"You scared me to death," he laughed. "Seeing you like this, I'm relieved."

"..." Shen Mengzhi said, "Hurry up and take Xue Qin to stop the bleeding."

"Oh, oh." Only then did Qi Yu react. Song Sifan had already helped Xue Qin up and said irritably, "Come and help me. Let's take him to my place, I have medicine to stop the bleeding."

The two of them supported the dizzy Xue Qin and limped away. Shen Mengzhi stood where he was, watching their figures disappear around the corner before slowly letting the faint smile on his lips fade.

He leaned gently against the wall and closed his eyes.

Once it was quiet, the untimely voices in his mind could no longer be suppressed. Word by word, they were like bone-melting nails, driving inch by inch into his cold spine, the pain making him want to double over.

'These three lashes are, first, for your disregard of the family rules and for going out without permission.'

'Second, for the Shen Family, who were implicated because of you.'

'Third, for Jiang Zhen, who died because of you.'

'Because of your selfish desires, because of your so-called curiosity, you caused someone who shouldn't have died to die in vain. What right do you have to live on?'

'My Shen Family does not keep frivolous, dissolute, and duplicitous people!'

...

Shen Mengzhi let out a heavy sigh.

He glanced at the birdcage that Qi Yu and the others had handed over, not far away. The blue-headed parrot inside was staring at him without blinking.

Shen Mengzhi walked over, picked up the cage, and muttered to himself, "I still have to return you to your lawless, frivolous, and dissolute master."

The parrot stared at him and chirped.

Xuan Study wasn't far from here. When Shen Mengzhi arrived, the courtyard gate was wide open, allowing anyone to enter. It didn't look like a place of confinement at all.

Shen Mengzhi composed himself and walked over and knocked on his room door.

"Come in," a lazy voice answered from inside.

Hearing this, Shen Mengzhi pushed the door open and looked inside. Chu Jin was sitting on the floor, a wolf-hair brush held between his lips, holding two wide-open books. There were couches and desks in the room, but he chose not to use them, sitting instead in the empty space in front of the bookshelf. His black hair cascaded to the floor, his posture casual, the very picture of indolence.

Hearing the door open, he lifted his eyelids and cast a glance over. Seeing who it was, he seemed slightly surprised. "A rare guest."

Shen Mengzhi placed the birdcage on his desk. "Not a guest. I just came to deliver something."

Chu Jin glanced at the parrot in the cage and smiled. "So, you caught Qi Yu and the others?"

"Hmm..." He mused for a moment. "So they've fallen to my level. Senior Brother is mighty, I am impressed."

Shen Mengzhi said coolly, "If you hadn't lent it to them, this wouldn't have happened."

Chu Jin laughed again. "You can't blame me. They liked it, found it novel, how could I refuse? It's just curiosity, a perfectly normal human feeling."

Shen Mengzhi's eyelashes trembled. A thousand different flavors mixed in his heart, a bitterness that reached his core.

He tried his best to maintain a calm expression. He had intended to turn and leave, but his feet seemed rooted to the spot. Taking a deep breath, he asked in a daze, "What if that curiosity leads to irreversible consequences?"

He had once broken his father's rules to satisfy a ridiculous, selfish desire, ultimately implicating another's life, receiving three lashes, and being stripped of his name. From then on, he had sealed his heart and desires, adhering strictly to the rules, becoming the emotionless and desireless person others saw.

But in the dead of night, in his dreams, his heart was often filled with melancholy, lost and bewildered.

...What should I do?

Hearing his question, Chu Jin propped up his cheek and looked at him rather seriously.

"The seven emotions are innocent, the six desires are not a crime." His voice was unusually gentle, his smile deep, but this time it held no other meaning. "Human emotions and desires are all born of nature. The actions that result from these emotions and desires are the cause and effect of everything."

"If it is truly as you say, then what should be punished is not the curious heart, but the actions that followed."

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener took it to heart. Shen Mengzhi stared at him blankly, speechless for a long time.

It was strange. It was a knot that had been tied in his heart for years, yet with just a few words from one person, his long-standing bewilderment was so easily dispelled.

Chu Jin raised an eyebrow, amused. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's nothing." Shen Mengzhi came back to his senses and turned his head away.

His heart was pounding like a drum. The relief and exhaustion that came with his sudden epiphany washed over him all at once. For a moment, his thoughts were a tangled mess, and he found it difficult to calm down.

After a while, he couldn't help but ask, "So you think... I didn't punish them wrongly?"

With rare patience, Chu Jin answered clearly and concisely, "Of course not."

"It wasn't wrong for Brother Qi and the others to feel curious. However, after their curiosity was piqued, it was wrong of them to secretly raise a bird in defiance of the rules. Isn't that why you punished them?"

He was smiling, his voice could be described as deep, but to Shen Mengzhi's ears, it was like a stone that stirred a thousand waves. "Jiang Zhen, you clearly have your own set of principles for judging right and wrong. Why are you wavering now?"

Shen Mengzhi met his eyes. His fingertips trembled, and he hastily averted his gaze.

Chu Jin watched him with great interest, finding his state of unease a rare sight, like a corner of an iceberg melting, a flaw in a perfect piece of jade. He was about to tease him when he heard Shen Mengzhi say in a low voice, "If you understand right and wrong so clearly, why do you break the rules time and time again?"

Chu Jin had been careless and fallen into his own trap. "..."

He froze for a second, then smiled ambiguously. "If I said it was to get your attention, would you believe me?"

Shen Mengzhi gave him a deep look but didn't say whether he believed him or not.

He was silent for a moment before tossing out, "I'm leaving."

Chu Jin watched him leave and said lazily, "Leaving just like that means you don't believe me... Alas."

He walked to the birdcage, examined it carefully, then casually picked up a few grains and put them in the cage, teasing the bird distractedly. "Let me see, what have Qi Yu and the others taught you?"

The blue-headed parrot tilted its head at him, then suddenly flapped its wings and started shouting nonstop, "Lawless! Frivolous and dissolute! Lawless! Frivolous and dissolute!"

Chu Jin: "...?"

He moved like lightning, clamping the parrot's endlessly squawking beak shut. He sounded both amused and resigned. "Really now..."

In a moment of carelessness, he'd gotten himself thoroughly berated.