling.

“Stop blowing. The more you blow, the more it hurts.”

“…Oh.”

Qiu Qi: And here I was holding back goosebumps all over my body to say those cheesy lines. Turns out it was all fucking wasted. : )