DTTM 38

Chapter 38: Blasphemy

“Do you think that since I won’t live to see the truth come out, you can lie and hide it as you please?”

Nobles don’t like to look up at people. His lower position and my higher position were not conducive to show my sincerity. So as soon as he finished speaking, I bent one leg and knelt down next to his wheelchair so that he could look down at me.

“No, of course not. I just… was afraid of hurting your feelings.”

Zong Yanlei glared at me: “Are you afraid I’ll be hurt, or afraid that after Chu Luo rejects me, my pride will be hurt and I’ll take it out on you? Or do you just think it’s fun to play with me?”

The cool pen body lightly touched my chin. He held the other end of the pen and applied slight pressure, forcing me to tilt my head back.

“I……”

The pen slid down. It pressed against my Adam’s apple: “Tell the truth.”

To be honest, I was afraid he would take his anger out on me. But how could I say that so easily? If I admitted it, he would only be angrier than he was now.

Water droplets from my hair slid down my face, leaving a trail of ticklish sensation. I resisted the urge to brush them away and said, “I’m afraid it will upset you.”

His Adam’s apple rose and fell, and the pressure from the pen against it appeared and disappeared intermittently.

Zong Yanlei’s expression remained inscrutable, but he relaxed the pressure he was applying to the pen.

He moved the pen aside, caught a drop of water sliding down my neck, and spoke again: “Because of you, I always thought she was looking forward to our marriage, but that wasn’t the case. And what about you?”

The throat is a highly sensitive and dangerous area for all living things. Even with a harmless pen swiping back and forth, my attention was still drawn to it.

“…Hmm?” The water droplets turned into a water stain, and spread evenly on my Adam’s apple. The itching that should have disappeared seemed to be rooted in the water, and wherever it passed, it became numb and itchy.

“Do you look forward to my marriage with her?” Zong Yanlei paused, then asked the question again.

Did I look forward to it? Actually, I’ve never thought about that question. Zong Yanlei’s health was deteriorating, and neither marriage nor love was his primary concern.

Even if he was in good health and he and the princess were in love, how could I possibly comment on their marriage?

I was nothing more than a blood bag bought by the family, a servant, a lowly commoner… There were far more things I couldn’t say than just a few words.

“You and the princess are a match made in heaven. If you could become husband and wife, it would be a great joy for the entire Penglai. How could I not look forward to it?”

Zong Yanlei was taken back, he slowly withdrew his hand, and then calmly and carefully observed my expression, as if he were trying to discern the truthfulness in my words.

A moment later, he looked at his bandaged fingers, tightened his grip on the pen, and suddenly laughed. The smile spread across his face until the entire wheelchair trembled slightly with his laughter.

I’d been by his side for seven years, and I was very sensitive to his emotions and could understand most of them. But this laugh was an exception. I even started recalling my own answer, mentally reviewing what exactly made him laugh like that.

He probably laughed for about half a minute before wiping his reddened eyes and finally calming down from his overly expressive emotions.

“I asked a stupid question, but you answered it very cleverly.” A smile still lingered on his lips, but his eyes were cold.

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After that day, Zong Yanlei started ignoring me.

We slept and woke up together every day, he still let me dress him, go to class with him, eat at the same table, and obediently take the medicine I handed him at night. But from that night on, he stopped talking to me. Even when I teased him, coaxed him, or whispered my apologies, he acted as if he didn’t hear me, treating me like I wasn’t there.

If he were to lose his temper, things would actually be easier to handle. But he buried all his emotions deep inside, like a snow-covered active volcano. Walking on top of it, one must be wary of the biting cold and constantly vigilant about the dangers lurking beneath, making every day a time of great anxiety for me.

This situation, which was almost like a cold war, lasted for a full month.

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Zong Yanlei’s classes didn’t completely overlap with mine; we had two elective classes a week, which we attended separately. However, after class, he would stay in the classroom to wait for me to pick him up. We either go to the next classroom together or go straight back to the dorm.

After class that day, I rushed to Zong Yanlei’s classroom as usual, only to see a group of people crowding at the door from afar.

Human intuition is sometimes so mysterious. Even without witnessing it firsthand, I could still sense that this commotion was related to Zong Yanlei.

When I pushed through the crowd and saw Zong Yanlei arguing with a professor and Wuxi Chen in the middle of the crowd, it confirmed my guess.

Zong Yanlei chose a general education course, and the professor who taught the course was also a bishop.

Although this bishop surnamed Zheng was later exposed for corruption and extravagance, completely contradicting his usual image of poverty, at the time, no one questioned his respect for and adherence to the doctrines of the religion. If one were to select the most loyal believers of the Jing Shi religion in the world, he would certainly be on the list.

“My child, they say you are questioning God’s love for humanity. How could you have such thoughts? You have come this far, so you should understand that suffering is never punishment, but rather a tool used by God to shape the soul.”

The student uniforms of Shengzhe University were pure white. Bishop Zheng, dressed in a red robe with gold thread, stood out like a drop of blood on white snow.

“It is those pains, those sufferings, those years of being forced to stay in bed that shed your mortal skin. Only in suffering can you be purified and draw closer to the will of God.”

He stood upright in front of Zong Yanlei, his tone as gentle as a warm spring breeze, but his lowered eyes were filled with condescending pity and indifference.

Zong Yanlei glanced indifferently at Wuxi Chen beside him, his expression still respectful as he said, “I think Uncle has misunderstood. What I said was: ‘Suffering has not purified me; it has only peeled layers away of my flesh, making me wish I were dead. This is by no means a gift from God, but rather the torment of fate.'”

Wuxi Chen sneered, “You think you survived by sheer willpower? If God hadn’t taken pity on you, you would have died in your infancy. The fact that you are here is a glory bestowed upon you by suffering. Not only are you ungrateful, but you also dare to slander God’s mercy…”

Bishop Zheng frowned and told him to calm down.

“That’s right, child, you’ve misunderstood God’s mercy. God makes you suffer because you were chosen. Comfort corrupts humanity; only pain can awaken people. He places the heaviest sun on His own shoulders to tell the world: all suffering will eventually be transformed into energy that radiates across the earth. He gives you the deepest pain to tell you: you will eventually become the strongest and best, bringing glory to Penglai.”

The moment he said those words, I knew things were going to go wrong. He touched a raw nerve within Zong Yanlei, as if he were saying that all the suffering Zong Yanlei had endured was his own fault.

As expected, Zong Yanlei stared at him without saying a word. He could have easily gone along with what he said, admitted his mistake, and let the matter drop, but he refused.

“The strongest, the best? You say suffering is a gift because you don’t have to endure it. But what right do bystanders have to glorify suffering for those who are actually suffering? If I am the chosen one, then my words are the will of God. I want you to suffer as much as I have. Are you willing?” He raised his hands, showing everyone the layers of bandages wrapped around them.

Bishop Zheng often preached about “suffering” in class, frequently bringing up the Sun God, and also liked to physically punish students in the name of asceticism, so no one liked him very much.

But even if they disliked him, he was still a bishop. Zong Yanlei’s behavior was undoubtedly a provocation against him. The crowd began to whisper among themselves, and for a moment, Zong Yanlei became the most unusual black sheep in the flock.

The gentle expression on Bishop Zheng’s face gradually faded, and I immediately understood this change meant, he had lost his patience.

I quickly pushed aside the people in front of me, rushed into the center of the conflict, and shielded Zong Yanlei behind me.

“That’s not what the young master meant. Bishop Zheng, the Zong family has always been one of the most devout supporters of the Holy Church, donating a large amount of money every year, as you know. How could the heir of the Zong family possibly be blasphemous?” I repeatedly emphasized “Zong family”, hoping that Bishop Zheng would take the opportunity I gave him and not be led astray by Wuxi Chen.

“Oh, the Zong family’s good dog has arrived.” Wuxi Chen glanced at me, then at Zong Yanlei, and his smile suddenly widened. He turned to Bishop Zheng and asked with ill intent, “Bishop Zheng, what are the punishments for blasphemy according to the school rules?”

Bishop Zheng thought for a moment, then said with some difficulty, “According to the school rules, it’s ten lashes.”

The Jing Shi religion has a list of ascetic practices, ranging from physical to spiritual. Every so often, believers will spontaneously or under the guidance of a priest perform some of the ascetic practices on the list to “purify their souls.”

Although I was not a follower of this religion, since entering Shengze University, I had been required to perform “sleepless prayer”, “spiritual kneeling reading”, and “candle tears trial” every now and then. If I took last place in exams, the professor would hit my palm with a cane to “purify” my laziness.

Therefore, according to school rules, students who commit serious offenses may indeed be punished by caning. However, there have been very few cases of this since the school was founded, given the students’ status.

It was possible for Bishop Zheng to punish Zong Yanlei with fasting and reflection, but whipping? Let alone ten lashes, Zong Yanlei couldn’t even bear one. Bishop Zheng wasn’t stupid; why would he do that? Wuxi Chen’s sudden mention of this was really unusual.

“Bishop Zheng, our young master is in poor health and doesn’t even need to do his daily ascetic practices,” but to be sure that Bishop Zheng wasn’t really a fool, I still offered a word of advice.

Wuxi Chen nodded: “He doesn’t have to do it, but you can. Aren’t you his servant? When your master makes a mistake, you should take the blame and be punished.”

Oh, I see.

Having understood, Bishop Zheng and I both relaxed simultaneously.

“That is one way.” Bishop Zheng’s cold gaze fell on me.

“Then it’s decided. Take Jiang Man to the punishment square.” Wuxi Chen raised his hand, and several tall third-year boys emerged from the crowd. They grabbed my arms and the back of my collar without saying a word, and dragged me outside.

“You dare!” Zong Yanlei reached out to grab my hem, but Wuxi Chen held him down.

He looked pleased, as if he had found Zong Yanlei’s fatal weakness: “He’s just a lowly commoner, why are you so anxious? You wouldn’t… have some dirty business with him, would you?”

Zong Yanlei pushed his hand away, his face pale: “You have quite the imagination. Make them stop.”

Wuxi Chen pretended not to hear, straightened up, and made no comment.

“Young Master, it’s alright, don’t worry.” I tried to soothe Zong Yanlei’s emotions. “Ten lashes are nothing.”

“Stop, let him go!” Seeing me being dragged further and further away, Zong Yanlei leaned forward and tried to stand up, but because he lost all leg strength, he and his wheelchair tipped over.

The metal frame slammed into the ground with a deafening sound. He fell to the ground in a sorry state, and no one came to help him up. The crowd watched this scene from above, their eyes filled with nothing but fascination at his suffering.

“Young Master!” I struggled to get to his side, but hands from all directions kept pulling me away.