The Female Alpha Consort Mistakenly Marks the Empress - TFACMME Chapter 8

“Yes, Mother, I was mistakenly marked by an alpha.”

Qi Yingzhu lowered her head, her eyes red, her voice choking with emotion.

The expressions on Lord Qi and Madam Xu faces grew even more tense.

They were still staying at the Mu residence, and the reason was simple—they hadn’t been able to find their daughter last night.

Moreover, their relationship with the Mu family wasn’t close, and it was out of the question for them to trouble the Mu family to search for Qi Yingzhu.

After a restless night, Qi Yingzhu had returned on her own, which naturally made them happy. However, her face was dark and gloomy, as if she wasn’t happy at all.

They carefully interrogated her once again.

Previously, Qi Yingzhu refused to speak, only claiming that she had accidentally drunk some wine and then fallen asleep.

Madam Xu, keen as ever, sensed something off in her words: “If it was just an accidental drink, why wait until now to mention it? Also, why do I feel like you…”

She didn’t finish her sentence but instead shifted her gaze to Qi Yingzhu’s forehead.

There, a faint, almost imperceptible cinnabar mole had appeared. Logically, it shouldn’t be there.

This made Madam Xu’s heart tighten, and she couldn’t help but ask, “Did you fell into heat last night?”

Lord Qi, who was standing beside her, also asked, “What happened last night?”

Qi Yingzhu was supposed to enter the palace to meet the emperor and become the empress, the mother of the nation! If something went wrong at this critical moment, their family’s well-laid plans would be ruined!

Qi Yingzhu stopped speaking.

Finally, after her parents’ repeated questioning, she said the words she had just spoken.

She said that she had been marked by an alpha.

“Wait, let me think for a moment!” Lord Qi froze in place, still with a look of disbelief. “You’ve bonded with an alpha?! With who?!”

He seemed so furious, it looked like his eyes were about to burst.

Qi Yingzhu turned her eyes away, and not daring to look at him, she shook her head, as if neither denying nor willing to identify.

Lord Qi was furious, “What’s wrong with you? You’re about to enter the palace to meet the emperor and become the empress, and yet you’re being so disobedient! Last night you sneaked off, got drunk, and bonded with an alpha! Do you know what this means?”

Hadn’t the emperor recently started showing interest in Qi Yingzhu after her transformation into an omega? If the emperor found out she had bonded with an alpha before entering the palace, the entire Qi family would never be able to live in peace!

Qi Nian, standing nearby, weakly spoke, “Sister didn’t want to, it’s natural. Could it be that she’s so upset that…”

She had a pair of bright eyes similar to Qi Yingzhu’s, but they flickered with hidden intentions.

What she implied was that Qi Yingzhu had made up a lie, claiming to have bonded with an alpha to avoid entering the palace.

Qi Yingzhu didn’t speak. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and she looked exceptionally weak.

—This look, if it were the old her, wouldn’t have been put on. Qi Yingzhu had been well-educated from a young age, gentle and graceful, and always afraid to disturb any living being. A girl like her would never lie.

Even in her previous life, when she had run away, desperate and with a faint hope, she had spent the night with that alpha, yet she didn’t dare tell her parents or sister what had happened.

People always grow through setbacks.

Back then, she had been young and didn’t understand anything.

She had thought that with the promise of an alpha from a distinguished family, she could be saved from the palace walls.

It hadn’t happened like that at all.

In the end, Qi Yingzhu had ended up trapped in the deep palace. Step by step, and with each mistake, she came to understand everything.

If no one loved her, she would love herself; if no one protected her, she would protect herself.

Madam Xu shook her head and said, “It’s not a lie. Nian, take a whiff of Yingzhu’s scent.”

After forming a bond, the scent of an omega would naturally become disturbed.

As expected, Qi Nian lowered her head, took a sniff, and suddenly her expression changed, “Yingzhu, did you really form a bond with an alpha?”

Qi Yingzhu reluctantly lifted her eyes, “Yes, Sister. I don’t know what was in the wine, but I became confused and didn’t realize what happened…”

This was the first step. She would first tell them she had formed a bond with an alpha.

That old man wanted her to enter the palace. One reason was because of his advancing age and desire, and the other was that he had been influenced by the palace mages who claimed that marrying a Qi family daughter would bring good fortune.

They spoke of the “perfect jade,” but everything was built upon that “perfect jade” concept.

In her past life, she hadn’t told anyone, and her parents had sent her to the palace without hesitation.

But the old emperor was quite unlucky. After suffering a stroke, he couldn’t move, and while they thought marrying a new wife would lift his spirits, Qi Yingzhu didn’t even lift a finger to help.

Thus, Qi Yingzhu, still young, was left a widow, and her father’s career soared.

However, that didn’t last. Soon after, Qi’s father got involved in a power struggle and lost his position. Qi Yingzhu never considered reinstating him.

Now, things were different. After they found out she had formed a bond with an alpha, they would certainly be cautious.

First, only extraordinary people could attend the Mu family’s ceremony; second, if the emperor found out that Qi Yingzhu had already formed a bond with another, wouldn’t that enrage the imperial family?

No matter what, her entry into the palace had to be delayed.

Lord Qi had little patience left. He pulled Madam Xu aside and whispered something.

Their fragmented conversation reached Qi Yingzhu’s ears.

At this moment, he still didn’t believe it, but under Madam Xu’s persuasion, Lord Qi relented.

But then he proposed another possibility: “Will the emperor definitely find out? How about I send some silver, bribe a few palace servants, and see if they can make things go smoothly…”

“Lord, things in the palace are hard to predict. Besides, testing the scent of an omega by the palace might not follow normal procedures…” Madam Xu’s worried voice came through.

Although Qi Yingzhu had already known that her “family” only had intended to “use” her, hearing her parents discuss it like this still made her heart shiver.

From beginning to end, they only wanted to squeeze out every last bit of benefit from her.

How wonderful it was to live again. Qi Yingzhu felt the most at ease knowing that these people were not blood relatives.

That way, when it came time for revenge, she wouldn’t be tied up by anything.

The couple reached a decision and turned back to look at Qi Yingzhu.

Madam Xu, with a serious face, asked, “Yingzhu, do you remember what the alpha looked like?”

Handling the emperor was one thing, but forming the bond with an alpha was another problem.

Which alpha?

Then, thinking back to the intimate and beautiful scene earlier and recalling Mu Lanshi’s earnest words about fulfilling her promise, Qi Yingzhu suddenly had an idea.

“I… I didn’t see the alpha clearly. I just know she was a young woman…” Qi Yingzhu continued softly, unsure, “I was scared, so I didn’t look at her face, but I remember her voice was gentle, and her movements, her movements were also soft…”

By the end, Qi Yingzhu couldn’t help but lower her head, her cheeks flushed with color.

Madam Xu and Lord Qi exchanged a look, and both their hearts skipped a beat.

Most of the guests had already left last night, but the young alpha had also been left behind at the ceremony—who could it be?

They hadn’t forgotten what ceremony this was.

Lady Mu’s Awakening Ceremony!

Qi Yingzhu, still glancing at their increasingly tense expressions, continued slowly, “But now, I slowly remember what the alpha looked like. She seems familiar, with a small mole on her lower lip…”

This was bad.

Qi Yingzhu had vaguely described the alpha’s features, but Lord Qi grew more and more frightened as he listened.

Hearing his daughter speak so clearly, if it were true, he couldn’t just lash out…

He certainly couldn’t take Qi Yingzhu to find Mu family members and search for that alpha, could he?

The Mu family was the most influential family, and he dared not offend Mu Mei. This matter had to remain secret.

“Alright, alright, Yingzhu, stop talking for now. You need some rest. We’ll leave the Mu residence and think this through properly.” Lord Qi interrupted, his face full of anxiety.

Though he couldn’t inform the Mu family, he needed to figure out who that young alpha was who hadn’t left the residence last night.

Qi Yingzhu, hearing this, finally summoned the courage to raise her worried eyes and timidly asked, “Father, should I still go to the palace?”

“Not for now. We’ll put it off,” Lord Qi said irritably.

If this was discovered, their entire family would be finished.

‘If it came to that…’ Lord Qi glanced at Qi Nian, and dark thoughts began to form in his mind.

Qi Nian shivered and her bad premonition only grew stronger.

The family was full of their own plans, but they were not united.

Qi Yingzhu stared coldly at them, but when their eyes turned toward her, she quickly reverted to her old cautious self, her cheeks flushed, her head lowered.

No one could be relied on. She could only rely on herself.

***

Meanwhile, the head of the Mu family hadn’t finished interrogating the young master.

“You actually marked an omega so rashly?” Mu Mei laughed in anger, “I initially thought that since you’d only just become an alpha… not even half a month has passed, and I hadn’t had the chance to tell you, but you—acting so quickly…”

Mu Yan still had a concerned expression on his face as he said, “Oh, Mother, you’re not an alpha. When the heat arrives, it’s irresistible for us. The immediate priority is to figure out who that omega is.”

“Find out who that omega is? And then what?” Mu Mei glanced at Mu Yan and asked.

At this point, Mu Lanshi also raised her eyes at the right moment, looking thoughtfully at her older brother.

He was being too proactive today.

In her past life, Mu Lanshi had never seen him this eager. It was probably because, back then, Mu Lanshi had chosen to endure and kept silent.

Actually, back then, Mu Yan was very active, trying to expose something, but Mu Lanshi kept her mouth shut. When Mu Yan tried to find an opportunity, Mu Lanshi never gave him one.

It seemed like Mu Yan had been prepared for this question: “Now that our sister is an alpha, and has formed a bond with an omega, she naturally has to take responsibility, find the person, and marry them.”

This was the answer he had been preparing.

A glint of dark light flashed in Mu Lanshi’s eyes, but she didn’t show it on her face and continued to listen to her mother’s arrangements.

“Should Lanshi marry that person…?” Mu Mei repeated, her tone ambiguous on purpose.

Both the brother and sister knew that given their mother’s usual methods of managing the family, this was indeed a tactic she would take.

The two of them were both waiting for Mu Mei to say the same thing.