Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Gu Zhangyuan's hands were slender and long, with fair, delicate skin, long, well-proportioned fingers, and even his fingernails exuded an air of refinement.

Compared to his beautiful hands, Xie Licheng's rough hands were far coarser.

Xie Licheng's hands were large, broad, and thick, his palms covered in calluses from years of hard work.

They were also dry and rough—if not for their decent shape, his hands could truly be called ugly.

Fortunately, he had a large frame and long fingers, and he had recently gained some weight, giving them a touch of masculine strength.

Gu Zhangyuan's hand was suddenly seized. Though he knew this horse slave was trying to protect him, seeing his hand completely engulfed by the other man's, he couldn't help but be taken aback by the man's audacity.

How... audacious!

Before Gu Zhangyuan could get angry, Xuan Cui was the first to lose her temper.

Xuan Cui: "How dare you! Let go of the young master's hand this instant!"

Hearing this, Xie Licheng let go while explaining with an innocent expression, "Your servant didn't mean it, I just..."

In truth, he should have let go right after protecting him.

But the feel of that palm was too nice, so he had been momentarily dazed, which is why he held on a bit longer than he should have.

Xuan Cui: "Even if it was to protect the young master, you had no right to grab his hand. The young master is a precious, noble young lord—how could a lowly horse slave like you dare to touch him?"

Seeing Xie Licheng lower his head, looking rather pitiable,

Gu Zhangyuan said to Xuan Cui, "Enough, it was just an accident. You can't fault him for it."

It was mainly his own carelessness that caused what just happened.

Gu Zhangyuan asked Xie Licheng to release the two wolf cubs, intending to pick one to give to that young lord.

The wolf cubs were still young, and Gu Zhangyuan was mentally prepared, so he wasn't too worried about actually being bitten.

Xie Licheng let the cubs out and watched as Gu Zhangyuan chose one. He looked at the remaining cub and asked, "What about this one? Should I keep it or let it go?"

Gu Zhangyuan glanced at him. "Keep it. It's still so small—if you let it go, it might not survive."

Xie Licheng nodded and was about to pick up the cub from the ground and leave.

His task was complete, and he had many things to do, so there was no need to stay any longer.

Gu Zhangyuan watched him, then as if suddenly remembering something, said, "By the way, you'll live in this courtyard from now on. From now on, you'll be responsible for taking care of my horse and this wolf cub."

Xie Licheng looked around the small courtyard, then said to Gu Zhangyuan with a happy expression, "Thank you, young master. Your servant will definitely take good care of your horse and this wolf cub."

This courtyard was nice—though it didn't look very big, he would have it all to himself.

The courtyard had two rooms, a small stable, a well, and a small vegetable patch.

If it weren't for the troubled times, he wouldn't mind living here permanently.

It was a pity, though—the chaos had already begun, and a peaceful life might be hard to come by.

After Gu Zhangyuan left with Xuan Cui and the others, Xie Licheng inspected the small courtyard thoroughly.

After confirming there were no dog holes or anything, he went to the stable and led out Gu Zhangyuan's horse.

Gu Zhangyuan kept a white horse. He rarely rode it, but he still maintained one of his own.

As Xie Licheng went to fetch the horse on orders, many servants saw him.

Seeing him lead away the Eldest Young Master's horse, and that the Eldest Young Master had given him a private courtyard, the servants' expressions were quite telling.

Especially those who had bullied the original owner before—they couldn't help but grow anxious at the sight.

The low servants who had previously shared a room with the original owner were especially flustered. Among them, the Square-Jawed Man said in disbelief, "He... he's climbed up the Eldest Young Master's branch? He's not even that good-looking... how did the Eldest Young Master take a liking to him?"

Another low servant whispered, "I heard that when the Eldest Young Master punished Young Master Yue of the second branch last time, it was because Young Master Yue bullied him at the temple."

Square-Jawed Man: "How is that possible? What's so good about him? Aside from being a bit handsome and smooth-tongued, I really can't understand what the Eldest Young Master sees in him."

A short male slave lowered his voice and said slyly, "I think the Eldest Young Master is just getting older, unmarried, and lonely. And that horse slave is thick-skinned, good at flattering and coaxing, so the Eldest Young Master took a fancy to him. How about... we also try to show our faces before the Eldest Young Master?"

The Square-Jawed Man gave him a speechless look. He despised that horse slave, but he wasn't a fool.

In terms of looks, they truly couldn't compare.

If they recklessly approached the Eldest Young Master, even if he was magnanimous and didn't get angry, Steward Xu would skin them alive.

Square-Jawed Man scolded, "If you want to show off, go ahead yourself. I wouldn't dare provoke the Eldest Young Master."

He had self-awareness—his looks were below average even among men. If he carelessly approached the Eldest Young Master, all that awaited him was a miserable fate.

The short male slave silently cursed him a coward in his heart.

He genuinely believed that young lords like the Eldest Young Master, who had never married, were quite lonely.

Moreover, the Gu family was no ordinary household. The head of the family was lenient with the young lords and ladies, and privately allowed them to seek comfort with male slaves.

As long as they were bold enough, skilled at serving their master, and knew how to speak sweet words, rising above their station was still quite easy.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Xie Licheng returned to his small courtyard.

He used a comb to groom Gu Zhangyuan's horse, then properly fed it hay and water.

After confirming that no one would likely come looking for him, he closed the courtyard gate and returned to his personal world.

Back inside, looking at the mountain of things to do, Xie Licheng felt a headache coming on.

When he had gone to the mountain outside the city to find the wolf cubs, he had hunted quite a bit of game.

These prey were all piled up in the farmstead, and he used the system's recycling function to break them all down.

A wild boar, two snakes, a rabbit, and two wolves.

After decomposition, he obtained: one wild boar hide, two wolf hides, one rabbit hide.

Two portions of snake oil, two snake gallbladders, two portions of snake meat.

One portion of wild boar meat, one portion of wild boar bones.

One portion of rabbit meat, two portions of wolf meat, two portions of wolf bones.

After organizing these items, Xie Licheng built a rabbit hutch next to the chicken coop and placed the rabbit he had caught alive inside.

He had also captured a wild pheasant alive, which he released into the village to roam free. Whether it lived or died was up to fate.

Afterwards, Xie Licheng brought out a rabbit pelt, a portion of rabbit meat, and two portions of snake meat from his personal space.

His current small courtyard had a little kitchen, and he wanted to use it to fix himself a little something extra.

But he'd barely been out for a moment when Xuan Cui showed up again with her people.

Seeing this, Xie Licheng was really glad he hadn't hung around in his space any longer.

This time, Xuan Cui had come to hand out rewards to Xie Licheng.

Xie Licheng had completed his task well this time. Gu Zhangyuan had not only given him his own little courtyard to live in, but had also bought him two sets of clothes and given him fifty taels of silver.

Once he got the clothes and silver, Xie Licheng asked Xuan Cui to wait outside a moment, then brought two items out from his room.

When she saw the bloody rabbit meat and pelt in his hands, Xuan Cui couldn't help but shoot him a look of disgust.

Xie Licheng said, "These are for the young master."

Xuan Cui replied, "The young master's got plenty of food and fine pelts already."

Xie Licheng said, "I know, but this rabbit was freshly slaughtered, and the pelt is perfectly intact with not a single blemish. I figured, since the young master's always been so good to me, I wanted to give these to him."

Xuan Cui wanted to say the young master didn't need any of it, but remembering how strangely fond he was of Xie Licheng, she frowned and took the stuff anyway.

Whether he needed them or not, it wasn't her call to turn them down. She'd just bring them back and let him decide.

After that, Xuan Cui went to see Gu Zhangyuan with the fresh rabbit meat and pelt.

Honestly, when he saw them all of a sudden, Gu Zhangyuan was a little freaked out.

Yuan Qiao, who was standing nearby, said with a smirk, "When men give gifts to a gē'er, they always go all out to make it nice. Even if it's a rabbit, it should be alive. But no, he sends a dead one—and skinned, no less."

Gu Zhangyuan smiled and said, "Then take the meat to the small kitchen and have it stewed."

Xuan Cui smiled and asked, "And the pelt?"

Gu Zhangyuan gave it a look and said, "The fur's pretty nice, actually. Take it to the embroiderer and see what they can make with it."

The weather was warming up day by day, so stuff like that wouldn't be needed for a while.

For the next two days, it rained nonstop, and it was coming down hard.

Gu Zhangyuan couldn't go anywhere, and stuck at home, he was bored out of his mind. Then he remembered the wolf cub the horse slave had been raising, so he had someone bring both the horse slave and the cub to his courtyard.

When Xie Licheng carried the wolf cub to the back courtyard, a bunch of the Gu household servants saw him on the way—and so did Gu Tinghe, who'd been keeping a low profile lately.

Gu Tinghe watched where he was headed and asked the servant next to him, "Is he going to that bastard's courtyard?"

The servant beside him answered carefully, "Looks like it. I saw Yuan Qiao escorting him herself, so he's probably headed to the Eldest Young Master's courtyard."

Gu Tinghe snapped, "Then let's go check it out. What right does some lowly servant have to go to the back courtyard?"

The servant quickly tried to dissuade him in panic, "No, no, young master. Have you forgotten? The Eldest Young Master just lost his temper not long ago. We'd better not go before him."

"What's there to fear? He himself can summon a servant to amuse him in broad daylight. I'm just passing by to see what's going on. Surely he wouldn't kill me over something like that?"

After all, he was also of the Gu family bloodline.

No matter how noble Gu Zhangyuan was, he couldn't just have him killed.

With that thought in mind, Gu Tinghe ignored his servant's protests, grabbed his whip, and hurried after them.