Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Xie Licheng was awakened by the pain from his injuries. Before he could even figure out how he'd been hurt, the second he opened his eyes, he saw a whip lashing toward him.

Instinctively, Xie Licheng reached out and grabbed the whip, intending to teach the reckless fool a lesson.

Ever since that incident, Xie Licheng had obtained a golden finger by accident, and no one had dared to show him such disrespect since.

He wanted to see who had the guts to touch him while he was "asleep."

Then Xie Licheng looked up and locked eyes with a pair of furious ones.

They were exquisite, beautiful eyes—but unfortunately, there was something dirty in them, ruining what would've been beautiful eyes.

The owner of those eyes was a youth of about seventeen or eighteen, slim and wiry.

The youth wore a set of flashy red robes in an ancient style, and he had a fair face, rosy lips, and pearly white teeth.

As if he hadn't expected Xie Licheng to fight back, the youth yanked hard at the whip in his hand and shrieked at him: "How dare you! You dare lay a hand on me? Do you want to die?!"

Xie Licheng frowned at that and immediately sensed something was wrong.

The youth's language was totally foreign to him—not any language he knew—but to his surprise, he could understand it.

Something else was wrong—this body he was in. He felt extremely weak, like he hadn't had a decent meal in ages, and like he'd been brutally mistreated.

This wasn't his body. Even if his real one was hurt, it wouldn't feel like this.

Xie Licheng decided not to jump up and beat the kid.

Not that he didn't want to—he just couldn't in this body.

In his current state, if he didn't have insane willpower, he'd probably be out cold by now.

Besides, he still didn't understand the situation, and he was in such a weakened condition—he shouldn't make any rash moves.

With that in mind, Xie Licheng released the whip and hid the murderous look in his eyes.

The youth looked smug for a second, then his pretty face twisted in anger.

He snapped at the two behind him: "Hold him down for me! How dare this piece of trash fight back? I'm going to break one of his legs today, or people will think I'm scared of him."

The two exchanged a look, and one cautiously spoke up.

"Master, you've almost killed him. If the old master hears about this..."

Before the man could finish, the youth, like a psycho, suddenly whipped around and lashed him.

The youth's whip was lined with barbs—one hit was enough to rip skin open.

The man took the hit, face twisting in pain, but didn't dare make a sound.

Fighting through the pain, he knelt carefully, not daring to beg again.

The youth sneered at his groveling.

"What? You think he's cute, so you're secretly feeling bad for him?"

The man went pale, pressed his forehead to the ground, and stammered out a defense.

"I wouldn't dare, Master. I haven't. I'm yours—I'd never... never look at a worthless horse slave."

The youth snorted. "Honestly, even if you did like him, who cares? You two are a perfect match, honestly. One's a horse slave from the camp, the other's a lowly servant. If you like him that much, I'll make it happen—you two can tie the knot today."

After saying this, seeing the man was already in tears, the youth cackled.

The youth was pretty, and his voice wasn't bad either.

But his sharp, venomous tone made him sound like a total villain—mean and creepy.

Xie Licheng couldn't stand him. He put up with the annoying laughter while checking out his surroundings.

He wondered—if he killed this guy, could he escape?

Xie Licheng was sure this wasn't his body.

Not just the body—maybe even the world and the time period had changed.

This was clearly an ancient world, and Xie Licheng was a modern guy—from the apocalypse, no less.

Since his body had changed, he figured his cheat ability was gone too, so he didn't even think about hiding in his space after killing the guy.

His cold gaze swept over the youth's pale, skinny neck, then slowly moved elsewhere.

They were in a small courtyard.

The courtyard had two rooms, a stable, and a well.

The rooms, the stable, the well—all of it looked old and rustic, straight out of a pre-apocalypse costume drama.

With the youth and the others dressed like that, this was definitely ancient times.

Then, before Xie Licheng could continue observing, the youth suddenly turned to face him, raising the whip in his hand to strike him again.

But at that moment, a hurried voice rang out from outside the courtyard, interrupting the youth's intent to continue his violence.

"Master! Master! Terrible news—the Eldest Young Master is back!"

The youth retracted his whip with reluctance and said, "That wretch again. Why is he back so soon?"

The one delivering the news was a girl—more precisely, a maidservant.

Hearing his words, she pushed open the courtyard gate from outside and urged him, "I'm not sure. He's already reached the side courtyard's moon gate. It looks like he's coming to find you."

The youth: "Understood. Clean this place up, lock him in the woodshed, and don't let that wretch see him."

With that, the youth tossed his whip to another servant and quickly left with the maidservant.

Once the youth's figure had disappeared into the distance, two people remained in the courtyard besides Xie Licheng.

One was the person who had pleaded for Xie Licheng earlier, and the other was a tall man who had been ordered to take Xie Licheng to the woodshed.

The tall man was large and imposing. He didn't immediately take Xie Licheng to the woodshed, but instead lowered his eyes and said to the one still kneeling: "Don't you know how foolish you are? You can't even protect yourself, yet you try to plead for someone else? If the Eldest Young Master hadn't returned in time this time, never mind him—even you... wouldn't have gotten out of this alive."

The person kneeling in place finally stirred slightly after a long moment.

The tall man paid him no more attention. He reached out, dragged Xie Licheng up, and headed outside.

Then, to the tall man's surprise, they had barely stepped out of the courtyard gate when they saw the Eldest Young Master approaching from ahead.

Startled, the man dragged Xie Licheng, trying to turn around and head back.

Seeing how scared the man was, Xie Licheng deliberately refused to play along. He gave a slight struggle and flopped to the ground.

The man cursed under his breath, then dropped to his knees with a thud beside Xie Licheng.

Soon after, the Eldest Young Master strolled over with a few servants in tow.

A maidservant beside the Eldest Young Master looked at the blood-soaked horse slave on the ground and spoke up, "Master, it must be the Young Master's handiwork again. The Young Master has been getting more and more out of hand lately. Who knows how this horse slave offended the Young Master? This servant has already seen the Young Master beat him several times."

Hearing this, the Eldest Young Master walked over to the horse slave on the ground. The maidservant, startled, hurried after him.

Maidservant: "Master, that horse slave is filthy and covered in blood. You... shouldn't get too close."

The Eldest Young Master, who hadn't spoken a word until now, finally opened his mouth.

His voice was cool and clear, giving away little emotion.

"It's fine. He's just a servant. The filth and the blood on him aren't things he chose."

With that, he leaned down a bit to get a closer look at the horse slave's injuries.

He saw wounds on the horse slave's head, neck, and back—bloody and raw, a truly horrifying sight.

He let out a soft sigh, and just as he was about to tell a servant to fetch a doctor—

The horse slave, who'd been keeping his head down, suddenly looked up. Their eyes met out of nowhere.

What surprised the Eldest Young Master was that this filthy, battered servant had an incredibly handsome face.

Sharp brows, bright eyes, a high nose bridge, slightly deep-set eyes... His brows and lashes were so thick they looked almost painted on.

Too bad—no matter how handsome the face, once it's scarred, it's like cracked jade, no longer quite perfect.

While the Eldest Young Master was lamenting Xie Licheng's face, Xie Licheng was just as stunned by the Eldest Young Master's looks.

Both were stunningly good-looking, but in completely different ways.

After all, one was a man, the other a gē'er—even if both had exquisite features, the difference between them was huge.

Xie Licheng was the bold, striking type—tall, cool, and handsome.

The Eldest Young Master's looks were far more delicate and polished.

As a gē'er, his build wasn't as broad and sturdy as a man's, carrying instead a softness unique to gē'er.

His frame was slender and tall, yet held a supple resilience unique to his kind.

Though both were exceptionally handsome, they were like two completely different styles side by side.

One was like a fierce carnivorous wolf; the other, a gentle herbivorous sheep.

Xie Licheng lived in a post-apocalyptic world—cruel, yet surprisingly tolerant.

Many who couldn't survive on their own would team up with others to keep living.

Some men got with women, some men with men, and some women with women.

When just surviving was a struggle, people stopped caring about gender.

Xie Licheng had seen plenty of handsome men become wives to other men just to survive.

Xie Licheng was strong, and the strong always attracted beautiful men and women alike.

But being a lone wolf by nature, he never ended up picking one to be his partner.

That said, he had encountered all kinds of beauties and was a man of broad experience.

Yet even with all that experience, the first time he laid eyes on the Eldest Young Master, he couldn't help but be taken aback by his looks.

This person... was truly beautiful—worthy of being called a painting immortal, no exaggeration.

Xie Licheng didn't dare stare at him for long, feeling it would seem ill-mannered.

So he glanced once, then lowered his gaze elsewhere.

His tact spared the Eldest Young Master any feeling of being offended.

The Eldest Young Master straightened up with the maidservant's support, then said to those behind him, "Go, find a physician to tend to him."