Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After that, Xie Licheng began to grind for levels, hoping to squeeze out a few more before the next day.

His body right now was seriously weak—nothing like what it used to be.

For the plot point tomorrow, he needed to prep more.

So he spent three hours fishing and managed to level up twice more.

Yesterday he caught six fish, today seven—thirteen in total over two days.

The fish in his pond reset every day; no matter how many he pulled out today, the pond would be restocked the same after tomorrow's reset.

But even with plenty of fish, fishing was boring and tested your patience.

Xie Licheng didn't really like fishing; three hours was his limit.

He carried the fish home in his bucket, planning to cook a few for himself.

Cooking also gave experience points, just not as many as fishing.

Still, it was better than nothing.

Since he had to cook for himself anyway, he might as well level up while at it.

Xie Licheng steamed one fish, braised another, and simmered a pot of fish soup.

He could only eat one fish per meal, but he made so much at once mainly because he was lazy.

Plus, he had a preservation zone that kept any food he made fresh indefinitely.

Since he rarely cooked, he naturally wanted to make a bunch at once.

After eating the steamed fish, he cleaned the remaining fish and, along with the two cooked dishes, sent them all to the storage room under the kitchen.

This storage room was special—it was his preservation zone for hoarding food.

This zone could only be set up by the player—the host of this world.

And only one could be set; he could pick an area or a room to turn into a preservation warehouse.

This warehouse was even better than a fridge because time inside it was frozen.

You couldn't store living things there—fish, shrimp, crabs, chickens, ducks, cattle, sheep... all had to be killed before being put inside.

If you put warm dishes in, they'd stay exactly as they were, even days later.

Back in the apocalypse, Xie Licheng was pretty lazy and often cooked big batches of food at once.

Since the food wouldn't spoil, he could just grab some whenever he felt like it.

Because this preservation zone was so handy, Xie Licheng had stockpiled a ton of food.

There were dishes he'd made himself, semi-prepared foods he'd hoarded from supermarkets, and snacks he'd bought when the apocalypse hit.

Besides the ready-made meals, there were also plenty of fresh ingredients and medicines that needed preserving.

After putting the fish inside, Xie Licheng stood at the warehouse entrance and glanced around, seeing the shelves packed with all kinds of food, and only then did he turn and leave, satisfied.

With food came confidence—no matter what this world turned into, he could still live comfortably.

Xie Licheng ate a fish and drank a bowl of hot porridge, rested a bit, then went to the chicken coop on the farm to collect eggs.

Collecting eggs counted as foraging and gave some experience points too.

Since the coop hadn't been cleaned out in a while, a bunch of eggs had piled up. A quick trip to both coops got him two more levels.

By then it was already late, and Xie Licheng, still recovering from his injuries, didn't stay up any later.

Between the fishing and cooking, Xie Licheng had leveled up four times in total.

His player level was now 7, with 4 attribute points left to spend.

He dumped all 4 points into luck, finally raising it to 10. He probably wouldn't be as unlucky as before.

With that thought, Xie Licheng went back to his room and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, he headed out from the stable yard.

The garden where Gu Zhangyuan's sister would meet her fate was in the outer courtyard, and as a low-ranking male slave there, Xie Licheng was allowed in.

However, the original owner had rarely gone there, so he needed to check the place out during the day to avoid being totally lost at night.

Xie Licheng limped along, moving pretty slowly.

By the time he found the garden in the outer courtyard, it was almost noon.

He hadn't expected one of the Gu family's outer courtyards to be this huge.

Getting here from where he lived had taken a lot of effort.

Not wanting to hobble back and forth with his injured leg, Xie Licheng found a hidden spot in the garden and entered his personal world.

He planned to come out at night, which would save him a lot of energy.

If he ran into that male guest going crazy, he wouldn't be too exhausted to deal with him.

His stamina was 29 right now, which was honestly still a bit low.

As for whether anyone would notice he wasn't at the stable during the day?

He wasn't worried about that now. As long as he messed up the plan this time, he believed that with Gu Zhangyuan's character, he wouldn't let anyone mess with him.

So even if he was unlucky enough to be spotted coming out, he wasn't afraid of anyone causing trouble.

In the afternoon, inside his personal world, Xie Licheng went to the foot of the mountain near the starter village.

He wanted to level up by digging up wild veggies, picking wild fruit, and gathering wildflowers.

But to his surprise, he foraged for a long time and still didn't level up.

Just then, he spotted a bright green bamboo viper slithering near a bamboo grove not far off.

Xie Licheng hadn't planned to attack it; he was just curious how a snake could show up so early in the season.

But when he saw it didn't seem afraid of him and kept crawling around the bamboo grove, he couldn't help but throw a cleaver at it.

His strength wasn't great, so he put some technique into the throw, and with one strike, he cut the snake in half.

The level that had been stuck for so long finally shot up two levels with this kill.

Xie Licheng smirked at the sight. So... hunting really was the fastest way to level up.

Just one little snake, and he'd leveled up twice in one go.

If he ran into a few more, he could rack up tons of levels in a single afternoon.

Too bad it wasn't snake season.

He scouted the area again, and once he was sure there were no other snakes, he went over to collect the catch.

Once you killed and collected prey, it would automatically break down.

It usually broke down into a full hide, some meat, and a few bones.

Today's snake yielded some snake oil, snake meat, and a gall bladder.

He scooped up the loot and stashed it in his backpack.

Just then, he felt a wave of drowsiness. Probably from being out too long—he was worn out.

Xie Licheng checked his stamina and saw it had dropped to 7, so he grabbed his stuff and headed back to rest.

He hadn't done much, so why had his stamina drained so fast?

Once back, he crashed immediately.

He set an alarm so he wouldn't oversleep.

Miss Gu's incident went down during the Hai hour—roughly 9 to 11 PM.

As long as he went out and waited during that window, he could stop her from getting bullied like in the book.

With that in mind, Xie Licheng dozed off fast. When he woke, it was pitch black outside.

He checked the alarm—still before 9 PM.

He got up, threw on some dirty clothes, and fixed himself a quick bite.

Before heading out, Xie Licheng checked his HP and stamina.

His HP was 39, stamina 31.

The book said the male guest was some scholar.

He figured, in his current state, taking on a scholar shouldn't be a big deal.

With that, Xie Licheng stepped out of the pocket world.

His hiding spot was tucked away, and with it already dark out, it was pitch black the moment he emerged.

He fumbled his way out of the hiding spot.

The novel didn't say exactly where Miss Gu's incident happened. Xie Licheng only knew it was near the rockeries, but the outer courtyard's garden was huge, with several spots featuring them.

Xie Licheng's own hiding spot was one such rockery. Once he confirmed no one was nearby, he hurried to the others.

Miss Gu had been brought out by her aunt, who was going to team up with the male guest to strip her bare.

To keep patrols from catching them before the deed was done, they'd definitely gag Miss Gu.

The outer courtyard had patrols too, just less frequent than the inner one—usually every half hour.

Xie Licheng had scoped out the terrain earlier and noted the rockery spots, so he moved at a relaxed pace.

The garden was full of plants, pavilions, and rockeries. Even if he ran into a patrolling guard, he could duck behind cover.

Not sure of the exact time, Xie Licheng circled the garden a couple more times.

He moved like a ghost, silent despite his heavy injuries.

Around 10 PM, as he neared the biggest rockery, he caught a faint gasp.

The sound was so faint, he couldn't tell if it was a man or woman.

If he hadn't been right next to the rockery, he probably wouldn't have heard it at all.

He held his breath and slipped inside.

Inside was dark and cramped. Midway, he bonked his head but stayed silent.

After squeezing through the tightest spot, the space opened up, and a bit more light seeped in.

The light came from a candle. Someone must've lit one in here, which explained why it was brighter inside than out.

The moment he entered, Xie Licheng spotted a figure with its back to him.

The figure was pretty tall, so he figured it was that lecherous male guest.

He closed in fast, pulling out his military knife.

Just as he grabbed the person's shoulder and spun them around, the faint light revealed a stunning face full of panic.

Xie Licheng blurted in shock, "It's you?"