First Reversal

Pulling open the door, or rather lifting the door and setting it aside again, revealed an entire group of people, with two standing in front, leading the others.

"There you are, how dare you keep us waiting!", the young girl in front immediately scolded with a sharp tongue, her arms on her hips.

"Exactly, how come you are so fast when running away but when it comes to greeting us you always dally like a three-legged tortoise! Our time is precious, you should feel honored we still care to drop by after what you did, half-blood!", the slightly older boy added, glaring at Lei Mingxing.

Lei Mingxing stared back at her younger siblings who were just as bossy as always, especially her younger brother, Lei Haoran.

"What? Why aren't you greeting us?! Have you lost all your manners when you mingled with the dirty commoners? Although looking at you now, you must have felt quite at home haha...", Lei Haoran continued viciously, prompting the servants behind him to laugh.

Even Lei Meixiu, Lei Mingxing's youngest sister, giggled ever so sweetly, as always perfectly embodying the innocent and cute little princess if you disregarded the comment she was laughing about.

But Lei Mingxing was unfazed.

These minor insults and teasings have long lost their impact, in a way, they were almost cute in how helplessly clumsy they were. Still, Lei Mingxing wasn't intentionally looking to provoke her siblings, so in the end, she opened her mouth.

"Greetings, Fifth Brother, Sixth Sister."

Lei Mingxing bowed her head slightly in greeting, but her expression remained unbothered no matter how much the group before her laughed. Instead, it was Lei Meixiu's face that turned unsatisfied and she stopped giggling, pointing accusingly at Lei Mingxing while turning to Lei Haoran.

"Look how arrogant she has become, Fifth Brother! Only because she stayed with peasants for a bit."

Lei Haoran had also stopped laughing and nodded with a dark expression on his face.

"Yes, but even among chickens, a stork will ever only be a stork, unable to turn into a phoenix," Lei Haoran said with a mocking smile directed at his older sister, but when he realized that these words also didn't seem to do anything to her as she only languidly stared at them. Anger rose inside his heart and his neck became slightly flushed, "We should show her where her place is."

With that conclusion, Lei Haoran turned around to the servants behind him.

"Yes, Fifth Brother! That's a great idea!", Lei Meixiu cheered enthusiastically while clapping a few times, smiling sweetly.

When Lei Haoran faced Lei Mingxing again, a slender brown leather whip had appeared in his hands and Lei Mingxing immediately knew what they were up to. It was the same old spiel between them they had played from the moment her siblings had turned old enough to realize bullying her was alright and they wouldn't get punished no matter what they did to her.

But one thing had changed, the Lei Mingxing in front of them wasn't the same as in the past.

And looking at the whip, Lei Mingxing's breathing hitched up slightly, the thought that Xia Beilian and his father were all too close now painfully burning inside her mind as her eyes widened, unblinkingly staring at the weapon in front of her.

Her change in expression didn't go unnoticed and a smile began to climb on Lei Haoran's face. He quickly uncoiled the whip and let the tail fall into the high grass that reached up to the middle of his thigh.

"Make her kneel and hold her down with her back toward me!", he commanded the maids behind him, who quickly followed, rushing forward, trampling down the grass as they went to grab Lei Mingxing's arms.

Lei Mingxing moved to evade them and wanted to retreat into the building behind her but without her cultivation, the first maid soon caught up with her. After the first, the second and third soon followed until five maids were hanging on her and arduously pushing her down, forcing her to kneel.

Lei Mingxing had a hateful expression on her face, glaring at the maids pressing her down, still struggling to get up, her muscles trembling, but no matter how hard she tried or intimidating her gaze, the maids just evaded their eyes and continued to hold her down with their entire weight.

Leaving Lei Mingxing no choice but to turn her head and stare up at her two siblings with more anger.

But her siblings weren't intimidated in the slightest, as a matter of fact, they seemed to enjoy the situation quite a lot, both grinning in satisfaction, although Lei Meixiu tried her best to hide it behind her long pink sleeve.

Gritting her teeth, Lei Mingxing watched as Lei Haoran stepped forward, deliberately loosening the muscles in his arm with a few shakes and causing the whip to let out a few loud bone-chilling 'Bangs!'. Lei Meixiu began to giggle softly once more looking at Lei Mingxing, her eyes shining with anticipation.

Seeing this, a chill gripped Lei Mingxing's still anxiously beating heart, helping her calm down to some extent.

From the very beginning, it wasn't the pain she was afraid of, it was the possibility of being discovered, but thinking about it more, getting agitated probably wouldn't help prevent her from accidentally activating her physique, so Lei Mingxing instead opted for taking deep breaths, look at the blades of grass in front of her, counting them in an attempt to distract herself, although it didn't work.

She could hear Lei Haoran coming to a halt a few meters behind her and it made her unconsciously shift her gaze, interrupting her counting.

Straining her neck to look behind, she watched as Lei Haoran quickly raised his hand to let down the first strike, his honest-looking face twisted in a sadistic smile and with a short flick of his wrist, the leather tail of the whip flew towards Lei Mingxing.

The wind stirred by the whip's movement rushed at her body, brushing against her right arm and causing the hairs to stand up. Her pupils constricted at the sensation and almost instinctively, Lei Mingxing yanked her arm up and spread out her hand.

In the split second of the leather meeting the palm of her hand, Lei Mingxing closed her fist around the leather, stopping the strike that had been aimed at the entire length of her back as the whip curled around her hand.

It was painful but instead of letting go, Lei Mingxing grabbed the whip even tighter and used the opportunity where the maids had subconsciously loosened their hold, in fear of being struck themselves, to jump up from the ground with all her strength, pushing away the maids in the process.

Finally standing again, Lei Mingxing spun around and grabbed the whip with her other hand as well before giving it the strongest yank she could muster.

This caused Lei Haoran to stumble towards her, his eyes widened in fright and the sadistic smile was replaced by an expression of surprise.

In the end, he knocked against Lei Mingxing's chest, almost falling to the ground as he let go of the whip, but before he planted face first in the trampled grass, a hand wrapped painfully tight around his upper arm and pulled him up, so he remained awkwardly standing on his tiptoes, with his face mere centimeters away from Lei Mingxing's.

His older sister's face was mostly expressionless, but nonetheless, Lei Haoran couldn't help staring directly into her strange, dark eyes and feel unimaginable fear well up inside him. He wanted to scream but just couldn't when looking into Lei Mingxing's eyes.

"Don't ever bother me again, understand?", Lei Mingxing said quietly, not breaking eye contact even once.

Although, there was no discernable anger or threat in her voice as she spoke, Lei Mingxing's words still shook Lei Haoran to his very core and a trickle of something wet went down his inner thigh. Before he could nod, Lei Mingxing pushed him away and let go of his arm. He stumbled back a few meters before knocking against the screaming Lei Meixiu, his face as white as snow.

Realizing he was free from Lei Mingxing's iron grip, Lei Haoran turned on his heel, and not caring the slightest about his servants and Lei Meixiu he began to run out of the courtyard, abandoning any sense of nobility as he rushed by the two guards that were making their way inside.

With Lei Haoran gone, so was Lei Meixiu's courage, especially after having witnessed Lei Mingxing's ruthless appearance, so she also spun around and scrambled out of the front yard, still shrieking, her maids close behind just as unnerved as their master. Lei Haoran's maids also fled the moment they got up from the ground and realized Lei Haoran was gone, unwilling to spend even a second longer with Lei Mingxing.

In the end, only Lei Mingxing remained in the front yard, whip still in hand, as well as two confused guards.

Small Theater:

Earlier:

Lei Meixiu: Fifth Brother, let's go bully Second Sister now that she is back, Geography class is boring anyway!

Lei Haoran: Great idea, Sixth Sister! That way we can unwind a bit before returning to class. Because nothing bad ever happened when we did it in the past!