“Slap!”
Xie Jinning was stunned by the hit, his lips parted in shock, momentarily forgetting to struggle. It wasn’t until the sharp, burning pain on his backside erupted that he snapped back to reality.
He had actually been spanked!
Even his parents had never disciplined him like this!
“How dare you hit me!” Xie Jinning was both embarrassed and furious, flailing his limbs and struggling desperately on Yan Yi’s knee.
But the man’s strength was several times greater than that of the detestable coachman. His arms were like iron clamps, holding Xie Jinning tightly in place.
Xie Jinning was like prey pinned under the claws of a fierce beast, forced to turn his head and glare at him with eyes red with anger, wishing he could turn into a blade and stab a thousand holes into him.
“Let go of me, let go, you country bumpkin, how dare you hit me, huh!”
Yan Yi, overwhelmed by the fragrance, paused in his breath but showed no mercy, delivering another slap.
With a crisp “slap,” the snow-white skin rippled and quivered, and through the thin silk, the area hit was faintly visible, blushing like the morning glow.
“Wasting food is wrong and deserves punishment.”
Yan Yi, accustomed to hard labor, had calloused palms that could be felt even through the fabric. Not only was his backside marked, but his slender waist was likely imprinted with his grip.
The pampered young master, with his delicate skin and tender flesh, had never been subjected to such a humiliating and torturous offense. The most severe punishment he had ever received was a light tap on the palm with a ruler.
The heated palm felt like a red-hot iron branding his soft flesh, causing Xie Jinning to arch his back in pain, his eyes turning red, his backside swelling and numbing.
All the blood in his body rushed to his head, and the humiliation and shame instantly shattered his rationality. He stubbornly retorted, his voice trembling with a nasal tone, “What did I say wrong? Those things at my house, even the dogs wouldn’t eat them, huh!”
Another slap followed.
“Do you not know that every grain is hard-earned? Now that you’re back, you should realize you’re no longer the precious young master of the Xie family and should adjust your mindset to adapt.”
As the boy struggled, his black hair scattered, revealing a section of his snow-white neck. Yan Yi’s eyes deepened: “Since you don’t know the value of food, I’ll educate you on behalf of your parents until you understand.”
After three slaps, Xie Jinning’s backside was already a bright red. He was sweating from the pain, his undergarments clinging tightly to his involuntarily twitching flesh, with faint red and swollen finger marks visible.
He bit his lower lip hard to suppress the cries of pain in his throat, his breathing rapid but refusing to admit defeat. The pent-up frustration was trapped in his chest, crashing around and making him extremely uncomfortable.
Tears welled up in his eyes, on the verge of falling, but he stubbornly refused to blink, holding them back.
Xie Jinning’s stubbornness flared up again, as if shedding tears and admitting his mistake would wash away the marks imprinted on him for sixteen years.
“What right do you have to teach me?” Xie Jinning shouted hoarsely, “I don’t need you to care, get lost!”
“Uncle Xie has been kind to me. He’s not home, so I have the duty to look after the Xie family.”
Yan Yi said, “As Uncle Xie’s biological son, you made the mistake first. I’m a few years older than you, so it’s only right for me to teach you some lessons. If you’re unhappy, I’ll explain and apologize to Uncle Xie when he returns.”
His words were reasonable and logical. After speaking, he pressed down on the boy’s constantly twisting waist and raised his hand to slap again.
Poor Xie Jinning, with an empty stomach and no food, was already weak. Despite his best efforts, he was like a mayfly shaking a tree, especially as his body gradually weakened and trembled from the pain, his flailing arms as light as a cat’s paw scratching an itch.
Every time Yan Yi hit, he asked if Xie Jinning realized his mistake, but his thoughts inevitably wandered a bit.
The boy on his knee was lighter than he had imagined, with well-proportioned bones and muscles, a slender waist, and long limbs. The touch under his palm was soft and bouncy, perhaps because the extra flesh was all on his hips and legs.
The force gradually softened, but the initial three slaps were so powerful that the pain-stricken Xie Jinning didn’t notice, only feeling the burning heat.
At first, Xie Jinning gritted his teeth, refusing to admit his mistake, cursing Yan Yi for meddling, calling him a country bumpkin. He hadn’t learned many curse words, repeating the same few phrases with no real harm.
Until the pain gradually turned into numbness, occupying all his senses, for a moment, he couldn’t feel anything behind him, as if it had become a piece of dead flesh.
He was suddenly filled with terror, crying out with a sobbing voice, “No… don’t hit me anymore!”
But he only heard the cold voice above him.
“So, do you realize your mistake?”
Mistake, mistake, what mistake did he make?!
Was it his mistake to take Xie Zhu’s identity? Was it wrong to think Xie Zhu was an illegitimate child and want to drive him out? Was it wrong to want to escape to avoid being sent back to suffer?
The grievances pent up for days fermented, and the taut string in Xie Jinning’s heart snapped, making him cry out in pain on the man’s knee: “I won’t admit my mistake, you might as well beat me to death, since the Xie family doesn’t want me, I can’t live on, you might as well end it all and beat me to death!”
Large tears mixed with panic, grievance, and pain fell heavily to the ground, and Yan Yi’s raised palm paused.
“Was it my choice to switch with Xie Zhu?” he cried hoarsely, “I grew up in the Xie mansion, my parents pampered me, my brother loved me, how could I have known I wasn’t the real young master of the Xie family!”
“I didn’t know anything, and they kept it from me, why!”
The panic and helplessness after learning the truth, the heartbreak of being abandoned, the stark contrast after switching identities, all crushed Xie Jinning in an instant.
His parents named him “Jinning,” wishing for “beautiful jade and peace,” and he had always believed he was their treasure.
His parents’ and brother’s love was the foundation of his arrogance, and the identity of the Xie family in the shipping business gave him enough confidence to do as he pleased without having to rely on others.
That’s why, when he thought Xie Zhu was an illegitimate child who would disrupt his stable life, he was so angry and wanted to drive him out.
Xie Jinning naively thought that as long as Xie Zhu disappeared, nothing would have happened, and they would still be the enviable, happy family of four they once were.
But he never imagined that everything he had never belonged to him in the first place.
Every day after leaving the Xie mansion, Xie Jinning felt like he was living in a nightmare, his carefully maintained facade being mercilessly stripped away, exposing his unbearable insides.
He was foolish, clumsy, impulsive, and reckless, but…
Just because Xie Zhu was a victim, did that mean he wasn’t?
The Xie family raised him for sixteen years, were those years of affection all fake?
They didn’t even give him a chance to repay them before sending him away…
“How can you treat me like this…”
The boy sobbed, his voice wet and muffled with tears, filled with grievance to the extreme.
Yan Yi’s raised palm slowly fell on Xie Jinning’s thin shoulder, gently stroking it.
Suddenly faced with such a change, he was just a boy who had just turned sixteen, suddenly falling from the clouds to the dust, it was normal for him to not adapt.
It was his oversight, overreacting to the wasted food.
His heart stirred.
“Sorry.”
After a moment, Yan Yi said, “Are you… okay?”
“Not okay!” Xie Jinning’s tears wouldn’t stop, raising a tear-streaked face to blame him, “How dare you ask, I’m in so much pain!”
A hint of regret flashed in Yan Yi’s deep eyes, “I didn’t know the truth and was too harsh, I apologize, but you wasting…” food was also a fact.
Before he could finish, the boy on his knee choked on his own words, erupting into a series of coughs, “You… cough, cough, cough…”
Xie Jinning coughed, his whole body trembling, his breath chaotic, his shoulder blades fluttering as if about to fly. Yan Yi immediately stopped speaking and began to help him catch his breath.
Xie Jinning took small breaths, taking a while to recover. After crying and struggling for so long, and being injured, he was almost limp on Yan Yi, completely out of strength to speak.
He was covered in sweat, his exposed skin glistening with a fine sheen, his hair sticking to his neck like cracks in fine porcelain, presenting a fragile appearance that evoked pity.
Yan Yi’s Adam’s apple bobbed, carefully placing him face down on the bed, then got up to take the cornbread from the table.
After Xie Zhu left, Father Xie still insisted on cleaning the house every day, so the floor wasn’t dirty, but he still carefully wiped off the dust on the surface and brought the thin porridge to the bedside.
“If you’re hungry, eat some first, this is all we have at home.”
Xie Jinning looked up at Yan Yi, then at the food he was holding, his pale fingers clutching the thin blanket, his gaze flickering.
He had actually heard everything Yan Yi said earlier, but he was too angry to admit it. If this was all there was to eat, then he would reluctantly…
But wasn’t this cornbread dropped on the ground?
Had he really fallen to the point of eating something picked up from the ground, what difference was there between him and a beggar?
Xie Jinning’s lips twitched, looking at Yan Yi with grievance.
His face still bore traces of tears, his cheeks wet, his nose red, the skin around his eyes reflecting a rosy hue like smoke, his moist pupils clear as autumn water, reflecting Yan Yi’s figure.
Like a drenched raccoon.
“I wiped it clean.”
Yan Yi extended his long arm, bringing it closer, so close that Xie Jinning could easily take it, but he couldn’t bring himself to put it to his lips.
And the man was still watching him “intently,” making it hard for Xie Jinning to eat or not eat.
Suddenly, something flashed in his mind, and he widened his eyes, gasping.
Wait, after this meal, would he not even have this to eat anymore?