The maidservant immediately stepped forward and shielded Ye Jianwei behind her. "Eighth Young Master, this is Ninth Young Master's person."
"Hmm~?" Qin Zhaoer tapped the tip of her foot against the ground, and her gold-threaded skirt swirled gracefully around her. She suddenly leaned close to the maidservant, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. The corners of her eyes lifted, revealing a hint of dangerous petulance. "Are you going to stop me?"
The maidservant immediately lowered her head. "I wouldn't dare..."
She was not one of Qin Wangchuan's attendants. She belonged to the Immortal Ship Platform, one of the sort anyone could summon.
Naturally, she didn't dare provoke these Young Masters.
Qin Zhaoer gave a soft snort and skipped around to stand in front of Ye Jianwei.
"Wow~ A poor little blind girl, no less." Her sweet, syrupy voice held a trace of deliberately feigned pity, but in the next moment, her expression suddenly changed.
"Why?!"
Why could a five-year-old child win such favor from the Old Ancestor? Why did everyone else have a positive one, while he had a positive zero and could still receive a Divine Seed?
What exactly was she worse than him at?!
The more Qin Zhaoer thought about it, the angrier she got. She bit her lower lip hard, remembering what her mother had said—
'Zhaoer, you have good talent. Unfortunately, compared to Wangchuan, you're destined to be nothing more than a green leaf...' Her mother hadn't finished the rest, but that sigh had stung more than any words could.
"A blind girl..." Qin Zhaoer suddenly lowered her voice, venom seeping into its sweet tone. "You think you're fit to enter the Qin Clan?"
"I..." Ye Jianwei's voice was hoarse. Her thin fingers clenched suddenly, her nails digging into her palm.
She desperately wanted to argue back, but couldn't utter a single word.
Her silence gave Qin Zhaoer the perfect excuse to lash out.
"Impudent!" The guard behind Qin Zhaoer barked. A massive pressure bore down like a mountain.
But before it could even reach the ground, another force swept in and scattered it.
"You're the one being impudent!"
A furious shout exploded like thunder.
Caught off guard, Qin Zhaoer and the guard were pressed face-down onto the green jade bricks. Her hairpins clattered to the ground, and dust stained her clothes. She was nothing like the arrogant girl she'd been moments before.
She struggled to lift her head, meeting Qin Wangchuan's icy gaze.
"Eighth Sister." His clear, childlike voice rang out like cold spring water striking jade, sending a shiver through everyone present.
Qin Zhaoer forced a smile, her voice cloyingly sweet. "Ninth Brother~ Your sister was just helping you teach an unruly servant a lesson!"
Qin Wangchuan approached at an unhurried pace, guards at his side. Though the five-year-old child was small in stature, his eyes made everyone present's hair stand on end.
Even the guards serving the Young Masters differed greatly in rank. Qin Wangchuan had always had the best at his side.
"Young Master..." Tears glimmered in Ye Jianwei's vacant eyes, and her cracked lips trembled slightly. So much emotion was hidden in that call—from despair to grievance, from helplessness to relief. She was like a lost young beast that had finally caught the scent of home.
"It's all right now." Qin Wangchuan reached out and brushed his hand over her dry, brittle hair.
Those few short words made Ye Jianwei's rigid back suddenly relax.
He turned to look at Qin Zhaoer.
"Eighth Sister, you certainly are impressive. You've even started disciplining my people."
"Very impressive."
A playful tease colored Qin Wangchuan's childish voice, but those eyes, deep as the Star Sea, were rimmed with frost.
He gave the guard behind him a slight glance, and the pressure hanging over Qin Zhaoer and the others vanished at once.
Qin Zhaoer looked up guiltily, only to meet those icy eyes—
She let out two awkward laughs almost instinctively. Her throat bobbed, and fine beads of cold sweat had already formed at her temples.
As Young Masters, they had naturally interacted before. Eighth Young Master Qin Zhaoer wasn't a bad person; she was simply childish, spoiled and rude, and especially hostile to outsiders.
She was clearly his older sister, yet acted just like one of those little female demons from his previous life.
He'd taught her a lesson a few times before, but apparently she still hadn't learned.
"Since you know you were wrong, you'll be punished."
The moment Qin Wangchuan's childish voice fell, Qin Zhaoer's pupils shrank. Her cinnabar-painted fingertips unconsciously clutched her skirt.
'It can't be that thing, can it?'
As she wondered—
Two female guards immediately stepped forward, one on either side of Qin Zhaoer.
"You... what are you doing?" Qin Zhaoer's voice suddenly rose, a flicker of panic crossing her phoenix eyes. "Impudent! I'm the Eighth Young Master!"
Before she could finish, the two female guards promptly bowed. "We beg the Eighth Young Master's forgiveness."
Then they took hold of her arms from either side. Their movements were respectful, but left no room for resistance.
When the guards didn't budge, she turned toward Qin Wangchuan, her voice rising sharply. "I'm your sister!"
"Precisely because you are, I have to discipline you." Qin Wangchuan took a jade ruler from a guard. "Twenty strokes. A small punishment to serve as a warning."
Qin Zhaoer's face instantly turned deathly pale. She struggled to break free. "N-no! I'm already grown up..."
"You can't hit my butt!"
This jade ruler was called Jiexin, a disciplinary Magic Tool passed down through the Qin Clan.
It didn't harm the body in the slightest, yet struck directly at the Divine Soul. No matter how far your cultivation had reached, you couldn't escape its bone-piercing agony.
Qin Wangchuan had used it to beat her last time, too!
The female guards paid no mind to her protests. With practiced movements, they held her in place, one cradling her in her arms.
The crimson skirt was lifted at one corner.
The guards and maidservants nearby all turned their heads in silent understanding, not daring to look.
"Smack!"
The jade ruler fell on her buttocks with a crisp crack.
Qin Zhaoer's body shuddered, and the tips of her ears instantly flushed red.
"Qin Wangchuan! You... ah!"
"She's just a blind girl! Is this really necessary?!"
"Smack!"
The second stroke landed a little harder. Qin Zhaoer bit her lip, her eyes already reddening.
As the jade ruler came down again and again, her furious curses gradually turned into quiet sobs.
By the fifteenth stroke, she finally couldn't hold back and begged for mercy:
"Ninth Brother... I know I was wrong... I really do..."
"What did you do wrong?"
A sob escaped Qin Zhaoer's throat. "I was wrong to bully a blind girl..."
"Smack!"
The jade ruler fell again. Qin Zhaoer's entire body jerked, her slender waist snapping taut. Her fingers clutched the guard's clothes so hard that her knuckles turned blue-white.
She bit down hard on her red lips, moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes.
The instant the jade ruler fell, pain seared through her like flames, then in the blink of an eye turned into a strange, tingling numbness.
Just like last time, there was an inexplicable, indescribable thrill to it, as if ten thousand ants were crawling beneath her skin, the itch traveling from where she'd been punished all the way to the tip of her heart.
"You were wrong to bully my people."
'My people...'
Those words struck Ye Jianwei's muddled world like a thunderbolt, making her ears ring.
Her vacant eyes widened slightly, and her cracked lips trembled unconsciously.
The punches and kicks she'd endured in Qixia Town, the curses she'd heard—suddenly, all of it seemed far away.
In their place came a subtle sense of... security.
Qin Wangchuan only stopped after delivering all twenty strokes. He put away the jade ruler and looked at Qin Zhaoer. "Remember the lesson you learned today."
When Qin Zhaoer was helped to her feet, tear tracks still streaked her face, but she didn't dare act out again.
She suppressed that strange feeling, covering her burning backside. Her voice came out choked with tears. "Sniff... I-I know!"
"Ninth Brother, you're the worst!"
She suddenly stomped her foot and wailed the words through tears. When she turned to leave, the jade pendants at her waist clattered wildly, and she nearly tripped over her own overly long skirt.
The guards scrambled to help her, but she shook their hands off and turned back to glare fiercely at Ye Jianwei. Her expression was like a cat with its fur standing on end, baring its teeth despite being utterly miserable.
Qin Wangchuan watched her retreating figure, then said to Ye Jianwei:
"In a sense, it's ten or even a hundred times more dangerous here than outside. So don't count on luck to get you through."
A chilliness far beyond his years colored Qin Wangchuan's childish voice. He turned to look at her. "Tomorrow, I'll teach you how to cultivate. Become stronger—strong enough that no one can bully you, and no one will dare."
The backbone Ye Jianwei had held straight moments earlier was gone.
She slowly bent her knees and pressed her forehead to the cold floor tiles. Her voice was quiet, but firm:
"I'll do as you say, Young Master..."
This future Heavenly Emperor secretly swore to himself that this was the first time—and the last—that he would hide behind the Young Master.
Next time, and forever after, she would be the one to protect the Young Master.
Before you continue