When Lady Yan returned to the courtyard, ng Qianqian was earnestly laying out dicinal herbs to dry as per her instructions.
Ever since entering the Thousand chanism Pavilion, Lady Yan hadn’t allowed ng Qianqian to do anything else. She wasn’t even permitted to wander around and was instead made to dry herbs day in and day out, an unbearably monotonous task.
ng Qianqian had always known this was deliberate. Even so, she never slacked off, nor did she try to bargain with Lady Yan.
Whatever she was asked to do, she did it.
Such patience and restraint reminded Lady Yan so much of her elder sister-disciple from the past.
Yan Hanshuang’s mother passed away early, and her father sold her for ten taels of silver. To which household she was sold, she no longer rembered.
She only knew that she had been sold multiple tis, had once been a child bride, had served as a ragged maid, and had even traveled with an opera troupe, performing for a living on the martial road.
She learned so martial skills in the troupe, and the old troupe leader saw potential in her. He handed her over to the Thousand chanism Pavilion in exchange for twenty taels of silver.
At the beginning, she was just an Outer Disciple. Through diligence and relentless training, she gradually stood out among the ranks of Outer Disciples.
During a martial arts competition in the Thousand chanism Pavilion, she, still an Outer Disciple, defeated three Inner Sect Disciples in succession, causing a sensation within the entire pavilion.
She thought her fate would change from then on. She waited, full of anticipation, to be accepted as an Inner Sect Disciple. But what she awaited was a brutal beating that almost claid her life.
"What kind of trash are you to publicly embarrass Senior Brother Haoran and Senior Brother Huaian?"
"Exactly! And Senior Sister Li too—how dare soone like you, an Outer Disciple, humiliate her? Senior Sister Li has the grace not to crush you, but you took it as an opportunity to go all out against her! Do you really think you could withstand her moves if she hadn’t held back?"
They hurled both words and fists at her, raining blows down relentlessly.
Those Senior Brother Haoran, Senior Brother Huaian, and Senior Sister Li they spoke of were all disciples of two of the elders.
During the competition, those very elders had heaped praise on her, comnding her exceptional talent and lauding her for bringing honor to the pavilion. In front of the old Pavilion Master, they even vied to take her in as their disciple.
The two of them had turned red in the face from quarrelling, only to be temporarily placated by a third elder stepping in to diate.
Yan Hanshuang had felt her cheeks flush and her heart race with excitent.
Little did she know... it was all an act.
They had never planned to take her as their disciple.
It was a show, a performance put on for the old Pavilion Master.
She had defeated their disciples and made them lose face.
This was the Thousand chanism Pavilion; this was the so-called grand martial sect.
How utterly ironic.
She gave up resisting, letting the snowstorm of fists and feet land all over her head and body.
Soon, she was battered and bloody, her consciousness fading into haze.
Perhaps she was about to die...
Death wouldn’t be so bad.
Every day she lived felt unbearable.
What was the point of such a life?
"What are you all doing?"
A stern female voice rang out from behind the crowd.
The beating seed to pause.
Her eyes were so swollen she could barely open them, but through a blurry slit, she vaguely glimpsed panic etched on the onlookers’ faces.
How laughable. With her vision obscured by blood, how could she truly see their expressions?
Perhaps it was just her imagination?
She really was beyond saving. Even at this point, she failed to grasp the ugliness of human nature.
Soone like her, tossed about like duckweed, how could anyone possibly stand up for her?
Ridiculous, really.
"S-Senior Sister Yuan?"
A disciple stamred in panic.
The others quickly stood upright, their bodies shifting to shield her curled-up figure on the ground.
Zhongli Yuan’s commanding gaze swept over them. "What are you all doing?"
"N-nothing."
One of the female disciples answered in a small voice.
Zhongli Yuan said sternly, "The Thousand chanism Pavilion forbids private altercations and prohibits abuse of personal punishnts."
"She started it."
"Exactly, Senior Sister Yuan, she hit us first and insulted us. We had no choice but to fight back..."
"Please, Senior Sister Yuan, see the truth..."
Zhongli Yuan ordered, "You all, co with to the Pavilion Master."
"Senior Sister Yuan, spare us!"
"Senior Sister Yuan, we won’t dare do this again! Please, just this once!"
"Senior Sister Yuan, I beg you, for my master’s sake, be lenient!"
The crowd began to beg for rcy.
Would she really offend the Pavilion’s two elders for the sake of an Outer Disciple?
Yan Hanshuang thought to herself that, if it were her, she definitely wouldn’t be so foolish.
As that thought crossed her mind, she slled a warm, gentle fragrance.
A pair of soft arms lifted her from the ground.
She lost her mother when she was three and had long since forgotten what her mother felt like.
Yet in that instant, she suddenly rembered.
"Mom..."
A sourness rose in her nose, and all the grievances she had held back spilled out as she wept in Zhongli Yuan’s embrace.
Looking back on that mont many tis afterward, she deeply regretted it.
How humiliating, how utterly brainless of her.
Crying out for a mother to an unmarried young woman—what if Zhongli Yuan had taken offense and cast her aside right then and there?
Fortunately, Zhongli Yuan didn’t.
Zhongli Yuan carried her filthy, disheveled self straight to the Pavilion Master’s courtyard.
She was the Pavilion Master’s favorite disciple, greatly doted upon. But the Pavilion Master was an old fox; he’d seen too much of this sort of thing before. Absolute cleanliness yields no fish, so he only sought to give a minor punishnt to make his point.
The two of them had probably assud she was asleep.
But she wasn’t.
What she saw next beca a mory etched into her soul.
The disciplined and proper senior disciple everyone admired grabbed the Pavilion Master by the ear. "Old man, are you going to punish them or not? If you won’t, I’ll never call you master again! I’ll sever our ties and go find another teacher!"
The Pavilion Master flared up. "Nonsense! Complete nonsense! Once a teacher, always a father. If you dare take another master, I’ll break your legs!"
Zhongli Yuan replied, "Whose legs are you breaking?"
He pointed at Yan Hanshuang. "Hers."
An utterly exposed Yan Hanshuang: "..."
Everyone in the Thousand chanism Pavilion assud the Pavilion Master accepted her as a disciple out of guilt, or to keep the elders in check. Only she knew the truth—it was to ensure she didn’t spread the story about him getting his ear pulled.
"We had an agreent, no backing out now."
"Of course, of course."
She nodded quickly. "My lips are sealed, Master. Don’t worry! You’re majestic and awe-inspiring—Senior Sister behaves like a quail in front of you!"
The Pavilion Master patted her head. "You’re teachable. Alright, go train with your senior sister."
The Pavilion Master hadn’t truly regarded her as a disciple, so her martial arts were taught entirely by her senior sister.
Though considered exceptionally talented, she never imagined that her senior sister’s abilities were on a completely different plane, like clouds and mud.
Zhongli Yuan often lanted, "How can you have practiced this needle technique three tis and still not get it?"
"Shuang’er, you’re so hopelessly slow. Even Little Nine learned last ti’s needle technique ages ago."
"Yan Hanshuang! Did you sneakily give Little Nine candied hawthorn again? All her baby teeth are rotting!"
Whenever she made a mistake, her senior sister never punished her physically. Instead, Zhongli Yuan would lock herself away in reflection.
Over ti, she grew afraid to make mistakes.
Because her senior sister had beco her weakest vulnerability.
Lady Yan gazed at ng Qianqian quietly drying herbs in the courtyard.
Senior Sister, tell —what should I do?
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