After an unknown number of days of travel, the carriage finally stopped in front of a grand building.
As soon as Zhao Shuning got off the carriage, she saw the three large characters "Yanyu Tower" come into view.
She showed the invitation card to the gatekeeper. After giving her a meaningful look, the man let her in.
That look was anything but kind.
Zhao Shuning didn't know the reason, but she didn't take it to heart.
Once inside the Yanyu Tower, she was greeted by a whole new and expansive sight. Pavilions, terraces, and towers, along with ponds, pavilions, and water pavilions, were set amidst lush green pines and cypresses. Rockeries, strange stones, flower beds, potted plants, vines, and bamboos dotted the scenery.
The scenery of the Yanyu Tower seemed much more magnificent than that of Qinghui Town.
Fascinated by the novelty, Zhao Shuning wasn't paying attention to her feet. Suddenly, she was tripped by a foot that suddenly stuck out. Fortunately, she was agile and reacted quickly, so she didn't suffer extensive abrasions.
However, the skin on her palm was broken, and tiny beads of blood were oozing out.
Zhao Shuning turned around and looked at the young servant behind her. But the servant simply looked away and ignored her plight.
It seemed that such behavior was tolerated in the Yanyu Tower.
Zhao Shuning didn't cry or make a fuss. She just patted the dust off her skirt.
She looked up at the person who had just tripped her.
The person was a girl, about eleven or twelve years old. She was quite comely, with a delicate lotus flower painted between her eyebrows. It looked like she had spent some effort painting it this morning. As for her attire, she was wearing a light cyan sheer gown with a white silk ribbon around her waist.
The girl's beautiful black hair was tied up with a silk ribbon inlaid with jadeite, and a jade hairpin painted with golden flowers was obliquely inserted. Her snow - white oval face showed a bright smile, like a gentle breeze.
It was a pity that such a beautiful girl had a devious mind.
"What are you looking at me for?"
"I was waiting for you to say something. So, you're not mute after all?"
"What do you mean?"
"Since you're not mute, why can't you even say the three words 'I'm sorry'? Since you won't say sorry, it means you did it on purpose. And if you did it on purpose, your behavior can't be forgiven."
"A little girl who has just been weaned also dares to enter the Yanyu Tower? Even if you're in the Yanyu Tower, you're only fit to carry my shoes. It's already a high honor for me to talk to you, and you still dare to ask me to apologize?"
The girl kept referring to herself as "this young lady" in every sentence. Judging from her attitude, she must think she was extremely noble.
"Not going to apologize?"
"Do you think I'll say those three words? Impossible!"
Zhao Shuning smiled faintly and didn't say a word. She slowly walked past the girl.
"Just another soft - hearted person. Once you're here—ah—"
Before the girl in the blue gown could finish her sentence, her hand was suddenly grabbed forcefully from behind and then yanked hard. It seemed that her hand was dislocated, and a shrill scream like a pig being slaughtered immediately came out of her mouth.
"Since you don't know how to behave, I'll teach you how to be a decent person."
Throughout her life, Zhao Shuning had always hated those who played dirty tricks behind others' backs.
In her previous life, it was precisely because of this that she had died on the high platform of her own palace.
Just as Zhao Shuning was about to lift her foot and kick the girl in the blue gown's ankle, the young servant who had been pretending to be deaf and dumb suddenly shouted.
"Little girl, what are you doing? Are you crazy? You even dare to mess with the eldest miss of the Kong family?"
As he spoke, the servant rolled up his sleeves and was about to come over and teach Zhao Shuning a lesson.
Zhao Shuning didn't care. With a deft move, she used the servant's own strength to dodge, and then the servant's kick landed squarely on the girl in the blue gown.
Then, without hesitation, Zhao Shuning turned around and delivered a palm strike. The servant fell to the ground and couldn't get up for a long time.
"Hey, what are you doing? Do you know who I am?"
"Who are you?"
"I'm Kong Shishuang. If you offend me, you'll have a hard time in the Yanyu Tower from now on."
"Ah—"
"Scared? Let go of me quickly."
"Never heard of you."
With that, Zhao Shuning was about to lift her foot again to kick the girl in the blue gown's ankle.
But at that moment, Zhao Shuning sensed a sudden and extremely overbearing gust of wind behind her. Unable to dodge in time, she was hit hard on the back by a palm, and a coppery taste immediately filled her mouth.
Zhao Shuning took many steps back before she could barely stabilize her figure.
Only then did she get a clear look at the person who had attacked her.
"Xiaoshuang, are you okay?"
"Brother Qing, my hand hurts so much. I can't move it."
The person who came was a teenager, about thirteen years old. Judging from the power of that palm strike just now, this teenager should also be a second - rank spiritual pharmacist.
The teenager was thin, with decent features and a sickly kind of beauty.
The obsequious look on his face when he looked at Kong Shishuang made Zhao Shuning feel disgusted.
"Don't worry, Brother Qing will avenge you. A little girl, so overconfident. On the first day of entering the tower, she wants to act arrogantly on top of the senior brothers and sisters. If we don't teach her a lesson, she'll think this is her own world."
Zhao Shuning twisted her neck. This teenager had shown no mercy when he attacked her just now.
"Little girl, you even dare to touch someone under my protection?"
Zhao Shuning smiled, her tone full of mockery. "It seems that the Yanyu Tower has no standards for recruiting people. Even a monkey like you who acts so wildly can get in."
"What did you say?"
"Can't hear clearly? Or are you deaf? You two really match each other well."
Since ancient times, every new student entering the Yanyu Tower had to be "taught a lesson" by the old students. The old students had been in the Yanyu Tower for a long time, and their ranks were generally much higher than those of the new students. So every time new students came, they would more or less be bullied by the old students.
Normally, everyone just endured it.
But Kong Shishuang and Qing Zhu didn't expect that this time, they had kicked a hard rock.
"Little girl, watch closely. I'll smash all your teeth later and see if you're still so sharp - tongued."
Zhao Shuning turned around and noticed several new students entering. Like her, they were also being bullied.
She didn't like this kind of system, and she wasn't someone who would just take the bullying.
Why? Just because the new students were weaker in mental power, did they deserve to be bullied?
Many of the new students around had already been beaten to the ground, with various injuries on their bodies. But none of them dared to resist, as if they had silently accepted this rule.
"It's too late to admit your mistake now."
The teenager sneered sinisterly. The success of his sneak attack had boosted his confidence. He thought that this little girl in front of him was just as easy to bully as the other new students.
"Really?"
The girl tilted her head slightly, with a strange smile on her face.