Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Xie Licheng made his way deeper into the courtyard, not seeing the familiar Xuan Cui, nor Gu Zhangyuan's wet nurse.

Apart from the young attendant who had brought him here, there was only one maidservant in this courtyard, someone Xie Licheng had never seen before.

The maidservant seemed to sneak a glance at him. Xie Licheng, sensitive and suspicious by nature, frowned slightly, then gave a faint, cold smile.

Xie Licheng pretended not to notice anything and innocently pushed open the door in front of him.

As soon as he stepped inside, the maidservant immediately locked the door from outside.

Xie Licheng turned around with a feigned look of shock and panic, then pounded on the door, shouting loudly.

"What are you doing? Why are you locking the door?"

The person outside ignored him and hurried away with the key.

Meanwhile, two men emerged from the room, one after the other.

The man at the front was none other than the young master of the Gu Family's Second Branch, the one who had first brought the original owner out of the slave camp.

In the original story, the original owner hadn't come to the temple with Gu Zhangyuan, so there was no scene of the Second Branch young master meeting the original owner.

After transmigrating, Xie Licheng hadn't seen this Second Branch young master again, and had completely forgotten he existed.

Seeing him now, Xie Licheng felt quite surprised.

But recalling that this man had always had his eye on the original owner, and now that he was finally out from under his elders' watchful eyes at home, it wasn't surprising he'd pull something like this.

Xie Licheng glanced at Young Master Gu, then at the other man behind him.

The other man was a servant. This Young Master Gu wasn't completely stupid—he knew he was useless and knew the original owner was disobedient. Worried the original owner might beat him up if they were alone, he'd brought a male slave along.

Xie Licheng secretly pulled a short knife from his personal storage space, while acting flustered as he asked the young master before him, "Young Master, what... what are you doing?"

This Second Branch young master was named Gu Qiyue, only nineteen years old.

At that age, in modern times, he'd still be just a kid.

But people in ancient times matured earlier—many sons of wealthy families had bed warmers by fifteen or sixteen.

Gu Qiyue was male and had been attracted to men since childhood.

The Second Master of the Gu Family had always been furious about this. The Gu Family didn't have many male heirs.

The First Branch had only one son; the Second Branch was a bit better off with three.

But none of the three sons was obedient. The eldest had run off with a gay man and was still missing, dead or alive.

The second son was Gu Qiyue, who naturally liked men.

He liked sleeping with men, and he also liked being slept with.

Of course, if it were just about liking men, that wouldn't be a big deal.

What really bothered the Second Master was that Gu Qiyue had a twisted side to him.

Speaking of twisted, Gu Qiyue and Gu Tinghe really were worthy of each other as cousins.

Both liked abusing servants, and both had at least two deaths on their hands.

One liked sexual abuse, the other just liked abuse—neither was any good.

The Third son of the Second Branch was decent enough, but unfortunately he was into martial arts.

The Second Master had wanted the Third son to study, or even learn business if not academics—anything but joining the army.

The military camp wasn't a good place, and the battlefield was dangerous. One careless mistake could get you killed.

But the kid was young and had a rebellious streak. The more he was told not to do something, the more he wanted to do it.

Now the Third son had gone to the border, the eldest had disappeared, and the Second Master only had his second son left, so he naturally had to keep a tighter leash on him.

But as it turned out, none of his three sons had any real talent—they all had rebellious streaks and loved to defy him.

The more he told Gu Qiyue not to go after men, the more frantically Gu Qiyue wanted to cause trouble.

Now he was bold enough to make a move on Xie Licheng even in a temple.

Gu Qiyue smiled at Xie Licheng and said, "I heard you've been through a lot lately. Look at you, why put yourself through this? If you'd obediently come to me earlier, you'd already be living the good life as a master."

Xie Licheng rolled his eyes internally. Who was he trying to kid?

Did he look that easy to fool?

Living the good life as a master?

Gu Qiyue was just a concubine-born young master himself—he wasn't even living the good life as a master. Where did he get the nerve to say that?

Seeing that Xie Licheng wasn't responding, Gu Qiyue picked up a thick hemp rope and kept rambling, "Don't worry. You look very much to my liking. As long as you listen to me from now on, I won't kill you."

Xie Licheng said, "But I'm the Eldest Young Master's man now. You should already know about that, right?"

If he hadn't known, he wouldn't have used the Eldest Young Master's man to trick him here.

Gu Qiyue's expression stiffened for a moment, then his previously somewhat gentle demeanor changed. He started cursing angrily.

"That bastard! A gay man fighting with his own cousin over a man—he has no shame as a gay man at all. If the First Branch had a man in charge, how would it ever fall to him to manage things? I'm from the Second Branch, and I'm a man. I'm not afraid of him."

Xie Licheng slowly backed away while saying calmly, "My relationship with the Eldest Young Master isn't what you think. I'm currently working for him. You'd better release me now, or else..."

Gu Qiyue's expression grew even angrier. He said, "Or else what? Is he going to kill me? No matter how noble he is, no matter how much the eldest uncle dotes on him, he's still just a gay man. When his younger brother returns, the First Branch will still belong to his brother. Don't keep trying to scare me with him. He doesn't mean shit to me."

At this point, Gu Qiyue was clearly losing patience.

He looked at the male slave beside him and signaled for him to help tie Xie Licheng up first.

The male slave glanced at Xie Licheng with a hint of sympathy.

Few men who fell into Gu Qiyue's hands came out unscathed.

Thinking that Xie Licheng had only recently suffered serious injuries, if he were to be tortured by Gu Qiyue again, he probably wouldn't make it out of here alive today.

He felt deep sympathy for Xie Licheng, but his movements showed no hesitation.

He was just a servant—he was forced into this too.

If the man happened to die, he hoped he wouldn't hold it against him.

Then, as he moved toward Xie Licheng, before he could even tell what was happening, he toppled straight back and blacked out.

Gu Qiyue stared at the male slave who'd just dropped like that, as if he hadn't fully processed it.

He turned his head toward Xie Licheng, looking dazed, about to say, "How dare you—" when Xie Licheng slapped a big hand over his mouth.

Xie Licheng leaned in close to his ear and murmured, "What was it you wanted to do to me?"

Gu Qiyue let out a muffled "mmph" and tried to shove Xie Licheng away so he could yell for help.

As if reading his mind, Xie Licheng let out a cold laugh and pulled out a knife.

The northern part of Lingzhou was already starting to fall into chaos; even if Xie Licheng ran away from the Gu family, the authorities wouldn't have time to chase him down now.

Earlier, Xie Licheng hadn't wanted to leave the Gu family because his original identity as a criminal slave was too sensitive.

If the world hadn't gone to chaos, the authorities would've hunted him down wherever he went.

That would be a pain—even buying stuff would be a huge hassle.

But... he'd gone out once and found that parts of Lingzhou were already starting to fall apart.

Lingzhou was close to the capital—if things were going to hell here, they'd be even worse elsewhere.

Under these circumstances, even if Xie Licheng bolted from the Gu family, he wouldn't attract much attention.

Of course, he hadn't planned on leaving in the first place.

That young master Gu Zhangyuan wasn't half bad—good-looking and generous with his money.

He figured he could stick around the Gu estate, help the guy out with stuff, and make some cash on the side.

Besides, he still owed Gu Zhangyuan a favor, and maybe he could pay it back one day.

Unfortunately, some fool had to come knocking, so he had no choice but to...

Just as Xie Licheng was about to stab down, a familiar voice rang out from outside the door.

"Where is he? I'm asking you where he is! Someone saw you take him—hand him over now!!"

The voice belonged to Xuan Cui, and she was grilling the young attendant who'd brought Xie Licheng here.

Hearing the ruckus outside, Xie Licheng's grip loosened, and Gu Qiyue managed to squirm free.

That guy was just as vicious—the second he broke free from Xie Licheng, he grabbed a nearby vase and hurled it at him.

Gu Qiyue was scared out of his wits; he really hadn't thought Xie Licheng would dare kill him.

A damn horse slave, and he was packing a knife?

And he'd just tried to off him?

The murderous vibe coming off him was so intense it made Gu Qiyue's brain short-circuit.

He chucked a vase at Xie Licheng, and the guy who'd been so quick on his feet just stood there like a moron.

He didn't dodge or block—just let the vase smack him right in the head.

Gu Qiyue cursed, "You filthy slave! How dare you try to kill me? Do you have any idea who I am?"

Xie Licheng touched his bleeding forehead, then pounded his hand against the door while whispering tauntingly to Gu Qiyue, "You piece of garbage, just you wait—sooner or later, I'll gut you."

Gu Qiyue stammered, "Y-you... you wouldn't dare! I-I'll kill you right now!"

With that, he grabbed a shard of the broken vase and lunged at Xie Licheng's neck.

Xie Licheng didn't let him slash his face; instead, he raised his arm in a half-hearted block, letting the shard slice into his arm.

Just then, Xuan Cui, drawn by the racket, showed up outside the door.

Xuan Cui called out, "Little horse slave, little horse slave, are you in there?"

Xie Licheng called back in a feeble voice, "Miss Xuancui, help me! Please, save me!"

Gu Qiyue froze when he heard Xie Licheng begging for help. Shouldn't he be the one screaming for help?