While Xiao Jingbai was lost in wild thoughts, Pei Yanqi had already approached.
However, instead of entering the door, he stopped at the entrance. His eyes traveled up and down Xiao Jingbai twice.
Xiao Jingbai was feeling nervous. Suddenly, with a rattling sound, Pei Yanqi reached out and grabbed the door ring, closing the study door. Then he laid his ruler across the outside handle!
Xiao Jingbai immediately grew anxious and rushed to the door. "What are you doing?"
Pei Yanqi's gentle and melodious voice came from outside. "The sky is beautiful outside. I'm enjoying the scenery."
"Enjoy the scenery…" Xiao Jingbai was furious. He shook the door forcefully, making a rattling noise. "Why are you locking me in here while you enjoy the scenery? Let me out right away!"
"I won't." Pei Yanqi's voice floated in lightly.
"You…"
Xiao Jingbai was extremely angry but at a loss. Through the crack in the door, he could only see the elegant scholar walk to the flowerbed and break off a willow branch.
"The second young master is restless. In my opinion, it's better to calm down before class," the scholar said with a faint smile.
Hearing Pei Yanqi's calm words, Xiao Jingbai felt a surge of anger. He was almost on the verge of fainting.
The smell of malva moss was filling the air. He grew impatient and shouted inside the room, "Let me out! Who do you think you are to lock me up? Do you know who I am? If my mother comes back, I'll have you dismissed from your post!"
However, no matter how much he made a fuss, Pei Yanqi turned a deaf ear. He just stood quietly in the yard, as if he was really enjoying the scenery.
Xiao Jingbai was so angry that his face turned blue. He gasped for breath.
He had a perfect plan in mind. His seat was close to the door, so he would be less affected. When Pei Yanqi was choked by the smell and fled in a hurry, he could stroll out boldly and laugh at this top scholar!
But he didn't expect that Pei Yanqi didn't even enter the room.
Moreover, he used a ruler to lock the door and trapped him inside!
The malva moss was spreading quickly. Xiao Jingbai's eyes began to feel sore and swollen, as if someone had rubbed ginger on his eyelids. He rubbed them hard, but it only made it worse.
Damn it!
He cursed silently in his heart. The angrier he got, the more helpless he felt.
At this moment, a servant beside him pointed to the left in a hurry and reminded, "Young master! The window! The window!"
Right!
There was a window in this study!
He could climb out through the window.
Xiao Jingbai's eyes lit up. He took a quick step to the window and stepped on the bookcase to climb up.
The bookcase shook violently under his feet. The Analects and Mencius on it fell down one after another, like a ridiculous rain of sages.
He pushed open the cypress window lattice in a hurry and was about to jump out—
"Slap!"
A willow branch whipped across the back of his hand. He almost fell off the bookcase from the pain.
Looking up, he saw Pei Yanqi standing under the old willow tree outside the window. Holding a willow branch in his hand, he was smiling more gently than the spring breeze. "Where are you going, second young master?"
Xiao Jingbai covered the back of his hand. With red eyes, he roared ferociously, "How dare you hit me!"
Pei Yanqi stroked the willow branch and shook his head. "If the root is not calm, the heart will not be clear. Therefore, one will be impatient and restless. Second young master, you still need to be tempered."
"Temper my ass!" Just as Xiao Jingbai was scolding, he felt a tickle in his nose. Choked by the malva moss, he sneezed loudly. Tears streamed down his face, and he looked extremely embarrassed.
Seeing their master being humiliated, the servants quickly stepped on the bookcase and tried to climb out to open the door for their master. But Pei Yanqi's willow branch seemed to have eyes. It landed on them accurately and forcefully.
Crack!
Crack!
The servants cried out in pain and jumped up and down.
Li Wanming was right. When whipped with a willow branch, the wound was thin and narrow. There would be a red mark on the arm, as if it had been pricked by a needle. Although there was no blood, it was extremely painful.
Xiao Jingbai covered the back of his hand, anxious and angry.
They were trapped inside the room, and the smell of malva moss was gradually spreading, filling the whole study.
For a moment, curses, sneezes, and cries rose one after another. The small study was bustling, like a noisy market.
An intelligent maid outside the yard had already run to report to Nanny Chen.
Nanny Chen, wearing a dark purple silk brocade robe, rushed in like a whirlwind. "What's going on? Who dares to bully our young master?"
Hearing her voice, Xiao Jingbai immediately cried out at the top of his voice, "Nanny, save me! This… Achoo… bastard… Achoo… locked me up…"
His voice was hoarse and intermittent, interrupted by countless sneezes. It sounded like a duck with its neck stepped on.
Nanny Chen stamped her feet anxiously. "Hurry up and open the door! Our young master is so precious. How can he endure such torture!"
"Not allowed," Pei Yanqi calmly put the willow branch into his sleeve. Standing in front of the door with his arms folded, he said, "The second young master of the Xiao family is restless. I specifically let him calm down in the study. No idlers are allowed to enter."
"Calm down?" Nanny Chen was shocked and surprised. "How could calming down turn out like this?"
Pei Yanqi dusted off the non - existent dust on his sleeve. "Maybe the second young master and this study are just not compatible."
Inside the study, Xiao Jingbai was crying even more loudly. "Nanny, save me… Nanny, save me! If you don't let me out soon… I'll really die… Achoo!"
Nanny Chen was also terrified. But looking at Pei Yanqi, who was as calm as water, she didn't dare to move. She quietly sent someone to look for Xiao Yuanjie. "Tell the second master that something has happened in the study. Ask him to come quickly!"
After a while, the little maid sent back the message. "The second master said that he would like Mr. Pei to make his own decision about the matter in the study. He is very busy and won't come…"
Hearing this, Xiao Jingbai cried even louder. "I'm going to die… I'm really going to die… Achoo!"
Nanny Chen was panicking. She almost wrung the handkerchief in her hand into a twist. Gritting her teeth, she rushed forward. "I don't care! I can't watch our young master suffer!"
But Pei Yanqi's willow branch whipped through the air like a long whip, leaving a white mark at her feet. "If you insist on this, Nanny, I'm afraid I'll have to resign!"
"What…"
"I've said before that within these seven days, no one and nothing should interfere with my teaching. The second madam has also agreed," Pei Yanqi's voice was as cold as ice in the coldest winter. "So, Nanny, are you going to make decisions for your master?"
"This…"
"Nanny, just listen to Mr. Pei," Li Wanming walked over gracefully, supported by Qing Lan's hand from the corner of the corridor. Her cherry - pink skirt fluttered like a butterfly. "Before leaving, the second aunt specifically told us that within these seven days, Mr. Pei's words are like iron orders. Everything is up to him, and no one is allowed to go against them."