Double Standards

‘Actually… that Senior Xun Xue could definitely protect Senior Brother, right?’

Gan Tang grumbled in her heart, but she didn’t dare say it out loud and court disaster.

She could only force herself to endure the piercing pain and burning swelling in her palm, choking out with a thick, tearful voice, “Master, this disciple really knows she was wrong.
I won’t dare to do it again.”

“There’s a next time?”

Xuan Ya raised an eyebrow, and the handle of the cold jade horsetail whisk instantly flipped.
“Smack, smack, smack!” Three more crisp strikes.

“Wuu…”

The corners of Gan Tang’s mouth drooped, and tears swirled wildly in her eyes.
She complained with a sob, “Master is biased.
Why did you only hit Senior Brother once, but you’ve hit me so many times?”

“Heh…”

Hearing this, Xuan Ya laughed in anger.
She said coldly, “You still dare to talk back? It seems I didn’t hit you enough just now.”

Just as her voice fell.

“Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!” Five more heavy thuds, precisely overlapping on Gan Tang’s red and burning palm.

“Wuu—”

Gan Tang let out a cry of pain and didn’t dare to speak again.
She felt like her hand was no longer her own.

Xuan Ya released her grip and turned her gaze to Lu Qiancha, who was trembling like a frightened bird at the side.

The small body was huddled, its large, deep blue eyes filled with moisture, desperately protecting the swollen right paw with its uninjured one.

“Wuu~ M-Master…”

Lu Qiancha’s trembling voice, thick with a sob, sounded timidly: “D-Disciple… c-can I… apply some medicinal ointment first…?”

Her voice was so fragile it seemed as if it would shatter in the next second.

“Mm, go ahead and apply it.”

Xuan Ya’s voice softened imperceptibly.
Looking at the pitiful little creature in front of her, a sense of guilt inexplicably arose in her heart.

‘This reaction is too delicate, isn’t it?’

She pursed her lips and added:

“If it’s inconvenient… this master can do it for you.”

“Wuu… t-thank you, Master.”

Lu Qiancha, like a startled fawn, tremblingly reached into her storage pouch with her paw and took out a bottle of crimson instant healing potion.
She clumsily tried to twist open the stopper.

Xuan Ya’s gaze flickered, and she suddenly reached out—taking the potion bottle with extreme naturalness.

With a soft “pop,” the stopper was twisted open.

She looked at the little wolf cub and asked concisely, “Oral or topical?”

“Ying~ T-topical.”

Lu Qiancha’s voice was filled with soft sobs.

Xuan Ya nodded, tilted her fingertip slightly, and the blood-red medicinal liquid was precisely poured onto Lu Qiancha’s injured pad.

“Hiss—” Lu Qiancha instinctively sucked in a breath.
A bone-chillingly cold sensation, like a cold spring, instantly covered her palm.

The raging, burning pain, as if wrapped in a gentle ice gauze, receded rapidly.
The swelling also subsided.

In a few breaths, the little paw had already recovered, pink and clean, as if it had never been injured.

Lu Qiancha quietly withdrew her paw, straightened her still slightly trembling little body, and stood drooping her head at the side, as obedient as a quail.

“Hiss…” Gan Tang looked at her senior brother’s recovered paw with longing, then at her own swollen and burning right hand…

She was so envious her eyes turned green.
She clutched her hand and sidled over: “Master… this disciple also wants to apply some medicine.
It hurts too much…”

Xuan Ya didn’t even lift her eyelids, her voice flat and emotionless: “Endure it.”

She glanced at Gan Tang’s swollen palm, her tone adding without a ripple, “You won’t die.”

“Ah??”

Gan Tang was completely dumbfounded, the indignation in her heart almost bursting out.
But she bit her lip hard and didn’t dare to say another word.
If she was hit again, this hand would probably be truly crippled.

“Eat.”

Xuan Ya flicked her wide sleeve, leaving only two words.

“Yes, Master.”

“Hiss… okay, okay, Master.”

The two of them sat back down at the stone table.

Since her identity had been exposed, Lu Qiancha no longer bothered to maintain her disguise.

She held her small bowl tightly with one paw and skillfully wielded the smooth wooden spoon with the other.

She launched a fierce attack on the food, mouthful after mouthful.

Gan Tang, on the other hand, sat stiffly in her chair.
Never mind holding chopsticks, even moving her right hand made her grimace in pain.

She could only sit there dumbly, smelling the aroma of the food, tears almost falling into her bowl.

‘Hungry, and wronged!’

As Lu Qiancha was eating, her peripheral vision caught sight of the pitiful, starving-looking pink-haired junior sister beside her.

Her heart softened.

Lu Qiancha discreetly pushed her own small bowl slightly to the side.

Her paw quietly passed a bottle of slightly cool potion under the table.

Gan Tang’s whole body trembled.
She felt the cool bottle and looked at her senior brother with a gaze that instantly turned to tearful gratitude.

She quickly caught it and, while Xuan Ya was looking down to drink, quickly poured a little into her palm and rubbed it in.

A familiar cool sensation instantly spread, and the terrible swelling and pain receded rapidly.

“Phew…”

‘I’m alive.’ Gan Tang patted her chest in relief.

“Hmm?”

Xuan Ya noticed the two’s small movements and suddenly raised her eyes.

The snow-white bristles of the horsetail whisk in her palm silently drew a cold light.
The bottle of potion in Gan Tang’s hand, with only a small half left, “whoosh!”—as if pulled by an invisible thread, flew straight into Xuan Ya’s fair palm.

The air instantly froze.

Xuan Ya played with the small crimson bottle between her fingers, her gaze like two ice picks, sweeping over Lu Qiancha’s ears, which were so guilty they were almost buried in her bowl, and then slowly moved to Gan Tang’s stiff face, which screamed, “Oh no! I’ve been caught!”

“Qiancha,” Xuan Ya’s voice was so calm it made one’s hair stand on end, “come with this master.”

“Master!” Gan Tang’s heart seized, and she jumped up with a “thump.”

She unhesitatingly stepped forward and stood in front of Lu Qiancha, her voice loud and resolute, as if she were facing death: “It-it was me who threatened senior brother to secretly give me the medicine.
If you’re going to punish someone, punish me!”

Xuan Ya didn’t even bother to lift an eyebrow, her gaze still fixed on Lu Qiancha, who was trying to shrink herself into a small ball: “Alright.”

Xuan Ya’s voice was cold, “Then your punishment will be at the grass hut on the mountainside.” She paused, her tone hardening: “Grounded for three months.”

Then, ignoring Gan Tang’s instantly collapsed face and tearful expression, she flicked her sleeve and, without allowing for any argument, took Lu Qiancha’s already recovered, warm and soft little paw.

In the north wind, she walked towards the quiet north wing.

The door closed softly.

Xuan Ya sat upright at the table by the window.

Lu Qiancha, like a criminal awaiting judgment, lowered her little head and, with a sense of tragic resignation, slowly extended her two small paws.

Palms up.

The fluffy, deep blue, large tail behind her swept back and forth restlessly on the ground, kicking up fine dust.

“Scared?”

Xuan Ya’s gaze fell on the pair of slightly trembling little paws, her voice betraying neither joy nor anger.

“Mm…”

The little wolf cub replied in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz and nodded her little head.

‘It would be a lie to say I’m not scared.
Master’s strikes are really harsh.
When that horsetail whisk handle came down, it hurt so much I almost couldn’t tell which way was up.’

“Sit.”

Xuan Ya withdrew her scrutinizing gaze, and the horsetail whisk lightly tapped the wooden chair beside her, her voice tinged with a hint of gentleness: “…This master did not summon you here to be beaten.”

Lu Qiancha, as if hearing a pardon, quickly sat down, her hands folded obediently on her knees, her back ramrod straight.
Her blue eyes stared unblinkingly at the tip of her nose.