The Pampered Fake Princess (Nine)

As the most favored princess, Jiang Xuefu had never given any thought to which family she would marry into.

What a joke. As a princess, she could do as she pleased. If she took a husband's family name, there would inevitably be a whole crowd of people pointing fingers at her.

Besides, she was a princess. She could more or less be said to stand above ten thousand people and below only one. Ordinary men could have three wives and four concubines, so why couldn't she?

Jiang Xuefu looked back at Ling Chengfeng. "Ling Chengfeng, I won't marry. Princess Fu'an will never become anyone's wife."

Ling Chengfeng's breath caught. He gazed at her in silence.

They had first met beneath a pear tree in the imperial palace. He had entered the palace to study in the imperial study as the crown prince's companion, and on the way, he had seen a little girl dancing.

It had been a very clichéd encounter, but from then on, he had taken the supposedly much-favored Princess Fu'an to heart.

He affectionately called her Xiao Fu'er and remembered everything she liked and disliked eating. He knew she was a little money-grubber who thought a storeroom full of rare treasures still wasn't enough. He even remembered her menstrual cycle perfectly.

The boy came riding a bamboo horse, circling the bed as he played with green plums.

Ling Chengfeng had only lived nineteen years, and nine of them had been filled with a little girl named Jiang Xuefu.

"Well, I don't care. I have to be the first one you consider."

His voice was hoarse as he moved closer, until he could smell the gardenia fragrance on her.

The air fell still for a moment before Jiang Xuefu couldn't help pushing his approaching head away.

"Ling Chengfeng, you really stink. Don't come any closer."

He didn't actually stink. If anything, he smelled faintly of magnolia incense, but Jiang Xuefu was used to showing him disdain.

Ling Chengfeng ignored her and pulled the girl's delicate, soft waist firmly into his arms. Like a stubborn child, he rested his head in the crook of her neck, hiding every emotion in his eyes.

"Xiao Fu'er, let me hold you."

"Anyway, I've set my sights on you. It won't do you any good to look down on me."

His tone was both roguish and overbearing. Held fast and pressed into a corner, Jiang Xuefu couldn't move. In a fit of anger, she opened her mouth and bit his cheek.

Ling Chengfeng's body suddenly trembled, and a certain part of him rose as if beyond his control.

"You! Ling Chengfeng, you rogue!"

With the two of them pressed so tightly together, each could clearly feel any movement the other made.

A sweet lip print and a small ring of teeth marks remained on the lower part of Ling Chengfeng's right cheek. As he looked at the girl's tender lips, a look kindled in his long, narrow phoenix eyes, like that of a hungry wolf eyeing its prey.

"Xiao Fu'er, I've made a concession for you. It isn't too much to collect a little interest now, is it?"

"Interest? What inter... mm~"

It was the first kiss for both of them, and neither knew any technique. After pressing their lips tightly together, they didn't know what to do next.

As their eyes met, their heartbeats intertwined and their breaths brushed each other's faces. The air was charged with an unbearable, intimate heat.

Though the weather was bitterly cold, the inside of the carriage was as hot as midsummer.

Feeling the girl's impossibly soft lips, Ling Chengfeng breathed faster and faster, his panting growing more pronounced.

Were these a woman's lips?

He closed his eyes and, as if he needed no teacher, began licking and sucking. He sucked her red lips until they swelled, then caught her little tongue and tangled it with his in a lingering dance. By the end, the scene was in chaos, nearly beyond control.

Jiang Xuefu leaned limply in the young man's arms, her eyes brimming with water and her breaths coming in soft gasps. Her clothes were somewhat disheveled, and her fragrant shoulder was half-bared, dotted with kiss marks like red plum blossoms.

A little guilty, Ling Chengfeng helped her dress properly. When he saw how delicate and vulnerable she looked, he couldn't resist pecking her moist, swollen lips twice more.

"I... I'll take you back first."

Jiang Xuefu impatiently told him to get lost. That dog of a man hadn't held back his strength at all, and her lips were still swollen.

Ling Chengfeng wasn't annoyed at being cursed. Instead, he was happier than ever.

Before leaving, he took her hand and made a solemn promise, word by word. "Jiang Xuefu, if you won't come and be Madam Ling, then I'll go and be your husband, Princess Fu'an."

Jiang Xuefu rolled her eyes and tried to pull her hand free, but couldn't. Angry, she cursed him again. "You're crazy!"

Ling Chengfeng didn't care what she said. He only felt that even when she rolled her eyes, her expression was so alluring that he adored her.

Having finally dealt with Ling Chengfeng, Jiang Xuefu had only just reached the entrance to the princess's residence when she saw another unexpected person: Jimo Chi.

Ever since they had parted in Jade City eleven years ago, Jimo Chi had asked his mother to deliver birthday gifts to Jiang Xuefu every year. Though they had kept in touch, this really was the first time they had seen each other in all those years.

Though they hadn't met for many years, Jiang Xuefu recognized Jimo Chi at first glance by instinct.

The young man's aloof, otherworldly bearing, tinged with the pallor of illness, hadn't changed. It would have been hard not to recognize him.

"Jimo... Chi?"

The man she had called slowly raised his head and looked over, some of the frailty fading from his features. He stood tall amid the snow, his moon-white robes appearing and disappearing among the swirling flakes like drifting clouds and mist, giving off an air of quiet grace and gentleness.

His features were very pale, and his ink-black hair was loosely bound with a single mutton-fat white jade hairpin. Long, knuckled fingers held a blue-green oilpaper umbrella, on which a thick layer of snow had gathered at some point.

Only then did Jiang Xuefu realize how heavily it was snowing.

A maid held an umbrella over her as she clutched the hot-water bottle in her hands. The snow-white fur collar of her fox-fur coat framed her fair, tender skin and just concealed the kiss marks on her neck.

"What brought you to the capital?"

Jimo Chi smiled, somewhat different from the taciturn young master he had been as a child.

"I came to bring you a coming-of-age gift. In past years, my mother delivered them, but this time is different. Only by coming in person could I express my sincerity."

Only then did Jiang Xuefu notice that he held a brocade box in the hand not holding the umbrella. Judging by its appearance, it most likely contained a hairpin too.

"You can return to the capital now?"

"Yes. After all these years of recuperation, I'm more or less recovered."

They spoke with the ease of old acquaintances, without a trace of the unfamiliarity that came from years apart.

As they talked, they arrived at the entrance to the princess's residence.

Jiang Xuefu had just entered the residence and invited him in when Jimo Chi declined. "Your Highness, I have delivered my gift. It would not be proper to trouble you further, so I shall take my leave."

"All right. It's getting late, so I'll have a carriage take you back. I'll come see you at the Duke of Zhen's residence another day."

It was clear that Jimo Chi placed great importance on propriety. Jiang Xuefu didn't insist. He had come to the capital, after all, so they would see each other again.