Función clerical

Capítulo 23

Su Chenche composed himself, pulled on Shen Zhili's sleeve, and walked past all the handsome men without glancing to the side, exiting through another door.

The beauties only glanced at them at first, and when they saw that they were two men, they snapped back to what they were doing and continued what they were doing, as if they hadn't seen them at all.

Su Chenche pulled Shen Zhili all the way to a courtyard in the vast palace before letting go of her hand. He turned to look at Shen Zhili, who was still in a daze, and said pitifully, "Zhili, are they really that good-looking?"

Shen Zhili had just regained some of her senses: "What did you say?"

Su Chenche felt even more aggrieved: "You don't even look at me."

Shen Zhili asked, puzzled, "Why are you looking at me?"

Su Chenche took Shen Zhili's hand and rubbed it against his cheek, his eyes filled with sorrow as he said mournfully, "Zhili, you just said you wanted to marry me, and... we've already kissed and touched each other..."

Shen Zhili slapped him away expressionlessly: "Don't imitate Young Master Xiaoye's way of speaking... Also, are you having memory problems? When did I ever kiss or touch you?"

Su Chenche pouted: "You clearly..." in a wronged woman's tone.

Shen Zhili interrupted, his eyes fierce: "You stay here, I'm going out to check. Don't you dare follow me, understand?" He spoke in the tone of a heartless man.

After saying that, Shen Zhili closed the door and walked out.

Hot springs... Where are the hot springs located...?

Shen Zhili walked for a while, then looked back and found that Su Chenche really hadn't caught up anymore.

While she breathed a sigh of relief, she was also a little worried... Had she been a bit too harsh just now? Su Chenche shouldn't do anything like hiding in a dark corner of the room and drawing circles, right...?

With a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth, Shen Zhili abruptly interrupted her own thoughts.

...To be lenient with the enemy is to be cruel to oneself!

Chapter Twenty

Mingyue Palace was much larger than Shen Zhili had imagined. After wandering around for a long time without finding it, he finally managed to find out about it from another young man in a pale yellow palace dress by pretending to be a servant of Young Master Xiaoye.

Pushing open the door, she was greeted by swirling mist; inside truly was the hot spring she had longed for.

Even though it's only a small piece, it's better than nothing!

Seeing that no one was around and it was completely silent, Shen Zhili reached out to test the water temperature. The warm water enveloped her hand, feeling both comforting and alluring.

She swallowed hard, glanced outside a few times, and quickly stripped down to her undergarments before jumping into the pool.

The warmth flowed into her limbs and bones, making her feel so comfortable that she even squinted her eyes.

She couldn't help but recall the days years ago when she bathed in that enormous hot spring in Huichun Valley, being served by a group of maids... She sighed. She really needed to get rid of Su Chenche as soon as possible, return to Huichun Valley, and explain to her senior brother that she had only betrayed him once, not that there was some kind of irreconcilable feud. Although he frightened her now, running away wasn't the solution; she still had to go back to Huichun Valley and face him. Actually, her senior brother hadn't treated her badly in the past...

The senior brother was naturally sensitive to warmth, but she could only stay near the hot springs during the winter. The master forbade the senior brother to visit her during that time, but he still often climbed over the wall to see her.

"Silly junior sister, your senior brother won the snowball fight again today, but he took on ten opponents by himself!"

The girl sat by the hot spring, looking rather uninterested: "Oh."

The boy sat boneless beside her, one long leg almost reaching into the hot spring: "Could you give me a little more reaction? Like praising your brilliant and mighty senior brother? Or asking me how I won? You become this half-dead as soon as winter arrives... Hey, you have no idea how much snow fell outside, it was knee-high." He gestured exaggeratedly, looking very excited, "There were snowmen everywhere along the way, your senior brother made seven of them!"

"Tch." The girl sneezed. "It's just building a snowman, what's so great about it?"

The boy shook his head cheekily: "If you're so capable, why don't you build one yourself!"

The girl clenched her fist, then relaxed it, and said disdainfully, "...Childish!"

The boy rolled over and pinned her down, his fingers mercilessly pinching and squeezing the girl's cheeks. "Hmm? Who's childish? Who did you just call childish?!"

The girls were completely outmatched in terms of strength, so they could only tearfully and against their conscience say, "I'm naive, I'm naive, I'm the most naive of all."

"Haha, so good." The boy laughed and pinched her even more enthusiastically.

Finally free, the girl sat sadly in a more distant place, listless and exhausted.

The boy nudged her: "Are you not angry?"

The girl shifted her position and ignored him.

The boy took something out from behind him and placed it in front of her, his eyes gleaming with smugness: "Here, play with this. I went through so much trouble to hide it in my clothes and bring it in. I was almost freezing to death. You have no idea how troublesome it is to climb walls with this thing in your arms. Okay, give your senior brother a smile..."

The girl's profile shows a fist-sized snowball in her hand, already somewhat melted, but still snow-white, as pure as the sky.

She had seen snow many times, and had even almost died in it, but this was the first time she had ever felt that snow could be so lovely...

"Young master, young master... please slow down..."

The sudden sound brought her thoughts to an abrupt halt.

"I'm going to soak in a hot spring. You can serve me outside." Her voice was tinged with melancholy and loneliness.

"Yes, young master."

She only had time to grab the clothes before the footsteps were already close by. Shen Zhili took a step back and sank into the water.

Fortunately, the hot spring pool was filled with steam, so the person didn't notice. After a rustling sound of clothes being taken off, there was a splash in the water, indicating that the person had entered the pool.

Shen Zhili carefully held the clothes, not daring to make too much noise, and tiptoed to the side.

Just as they were about to climb to the pool wall, there was another sound of voices.

"You, you... My young master is inside, you can't go in..."

After a short, painful groan, the door was suddenly pushed open.

Shen Zhili held her breath, then painfully shrank back.

The person in the pool was clearly displeased and said, "This is my pool. What brings you in here at this time?"

The visitor said with some distress, "Could you please step out for a moment?"

Shen Zhili was even more distressed; she was about to burst.

The person in the pool suppressed his anger: "Why should I leave? You're the one who should leave! I've been here for as long as you've been here. Don't think that just because the Palace Master is tolerant and forgiving towards you, you can do whatever you want..."

The visitor seemed to be kindly reminding him, "If you don't leave soon, I'm afraid I'll have to throw you out... I think it's better if you leave on your own."

The person in the pool finally couldn't hold back any longer, and their soft, melodious voice turned completely gloomy: "I'm in a bad mood right now, get out!"

The man sighed, "I'll have to do it myself."

The person in the pool: "What are you doing... Don't come any closer! Or I'll report to the Palace Master..."

With a few splashes of water, Shen Zhili reached the limit of holding her breath and then suddenly popped her head out of the water.

The first thing that catches the eye is Su Chenche, still dressed in his peacock outfit, standing by the hot spring pool with innocent eyes, and he's holding someone in his hand...

Shen Zhili blinked hard to make sure her eyes weren't hallucinating.

But everything in front of me is still clear.

Su Chenche is still Su Chenche.

And the completely naked Young Master Xiaoye in Su Chenche's hands was still completely naked...

Shen Zhili asked blankly, "What are you doing?"

Su Chenche loosened his grip, silently staring at the ground, his hands behind his back: "I didn't do anything!"

Young Master Xiaoye fell to the ground, his long, black hair disheveled, his beautiful face blank with disbelief, as if he couldn't accept what had just happened.

Shen Zhili's eyes left Xiao Ye Gongzi's delicate collarbone, snow-white chest, slender waist, and lean thighs. She struggled to find her voice and asked Su Chenche in a trembling voice, "What...what do you plan to do?"

Su Chenche thought for a moment: "Let's silence them."

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Su Chenche looked around, seemingly with a headache, and said, "Zhili, my sword is not here, so I can only use something dull."

Then... he picked up a pair of fire tongs.

Shen Zhili rolled out of the hot spring and stretched out her arms to block Su Chenche: "Calm down...you don't necessarily have to kill someone!"

Su Chenche stared at her, his eyes darkening instantly.

Before Shen Zhili could react, Su Chenche had already taken off his outer robe and wrapped it around her head. Then, he put his arm under her armpits and gently placed the wrapped-up Shen Zhili to one side.

Shen Zhili struggled to sit up straight, and when she peeked out from her large outer robe, she saw Su Chenche pick up the fire tongs again... He even seemed to weigh them in his hand to see if they were comfortable.

Young Master Xiaoye seemed to only then come to his senses, frantically covering his private parts with his hands and retreating continuously.

"What...what are you going to do?"

Su Chenche smiled and took a step forward: "Aren't you going to put on your clothes?"

That smile was more terrifying than seeing a ghost to Young Master Xiaoye.

As if provoked, Young Master Xiaoye picked up his clothes from the ground and quickly covered his body. He took two steps back and forced himself to stand up, saying, "We have no grudges or hatred from the past. Why did you have to kill me? Leave now, and I can pretend that today's events never happened..."

Su Chenche maintained a dignified and upright expression: "I cannot pretend that this never happened."

You can't pretend nothing happened! I was the one who was completely exposed!

Young Master Xiaoye suppressed the urge to strangle Su Chenche: "Why can't you just pretend nothing happened?"

Su Chenche: "If a man were to seduce your sweetheart in front of her, wouldn't you be very angry?"

Young Master Xiaoye couldn't help but get angry: "What does that have to do with me? It's not like I wanted to..."

Shen Zhili's voice sounded softly behind him: "Um... Su Chenche, I've actually seen a lot of them, one more won't make a difference. If you want to kill them all, you probably won't be able to... Achoo..."

Su Chenche dropped the fire tongs and rushed over: "Zhili, are you cold?"

Shen Zhili: "A little... Achoo... It's so uncomfortable wearing wet clothes... Achoo..."

Su Chenche pondered for a moment, then took off his inner and outer garments and draped them over Shen Zhili: "Cover yourself with these for now, I'll go get you some clothes, I'll be right back!"

Shen Zhili sneezed again and looked at Su Chenche's naked upper body, which she had actually seen many times in Huichun Valley.

Not too thin, but not overly muscular either; broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs, smooth and clean lines—actually, his physique is just like a man's...quite...good...

Somewhat awkwardly turning her head away, Shen Zhili said, "Actually... you don't need to give me this." As she spoke, she stuffed the pure white undergarment into Su Chenche's hands.

Su Chenche didn't answer, his tone low as he asked, "Is it that bad?"

Shen Zhili commented calmly: "...He's quite healthy. I reckon he wouldn't die from a few cuts unless they were fatal... Achoo..."

Su Chenche: How does it compare to that old man over there?

Young Master Xiaoye retorted angrily, "I just turned twenty-two this year!"

Su Chenche slowly turned his head. Young Master Xiaoye leaned against the wall, covered his clothes, and remained silent.

Shen Zhili covered her lips with the back of her hand: "...Achoo achoo..."