Volume One, Chapter Six: Beating the Wretched Slave Like a Drowned Dog

One

Seeing the groom hesitate, Zi Ling urged him with obvious displeasure. “What are you dawdling for? Hurry up.”

“As a servant, you ought to be thinking of how to please your mistress, not feeling sorry for other people. Mind your own head.”

The groom hurriedly begged for mercy. “Yes, yes, Miss Zi Ling is right. I’ll do it at once.”

“Please, be magnanimous and speak a few good words for me before the Second Miss.”

As he spoke, he bent down and picked up the half bun with a frown.

“Let go of me! Let go! W-waaah... Big Sis, Big Sis, where are you? Come back, please—” Xiao Rongli had a bad feeling the instant he saw the groom pick up the bun from the horse dung.

He struggled desperately with his thin little body, trying to break free from their grip. But he was far too small; everything was useless.

“Impudent! How can you treat me like this?” Seeing that he could not break free, Xiao Rongli thought of how his sister usually protected him and scolded the servants, and he imitated her.

“Oh, do you still think you are the young master of Marquis Wuan’s residence?” Zi Ling sneered, covering her nose with a handkerchief and waving her other hand in disgust.

“Three days ago, when you helped that shameless wretch arrange an empty tomb, you already signed a contract of sale with the mistress.

“Now you are a servant of this residence just like us. Stop acting like a master to scare us. Everyone knows the marquis never acknowledged your status at all.

“Your name has never once appeared in the family register of the marquis’s house. If that shameless slut had not protected you all these years, who knows where you’d be by now?”

“Hold him down and make him finish that bun.”

That wretch Xiao Qingqing had returned, and the mistress and the Second Miss could not afford to lose Xiao Rongli as a bargaining chip.

With him in their hands, Xiao Qingqing would never be able to turn the tables on the mistress.

So what if she had brought the Prince Regent in as her backer? In the end, she would still have to submit obediently and be squeezed for the benefit of the marquis’s household.

“Go away! Go away! All of you, get away from me!” Seeing the groom step closer and closer, the disgusting stench right before him, Xiao Rongli was so frightened that he burst into tears.

“Big Sis, Big Sis, Rongli is so useless. I can’t protect you, and I can’t even protect myself, w-waaah...”

His face was wet with tears.

He hated his own weakness and helplessness, and he hated this man-eating mansion.

He had lost his mother at birth and had always been raised by his elder sister. Now that his sister was gone, he had become nothing more than a pitiful waste who could be bullied and beaten at will, even by servants.

His eyes were bloodshot; whether from fever or from hatred, no one could tell. All he could see was the faces of these people forcing him.

His mind was filled with their contemptuous words—

“Hmph, who do you think you are? Just a base-born brat lower than a servant!”

“You don’t really think you are still a young master, do you? Hahaha...”

“There isn’t even your name in the marquis’s family register. Without your sister to protect you, you are nothing... hahaha!”

“Hahahahahaha—”

Xiao Rongli’s eyes, heart, and mind were all filled with their arrogant, wanton expressions.

He was utterly desperate, biting down on his lip and refusing to open his mouth. This was his final stubbornness, his last shred of dignity.

His sister had once said:

A Li, a man born beneath heaven and earth should be upright and honorable, never bowing his head to hardship or to petty men!

He was still young, but he would try his best to do as she taught, and never bring shame upon her instruction or upon the martial spirit of his maternal family.

It did not matter if the marquis’s residence would not acknowledge him. His sister acknowledged him, his mother acknowledged him, and his maternal grandfather would acknowledge him too.

“Open your mouth. Open it now, or I’ll smash every tooth in your head!”

Zi Ling grew furious when she saw that Xiao Rongli’s mouth was full of blood yet he still refused to open it.

She grabbed a wooden club as thick as a bowl and shouted, “You little wretch, this is your own doing. Don’t blame anyone else—”

With that, she raised the club and swung viciously at Xiao Rongli’s small face.

“Die, you little bastard!” Zi Ling’s expression twisted with madness.

“Stop!”

The moment Mu Wanwan appeared and saw this perilous scene, her heart lurched.

Whoosh! Stepping on three pebbles beneath her feet, she drove force through her toes and struck straight toward Zi Ling’s arm, knee, and swollen cheek.

“With me here, I’d like to see who dares hurt my brother!” Mu Wanwan barked, secretly channeling her inner strength toward the accomplices.

The maid who was restraining Xiao Rongli and the groom from the stables were so frightened that they immediately let go, trembling all over and at a loss.

It was over. They had been caught red-handed by the eldest young miss while doing something wicked.

In the past they would not have been afraid, but today Mu Wanwan had slapped Zi Ling and knocked out two of her teeth with one blow.

That scene had been far too savage, carving itself deep into their hearts. They could not help being afraid!

Whether it was psychological or not, all of them suddenly felt pain in their teeth. One by one, they covered their faces with both hands, shielding their mouths, and stood to the side with their heads lowered like startled quails.

Clack! The club fell to the ground.

Thud! Zi Ling dropped straight to her knees.

“Aah! My eyes—” she let out a shriek of agony.

What a coincidence: a pebble had struck her eye, and blood was streaming everywhere in a ghastly sight too horrible to look at.

“Who? Who is it that is attacking from the shadows? Zi Ling swears I will see you die miserably!” With her eyes shut, she had no idea that Mu Wanwan was already behind her.

“Heh. You are vicious to the core and have no conscience at all, yet you dared to lay such cruel hands on a child. Clearly Heaven itself found you offensive and sent down punishment.”

Seeing that Xiao Rongli had temporarily regained his freedom, Mu Wanwan immediately withdrew all her inner force so that no expert might notice the trick.

She bent down, picked up the bowl-thick wooden club from the ground, and weighed it in her hand.

Not bad. A little light, perhaps, but still quite handy.

“It was you? How could you be here?” Zi Ling was startled when she recognized Mu Wanwan’s voice.

Turning her head, she saw Mu Wanwan picking up the club and coming toward her, which made her even more panicked. “W-what do you want? Let me warn you, I am the most favored maid in front of the Second Miss. If you dare hit me, the Second Miss will never let you off...”

“Oh? Is that so?” Mu Wanwan smiled lightly.

She weighed the club in her hand again. “Now I’m rather curious what Xiao Ruyan will do for your sake.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Zi Ling’s eyes flew wide with terror.

“You were about to use this on Rongli, weren’t you?” Mu Wanwan asked calmly, a faint smile tugging at her lips, as though she were truly only asking a question.

Zi Ling nodded in confusion, then hurriedly shook her head. “N-no, you saw wrong, Eldest Young Miss. How would I dare?”

“You wouldn’t dare?” Mu Wanwan looked down at her.

“But I would.”

With that, she raised the club in her hand and brought it down hard on Zi Ling.

While striking her, she asked earnestly, “How is it? Do you believe now that I really dare hit you?

What? You still don’t believe me?

Then there’s nothing for it. I’ll just trouble myself a little and keep hitting you until you do.”