CH 31

Chapter 31 Does This Count as Cheating?

The room was so silent that one could hear a pin drop.

She quietly raised her head and glanced at Chi Jingxi. She discovered that he hadn’t even opened the book. Instead, he was quietly looking at something on the cover.

Wen Yantong felt a chill in her spine and a fright in her heart. To pacify Chi Jingxi, she immediately apologized and said, "Little Marquis, I know I'm the one at fault. A magnanimous person should not hold grudges against a scum, so don't nitpick on me, okay?"translate(d) by puretl . com / do not steal / re po/st

Chi Jingxi threw the book on the table and picked up a teacup. He leaned lazily on the soft chair, his eyes wandering around the edge of the cup. "What faults?"

"I shouldn't have pretended to be a maid to lie to you." Wen Yantong honestly confessed everything.

Chi Jingxi's fingers were slender, fair-skinned, and beautiful. His soft fingertip rubbed the edge of the dark cup. Soon, his fingertip was stained in a rouge red, but after a while, he still did not respond to Wen Yantong's words.

"Also..." In a sheepish tone, Wen Yantong dragged her words, saying, "I shouldn't have lied and said that I hadn't touched the things in the room. The books on the shelf, the water on the table, and the soft chair I’ve... all touched..."

After Chi Jingxi heard her confession about her second offense, he placed the cup heavily on the table and made a thud, making Wen Yantong's eyelids flutter and her whole body jump.

It was then that she discovered  traces of powder on the cover of the book, which her fingers had most probably left after she had finished applying powder. There were also red rouge marks on the rim of the cup from her lips, and the soft chair was in the worst condition.

When Wen Yantong was lying down just now, the powder on her face and her stained hands inevitably contaminated the chair. All these could not be concealed from Chi Jingxi. He knew at a glance that Wen Yantong was lying.

But Wen Yantong originally just wanted to escape quickly. How could she have known that she would be caught and be punished by Chi Jingxi?!

Now she was afraid that she had really angered Chi Jingxi. What if he suddenly hits her? He had kicked grown men before and caused them to roll back twice; Wen Yantong didn't want to take that kick.

Although she had put a lot of stuff on her chest, binding it hard, if she was kicked by Chi Jingxi...

The more Wen Yantong thought about it, the more terrified she became. Wen Yantong lowered her head and started sobbing.

Chi Jingxi's handsome eyebrows twitched and turned to look at her. "What are you whimpering for?"

"...I don't want to be beaten." Wen Yantong burst into tears. "Don't beat me. My leg hurts. Wahhh!"

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Chi Jingxi didn't want to beat her at first, but when he saw a grown man crying like this, his hands couldn’t help but feel an itch.

But thinking about Wen Yantong's lame leg and her thin and short stature, he knew that she may not even last two punches. So Chi Jingxi said with an annoyed tone, "When did I say I'm going to beat you?"

Hearing this, Wen Yantong immediately shut up. She didn't have the ability to cry at will like an actor, so she was simply wailing without tears just now.

Chi Jingxi looked at her appearance and said with disdain, "You already whine like a girl, but now, you even put on makeup and wear a girl's dress. Might as well be sent to the palace to be a eunuch. Why bother staying here to study.."

"That's not right..." Wen Yantong retorted in a low voice.

Chi Jingxi glanced at her.

Even under pressure, she still continued, "Eunuchs don't like to wear women's dresses..."

This is the truth.

Chi Jingxi had no way to refute her statement and was so angry that he couldn’t speak for a while. After calming down a bit, he said, "You’re last place scorer in the academy in terms of Knowledge of Words. Your writing skills are not even as neat as a dog writing with its paw. How can you still lift your head up in the academy?"

Wen Yantong had to defend herself against this one. "I’ve been practicing! The piece of paper that I was bestowed by the Little Marquis is mounted on my study desk, and I practice copying it every day!"

Chi Jingxi squinted his eyes and said, "With your short attention span, studying, sleeping, and eating at the same time, what can you do?"

"Practice a little a day! I know it will get better over time." Wen Yantong said in a hopeful voice, hoping to encourage herself.

"Accumulating experience over time? Are you planning to practice until your beard is gray?"

"As long as I can imitate Little Marquis’ handwriting by twenty to thirty percent, I'm willing to spend as much time as possible!" Wen Yantong said resolutely.

Chi Jingxi choked. If Wen Yantong was simply arguing with him, he would still have a reason to be angry, but the bad thing was that she was praising him while arguing, which really made him unable to retort.

Chi Jingxi pondered for a while before finally returning to the main reason why they were arguing in the first place. With a domineering, angry voice, he said, "Wen Yantong, you are so bold! Dare to lie to me!"

Wen Yantong: "..." Does this count as cheating?

Hearing that, Wen Yantong lowered her head and pretended to humbly admit that she was in the wrong. Chi Jingxi snorted and said, "This is the last time that this will happen. Next time I find out that you are deliberately lying, I will knock out two teeth from your babbling mouth."

Wen Yantong immediately understood that Chi Jingxi had no plans to pursue the issue any further and instantly nodded her head like a chick pecking rice. "Yes, yes, yes."

Chi Jingxi stood up and walked to Wen Yantong. Compared with the heavy pressure he exerted when he first entered the door, his mood was obviously much better now. He stopped for a while when he came to her side. "Don’t appear in front of me in the future. It’s annoying."

Wen Yantong didn't respond, thinking: I can’t agree to that, Little Marquis. How can I hug your thighs if I don't come near you?

After Chi Jingxi finished speaking, he went out, leaving Wen Yantong alone in the room. Only then was she able to relax completely and let out a long sigh of relief.

Chi Jingxi was really sharp! The original book always emphasized that he was violent and fierce, almost making people forget that he was not a simple smart man.

In fact, Wen Yantong's lies just now were easy to see through. One just needed to ponder about it a bit, and they would understand that she was lying. But the horror of Chi Jingxi was that his mind thinks and reacts extremely fast so much so that he may have already known that she was going to lie before Wen Yantong herself did.

So when Wen Yantong was acting out her one-woman show, he most probably already knew that she was lying.

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Wen Yantong wiped the fine sweat on her forehead and lamented that if she were to face Chi Jingxi next time, she had to be ten thousand times more vigilant.

The teachers of the academy couldn’t even compare to the man.

The prime example was Teacher Zhao, who she could easily fool. She just needed to cry a few times, and he would believe everything she said.

Wen Yantong sighed again. At this time, she missed Teacher Zhao's ‘goodness’.