Wounded Pride

Fully defeated, Yin Haoyu looked up at Liao Yaozu, expecting him to be appeased, but instead his frown just got deeper. What had Tian Guanting said that had set the crown prince off? Was the punishment perhaps not severe enough?

"Back to where?" Liao Yaozu asked.

Tian Guanting blinked, once, twice. "Jiuxing-jun, the Tian sect, of course."

"Why?"

The full force of Liao Yaozu's gaze was now on Tian Guanting, who's voice trembled as he said, "Because he must be punished."

"He can be punished here just as well."

The confused frown on Tian Guanting's face would have been funny, if Yin Haoyu were not completely dumbfounded himself. Liao Yaozu would not throw him out. Why not? Why would the Liao sect keep a guest disciple that roamed around their grounds at night and was up to no good?

"Jiuxing-jun won't throw him out of the Liao sect?" Tian Guanting said as he threw Yin Haoyu a mistrustful gaze.

Did Tian Guanting really think he had something to do with this weird turn of events? Not that he was complaining, it just did not make sense.

"No, this is his first offense. Everyone deserves a second chance," Liao Yaozu said. "Have you never read Liao-loazu's book on the Liao sect's principles? It is clearly stated there." The tone of his voice indicated severe disappointed in Tian Guanting.

The words had delivered a devastating blow for Tian Guanting's pride. The clenching of his teeth was indication enough. "Excuse this one for his lack of knowledge," he said, quickly scrambling with words in an attempt to make everything right again. "I'll be sure to correct my ignorance."

For once, it was not Yin Haoyu that was making all these faux passes, so he found it strangely cathartic to witness Tian Guanting failing at every sentence he tried. Yin Haoyu did not know these principles either, he did not know how the crown prince should be addressed either, but no one besides himself needed to be aware of that.

"You still have not greeted the elders yet, have you?" Liao Yaozu asked.

"Ah no! We were planning to do that first thing in the morning! Tian sect would not dare to neglect such an important duty. Jiuxing-jun has to believe that."

Liao Yaozu did not seem impressed. "Then you should do that. It is already late in the morning."

If Yin Haoyu had any other purpose in this situation than lying on the ground in apparent repentance, and it were not the crown prince himself who had uttered those words, he would have argued that this was not late, at all. The sun had only been up for a shichen. If he had the luxury, he would still be sleeping for another shichen.

"Of course, Jiuxing-jun!"

Then Tian Guanting started stomping on the doors of the other four rooms one by one, calling out to the other disciples to make themselves highly presentable, but that time was of the essence.

Meanwhile, Liao Yaozu just stood there in the middle of the courtyard, with Yin Haoyu before him on his knees. The hard stone beneath him started to get uncomfortable, so he shuffled his legs a bit to get more comfortable. Unfortunately, Liao Yaozu was very observant and looked down at him the instant he moved.

"I'll give you your punishment after the elders are greeted," Liao Yaozu said. "Thus, you don't have to kneel for now."

A bit apprehensive, Yin Haoyu pushed himself up slowly, giving the crown prince enough opportunities to change his mind. A small part of him rather wanted to kneel a bit longer, because from experience when a punishment was pushed back, it meant that he would get a worse one later. He preferred immediate, but a more temperate punishment over a horrible one later.

Now standing before Liao Yaozu, the weight of his gaze fully upon him, Yin Haoyu wished again that he was back on the ground and could evade those eyes. When that gaze dipped, Yin Haoyu was reminded what a mess he was, and he grasped with both hands at the opportunity this presented. "Jiuxing-jun, this disciple is not proper enough to meet the elders. Please allow this one to fix this issue."

His disheveled state made Liao Yaozu avert his gaze again. Huh. That icy glare of his seemed a rather potent weapon, if Yin Haoyu walked around looking far from proper, could his life get easier? He quickly discarded the absurd idea. Before anything of the sort would work out, he would be reprimanded a thousandth time by both his own sect and the Liao sect.

"Yin Huan," Liao Yaozu said, focusing on a flower bed in the corner of the courtyard. "Please do."

Yin Haoyu gasped. Had the crown prince just called him by his birth name? Yin Haoyu swept his gaze around the courtyard in case he had somehow hallucinated Tian Guanting's voice as that from the crown prince, but Tian Guanting was still knocking on one of the rooms in the far corner. No, the only possible option was the crown prince.

The crown prince in question just frowned when Yin Haoyu did not move, and Yin Haoyu soon realized that Liao Yaozu himself had not realized what he had done. From all the rumors he heard about the prince, one thing always stayed consistent. The crown prince was a respectful man. So, he would never be this rude. That could only mean one thing: Liao Yaozu thought that this was his courtesy name. With Tian Guanting's tendency to call him by his birth name to annoy him, it would not surprise him if Tian Guanting had not once mentioned his courtesy name to Liao Yaozu.

Nowhere in his body was there enough courage to bring the mistake up to the crown prince, so he quickly bowed and hurried off. Since he did not know how Liao Yaozu would react when he found out, he did not want to be anywhere close to the crown prince. Hopefully that moment would just not take place.

-~-

After greeting the elders, Liao Yaozu threw another "follow me" his way, so Yin Haoyu split off from his group and hurried after him.

The greeting itself had gone wonderfully, no one had mentioned his mishap from that night and none of the elders were interested in his name, so a catastrophe with the crown prince had also been avoided. They only asked Tian Guanting some questions, and the sect heir was more than happy to oblige.

Now, he had another problem. He did not know yet how big the problem was, but he was sure it would be bad. Trespassing onto the inner Liao sect grounds was no small offence.

Finally, they stopped in front of a building and Yin Haoyu could proudly say that he only hesitated for a moment before he followed Liao Yaozu inside. Mentally prepared to enter a room fitted with all types of whips, he tripped over his own feet when he only discovered books. That was a weird thing to hit disciples with.

The only punishment that he could think off that happened inside a library was copying lines, but surely, that was not all? Maybe the Liao sect combined physical punishments with mental, to totally exhaust a disciple into never doing it again. Even though he was the one who would suffer, he was morbidly curious at what it could be.

Liao Yaozu walked towards one of the shelves and pick up a book. "Earlier I mentioned Liao-loazu's book." He turned around and walked towards him. When he was close, Yin Haoyu could read the title of the book. Esteemed principles of the Liao sect.

"I believe this book can give you great insight into your behavior of tonight," Liao Yaozu went on. "I want you to find the most appropriate passages related to your actions and copy them a hundred times."

Wait, that was it? No physical punishment that would make him remember his mistakes for weeks? But Liao Yaozu fell silent, so Yin Haoyu tentatively asked, "Jiuxing-jun, what else is there to my punishment?"

First, a subtle frown appeared on his face, before that one vanished when he nodded. "Ah, yes, at your sect you often get a time frame."

Oh. Oh no. It was indeed true that his sect often gave him time frames to finish his punishments in, but that was more of a curse than the crown prince could know. He rather wanted a physical punishment, because-

"Finish it in four days, but when you have found the appropriate passages, verify them first with me. There's no use in copying lines that do not apply. Knowing them is enough."

Yin Haoyu waited for it, waited for the message, but none came. He sighed in relief. His father was not there, he had not heard. All would be well.

Then he graciously accepted the book and bowed deeply as Liao Yaozu left. He sat down at one of the tables and started his punishment. When his father arrived not much later, Yin Haoyu informed him of his punishment, but wisely kept the information of the time frame to himself.

However, his plan did not take into account one major factor, and that was Tian Guanting's tendency to gloat. When the Tian sect heir entered the library and ruined the peace, he had to open his big mouth and taunt him. All would be well, if he did not also mention his four days' time frame.

His heart sank as the words left Tian Guanting's mouth.

[A time limit? A-Huan, you did not tell me anything about this!]

[[Your father has given you a task. Finish the punishment in one day. If you succeed, you gain 50 G-Points. If you fail, you lose 250 G-Points. You now have 220 G-Points.]]

Great. Just great. His dad always felt the need to outdo anyone when it came to time limits. Somehow, his dad had convinced himself that others underestimated Yin Haoyu. He was offended when the time limits seemed too long, and then gave him a task to do it in way less time. Even if the time limit was reasonable, his dad believed he could do much better and shortened the time frame considerably. Worst of all, the tasks most of the time did not give him many G-Points, but he could lose many points if he failed.

Now was no different. Now he was in trouble because Tian Guanting decided to taunt him because he had lost face with the crown prince. Now he had another task that he had no choice but to finish. Sometimes he did like these kind of tasks, because it gave him an opportunity to gain points without harming anyone, but this one was not reasonable. Four days was reasonable, it was a big punishment. One day was not.

Yin Haoyu massaged his temples as he ignored Tian Guanting and picked up his reading speed. It was going to be a long day.