Cold on the Outside

The hall doors slowly closed behind him.

The Clear Heart Hall was dim, its walls bare of any superfluous furnishings. Only a massive ink-wash screen hung in the very center.

A figure stood before the screen, her back to the doors.

Her hands were clasped behind her back, holding a longsword with a pure white blade.

She did not turn around, or even speak.

But her presence alone made the air in the Clear Heart Hall heavier, as though some invisible force were pressing down on it. Even the smoke from the incense burner seemed afraid to drift out of place.

Kexi's knees went slightly weak.

He was genuinely afraid Qiuyuan would run him through with her sword.

"You're back." Qiuyuan spoke softly, but her voice reached Kexi's ears with perfect clarity, as cold as a spring beneath the ice and devoid of any unnecessary emotion.

"M-master..." Kexi's voice trembled a little. He took a deep breath and struggled to steady it. "This disciple knows he was wrong."

Qiuyuan did not turn around. She remained with her back to him.

But Kexi noticed her fingers tighten around the scabbard for an instant before quickly relaxing.

"What did you do wrong?"

"This disciple should not have presumed to offer Master a spirit fruit without first verifying it, and should even less have jumped off a cliff afterward for fear of punishment."

Head lowered, Kexi recited the lines he had rehearsed with Yangyang on the way over, without missing a single word.

This was the safest answer-admit fault, confess his guilt, and give her a way to let the matter rest.

The figure before the screen was silent for a moment.

Kexi kept his head down, not daring to raise it.

Qiuyuan's footsteps stopped in front of him.

The silence lasted for three breaths.

The next second, a slightly cool hand clamped around his chin. It did not use much force, but its grip was so precise that he could not break free at all.

Qiuyuan swung her other hand backhanded, landing a solid slap on his left cheek.

Smack.

Crisp, decisive, and with nothing held back.

Kexi's head snapped to one side. His ears rang, and stars burst before his eyes.

The force of the slap had been measured with extreme precision.

It was just enough to show him what pain was, but not enough to actually injure his muscles or bones.

He could even feel the coolness of her palm; the instant it touched him, it was like a piece of ice pressed against his face.

Before he could recover, Qiuyuan kicked him behind the knee.

He lost his balance and fell flat on his back on the cold flagstone floor. The back of his head struck the ground, and his vision went dark again.

Immediately afterward, a foot came down on his chest.

It did not press hard; in fact, it could almost be called light. But the oppressive feeling of being under her foot made his breathing stop for half a beat.

Qiuyuan looked down at him. Her eyes were cold to the extreme, yet a trace of scorching heat lay hidden in their depths.

"Wrong," she said.

Kexi lay on the floor with her foot on his chest, his mind still spinning in a muddle.

He swallowed with difficulty. "Wh-what's wrong?"

"Think for yourself."

Think? What am I supposed to think? He had transmigrated less than two hours ago and only had a hazy idea of what the original owner had done, pieced together entirely from Yangyang and Suisui talking over each other on the flying sword.

All he knew was that he had made a move on his master and jumped off a cliff afterward, and had now been caught and brought back to beg forgiveness. But Qiuyuan said that was wrong.

Then what exactly is wrong? Was my attitude not sincere enough? Did I not admit my mistakes thoroughly enough? Or do the lines not match the original owner's script?

Kexi's brain raced, desperately searching through the limited clues before he began making things up.

"This disciple shouldn't have... shouldn't have hoped to get lucky and thought jumping off a cliff would let him escape punishment?" he ventured, his tone as careful as if he were defusing a bomb.

Qiuyuan's foot pressed a little harder on his chest.

There was no change in her cold, striking face, but the temperature in her eyes dropped a few more degrees.

"Wrong."

What on earth is wrong?

Sweat began to bead on Kexi's forehead. His back was pressed against the icy stone floor, yet he felt hot all over.

He quickly tried another direction. "Then... this disciple shouldn't have been... um, disrespectful to Master? This disciple shouldn't have taken advantage of you when you were vulnerable. This disciple is despicable and shameless, this disciple-"

Smack.

Qiuyuan took her foot off him, bent down, and seized his collar, lifting him off the floor with one hand.

She raised her hand and slapped him again. This one was harder than the last, and he felt that his right cheek finally matched his left.

"Master, please stop hitting me." Kexi could finally hold back no longer. Two streams of hot tears burst from his eyes and ran down his red, swollen cheeks, and his voice was thick with tears and grievance. "Whatever you say I did wrong, that's what I did wrong."

He truly felt wronged.

He was a transmigrator who had not even gotten his hands on the script, yet right off the bat he had been slapped three times and had a foot planted on his chest. Who could put up with that?

What kind of protagonist-abuse script did Christopher write? He had never suffered this kind of injustice in real life.

Qiuyuan looked at his tear-streaked face, and the hand gripping his collar paused.

A fleeting, almost imperceptible emotion flashed through her icy eyes.

She let go, and Kexi fell back onto the floor, clutching one swollen cheek as tears continued to fall.

"All right." Qiuyuan crouched down to meet his eyes. Her voice was still cold, but there was something else in that coldness now. "I'll tell you where you went wrong."

Kexi sniffled and looked at her through blurry tears.

"Your mistake was-" Qiuyuan extended a forefinger and tapped him on the forehead, neither lightly nor hard. She stressed each word. "Running away after causing trouble."

Kexi froze.

"You had the courage to offend me, but not the courage to stay and face the consequences?" Qiuyuan's voice was quiet, yet every word struck his heart like a small hammer. "Jump off a cliff? Did you think jumping off a cliff would wipe the slate clean? Did you ever think about what would happen after you jumped?"

Kexi opened his mouth, only to find himself unable to speak.

"Yangyang searched the entire back mountain three times over. Chisa didn't sleep a wink for three days. Jinhsi secretly ran out to look for you every day and fell until she was covered in injuries. Suisui didn't say anything, but sat alone on your roof in a daze in the middle of the night."

Qiuyuan's tone remained calm, but each word made Kexi's throat tighten further. "And me-"

She paused.

"Did I ever say I blamed you?"

Kexi's heart clenched sharply.

"Why did you run?" Qiuyuan raised her hand again, but this time she only patted the top of his head, as lightly as if she were patting a disobedient kitten. "And jumping off a cliff, too. Did you think you were too ashamed to go on living? Did you think no one would forgive you?"

She stood up and turned her back to him.

Her face remained expressionless, cool and indifferent, without a flaw. But on closer inspection, her fingertips were trembling slightly.

"When you do something wrong, admit it. When you're getting beaten, stand up straight. In eight hundred years, I've seen plenty of unfilial disciples, and many have gone further out of line than you. But you're the first one as spineless as this."

Kexi sat on the cold floor, tears still falling, though not from pain.

He looked at Qiuyuan's back and suddenly felt that her shoulders were trembling slightly.

He did not know whether it was from anger or some other reason.

"M-master," he called in a hoarse voice.

"Kneel there." Qiuyuan did not turn around. "Get up when you've thought it through."

Just as he thought Qiuyuan was going to make him kneel a while longer, that cool voice rang out again.