Chapter 202

Chapter 202: I Don’t Like Hearing It

From a distance, Yu Ming Yu saw Yu Zhi Yi return, lift the sedan curtain, and step down with a proud look.

Yu Zhi Yi glanced at him and asked coldly: “Have your injuries healed?”

Yu Ming Yu snapped back: “You really do not know how to talk, do you? Ever heard that you should not point out someone’s flaws in public?” [Last time that jerk was ruthless. I lay in bed for seven days before I could even move.] Even now his wounds were not fully healed; he was only barely keeping up his manners. Otherwise he would not have stayed in the sedan this whole time.

Yu Zhi Yi could not be bothered. She went straight into Yiluan Charity.

Seeing her ignore him, Yu Ming Yu’s face darkened as he called out: “Ruan Jin Ning, where are your manners? Is this how you greet your second brother?”

Yu Zhi Yi’s tone was dry: “I think the person who hit you last time was still too gentle. He did not knock the water out of your head. The Yu Clan already cut ties with me, and it was your parents who brought it up. How are you my second brother?”

Yu Ming Yu laughed with scorn: “So you still care after all.” Then he lifted his chin, full of himself: “Here is your chance. Help me with one task, do as I say, and I will speak well of you to my parents so you can return to the Yu Clan.”

It was supposed to be a discussion, yet he made it sound like an order. Yu Zhi Yi frowned. She could not understand how someone so ordinary could be so confident.

She waved him off as she stepped into Yiluan Charity: “If you are sick, go get it treated. I cannot fix a broken brain.”

Yu Ming Yu’s handsome face turned stormy as he shouted after her: “Yu Zhi Yi, do not mistake courtesy for weakness!”

He had lowered himself and she still refused to give him face, even insulting him. How could his pride stand that?

Yu Zhi Yi halted and her face sank as she said in a chill voice: “Presumptuous. I am a fifth-rank official of the Ministry of Justice. What are you, to rant before me? According to the Sheng Code, a commoner who insults an Imperial Court official will at best be detained and at worst be caned and then detained. Yu Ming Yu, which one do you choose?”

Yu Ming Yu’s expression changed.

That Yu Zhi Yi was an Imperial Court official had never felt real to him, and not to the rest of the Yu Clan either. In their eyes, she was the unloved, low-born fake who had hardly learned a few characters. How could she be capable of anything?

Yet power now burst from her small figure, a pressure more frightening than the aura Yu Chun Yue used to give off. Only at this moment did Yu Ming Yu realize that the status he and his big brother had chased since childhood was something Yu Zhi Yi had won with ease. Whether he liked it or not, when he saw her he had to call her “Official Yu.”

But he would not accept it.

He forced a sneer and said: “So what if you are a Ministry of Justice official?” He had studied hard from youth and thought he was talented, but each time, right before the finish line, he failed to earn the licentiate title. Without that, he could not climb higher. So now, in his twenties, he was still only an examination candidate.

“I am your sec-” He tried to say the word brother, but his mouth froze. The word would not come out. His face turned to shock. [What is going on?] He stared at Yu Zhi Yi, and though he could not speak, his eyes asked the question: [Did you do this?]

Yu Zhi Yi looked at him coolly and said: “I already told you, I have nothing to do with your Yu Clan. If you keep forgetting and use that disgusting address and attitude with me, then you will not need to talk anymore.”

“Because I don’t like hearing it.”

Yu Ming Yu almost ground his teeth to pieces. At least he was now sure of one more thing: Yu Zhi Yi truly did not want any tie with them.

He took a long breath and nodded, meaning he would not call her that again. The instant he made that decision, his mouth worked again.

“You…” He frowned at Yu Zhi Yi and almost struck an older-brother pose, but the moment he met her icy eyes, he shut his mouth. [Forget it. If she will not recognize family, then forget it.] [Like I would even want to be her family.]

Putting his arrogance back on, he said stiffly: “I came by order of Consort Yu to bring you into the palace to share Her Highness’s worries.”

Yu Zhi Yi answered, calm and flat: “Not going.”

Even though his parents had warned him she would not obey, Yu Ming Yu still flinched. He scowled and demanded: “Do you know what you are saying? That is Consort Yu!”

Yu Zhi Yi let out a short laugh: “I know she is Consort Yu. She is only Consort Yu, not Her Majesty the Empress, and certainly not His Majesty.”

“As an Imperial Court official, I answer only to His Majesty. No one else has the right to order me. As an examination candidate, you do understand that, right?”

Yu Ming Yu winced. [That stung.] He tried to puff up anyway: “So what if I am an examination candidate? I earned that myself, unlike some people…” He suddenly shivered and stopped. Pressing his lips tight, he snorted and forced himself back on topic: “If you help Consort Yu get what she wants, then the debt from three years ago, when I saved you, is wiped clean. Otherwise, you will owe me a life forever.”

He looked at her with mocking eyes: “A fifth-rank official like you would not want to owe someone a life, right? People like you do not like to carry karmic debts, right?”

Yu Zhi Yi lifted a brow: “Three years ago? A life-saving grace?”

Yu Ming Yu’s smile turned cutting: “What, you want to deny it?” He remembered walking past the lotus pond at Yu Manor and finding Yu Zhi Yi in the water. Though he hated the fake who had stolen ten years of his sister’s happy life, it was still a life, so he had jumped in without thinking and pulled her out. He had fallen sick for seven days afterward. Even if she had visited every day to fuss over him and bring soup and medicine, those small things could not wipe out a life-saving grace. Later she refused to admit it and kept warning him not to stalk her. Him, stalking her? A joke. He felt stabbed in the back, like he had saved a scheming, ungrateful person. She knew he disliked her, yet she kept showing up while he was weak, and she would not even let his precious sister come near. If he had not been too weak to get out of bed, he would have taught her a lesson. From then on, he hated her even more. “Whether you admit it or not, I saved you. That is a fact.”

Yu Zhi Yi gave a soft, scornful laugh: “Yu Ming Yu, no one can beat you at fooling yourself.” Before he could speak again, she raised her hand and drew a talismanic seal in a swift arc.