Chapter 276: Zhe Yuan Got Punished
Chapter 276: Zhe Yuan Got Punished
Silence filled the courtyard as a very oblivious Wen Zhe Yuan made his way toward the group sitting around the table under the Peach blossom tree. The closer he came, the smaller his smile became as he started realizing that something wasn’t right about the situation.
"Lingling?" He greeted his wife in a questioning tone while quickly glancing at his fellow brothers for some sortof help. Unfortunately, there was nothing the other three could do to help him, so they just remained silent.
"Where have you been the entire day?" Xiang Ling asked the very moment Zhe Yuan tried to take a step forward to find a seat for himself at the table.
The man froze in his steps and slowly shifted his gaze back to her. "I..." he struggled to answer the sudden question for which he wasn’t prepared at all. His eyes once again scanned the faces of the other three men, but all he got from them were looks of sympathy. Letting out a small sigh, he finally answered, "Initially, I was thinking about bringing a nice meal to your room as soon as you were going to wake up. But then, I saw all of them leaving the manor as if they were fleeing. I thought that being the only one left behind was too dangerous, so... I left too."
Wei Guang shook his head along with Li Xian, while Zhang Xuan just let out a small sigh. From starting to the end, Zhe Yuan said all the wrong things. The man was really bad at reading the situation and acting according it.
Xiang Ling didn’t say anything immediately and just stared at her fifth husband who was clearly struggling at that moment. Even her face was like a blank canvas, not giving away whatever she was thinking in that brain of hers. After a couple of moments of silence, she stretched out one of her hands and opened her hand with her palm facing up.
"Give it to me." She told him with a straight face.
"G-Give what?" Zhe Yuan asked while shifting his clueless gaze between the woman and the other three men.
"The gift that you have brought for me." Xiang Ling explained. "Hurry and let me have a look at it."
"Gift?" Zhe Yuan’s face was turning pale with every sentence that his wife was speaking. Noticing the coldness in her usual warm eyes, his instincts were screaming at him to flee from there if he wanted to stay unharmed.
"Did you not bring one?" Xiang Ling demanded in shock once she heard the confusion in the man’s voice once she mentioned the gift.
"I was supposed to... bring back a present? For you?" Once again Zhe Yuan’s questioning eyes turned toward the other three males who were suddenly looking anywhere but at him.
"Did you not follow their idea of leaving the house and staying out the entire day? Then why did you not bring back a unique gift for me like they did? Look! Each one of them brought me something special... and earned my forgiveness." Xiang Ling spoke while glaring at her fifth husband who appeared completely frozen from shock.
"I... well... Lingling... why are you mad?" Zhe Yuan asked in a small voice as he tried to take a step toward Xiang Ling, but stopped when she suddenly stood up from her seat and turned to face him.
"Alright, Wen Zhe Yuan. You have indeed impressed me today." She spoke through gritted teeth while glaring at the man. "Since you have angered me and you can’t even recall why, I’m going to punish you. Kneel!"
"What?" Zhe Yuan stared at her with wide eyes as he tried to make sense of what he just heard.
"I told you to kneel." Xiang Ling repeated in an angry tone as she glared at the man.
"But-"
Before another word could have left Zhe Yuan’s mouth, he was attacked by his ferocious wife on the back of his knees which forced him to drop on his knees on the hard and cold platform.
"Either kneel here or forget about touching me for next one month." Xiang Ling offered a choice. Zhe Yuan, who was on his way to stand up, immediately returned to his knees within a second.
"You are so cruel, Lingling." He muttered in his grief while gazing up at her with a look of grievance on his face.
"Less than you, husband." Xiang Ling returned with a little smile that had not even an ounce of humor in it.
"How long am I going to kneel?" He asked next.
"Until you realize your mistake, or you can always choose the second option I just offered." Xiang Ling replied as she moved to pick up the bouquet and crate of pastries. "We are heading to the dining hall for dinner. Have a nice time here meanwhile."
She didn’t stay there another moment and started making her way out of the courtyard with her other three husbands following right after her. Wei Guang took the wooden crate from her hand and Zhang Xuan took the bouquet, allowing her to walk freely.
"Do you think I’m being too harsh on him?" She suddenly asked the men as they made their way out of their courtyard.
"Of course, not! You were actually lenient on him that you just asked him to kneel. That’s nothing for someone like him." Zhang Xuan quickly answered.
"You did the right thing, Ah Ling." Li Xian added after Zhang Xuan.
Xiang Ling stopped walking and turned to face her husbands. Observing their expressions closely, she asked, "Are you actually happy to see him getting punished?"
All three men quickly shook their heads in negative.
"We are just thankful that we aren’t the ones who ended up with a fate like Yuan’s." Li Xian offered the truth.
Wei Guang nodded his head in agreement before adding, "We also got to know that you have this angry side of yours. It looks like we all need to be careful in the future."
Xiang Ling was satisfied with their answers, and with a little nod, she resumed making her way to the dining hall. It was nice to know that she could scare these men.