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Go on then, what was the point of roaring so heartbreakingly? Weren't you a Doctor of Law? Weren't you majoring in the rites? At least cover up your private organs, even that little meatball on your windpipe was vibrating. It was truly uncomfortable for people to look at.

Turning around, Zhu Bafu stoically prepared to go off and take her punishment.

"Wait."

"Does the doctor have any other instructions?"

"Hold this."

Three wooden boards were shoved into her hands, two long and one wide.

"What is this for?"

"Dongxu Mansion rules. Punished academy students receive three wooden boards each. The doctor writes the first line of a couplelet, and the student writes the second line, exposing their own flaws and bringing shame upon themselves as a warning to others!"

"Ha?" She had to write a couplet to curse herself? Being an intellectual was far too humiliating these days. "Whose—whose—whose rule is this?!"

"Minister of Personnel, Grand Secretary Li Chenjing! What, do you have a problem?!"

"..." That really was the Grand Secretary's "pre-mortem" style.

"I have already written the first line—Drown your sorrows in today's wine while today lasts. Write the matching second line and go stand as punishment under the Imperial Academy Gate for two hours." The doctor finished writing with flying strokes, dropped the boards, put his hands behind his back, and strolled off leisurely.

Beneath the Imperial Academy Gate, the brilliant sunlight cast a gloomy, long shadow.

With her back to the sunlight, Zhu Bafu stood at the designated punishment spot beneath the Imperial Academy Gate for public display. On her left was placed "Drown your sorrows in today's wine while today lasts", on her right hung "Tomorrow there is no wine, go sell wooden cabinets", and the horizontal scroll was held high above her head. Three crooked, utterly miserable, terrifyingly ugly characters looked as though they had been left behind by a vengeful spirit—

"Grief in vain"

This was the scene Young Master Piao beheld as he passed by the Imperial Academy Gate carrying his Imperial Noble Consort. It left him unsure whether to applaud this brilliantly executed couplet or to wring his hands over the pig kid's tragic plight, until it finally dissolved into an unrefined, roaring fit of laughter that nearly made his tears spray out.

"Hahahaha!!! Hahaha! Sell wooden cabinets, grief in vain... Hahaha, you are too talented. Hahaha!"

"Regardless, Young Master Piao, you have no conscience!" She said through gritted teeth. He still had the heart to laugh! At the root of it all, wasn't her falling to such a state caused entirely by his precious Xiaojing? If he hadn't been a nuisance who loved setting rules before losing his memory, and acting like a clingy pest after losing it, would she have been reduced to standing as punishment and writing couplets to curse herself?

"Don't you think Xiaojing's punishment method is very high-level and efficient? Little... Eight?" He blinked, testing the waters as he called out. "Isn't that what Little Jing calls you?"

Shock! Young Master Piao's formidable intelligence network—he already knew!

"No... I didn't cause him to lose his memory!" She explained in a flurry. "Although... we fell down together, and I'm very vexed as to why only he lost his memory while I didn't. Actually, I also really wanted to..."

"Little Eight. Don't be anxious or upset, Brother Piao has time to listen to you slowly." Deliberately using the thorny form of address for her, he had his Imperial Noble Consort cat resting atop his head as he leisurely hitched his robes and sat down at her feet. Crooking a leg in a ruffianly manner, he looked back at her. "Come on, tell your Brother Piao all about how my Xiaojing was driven to such a state—that he doesn't even remember Rongrong, yet has hopelessly become infatuated with you?"

Huh? Why was such a sour stench wafting straight from her heels to the tip of her nose?

Was it an illusion?

Not cutting a long story short, with a glib explanation and grandiose embellishments accompanied by wild gestures, Zhu Bafu rattled off the entire cause and effect down to the smallest detail. In the end, she did not forget to defend herself and clear her name.

"The whole situation is just like that, Young Master Piao. This humble student has not hidden a single thing. All of this is because Young Master Chenjing's memories are deranged; he only remembers things from before falling into the water, and he loves to let his imagination run wild while refusing to listen to explanations. This humble student was merely unlucky enough to pass by and get dragged into it."

"Mm. It sounds like Little Eight is indeed very innocent." Being dragged by Xiaojing to serve as a human shield to infuriate Prime Minister Li, bitten by a dog, chased by people, and finally falling into the moat, but—"My Xiaojing doesn't recognize me anymore, and I am very sad."

"I'm... very sad too! If he keeps clinging to me day and night like this, I won't have time to attend school or set up a street stall to earn silver, and I won't be able to survive!"

He chuckled. "My sadness is not the same as Little Eight's." A faint look of sorrow, dimming eyes, and slightly curved lips that, even when occasionally tilting upward, clearly showed he was forcing it.

Fine. Her sadness truly was not the same as his; her sadness was superficial and selfish, possessing neither depth nor style. She wasn't genuinely worried for a friend, nor did she have to agonize over where she ranked in his heart. Even if he had lost his memory, even if his mind was deranged, how could he prefer to remember a passerby rather than remember her?

A gentle breeze blew through his uncrowned hair, adding a few more shades of melancholy. Supporting his chin as he gazed into the distant horizon, he suddenly spoke in a daze.

"Little Eight, can you squat down a little bit?"

"Huh?"

"You're blocking my sunlight."

"..." Hey, hey, weren't you just agonizing over a shattered friendship? You still have the mood to sunbathe.

Clasping her knees, she squatted down slightly and shifted her body toward him, letting a ray of sunlight spill onto him. A weight then pressed heavily onto her shoulder, and a few strands of hair tickled her neck. Goosebumps erupted instantly as she realized Young Master Piao had actually tilted his head and leaned against her shoulder.

"Young... Young... Young Master Piao, you... you are doing this..." What kind of proper behavior was this?!

"I'm feeling miserable, leave me be."

"..." You lean on my shoulder and then tell me to leave you be?

However, never mind...

Being forgotten by a friend truly was a miserable thing.

She could understand.

"Don't take it too hard. He doesn't just not remember you alone. He doesn't even remember his own biological father, oh—and Miss Liu, whom he cares about the most!" Pah, pah, pah! She really had to bring up sore subjects. At a time like this, right in front of Young Master Piao, why on earth was she mentioning Miss Liu? However—

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Historical Romance

Woman Dressed as a Man