Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Let Him Watch Her Be Beaten

The moment they heard her voice, everyone froze.

Could Lin Sangqian be trying to plead for Lin Shuimei after all?

“Little sister...” Lin Beitao said anxiously, about to speak, but Lin Wenyan stopped him.

Knowing his younger sister as he did, Lin Wenyan was certain Lin Sangqian would never be that soft-hearted.

“Miss Lin, what is it?” Di Qing asked in confusion.

Lin Sangqian glanced at Lin Xiong, and the boy immediately shuddered.

He had thought he was out of this already. Was Lin Sangqian going to have the constables beat him too?

“Big Brother Di, Lin Xiong may have been ordered by someone, but he was still part of the trouble. He’s too young to be beaten, and that’s fine. Then let him watch how Lin Shuimei is punished,” Lin Sangqian said. “It will teach him a lesson too, so he won’t do evil again.”

“Mm, that makes sense!” Di Qing and the others all agreed.

“I’m not going, I’m not going!” Lin Xiong cried, jumping nearly three feet into the air. But Di Qing showed him no mercy, grabbed him, and took him away together with Lin Shuimei.

After they were gone, Lin Sangqian smiled and said, “Thank you all for standing up for what is right today. Starting now, and for the next two days as well, all fried chicken, milk tea, and juice at Crunchy Chicken will be twenty percent off!”

Cheers broke out at once. People felt even more favorably toward Lin Sangqian and Crunchy Chicken.

“Miss Lin, today you have truly made me look at you in a new light,” Doctor Ge said admiringly.

When trouble came, she had not panicked in the slightest; instead, she had made the other side utterly speechless.

And just now, he had thought she meant to let Lin Shuimei off. He had even been inwardly sighing that if she could forgive someone who had harmed her so easily, how would she ever survive in the future?

Yet Lin Sangqian always surprised him.

“Speaking of which, I should be thanking you today, Doctor Ge,” Lin Sangqian said. “Thank you for stepping in to help.”

“It was nothing,” Doctor Ge said with a wave of his hand. “Even without me, you would have handled it.”

Lin Sangqian smiled. “Then please come sit in the shop. Lunch today is on me.”

“Ha ha, then this old man will not stand on ceremony!”

...

Lin Shuimei was beaten and then carried by two constables, who dumped her back at the gate of Ruwen Academy.

Lin Xiong followed beside them, his face as pale as paper.

He had just watched with his own eyes how Lin Shuimei had been given twenty strokes. Though the constable who dealt the blows had shown some restraint because she was a woman, Lin Shuimei still ended up unconscious!

Her backside must already be a miserable sight.

“Sis, sis, are you all right?” Lin Xiong asked in terror.

By then, Lin Shuimei had woken up. In a weak voice, she said, “Useless fool... What are you standing there for? Hurry up and knock on the door...”

Only then did Lin Xiong react. He hurried over and knocked on the academy gate.

After a while, a page came to open the door. Seeing the two of them, he jumped in fright. “What happened to you two?”

“Where is the teacher?”

“He’s inside...”

“Then carry me in first!” Lin Shuimei said weakly.

There were not many people around here, but passersby still came and went. She could not bear the looks people were giving her.

Fortunately, she was not heavy, and the page and Lin Xiong together carried her into the academy.

“I’ll go get the teacher!” the page said, taking off at once.

Not long after, Hou Tianlu hurried over. Seeing Lin Shuimei in such a state, he was shocked. “Shuimei! What happened to you?”

“Teacher!” The moment Lin Shuimei saw him, tears streamed down her face. “I’ve been ruined by someone!”

“What happened?” Hou Tianlu guessed that she must have offended someone and been beaten. If so, he would have to drive her away; he could not let her drag him down.

Lin Shuimei glanced at Lin Xiong, and Lin Xiong immediately recounted what had happened earlier.

Of course, he did not mention the terrible things the siblings themselves had done. Instead, he painted both of them as victims.

“I went to Crunchy Chicken to buy milk tea, and it upset my stomach. Then Lin Sangqian not only refused to admit fault, she even slandered my sister and tricked the constables into sending her to the yamen, where they beat her!”

“Preposterous!” Hou Tianlu said angrily. “How can there be such a thing in this world?”

Fortunately, it was only the owner of a place called Crunchy Chicken. There was no need for him to fear her.

“Teacher, you do not know this, but Lin Sangqian is my cousin. Not only did she harm my parents, now she has come to harm me as well. She may be young, but she is a thoroughly wicked woman!” Lin Shuimei cried.

“All right, all right, stop crying.” Hou Tianlu’s head ached from her sobbing. “First carry her into the room.”

After being carried onto the bed inside, Lin Shuimei still clutched Hou Tianlu’s sleeve, sobbing pitifully.

“Teacher, I am your woman. You must avenge me!”

“Can you stop crying for a moment?” Hou Tianlu said, growing a little impatient. “How am I supposed to avenge you? Am I supposed to go smash up their shop?”

Lin Shuimei was foolish, but even she knew that was unrealistic, so she could only sniffle there in grievance.

Seeing her like that, Hou Tianlu softened somewhat. He had not yet grown tired of her, after all. So his voice gentled a little.

“All right, then tell me more about this Lin Sangqian. Who else is in her family?”

Lin Shuimei wiped her tears and said, “Her father, her mother, and three older brothers... Oh, I remember now. Her second and third brothers seem to be studying at an academy now.”

“Really?” Hou Tianlu frowned. “If they’re not here with me, then they must be at that damned Haixing Academy.”

He hated Haixing Academy to the core. Because Haixing had more teachers and charged less, it had far more students than his place did.

He felt that Haixing had stolen his business.

If he had not advertised himself as the third-place scholar from years past, he might not have had many students at all.

“That should be right. One is called Lin Yanbei, and the other Lin Beitao.”

“All right, I know.” Hou Tianlu gave a cold smile. “If I find a way to deal with them for you, would that let you vent your anger?”

When Lin Shuimei thought about it, even if they could not deal with Lin Sangqian for now, dealing with her two brothers would do as well.

“Mm!” she hurriedly nodded.

“Then I’ll have to think carefully, and maybe make things difficult for Haixing Academy too...” A calculating light flashed in Hou Tianlu’s eyes.

...

That evening, after Lin Yanbei and Lin Beitao finished dinner at home, they prepared to return to the academy.

“Second Brother, Third Brother, be careful,” Lin Sangqian reminded them. “Lin Shuimei is now connected to Teacher Hou of Ruwen Academy. I’m afraid that Teacher Hou may resort to underhanded tricks to make things difficult for you.”

“That can’t be, can it? He’s a teacher at Ruwen Academy, and we’re at Haixing Academy. Our paths don’t cross,” Lin Yanbei said. “Besides, what happened today was clearly Lin Shuimei and Lin Xiong’s fault first.”

Lin Sangqian gave a bitter smile.

Could reason ever be made clear to wicked people?

At that moment, she noticed that Lin Beitao seemed to want to say something. He had been hesitating for a long time.