Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Hearing that it was finally quiet outside, Gu Zhangyuan no longer felt like playing with the dog.

He glanced at Xie Licheng and said, "Don't mind what he said. He was just spouting nonsense on purpose to get under my skin. Alright, take the little wolf and head back."

Xie Licheng didn't get up right away. Instead, he looked up at Gu Zhangyuan and said, "That young master runs his mouth and acts like a spoiled brat. If somebody doesn't straighten him out, he's gonna cause a ton of trouble for the Gu family down the road."

Xie Licheng wasn't just blowing smoke. In the original story, this young master almost got Gu Zhangyuan killed.

When Lingzhou went to hell, Gu Zhangyuan led the Gu family in a getaway.

The young master, Gu Tinghe, had somehow gotten his hands on a good-looking scholar and refused to leave without him.

The scholar was in bad shape and got a stomachache not long after they set out, so Gu Tinghe threw a fit demanding Gu Zhangyuan find the guy a doctor.

Gu Zhangyuan just wanted to keep his family safe and couldn't care less about that scholar.

For that scholar, Gu Tinghe ended up threatening to kill himself to force Gu Zhangyuan's hand, which nearly got Gu Zhangyuan snatched by bandits while he was out looking for a doctor.

Xie Licheng figured Gu Tinghe had a few screws loose, with a temper that went off like a firecracker.

If he didn't know Gu Tinghe was just a concubine-born son of the Gu family, with the way he blustered around and was always yapping about killing people, he'd have figured the kid was some lost prince of the Great Zhou royal family.

Xie Licheng really couldn't stand people like that—folks who were messed up themselves and loved dragging everyone else down with them.

Hearing that, Gu Zhangyuan suddenly sat back down in front of him.

He asked, "So what do you think I should do with a guy like him? I'm his older brother, the legitimate son, and he's the concubine's kid. If I come down too hard on him, everyone's gonna say I'm using my status to bully him. Besides, he's still my father's kid. If I really cracked down on him, even my old man would think I'm heartless. So tell me... how the hell am I supposed to handle him?"

So yeah, Gu Zhangyuan was really stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Especially since his own dad treated him pretty decently.

Dealing with a psycho little brother like that, being the big brother was a real headache.

Xie Licheng could tell he was a little down and tried to console him, saying, "Young Master, don't sweat it too much. If there's really no way to straighten him out, then just don't bother at all."

"But if I don't, you just said he'd bring a ton of trouble to the Gu family."

"Then let him. When he finally screws up big time, your father will deal with him himself. But you gotta be careful not to let his mess drag you down. As long as he doesn't hurt you, just let him rot on his own."

As he said this, Xie Licheng lowered his head, and deep in his eyes was a coldness so thick it couldn't be thawed.

He didn't think he'd gone too far, nor did he think he was being cruel.

Everyone's their own person and has to own up to what they do.

Even if it's a kid, if they do something wrong, they gotta face the consequences.

Being young and clueless doesn't give anyone a free pass to act like a menace.

And there's no damn logic in letting them hurt people while nobody's allowed to hurt them back.

In the original story, Gu Tinghe was the one who offed the original owner.

Now that Xie Licheng was the original owner, Gu Tinghe's hatred for him had shifted onto Xie Licheng.

Given they were on opposite sides, it wasn't out of line for Xie Licheng to want nothing to do with the kid and to hate his guts.

Gu Zhangyuan couldn't see his face, only heard the deep worry in his voice.

Since his words were all about caring for him, even if they were a bit shady, it was hard for Gu Zhangyuan to see him as a bad guy.

"Alright, got it. You can head back now."

Xie Licheng was about to get up and leave when Gu Zhangyuan suddenly reached out and shoved the jar of ointment into his chest.

Spring wasn't warm yet, and Gu Zhangyuan was a guy who hated the cold, so his fingertips were a little icy.

When he pressed the ointment into Xie Licheng's chest, Xie Licheng clearly felt the cold of his fingertips graze his wrist.

Unlike his icy fingertips, Xie Licheng ran hot—his wrist was warm, his whole body like a damn furnace.

Cold fingertips meeting a patch of warmth—both of them froze for a second.

Xie Licheng grabbed the ointment pressed to his chest and, straightening up, said to Gu Zhangyuan, "Young Master runs cold. Would your humble servant be allowed to go hunting outside the city from time to time and bring back some game to build you up?"

Gu Zhangyuan knew damn well this horse slave was probably just looking for an excuse to get out of the house.

But he looked at him, thought it over, and still said yes.

Fine, let him go. He was actually kind of curious what the guy was up to out there all the time.

Gu Zhangyuan: "Fine."

With that, Xie Licheng left Gu Zhangyuan's courtyard.

He walked from the inner courtyard to the outer one, passing a bunch of Gu family servants along the way.

They all dodged him when they saw him, looking a little scared.

Only after he was gone did they poke their heads out one by one and start whispering.

"That's him, right? He's pretty good-looking, sure, but... a little too skinny."

"How could he not be skinny? He was a criminal slave in the slave camp before. Then he finally made it to the Gu family, but because he accidentally pissed off the young master, he got beaten or starved every single day. I used to feel sorry for the guy."

"Tsk tsk, he's a whole different person now. Even the way he walks is different. Before, he wouldn't have dared walk with his back this straight."

...

Xie Licheng couldn't give a damn about the whispers behind his back.

He went back to his little courtyard and planned to head inside to keep leveling up.

At this point, there were still about four months until all hell broke loose in Lingzhou.

He needed to level up and stockpile supplies—and with that in mind, time was definitely running out.

But before he could find a chance to slip into his portable world, a few male slaves suddenly showed up at his door.

These were the same male slaves who used to bully the original owner all the time. They'd probably seen him get called to the back courtyard by the eldest young master today, and now they were scared that with backup behind him, he might come after them—so they wanted to patch things up while they still could.

What surprised Xie Licheng was that two of them were the guys who'd shared quarters with the original owner.

One of them, a short guy, was the one who'd soaked Xie Licheng's bedding with water that day.

When he saw Xie Licheng looking at him, the short male slave slapped on a fawning smile and shuffled up to him.

He brought some food and a new set of clothes.

They were all low-ranking slaves of the Gu family, and ordinarily, it was hard for them to leave the estate.

But not being able to leave the estate didn't mean they couldn't buy things from outside.

The Gu family had dedicated servants responsible for going out to purchase supplies. As long as you gave them a few coppers as a tip, and what you asked them to bring wasn't dangerous, they'd be willing to help.

The stuff in his hands was probably something he'd had delivered that way.

He handed the things to Xie Licheng, hoping to ease the tension between them.

At this moment, Xie Licheng really didn't have time to waste on them.

He acted all flattered and surprised, planning to play along and get rid of them fast.

These people were all small fries to him, and he didn't want to spend time on them.

But what surprised Xie Licheng a bit was that some people really knew how to take an inch and turn it into a mile.

Seeing how good-tempered he was and that he didn't hold a grudge about the past, that short male slave pulled him aside and, with a sleazy grin, asked, "Bro, can you teach your little bro here how to make the Eldest Young Master happy?"

Xie Licheng frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, don't be so secretive. The whole Gu family knows you're the Eldest Young Master's... you know."

"Know what?"

"Oh, are you really that dense or just playing dumb? You know—the bed warmer, the lover. Last time when the Gu family returned from the temple, the Eldest Young Master disciplined Young Master Yue for your sake. And now, for you, he's even locked the Young Master up in the ancestral hall. Everyone's saying that since the Eldest Young Master can't marry out, he's planning to make you his concubine. You've got some real game—a low-ranking slave from a criminal slave background, and you've actually gotten into the Eldest Young Master's bed. I just wanna ask, how the hell did you pull that off?"

"Hmph."

Xie Licheng let out a cold snicker.

Today, Gu Tinghe had gone to Gu Zhangyuan's place to raise hell, but Gu Zhangyuan couldn't care less what the Gu family said about him.

As a male heir, Gu Zhangyuan was that unconcerned about his own reputation.

Even when his own brother caught him meeting a male slave in the inner quarters, he didn't bat an eye and just went on disciplining his brother.

Clearly, the Gu family elders didn't care about this, and might have even allowed it.

The Gu family probably didn't want him to marry out—they wanted to groom him to be the head of the household.

Because his family had his back, he naturally wasn't afraid of what others said.

As for why he'd been scared back then when a servant caught him with that aunt's nephew—

It was probably because, in Gu Zhangyuan's mind, fooling around with a household male slave was different from being set up to have an affair with an outsider.

One was voluntary—him indulging himself from a position of power.

The other was forced, framed, and had even caused a death, so he didn't want too many people knowing about it.

Since Gu Zhangyuan himself didn't care about being misunderstood, Xie Licheng didn't give a damn either.

He was a man—and a male slave at that.

Reputation was useless to him.

Besides, the world was about to go to hell. In times like that, people could barely survive, so who'd give a damn about reputation?

Xie Licheng sneered—not because people were misunderstanding his relationship with Gu Zhangyuan.

But because the guy in front of him was delusional—a toad who didn't even bother to check his own reflection.

Gu Zhangyuan was an otherworldly beauty. Would he be out of his damn mind to fancy a male slave with no looks, no skills, and who was straight-up ugly?

The short male slave saw Xie Licheng staring at him with that cold smile, and for some reason, a chill ran down his spine.

He said nervously, "Fine, don't say anything then. It's not like I'm scared you'll steal my spotlight. I'll just leave now—"

Before he could finish and slip away, Xie Licheng reached out with his big hand and grabbed the back of the guy's head.

Having big hands was handy—grabbing someone's head was like grabbing a big apple.

He yanked the guy back and looked down at him. "You—why don't you take a good look at yourself? Where do you get the nerve to think the Eldest Young Master would ever want you?"