Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Even in his previous life, Xie Licheng wouldn't have been confident that the Eldest Young Master would definitely take a liking to him.

Xie Licheng truly didn't understand where this short, scrawny little thing with thinning hair and bulging eyes got the nerve to think he could compete for his favor.

Xie Licheng himself hadn't even truly earned that favor yet, so what right did this little thing have to compete for it?

When Xie Licheng suddenly made a move, not only was the short male slave scared, but the others were too.

They quickly rushed over to stop Xie Licheng, trying to pry the short male slave from his grip.

In the end, it took several of them working together and a lot of effort to free him.

It was only then that the short male slave finally started to feel scared.

He said pitifully, "Brother, brother, let's talk this out, okay? I won't compete with you anymore, so why do you have to get physical?"

The other male slaves chimed in, "That's right, we're all low-ranking slaves here. We should be helping each other out. What's there to discuss that you have to resort to throwing punches?"

"Exactly, you've got way too short a fuse. He didn't even say anything that bad, so why'd you have to put your hands on him?"

Xie Licheng rolled his eyes, not even bothering to be polite about it. He hadn't actually hit anyone—just scared him a bit—but they made it sound like he'd attacked the guy for no reason.

These people were clearly taking sides, so he didn't want to waste any more time on them.

He tossed out the stuff the short male slave had brought and kicked them all out without ceremony.

Watching the courtyard door slam in their faces, the ones who'd been kicked out were furious.

They lowered their voices and said, "That horse slave is way out of line. Just because he's the young master's man now, he thinks he can hit and curse at us. If we let him keep acting so high and mighty, he'll turn the whole Gu household upside down!"

"Yeah, and he's still a criminal slave. With that status, he'll never be a free man in his whole life. No matter how desperate the Eldest Young Master is, he's not gonna make a criminal slave his live-in son-in-law. Just wait—once the Eldest Young Master picks his son-in-law, he won't have anything to be so smug about."

The short male slave covered his face with his hand. He was a little scared of the new Xie Licheng.

When Xie Licheng had grabbed his head earlier, he felt like the guy might crush his skull in one squeeze.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but ever since the guy moved out of their quarters, he'd had this rough, thuggish vibe about him.

He was scared of Xie Licheng, so he didn't dare join the others in badmouthing him outside the door.

But just because he didn't dare say anything didn't mean he wasn't holding a grudge against Xie Licheng.

If he could get a chance to show himself in front of the young master and win his favor, he'd definitely make Xie Licheng pay for today's humiliation.

Not long after kicking everyone out, Xie Licheng grabbed his pass token and left the estate.

He was worried that if he stayed in the Gu household, more people would come knocking.

If he went into his portable world at that point, the Gu family would notice something was up.

Luckily, Gu Zhangyuan had agreed today that he could come and go from the Gu estate freely from now on.

He figured he might as well leave now, and under the excuse of going hunting, secretly duck into his portable world to keep leveling up.

The moment Xie Licheng left the Gu estate, a low servant from the household secretly tailed him.

Xie Licheng sensed it but didn't bother doing anything about it.

He left Lingzhou City in the evening and quickly lost the tail.

Only after confirming the guy hadn't followed him did he find a secluded spot and slip into his portable world.

Back on his own turf, Xie Licheng felt a lot more relaxed.

He changed into something loose and comfortable and headed to the bamboo forest at the foot of the mountain to hunt snakes.

The snakes here respawned—even if he killed them all in one go, there'd be just as many the next day, so it wouldn't mess with the local ecosystem.

Xie Licheng swept through the area and managed to kill three snakes.

Later, since it was getting dark, he stopped hunting and went back to the farmstead to fish.

In the pond at the farmstead, he could only catch grass carp, silver carp, and crucian carp.

In the river at the beginner village, he could catch grass carp, snakehead, loach, and eel.

Other maps that hadn't been unlocked yet should have even more different kinds of fish.

Xie Licheng fished at the farmstead for three hours and caught four grass carp, one crucian carp, and two silver carp.

He didn't kill any of the fish—he kept them alive in a big bucket instead.

He could sell them later, or save them to bring back for Gu Zhangyuan.

He'd said he'd get him something good to build up his strength, so he couldn't exactly go back empty-handed.

The prey on the mountain in the beginner village was limited to tigers, bears, wolves, jackals, wildcats, deer, rabbits, and stuff like that.

Animals like deer, rabbits, pheasants, and wild ducks only spawned in limited numbers each day, and some would get picked off by the bigger predators.

On a normal day when Xie Licheng went up the mountain, it was hard to even hunt a deer or anything like that.

But since the deer meat in his portable world was way better than anything in the real world, he still wanted to bag one to bring back.

Early the next morning, Xie Licheng got ready and headed into the mountains.

This time he went in determined to bag as much prey as possible.

So when he went in, he not only brought extra food and water, but his hunting rifle too.

He didn't bring the rifle because he planned to hunt with it.

It was for his own safety.

If he ran into something tricky, like a tiger or a black bear, he'd use the rifle to be safe.

And then, wouldn't you know it—whatever he'd been thinking about, he ran right into it.

The deer he'd been thinking about yesterday showed up the moment he entered the mountains.

Having gotten lucky for once, Xie Licheng sure as hell wasn't about to let this deer get away.

After considerable effort, Xie Licheng finally killed the deer.

He looked at the dead deer and sat down to rest for a bit.

His stamina was a bit low right now, and he needed to recover before continuing deeper into the mountains.

In his portable world, Xie Licheng had a portable backpack.

The backpack had only ten slots, and each slot could hold only one item.

Since only his farm, the novice village, and this mountain were currently unlocked on the map, he didn't use the backpack much in his day-to-day life.

Since he planned to spend more time on the mountain today, Xie Licheng dressed the deer he'd hunted, then stashed the hide and meat in the backpack.

After resting until his stamina was back up to 78, Xie Licheng grabbed his gear and headed further into the mountain.

For the rest of the morning, he didn't run into any big game, only bagging two rabbits and a wild pheasant.

He didn't run into another big critter until around two or three in the afternoon.

This time it was a black bear, and that thing looked pretty scary.

Xie Licheng's combat stats weren't great, so he didn't dare get too close.

Staying well back, he took a shot at it with his bow.

The big black bear had thick hide and tough meat, so the arrow barely did any damage.

When he saw it had spotted him and was starting to lumber his way, Xie Licheng scrambled up a big tree while pulling the shotgun off his back and letting off another shot.

That shot hit hard, catching it right in the head.

He then fired two more arrows to make sure the bear was dead before climbing down to collect his loot.

The more dangerous the prey, the more experience points it gave.

That deer from earlier was worth as much as five or six rabbits.

And that black bear just now was worth five or six times more than the deer.

Later, on his way down the mountain, he also bagged a wild boar that was out for a stroll.

Today's haul was pretty solid—first off, his level had gone up to 43.

Add that to the 3 attribute points he'd saved up before, and he now had 8 attribute points to work with.

Second, he'd gotten three hides: one deer, one wild boar, and one black bear.

Then there was some deer meat, a pair of antlers, some deer blood, and some deer bones.

Some wild boar meat and some wild boar bones.

Some bear meat, some bear blood, a bear gallbladder, four bear paws, some bear bones, some bear fat, and a bear head.

Normal prey only gave hides, meat, and bones.

Only the more dangerous prey dropped extra stuff.

Finally, there were the rabbits and the pheasant. Xie Licheng headed back to the farm with a big pile of loot.

Things that needed to stay fresh went into the warehouse, and the rest got tossed in the kitchen.

Over the next three days, Xie Licheng worked just as hard as he had on day one.

He pushed his level all the way to 51 before heading back to Lingzhou City with some game in tow.

When Xie Licheng got back, he was carrying a bamboo basket stuffed full of stuff.

He came in through the side gate and got stopped by the steward, who gave him a long once-over.

Seeing all the bloody stuff he'd brought back, the steward looked a little spooked.

In the end, Xuan Cui had to come over in person before they'd let Xie Licheng into the Gu estate.

Having not seen him for a few days, Xuan Cui noticed he'd gotten darker and thinner, and he reeked of blood. She couldn't help frowning and giving him a piece of her mind.

Xuan Cui: "How'd you get yourself into this state? Dark and skinny, and you stink—how are you supposed to meet the young master looking like this?"

Xie Licheng: "Then I won't go see the young master. Miss Xuancui, just take the stuff to him for me."

With that, Xie Licheng set the basket down off his back.

He first pulled a live rabbit out of the basket, then took out a few wrapped bundles.

The bundles held deer meat, deer blood, antlers, and deer bones, respectively.

These were all valuable items, and a lot of them could be used for medicine.

Xuan Cui stared in shock, not daring to reach out and take them for a good long while.

She really didn't dare take them—everything was all bloody, and she was scared of getting blood all over herself.

Seeing that, Xie Licheng smiled and said, "Well then, how about I just follow you and deliver these to the young master myself?"

Xuan Cui pressed her lips together for a long moment before nodding. "Fine, follow me through the back path. With how rough you look right now, it's better if nobody else sees you—don't want to scare any of the masters."

Xie Licheng just said "okay" and followed her toward the inner residence.

Since they took the back path, they only ran into two cleaning servants along the way and didn't bump into anyone else from the Gu family.

When they were almost at Gu Zhangyuan's courtyard, Xuan Cui decided she wouldn't take him inside.

It wasn't that she didn't want Xie Licheng to see the young master—it was mainly that Xie Licheng looked too rough right now, and the stuff he was carrying was too bloody, so she was worried it might scare the young master.

Xuan Cui stopped and was about to find a maid to have the stuff taken to the small kitchen.

Seeing her stop, Xie Licheng spoke up: "Let me take the stuff in for you. I won't see the young master—I'll just sneak in, drop it off, and leave."

Xuan Cui was about to say it wasn't necessary, that the young master's courtyard had plenty of servants to handle it, but before she could get a word out, Xie Licheng walked straight into the courtyard on his own.

Xie Licheng had been here before, and the guards at the gate recognized him, so they let him through.

And so, under Xuan Cui's stunned gaze, Xie Licheng walked right into the courtyard with his load.

Xie Licheng had said he wouldn't see Gu Zhangyuan, but that was a lie he'd told Xuan Cui on purpose.

He'd insisted on coming back today and had eagerly followed her into the inner residence precisely because he wanted to see Gu Zhangyuan.

He was thinking back to that day when those male slaves had come looking for him.

The Gu household had quite a few male slaves who'd seen him rise in status through his "connections."

He figured quite a few of them had the same improper ideas as that short male slave.

To keep any trouble from falling on Gu Zhangyuan because of his situation, he decided it was best to come see him.

Xuan Cui followed closely behind Xie Licheng, and seeing that he wasn't heading toward the small kitchen at all, she muttered "shameless" under her breath.

Xie Licheng's keen ears picked up on it, but he didn't take offense.

A slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and with Yuan Qiao's help, he managed to meet Gu Zhangyuan.

Honestly, the reason he could get to see Gu Zhangyuan so easily was not just because of his own thick skin, but mainly because of Gu Zhangyuan's indulgence toward him.

If Gu Zhangyuan had no desire to see him, he wouldn't even have the right to set foot in the inner residence.

Nor would Xuan Cui and Yuan Qiao have let him waltz in like that.