“Let go.” He glared at her.

“This servant accepts her punishment willingly and wholeheartedly.” Huayue didn’t turn back, and the grip of her hand didn’t loosen either. “Please proceed, Nanny.”

Li Jingyun was practically laughing from anger: “Take your punishment then—why are you dragging this young master into it? Expecting this young master to take it for you?”

Huayue smiled faintly, turning her back to face Nanny Xun while tilting her face to look up at him, her clear black-and-white almond eyes meeting his: “By the General’s order, this servant will not leave Young Master’s side, not even for a moment.”

After a bit more tugging back and forth, Li Jingyun gritted his teeth: “Nanny Xun, a servant this insubordinate—shouldn’t you beat her within an inch of her life just to make an example?”

Nanny Xun forced a smile and immediately had someone bring a short whip to carry out the punishment.

In truth, the short whip wasn’t really necessary. Steward Yin had earned many merits and was protected by both the General and Madam. As for the young master’s fall from the horse, the General hadn’t pursued blame for it either—at most it would warrant a scolding. But since the young master had come in person, and Steward Yin showed no sign of backing down, Nanny Xun had no choice but to grit her teeth and proceed.

Though Steward Yin appeared strict on ordinary days, her frame was genuinely delicate. With each strike of the whip, one could see her flesh suddenly tense.

Her spring garments were already thin, and even though the hand delivering the blows held back as much as possible, each strike still landed with a crisp, cracking sound.

Huayue knelt perfectly straight, not moving an inch.

Li Jingyun had originally wanted to watch her suffer, hoping that even a hint of her looking flustered would bring him some satisfaction.

But there was none. Even after the whip strikes had finished, Yin Huayue’s deadpan face showed no change whatsoever.

Li Jingyun was thoroughly annoyed. He yanked back his own robe hem and strode outward.

Huayue, without a second thought, blocked his way again: “It’s getting late—please return to the East Courtyard for your meal, Young Master.”

He’d sent her here to be punished, hoping the beating would discipline her enough that he could slip away on his own. Yet, strangely, after taking the beating she still acted as if nothing had happened, standing there with folded hands as before, saying these tiresome things to him.

Li Jingyun closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he returned to the East Courtyard.

Huayue followed him just as before, her skirt hem swaying in small ripples, moving at remarkable speed. Hearing this, his pace grew increasingly hurried; he wove through flowers and doorways without pausing even half a step, until finally he nearly used lightness skill to leap into the East Courtyard gate.

The sound behind him was gone.

Li Jingyun felt a surge of delight, turning to look at the empty little path with a relieved smile. He’d known it—how could anyone who’d just been whipped still move about so freely? She wasn’t some kind of monster, after all.

“Young Master.”

Huayue emerged from the East Courtyard, handing him the rolled fragrant handkerchief: “Please use this.”

“…”

Yin Huayue really was a monster.

Li Jingyun found this quite a headache. He’d seen the whip Nanny Xun used—it hadn’t held back, and her back really was swollen like a single-humped camel’s, clearly not a comfortable state to be in.

Yet even so, Huayue still stood before him, hands folded, greeting him with that utterly false smile of hers: “Young Master.”

Young Master, please have your meal.

Young Master, the road ahead is being repaved; this path won’t lead out of the residence.

Young Master, climbing walls is hard work—please use this fragrant handkerchief.

Young Master, this is scented with jasmine.

Young Master…

He was now sick of hearing the words “Young Master.”

Normally, hearing that he had to go burn incense at some temple with some young lady, Li Jingyun would have fled the residence overnight without a second word, only returning once the fuss had died down.

But now, after being blocked for the sixth time, he could only stand in the inner room with a dark expression, allowing Yin Huayue to arrange him as she pleased.

Huayue skillfully fastened his sash, and just as she tied a neat knot, he impatiently brushed her hand away.

“What is this thing I’m wearing?”

“Reporting to Young Master.” Huayue smiled faintly. “This is the newly made blue carp snow-brocade robe. The color is light, suitable for the spring scenery outside, and the fabric and tailoring are top quality—it’s what the nobles of the capital have been favoring lately.”

“Ugly.”

Gently smoothing out the wrinkles, Huayue admired it with genuine appreciation: “Madam personally chose it. This servant thinks, privately, that it looks wonderful.”

Unlike her usual false smiles, when she said this, the Yin Huayue before him had light in her eyes, like a rippling lake glittering under a clear sky, radiant with joy. Her face flushed slightly pink, even the tips of her ears reddening faintly. If one could set aside her old-fashioned gray steward’s robe, in that fleeting glance, she looked every bit a young maiden blushing with budding affection.

Li Jingyun paused, and without meaning to, glanced down at himself.

Was it really that good-looking?

He’d hit her, he’d scolded her, and now Yin Huayue was suddenly showing him this kind of expression—Li Jingyun felt strangely uncomfortable all over. He turned away and said coldly: “Hurry up.”

“Yes.”

After tying up his hair into a topknot, Huayue glanced at the bronze mirror.

The person in the mirror had sword-like brows and star-bright eyes, truly a fine appearance. With looks like this, no matter how arrogant he was, Miss Han would surely be able to tolerate it.

“And what is this?” Li Jingyun grabbed her wrist in disgust. “Is this young master going to burn incense or be paraded through the streets?”

Huayue held up a mandarin duck jade pendant and said with a smile: “This is the ornament Madam chose. Yesterday Baolai Pavilion sent over more than twenty pieces, and Madam favored this particular design alone, saying it was exquisite and rare.”

Li Jingyun couldn’t understand what was so rare about a pair of birds.

“I won’t wear it.”

“Young Master, today you’re meeting Miss Han, and this item is meant to be given to her. If you wear it there and then take it off, it will show more sincerity.”

Two veins bulged at his temples, and Li Jingyun slowly turned his head, his gaze sharp as a blade: “Steward Yin, are you under some misunderstanding?”

He’d already made a huge concession by agreeing to meet her; yet she still wanted to arrange for him to give away this pointless trinket—did she really think he was that easy to push around?

Unable to pull free, Huayue switched hands to hold the jade pendant instead, gently persuading him: “Since you’re going anyway, Young Master, why fuss over such a small matter?”

Her finger hooked his sash, pulling the silk cord inward, then threading it through with her thumb, looping it onto the mandarin duck half-pendant.

Huayue looked at it with satisfaction. “Young Master is naturally a dragon and phoenix among men, brimming with heroic bearing—with this jade pendant added, it’s the perfect balance of martial valor and tender romance. Nothing could be better.”

Li Jingyun: “…”

Even though Yin Huayue was truly an annoying person, tiresome just to look at, sometimes what she said was rather pleasant to hear.

Snorting coldly, he flicked his sleeve and walked out, the “single-humped camel” behind him following at his heels.

At the quarter-hour of Wei, outside the West City Gate.

They had agreed to meet the Han family here, but after waiting a long while, there was still no sign of a carriage on the road.

Impatience was already written across Li Jingyun’s forehead.

Huayue smiled gently as she lowered the carriage curtain: “Miss Han is renowned throughout the capital’s boudoirs for her good looks and unmatched virtue. It’s fine to wait a bit longer for her.”

But this wait stretched on for half an hour.

Outside, birds sang and flowers bloomed; inside the carriage, dead silence.

Li Jingyun’s gaze swept over darkly, expecting Huayue to keep offering flattering excuses, but to his surprise, her expression looked even worse than his.

“Being late by an incense-stick or two would be one thing—a bit of coy delay from a young lady.” she said coldly. “But this long a delay means she doesn’t hold Madam in any regard at all.”

Li Jingyun found this quite puzzling—he was the one who’d been left waiting here for half an hour, yet no one spared him a word of sympathy; instead she was angry on behalf of Madam being slighted?

She really was the most loyal dog by Zhuang Shi’s side, through and through.