Chapter 18

Footsteps stopped outside the carriage: “Miss, the Madam has been waiting for you in the main hall for a long time.”

Shen Yao Xing suddenly felt a headache, struggling for a while before reluctantly getting off the carriage. She grinned at the old housekeeper she hadn’t seen in days: “How has Aunt Luo been feeling lately?”

“Good, good, good!” Housekeeper Luo happily replied: “Miss, please follow this old servant to see the Madam. She’s been missing you during the days you were away.”

Helplessly, Shen Yao Xing could only follow behind her, feeling nervous all the way. Before she could think of a strategy, they had already arrived at the entrance of the main hall. From afar, she saw her mother Shen with a gloomy expression sitting in the main seat.

Besides Madam Shen, there were three other people sitting in the main hall. When the young girl appeared, four gazes fell on her simultaneously.

Shen Yao Xing was extremely nervous, her hands behind her back rubbing against each other, her feet inching into the main hall bit by bit. The scene was too quiet, and she didn’t dare to speak until Madam Shen opened her mouth. After looking around, she finally moved towards the position next to her elder brother Song Si Nian.

“Kneel down.” Madam Shen commanded in a low voice.

Her body stiffened, Shen Yao Xing pouted, shuffling to the center of the main hall, “thud” she fell to her knees. The movement was so big, as if those knees weren’t her own, making people who saw it feel pain for her.

Madam Shen frowned imperceptibly, scolding in a deep voice: “Look at you! Dressed so inappropriately, have you gone crazy playing outside and don’t want to come back?”

“But I’ve come back now…” Shen Yao Xing muttered with her head lowered.

“Hmph” Madam Shen sneered: “If it wasn’t for calling you back to collect my corpse, I’m afraid you wouldn’t have been willing to?”

Talking about this, Shen Yao Xing became a bit unhappy. Speaking with her hand on her conscience, when had she not come back when someone was sent to find her? Yet she still had to use such words as a threat.

The young girl’s pouting mouth was visible to everyone.

“What?” Madam Shen picked up the steaming celadon teacup, took a sip of fragrant tea, and glanced at her: “Are you unhappy that I said a few words to you?”

“How dare I…” Shen Yao Xing slumped her shoulders, responding listlessly.

A loud “bang” startled the young girl to immediately straighten her back. Madam Shen’s expression grew even gloomier. The teacup she slammed on the table splashed hot water, spilling onto her hand. Housekeeper Luo, who had been waiting outside the main hall, hurriedly came forward to clean up and carefully handed over a handkerchief.

“Madam, please don’t be angry. The young miss knows her mistake.”

“What mistake does she know! Look at her appearance. Since she was young, I’ve taught you the demeanor and etiquette you should have daily, but you’ve done well! You haven’t learned a single thing. With your head hanging and ears drooping, where is there any trace of an official’s demeanor!” Madam Shen’s face turned red with anger, her hand clenched into a fist.

Sitting next to Madam Shen, Song naturally took the handkerchief and carefully wiped the water off her hand, glancing at the person kneeling on the ground: “Zhao Zhao, you’re not young anymore. People your age have already started families and achieved some success. How come you’re still so ignorant?”

Zhao Zhao was her nickname, only the people in this family would call her that. Shen Yao Xing raised her head to look at Madam Shen in the main seat, pursed her lips, moved her knees, stretched her shoulders back, and silently adjusted her kneeling posture.

“Hmph” Madam Shen snorted coldly, brushing away the man’s hand. Feeling that hand stiffen slightly, she ignored it and continued to scold: “I’ve told you long ago that those unsavory people you associate with outside are of no benefit to you. You should socialize more with other officials and royal families. That’s the circle suitable for you!”

Seeing her friends being spoken of like this by Madam Shen, Shen Yao Xing got a bit angry. She stiffened her neck, her words becoming somewhat harder: “You, you can say things about me, but why talk about my friends…”

“Bang” Another dull thud, Madam Shen slammed her fist on the table, somewhat exasperated: “Good! You don’t even know how to use honorifics anymore!?”

Housekeeper Luo, standing by her side, hurriedly came forward to pacify her, while frantically giving eye signals to the young girl.

But at this moment, Shen Yao Xing felt she wasn’t wrong, and lowered her head, refusing to apologize.

“Wife-master, why be so angry? Zhao Zhao is still young, just teach her more and it will be fine.” The man sitting to the right below the main seat, dressed in purple, with delicate features, spoke in a soft voice to plead for the young girl.

Shen Yao Xing gave him a grateful look.

“Young? She’s already past the age of fifteen and still young!” Madam Shen barely managed to calm down, but seeing the person still refusing to admit her mistake, that anger surged up again: “Go back to your room, and don’t take half a step out without my permission!”

Confining her again, Shen Yao Xing secretly glanced at the person in the main seat, muttering softly: “Can’t take half a step out, then I’ll just take one step out.”

The young girl was frantically testing Madam Shen’s bottom line.

“Good, good, good” Madam Shen was so angry her fingers kept tapping the table. She waved away the hand trying to soothe her and ordered: “Housekeeper Luo, take her to kneel in the ancestral hall. Make her kneel for five full hours. She can only get up when she realizes her mistake!”

Shen Yao Xing suddenly raised her head, wailing incessantly: “Kneeling in the ancestral hall again? I’d rather be confined then!”

It wasn’t that she was afraid of being tired, but kneeling there she couldn’t move or speak, which made people feel stifled.

Madam Shen snorted coldly: “This is not for you to choose. You will go kneel in the ancestral hall.”

Seeing that softening up was useless, Shen Yao Xing lowered her head, frantically sending out a cry for help towards Song Si Nian sitting on the lower left side. But this person completely pretended not to see, leisurely sipping his tea.

Shen Yao Xing gritted her teeth, brewed for a good while before pitifully raising her head: “I was wrong, mother…”

The young girl was so small, kneeling there with “teary eyes”, anyone who saw would soften their heart. Moreover, Madam Shen didn’t really intend to punish her like this. The anger in her heart had also subsided a lot, but this punishment still needed to be carried out.

“Hmph, you know you were wrong?”

“Yeah” The young girl scratched her leg.

Madam Shen nodded, picking up the teacup again. As it approached her lips, she paused, raising her eyes to glance at her: “Write five hundred large characters and five hundred small characters, and hand them to me within two hours.”

“Ah?” Shen Yao Xing, who thought she wouldn’t be punished, had a face full of bitterness: “Can I not write?”