Chapter 12: Not Easy to Provoke

Luo Jince's hand, gripping Sun Honglei's collar, froze in mid-air, and he didn't even notice when his hairband caught on the corner of the desk as he turned his head. Ye Yiheng seized the opportunity to pry his fingers apart, catching a glimpse of the golden hairpin swinging outside the door, and hurriedly patted the wrinkles on his collar.

"Who allowed you to disturb my sister!" Luo Jince kicked over the stool at his feet, and the golden nanmu wood broke into two pieces.

He walked out quickly, but when he reached the threshold, he suddenly turned around. The fierce glint in his eyes frightened everyone back away: "If anyone dares to say a single word to my sister, I will never forgive him!"

When Ye Yiheng chased out, the copper bell in the corridor was shattering the setting sun.

Luo Jince pulled at his collar as he walked, revealing scratches on his neck. "That girl Chunxi must have been too talkative!" He suddenly stopped and said, "Cousin, please help me take a look. Is there still any bruises on your face?"

"Left cheek..." Before Ye Yiheng finished speaking, Luo Jince had already taken out the bronze mirror.

The diamond-shaped mirror reflected the boy's messy hair. He stamped his feet anxiously, "If I had known I was going to see my sister, I should have changed into that new bamboo leaf patterned gown!"

Just as Xie Wuchen was about to cross the threshold, a gilded fan bone sticking out from the side blocked his way.

The young man in the moon-white robe winked and said, "Brother Xie, since you are related to the Luo family, you must have seen that 'female Yaksha', right?"

The draft in the corridor of the Imperial College blew up the pages of the book, and Xie Wuchen's knuckles made the spine of the book crackle.

The nagging of his aunt when she was combing his hair in the morning was still ringing in his ears: "Brother Chen, please don't get involved in your elder brother's troubles..." But now, this group of playboys clearly wanted to make a fool of him.

"If you are curious..." Xie Wuchen suddenly raised his voice, "Why don't you go outside and take a look yourself?" There was a hint of sarcasm at the end of his words, which made everyone stunned.

Sun Honglei flipped the desk over and said, "Let's go! I want to see if Luo Zhaohan has supernatural powers!"

The golden belt made the teacups on the table clink, and the followers hurried out.

The remaining leaves on the locust tree fell down.

Luo Jince was clinging to a red-painted pillar and peering out when he suddenly saw Sun Honglei leading a group of people pouring out of the Imperial College. Startled, he tugged at Ye Yiheng's sleeve and asked, "Are they really going to cause trouble with my sister?"

"What's the rush?" Ye Yiheng mumbled while chewing on a piece of licorice. "Will your sister still be afraid of them?"

Before he had finished speaking, the sound of hurried horse hooves could be heard in the distance. Chunxi, riding a red horse, rushed forward, her pomegranate skirt fluttering like flowing fire.

Just as everyone was about to take a closer look, the girl suddenly reined in her horse, turned around, and shouted crisply, "Miss, hurry up!"

Ten feet away, the black horse raised its hooves and crushed the gravel on the ground.

Luo Zhaohan wore no veil, her dark hair tangled in a high bun, a few strands scattered as she roamed the streets. She held the reins in one hand, the gold-inlaid whip at her waist gleaming like fragments of gold in the sun.

“Whoa—”

Sparks flew from the scraping of horseshoes against the bluestone. As Luo Zhaohan rolled to the ground, Sun Honglei's peacock feather ear warmers had fallen to his shoulders—how could this be some burly-backed, bear-chested Yaksha? The girl's dark riding outfit accentuated her slim waistline, her brows slanting like swords into her temples, making her look even more heroic than Xie Wuqi when he was patrolling the city.

Chunxi's cheeks turned red from trying so hard to hold back her laughter.

Just now, she had deliberately taken the lead, and as expected, those idiots had mistaken the maid for a young lady. Seeing Sun Honglei staring at his young lady in a daze, he deliberately raised his voice and said, "Young lady, wipe your sweat quickly! Be careful not to catch a cold!"

Luo Zhaohan took the handkerchief and wiped his forehead, his eyes glancing at the frozen teenagers. Sun Honglei's face still bore bruises, and he looked like a raccoon being pinched by the scruff of the neck, forgetting even to cover his nose with a handkerchief.

As the locust flowers rustled down on Luo Jince's shoulders, Luo Zhaohan's fingertips were stroking the purple bridge of his nose.

In her previous life, a sudden snowstorm swept through the execution ground. She remembered her brother’s cracked lips smiling before his execution: “Sister, it’s just beheading. It doesn’t hurt…”

"Does it hurt?" Before he finished speaking, Luo Jince had already shaken his head like a rattle.

The boy straightened his back deliberately, but panicked when he saw his sister's red eyes, and raised his hand to pinch her nose.

"Ouch!" Ye Yiheng shuddered, "Cousin, what kind of Iron Head Kung Fu are you practicing?"

Luo Zhaohan was so amused by this funny guy that he burst into laughter.

The bloody color of the past faded, and the vivid appearance of the person before her burned her heart. She turned to look at the group of dandies and asked coldly, "I heard that you all have high opinions of my appearance?"

At this moment, in a green-topped carriage under the shade of a tree not far away, an old man looked at Luo Zhaohan, tapping his knuckles on the spine of the Nanhua Sutra, and muttered, "There's fire in this little girl's eyes."

The young man opposite him still lowered his eyes to wipe his sword, and half of his handsome face was reflected on the black iron blade.

"Sir!" the attendant whispered, clinging to the shaft of the carriage. "That is General Fuyuan's legitimate daughter. She just broke off her engagement with General Xie of the Wuwei General's Mansion yesterday."

The old man raised an eyebrow and looked out the window.

Luo Zhaohan's crimson cloak swept across the green bricks, and the armor touched Sun Honglei's chest: "Mr. Sun, you said I have a green face and fangs?" As he lightly lifted the scabbard, the jade pendant on the boy's waist fell to the ground with a "clang".

Sun Honglei stared at the family jade pendant that rolled to his feet, and suddenly remembered his father's warning this morning - General Luo was not someone to be trifled with.

His Adam's apple rolled and cold sweat slid down his spine into his collar.

"What?" Luo Zhaohan took a half step closer. "Your father, Minister Sun, a high-ranking official who rose to power with silver bricks, has never taught you what is the crime of slandering a military family?" She deliberately emphasized the word "Minister" and watched with satisfaction as the other person's face turned from blue to white.

Suddenly, a light laugh was heard from the carriage.

The young man finally raised his eyes, his gaze passing over the golden butterflies trembling in Luo Zhaohan's hair: "What are you laughing at, Mr. Chu?"

"I'm laughing at someone who's about to suffer a terrible fate." The old man twirled his long, snow-white beard. "The Luo family girl's murderous and heartbreaking moves are quite reminiscent of her grandfather's style."

Luo Zhaohan seemed to sense something and turned her head suddenly. When the curtain of the carriage swayed, she caught a glimpse of half of a pair of wide black sleeves.

Luo Jince rushed to Sun Honglei, but was pulled back to his original position by his sister by the back of the collar.

The silver armor on Luo Zhaohan's wrist hit his brother's shoulder, making a crisp "click" sound.

"Young Master Sun." Luo Zhaohan's fingertips stroked the whip. "I heard your family just changed the storytellers last month?" She suddenly raised the whip and pointed it at the crowd. "They're so vividly portraying others, they're even more dedicated than the actors begging for tips under the overpass."

Sun Honglei's throat twitched. The girl before him was clearly half a head shorter than him, but the cold star-like eyes that swept over him were even more terrifying than the Dali Temple's interrogation of criminals.

He forced a sneer and said, "This is being spread all over the teahouses in Beijing. How many mouths can Miss Luo shut up?"

"I can't stop them." Luo Zhaohan suddenly smiled and approached Sun Honglei. "But I can step on the faces of those who spread rumors and let them know—" The ending tone suddenly turned cold. "My daughter of the Luo family's horsewhip is specially used to whip those who spread rumors!"

The fat man in the crimson round-collar robe was suddenly caught by the whip at his belt and stumbled into the snowdrift.

Everyone was shocked to realize that the whip tip was actually covered with barbs. Luo Zhaohan shook his wrist lightly, and the mutton-fat jade pendant on the fat man's waist snapped in two.

"You!" Sun Honglei was about to explode when Luo Zhaohan flipped his palm and revealed a black iron token. The sunlight reflected a cold light on the five seal characters "Five Cities Military Command"—this was clearly Xie Wuqi's badge!

The old man in the carriage, stroking his beard, stopped in mid-air.

He recognized the token. When the Xie family broke off the engagement yesterday, Xie Wuqi went to the palace to apologize, saying that he had accidentally lost this token.

Now it seems that it was actually "stolen" by Luo Zhaohan?

"Do you all know the crime of privately discussing imperial officials?" Luo Zhaohan flicked the edge of the token with his fingertips. "If I hear you say anything slanderous about the Luo family again, I'll have you all punished by the tiger bench."