Journey Through Realms: Fulfilling Last Wishes

Chapter 8: The Innocent Little Lotus of the Demon Sect

The maid had barely run out when she encountered Qin Yuan.

Qin Yuan was quite busy that day, entertaining many young talents of his generation, chatting and walking around the manor. Suddenly, he saw a maid rushing out of the small garden, running towards his residence. A sense of foreboding swept over him.

“Why are you running? What happened? Have you forgotten the rules?”

The maid, seeing Qin Yuan, didn’t even have time to greet him properly and hurriedly approached him.

“Young Master, quickly go to the small garden! Miss Xue and another girl are fighting, and no one dares to stop them!”

The maid didn’t know Anran, so she just referred to her as ‘the girl’ without a surname.

Upon hearing this, the first person Qin Yuan thought of was Anran. Without asking more, he took large strides toward the small garden. The people behind him exchanged glances and followed. After all, who could resist the allure of some exciting gossip?

Before Qin Yuan even entered, he heard Anran’s scream.

“Ah… all of you just stand by watching a helpless girl get beaten, without offering any help?”

Right after, there was the sound of a whip cracking against the ground.

“Stop shouting! No one here will save you. Anyone who dares to intervene will become an enemy of the Xue family!” Xue Yue said arrogantly to Anran, frustrated that her whip had missed.

“Stop running! Let me whip you a few times, and I’ll forget the whole thing.”

“You mean it? If I let you hit me a few times, you’ll let it go, but please stop aiming for my face!” Anran suddenly stopped and asked seriously.

Xue Yue was startled, not expecting Anran to suddenly stop and ask her that.

“Of course! I, Xue Yue, always keep my word,” Xue Yue replied, though inwardly she thought, How many lashes it takes to appease my anger is still up to me.

The onlookers could only shake their heads. One of them was naive enough to trust the other, and the other was shameless enough to promise.

Did no one think the one making promises would actually keep her word? Just from the look on her face, it was clear that this girl was about to be in trouble.

Still, the dangers of the martial world were real, and perhaps this girl would learn from the experience.

“Alright, I’ll trust you this time. I won’t move, you can hit me,” Anran said with a face of grim resolve, covering her face with her hands.

“Fine, here I come. Don’t you dare run!” Xue Yue said through gritted teeth, channeling her strength and swinging the whip.

Everyone watching felt sorry for Anran, such a good girl, but a little too foolish.

Xue Yue gathered all her power and swung fiercely.

Hearing the whistle of the whip cutting through the air, Anran’s heart sank.

I must’ve been wrong. He’s not going to save me. How careless… I should’ve known better. Now I’m going to be disfigured…

Anran silently berated herself, thinking that next time she couldn’t put all her hopes on someone else. She needed to be more prepared.

Just when she had resigned herself to the pain of the whip, nothing happened. Confused, she lowered her hands and realized that someone had stepped in front of her.

It was Qin Yuan. Anran stared in disbelief. How had the maid found him so quickly? Thank goodness! If it weren’t for him, her face would surely be ruined by now.

“Ah, Brother Qin Yuan, you’ve come at last! If you hadn’t, I would’ve been beaten to death! This woman is so ruthless, every lash aimed at my face! You don’t know how scared I was!”

While everyone else was still surprised that Qin Yuan had intervened, Anran had already started crying and telling her side of the story.

“And all these people, they could’ve saved me, but they didn’t dare to step in because of her threats!” Anran cried even more pitifully.

“I only asked her to compensate for something she broke. Isn’t it fair to ask for compensation? Instead, she refused and now wants to beat me with a whip. She’s so overbearing!” Anran tearfully accused.

Qin Yuan looked at Anran. Her face was smeared with dust and tears, and her clothes were dirty. She looked utterly pitiful, stirring anyone’s desire to protect her.

Thinking this, Qin Yuan instinctively reached out, pulling her towards him.

But before he could fully embrace her, Anran quickly retreated, clutching her arm and crying even louder.

“Waaaah… My arm hurts! Brother Qin Yuan, you touched my wound!”

Seeing Anran crying so hard, Qin Yuan’s displeasure from her earlier retreat quickly faded.

“Why is your arm hurting? Where’s Qiuyue? Why isn’t she with you?” Qin Yuan hadn’t witnessed the blow, assuming Anran had escaped unscathed, so her sudden complaint of pain puzzled him.

“It’s all because of… uh, this barbaric woman! She hit me without saying anything. I was too scared to react and got hit on the arm,” Anran murmured, sounding wronged.

Qin Yuan now noticed that the fabric on her right sleeve appeared torn.

“Let me see. Is the injury serious? Can’t you at least run if you can’t fight?” As he spoke, he reached out to check her arm.

“No! Men and women shouldn’t touch each other! Besides, with all these people watching, I don’t want to embarrass myself further,” Anran quickly refused, hiding her arm behind her back.

Qin Yuan realized the garden was still full of visitors. His expression stiffened as he turned to address the crowd.

“I apologize for interrupting everyone’s enjoyment of the garden. I’ll personally make amends later, but for now, I have some matters to attend to. Please, take this time to return to your accommodations and rest,” he said politely, though there was no mistaking the firmness in his tone.

The onlookers, realizing it was time to leave, knew better than to linger when family matters were being handled.

“Young Master Qin, no need to apologize. We were getting tired anyway. We’ll take our leave now,” someone spoke up, and the others agreed, following their guide back.

As the crowd dispersed, Anran breathed a sigh of relief.

“Now, what happened exactly, Qiqi? You were there, so explain,” Qin Yuan asked calmly, his focus now on getting to the truth.

Zhao Qiqi, the one who had been called out, looked at Qin Yuan with tear-filled eyes.

“I’m not too sure either. Yueyue accidentally broke something of this girl’s, and the girl asked her to compensate. Then they started fighting, and I couldn’t stop them. I’m sorry, Brother Yuan,” Zhao Qiqi said, looking innocent and bewildered.

Hearing this, Anran couldn’t help but admire Zhao Qiqi’s level of tact. She masterfully absolved herself of blame, claiming she tried to stop the fight but failed, all while making herself seem just as innocent and wronged.

“Mhm, it’s not this girl’s fault. It’s that crazy barbarian who suddenly went wild and started whipping me,” Anran grumbled, but still followed Zhao Qiqi’s narrative.

“You! Qiqi, I was doing this for you, yet you’ve teamed up with an outsider to bully me!” Xue Yue shouted angrily.

Qin Yuan frowned, realizing the true cause of the conflict.

“Are you alright? Let me help you back. This is all my fault, and I promise it won’t happen again,” Qin Yuan said, looking at Anran with guilt.

“That’s for later. Right now, could you call a doctor for me? I’m feeling a bit…” Before Anran could finish saying the word “dizzy,” she collapsed backward.

“Anran! Anran! What’s wrong? Don’t scare me! Say something!”

Qin Yuan rushed forward to catch her, confused as to how she had suddenly fainted.

It wasn’t surprising, though—Qin Yuan didn’t know that Anran hadn’t taken her medicine since she woke up, and she had been mentally exhausted from dodging Xue Yue’s attacks. The moment she relaxed, her body simply gave out.

Qiuyue had just entered with Dongzhu when she saw Anran collapse into Qin Yuan’s arms, looking disheveled. She immediately knew her punishment would worsen.

“Young Master, you should probably take Anran back to her room first and call for a doctor,” Qiuyue suggested timidly to the panicking Qin Yuan.

Realizing what needed to be done, Qin Yuan glanced at Dongzhu before carrying Anran away without even acknowledging Zhao Qiqi or Xue Yue.

Dongzhu quickly turned to go find a doctor, while Qiuyue followed behind Qin Yuan. This left Zhao Qiqi and Xue Yue staring at each other, both shocked by how abruptly things had ended without a proper resolution.

“Qiqi, that girl isn’t simple. Did you see how worried Qin Yuan was about her? You’d better be careful, or she’ll steal your Brother Yuan from you,” Xue Yue warned, patting Zhao Qiqi’s head sympathetically before turning to leave.

Zhao Qiqi said nothing in response, simply standing there in a daze, staring at the spot where Qin Yuan had disappeared.