This task fell upon Cui Yunchu and Cui Yunfeng.
The door opened, and Yu Feng walked out from inside. Cui Yunchu was just about to step forward to speak when she saw several stretchers being carried out from the doorway. The figures on the stretchers were covered entirely by white cloth, completely concealed.
The wind blew the white cloth, lifting a corner to reveal a patch of bloody skin.
Who didn't know the infamous reputation of the Department of Punishment? Cui Yunchu swallowed hard and subconsciously took a step back.
Yu Feng asked, "Does Eldest Miss Cui need something?"
"...I wanted to ask, when will Grand Tutor Tang be released?"
"Wait a moment." Yu Feng called for the people inside to hurry up. A thick stench of blood rushed toward her face. Cui Yunchu turned her back, not daring to look anymore.
As the last person carrying a stretcher went down the steps, they seemed to trip over something and stumbled slightly. The white cloth on the stretcher inexplicably slipped off and landed at Cui Yunchu's feet.
With a stiff neck, she instinctively looked up and met the wide, staring eyes of a corpse bleeding from all seven orifices. The state of the death was miserable and terrifying.
Cui Yunchu let out a shriek and scrambled away like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
A pair of short boots embroidered with dark patterns suddenly appeared in her line of sight, and immediately after, her head bumped into something hard. A man's cold aura invaded her nose.
It was very familiar. Cui Yunchu's heart was in her throat, her soul practically flying out of her body, leaving her no time to think.
"It seems I didn't hold a knife to Eldest Miss Cui's neck. What is the meaning of Eldest Miss Cui throwing herself into my arms?" the man's voice was cold and dark.
"There's a ghost," Cui Yunchu turned pale and hid behind Shen Xiabai as fast as she could.
But a moment later, realizing that the person's miserable state was caused by the man standing in front of her, her body grew even colder.
She wanted to go home.
She got up to leave, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed. "Eldest Miss Cui, are you no longer waiting for Grand Tutor Tang?"
"..."
He bent down, his voice very light. "Yesterday, when Eldest Miss Cui mocked me for saying one thing and meaning another, and plotted against me, you were quite arrogant."
Cui Yunfeng had long been scared into fleeing onto the carriage, lifting a corner of the curtain to watch the situation over here.
Cui Yunchu said, "Let go."
Her face was pale and her eyes were a little red. Shen Xiabai frowned. "It's just a dead person. Is there a need to be this scared?"
He released her, and Cui Yunchu swiftly darted onto the carriage.
Shen Xiabai glanced at Yu Feng from the corner of his eye.
Yu Feng immediately ordered someone to pick up the white cloth and carry the stretcher away.
They didn't carry it outside, but rather carried it back into the Department of Punishment.
Cui Yunchu, "..."
Shen Xiabai looked at the pair of eyes peeking through the gap in the carriage curtain and said indifferently, "Are you still not coming down?"
Only then did Cui Yunchu slowly get out of the carriage. "Just now, I think I saw the hand of the person on the stretcher move."
"..."
"You saw wrong," Shen Xiabai said with lowered eyelids.
Cui Yunchu expressed her doubts.
She wasn't old and blind, how could she have seen wrong? But a dead person really couldn't move.
If fear could be visualized, Cui Yunchu's head would definitely be topped with a mess of frizzy hair right now, every hair on her body trembling.
Shen Xiabai's gaze swept lightly over Yu Feng before falling back onto Cui Yunchu.
He mocked lightly, "The brave Eldest Miss Cui has returned."
"..."
Cui Yunchu was here today to pick someone up, and she knew very well what her task was. "It's getting late. When will Grand Tutor Tang be released?"
"Aren't you a vixen? Do a little divination and see when I will release him."
"..."
Cui Yunchu felt that Shen Xiabai's skin seemed to be growing thicker, and his eloquence was better than before. She figured she deserved eighty or ninety percent of the credit for that.
She raised an eyebrow. "On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival lake tour, Lord Shen even said that I was a demon who sucked the vital essence out of men. So, did I suck all of Lord Shen's vital essence dry yesterday?"
She took a step closer, her gorgeous smile very dazzling.
Shen Xiabai took a step back, his brows slightly furrowed, but his heart was in turmoil once again.
Cui Yunchu chuckled. "Has Lord Shen ever read storybooks?"
"Boring things, naturally I wouldn't read them."
"Then I suppose Lord Shen also doesn't know what it means when a man calls a woman a vixen or a little demon."
"..." Vixen, demon—aren't they usually used to describe a deceitful woman? What else could they mean?
Cui Yunchu's fingertip poked his chest. "If Lord Shen has nothing to do, you can buy some and take a look."
He only felt that the skin under her finger was incredibly hot, and his heart was almost jumping out of his chest.
He swatted her hand away, the tips of his ears blushing blood-red. "In broad daylight, do you have no sense of shame?"
Cui Yunchu curled her lips. "Calling me a vixen and a little demon—even if I have no sense of shame, I still can't compare to Lord Shen's thick skin."
For some reason, those two derogatory terms coming from her mouth carried a rather romantic and charming flavor.
"When Eldest Miss Cui entangled the Crown Prince and Prince An back then, did you also use this method?"
"No," Cui Yunchu said. "When I was pestering them, I was very well-behaved. Gentle and dignified, soft-spoken, acting coquettishly and throwing tantrums—I did it all."
So, she wasn't trying to seduce or entangle him.
The temperature on Shen Xiabai's face slowly receded, and the emotions in his eyes gradually cooled. "Since that is the case, when Eldest Miss Cui needs to ask a favor of someone, why not go find those two Highnesses?"
On what basis did she have to drag him into jumping into the lake?
Or was it that if someone else was in charge of the Department of Punishment, she would do the same?
"That day was indeed my fault." Cui Yunchu lowered her eyelashes. "To show my apology, I specially made some food for Lord Shen to express my sincerity."
"..."
Shen Xiabai had even hardened his heart, ready to flick his sleeves and leave.
Cui Yunchu's sudden change made even him freeze for a moment.
"Made by your own hands, I'm afraid you want to poison me to death." He stood with his hands behind his back. His sharp facial features seemed inexplicably gentler when blended with the sunlight.
Xing'er brought the food box over and respectfully handed it up.
Yu Feng, who was standing on the steps, immediately stepped forward quickly and took the food box.
Cui Yunchu said, "It's my first time making this, I hope Lord Shen won't despise it."
Shen Xiabai didn't speak. He cast a faint glance at Cui Yunchu, turned around, and walked back into the Department of Punishment.
Yu Feng immediately followed.
Xing'er asked, "Miss, what does Lord Shen mean by this? Why did he suddenly leave without saying a word?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Release him," Shen Xiabai glanced sideways and instructed Yu Feng.
"I have already sent someone." As the master and servant walked forward, they ran into a few soldiers putting their heads together, whispering among themselves.
One of them hadn't even wiped the blood flowing from his seven orifices, making him look absolutely terrifying.
Yu Feng coughed forcefully a few times, and the men fell silent, looking up.
Shen Xiabai's gaze swept over the men and landed on Yu Feng at his side.
Yu Feng smiled awkwardly. "Eldest Miss Cui was truly arrogant earlier. This subordinate thought of scaring her a bit to teach her a lesson."
The Department of Punishment had a back door. Those corpses weren't carried away earlier, nor were they held back until later. They were carried out right when Eldest Miss Cui came to the door, and they deliberately used the main entrance. The intention was self-evident.
Since that was the case, as a subordinate, he was merely sharing his master's burden and lending a helping hand.
"Acting on your own initiative," Shen Xiabai dropped a sentence and walked away without saying he would punish him.
"Lord Yu, could it be that the Lord is angry?"
Yu Feng shook his head. "You guys don't understand."
When Eldest Miss Cui crashed into his arms, he had carefully observed his master's expression—he was clearly enjoying it.
He picked up the food container and followed.
Shen Xiabai was buried at his desk, flipping through official documents, but from the corner of his eye, he kept glancing at the food container.
"Master, do you think Eldest Miss Cui would poison this?"
"She wouldn't," Shen Xiabai replied with certainty.
Writing letters, ambushing people, sending food.
This was the exact strategy she herself had admitted to using when she pestered Prince An and the Crown Prince back then.
"Using her old tricks again, yet she still has a stubborn mouth."
"Bring it here."
Yu Feng carried the food container over and opened it. A small plate of osmanthus cakes was neatly arranged inside, and they looked quite presentable.
Shen Xiabai picked up a piece, examined it in his hand for a moment, brought it to his lips, took a small bite, and chewed.
Blech...
