Volume 3, Chapter 298 – An Apology in Wine

“So that’s what you came for?”

She let out a cold scoff, feigning irritation. “Ha! So even you know how out of line it was!”

“Young Master Chi Zhong, do you have any idea how important a girl’s reputation is?”

“You accused me of not being a maiden, and then accused me of consorting with wolf demons. If Sister Xiyan and Sister Qingyu hadn’t vouched for my innocence, do you have any idea what would have happened to me? What my future would have looked like? Do you?”

“And now you want to brush past it all with a couple of sentences of apology.”

“You say you’ve reflected deeply on your mistakes, but how am I supposed to know whether you’ve genuinely realized your wrongdoing, or whether you’re only sorry because the family head’s flogging hurt?”

Listening to Lu Zhuxin’s relentless words, Chi Zhong’s eye twitched slightly.

The young men standing behind him didn’t know what to say either.

Because she wasn’t wrong. If no one had been able to prove her innocence back then, her reputation would have been destroyed and her future along with it.

“My lady.” Bu Lianshuang added, with perfect timing, “I don’t think he’s actually realized his mistake. I think he’s only sorry he got beaten.”

Chi Zhong bit down on the inside of his cheek, staring at the two women before him with barely concealed resentment.

A maidservant and a farm girl.

These two were simply insufferable.

He took a slow, deep breath and said as sincerely as he could manage, “I apologize, Miss Muxue.”

“I don’t know how to express the remorse I feel.”

“But I am genuinely sorry, and I am willing to make it up to you for the wrongs I committed.”

“Make it up to me?” Lu Zhuxin looked the pudgy young man up and down.

“I don’t see anything on you that could compensate me, though.”

“Shuang’er, what do you think he should do to make it up to me?”

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Bu Lianshuang’s expression didn’t shift. When she looked at Chi Zhong, her eyes held nothing but cold disdain.

She had remembered who he was.

Luluo had mentioned it before. When the fox lady had been working her way into the Chi family, she had been made difficult by one of the Chi family’s young men.

The fat one standing in front of her right now was most likely the ringleader responsible.

The thought filled her with open contempt for the lump of useless flesh standing before her.

“My lady, back in my homeland, when someone commits a wrong, they atone with their flesh.”

“Oh my!” Lu Zhuxin covered her face with both hands in exaggerated shock. “Is that really a custom where you’re from? That sounds terrifying.”

She let her gaze drift back over Chi Zhong.

“What do you think, Young Master Chi Zhong? Should I really take a couple of taels of flesh off you?”

Chi Zhong shuddered.

When that maidservant’s ill-intentioned gaze swept over him, a bone-deep chill ran through his body. It’s almost as though someone had actually taken a blade and carved several clean slices from him.

He stretched his stiffened cheek into something vaguely resembling a smile and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “The Second Young Lady is joking. Since Her Majesty the Empress ascended the throne, she long since abolished such barbaric customs.”

“There are no such brutal practices left within human territory.”

“Those who commit wrongs and crimes should be brought before the proper courts. No noble family is permitted to carry out private punishment.”

Lu Zhuxin tilted her head. “So what you’re saying, Young Master Chi Zhong, is that the family head’s flogging was private punishment?”

“Does that mean your real grievance is with the family head?”

Chi Zhong’s expression froze on his face.

He hadn’t meant that at all. Yes, the Empress had officially forbidden private punishment, but that was only on the surface. Every great family had its own internal rules and codes. Internal matters within a clan never escalated to the imperial courts.

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He had only been invoking the Empress’s authority as a rhetorical shield. He hadn’t anticipated this girl would use it against him.

“The Second Young Lady misunderstands. I never meant that,” Chi Zhong said quickly. “The fault was mine from the start. Whether or not the family head chose to punish me, those strokes of the law whip were what I deserved.”

“Every punishment I received was something I accepted willingly. It cannot be called private punishment.”

“And it was my way of atoning before the Second Young Lady as well.”

“Oh! Is that so!” Lu Zhuxin let out a surprised little laugh. “The law whip must not have been a pleasant experience.”

“The Second Young Lady is too kind,” Chi Zhong said. “However painful the whip, how could it compare to the pain of knowing I wronged the Second Young Lady?”

“If bearing it could bring the Second Young Lady some comfort and earn her forgiveness for my ignorance, then no pain on my end would be too great.”

Good lord, this blob was laying it on thick.

Lu Zhuxin felt like she might actually get sick if she had to listen to any more of it.

All right, time to move things along.

She turned to Bu Lianshuang.

“Hey, Shuang’er. What do you think?”

“I feel like he might actually be genuinely remorseful.”

“After all, the pain of several dozen strikes of the law whip can’t be much lighter than cutting off flesh as atonement, right?”

Chi Zhong inwardly let out a roar of indignation.

Not much lighter? Those dozens of strikes would have been enough to kill a man without a cultivator’s foundation!

Bu Lianshuang, meanwhile, looked at Lu Zhuxin with mild surprise.

Fox Lady, is she asking for my opinion?

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No. That’s not it.

What the fox lady meant was that she wanted to give Chi Zhong a way out.

Bu Lianshuang understood.

“My lady, you’re right,” she said evenly. “But wrong is wrong. A simple apology alone isn’t enough.”

Lu Zhuxin blinked.

This little wolf really was perceptive. She’d caught on immediately.

Lu Zhuxin gave a light huff.

“So then, Shuang’er, if we can’t have him cut off flesh in atonement, what should we do with him?”

Chi Zhong looked at Bu Lianshuang with pleading eyes. “Miss Shuang’er, please show some mercy.”

Bu Lianshuang thought for a moment, then said, “Then… let Young Master Chi Zhong offer wine as his apology. It doesn’t harm anyone, and it shows sincerity.”

Chi Zhong was inwardly startled.

He hadn’t expected that after everything she’d said, the maidservant’s proposed solution would be this merciful.

Was this what they called a sharp tongue with a soft heart?

With that, Chi Zhong’s opinion of Bu Lianshuang improved by a few degrees.

But then Lu Zhuxin spoke again. “Hmm, just drinking wine? That seems like he’s getting off easy, doesn’t it?”

“Of course,” Bu Lianshuang replied, her expression unchanged. “My lady, he’s apologizing to you. Naturally, he drinks until you’re satisfied.”

Chi Zhong’s face immediately fell. “Miss Shuang’er, you’re really trying to finish me off here!”

“Hmph!” A grin spread across Lu Zhuxin’s face. It looked as though she had discovered just the right way to keep Chi Zhong in line, and she announced it with great satisfaction, “Suffer a little, and maybe next time you’ll think twice!”

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“I will, I will! I absolutely will!” Chi Zhong forced out a string of bitter agreements.

His expression was pained, but inwardly, Chi Zhong was practically laughing.

Naive farm girl. You walked right into this yourself.

Just drinking wine? For a cultivator, that was nothing. Spiritual energy could suppress the effects of alcohol, and a cultivator with deep enough cultivation could even use a technique to dissolve it entirely. That girl had never cultivated, so she had no idea.

Ha. Look at her, so pleased with herself, thinking she’d gotten the upper hand.

Just wait until the drug takes effect. Then she’d know the power of this young master.

Drinking wine, what a heaven-sent opportunity.

The thought set Chi Zhong’s chest alight with anticipation. He could barely wait to see this insufferable girl reduced to a helpless mess by the poison.

Bu Lianshuang glanced around. “My lady, there aren’t enough wine vessels here. I’ll send someone to fetch more.”

“No need!” Chi Zhong said at once. “Something this small doesn’t require Miss Shuang’er’s trouble. I’ll handle it myself.”

Bu Lianshuang gave him a sideways glance.

From the way he’d been acting just a moment ago, he didn’t seem like someone who enjoyed drinking. So why was he suddenly so eager?

A note of suspicion crept into her mind.

Something about this felt off. Her instincts told her this wasn’t something that should be left to Chi Zhong.

But as a personal attendant, she was supposed to stay at her lady’s side without leaving.

“My lady.” Bu Lianshuang looked at Lu Zhuxin.

Lu Zhuxin waved a hand without much concern. “It’s fine, Shuang’er. Let him do the legwork. Why should you tire yourself out?”

“As you say, my lady.” Bu Lianshuang could only concede.