Retreating to advance, ordered to patrol the market

The emerald tea swirled violently around the inside of the cup, on the verge of spilling, only to settle miraculously with the slightest dip of his wrist.

Not a drop of the scalding tea spilled! Not even a floating fleck of tea leaf splashed out!

At the same time, the back of Chen Xuan's hand supporting the teacup lightly tapped the bottom edge of the overturning wooden tray.

A concealed burst of deft force shot back through the wooden tray into Chun Tao's wrists!

"Ah-!"

Chun Tao felt as though both wrists had collided head-on with a great iron hammer. Her entire arms instantly went numb and lost all feeling. With a scream, her feet slipped out from under her, and she fell flat on her back onto the flagstones in utter humiliation, landing squarely on her backside!

Dead silence fell beneath the veranda.

Xiao Ling'er kept her hand on her whip, her almond-shaped eyes narrowing slightly as she stared at the large hands holding the hot tea perfectly steady.

This stablehand had only broken through to early-stage Bright Force at noon yesterday. Why did his reflexes in catching the cups in midair and his precision in dissipating their force look sharper than those of the veteran guards who had trained in the front courtyard for five or six years? Could it be some crude trick he had practiced by carrying water in the stables all those years?

Before she could think further, Chun Tao, who lay on the ground grimacing in pain, had already recovered her senses.

Clutching her numb wrists, she looked up and saw that not only was there not a single blister on Chen Xuan's face, he was standing there perfectly fine with the teacups in hand. Shock and fury surged through her, and she was just about to open her mouth to make a scene and turn the blame on him-

"Chun Tao! What are you doing?!"

From above her head, Xiao Ling'er's furious shout crashed down, as cold as the ice of deepest winter!

All the fat on Chun Tao's body quivered. Meeting her mistress's almond-shaped eyes, which looked ready to spit fire, she was frightened out of her wits. Scrambling and crawling, she turned over and knelt on the flagstones, desperately kowtowing and crying:

"Please calm your anger, Miss! This servant deserves death! Just now... just now there was dew on the soles of my shoes, and I slipped! It wasn't deliberate! I really didn't mean it!"

"You slipped?!"

Xiao Ling'er gave a cold laugh of fury, stepped forward with her riding whip in hand, and pointed down at her nose as she berated her:

"Do you take me for blind?! These stone steps are perfectly dry! Where would any dew come from?! You clearly put all your strength into tipping that tray at Chen Xuan's face! That water had just come off the boil! If it had splashed him squarely, would his face and eyes still be any use?!"

"I'm innocent, Miss! Even if I had ten times the courage, I wouldn't dare hurt anyone in front of you!"

Chun Tao was so terrified that tears and snot streamed down her face, her forehead striking the flagstones with repeated thuds.

Xiao Ling'er's chest heaved violently with anger, and the red-tailed snakebone whip in her hand rattled as it shook. What she hated most was servants playing dirty tricks and fighting among themselves right in front of her. What was more, Chen Xuan had just massaged her legs into complete comfort inside, then sweet-talked her into full bloom outside the door, yet this stupid maid had dared turn around and viciously try to disfigure her personal guard before her very eyes!

Just as Xiao Ling'er raised her long whip, about to order the older women from the outer courtyard to drag Chun Tao away and strip off her skin and pull out her tendons, Chen Xuan, who had remained silent throughout, suddenly moved.

He turned and set both cups of hot tea steadily on the stone table beside a veranda pillar, then hurried over to Xiao Ling'er and dropped onto one knee with a thump:

"Please calm your anger, Third Miss! You must not get upset over me alone!"

Chen Xuan raised his head. Instead of the slightest resentment at having been attacked, his face was filled with anxious trepidation:

"Sister Chun Tao has always been the most meticulous in her duties here. She must simply have lost her grip on the tray just now! Besides, thanks to your blessings, Miss, carrying water in the stables for three years has given my hands a little clumsy strength for catching things. See? Not even half a drop of tea touched me! My life is worthless. Even if a layer of my skin had been scalded off, it wouldn't matter. But if your anger over this harmed your health, Third Miss, even ten thousand deaths couldn't absolve me!"

Xiao Ling'er's whip stopped dead in midair.

She stared down blankly at Chen Xuan kneeling at her feet, her face full of disbelief:

"She clearly wanted to scald your eyes blind with boiling water! It's one thing not to hate her, but you're actually pleading for this wretched maid?!"

"Please judge wisely, Third Miss!"

Chen Xuan firmly cupped his fist, every word sincere to the bone:

"I'm merely a newcomer whom you graciously promoted to the Listening to Rain Pavilion yesterday, while Sister Chun Tao is an old servant who has attended you in your chambers since childhood. If you severely punish your senior personal maid today over such a trifling matter involving me, once word reaches the various branches in the front courtyard, people will surely wag their tongues and say that the Third Miss mistreats her longtime servants for the sake of an outer-courtyard stablehand! A little injustice to me means nothing, but your virtuous reputation, pure as ice and jade, must never suffer the slightest stain because of me!"

This green-tea speech, retreating in order to advance, was delivered with magnificent righteousness and without a single crack for water to seep through!

Chen Xuan kept his head lowered, but a chilling sneer flashed deep in his eyes:

Want to ruin my face with boiling water? If I let you take a couple of quick lashes and call it settled, wouldn't that be letting you off far too cheaply? Today, I'm going to roast you over the furnace of morality and show you how a top-tier green tea kills by striking at the heart! No hurry. We'll put this debt on the books first. There'll be plenty of time to work on you slowly later!

Sure enough, after hearing Chen Xuan's speech, Chun Tao, slumped on the ground, went from white to blue, then blue to purple. So overwhelmed with shame and fury was she that she wished she could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it!

Just moments ago, she had looked down her nose at him and called him a lowborn wretch who had crawled out of the stables. Yet he had not only caught the boiling water barehanded, but turned around and pleaded for her, protecting their mistress's reputation at every turn! By comparison, her jealous, sour-faced attempt to seize the chance to throw tea at him looked as stupid and vicious as a clown hopping about on a beam!

Xiao Ling'er gave Chen Xuan an even deeper look.

Whenever her servants suffered the slightest grievance, which of them did not wail to heaven and earth and beg her to deliver justice? Yet this stablehand neither wept nor made a fuss. After escaping death, his very first concern was actually that his mistress's good name might be damaged!

How could there be a guard in this world so loyal, so sensible, so devoted to keeping her at the very center of his heart?!

The malicious anger in Xiao Ling'er's heart instantly transformed into complete gratification and a desire to protect her own. For once, she gave Chen Xuan a slight nod, then turned and fixed Chun Tao with an icy gaze, as though looking at a puddle of rotten mud:

"Chun Tao, you're not deaf, are you? Look at Chen Xuan's magnanimity, then look at your own disgraceful, low-down behavior! A guard who has only been in this courtyard for a day understands propriety and the bigger picture better than you!"

"Spare me, Miss... I know I was wrong. I truly know I was wrong..."

"Since Chen Xuan has pleaded for you out of concern for sullying my reputation, I won't whip you today!"

Xiao Ling'er snorted coldly and issued a harsh order:

"Go to the punishment room in the outer courtyard and take ten strokes of the bamboo paddle yourself! Three months' wages docked! Starting today, you are forbidden to serve in the tower's inner chambers. Get to the back courtyard and wash clothes and chop wood! If you dare try any more of your filthy little tricks in the Listening to Rain Pavilion, I'll sell you straight to a military camp beyond the frontier! Get out!"

"Ah?! Sent to do menial work in the back courtyard... Thank you, thank you for sparing my life, Miss!"

Chun Tao felt as though she had been struck by lightning. To be demoted straight from a first-class personal maid to a menial servant in the back courtyard was a fate worse than taking twenty lashes! But faced with Xiao Ling'er's utterly disgusted gaze, she dared not argue another word. Covering her face and sobbing, she scrambled and crawled out through the courtyard gate.

Quiet returned to the little courtyard.

Standing nearby, Qiu Yue looked at Chen Xuan with completely different eyes-if she had still thought that morning that this youth had merely stumbled into dogshit luck, now she felt genuine respect and wariness toward this new guard, who possessed impressive skills and an astute mind, yet knew how to conceal his edge and appear unassuming.

"All right. The ground's cold. Get up."

Having vented the anger in her chest, Xiao Ling'er looked at the youth in blue, finding him more pleasing by the moment, and could not stop the corners of her mouth from lifting slightly.

"Thank you for your consideration, Miss."

Chen Xuan obediently rose, still maintaining a respectful distance of half a step.

"Go to the front courtyard's stables and bring Treading Snow over. Pick yourself a swift horse with good endurance, too."

Xiao Ling'er reached out to straighten the wrist guards of her fiery-red martial outfit, a keen glint flashing deep in her almond-shaped eyes:

"From today onward, you'll accompany me outside the estate on duty. Come with me to inspect the market district in the west of the city."

"The western market district?" Chen Xuan paused slightly.

"That's right. The marquis's estate owns two whole streets of shops in western Qingzhou City. At the end of last month, Mother handed me the accounts and seals for those properties to manage."

At this, the smile gradually faded from Xiao Ling'er's lips. She took half a step forward and lowered her voice:

"But I hadn't even been in charge for ten days before trouble started cropping up one incident after another at the cloth shops and medicine shops on those two streets. Either employees were beaten, or thugs came to stir up trouble. Chen Xuan, you're a clever man. Do you think this is a coincidence? No sooner had I prepared to go west to inspect the accounts and establish my authority than someone drove a poisonous Itching Ant Grass thorn into my Treading Snow at the training grounds!"

Chen Xuan's heart tightened, and he instantly grasped the chain of deadly schemes behind it.

So the terror of the maddened horse at the training grounds the day before yesterday had actually stemmed from those two streets of market properties that raked in gold by the day! Someone in the marquis's estate did not want the senior branch or Xiao Ling'er to take over this lucrative assignment smoothly, so they had resorted to a vicious attack to cripple her!

He did not rashly voice his speculations, merely straightening his back and waiting for his mistress to speak.

Seeing his composure and sense of propriety, Xiao Ling'er nodded in satisfaction and strode toward the courtyard gate, her voice regaining its brash, overbearing pride:

"Since you made such grand claims just now, even saying you'd willingly go blind, once we reach the western market district today, let me see for myself whether your fists can keep up with your tongue!"

Chen Xuan suddenly strode up before her, a fierce light blazing in his eyes like a bloodthirsty blade drawn from its sheath, and declared in a ringing voice:

"Go right ahead, Third Miss! Once we reach the market district today, I'll be the blade in your hand and the shield before you! If anyone dares so much as jostle you or touch a single hair on your head, I'll twist his head off on the spot for you to kick like a ball!"