Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Gu Zhangyuan pointed at a box not far away. "The meat here looks really fresh, huh? When did you manage to get all this in here?"

If he remembered correctly, hadn't Xie Licheng been busy fighting those bandits all along? He shouldn't have had any time to go hunting over the past few days.

Xie Licheng told him, "This is a cold storage warehouse. Fruits go in fresh, and they stay just as fresh even after ten days or half a month."

As he spoke, he grabbed a box of pastries from a nearby shelf.

He'd bought these pastries on a whim when leaving the Gu residence not long ago.

Apparently they were a well-known local specialty in Lingzhou City, so Xie Licheng had bought a portion and put it into his portable space.

Gu Zhangyuan had been scared and anxious these past few days, so he probably hadn't eaten a proper meal.

Xie Licheng placed the pastries in his hands and said to him, "Alright, I won't stick around to browse with you. You can come and go freely around my farm, and you can take any food here as you please. I'm going to send the grain out now, and then I'll be leaving."

When Gu Zhangyuan heard he was going out, he took the pastries in one hand and pinched Xie Licheng's ear with the other.

Gu Zhangyuan said softly, "I want to go out and see what's happening."

He didn't want to leave—he was just curious about what was going on outside.

Xie Licheng held him, his deep gaze fixed on him.

"You can't go out. It's really chaotic out there right now. I've told you before—once you leave, you can't come back."

Gu Zhangyuan knew Xie Licheng was more easily swayed by softness than force. He still couldn't believe that once someone left, they could never come back.

So he wheedled Xie Licheng, "You're going out to find a doctor and look for the secret room at the Gu residence, right? It'll be easier if you take me along—I know where our family's secret room is. Also, if we run into danger, you can tuck me back in here anytime."

Xie Licheng wanted to say no—it was too much trouble.

But just as he was about to refuse, Gu Zhangyuan leaned over and kissed his cheek.

Gu Zhangyuan was gorgeous, and his lips were incredibly soft.

When his lips pressed against Xie Licheng's face, he was very, very close to Xie Licheng, his whole body carrying a scent that seemed almost intoxicating.

Xie Licheng said to Gu Zhangyuan, "You're pulling that beauty trick on me again."

His little trick exposed, Gu Zhangyuan didn't feel guilty at all.

He pulled his hand back from Xie Licheng's earlobe, then pressed his fingertip to the tip of Xie Licheng's nose.

Gu Zhangyuan: "So tell me, do you fall for it or not?"

Xie Licheng parted his lips and bit down on his fingertip. Seeing Gu Zhangyuan wince in pain, he let go with a light snort.

"Fine, I'll take you out to see for yourself, so you don't think I'm lying. Once you see how scary it is out there, you'll realize how good you have it here."

With that, Xie Licheng set Gu Zhangyuan down on the ground.

He picked out a few bags of fine rice and a few bags of fine flour, planning to hand the grain to the servants outside.

Gu Zhangyuan didn't take the pastries with him. He figured that since he was about to head out with Xie Licheng, it was better to leave the pastries here for now, since this warehouse had special preservation powers.

He put the things down and walked over to the fruit shelf.

He glanced back at Xie Licheng, who nodded for him to take whatever he wanted.

He picked up a strawberry from the shelf. They had these small wild berries around here that looked a bit like strawberries, but the taste difference between them was huge.

Wild berries were smaller and not as brightly colored as strawberries.

Wild berries tasted more sour, while strawberries tasted sweeter.

Seeing he'd only taken one, Xie Licheng walked over and grabbed him a box.

A box of strawberries wasn't much—just seven or eight of them.

Xie Licheng: "Want anything else to eat?"

Gu Zhangyuan definitely hadn't been eating well these past few days, and he was still insisting on going out with him to check things out.

If he didn't eat his fill, he wouldn't even have the strength to run later.

Gu Zhangyuan: "You have so much stuff here. I don't even know what's good."

Hearing that, Xie Licheng picked for him. He hadn't eaten anything today either, as it happened.

He looked through the cooked food shelf, picked out a portion of braised fish that was still warm, a serving of egg fried rice, and also grabbed two steamed buns.

The fish and rice were both things Xie Licheng had made himself before. Back then, in order to level up, he'd made quite a lot of dishes.

The steamed buns were ones Xie Licheng had bought with money from outside—quite a few were from his stockpile in his previous life, and some were bought in Lingzhou.

The two of them came out of the warehouse together and simply had a midday meal.

It wasn't even noon yet, so calling it a midday meal was a bit of a stretch, since it was only around ten in the morning.

Gu Zhangyuan was quite picky with his palate, and it was obvious he didn't really like the food Xie Licheng had cooked. He only took a few bites before not wanting to eat anymore.

Xie Licheng took the meal in front of him over. Since they'd already eaten from it, it couldn't be put back, so he might as well finish it all himself.

Gu Zhangyuan only ate one steamed bun, then started eating strawberries.

The steamed buns were bought from outside, and they tasted pretty good.

The strawberries were delicious too—sweet and sour, plump and juicy.

He ate three in a row, and after that, he only liked eating the tips of the strawberries.

Probably thinking that since these were chaotic times, he couldn't be as extravagant and wasteful as before, he forced himself to eat the bottoms of the strawberries with a reluctant expression.

Seeing this, Xie Licheng said to him, "If you don't want to eat the strawberry bottoms, then don't. Our farm can grow strawberries—we won't be short on them for you."

Gu Zhangyuan smiled at this. While eating the tips of other strawberries, he couldn't help saying, "Then wouldn't I be really bad? We're in chaotic times now, and I'm still throwing a young master's tantrum."

"No, it's not like we're lacking any of this here. From now on, you eat the strawberry tips, and leave the bottoms for me to eat, or give them to Yuan Qiao and the others."

Gu Zhangyuan felt embarrassed to eat the good parts himself and then force Xie Licheng to eat his leftovers.

But he couldn't let Xie Licheng eat what he'd left behind—though he could indeed let Yuan Qiao and Xuan Cui eat the strawberry bottoms in the future.

When the time came, he'd have Yuan Qiao cut the strawberries, and he'd just keep the tips for himself.

Since Yuan Qiao and the others weren't around right now, and Gu Zhangyuan couldn't bear to throw away the strawberry bottoms, he ate them himself.

He raised his eyes to look at Xie Licheng, who understood what he meant and took his leftovers over without needing to be told.

Watching Xie Licheng eat all the strawberry bottoms, Gu Zhangyuan suddenly felt a bit shy again—their relationship had become way too intimate.

But then he figured, before the chaos, he'd wanted to take Xie Licheng as his chamber maid, and after the chaos, he'd become Xie Licheng's husband to save his family.

Whether before or after, they'd always been close like this.

Besides, his dad had taught him.

As the Gu family's eldest young master, he wasn't like regular folks.

He didn't have to be all virtuous, kind, proper, and sensible like other guys his age.

Thanks to how he was raised and the world he grew up in, his personality was different from most people's too.

He didn't see why it was shameful for a guy like him to be into a man's looks.

Guys could appreciate women's and other guys' looks, so why couldn't he?

Of course, calling Xie Licheng "beautiful" wasn't really accurate—he didn't really fit the whole "beautiful" thing.

Even if he was good-looking, it wasn't the same kind of good-looking as women or other guys.

For women and other guys, you'd use flowers, dew, gems, or pearls.

But for Xie Licheng, you'd have to go with blades and sword edges.

And he wasn't sure if it was just him, but lately Xie Licheng seemed to care less and less about how he looked.

Luckily, he had a good base, and he was slowly filling out, so being a bit rough around the edges didn't matter much.

After talking himself into it, Gu Zhangyuan walked up behind Xie Licheng and wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

Xie Licheng was still eating and asked, "What's up?"

Gu Zhangyuan smiled. "Nothing, just wanted to hug you."

He loved holding Xie Licheng—it gave him this weird sense of safety he couldn't put into words.

Xie Licheng nodded and didn't bother asking why he was hugging him.

He finished off the food, then hoisted Gu Zhangyuan onto his back and headed out of the farm with the bucket of fresh fish.

He handed the food to the servants and said, "Your young master's coming with me. Tell your master not to worry."

With that, Xie Licheng was about to take Gu Zhangyuan out.

Just then, the system popped up a prompt asking whether to clear Gu Zhangyuan's memory.

If he chose to clear it, Gu Zhangyuan would never be able to come back here again.

Xie Licheng just glanced at it and picked "no" without a second thought.

For people whose memories weren't wiped, even if they left the pocket world for a bit, the population count wouldn't drop.

They were counted as part of the pocket world's people, and only if they died would the number go down.

If someone's memory was wiped, they weren't part of the pocket world anymore—the population would drop, and the world wouldn't take them back.

Once they were out, Gu Zhangyuan asked to walk by himself.

Seeing that Gu Zhangyuan was doing okay, Xie Licheng set him down.

Once outside, they remembered there were still a lot of injured people in the pocket world, so they needed to find a doctor first.

Of the people Xie Licheng had taken in, Xuan Cui wasn't the only one hurt—plenty of others were banged up too.

Earlier, Xie Licheng hadn't bothered looking for a doctor because he'd been swamped, and their injuries weren't as bad as Xuan Cui's, so he hadn't been in a hurry.

But now that there were seriously hurt people in the pocket world and the population was growing, they really needed a doctor.

On the way to find a doctor with Gu Zhangyuan, Xie Licheng saw that the streets, once so lively, had turned into a mess.

Lots of doors were hanging open, and courtyards had been torn apart.

Some doors had blood on them, and there were even dead bodies by the road.

Gu Zhangyuan knew things were rough out there, but he hadn't expected it to get this bad in just two days.

His eyes went red, and he couldn't bear to look. "What's going on in the capital? Why haven't they sent troops?"

"The capital's a mess too. Some prince is trying to grab the throne in all the chaos, so they probably don't have time for this place."

The book said the last emperor of Dazhou was the Seventh Prince.

The Seventh Prince only lasted two months on the throne before getting caught by the Marquis of Shubei's men during the capital move.

After grabbing him, the Marquis of Shubei declared himself king, took over the capital and the area north of Lingzhou, and the book called him the King of Northern Zhou.

In the story, the main guy's love interest couldn't hold Lingzhou, and for a long time, it was under the King of Northern Zhou's control.

The King of Northern Zhou and the Marquis of Jincheng held down the northwest part of Dazhou for a long time.

As for the main guy's crew, they started in the northeast, but they'd grabbed too much land without enough troops to hold it, so they stayed holed up in the middle of Dazhou until his eldest brother died.

That was the most chaotic time—two marquises in the northwest, the main guy's crew in the middle, and a bunch of bandits calling themselves kings in the northeast.

The south was split into a bunch of small factions, and some parts were taken over by foreign pirates.

Only the southwest was still Dazhou's, held by a military family loyal to the throne.

But that didn't last either—people inside started getting sick of being bossed around by that family, and slowly the southwest fell apart too.

In the book, this mess lasted a full eleven years.

The whole time, natural disasters and plagues never let up.

To fight for territory, people would use any means necessary.

Under the warfare, the people were displaced and had no way to farm.

In such circumstances, with natural disasters, plagues, and famine, it was no exaggeration to say Dazhou was left with one household in ten empty.

Many towns were deserted—houses with no occupants, land with no one to till it, and weeds growing everywhere.

It was precisely because so many people had died over those years that when the main guy's love interest later became the new emperor, he felt little sense of achievement.

Because when this vast nation fell into his hands, the total population was less than two hundred thousand.

This was a truly terrifying situation. The male lead's own army numbered over a hundred thousand, which meant only a few tens of thousands of civilians were left.

And among those tens of thousands were the elderly and children.

Those actually fit for marriage and childbearing numbered fewer than twenty thousand.

With so few people, so much land, and a severely damaged environment, rebuilding would be extremely difficult.

Even by the end of the story, the male lead's territory was only a third of Dazhou's original size.

Xie Licheng had a pocket world, so he had no intention of fighting the male lead for the throne.

It wasn't that he was especially generous, or that he lacked ambition.

Rather, he discovered that his pocket world's map was even bigger than Dazhou's territory.

His pocket world was a game world, and its resources refreshed every day, so they'd never run short.

Since resources refreshed daily, they'd never run out of food.

Xie Licheng figured that even after he died, this world would probably keep existing.

The only catch was that he was the gateway for other people to enter the pocket world.

Once he died, that two-way door would be shut forever.

Also, the maps further out could never be unlocked.

Their home was like a hidden paradise, completely cut off from the outside world forever.

...

Xie Licheng snapped out of his thoughts and led Gu Zhangyuan into a medical clinic.

There were still people inside the clinic. Probably because he was a doctor, his family hadn't been killed.

Everyone gets sick and dies eventually. Those bandits and robbers probably figured that if they killed all the doctors, there'd be no one left to treat them when they got sick.

When Xie Licheng and Gu Zhangyuan showed up at the door, the old man packing his things got a fright.

The old man was terrified of Xie Licheng, mostly because the man was so tall and imposing that he clearly wasn't someone to mess with.

But then he looked at Gu Zhangyuan and recognized him as the eldest young master of the Gu family.

Lots of people in Lingzhou City knew him and had always thought well of him.

Seeing Gu Zhangyuan, the old physician relaxed a bit.

He kept packing as he said to Gu Zhangyuan, "Sorry, young master, but we're not seeing patients today. We're closing down."

Gu Zhangyuan said urgently, "Please come with us. We have a badly injured patient. Don't worry, we can absolutely guarantee your safety."

The old physician shook his head. "That won't work either. Lingzhou City is about to fall. We need to get my family out of here before those people outside start killing everyone."

Gu Zhangyuan pulled out a money pouch and said in a coaxing voice, "How about this? It won't be easy for you to get out of the city anyway. If you agree to treat our patient, I'll have someone escort your family out."

The old physician was taken aback. He didn't really believe Gu Zhangyuan.

The Gu family had already been stripped clean, their people either fled or dead. Gu Zhangyuan was still trapped in the city himself, so how could he possibly get them out?

But then again, he wasn't confident he could get his family out safely either.

Besides, Gu Zhangyuan had always been a man of good character, so the old physician figured he had no reason to lie.

And even if the Gu family had fallen on hard times, they were still better off than a clinic owner like him. Maybe they really did have a way out.

The old physician thought it over and said, "Fine, but I need to bring my family. I don't feel safe leaving them at home."

Gu Zhangyuan immediately handed him the silver. The old physician didn't refuse—given the situation, he needed to keep some money on him for safety.

Xie Licheng saw that the old man was being sensible and asked, "What do you all need to bring? I have a way to take everything for you."

The old physician said doubtfully, "Well, the more we can bring, the better."

Xie Licheng said, "Then pack it all up. I'll take your family and your things together."

Hearing this, the old physician assumed someone would come to help them later, so he hurried to the backyard to tell his family.

They spent half an hour packing, mostly gathering valuables and herbs from the house.

Since Xie Licheng said he could take everything, they piled up quite a lot of stuff.

Xie Licheng and Gu Zhangyuan walked into the courtyard, looked at the pile of stuff, and asked, "All done packing?"

The old physician felt a little guilty, knowing he'd packed too much.

But he was a doctor, and these herbs were really important to him.

He couldn't bear to part with this or that, and he'd also packed a lot of medical books.

The old physician said, "I know we've got a lot of stuff, but we'll carry some of it ourselves."

Xie Licheng nodded casually. "Then I'll send you in first, and come back for your things later."

As he said this, he motioned for the family to hold hands, so it'd be easier for him to move them.

Hearing this, the old physician's family instinctively looked outside.

"There... there isn't anyone else?"

Xie Licheng didn't get what they meant, but with a wave of his hand, he brought them to Peach Blossom Village.

When they arrived, the old physician's family was almost scared out of their minds.

The old physician was up there in years. He clutched his chest and took a long time to catch his breath before asking in a shaky voice, "W-what... where is this?"

The old physician's son also asked quickly, "Are you... are you immortals? Is this where immortals live?"

Gu Zhangyuan couldn't help laughing. "This isn't where immortals live, and we're not immortals either."

The old physician's wife said, "Then... then what is this place? Weren't we just... just at home a moment ago?"

Gu Zhangyuan glanced back at Xie Licheng. Honestly, he still didn't fully understand what this place was, so he didn't know how to answer.

Xie Licheng said, "This is my place. You don't need to know the details—just know it's safe here. Alright, I'll take you to see the wounded now. As long as you can heal them all, I'll get your family out of the city afterward."

At that, the old physician remembered their belongings. "Then... then what about our things and the herbs?"

The moment he finished speaking, Xie Licheng vanished.

Then the things they'd piled up in the courtyard started appearing one by one next to them.

Even their carriage and the pots and pans from their kitchen were later brought in by Xie Licheng too.