Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Xie Licheng walked further inside, not seeing the familiar Xuan Cui, nor Gu Zhangyuan's wet nurse.

Apart from the young attendant who had led him here, there was only one maidservant in this courtyard, and she was someone Xie Licheng had never seen before.

The maidservant seemed to steal a glance at him. Xie Licheng, sensitive and suspicious by nature, frowned slightly, then revealed a somewhat cold smile.

Pretending not to notice anything, Xie Licheng pushed open the door with a blank expression.

As soon as he stepped inside, the maidservant outside immediately locked the door from the outside.

Xie Licheng turned back with a feigned look of shock and panic, then pounded on the door and shouted loudly.

"What are you doing? Why are you locking the door?"

The person outside ignored him and hurried away with the key.

Meanwhile, two men walked out from inside the room, one after another.

The man at the front was none other than the young master of the Gu family's Second Branch—the one who had originally gotten the original owner out of the slave camp.

In the original story, the original owner had not come to the temple with Gu Zhangyuan, so the book had no plotline where the original owner ran into the Second Branch young master.

Since transmigrating, Xie Licheng had never run into this Second Branch young master again and had completely forgotten about him.

Seeing him now, Xie Licheng was genuinely surprised.

But recalling that this man had always had his eye on the original owner, and now that he was finally out from under his elders' watch at home, it wasn't surprising he'd pull something like this.

Xie Licheng glanced at Young Master Gu, then looked at the other man behind him.

The other man was a servant. This Young Master Gu wasn't exactly stupid—he knew he was useless and that the original owner was disobedient. Worried the original owner might punch him if they were alone, he'd brought a male slave along.

Xie Licheng quietly pulled a short knife from his portable world while acting flustered as he asked Young Master Gu, "Young Master, what... what are you doing?"

This young master of the Second Branch was named Gu Qiyue, only nineteen years old.

At that age, in later times, he'd still be just a half-grown kid.

But people in ancient times matured earlier—many rich family sons had chamber maids by fifteen or sixteen.

Gu Qiyue was a man who'd liked men since he was young.

The Second Master of the Gu family had always been furious about this. The male line of the Gu family had always been rather thin.

The First Branch had only one son. The Second Branch was a bit better off—he had three sons.

But not one of his three sons listened. The eldest had run off over some young man, and to this day, no one knew if he was alive or dead.

The second son was Gu Qiyue, a man naturally into men.

He liked sleeping with men, and he also liked being slept with.

Of course, if it were just a preference for men, that wouldn't be a big deal.

What really ticked off the Second Master was that Gu Qiyue had a twisted side.

Speaking of twisted, Gu Qiyue and Gu Tinghe really were worthy cousins.

Both of them enjoyed abusing servants, and both had at least two deaths on their hands.

One got off on sexual abuse, the other just liked plain abuse—neither was worth a damn.

The Second Branch's third son was decent enough, but unfortunately, he was into swords and guns.

The Second Master had wanted his third son to study, or even go into business if not academics, but he just didn't want him charging off to the military camp.

The military camp wasn't a good place, and the battlefield was dangerous—one slip and you'd lose your life.

But the kid was young and born with a rebellious streak. The more he was told not to do something, the more he wanted to do it.

Now the third son had gone to the border, the eldest had vanished, and the Second Master only had his second son left, so he naturally had to crack down on him.

But as it turned out, none of his three sons had any real talent—they all just had a rebellious streak and loved defying him.

The more he forbade Gu Qiyue from chasing men, the more frantically Gu Qiyue wanted to stir up trouble.

Now his audacity had grown to the point where he'd make a move on Xie Licheng even in a temple.

Gu Qiyue smiled at Xie Licheng and said, "I heard you've been through a lot lately. Look at you—why put yourself through this? If you'd just come to me obediently earlier, you'd already be living the good life as a master."

Xie Licheng rolled his eyes internally. Who was he trying to fool?

Did he look that easy to fool?

Living the good life as a master?

Gu Qiyue himself was just a concubine-born young master—he wasn't even living the good life himself. Where did he get the nerve to say that?

Seeing Xie Licheng wasn't responding, Gu Qiyue grabbed a thick hemp rope and kept rambling, "Don't worry. You're very much to my liking. As long as you listen to me from now on, I definitely won't kill you."

Xie Licheng said, "But I'm the Eldest Young Master's man now. You should already know that, right, Young Master?"

If he hadn't known, he wouldn't have used the Eldest Young Master's people to lure him here.

Gu Qiyue's expression stiffened for a moment, then he dropped his relatively gentle demeanor and started cursing.

"That slut—a gē'er like him fighting his own cousin over a man. He doesn't have a shred of proper young master demeanor. If the First Branch didn't have a man to take charge, how would it ever fall to him to run things? I'm from the Second Branch, and I'm a man—I'm not scared of him."

Xie Licheng slowly backed away, speaking calmly, "My relationship with the Eldest Young Master isn't what you think, Young Master. I'm handling matters for him right now. You'd better let me go, or else..."

Gu Qiyue's expression grew even angrier. "Or else what? Is he going to kill me? No matter how noble he is, no matter how much the eldest uncle dotes on him, he's still just a gē'er. When his younger brother comes back, the First Branch will still go to his brother. Don't keep trying to scare me with him—he doesn't mean shit to me."

At this point, Gu Qiyue was clearly running out of patience.

He glanced at the male slave beside him, signaling for him to help tie Xie Licheng up first.

The male slave shot Xie Licheng a sympathetic glance.

Few men who fell into Gu Qiyue's hands came out unscathed.

Thinking that Xie Licheng had only recently been seriously injured, if he were tortured by Gu Qiyue again today, he probably wouldn't make it out of here alive.

He felt deep sympathy for Xie Licheng, but his hands moved without hesitation.

He was just a servant—he was forced into this too.

If the other party happened to die, he hoped he wouldn't hold it against him.

Then, just as he was approaching Xie Licheng, before he could even see what was happening, he fell straight backward and passed out.

Gu Qiyue stared at the suddenly collapsing male slave, as if he hadn't quite registered what had happened.

He turned his head toward Xie Licheng with a blank look, about to say, "How dare you—how dare you resist?"

But before he could speak, Xie Licheng reached out and clamped a large hand over his mouth.

Xie Licheng leaned close to his ear and said, "What were you planning to do to me?"

Gu Qiyue let out a muffled whimper, trying to shove Xie Licheng away and yell for help.

Seeming to read his thoughts, Xie Licheng let out a cold laugh and pulled out a knife.

By now, the northern part of Lingzhou had already started to fall into chaos. Even if Xie Licheng became a fugitive slave of the Gu family, the authorities wouldn't have time to deal with him under the current circumstances.

Earlier, Xie Licheng hadn't wanted to leave the Gu family because his original identity as a criminal slave was highly sensitive.

If the land hadn't fallen into turmoil, he would be hunted by the authorities wherever he went.

That would be a hassle, and even buying things would become extremely difficult.

But... after a trip outside, he discovered that some places in Lingzhou had already started to fall into chaos.

Lingzhou was close to the capital—if even this area was falling into chaos, other regions would only be worse.

Under such circumstances, even if Xie Licheng fled the Gu family, he wouldn't attract much attention.

Of course, he hadn't planned on leaving in the first place.

That young master Gu Zhangyuan wasn't a bad guy—he had a handsome face and was generous with his money.

He figured he could stay at the Gu family, helping him out with stuff while earning some coin.

Besides, he still owed Gu Zhangyuan a favor, and maybe he could repay it at some point.

Unfortunately, someone just had to come knocking looking for trouble, so he had no choice but to...

Just as Xie Licheng was about to bring the knife down, a familiar voice rang out from outside the door.

"Where is he? I'm asking you, where is he?! Someone saw you take him away—hand him over right now!!"

The speaker was Xuan Cui, and the one she was grilling was the young attendant who had brought Xie Licheng over.

Hearing the commotion outside, Xie Licheng's grip loosened, and Gu Qiyue managed to break free.

That guy was ruthless too—the moment he broke free from Xie Licheng, he grabbed a nearby vase and hurled it at him with all his might.

Gu Qiyue was terrified. He truly hadn't expected Xie Licheng to have the guts to try to kill him.

Just a horse slave, and he was carrying a knife on him?

And he'd just tried to kill him, no less?

The murderous intent radiating from him was so intense it scared Gu Qiyue so badly his mind went blank.

He threw a vase at Xie Licheng, and the previously agile Xie Licheng seemed to have lost his wits.

He didn't dodge or block, letting himself get hit square in the head.

Gu Qiyue cursed, "You filthy slave! A filthy slave like you dare try to kill me? Do you know who I am?"

Xie Licheng touched his bleeding forehead, then reached out and hammered on the door while taunting Gu Qiyue in a low voice, "You piece of trash, you just wait—sooner or later, I'll butcher you."

Gu Qiyue stammered, "You—you—you—you wouldn't dare! I—I—I'll kill you right now!"

With that, he picked up a shard of the broken vase and lunged at Xie Licheng's neck.

Xie Licheng didn't let him slash his face. Instead, he raised his arm and half-heartedly blocked it, letting the shard cut into his arm.

Just then, drawn by the commotion, Xuan Cui arrived at the door.

Xuan Cui called out, "Hey, horse slave, horse slave, you in there?"

Xie Licheng cried out weakly, "Miss Xuan Cui, save me! Please save me!"

Hearing Xie Licheng cry for help, Gu Qiyue froze.

Shouldn't he be the one screaming for help?