The Gatekeeper made his decision later that day: expel Lin Weiwei from Mount Hua, and send Chu Xi away for two years of field experience.
"Field experience" essentially meant a short period of banishment. Chu Xi's spiritual root would be temporarily sealed, and she would be sent to a faraway village where she'd have to earn her own living. A reasonable way to teach a snobbish highborn the reality of life, though a hard punishment that I had never anticipated for her.
Chu Xi wept and begged, and at some point she screamed and swore to tear me and Lin Weiwei to pieces for it, but none changed the Gatekeeper's mind. I supposed the Gatekeeper knew deep down that Bai Ye was right. Chu Xi would be too far gone if she kept living under the shelter of her all-too-powerful father.
Bai Ye wasn't pleased with the judgment though. "She won't get away so easily," he promised to me on our way back. "The Gatekeeper can't protect her forever. She's not done paying for this."
