Chapter 9: Wow, How Vicious

Chapter 9: Wow, What a Jerk

Suddenly.

The world suddenly turned upside down.

The proud rooster was forced to submit to the sparrow, his head held high as he flapped and thrashed, but that elegant, refined sparrow suddenly turned vicious, pinning down his flailing wings.

Ah.

I can't fight back.

This sucks.

Everything feels wrong.

Help.

Help me...

Pei Yuhuai passed out cold.

Lan He calmly dressed himself, his gaze clear and composed, carefully studying his sleeping face. His eyes were dark and unfathomable as he leaned down and bit down hard on his shoulder.

"Hiss..."

Pei Yuhuai stirred but didn't wake.

Two rows of fresh teeth marks were left on his fair shoulder—as much a punishment as a declaration.

After a moment's thought,

Lan He took the Buddhist beads from the bedside, pulled one off, threaded it onto a red cord, and draped it around Pei Yuhuai's neck.

Before sleeping, he gave Pei Yuhuai another pill.

This was made by Xu Sheng, capable of distorting one's memories of events prior to taking it, making one believe whatever truth they wished to accept.

He was curious how the proud young lord would reconstruct tonight's events.

-

As dawn approached,

Pei Yuhuai slowly stirred awake, turning his head to see the person sleeping beside him. He was scared out of his mind, last night's memories rushing back all at once.

What the hell did I do?

Did I... take advantage of Lan He?

He's a monk!!!

A Zen master of the Buddhist order!

And I was sober when I did it!!

I'm doomed.

I'm screwed, totally screwed.

Trembling, Pei Yuhuai held his waist and stumbled out of Qingwu Manor, hurrying back to the Marquis's estate.

The young novice monk saw him sneaking out.

But the master had instructed him to turn a blind eye, so he let it go.

Pei Yuhuai made up an excuse to brush off the steward, then ran through the darkness toward his own courtyard, tripping several times along the way—a sorry sight.

If one looked closely, they'd notice his face was deathly pale and his lips were trembling.

Total panic.

As soon as Pei Yuhuai returned to his room, Pei Yi bolted awake and rushed over: "Young lord, you're finally back! I was worried to death. Why were you gone so long?"

"Go draw a bath. I want to bathe."

"Huh?"

"Hurry."

"Yes."

Scrub it off, quickly wash away the evidence. If it ever gets exposed, deny it no matter what.

Boo hoo hoo.

Pei Yi helped Pei Yuhuai undress for his bath. As his outer robe was removed, a scattering of red marks was revealed, along with a ring of bruises around his neck.

And a Buddhist bead hanging from his neck!!

"Young lord, what's this? Who did this to you?"

Pei Yuhuai's eyes went wide.

When he left, he'd thrown on his clothes any old way without paying attention. Only now did he realize how many marks were left on his body.

This...

Could it be that he'd pressed down on the monk's head and forced him to leave these marks?

And this Buddhist bead—had he stolen that too?

Wow, what a bastard I am.

Pei Yuhuai was thoroughly disgusted with himself, then, flustered and ashamed, he quickly clutched his clothes shut.

"It's nothing. I got into a fight with some rival outside."

Pei Yi fumed: "Who's got the nerve to lay a hand on you, young lord? Tomorrow I'll have them thrown in prison."

"By the way, when did you get that bead around your neck? It wasn't there yesterday."

Pei Yuhuai forced a smile and lied: "Oh, I found it on the road. It looked nice, so I wore it, but now that I see it, it's nothing special. Toss it."

He slipped off the bead and tossed it to Pei Yi.

"Huh? You found it? And you want me to throw it away?"

"Stop asking so many questions. Go toss it now. Go on, get out."

"Fine." Pei Yi left, looking suspicious, then halfway turned back: "Young lord, you still haven't told me which bastard hit you."

"......"

Pei Yi really is naive—he didn't catch on, and he couldn't read between the lines either.

Pei Yuhuai coughed twice and said with a straight face, "Fighting in secret and then using my status to push people around isn't exactly honorable. Would I ever stoop to something like that?"

"Ah, right—the young lord is a straight-up, honorable man."

"Exactly. Don't go spreading this around, got it?"

"Got it, got it."

His young lord had a thin skin—losing a fight was way too embarrassing to admit, and he got that.

Pei Yi backed out.

Pei Yuhuai felt his way to the tub, shivering as he eased himself into the water. The second he hit the water, a searing pain shot straight to his brain, nearly knocking him out cold.

"Help!"

He clenched his jaw so hard his molars nearly shattered.

Why the hell did this hurt so much?

In the books, didn't they all say it was pure bliss, like floating on cloud nine?

He felt zero delight—just pain. His ass hurt. Did he fall or something...

Pei Yuhuai shook his head in frustration. A simple bath took him almost an hour and left water splashed all over the floor.

For a long while after that, he didn't leave the house, scared stiff every day—terrified of being found out, and terrified of running into Lan He.

He just lay in the courtyard every day, soaking up the sun, nursing his wounds, and playing with his birds and fish.

He needed time to heal.

To wrap his head around something so insane.

And nobody could find out—otherwise, Lan He breaking his vows was a small deal, but him forcing a monk to break his vows was a huge deal.

-

That day,

Pei Siming, bored out of his skull, grabbed a fun, simple storybook and headed over to find the fourth brother.

He'd heard Princess Quying was coming today, so he had to go check it out.

Meanwhile, Princess Quying, with a man in a blue robe in tow, was heading toward the Fourth Young Master's courtyard at the marquis's estate.

The marquis had four sons and a daughter.

The eldest son was a love child from the marquis's wild younger days, and his mother was later brought in as a concubine.

The other three sons and the eldest daughter were all from the marquis's wife.

Everyone in the capital knew the marquis's youngest, Fourth Young Master Pei Siming, was a simpleton—now sixteen, but with the mind of a little kid.

Just then.

Princess Quying had reached the courtyard gate and could see inside.

The handsome youth was slim, dressed in a clean, elegant dark blue robe, sitting under the crabapple tree with a book, quietly flipping through the pages.

Dappled morning sunlight filtered through the crabapple leaves, lighting up a pale, beautiful face.

Was he really a dummy?

Qu Ying wondered.

The next second, the simpleton seemed to sense something and looked over at the gate, his face all naive and childish beyond his years, flashing her a grin.

Oh, he really was a dummy.

"Pfft."

Qu Ying couldn't help but laugh, hiking up her skirt to step over the threshold. The moment she took a step, her foot slipped and she nearly ate it.

She didn't fall, but she slammed into the doorframe, pain twisting her face.

"Shit."

Qu Ying blurted out.

"Your Highness, watch your step." Su Zichen wanted to steady her, but with the whole men-and-women thing and his hands full of a box, he held back.

The simpleton walked over with his book, eyes all clear and innocent: "Sister, does it hurt?"

"..." Mhm.

Qu Ying rubbed her butt, grumbling as she clung to the doorframe, feeling pretty embarrassed.

"Sister's fine."

Su Zichen noticed a bunch of small beads scattered on the ground—some carved from stone, others clear as crystal, like jade.

These must be what the simpleton played with.

"Your Highness, watch your step. Dodge these beads and walk carefully."