Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Clearly, he was the one who had almost been killed—shouldn't he be the one yelling for help?

Why was the horse slave, who was holding the weapon, the first to yell for help?

Before Gu Qiyue could figure out what was going on, Xuan Cui had already gotten people to kick the door down.

Gu Zhangyuan had indeed sent people to wait for Xie Licheng earlier, little did he know someone else would take him away first.

And the one who took Xie Licheng was actually someone from Gu Zhangyuan's own courtyard.

This made Xuan Cui furious.

She led her people into the room, saw Xie Licheng covered in wounds, and quickly took him away.

No matter how capable she was, she was still just a maid.

She had no right to scold Gu Qiyue.

As for that disloyal young attendant, she had him taken back as well.

Before she could get them to her master, Xie Licheng, with fresh wounds on top of old ones, collapsed.

Of course, Xie Licheng wasn't actually unconscious.

His injuries weren't bad. His forehead was scraped, and the arm wound looked scary but wasn't deep.

The two injuries together only took off four health points, which wasn't much damage for him in his current state.

Given the situation, Xie Licheng could have easily killed Gu Qiyue and ducked into his portable world.

But he thought of the timid Gu Zhangyuan. This time, Xie Licheng was the one who had brought the Gu family to the temple to burn incense.

If Gu Qiyue were to die suddenly in the temple today, he'd have a hard time answering to the second branch's uncle.

Gu Zhangyuan had shown him kindness, and he never forgot that. Naturally, he didn't want to leave him to deal with the fallout.

Besides, he was curious.

After what happened today, how would Gu Zhangyuan handle this?

Would he believe him, or would he believe his cousin Gu Qiyue?

As for why he pretended to faint—it was simply to look pitiful.

He'd said it before—he wasn't a good guy.

Sometimes, to achieve his goals, he would stop at nothing.

Whether it was being ruthless or playing the victim, he could do it all without a second thought.

Xie Licheng stayed out cold until the next morning, by which time Gu Zhangyuan had already led the Gu family back to the city.

They had headed back during the night. They left in such a hurry for two reasons. First, Gu Qiyue had caused a scandal, and Gu Zhangyuan didn't want anyone at the temple to find out. Second, Gu Zhangyuan had heard that the northern part of Lingzhou was getting dangerous, and he had a nagging feeling something bad was coming.

To keep everyone safe, he had them pack up and head back to the city that night.

After all, the city was always safer than out there.

When Xie Licheng woke up, he found that he hadn't been sent back to his stable but was sleeping in a side courtyard in the inner compound.

He'd been faking it yesterday, but when he saw that Gu Zhangyuan was quite concerned about him and that Xuan Cui was personally watching over him, he drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up, a maidservant went to tell Gu Zhangyuan.

When Gu Zhangyuan arrived with Xuan Cui, he brought Gu Qiyue with him.

He had brought Gu Qiyue home yesterday and hadn't let him return to the second branch's courtyard, intending to keep him for questioning.

If it were just for a horse slave, it wouldn't be worth all this fuss.

But... Gu Qiyue's greatest mistake was sticking his nose into Gu Zhangyuan's courtyard over a horse slave.

Yesterday, he could force Gu Zhangyuan's servants to do his bidding over a horse slave.

Tomorrow, he might do even more damage to Gu Zhangyuan over another horse slave.

This was no small matter. Gu Zhangyuan truly couldn't let it slide, and he wasn't the type to take a loss lying down.

Whether for Xie Licheng's sake or for his own, he had to teach Gu Qiyue a lesson.

Only by showing his authority as the Eldest Young Master could he properly manage the household in the future.

Gu Zhangyuan came to the bedside where Xie Licheng was resting and said, "Tell me exactly what happened yesterday. I'll get to the bottom of it."

His voice was gentle, and he looked like a celestial being.

Xie Licheng looked at the man standing by the bed, and even his cold, piercing eyes couldn't help but soften slightly.

Xie Licheng: "Young Master, don't trouble yourself over me. I'm partly to blame for what happened yesterday. I'm just a criminal slave. For the Second Young Master to take a liking to me is a blessing I could only dream of. I... I should have served the Second Young Master properly, but then I remembered I belong to you now, so I didn't go along with him. Unexpectedly, the Second Young Master got furious and wanted to..."

Before Xie Licheng could finish, Gu Qiyue, who was outside the door, couldn't stand it anymore.

Gu Qiyue burst in and shouted angrily, "He's talking nonsense! I... I did want his body, but it wasn't like he said. He had a knife on him—a knife this long—pressed right against my neck. Brother, you can't believe what he says. He's a dangerous thug. You must turn him over to the authorities today."

Gu Zhangyuan looked at him coldly, clearly not believing a word of it.

Seeing this, Gu Qiyue got even angrier. "How can you not believe me? He really does have a knife on him. If you don't believe me, I'll frisk him myself and prove it."

With that, he moved forward to tear at Xie Licheng's clothes.

Xuan Cui quickly stopped him and said, "Young Master Yue, he's just a lowly horse slave. He wouldn't dare touch you, not even with ten times the guts. And... you say he has a knife, but I was the one who took him away yesterday. We even had a doctor examine him—there was no knife on him at all."

A knife? Xie Licheng definitely had one.

He not only had a knife—he had a sword, and he even had a gun...

Of course, he kept all of those in his portable world.

When Xuan Cui kicked the door open yesterday, he had already stashed the knife in his portable world.

He only had a small bamboo basket for snakes and a pouch with some loose silver.

How could he let anyone find something as dangerous as a knife?

As for the male slave who was there at the time—he had been knocked out by Xie Licheng and never saw the knife.

Besides, the male slave belonged to Gu Qiyue, and master and servant were in cahoots.

They were trying to harm Xie Licheng just yesterday. Even if Gu Qiyue could prove that Xie Licheng really had a knife, as long as Xuan Cui and the others didn't find that knife, then it meant the two of them, master and servant, were lying.

So no matter what Gu Qiyue said, he was lying, he was scheming against Xie Licheng. Everything he said now was worthless and couldn't hurt Xie Licheng.

Gu Qiyue: "How could there be no knife? I saw it myself yesterday. He has a knife, he really does. You can't believe him."

"No, no, it must be Xuan Cui. She must've hidden the knife to protect him. You're all in on it together. I'm going to see my father right now. I need to see him."

Gu Zhangyuan's head was pounding from the noise. He frowned and said to the servants outside, "Gag him, tie him up, and make him kneel in the courtyard."

Gu Qiyue flew into a rage and lunged at Gu Zhangyuan to grab his clothes.

Gu Zhangyuan stepped back half a step, and Gu Qiyue was stopped by Xuan Cui and a female martial guard.

Gu Qiyue cursed loudly, "How dare you! Gu Zhangyuan, you're just a kid—how dare you treat me like this?!"

Gu Zhangyuan was getting angry too. "Why wouldn't I dare? You dared to stick your filthy hands into my courtyard, so you should've known this day would come."

Before Gu Qiyue could say anything more, two female martial guards came in and dragged him out.

These martial women were very strong. Many had trained since childhood, so they were nothing like ordinary old women.

They were big and burly, and dragging the scrawny Gu Qiyue was effortless for them.

Only after Gu Qiyue was bound hand and foot and gagged did Gu Zhangyuan finally feel some quiet.

Xie Licheng, hearing the ruckus outside, said cautiously to Gu Zhangyuan, "Young Master, is it really okay to treat Second Young Master like this? What about the Second Master..."

Gu Zhangyuan: "It's fine. My father specifically said before he left that I'm allowed to discipline the younger brothers and sisters in the household."

Since the main branch and the second branch hadn't split up the household yet, as the Eldest Young Master of the main branch, he still had the right to discipline his younger brother.

What Gu Zhangyuan called "disciplining the younger brothers and sisters" meant hauling Gu Qiyue to the Gu family ancestral hall and giving him eighteen lashes with the family punishment.

The whip used in the Gu family's punishment wasn't as terrifying as the one Gu Tinghe used, but it still stung like crazy when it struck.

During the punishment of Gu Qiyue, the Second Master of the second branch never once showed his face.

If it had just been bullying a horse slave, Gu Qiyue wouldn't have warranted the Gu family's punishment.

But the situation now was that he had stuck his nose into Gu Zhangyuan's inner courtyard.

He could make servants of the main branch do his dirty work, and for such a filthy matter at that.

Gu Zhangyuan's anger was justified, because it involved the authority of the main branch and also his status as the Eldest Young Master.

So when Gu Qiyue was being beaten, even though the Second Master felt bad, he didn't step in to stop it.

He felt that his second son truly deserved the beating—if he wasn't disciplined now, he would probably cause trouble in the future.

The incident of Gu Qiyue being beaten suddenly shut up Gu Tinghe, who'd been itching to act.

Gu Qiyue was a son, a male descendant of the Gu family.

If Gu Zhangyuan dared to beat even Gu Qiyue, then Gu Tinghe figured he'd be in even worse trouble if he didn't behave.

Gu Qiyue was from the second branch, while he was from the main branch.

Gu Zhangyuan would find it even easier to discipline him than to discipline Gu Qiyue.

Because of this incident, Xie Licheng had a few easy days afterward.

He still didn't have to work, and he still stayed in that tiny run-down room in the stables to recover from his injuries.

Gu Zhangyuan had said no one would disturb his recovery, and sure enough, no one did.

Xie Licheng used these few days to level up from twenty-two to thirty-five.

Thirteen levels, so thirteen attribute points.

He put points into luck until it reached 20, and put the remaining 9 points all into strength.

At this point, Xie Licheng's luck was 20 and his strength was 39.

After these days of rest and recuperation, his weight reached 56 kilograms, four pounds heavier than before.

He was very tall, and without enough weight to fill out his frame, he'd look terrible and his health would suffer.

If a person is too thin, their qi and blood will be insufficient.

Insufficient qi and blood lead to all sorts of problems.

Like insomnia, vivid dreams, poor mental state, weak immunity, and getting sick easily.

Illness also makes health points drop. And sometimes, if you're in a bad mood or depressed, your health points drop too.