Punished

  The hall is brightly lit, with guards standing like a mountain.

  Lü Qún threw the bound Wu Méi into the woodshed, and soon the quiet night wind carried the mournful cries of Wu Méi.

  Min An knelt on the stone bricks of the ground floor, and every time he heard a shout, his shoulders would shake slightly, but he didn't dare to cover his ears with his hands. From the beginning of the long street, Li Peinan had separated him from the people around him: Shifu and Xiao Bao'er were pushed into a carriage by the guards and sent back to the inn where the Xiao family often stayed, Fei Yi was taken to the hospital by the servant girl Ling Nu to urge the doctor to check the general's injuries.

  Min An secretly felt that the situation was unfavorable, and stole a glance at Li Peinan, only to find his face still as cold as ever.

  Li Peinan sat in the only folding chair, slightly lowering his body, using a pair of eyes that had been imbued with autumn frost to look at Min An. "I'll ask you again, where is the account book?"

  Min An hastily replied: "Wu Mei didn't even have time to tell me the truth when the young master arrived."

  "So it's still my fault?"

  Min An waved his hand: "No, no, Young Master has arrived just in time. It's me who was too slow and didn't ask the question."

  Li Peinan pointed to the outside of the door and said coldly, "I've already crushed two of his ribs, he's in so much pain that he's almost dying, but still refuses to reveal a single word. Can you get anything out of him?"

  Min An was taken aback: "The prince's methods are a bit too much, of course, can't ask..." He looked up to see Li Peinan's eyes drifting over again, and he immediately shut his mouth.

  Li Peinan said: "The white crane has one wing injured and its feathers have fallen off, leaving only half of them. What else do you have to say?"

  Min An bowed his head and said: "It was my fault, I didn't fully understand Wu Mei's Grey Eagle's combat capabilities."

  Li Peinan straightened his back, the snow-white nightgown exposed under the collar of his brocade robe was still slightly heaving, showing that his anger had not subsided. When Fei came to borrow Baihe, he had promised not to hurt Baihe's bones, so he endured the pain and lent it out. What twists and turns happened in between, he could guess, but with a major event at hand, he let Baihe fight with injuries, took advantage of the situation to capture Wumei, and then asked for the culprit.

  The ringleader replied that it was because he had underestimated the ability of an eagle, which led to the current predicament. Li Peinan couldn't help but think, was it because he had been too indulgent towards him? Letting him do things according to his whims, without considering means and consequences, and not being able to utter a single honest word from his mouth.

  Min An couldn't guess what Li Peinan was thinking, and hearing another miserable cry in his ear, he shook his shoulders and said: "Young Master, listen to me, Wu Mei is after all a weak scholar who has learned the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and has cultivated some pride. If you beat him like this, you will only hurt his dignity, and it will backfire."

  Li Peinan said coldly: "He's not such a simple person, you'd better worry about yourself first."

  Min An raised his head, slightly tense: "What's wrong with me——"

  Li Peinan looked at Min An: "I've said it before, with your careless personality, you'll eventually suffer a big loss. Tonight, I'm punishing you, and you'd better remember that unless I order you to do something, you're not allowed to do it."

  Min An anxiously said: "I didn't do anything."

  Li Peinan counted: "Drinking fragrant soup, telling lies, concealing the case, sending fake fans, cheating General Dou's remaining strength, which one of these things did I allow you to do?"

  Min An opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything. It was only then that he realized that as early as six or seven days ago, when he had been forced to get close to Li Peinan, what kind of impression he had left on him. In order to protect himself, he had concealed the truth from Liu Linglong and Mao Shisan about the case, but these had precisely become the crimes for which Li Peinan was punishing him.

  Li Peinan saw Min An speechless and ordered a nearby guard: "Bring me a whip."

  Min An's heart felt like it was being gripped by a hand, and his body hadn't even been punished yet, but he was already in discomfort. He stared at the hem of Li Peinan's robe for a while, then said hoarsely: "I injured the general, I should be punished, only I couldn't let Your Highness do it personally."

  "I understand you."

  Li Peinan dropped a sentence and left the ground floor first. Min An, following the rules of the Shizi Mansion, lay on the cold brick floor and endured ten lashes. The whip was soaked in oil, with tight skin, when it was drawn on his back, it had already torn through two layers of Min An's clothes, causing him so much pain that he gasped for breath. If not for the chest armor undergarment padding, his back would have been lashed bloody like his shoulders.

  When the last whip lash came down, Min An couldn't bear the pain and knocked his mouth against the corner of a brick, loosening a tooth on the inside of his upper jaw. He wanted to maintain some dignity in front of the guards, so he endured it without making a sound, not even wetting the corners of his eyes. He lay there motionless, waiting for the burning pain on his back to subside, when suddenly he remembered something his master had said.

  He went to the post house to bid farewell to his master, and was going to move into the mansion according to Li Peinan's intention. After hearing that he had accepted the official seal and certificate given by Li Peinan, his master said with a heavy heart: "As the saying goes, 'If you're not a boatman, don't come and play with the bamboo pole.' The errands in front of the young master are not so easy to learn. To enter his eyes, you must fight for a place in his mansion, first suppress your own temper, listen carefully to his arrangements, and deal with them properly. If things go wrong, you can't avoid being punished. In the past, I beat you, but that was just a light slap on the hand, and it's not comparable to the punishment in the young master's mansion. I advise you to think twice."

  Min An thought for a moment and still chose to follow Li Peinan as his house minister. He also persuaded his own master to accept Fei Yi as an apprentice, which brought him one step closer in name but made their relationship more superficial. The reason was that Fei Yi didn't like him getting too close, and Min An himself was quite tactful, understanding that he was now under the crown prince's command and couldn't get too close to the second young master of the manor, lest it give rise to suspicions of currying favor with two masters.

  Master and Huai were the same, seeing that they couldn't persuade his mind, so they simply shouldered it to the end and supported any of his decisions. Min An bid farewell to Master and moved alone into a bamboo house in the backyard of the hostel.

  The bamboo house is not far from the thatched cottage, and the sound of Wu Mei's painful moans can be heard clearly in the night wind.

  After daybreak, Min An, who had been flogged, painfully pushed open the door of the thatched hut and saw Wu Mei's two hands covered in blood, with all her fingers seemingly broken. He leaned against the door frame and asked: "Your punishment was lighter than mine, why did you scream so loudly? Were you afraid others wouldn't know your pain?"

  Wu Mei, locked in chains, groaned softly and didn't respond. Min An asked again, "The young master said you're not a simple person, don't tell me you still have some tricks up your sleeve?"

  Wu Mei replied weakly: "Don't you know how many catties and taels I have? Why don't you just kill me with one knife, it's better than making me suffer like this, I really can't bear it."

  Min An took a few steps closer, feeling that Wu Mei's ribs were broken in two places. He thought to himself, "The young master is indeed a man who doesn't mince words." From this day on, following him would require extreme caution; otherwise, the current situation with Wu Mei would be a ready-made example, and his own back injury would have to be added to as well.

  Wu Mei saw Min An not speaking, bitterly begging him, either to give him a quick death or go plead with Li Pei Nan, spare his worthless life. Min An touched the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth, tasting a bitter iron flavor, spat out a broken tooth and said: "I can't speak in front of the young master, you'd better quickly reveal the whereabouts of the account book, maybe you'll still be able to keep your life."

  The two people in the woodshed talked to each other for a while, but nothing came of it. Min An repeatedly asked about the whereabouts of the account book, and Wu Mei insisted that she knew nothing. Wu Mei tearfully begged Min An to remember their friendship as classmates and spare his life, speaking so pitifully that Min An furrowed his brow.

  Min turned around abruptly, showing the scars on his back to Wu Mei: "I was treated so badly just for this account book. If you really don't know where the account book is, at least give me some clues."

  Wu Mei immediately told him about the places Mo Thirteen had been to before leaving Qingmei Thief. Min An was reassured, first borrowed a horse from Li Qun, wrapped clean clothes on his body, and rode crookedly to the inn where his master was staying.

  Xiao Bao'er was playing with a rattan stick in the courtyard when she saw Min An enter, and she was about to pounce over. Min An hastily stopped her and found his master who was refining medicine, asking for several packets of wound medicine. After thinking for a moment, he told his master that he would be going out on an errand early tomorrow morning.

  Wu Ren saw Min An with injuries running around, and his heart ached. He drove Xiao Bao out of the house, applied medicine to Min An's wounds, bandaged him, and scolded Min An with a cold face, also feeling sorry for him. When Min An heard that his master had even scolded Li Peinan, he quickly covered his mouth and begged: "Under someone else's roof, one must lower their head, this is fate, Master, please don't say anymore."

  Wu Ren crossed his arms and sat on one side, letting out a cold hum, thinking about how to get this account back from his apprentice in the future. Min An comforted him with a few words, bid farewell and went out, sneaking into the neighboring room where Xiao Bao stuck her head out of the window and whispered: "So you're a woman, no wonder I liked you so much."

  Min An smiled and said: "I was hugged by Bao'er seven or eight times, chased after her for half a year, and had already thought of asking Bao'er to be my wife. How could I suddenly become a woman?"

  Xiao Bao'er pouted and said, "But I just heard Father yell out a sentence, 'You're ultimately a girl's physique, how can you withstand such a heavy whip?' Wasn't he talking about you?"

  Min An said disbelievingly: "You must have misheard. If you don't believe me, go ask your old man."

  When Xiao Bao'er turned to ask Wu Ren about the situation, Wu Ren's tone was even more severe than Min An's. He only said that Xiao Bao'er had misheard a word and the original sentence was "You will eventually become like a woman in body", covering up the matter.

  Xiao Bao'er walked out of the door with a mixture of trust and doubt, saying: "Then I'll find another opportunity to try hugging him next time, I don't believe Min An will deceive me."

  Wu Ren coaxed her away: "The little scoundrel's words, except for that sentence about wanting you to be his daughter-in-law, were all true, now go and have fun."

  Min An never committed a crime because of his identity or background, in his heart, he regarded himself as an elder brother. Even once, Fei Yi asked him why he took the name "Min An", which was only used by younger sisters, despite being a man, and he replied that it was to commemorate the kindness of his late younger sister who had donated her heart to him, so he always wanted to keep "Min An" in mind. Fei Yi didn't say anything at the time, turned around and left, and it's unknown whether she believed Min An's reason or not.

  Min An put Xiao Bao's doubts behind his mind, went straight back to the inn, brought warm water, wiped Five Mei's body, and then applied ointment to him.

  Li Qun reported to Li Peinan about Min An's good deed in the woodshed, and then went to the back house according to his instructions, telling Fei Yi Tong about what happened at the temporary residence today.

  Fei Yi treated General Li's wounds and saw that they were not serious, so he let the servant carry the sedan chair back to the inn. He washed up, changed his clothes, and was brewing tea when he heard Lie Qun say that Min An had been flogged with ten military lashes, and hastily got up and walked outside.

  Li Qun stepped forward and blocked the way, then knelt down on the spot, clasped his hands together and said: "Second Master, please listen to me for a moment. Even if Young Master still needs your care, after all, he is an outsider. Second Master must not lose harmony with Eldest Master because of an outsider."

  He stood with his hands behind his back: "Ming An committed a fault and was punished with only ten lashes, which is still lenient. He is the son of the emperor, how could I afford to lose my temper?"

  Ligun felt slightly relieved after hearing this, and was just about to get up when Fei Yi said faintly: "But I've already treated the General, while Shizi is still worrying about An, which isn't quite fair. Why don't I go make a decision so that neither side loses out?" After finishing speaking, he walked out of the courtyard and directly found Lishou, grabbing hold of the General who was resting and breaking off its other wing.

  Thanks to Maggie for throwing a hand grenade of Hubba Bubba bubble gum: )

  Thank you sincerely for the landmines from Pig Ear, hanhansky and coco's two landmines:)

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