Settle grudges on the spot, and sleep soundly through the night.

Before he could find the answer, Shen Yuan grabbed him by the collar at the back of his neck and tossed him onto the long bench. The sudden movement made him howl in terror!

Shen Yu lay sprawled on the bench in a panic, struggling to get up, but his back was pinned down by Shen Yuan’s foot, rendering him completely immobile.

Suddenly, he felt a chilling breeze against his crotch!

Shen Yuan yanked off his trousers, raised the ruler high into the air, and brought it down with all her might. A succession of sharp smacks instantly echoed through the entire hall!

Liuyan and Lvluo stared in utter astonishment. Once they recovered their senses, they quickly turned around, not daring to look directly at the scene.

Passing manservants stopped in their tracks to watch, while the maidservants shyly averted their eyes and hurried past.

"How dare you hit me! I’m going to tell on you! I’m going to tell on you!"

Enduring the stinging pain of the ruler, Shen Yu’s face turned beet red as he yelled at the top of his lungs.

From hurling a cuju ball at her head on the bridge to his repeated insolence, and all the way to condoning Lvluo’s action of splashing water today!

Now that she had finally seized the opportunity, Shen Yuan was not going to let him off easily.

She was determined to make Shen Yu unable to get out of bed for at least three days!

"Whoever dares to look at this young master again will be driven out of the estate!"

"Get out of here at once!"

With his trousers pulled down, Shen Yu felt as naked as the day he was born. Under the deliberate gazes of the manservants, he wished the earth would swallow him up out of sheer humiliation.

"Have you learned your error?" Shen Yuan withdrew the ruler and paused to catch her breath.

Shen Yu clenched his teeth, turned his face stubbornly to the side, and gave no answer.

"Since that is the case, you are willing to take your punishment without complaint, and there is no need to beg for mercy."

Shen Yuan wiped the ruler clean with a damp handkerchief, stood up, and paced around the front of the bench twice.

Seeing that she was about to raise the ruler again in the next second, Shen Yu suddenly shrieked, "I was wrong! Won't it do if I admit I was wrong?"

If he didn't confess now, his backside would probably end up looking like a raw baboon's!

Seeing Shen Yuan act with such audacity, daring to beat the young master so openly, Lvluo anxiously stepped forward to speak on his behalf, "After all, the Third Young Miss is not of Shen blood. Bullying the young master in broad daylight—doesn't that go a bit too far?"

Hearing someone finally speak up for him, Shen Yu struggled to crawl back up, tears streaming down his face while his hands kept frantically pulling up his trousers.

"Oh, is that so?"

Shen Yuan turned around, casually tossed the ruler to Liuyan, quietly rolled up her sleeves, and walked over with measured steps.

Her formidable aura exuded an intimidating pressure, causing Lvluo to feel a sudden surge of fear.

"What... what are you going to do?"

Shen Yuan sneered. "There is a saying: settle a grudge on the spot so you can sleep in peace!"

"Ah, ah, ah!"

Lvluo was grabbed by the collar and shoved toward the large water vat, tumbling forward until she was sprawled flat on the ground.

Shen Yuan strode forward, locked her wrist in a reverse grip, yanked her up, and threw her against the rim of the vat.

"Third Young Miss, please don't..." Lvluo pleaded repeatedly.

She had already guessed what was about to happen next.

Shen Yuan looked down at the clear surface of the water, tilted her head, and leaned in to say, "You should also taste what it's like to have the cold seep into your bones!"

With a heavy splash, Lvluo was forced down.

Shen Yuan pressed her weight onto Lvluo, shoving the girl's upper body directly into the water vat.

The surface of the water immediately produced a stream of bubbling sounds.

Lvluo thrashed about desperately in the water, but with Shen Yuan suppressing her, she could only use her feet to kick frantically in plea for mercy!

"Let her go!"

Following a stern reprimand, Shen Wan ning and Madame Chen rushed over in a hurry. Seeing Lvluo pinned inside the water vat without coming up for air, they spun around in a frantic panic.

"Elder Sister Yuan! Even if Lvluo committed a grave offense, it doesn't warrant putting her to death! Could it be that Father taught you to show such utter disregard for human life?"

Shen Wan ning's voice was piercingly sharp, sounding as though she had lost her composure like never before.

The maidservants hurriedly hauled Lvluo out of the water vat. Soaked from head to toe, she looked like a drowned chicken, utterly wretched.

When she caught sight of Shen Yuan, she instinctively recoiled a step.

At the same time, Shen Yu rushed into Madame Chen's arms, crying his eyes out while lodging a complaint.

Madame Chen shot a reproachful glare at Shen Yuan.

She then instructed the estate physician to examine Shen Yu's body, and only breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming that no vital parts were injured.

"What sort of grave crime did your younger brother commit that you had to bully him like this?"

"He condoned his maid's insolence and insulted me first," Shen Yuan replied.

"You are the older sister! Even if you were wronged, you should have been magnanimous and forgiving! How can you be so vindictive and petty? Was it not enough to scold Ah-yu a few words, that you had to strip off his trousers and use the ruler? Is seeing your younger brother humiliated in front of the servants at such a tender age what you wanted?"

Ever since the incident where the grandmother was brought up in front of everyone, Madame Chen seemed unwilling to even put on a facade anymore, directly firing back with an icy expression.

In her heart, the meager remaining maternal affection from the eight years she had raised Shen Yuan had completely vanished without a trace!

"So Mother feels that I have no qualification to discipline Ah-yu, is that it?"

Madame Chen thrust out her chin. "Of course!"

"Very well, then how should he be punished for intentionally ordering Lvluo to splash a basin of cold water on me in the freezing winter?" Shen Yuan narrowed her eyes, her tone turning uncommonly sharp.

Madame Chen averted her face, evidently knowing she was in the wrong and having no response.

In short, Shen Yuan simply had no right to discipline Ah-yu!

Meanwhile, Shen Wan ning stood beside them, shielding Lvluo without uttering a word.

The surrounding manservants, sensing that the atmosphere had turned tense, quietly slipped away.

Shen Yuan cast a cold glance at everything around her, let out a mocking laugh, and completely ignored Shen Yu, who was hiding triumphantly in Madame Chen's arms. She turned and walked in the direction of the ancestral hall.

"Third Young Miss, wait for your servant!" Liuyan trotted along behind her.

Madame Chen's anger had not yet subsided. Seeing that Shen Yuan had left and believing the situation had calmed down, she finally let out a breath of relief, stroked Shen Yu's head, and scolded him in a low voice, "I told you repeatedly not to provoke her. Why wouldn't you listen?"

Rubbing his backside, Shen Yu said with a wronged expression, "I didn't want Fourth Sister to be sad, and I don't want Shen Yuan to marry Elder Brother Pei!"

"You foolish child, letting your Fourth Sister marry Pei Ji would truly ruin her life! Otherwise, why would such a fine marriage match have fallen onto Shen Yuan's head?"

Shen Yu still failed to understand. In his eyes, Elder Brother Pei was as pure as the breeze and the bright moon, with a distinguished bearing—how could his Fourth Sister suffer any grievance by marrying him?

Before he could voice his question, the estate steward came running from the direction of the ancestral hall, looking rather flustered as he reported, "Mistress! The Third Young Miss is kneeling endlessly before the ancestral hall, begging the ancestors to strike her name off the genealogy! This old servant tried every way to persuade her, but she refuses to get up no matter what!"

"What?"

Both Madame Chen and Shen Wan ning lost all color in their faces, never expecting that Shen Yuan would resort to such a drastic measure.

With the marriage to the Pei family looming right around the corner, wasn't the commotion she was kicking up simply meant to force everyone to bow down to her?

At this moment, Madame Chen could no longer spare attention for Shen Yu. She handed him over to the wet nurse in attendance and hurried toward the ancestral hall without stopping.

The ancestral hall was drafty on all sides, biting cold.

Shen Yuan had removed all her jewelry and donned plain white mourning attire, her frail figure kneeling rigidly upon the straw mat.

When Madame Chen and Shen Wan ning rushed over, they heard her prostrated on the ground, pressing her forehead against the floorboards as she spoke clearly, one word at a time, to the ancestral tablets: "Ancestors above, Ah-yuan, an outsider to the bloodline, has come to pay her respects, and prays that you will not disdain me! Since the Shen household can no longer accommodate me, I beg the ancestors to visit my father and mother in their dreams and have them strike my name from the genealogy! From this day forward, let bridges be bridges and roads be roads; even if we never lay eyes on each other again in this lifetime, I will gladly accept it!"

"However..."