Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day, before it was even light out, a racket kicked up outside.

Xie Licheng heard the ruckus but didn't bother getting up. Instead, he just yanked the covers over his head and went back to sleep.

Steward Xu had told him he didn't have to work for now, so no way was he gonna be dumb enough to get up.

Xie Licheng dozed for another hour, but his wounds kept throbbing, so he scowled and got up to slip into his personal world.

He couldn't take it anymore. If he just gritted his teeth through the pain without meds, who knew how long his wounds would take to heal.

When Xie Licheng went in, he brought the new blanket along too.

His blanket was way too new—a bright blue down comforter.

If any of the Gu family's servants spotted it, it could cause a whole mess.

Xie Licheng stepped into his personal world and popped up right in his farm.

His player character had changed, but his original farm was still there, just like before—nothing had vanished or changed.

He didn't bother checking out the farm and headed straight into the old-style mansion behind him.

From the outside, the mansion didn't look like much, but inside, it was huge.

Past the main entrance, there was a living room on the right, and beyond that, a bedroom.

On normal days, Xie Licheng crashed in this bedroom.

Up from the bedroom, to the north, was a dressing room.

Since Xie Licheng was the only one around, he hadn't bothered putting a door on the dressing room.

Xie Licheng went in, grabbed some clean underclothes, and put them on over his dirty ones.

Then he went to the living room, found the medical kit, and dug out a box of painkillers.

This personal world was an ancient one too.

There was no medical kit here originally—Xie Licheng had scavenged it during the apocalypse.

Xie Licheng took his meds, drank some water, ate a little something, and got ready to head out.

He didn't want to stay in there too long, worried someone outside might come looking for him.

When he left, he took an apple, some red dates, and a multi-purpose military knife.

The dagger he'd taken out earlier had been stashed back here.

The dagger was a pain to carry—not as handy as this multi-purpose military knife.

Once he got out, he sat on the dusty bed and munched on the red dates.

People always said red dates were good for your blood—who knew if that was true?

But true or not, this body was lacking in everything, so eating more couldn't hurt.

Maybe because the room was so out of the way and hardly anyone knew he was there, the whole day passed without anyone coming to find him.

He probably should've gone to the dining hall during the day, but since low servants like the original owner got crappy food, Xie Licheng just skipped it on day one.

Anyway, his personal world had everything he needed—he wasn't gonna starve anytime soon.

Late that night, Xie Licheng slipped back into his personal world.

After a day of rest, his health points were back up to thirty.

He went in to fix himself something nutritious and took the chance to fish in the farm's pond while it was dark.

Fishing also gave experience points, and each level-up earned you one attribute point.

For player characters, the first twenty levels were a breeze.

You barely even needed to head into the mountains—just fishing, chopping wood, and farming could get you to level twenty.

Xie Licheng wasn't in any shape to go hunting in the mountains, and out of fishing, logging, farming, gathering, and cooking, fishing leveled you up the fastest.

He'd been lying around all day, so he wanted to fish during the night.

Fishing didn't take much effort—it was a pretty easy way to level up.

Xie Licheng stewed himself a pot of pork rib soup. After drinking it, he grabbed the fishing gear from the warehouse and headed to the pond.

Since he'd fished in his personal world a lot before, he knew the ropes, so it wasn't long before a fish bit.

At level one, he just needed to catch a single fish to level up.

Seeing that, Xie Licheng didn't rush to spend his attribute points—he patiently caught six more fish.

By then, he was level three, with three extra attribute points to hand out.

Xie Licheng set the rod aside and hauled the bucket full of fish back.

He was still hurt and shouldn't be staying up too late.

After lugging the bucket into the kitchen, he headed straight to the bedroom to rest.

He slept way better than the night before.

Since he was on his own turf, sleeping on a comfy double bed, he slept straight through till dawn.

When he woke up, he didn't dare hang around inside. He took his meds and headed right out.

He went back to that run-down, dusty room.

Xie Licheng frowned and started slowly cleaning the place up.

He'd probably be staying here for a while. Even if he sometimes crashed in his personal world, he couldn't just leave the place this filthy.

Xie Licheng cleaned the room. It was tiny and shabby, with just a small bed and not even a window.

After cleaning, he opened the door to air the place out. Seeing it was almost noon, he limped over to the dining hall in the outer courtyard to eat.

Thanks to the original owner's bad luck, Xie Licheng had barely reached the outer courtyard's dining hall when he ran into the male slaves who'd lived with the original owner.

The moment the square-faced man spotted him, he marched over, and the other male slaves quickly trailed behind.

Seeing there were plenty of people around, Xie Licheng figured they wouldn't dare try anything, so he didn't reach for the military knife hidden on him.

He asked the woman who ran the mess hall for two coarse-grain cornbreads and was about to grab a bowl to scoop himself some thin porridge.

The Square-faced Man sidled up to him and asked, "Where did you run off to yesterday? Do you know the young master has been looking everywhere for you?"

Xie Licheng didn't bother to answer him, wolfed down the two cornbreads in his hands, and headed over to the meal woman with his bowl to get some porridge.

Seeing that he still had the gall to eat, the Square-faced Man couldn't help but reach out to stop him.

"You've got some nerve eating? Because of you, we all took the brunt of the young master's anger. Look at this mark on my face—the young master did this to me."

Hearing that, Xie Licheng actually got a little interested.

He looked up at the other man's face, and after spotting the nasty whip mark on it, he couldn't help but shoot him a slightly mocking smile.

The Square-faced Man never expected him to still have the nerve to smile at a time like this.

Flying into a rage, he couldn't hold back and shoved Xie Licheng hard, sending the bowl in Xie Licheng's hand crashing to the ground and shattering.

Xie Licheng's luck was rock bottom, but his looks were striking. Even with a twenty-point penalty to his charm, he was still way better-looking than the average person.

With those two factors combined, people naturally warmed up to him.

And by liking, I don't mean the romantic kind.

It was more that he came across as someone with a friendly face who was easy to like.

Seeing him get bullied, the meal woman couldn't help but snap at the troublemakers, "What's all this racket? A bunch of lowly servants, and you're still making a racket in the dining hall. Who's your supervisor? I'll have him give you a proper scolding!"

Hearing that, Xie Licheng turned back with a grateful expression.

He was banged up, and with those thick eyebrows and big eyes of his, the old woman felt sorrier for him the longer she looked.

Seeing the troublemakers still hanging around, she tossed the ladle into the pot and marched over to them.

The Square-faced Man didn't dare argue with her either, afraid that kicking up a fuss would piss off Steward Xu.

He shot Xie Licheng a vicious glare and led the others to the far end of the dining hall to get their food.

Once they were gone, Xie Licheng immediately thanked the meal woman.

"Thanks, auntie. If you hadn't spoken up, I'd have been in deep trouble today."

The meal woman knew Xie Licheng's situation. She didn't dare do much more for him—she could only speak up when the low servants were giving him a hard time.

If it had been that little young master doing the bullying, she, as just a meal servant, wouldn't have dared to say a word.

"It's nothing, nothing. Go eat. With all these injuries, who knows... when they'll heal?"

Xie Licheng pointed at the shattered bowl on the ground. "What about this? Do I owe money for it?"

The meal woman waved her hand. "You didn't break it on purpose. If anyone's paying, it's that male slave. This won't be held against you."

Xie Licheng thanked her again, scooped himself a bowl of thin porridge, downed it, and left.

His luck was just too low; hanging around a crowded place like this really wasn't a good idea.

His luck used to be over forty, and he'd never felt what low luck was like, so he'd figured it wasn't a big deal.

Now that he'd gotten a taste of it firsthand, he decided to pump up his luck first, or else he'd definitely keep getting screwed over later.

Last night, Xie Licheng had earned three attribute points.

The moment he got back to the stable, he dumped all three points into luck.

The original owner's base luck was 3, and adding 3 points only brought it up to 6.

If the stable was quiet in the afternoon, he planned to go back into the pocket world to keep leveling up.

Getting his luck above ten sooner rather than later should stop him from being as unlucky as he was now.

But as luck would have it, the stable was busy all afternoon. One of the horses seemed to be having problems, and the place never really calmed down, so Xie Licheng didn't dare enter the pocket world.

He had to wait until nightfall before he found a chance to slip into the pocket world.

It was then that he vaguely remembered a plot point.

The main branch of the family had three young masters and one unmarried young lady.

She was young, the only daughter of the head of the main branch, and pretty spoiled at home.

One rainy night, she'd be tricked by her own aunt into going to the garden in the outer courtyard, where a male guest would ruin her.

The one doing the tricking was her own mother, and the male guest was her mother's distant nephew.

Her mother had lost her looks as she aged and had no son to lean on.

She figured her daughter wasn't reliable, so she wanted her to marry this nephew, which would basically give her a son.

That way, even when she got old, she'd have her nephew to take care of her in her old age.

Because it was a scandal, the Gu family rushed the wedding.

The male guest married into the family, and the couple never moved out of the Gu residence.

The male guest treated Miss Gu terribly, and when Lingzhou first fell into chaos, he even tried to take advantage of Gu Zhangyuan.

This plot point shouldn't be far off. Xie Licheng couldn't quite remember the details, so he went back to the bedroom to find that book.

The book was one he'd only recently read and was still in his bedroom. He quickly found it and located the plot point.

The ninth of the second month—it seemed to be tomorrow.

With that in mind, Xie Licheng carefully read through the original text again.

Having confirmed the time and place, he planned to cause a disruption tomorrow.

Gu Zhangyuan had saved him twice. Even if he hadn't actually been taken advantage of by that male guest, he couldn't let someone like that easily marry into the Gu family.

Xie Licheng's plan to disrupt things wasn't entirely for Gu Zhangyuan's sake.

He wasn't a good person. There was another reason he wanted to interfere: to save Gu Zhangyuan's sister.

In the book, Gu Zhangyuan treated this sister fairly well. If Xie Licheng could save her tomorrow, his own standing in the Gu household would improve significantly.

With a better position, he wouldn't have to worry about being constantly targeted and would have the energy to prepare for the coming chaos.