Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Once things outside finally quieted down, Gu Zhangyuan wasn't in the mood to play with the dog anymore.

He glanced at Xie Licheng and said to him, "Don't pay him any mind. He was just running his mouth on purpose to get under my skin. Alright, take the wolf pup and head back."

Xie Licheng didn't get up right away after hearing that. Instead, he looked up at Gu Zhangyuan and said, "That young master's got a real loose mouth and acts way too entitled. If somebody doesn't straighten him out, he's gonna cause a ton of trouble for the Gu family down the road."

Xie Licheng wasn't just blowing smoke. In the original story, this young master almost got Gu Zhangyuan killed.

When all hell broke loose in Lingzhou, Gu Zhangyuan led the Gu family as they fled.

The young master, Gu Tinghe, had somehow gotten his hands on a good-looking scholar and was dead set on bringing him along.

Since the scholar was frail and got a stomachache not long after they set out, Gu Tinghe threw a fit demanding Gu Zhangyuan find him a doctor.

Gu Zhangyuan just wanted to keep his family safe and couldn't care less about that scholar.

For that scholar's sake, Gu Tinghe ended up threatening to kill himself, which forced Gu Zhangyuan to go find a doctor, and on the way he almost got snatched up by a bunch of bandits.

Xie Licheng figured Gu Tinghe had a few screws loose—the guy had a hair-trigger temper and blew up over nothing.

If he didn't know Gu Tinghe was just a concubine-born son of the Gu family, watching him strut around and threaten to kill people left and right, he'd have thought the guy was some lost imperial prince of Dazhou.

Xie Licheng really couldn't stand people like that—folks who were messed up themselves and loved dragging everyone else down with them.

Hearing that, Gu Zhangyuan sat back down in front of him.

He asked, "So what do you think? How's someone like him supposed to be disciplined? I'm his eldest brother—I'm the legitimate son, and he's the concubine's kid. If I come down too hard on him, everyone's gonna say I'm using my status to bully him. Besides, he's still my father's kid. If I really cracked down on him, even my own father would think I'm heartless. So tell me... how the hell am I supposed to handle him?"

Looking at it that way, Gu Zhangyuan really was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Especially since his old man actually treated him pretty decently.

Dealing with a brother that unhinged, it was genuinely tough for him as the older sibling.

Noticing he seemed a little down, Xie Licheng tried to comfort him, "You don't need to worry yourself too much, Young Master. If there's really no way to straighten him out, then just don't bother at all."

"But if I don't, you just said he'd bring big trouble to the Gu family."

"Then let him. When he finally stirs up a real mess, your father will deal with him himself. But you gotta be careful yourself, Young Master—don't let his mess drag you down. As long as he doesn't hurt you, just let him sink or swim on his own."

As Xie Licheng said this, he kept his head lowered, a coldness in his eyes so deep it'd never thaw.

He didn't think he'd gone too far, nor did he think he was being cruel.

Everyone's their own person, and everyone's gotta answer for what they do.

Even if it's a kid, when they do something wrong, they should be held accountable for it.

You can't use being young and clueless as an excuse to run wild.

And there's no damn reason someone should be allowed to hurt others but throw a fit if anyone hurts them back.

In the original story, Gu Tinghe was the one who killed the original body's owner.

Now that Xie Licheng was in the original owner's shoes, Gu Tinghe's hatred for the original owner had shifted onto him.

Given how they were on opposite sides, it wasn't out of line for Xie Licheng to want nothing to do with him or to hate his guts.

Gu Zhangyuan couldn't see his face, but he could hear the genuine worry in his voice.

Since his words were full of concern for him, even if what he said was a bit shady, it was hard to see him as a bad guy.

"Alright, I understand. You may go back now."

Xie Licheng was about to rise and leave when Gu Zhangyuan suddenly reached out and shoved the jar of ointment into his chest.

Spring wasn't that warm yet, and since Gu Zhangyuan was someone who hated the cold, his fingertips were freezing.

When he pressed the ointment into Xie Licheng's chest, Xie Licheng clearly felt the cold brush of his fingertips against his wrist.

Unlike his icy fingertips, Xie Licheng ran hot—his wrist was warm, his whole body like a damn furnace.

When those cold fingertips met that warmth, both of them froze for a second.

Xie Licheng grabbed the ointment pressed against his chest and straightened up as he said to Gu Zhangyuan, "Young Master, your body runs cold. Would it be alright if your servant went hunting outside the city regularly and brought back some nourishing game for you?"

Gu Zhangyuan knew full well this horse slave was probably just looking for an excuse to get out of the house.

But he looked at him, mulled it over, and agreed anyway.

Fine, let him go—he was actually kinda curious what he kept sneaking off to do.

Gu Zhangyuan: "Fine."

With that, Xie Licheng left Gu Zhangyuan's courtyard.

He walked from the inner courtyard to the outer one, passing a bunch of Gu family servants along the way.

They all shied away when they saw him, looking kinda scared of him.

Once he was gone, they popped their heads out one by one and started whispering.

"That's him, right? He's pretty good-looking, just... a little too skinny."

"How could he not be skinny? He was a criminal slave in the slave camp before—that place ain't fit for human beings. Then he finally made it to the Gu family, but because he accidentally pissed off the young master, he got beaten and starved every single day. I used to feel pretty sorry for him."

"Tsk tsk, things are different now. Even the way he walks has changed. Before, he wouldn't dare walk with his back this straight."

...

Xie Licheng couldn't give a damn about the whispers behind his back.

He went back to his little courtyard, planning to get back to leveling up.

At this point, there were still about four months left before all hell broke loose in Lingzhou.

He needed to level up and stockpile supplies—and looking at it that way, time was really running out.

But before he could find a chance to duck into his portable world, a few male slaves suddenly showed up looking for him.

These were the same male slaves who used to bully the original owner all the time. They'd probably heard he'd been called to the back courtyard by the eldest young master today, and were worried that now that he had someone backing him, he might come after them. So they wanted to use this chance to patch things up.

What surprised Xie Licheng was that two of these male slaves were the ones who'd lived with the original owner before.

One of them, a short guy, was the one who'd soaked Xie Licheng's bedding with water that day.

When he saw Xie Licheng looking at him, the short male slave scurried over with a sycophantic grin.

He brought some food and a new set of clothes.

They were all low-ranking servants of the Gu family, and ordinarily, they could hardly leave the estate.

But not being able to leave the estate didn't mean they couldn't get their hands on things from outside.

The Gu family had servants whose job was to go out and buy supplies. As long as you slipped them a few coppers for their trouble, and the items you asked for weren't dangerous, they'd be happy to bring things back for you.

The stuff in the other guy's hands was probably something someone had asked them to bring in.

He handed the things to Xie Licheng, hoping to smooth things over between them.

Right then, Xie Licheng really didn't have time to mess around with them.

He plastered on a look of flattered surprise, planning to blow them off and hustle them out the door.

To him, these people were all small fry—nobodies—and he didn't want to spend any time on them.

But what caught Xie Licheng off guard was how some people just knew how to push their luck.

Seeing how easygoing he was and how he didn't hold a grudge over the past, that short male slave tugged him aside and, with a sleazy grin, asked, "Hey bro, can you teach your little brother here—how exactly do you get Eldest Young Master happy?"

Xie Licheng frowned. "What're you talking about?"

"I mean, don't play all coy with me. The whole Gu household knows you're Eldest Young Master's boy now."

"His boy?"

"Oh, are you really that clueless or just faking it? I mean *that*—the bed warmer, the lover. Last time when the Gu family came back from the temple, Eldest Young Master chewed out Young Master Yue for you. And now, for you, he's even thrown the Young Master into the ancestral hall. Everyone's saying that since Eldest Young Master can't marry out, he's planning to make you his concubine. You've got some real game—a low servant born from a criminal slave, and you actually managed to get into Eldest Young Master's bed. So I just wanted to ask you—how the hell did you manage that?"

"Ha."

Xie Licheng let out a cold snicker.

Today, Gu Tinghe had gone over to Gu Zhangyuan's place and raised a stink, but Gu Zhangyuan didn't really care what the Gu family said about him.

As a male heir, Gu Zhangyuan couldn't give a damn about his own reputation.

Even when his younger brother caught him meeting a male slave in the inner quarters, he could still scold the kid without batting an eye.

Clearly, the Gu family elders didn't give a damn about this, and might've even sanctioned it.

The Gu family probably didn't want him to marry out—they wanted to raise him to be the head of the household.

Since his family had his back, he naturally wasn't scared of what others said.

As for why he had been afraid back then, when a servant had caught him with that aunt's nephew—

It was probably because, in Gu Zhangyuan's mind, fooling around with a male slave from his own household was a whole different thing from being set up with an outsider.

One was his own choice—indulging himself from a position of power.

The other was forced, framed, and had even ended in a death, so he didn't want too many people knowing about it.

Since Gu Zhangyuan himself didn't care about being misunderstood, Xie Licheng didn't care much either.

He was a man, and a male slave at that.

Reputation was something utterly useless to him.

Besides, the world was about to go to hell soon. In a lawless era, people couldn't even stay alive, so who'd give a damn about reputation?

Xie Licheng sneered—not because he was being mistaken for having something with Gu Zhangyuan.

No, he was laughing at the delusion of the man in front of him. A toad who didn't even bother to look at his own reflection in a puddle.

Gu Zhangyuan was a beauty like an immortal. Would he have to be crazy or out of his mind to fancy a male slave with no looks, no skills, and who could even be called ugly?

The short male slave saw Xie Licheng staring at him with that cold smile, and for some reason, a chill ran down his spine.

He said nervously, "If you don't want to tell me, fine. It's not like I'm trying to steal your favor—I'll just leave now, and—"

Before he could finish and slip away, Xie Licheng reached out with his big hand and grabbed the back of his head.

Having big hands was convenient—grabbing someone's head was like grabbing a big apple.

He yanked the man back and looked down at him, saying, "You—why don't you take a look at what you actually look like? Where do you get the confidence to think Eldest Young Master would ever fancy you?"