cold clothes

Yin Jiu smiled happily and put Leng Yi down. Leng Yi couldn't wait to jump down and slipped out of Yin Jiu's arms like a kitten. Then she looked at him with her cat-like blue eyes.

Despite her haughty appearance, Leng Yi felt empty and cold as soon as she got off Yin Jiu's back. She longed for his body warmth after only a moment apart and couldn't help but feel a sense of loss.

Yin Jiu's cheeks and nose were red from the cold, and fine snowflakes covered his hair. His breath made his features appear slightly blurred, and his usually calm black eyes softened considerably.

For a fleeting moment, Leng Yi's composure faltered. Before her stood Yin Jiu, a spirit conjured from ice and snow, exquisitely beautiful, seemingly unique to heaven and earth.

It's just a filter, a snow scene filter!

Leng Yi angrily looked away, inwardly pounding her chest in frustration: she didn't want to admit that there was a boy more beautiful than her, especially since that person was Yin Jiu.

Yin Jiu couldn't understand her fickle heart, so she could only say, "I'm going back. You can walk the rest of the way on your own."

“Oh…” Leng Yi’s expression immediately darkened, and then she loosened the knot of her cloak at her chest. “Here’s your cloak back. I already had one.”

Yin Jiu leaned forward slightly, and at that moment, the fine snowflakes in his hair tilted down and fell onto the tip of his reddened nose, while his long eyelashes caught a few pure white ones.

Leng Yi was taken aback. Yin Jiu said to her, "Help me put this on."

"Alright." Although Leng Yi felt something was off, she still helped Yin Jiu put on the cloak and tied the belt.

“It’s tied,” Leng Yi said, and when she looked up, she met Yin Jiu’s dark eyes, and her heart skipped a beat.

Leng Yi blushed involuntarily. Yin Jiu was acting strangely today…

"Hmm, Miss Ningbi's knot-tying skills are quite good. This servant is flattered." Yin Jiu reached out and touched the cloak belt, revealing a sly smile.

—Alright, this kid is still the same as always.

"You're so lucky to know!" Even though she knew the boy was teasing her, she was still happy to jump into the trap.

It seems strange that I am the one who is acting this way.

"Aren't you going back yet? The sound of the zither has already started." Yin Jiu looked at Zhuoyu Pavilion and said.

Sure enough, melodious zither music drifted from the direction of Zhuoyu Pavilion, sounding to Lengyi's ears like a summoning melody from the underworld.

"Then I'm leaving..." Leng Yi reluctantly walked towards Zhuoyu Pavilion. Sadly, she wanted to turn back after only a few steps. The warmth of Yin Jiu was gradually eroded by the cold wind, tearing her back to cruel reality bit by bit. She couldn't hold onto her beautiful dream after all. Heavens, was she having a beautiful dream or a nightmare? When would she wake up from this nightmare?

"Your Majesty!"

At Qin Mama's command, Leng Yi knelt down.

"Article 18 of the Zhuoyu Pavilion Rules: Anyone who is late for class, regardless of the reason, shall be punished by kneeling for three hours. Moreover, you have a history of skipping class and arguing with the teachers. You will be punished for multiple offenses. Today, you will kneel on the third floor for the whole day!" Granny Qin said decisively. She then ordered the maid to place three bowls of water on Leng Yi's head, the back of her left hand, and the back of her right hand respectively. If any water was spilled, her palm would be slapped once. If the bowl was dropped on the ground, her palm would be slapped ten times.

Balancing bowls on their heads was a routine etiquette training exercise for the women in cold clothes, but over time it turned into torture.

Such punishment not only tormented her body but also her mind. Leng Yi knelt outside the dance studio on the third floor, and everyone passing by could see her miserable state. A normal person would have been worse off dead long ago, but Leng Yi was not mentally sound and instead wanted to thank Granny Qin.

Being with Xia Hua and the other three was a more agonizing torture than balancing bowls on her head. Qin Mama, on the contrary, saved her from this misery. Moreover, she knew that as long as she pretended to faint if something went wrong, she could go to the herbal medicine shop again.

Although she thought it was a beautiful idea, Leng Yi silently endured it. She was extremely tired of herself and had lost the strength to even resist.

Little did people know that Leng Yi's quiet demeanor made them feel that something was amiss, and alarm bells were ringing for some people, who were both fearful and wary.

Of course, Leng Yi wasn't completely without her cleverness. She pretended to be so hungry she was about to faint, and also said she needed to use the latrine, using her charm to coax the maidservant in charge. The maidservant dared not disobey her. In this way, the punishment caused her no physical harm, the maidservant dared not give her a meaningful look, and the four courtesans of her rank did not mock her. There was no psychological harm at all.

Hey, speak of the devil and he appears! The first person to greet her was Nongyue. When Nongyue dismissed the maidservant, the maidservant left decisively, not fulfilling her duty at all, as if she was looking forward to some kind of hair-pulling incident.

“Now I don’t worry about being overheard when I speak,” Nongyue even knew how to make a little joke.

"Do you want to say something that others can't hear?" Leng Yi joked along with her.

“This is not something I should be saying, it’s you,” Nongyue said with a smile. “You seem to have a particularly good relationship with Sister Yunqiu.”