Daily Survival After Inheriting a Harem (GL) - Chapter 2

“My Lord.”

“Huh?” Qiu Qi didn’t dare to turn her neck casually. She asked very cautiously, “Did you change your clothes?”

The person behind her was silent for a moment, then softly replied, “Mm.”

Qiu Qi then turned around, and her eyes immediately lit up.

Indeed, a beauty looks good in anything. Such simple, plain white clothes, worn by Pei Yuqing, somehow exuded an otherworldly, untainted aura, like a lotus rising from mud.

Pei Yuqing silently accepted the overly fervent gaze from Qiu Qi. Perhaps it was a illusion, but she felt that the person in front of her was somewhat unfamiliar now, mainly because of the inexplicable… silliness that emanated from them.

“Ahem.” Qiu Qi saw her staring motionlessly and awkwardly reminded her, “I told you I lost my memory, so I don’t know the way out.”

Pei Yuqing pointed to the stone door on the left, but still didn’t move.

Qiu Qi guessed why: she was probably bound by some rule or etiquette that required her, as the master, to go first.

She had no choice but to walk to the heavy stone door. Her gaze searched around but saw no mechanism-like object. She looked back at Pei Yuqing helplessly, who met her gaze calmly but remained indifferent.

Qiu Qi sighed, raised her hand, and lightly patted the huge stone door in front of her, opening her mouth to ask Pei Yuqing for help, “I don’t know the switch…”

Before she could finish her sentence, her palm met emptiness, followed by the sound of a heavy object crashing to the ground.

—The stone door, with just a single pat from her, collapsed with a boom, unable to withstand the force.

Dust billowed in the air. Qiu Qi’s mouth hung open, astonishment written all over her face.

Soon, she swallowed nervously, carefully raised her right hand, the culprit, and said, “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t do it on purpose?”

Pei Yuqing nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll find someone to fix it tomorrow morning.”

From Pei Yuqing’s tone, it sounded like she was already used to such things?

This made Qiu Qi feel even more guilty.

Sob, sob, sob, how could anyone be so cruel to such a good beauty? Don’t be afraid, Big Sister Qiu will protect you from now on!

Qiu Qi took the lead, walked through the narrow passage, and exited the bathing pool, which was sealed like a secret chamber by thick stone walls.

As soon as she stepped out, her gaze was drawn to the moon overhead.

Tonight’s moon was very full. Its radiating light was a high-saturation red, and the longer she stared at it, the more eerie and chilling it felt.

“Is your moon always this color?”

Pei Yuqing paused behind her, then quickly replied, “My Lord, tonight is the full moon, and it is precisely when your body is weak. It’s not good to stay outside for too long.”

Body weak?

Qiu Qi turned her neck. They hadn’t gone far, and from there, she could still see the stone door she had broken. “This is still considered weak?”

Pei Yuqing didn’t reply again.

••••

Qiu Qi followed Pei Yuqing’s guidance and wandered back to the sleeping quarters.

This sleeping place truly lived up to the respectful title of “My Lord.” The bed’s footprint was larger than her entire living room, seemingly large enough to comfortably accommodate a dozen people.

“Such a big bed, changing the sheets must be a lot of work,” Qiu Qi shook her head.

“My Lord.” Pei Yuqing didn’t answer her. Instead, she suddenly bent both knees and knelt directly in front of Qiu Qi, lowering her head. “It’s past midnight. Don’t forget your Beast Core Orb.”

Qiu Qi didn’t care about any orb or not. Pei Yuqing’s sudden, inexplicable kneeling had already scared her quite a bit.

She quickly reached out to help the woman up. “Why are you kneeling?”

“My Lord commanded that no one should look directly at the Beast Core Orb.”

“…” Indeed, that’s something this character would say.

Qiu Qi sighed, both for the beauty and for herself. “So, if I command you to get up now, will you listen?”

Pei Yuqing’s posture remained unchanged, but her gaze towards Qiu Qi held a questioning suspicion.

Qiu Qi straightened her face. “I’m serious. I don’t like you kneeling to me, nor do I like you calling me ‘My Lord’ every other word, and I especially don’t like you using such a formal ‘You’ when addressing me.”

“My Lord, this is against the rules.”

“I have amnesia. Can’t you let me be willful just this once?”

“Then, how should I address My Lord from now on?”

Qiu Qi’s eyes darted around, and she couldn’t resist being a little cheeky. “Just call me Darling Qi Qi.”

Pei Yuqing lowered her eyes and calmly refused. “I’ll stick with ‘My Lord.'”

Qiu Qi: Excellent! She has character, I like it!

••••

The Beast Core Orb Pei Yuqing mentioned was placed on a wooden stand behind a screen. A dark brown, bowl-shaped holder cradled a fist-sized round orb emitting a bloody red glow.

Qiu Qi had seen glowing orbs in the modern world; they were called luminous pearls, which sounded fancy but were actually extremely cheap artificial ones. She wouldn’t mind if she accidentally dropped and broke ten of them.

However, this orb was different from a luminous pearl. Its light was convergent; the outer red glow was the faintest, becoming brighter towards the center, while also emitting faint black mist.

—In short, one look was enough to tell that it was nothing good.

Beast Core Orb, Beast Core Orb… From the name alone, Qiu Qi knew it was probably similar to the concept of inner cores in Xianxia dramas, the original owner’s source of power.

Qiu Qi nervously swallowed. “Am I supposed to swallow it?”

“My Lord just needs to place your hand on it.”

Qiu Qi breathed a sigh of relief and placed her hand on it.

Before her fair fingers could fully touch the surface of the orb, a strong suction pulled Qiu Qi forward. As she steadied herself, the orb suddenly rose into the air, and then the surrounding black mist intensified.

Qiu Qi’s eyes widened abruptly. She felt as if all her strength was being drained from her body, a terrifying sensation of life force rapidly flowing away. As she weakened, the orb’s light grew stronger, and many strange characters appeared out of thin air, beginning to circle around it.

The characters spun faster and faster until they were a blur. Then, the orb suddenly flew towards Qiu Qi’s chest.

Qiu Qi watched with wide eyes as this thing seamlessly merged into her body. With a warmth in her chest, her body was once again filled with power. However, the orb didn’t stop; it continued to relentlessly inject things into her body. The temperature flowing in her bl00d grew increasingly scalding, and she felt as though her entire being was on fire.

“It hurts… I hurt so much…” Qiu Qi knelt on the ground in agony.

Next time, can I get a simpler script? I don’t ask for overpowered magic, immortal energy, or combat abilities, just enough to eat and drink well!

Pei Yuqing stood nearby, her blue eyes dim, seemingly just an emotionless bystander.

“My Lord, please wait a little longer.” Just a little longer, and the time will come.

The curse on this Beast Core Orb was placed by a Human Witch whom she had spent three months preparing for. Although the cost was exorbitant, compared to revenge, she didn’t care about material possessions.

As long as she killed this demon tonight, during the full moon when it was at its weakest, then she, and everyone in this courtyard, would finally be free.

At this thought, a hint of emotion finally flickered in Pei Yuqing’s eyes.

She was about to be liberated.

••••

Qiu Qi couldn’t withstand the immense pain and quickly slumped over, unconscious.

Large, fragmented memories began to flood into her mind. Qiu Qi realized these were the original owner’s memories.

Because of this, Qiu Qi quickly understood the reason for her unconsciousness and immediately broke out in a cold sweat—this script was far more difficult than she had imagined.

The original owner had a tyrannical personality. Simply because it indulged in the scent of fresh bl00d, it indiscriminately slaughtered innocent people for no reason, acting purely on impulse. It wasn’t that no one had resisted, but because its power was too immense, no one was its match.

Qiu Qi recalled chilling, bloody scenes. This bastard had made countless enemies, not just one or two; they came in droves. It had reached a point where merely stepping out for a walk would result in encountering a dozen assassins drawing their swords against it.

No, there was no need to go out at all; a long line of people were already waiting for it right beside her.

Among beast-folk, a type of servant contract was widely known. Both parties used bl00d as a medium to form a soul contract, where one swore undying loyalty and never to betray the other.

The servant party could not defy the master’s commands, could not unilaterally dissolve the contract, and if the master died, the servant would also perish.

The original owner had exploited this contract to trap Pei Yuqing, who was originally the daughter of the Elf King, by its side.

Unlike beast-folk and humans, elves were inherently proud and calm. They disliked communal living and were few in number, mostly living scattered in the secluded Cobalt-Rhodium Mountains, far from worldly affairs.

The Cobalt-Rhodium Mountain had a natural hot spring whose water was very beneficial for the elves’ spiritual cultivation. Nourished by this divine water, the elves’ power far surpassed all other races, making them the undisputed one-on-one champions of this other world—though each of them looked slender and graceful, on the battlefield, they were formidable beings capable of wiping out an entire company with a flick of their hand.

The elves’ immense power explained why the original owner was so cruel to Pei Yuqing. Even with the servant contract’s restraint, it still didn’t feel secure enough, so it used rings forged from profound ice iron to shackle her bones, making every movement a bone-grinding, flesh-tearing agony.

Elves were naturally cold-blooded, which was related to their magical practices, so they regularly soaked in hot springs to recuperate. However, Pei Yuqing was forced by the original owner to bathe only in ice water. Coupled with the fact that the profound ice rings were made from millennium-old ice, a race already susceptible to cold, with such intense cold entering her body, Pei Yuqing’s physical condition naturally deteriorated daily.

Qiu Qi thought of the beauty’s pale face just now. So, it wasn’t that she was naturally frail-looking; it was entirely this demon’s torture that made her so?

Damn, is this even human?!

Upon realizing all this, Qiu Qi felt a surge of sympathetic rage for Pei Yuqing’s plight.

If it were her, she guaranteed she’d be a thousand times more ruthless than Pei Yuqing.

She’d first strip this demon naked, then slowly slice it apart with a knife, piece by piece, to vent her anger! She’d make it suffer the pain of having its bones scraped and flesh cut, leaving no complete corpse behind!

Thinking of this, Qiu Qi realized she had to wake up quickly. Otherwise, if she really died, wouldn’t Pei Yuqing, who had signed the servant contract with this body, also be finished?

The surroundings were pitch black. In the center of her vision, there seemed to be a devouring black vortex, capable of sucking one in, much like the deep consciousness space described in novels.

Qiu Qi looked down and saw a circle of light glowing at her feet. She started to run, wanting to break free from this boundless darkness. She didn’t want to stay in this demon’s subconscious for another moment. What if she got assimilated?

“You damn b1tch! When I get out, I’ll make you pay!” Someone was roaring in the distance.

The voice suppressed deep hatred and rage, like a terrifying growl from the depths of a beast’s throat.

Qiu Qi keenly looked in the direction of the voice, using the light at her feet to approach step by step.

The shouting came from a human-shaped black mist encased in a cage.

“Lowlife!” The black mist reacted strongly to Qiu Qi, immediately moving closer to the bars on her side, revealing a horrifying half-human, half-beast face. Its eyes were filled with a heavy bl00d-red, looking extremely oppressive. “You’re finally here! Quickly, give me back the Beast Core Orb and my body! When I return and kill that b1tch, there will be a heavy reward!”

“Who’s the b1tch?” Qiu Qi crossed her arms, her gaze cold as she shot back.

“Didn’t you just see her, that b1tch named Pei?!” Speaking of Pei Yuqing, the black mist’s expression contorted, constantly shifting between human and beast forms. “I provided her with food and clothes, and in the end, this is how she treats me? If it weren’t for that face, would I have indulged her for so long? I’ll torture her to death!”

Qiu Qi couldn’t listen anymore. She raised her hand and slapped its forehead. “Shut up, you ugly loudmouth! I’ll deal with other things later, but who were you calling a lowlife just now? Do you know I’m your mother?!”

“What nonsense are you spouting!” Unprepared for Qiu Qi’s words, the black mist was clearly stunned. “Give me back the Beast Core Orb! Otherwise, I’ll make you regret it!”

“Huh?” Qiu Qi clenched her fist and rotated her neck. “Did you not get enough cursing just now, do you want to hear a ‘Zu’an RAP’ from your Big Sister Qiu?”

“You—”

“Do you even know what situation you’re in right now?” Qiu Qi slowly rolled up her sleeves.

She had already received the original owner’s memories, so of course, she knew why it had become a black mist trapped here.

Every beast-person had a Beast Core Orb. It was because of this orb that they differed from ordinary livestock, able to transform into human form and possess superhuman strength.

Cultivating one’s own Beast Core Orb took at least a century, or even millennia. Yet the original owner had rapidly ascended to its current position in just ten years, not because of its extraordinary talent, but because of its brutal nature, forcibly seizing and swallowing the orbs of other beast-people.

If one’s own Beast Core Orb was swallowed or destroyed, that beast-person would also die. One could imagine how many lives it had taken to accumulate its orb to this extent.

The consequence of this cannibalistic practice was that every full moon, the Beast Core Orb would begin to backfire on the original owner. Therefore, it was forced to temporarily remove the Beast Core Orb on this day and hastily put it back on after midnight.

And the night of the full moon was its weakest day. Losing the Beast Core Orb would not only weaken its beast energy but also cause memory and personality confusion. To avoid accidents and revenge from enemies, every full moon, it would ‘flip the card’ of a concubine with strong beast energy to serve it.

—The kind that never returned.

If Qiu Qi hadn’t accidentally entered its body today, Pei Yuqing, who was chosen for the “flip,” would have likely met a terrible fate.

The more Qiu Qi thought, the angrier she got. She wasn’t trying to be a beacon of justice; she just simply found this thing unbearable.

She slightly bent her knees and lowered her body. She had taken a taekwondo class for a while to strengthen herself. Although she only learned some flashy moves with more stance than substance, combined with this body’s raw, unreasonable brute force, it was more than enough to deal with it.

“Lowlife! What are you trying to do?!”

Qiu Qi smirked, stomped her left foot, and as her body leaped into the air, she used her hips to generate power for a spin. Full of force, she delivered a fierce back kick, aimed squarely at the black mist’s head.

“Ah—” A painful roar, so sharp it almost pierced one’s eardrums. Qiu Qi slowly retracted her raised leg and playfully waved at the original owner, who had already scattered into a cloud of mist.

“Old beast, bye-bye.” After saying that, Qiu Qi annoyingly added a toothy grin, full of mockery. “Your body is mine now. Your beauty will be cherished by me from now on. You can pack up and peacefully depart for the afterlife.”

It was a pity it was just a black mist with no physical form; otherwise, she would have certainly carried out her earlier thoughts of slow slicing.

After the mist dispersed, it squeezed through the cage’s gaps, floated up into the sky, and vanished.

The moment the original owner disappeared, a white glowing slit finally tore open in the dark, ahead. Qiu Qi immediately rushed in that direction.

Madam, I’m coming!

••••

“Hoo—ha—” Qiu Qi finally sprang up from the bed.

Her first reaction after waking up was to check if Pei Yuqing was alright. But as she looked up, the other woman was standing by the bed, looking at her with an expression as if she had seen a ghost.

Qiu Qi knew what she was thinking. Someone who was 100% believed to be dead suddenly resurrected—anyone would be scared, let alone Pei Yuqing, who hated the original owner so much.

However, the more Pei Yuqing hated, the more Qiu Qi had to show weakness. Firstly, to lower her guard, and secondly… she had to diligently try to reform the beauty.

Hard-headed people like Pei Yuqing usually respond to kindness over toughness, or even to neither. Qiu Qi didn’t know which type she was, but she had to take a gamble.

If this were a dating simulation game, Qiu Qi might have given up already, given the extremely high probability of a “blackened” or “bad ending.”

But now, she had no choice.

She began to seriously confront the changes happening to her. From now on, everything was not a game, not a novel; there were no revivals, retries, or save points.

Enjoyment was a luxury only after achieving safety; right now, even survival was difficult.

“Cough, cough, cough…” Perhaps she caught a cold from soaking in the water earlier. Pei Yuqing coughed a few times. She used the gesture of covering her mouth to lower her eyelids, her eyes revealing unconcealed surprise.

What’s going on? That Human Witch clearly said that once this spell took effect, it was foolproof. Yet this demon woke up perfectly fine?

For tonight’s plan, she had even prepared to die together with it. How could she willingly accept such a complete failure?

Pei Yuqing’s skin was already fair, making her look frail, and now with these two coughs, Qiu Qi’s heart ached for her.

“Madam, did you catch a cold? It’s all because the water was too cold just now. I’ll go boil some water for you right away. You should take a hot bath before sleeping.” Qiu Qi wasn’t just saying it; she actually sprang up to go boil water.

To boil water, she had to go to the wood shed, which was in the westernmost corner of the courtyard, so she had to go outside.

Pei Yuqing, of course, didn’t believe Qiu Qi’s words. The Beast Core Orb had already returned, and her plan must have been exposed. If Qiu Qi went out now, she would likely round up all those involved in the plan and kill them.

Thinking of the others who might be implicated because of her, in a moment of urgency, Pei Yuqing reached out and grabbed Qiu Qi’s wrist.

“Hm?” Qiu Qi turned her head.

“Apologies, I’ll put on my gloves immediately.” Pei Yuqing realized her out-of-line action and turned to get the gloves from the table.

Qiu Qi knew the reason. It was Pei Yuqing’s ability as the Elf King’s daughter: through touch, she could read a person’s current thoughts.

The original owner deeply detested this ability. If cutting off those hands wouldn’t affect the body’s appearance, it would have done so long ago. That’s why it commanded Pei Yuqing to wear gloves every day and never remove them when they were together.

Qiu Qi lowered her gaze and gently, somewhat heartbrokenly, stroked Pei Yuqing’s hand. Her knuckles were well-formed, fingers long and slender, even her nails had a beautiful luster. Such beautiful hands, why should they be covered by gloves every day? If it were her, she would have become a hand model and developed a side career long ago.

“Don’t wear them,” Qiu Qi shook her head. “Read if you want to. I won’t hide anything from you anymore. From now on, I only have you, and I won’t do anything to hurt you again.”

This confession should be sincere enough, right? Beautiful lady, beautiful lady, quickly praise me!

Pei Yuqing frowned, not in anger, but in confusion. Too many unfamiliar changes had occurred in this person tonight.

The crucial thing was that even when touching the other party, she couldn’t see through their thoughts.

Her mind-reading ability was actually very limited; she could only read immediate thoughts. If the other person was skilled at disguise, a little training could fool her, so she couldn’t rule out this demon playing tricks.

But the plan had failed, and the act had to continue.

Pei Yuqing lowered her head. “Yes, My Lord.”

••••

Pei Yuqing was uneasy, so in the end, she still accompanied Qiu Qi to the wood shed to boil water.

A pot of water, half a person’s height, would take at least the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to boil. Qiu Qi rarely used such primitive water-boiling equipment and also couldn’t bear to let the beauty exert herself, so she ended up looking quite disheveled.

After a long struggle, seeing the bubbling water, she finally realized she had succeeded. She excitedly stood up to claim credit from Pei Yuqing. “Beautiful lady, let’s go. I’ll carry it back, and you can have a nice hot bath to warm yourself up.”

Most elf women developed well, so Pei Yuqing was relatively tall, more than half a head taller than Qiu Qi.

To meet her gaze, Qiu Qi had to tilt her head down slightly. With that downward glance, her eyes directly met the bright colors in Qiu Qi’s eyes. Her fair, small face was full of the desire for praise, and with the accidental smudge of black ash on her nose, she looked like a docile and endearing human cub.

Pei Yuqing’s fingers twitched, instinctively wanting to wipe away the coal ash from her nose, but quickly remembering something, she immediately dropped her hand back to her side and bowed slightly. “Thank you, My Lord.”

Author’s Note:

Day one of trying to capture the Madam.