Same as Always

Lei Mingxing silently watched the last maid rush out of the gate. Her expression was neither angry nor happy. She unconsciously shifted her gaze to the whip still in her hands with wide eyes.

What had she done?

Grabbing the whip, threatening her younger sibling, even pushing him!

And it all happened so fast!

'Rustle'

Lei Minxging abruptly awoke from her daze and looked up. Realizing that the two guards were still making their way through the grass towards her after having to dodge the fleeing maids and royal scions, she quickly decided to withdraw into the estate before they reached her. She knew getting caught now wouldn't do her any good.

So, with her hair swishing through the air as she turned, Lei Mingxing quickly ascended the stairs and entered the estate with a few skilled movements. Inside, she hurriedly made her way to the backside of the building where the true garden of the estate lay and directly dove into the grass that was even higher than in the front yard, reaching up to her stomach.

She made her way through the tall grass until she reached the hidden and abandoned gardening shack that looked more like a pile of wood, rotting away. Dropping to the ground and disappearing into the grass, Lei Mingxing crawled inside the partially collapsed hut underneath the tall willow tree. Inside, between the rusting gardening tools, Lei Mingxing sat down, pulling her knees close, so she wouldn't accidentally knock against anything, listening to the noise outside.

She could hear the guards stumbling through the estate, accompanied by several crashing noises and curses, before they finally reached the garden and began calling her title amidst occasional hushed slurs to lure her out, but Lei Mingxing stayed put.

Breathing as quietly as she could, feeling as if she had returned to her childhood, hiding from her siblings and the maids coming to 'take care' of her.

Minutes passed and the two guards gradually gave up on finding her, obviously annoyed, and just when they were about to leave, Lei Mingxing heard how another group of guards came to join them and the search started anew. This time lasting even longer.

The new guards shouted harshly, ordering her to come out to receive punishment for harming and threatening a member of the Royal Family. Still, she remained huddled together in her hiding spot.

It was a bluff.

Her earlier actions weren't actually severe enough to receive punishment beyond a cut in pocket money, she didn't receive in the first place. She knew that because she had thoroughly memorized the regulations of the Royal Palace and laws concerning everything royalty in her previous life. If anything, her siblings' behavior would warrant disciplinary measures much more than hers, as they had both threatened, harmed and insulted a member of the royal family. But it was a pipe dream for her to expect even the slightest trouble to fly their way.

All because of backing.

As long as you had even the slightest bit of influence, or in her siblings' cases, influential maternal families, you could twist the law however you pleased in the palace, you only had to take care not to step on the king's toes in the process. This made it possible for the concubines to quietly send their guards her way under the pretenses of violating the palace regulations even if it wasn't really the case. And in those situations, the only solution wasn't to comply but to hide and wait until enough time passed so they had no reason to punish her anymore.

She had learned this the hard way growing up.

She still remembered the times she was beaten until the verge of death during her childhood, just because she showed the slightest resistance to her siblings' bullying. It was only thanks to her special physique that she was still alive today.

So, Lei Mingxing just hugged her knees to her chest, still clutching the whip, to wait for the moment the guards left and she could move to a better hiding spot.

In the meantime, Lei Mingxing once again went through what had happened in the front yard inside her mind.

Forced to the ground, Lei Haoran's whip was split seconds away from descending on her back, but as if possessed, she suddenly moved to block the whip, and she didn't only block it, she caught it!

Granted, Lei Haoran's attack wasn't that sophisticated to begin with, and she had blocked much more devastating strikes during her time in Dark Spirit Town, however, at the current moment, she could neither feel nor use her Qi, much closer to a regular person, and she was still able to accurately intercept a strike aimed at her back.

Almost like she was still able to perceive the world with her Spiritual Sense...

Thinking this, Lei Mingxing tried to activate her Spiritual Sense again, but in the end, no matter how she focused or forced herself to resonate with her leisurely spinning Dantian, there was only darkness around her, just like the countless other times she tried during her travels with the Xia father and son.

When Lei Mingxing opened her eyes again, a frustrated and downcast sigh almost escaped her lips but she pressed her mouth shut just in time.

There were still guards outside and it would take quite a while until they left. They had been sent by the concubines after all, and would probably face either punishment or reward, depending on whether they dragged her back or not.

So, Lei Mingxing had no choice but to sit it out, hoping they wouldn't examine the pile of wood she was hiding in.

Gently leaning her head against the crumbling wall of the hut, Lei Mingxing quietly unwrapped the whip that was still coiled around her hand before carefully laying it on the ground next to her. With the whip gone, a faded red line was revealed from when the whip initially met her palm. Observing it for a moment, Lei Mingxing gauged that it should at most take half an hour until it disappeared completely, leaving no trace and destroying any evidence she might have had against her siblings, not that it had ever done anything.

Letting out a quiet breath, Lei Mingxing dropped her arms and closed her eyes, after a while, a smile that looked more like crying twisted the corners of her mouth and her body shook softly, whether it was from suppressed sobs or laughter, she couldn't quite tell herself.

Just like that, everything had returned to how it was before.