Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Lingzhou City was now occupied by the rebel army, and quite a few rebels were patrolling the streets within the city.

Xie Licheng, wanting to learn more about the situation outside, avoided direct confrontation with those rebels.

If he had started fighting them the moment he came out, he didn't know much about them yet, and they would instead have taken notice of him—which wouldn't have been good for him.

Xie Licheng didn't walk down the main streets of the city but instead wandered through the more out-of-the-way alleys and side lanes.

Then, as he passed by a small courtyard, he saw a snot-nosed little boy crying.

At first, the boy didn't notice Xie Licheng and just tilted his head back, completely absorbed in his own wailing, as if something terribly sad had happened to him.

Xie Licheng couldn't stand children who were too noisy, so he pretended not to see him and made to walk right past.

But just then, the little boy spotted Xie Licheng.

Xie Licheng was tall and strapping, and he looked like trouble.

The boy's first instinct was fear, figuring Xie Licheng was one of those rebels too.

But soon he realized that Xie Licheng had no intention of paying him any mind, nor did he bust into his house to steal stuff.

The boy was puzzled for a moment, then suddenly piped up and asked Xie Licheng, "Uncle, aren't you one of those rebels?"

Xie Licheng, who was barely past twenty and still thought of himself as young, couldn't really stomach being called "uncle" by someone.

At his current age, in a later era, he'd be a bright-eyed college student—how on earth did he end up as some kid's uncle?

Xie Licheng turned to look at him, wanting to set the record straight on what the kid called him.

But before he could get a word out, the little boy wiped his snot and went on, "Uncle, you're not one of those rebels, are you? Uncle, can you take me with you? There's no one left in my family now, and everything we owned got stolen."

Xie Licheng looked at him with a hint of amusement and said, "Do you even know who I am? And you're brave enough to come with me?"

What if he was a bad guy? Wouldn't the kid be as good as dead if he followed him? Kids are kids—naive and ridiculous in their thinking.

The little boy sobbed as he said, "If I don't go with you, I'll be killed soon anyway."

Xie Licheng: "Who's going to kill you?"

He said his whole family was dead, and those people hadn't killed him before, which meant they couldn't be bothered to kill him. So his situation right now should be relatively safe.

The little boy: "The guy next door has thrown in with the rebels. Since there are no adults left in my family now, he wants to kill me so he can grab our house for himself."

He was outside now because other people were living in his house—those people were the neighbor's relatives.

He refused to budge, and the whole lot of them threatened to kill him. But he had no idea where else he could go, so he could only squat here and cry by himself.

The boy, still crying, told Xie Licheng about his family's situation and the neighbor's wicked deeds, just hoping Xie Licheng would take him away.

He figured Xie Licheng looked pretty tough and mean. If he followed him, even if life wasn't great, at least he probably wouldn't get beaten to death by anyone.

After hearing him out, Xie Licheng said, "Fine, I'll take you with me."

A kid like that was no threat, and bringing him into the pocket world wouldn't be a problem. After all, Peach Blossom Village already had plenty of the elderly, the weak, women, and children—one more wouldn't hurt.

Besides, this trip wasn't just to scout things out; it was also to save people by bringing them into his pocket world.

This kid had no one and nothing tying him down, so bringing him in wouldn't cause any trouble. Xie Licheng was more than happy to take him along.

"Really?"

"Yeah. If there's anything you want to take, I can help you carry it too."

The boy had quite a few things he wanted to bring, but since his house was now occupied, he figured he probably couldn't get them anyway.

The boy said, "My house was taken over by them, so those things are probably... forget it, I don't want any of it. I just want to stay alive right now."

Xie Licheng smiled at that. "Don't be scared of them. If there's something you want, I'll go back with you to get it."

There was no farmland left to give him in the pocket world, and since the boy was still so young, he'd have a hard time making a living without bringing some supplies.

Hearing Xie Licheng's words, the boy said in a small, uncertain voice, "But... there are a lot of them. Are you sure you can take them all on?"

The neighbor's family had three sons and two girls, and the neighbor's relatives were also a family of four. No matter how tough this uncle was, there was no way he could take on that many people alone, right?

"Cut the chatter. If you want to grab something, go now, or I'm out of here."

The boy scrambled to his feet, with no time to be scared, and sprinted toward his house, with Xie Licheng trailing slowly behind him.

A big man who had taken over his house saw him daring to show his face again and grabbed a broom, intending to beat him out.

But just then, the man noticed an adult following behind the boy, and his hand froze mid-swing.

The man pointed at Xie Licheng and yelled, "Who are you? This is my house—get the hell out!"

Xie Licheng turned his eyes to him. "You sure... this is your house?"

The man said without a shred of guilt, "Yeah, this is my house!"

Xie Licheng looked at the boy and said, "But he says this is his house."

The man glared at the boy with murder in his eyes. "This is my house. He's just a little beggar kid. Kids are always lying."

The boy immediately retorted, "You're full of it! This is my house! My family's lived here for over ten years, and all the neighbors can back me up on that. My grandparents, my dad, and my other dad—they were all killed by those rebels. They took advantage of there being no adults left in my family, had the nerve to take over our house, and even threatened to kill me!"

With that, the boy made a move to rush inside to grab his dad's portrait.

He looked just like his dad, and once the uncle saw the portrait, he'd know the kid wasn't lying.

But the man wouldn't allow him inside and even raised his hand to smack him.

Scared of getting hit, the boy quickly turned and ran over to Xie Licheng's side.

He said, "Uncle, Uncle, there's a portrait of my dad in that room—it can prove I'm telling the truth."

The man cursed, "You little shit, always spouting nonsense! If you two don't get out of my house right now, we're going to get rough with you."

Xie Licheng said coolly, "Alright, I'd like to see just how rough you're going to get with me."

Seeing that Xie Licheng wouldn't take the hint and get lost, the man swung the broom down at him.

Xie Licheng grabbed the boy behind him by the hand and dodged the blow with ease.

Before the man could take another swing, Xie Licheng gave him a hard kick.

The man was sent flying from the kick, looking totally dazed.

He'd been in fights before, but one brief exchange with this guy was enough to tell him he wasn't dealing with an ordinary man.

He was way out of his league. Even if his whole family jumped in together, they probably still couldn't take this one guy down.

Knowing full well how outmatched he was, the man scrambled up and bolted out of the courtyard.

Xie Licheng watched him go but didn't bother with him, heading with the boy toward the house in the back.

They walked into a room where a middle-aged woman and a young man were already there.

The two were going through the boy's stuff. The woman had thrown on a dress that didn't fit and wasn't hers, and the young man was dabbing on rouge that wasn't his while staring into a mirror.

They chattered away excitedly as they rifled through everything.

The woman said, "The man of this house had good luck but a short life. So many pretty clothes, and he can't even wear them. Might as well let me enjoy them for him."

The young man added, "Those soldiers only cared about money and food. They left all this makeup behind, so it's a nice little score for us mother and son. Ma, look—does this rouge look good on me?"

The woman glanced at her ugly son, feeling a twinge of disgust, but still said, "Pretty, pretty."

By now, anyone in Lingzhou City with even a shred of looks had been hauled off by the soldiers.

Her son was flat-out ugly. Before all this, they'd even tried paying a dowry to marry him off, but nobody wanted him.

She'd figured that with the world falling apart and fewer women and young men around, her son would have an easier time landing a man.

But to her surprise, when the two of them walked the streets, neither the bandits nor the soldiers wanted anything to do with them.

One soldier even thought they were so ugly he almost drew his sword and killed them right there. Luckily, her brother had joined the rebel army, which was the only reason they'd barely escaped with their lives.

Seeing them messing with his father's things, the boy flew into a rage and yelled, "What the hell are you doing? These aren't your things! You two ugly freaks—don't touch my dad's stuff!"

And with that, he charged at them like a wild animal.

The young man shot him a glance, hiked up his skirt, and tried to kick him.

But he missed and got kicked himself by Xie Licheng, who'd come up right behind him.

When he hit the ground, the young man finally got a good look at Xie Licheng's face.

Xie Licheng was better-looking than most men. This young man was seriously ugly and hadn't seen much of the world. Suddenly seeing a man like Xie Licheng, even after getting kicked, he didn't feel angry or scared. Instead, he blushed, scrambled up, and tried to hug Xie Licheng's leg.

Xie Licheng had lived two lives and seen every kind of person there was.

He'd seen women who, even during the apocalypse, refused to latch onto a man just to survive, and ended up starving to death alone in some hiding spot.

He'd also seen women nobody wanted before the apocalypse turn around and start slaughtering other women, thinking that if all the women died, men would finally want them.

And now this young man in front of him struck Xie Licheng as just as bizarre. He didn't even know if Xie Licheng was good or bad—Xie Licheng had kicked him hard the second they met—and he still blushed just looking at him.

Xie Licheng kicked him away again before he could grab his leg. This time, the young man didn't foolishly lunge at him again.

He was hurt—kicked twice in the body. It would be strange if he weren't injured.

He clutched his chest and took a long while to catch his breath.

By then, Xie Licheng had taken a seat on a nearby chair, watching the little boy gather the things he wanted to take.

The boy was young and anxious to leave with Xie Licheng, rushing around in a fluster.

He wanted to take this, and he wanted to take that.

He found his father's portrait and pulled out a pile of his father's clothes as well.

Xie Licheng said to him, "Why are you taking so many of his clothes? Better to bring more things you can actually use yourself."

Like his own clothes, pots and pans, food, money...