Chapter 9: The Prince is angry and vents his anger by whipping
The clouds were hanging very low, and the leaden sky looked like hail would fall at any moment. Even the wind was wrapped in a terrifying chill, and when it blew through the corridors of the palace, it brought with it a "woohoo" sound, which sounded like someone's suppressed cry in the dark.
Xiao Jin rode back from outside, his dark cloak matted with dust, his face gloomy enough to drip water. As he entered the palace, the butler trotted up to meet him, holding a memorial in his hand. His voice trembled, "Your Highness, the palace just sent the results of the investigation into the Salt and Iron Case... The Emperor was very dissatisfied after reading it and said... he wanted you to return to the palace tomorrow to give a reply."
"Dissatisfied?" Xiao Jin sneered, dismounted, and snatched the memorial. A glance at it revealed a growing chill in his eyes. He had spearheaded the investigation of the Salt and Iron Case, and had expected it to be concluded smoothly. However, a slip-up had occurred, and the Minister of Revenue had seized upon it, implicating him in the Emperor's case, accusing him of "incompetence and indulgence of his subordinates."
He knew that the Minister of Revenue was Lin Wanru's uncle, and this was clearly a pretext to embarrass him. But the Emperor's displeasure was genuine, and he would undoubtedly be reprimanded again when he entered the palace tomorrow.
A surge of anger surged in his chest, burning his heart. He tossed the memorial to the butler, his tone as cold as ice: "Got it, go away. Don't let anyone bother me."
"Yes, yes." The butler responded quickly, holding the memorial and quickly retreating, fearing that he would offend Xiao Jin.
Xiao Jin walked along the corridor, his anger growing. As he passed the garden, he saw a gardener pruning flowers a little too slowly, and he couldn't help but scold him, "Why are you dawdling? Didn't you eat?"
The gardener shuddered with fear and quickly quickened his movements, not even daring to raise his head.
He walked along like this, finding everything he saw displeasing to him. The maids and servants in the palace would stay away from him, fearing that he would vent his anger. As he walked, he unknowingly arrived near the laundry room.
From a distance, he could hear the "rustling" sound of clothes being rubbed, monotonous and repetitive, like a thin needle constantly pricking his tense nerves.
"Who's making noise outside?" Xiao Jin frowned, paused, and looked towards the laundry room.
Through the open door, he saw the familiar figure - Yun Zhi.
She was dressed in a gray, washed-out, coarse cloth. Her hair was tied up with a simple wooden hairpin, a few strands dangling by her cheeks, damp with sweat and sticking to her skin. She was hunched over the washing table, vigorously rubbing a heavy brocade robe with her hands. The effort made her shoulders sway slightly, and the back of the robe was soaked with sweat, clinging tightly to her body, outlining her thin figure.
Her hands were still wrapped in gauze, the bandage Xie Heng had bandaged them with last time. Although the bandage had been changed several times, they still looked a little swollen, clearly not fully healed yet. But she seemed to feel no pain and continued to rub the clothes vigorously, using all her strength with each stroke, as if she was exhausting all her energy.
For some reason, seeing her like this, Xiao Jin's anger not only did not subside, but became even stronger.
He should have felt happy—a criminal slave should suffer like this, live in such a humble way; this was what she deserved. But as he looked at her haggard yet stubborn appearance, he felt like something was blocking his heart, making him feel depressed and a little irritated.
This irritation came out of nowhere and made him feel very uncomfortable. He told himself that it was because her appearance was too glaring, like a thorn in his eye, reminding him of some scenes he didn't want to recall.
He took a quick step and walked into the laundry room. The maids and servants inside were so frightened when they saw him come in that they immediately stopped their work and knelt down to greet him: "Greetings, Your Highness!"
Yun Zhi also heard the noise. She stopped what she was doing, turned around, and saw Xiao Jin's gloomy face. Her heart skipped a beat, and she subconsciously lowered her head and knelt down: "Greetings, Your Highness."
Xiao Jin didn't let them get up. His eyes fell on the washing table in front of Yun Zhi, where a dark blue brocade robe lay. It was the one he had changed out of yesterday. He walked over, bent down, picked up the robe, ran his fingers over it, and then flung it to the ground in front of Yun Zhi. His voice was as cold as ice, "Is this the clothes you washed?"
Yun Zhi raised her head and looked at the brocade robe on the ground in confusion - the clothes were washed very clean and all the stains on them had been washed away. She didn't know why Xiao Jin was angry.
"Your Highness, these clothes... have been washed." She explained in a low voice, with a barely perceptible tremor in her voice.
"Clean?" Xiao Jin sneered, squatting down and pointing his finger at a spot on the cuff of his brocade robe. His tone was filled with undisguised sarcasm. "Look here! There's still a stain that hasn't been washed off, and you dare say it's clean? Yunzhi, is this how you work in the laundry room? Or do you simply ignore my words and deliberately slack off?"
Yun Zhi followed his finger and saw a faint mark on his cuff. It was rust from yesterday's sword practice. The color was very light and could not be seen without careful observation. She had rubbed it repeatedly with soap nuts, but it still didn't come out clean.
"Your Highness, I didn't mean to do that. I'll wash it again and make sure it's clean!" she said hurriedly, reaching out to pick up the brocade robe on the ground.
"No need." Xiao Jin pressed down on her hand. His fingers were cold, but he was very strong, pinching her wrist painfully. "I think you did this on purpose! You think I'll show you mercy just because you look a bit like Qingyue? You're a criminal slave who can't even wash a piece of clothing. What's the point of keeping you around?"
His words were like a knife cut through ice, piercing Yun Zhi's heart. She looked up at Xiao Jin's gloomy face, a trace of grievance and confusion in her eyes. She had clearly tried so hard, so why did he still treat her like this? Was it because she was from the Imperial Tutor's Mansion, a substitute for Shen Qingyue, that she would never get a shred of justice?
"Your Highness, I really didn't deliberately slack off..." She wanted to explain, but her voice became smaller and smaller, with a hint of sob.
"No?" Xiao Jin's rage intensified. He stood up suddenly and shouted outside, "Someone come! Bring a whip!"
The guards outside heard the shouting and did not dare to delay. They quickly came in with a cowhide whip and handed it to Xiao Jin with both hands.
The maids and servants in the laundry room were trembling with fear, lowering their heads, not daring to look at the scene before them. Yun Zhi was also stunned. She looked at the whip in Xiao Jin's hand in disbelief, her lips trembling, "Your Highness, what...what are you going to do?"
"What are you doing?" Xiao Jin gripped the whip, his knuckles turning white from exerting so much force. He stared at Yun Zhi's pale face, the rage in his eyes nearly devouring him. "I want you to know what will happen if you disobey me and slack off in this palace! I want you to remember that you are just a slave, a substitute. Don't even think about negotiating terms with me!"
He knew clearly that Yun Zhi hadn't done it on purpose, and that the small mark was nothing. But he couldn't control his anger, he needed an outlet, and Yun Zhi happened to be the one who pierced his gun.
"Your Highness, please don't..." Yun Zhi couldn't hold back her tears. She knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly. "I know I was wrong. I won't do it again. Please, Your Highness, please forgive me this time. Please..."
Her forehead quickly turned red and bled, but Xiao Jin seemed to notice nothing, his eyes still cold. He raised his hand and slapped the whip on the ground with a sharp sound that made everyone around him shudder.
"Hold her down for me!" Xiao Jin ordered coldly.
Two guards immediately stepped forward, one on each side, pressing down on Yun Zhi's shoulders, preventing her from moving. Yun Zhi struggled and cried, but her strength was too weak to break free from the guards' grip.
"Xiao Jin! You tyrant! You will regret it!" She looked at Xiao Jin, her eyes filled with despair and anger, and shouted loudly.
Xiao Jin's rage intensified when she called him by name. Without hesitation, he raised his whip and lashed it hard on Yun Zhi's back.
“Bang!”
The crisp crack of a whip echoed through the laundry room, and Yun Zhi's body trembled violently. A searing pain instantly shot through her back, as if countless needles were piercing her skin. She bit her lower lip tightly to prevent herself from making any sound, but tears continued to fall like beads from a broken string.
“Snap! Snap! Snap!”
The whip lashed her back again and again, each time with all her might. The coarse cloth was soon torn, revealing the pale skin underneath. The skin was soon covered with red and swollen whip marks, and some places had already seeped blood, staining the clothes red, and also the bluestone slabs on the ground.
The maids and servants around did not dare to look up. They could only lower their heads, listening to the sound of whips and Yun Zhi's suppressed groans, their hearts filled with fear.
Xiao Jin looked at the bloodstains on Yun Zhi's back, a flicker of surprise in his eyes, and his hand holding the whip paused. For some reason, seeing her bleed, the irritation in his heart surged up again, stronger than before.
But he quickly suppressed that strange feeling, telling himself: This is what she deserves. A criminal slave, what's a little injury? Qingyue suffered much more than this!
He continued to raise the whip until he had finished the tenth lash, then stopped.
The whip slipped from his hand and fell to the ground with a clang. He looked at Yun Zhi, who was kneeling on the ground. Her body had collapsed, leaning against the guard's arms. The clothes on her back were torn and soaked with blood, making her look horrible. Her lips were bitten and the skin was broken, oozing blood, but she never uttered another plea for mercy.
She raised her head and looked at Xiao Jin. There was no more grievance and fear in her eyes. There was only a cold and dead silence, and a trace of barely perceptible hatred, like an icicle, piercing straight at him.
It was this look that made Xiao Jin's heart sink.
He had never seen such a look in Yun Zhi's eyes before—no longer the previous infatuation, no longer the forbearance, only pure hatred. It was as if he was not the person she once held dear to her heart, but her sworn enemy.
This look made him very uncomfortable, even more so than the irritation he had just felt. He frowned, suppressing the strange feeling in his heart, and said coldly, "Remember the lesson today. If you dare to be lazy again, it will not be as simple as ten lashes."
After saying this, he turned and left without looking at Yun Zhi. His cloak swept across the brocade robe on the ground, bringing with it a gust of wind that messed up Yun Zhi's hair and made the wound on her back hurt even more.
The guard didn't release his hand until Xiao Jin disappeared from the laundry room. Yun Zhi collapsed to the ground, sprawled on the cold bluestone. The pain in her back nearly made her faint, but she gritted her teeth to prevent herself from losing consciousness.
She reached out and tightly grasped a piece of gravel on the ground, her nails digging deep into the gravel. The pain kept her awake. She looked in the direction where Xiao Jin left, and the hatred in her eyes grew stronger and stronger.
Crazy love? Expectation?
From today on, no more.
Xiao Jin, I will remember every bit of the pain you've caused me. One day, I'll make you pay for what you did today!
She slowly got up from the ground, and every time she moved, the wound on her back hurt. The maids and servants in the laundry room looked at her with sympathy in their eyes, but no one dared to step forward to help her.
She doesn't need anyone's sympathy.
She held onto the scrubbing table and walked out step by step. Every step she took left a bloody footprint on the ground, as if silently accusing the atrocity that had just happened.
When she reached the door of the laundry room, she stopped and looked back at the scene inside - torn clothes, bloodstains on the ground, and the whip that had fallen to the ground.
Then, she turned around, braving the cold wind outside, and slowly walked towards the servants' room. Her back was thin, but carried an unprecedented determination.
Her heart was completely dead today.
Instead, there was burning hatred and a seed of revenge.
Xiao Jin, from now on, we will slowly settle our accounts.
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