Chapter 8: Chapter seven: The Hall of Tranquility
Yingyue had had a most stressful day, and as dusk fell, her desire for repose grew. So she climbed the tallest oak tree in the Mist Oasis.
Make no mistakes... this young girl who had vowed to remember rule fifty four did not intend to break the rules.
Not at all.
She just needed to relax, and this had always been her best way of doing so since childhood. She even made sure to stay as hidden as possible.
Except none of that mattered when she had been caught red-handed by Pan Yuchen.
She had just closed her eyes to the setting sun, ready to sink into a daydream, when the branches surrounding her suddenly twisted like vines and bound her tightly to the trunk on which she leaned.
Her eyes snapped open instantly.
"Hey!".
"Climbing trees is prohibited in the Mist Oasis"a voice spoke.
Two things marveled Yingyue as she looked down to meet her assailant's eyes. First, it was Pan Yuchen, and secondly, she actually heard him clearly even though his voice was the exact opposite of loud. In fact, he seemed to breathe out words rather than speak them.
"Okay okay, I get it. Can you set me free now?"she huffed, struggling fruitlessly.
"No'".
Yingyue paused in her struggle to stare in confusion at him.
"No?".
"No".
"Ah...why?".
"You do not appear to regret your actions at all".
"That's because I don't."
To her utmost despair, he actually turned around and began to leave!
"Hey! You can't leave me like this!".
He clearly thought he could, because he did not even stop, much less acknowledge her protests.
"Look, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, okay?! I regret my actions now! Are you even listening?!Hey!".
It really didn't seem like he was.
"Hey! Surely you're not allowed to take laws into your own hands!".
That was enough to stop him in his tracks.
"Will you take your punishment if I set you free?".
"Huh? Punishment?"she giggled"Oh... there's that, isn't there?".
Her wooden constraints began to get tighter, almost rendering her unable to breathe.
"Yes yes yes, I'll take my punishment, alright? Just let me go already!".
She felt the vines begin to slacken their hold until she was finally free. She rose to her feet and stretched.
"Hahaha! Straight laced people like you are so easy to fool! I'm not going anywhere with you, and you'll have to let me be,or else you'll climb this tree after me,"she caressed the trunk and smiled at him"and, you know, take that punishment with me".
The vines came at her again, but this time Yingyue was ready. She shimmied up the trunk and perched on a higher branch.
She grinned and blew raspberry.
Pan Yuchen narrowed his eyes, and his attempts to capture her became more ferocious. Yingyue leapt from branch from branch to evade the hostile wood, laughing the entire time,as if they were playing a game of tag.
"Just give up already, Jade Dragon!"she called down"oh wait, don't stop yet. I'm having so much fun!".
She definitely did not anticipate the sword that severed a broad branch right from under her. With a yelp, she came crashing down alongside the unfortunate log of wood.
Luckily for her, there were several other branches to soften her fall before she found herself on the ground.
"Hey!".
The Jade Dragon ignored her, indifferently sliding his sword into its sheath.
"Get up. Let's go".
Yingyue frowned. This guy was so infuriating!
"And if I refuse?"she said tauntingly, rising to her feet"you can't exactly drag me along, after all...".
That was when she realized that her wrists had been tightly bound together by a length of rope that not only seemed to have come from nowhere, but was also biting painfully into her flesh.
"Wha... what... when...".
Pan Yuchen had the other end of the rope in his hand and, contrary to her words, actually did drag her along.
*
*
*
Pan Junjie was in his office this time, and he was not alone.
Yingyue looked around,at the sect leader and the several elders sitting with him, and bit down the urge to grin. She had a feeling they would not appreciate her cheerfulness right now.
On arrival, Pan Yuchen had tossed her to the floor like a sack of flour (the nerve!), before informing everybody present (did he really have to?) of her transgression. Now she was supposed to kneel here and wait for these people to pass judgement on her.
Ugh.
She looked to the benevolent sect leader for moral support, but he wore an excellent poker face and barely looked at her.
For goodness' sake, all she did was climb a tree. She didn't kill anyone, so why were they making it into such a big deal?!
"Meng Yingyue,"it was one of the elders that spoke"for deliberately breaking rule thirteen for the second time and therefore scorning the sect leader's pardon...".
"Hold up! Wait a second!"she interrupted, determined not to go down alone.
"How dare..."the elder was saying when Junjie cut in.
"What is the matter, Child Meng?".
"Defacing of Mist Oasis property is prohibited, isn't it?".
"It is. Is there a problem?".
"Then Pan Yuchen should be punished too,"she announced triumphantly,"for cutting that oak tree even when he doesn't need the wood for anything".
A pindrop silence greeted her words. Pan Yuchen had never broken a rule before, and the men needed time to process the fact that he had just done so.
The silence was broken by Pan Yuchen himself, falling on his knees.
"This one is prepared to take his punishment"he said.
Junjie sighed.
"Both of you,"he said"will face detention. Sit in the Hall of Tranquility and reflect on your actions, while you replicate all the sect rules on paper, from your memory".
"Wait, right now?"Yingyue said"but we'll miss dinner. Hey! Dage?".
But everyone had already turned their backs to them.
They were dismissed.
*
*
*
Pan Yuchen made a mistake.
He scolded himself inwardly even as he wrote the one thousand and ninth rule, conscious of the fact that he would not be rounding up anytime soon.
He made a terrible mistake. He should have avoided her. That little spectacle in his classroom should have warned him. This girl was trouble in its final form. She was nothing like the human beings he knew. Nothing like the human beings he could handle.All he did was cross parts with her, and he had gotten the first black spot on his stainless record. He had learnt his lesson. He should definitely stay away from her,if he did not want his life to turn upside down.
The Hall of Tranquility was so vast it appeared endless, with little furniture. It was deliberately designed to make anyone detained within feel isolated from the rest of the world, complete with barriers that sealed the door from outside. This was no problem for Pan Yuchen,who had been raised to feel this way, and neither was replicating the rules he had grown up reading.
The one in trouble was Meng Yingyue. While isolation was no problem for her, getting locked in was. She felt trapped,as if she was in grave danger. Then there was what she considered the main punishment. How exactly was she supposed to replicate rules she had never bothered reading? Even in Pan Junjie's office, she had simply made a wild guess. Luckily, it had turned out that there was actually a rule forbidding the destruction of property in the Mist Oasis. Of course, Pan Yuchen would never know that she had been bluffing.
Yingyue had spoken up in vengeance, and had felt quite satisfied at first. But now all the pleasure had gone out of it. Now she felt bad that she was responsible for denying him his dinner. She gnawed on the handle of her brush as she glanced surreptitiously at the boy sitting few steps away to her side.
He was sitting with his back straight as an arrow, writing with that annoyingly blank expression of his.
Did he even have an inner monologue? Yingyue didn't think so. She sighed loudly, falling forward on the blank book lying open before her. Her sigh echoed, shattering the tranquility of the hall.
Yingyue peeked at Yuchen out of the corner of her eyes, but he was even more determined to ignore her.
For some reason that grated on her nerves. And it made her want to tease him. But no, she counseled herself, she had already caused him enough trouble for one day.
She sat up and returned her attention to the page before her only to remember... she didn't know what to write!
Oh, horrors.
Now she only had two options:Write absolute rubbish and submit it with supreme confidence,or...
"Shixiong".
Yuchen looked up only to see Yingyue making herself comfortable on the edge of his desk.
"I'm very sorry for getting you into trouble".
He returned his gaze to what he was writing as if it was just the breeze that had whispered.
"Hey, Shixiong"she reached for him.
A timely glare made her retract her hand immediately, with a nervous movement and an even more nervous smile.
"Sorry. Look, I'm really sorry. But we're in trouble together so it won't do to hate each other, right?".
Still no answer.
Yingyue bent and whispered into his ear.
"Hey. Shixiong".
His grip tightened on the brush, but he persevered in ignoring her.
Wow.
She looked around,then picked up his ink holder and held it over his book.
"If you don't answer I'm going to pour this...".
His gaze snapped up.
"Put that down".
"You looked up!"she said with triumph.
"Meng Yingyue, put it down".
Yingyue gasped dramatically.
"How do you know my name?".
Yuchen had no time for her antics. He stretched his hand to retrieve the bottle, only for her to lift it out of reach.
"Whoa, watch it!".
He gave her a look of frustration, and Yingyue suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be asking for his help.
She began to return the bottle to its spot, just at the very same moment his hand reached for it again.
The result was that it dropped from her hold, right on top of his open book.
Yuchen hurried to his feet to avoid the spilled ink, gathering his spotless robes out of danger.
Simultaneously, Yingyue sprang to her feet and backed away guiltily. She had not intended to spill the ink. Not at all. But would Pan Yuchen believe her?
"Shixiong...".
If his previous glares had been enough to kill her, the one he gave her now could definitely vaporize her soul as well, so that she would never reincarnate ever.
"Really, I didn't mean...".
But he had brushed past her and was already on his way out of the room.
"Shixiong... wait, Shixiong!".
She didn't realize the exact magnitude of his rage until the barriers crumbled under the weight of his aura. He stormed out, and she knew somehow that he was going to report her again. She really couldn't bear that, couldn't bear to receive that heartbreaking look from Sect leader Pan a second time.
"Shixiong, please wait! Let's settle this amicably! I'll rewrite it for you, you can just tell me what to write... Shixiong? Shixiong!".
She didn't even notice when they arrived at the sect leader's office, and the result of that was that he stopped so unexpectedly that she collided with his back. And because she was Meng Yingyue, of course she just had to wrap both arms around him, to keep herself from falling for the third time that day.
He was comfortably solid, so much so that Yingyue did not let go as quickly as she should have. Not even when she felt him go stiff as a board.
And that was why Junjie met this scene as soon as he opened the door.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Amarachukwu_Okoli_2708
Amarachukwu_Okoli_2708 Now she has done it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone