Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Seeing Xie Licheng's impressive skills, the tall man suddenly spoke up: "Brother, you're really skilled. How about joining us?"

Xie Licheng couldn't be bothered with idle talk and directly threw a short blade at him.

The tall man narrowly dodged it—the first person to evade Xie Licheng's blade since he'd crossed over.

Xie Licheng raised an eyebrow and said, "Brother, you're pretty skilled yourself. How about you follow me instead?"

The tall man didn't get angry; instead, he tossed his weapon aside.

He said, "Fine, let me see what you've got. If you can beat me into submission, I don't mind following you."

Xie Licheng was intrigued and casually discarded his own weapon.

Gu Zhangyuan grew worried watching them prepare for close combat.

He knew Xie Licheng's greatest strength was the blade—he could wield it in countless ways, and few could match him with a sword.

Seeing Xie Licheng abandon his weapon to fight the big man hand-to-hand, his heart clenched with anxiety.

He silently prayed: You have to win! Don't get hurt!

While Gu Zhangyuan prayed inwardly, the fight ended before long.

The tall man was indeed formidable—a rare breed of toughness among men.

But Xie Licheng wasn't an ordinary man anymore. His current body was that of a game player, so he couldn't be considered a regular human. The other's speed was no match for his, and he was eventually brought down.

The tall man lay on the ground and said, "Alright, I'll keep my word. From now on, I'm your underling."

Xie Licheng looked down at him and said, "Fine then. Kill your companion, and I'll take you with me."

Xie Licheng wasn't naive. He did want capable allies, but he wouldn't fully trust someone based on a few words alone.

The tall man got up, wiped the blood from his mouth, and glanced at his companions in the yard.

There had been four of them—one killed by Xie Licheng's crossbow bolt, another by his blade. Now only two remained.

Seeing the tall man about to switch sides, the other companion panicked, dropped his weapon, and pleaded with Xie Licheng: "I—I can follow you too! Just don't kill me. I'll do anything you say."

Xie Licheng saved the elderly, weak, women, and children because they were vulnerable and easy to control.

He wanted to take in the tall man because he lacked reliable people.

But he couldn't accept too many troublesome individuals.

Especially those who were useless and hard to control—those were even less necessary.

Seeing Xie Licheng stay silent, the tall man moved to kill the other one.

Xie Licheng spoke up: "Enough. Let him go."

The man dropped his sword and bolted for the exit without hesitation.

The tall man was a bit surprised. "You killed so decisively before—I thought you were ruthless."

Xie Licheng: "I only kill those who stand in my way."

He'd said it before: he wasn't a good man, nor a bloodthirsty killer.

In the apocalypse, he'd killed only to survive.

Now in this chaotic world, everyone here was weaker than him. As an absolute powerhouse, he always bullied the weak.

As long as they didn't block his path and ran when they saw him, he'd spare their lives.

But sparing them once didn't mean forever. If they crossed paths again and happened to block his way, he wouldn't mind wasting a little energy to send them off.

As for testing the tall man after letting the other go?

He decided to bring him along for now. If he turned out to be a fake, he could kill him later.

Xie Licheng said to Gu Zhangyuan, "Follow me. Let's collect what's here, then head back with them."

Gu Zhangyuan quickly followed, asking in a low voice, "Are you really bringing him along?"

"It's fine. We'll see once he's inside."

"I feel like he's too strong. If you bring him in, no one there can match him."

"Don't worry. I have a way to control him."

The grain shop had little left—it had likely been looted before. Xie Licheng and Gu Zhangyuan gathered some grain and collected a few cabinets and other items.

When they returned to the back courtyard, the young man's family had packed their belongings.

Gu Zhangyuan looked at their things and said, "You can bring more. We have a way to carry it all."

The young man asked, "Really?"

"Really."

They'd only packed clothes and silver, afraid to take more.

Hearing they could bring extra, the young man and his parents gathered more items.

Once everything was ready, Xie Licheng sent them into his portable world first, then came back to bring their belongings inside.

The young man's family and the tall man were all bewildered upon entering the portable world.

When Xie Licheng reappeared with all their belongings, the family grew even more astonished.

The young man's father asked Gu Zhangyuan, "Eldest Young Master, what—what is this place?"

His mother added, "Yes, we were just in the courtyard... what's going on?"

Gu Zhangyuan pointed at Xie Licheng and said, "This is called the portable world—it's his personal realm. No one lived here before. He brought us all here to save our lives."

The tall man chuckled. "No wonder. The officials said the Gu family vanished out of nowhere. We thought they were lying—so he's been hiding everyone here?"

Xie Licheng shot him a cold glare, and the tall man immediately stopped smiling.

He bowed slightly and addressed Xie Licheng, "Boss."

Xie Licheng asked, "What's your name?"

"I'm Chen Yaosan. My father was a herb farmer, and I'm the third son, so they named me Chen Yaosan."

Xie Licheng opened his personal profile and typed in his name after hearing that.

Seeing that his name was green too, Xie Licheng went on to check his info. His profile said he was a herb farmer, so it looked like he hadn't lied about who he was.

Xie Licheng: "Why'd you decide to follow me so fast?"

Chen Yaosan replied, "Because I like people who've got real skills, and the second I saw you, I could tell you had it. Also... there's a bunch of folks in the rebel army who get off on messing with kids, and I can't stomach that."

When he'd originally agreed to join Song Qiyue and the others in the uprising, his original reason was that life had gotten too hard to bear. He wanted to fight the government and find a way to survive for himself.

But later, he realized that by joining them, they were just making things worse for regular folks.

He started feeling lost, wondering if what he was doing was even right.

All he wanted was a quiet life or a big, glorious fight on the battlefield—not running around with a few guys robbing folks and going after other people's pretty kids.

He was a man too, and he had his urges.

But he really couldn't wrap his head around why anyone would think that way about little kids.

What fun could those soft, innocent kids even give? Didn't they think it was sick to do that to them?

Back when his family raised cows, even the big bulls never did that to the calves. And humans—smarter than cows, stronger than cows, more honorable than cows—why would they do that to kids?

If they had kids of their own, would their kids end up thinking the same way?

So where was the basic human decency?

Even animals wouldn't do that, but people treated it like some kind of hobby, and plenty of them didn't see anything wrong with it. To him, that was just messed up.

That was exactly when Xie Licheng showed up out of nowhere.

He showed up like a savior, just like the heroic knights from the storybooks Chen Yaosan used to love.

When he first joined the rebel army, he figured he'd become someone like that.

Not necessarily some legendary hero, but at least not what he'd turned into.

He'd just wanted an excuse to get out of the rebel army, which is why he agreed to tag along with Xie Licheng.

But now... Chen Yaosan looked at the quiet little village in front of him and realized... he might've found himself one hell of a boss.

Since he'd brought back a few people from outside, one of them looking pretty dangerous, Xie Licheng decided to stay put for the next few days. He planned to stay in the village, farm with the folks, and head up the mountain to clear out the wild animals.

This time he'd brought back five people total: the young guy's family of three, Qing Niang, and Chen Yaosan.

Qing Niang had come in with nothing, so she had to stay with everyone in Taohua Village for now.

The young guy's family had brought a bunch of stuff with them, and they still had a decent chunk of money.

The next morning, the young guy's family went with Gu Zhangyuan to town.

They spent fifteen taels of silver on a little place in town, and from then on they lived there with the Gu family.

When Chen Yaosan came in, all he had was a knife and a crossbow. Now Xie Licheng had taken both the knife and the crossbow, leaving him with nothing.

He had no money, so of course he couldn't afford to live in town, and he couldn't buy any land from Xie Licheng either.

Luckily, he was strong and handy, so he could make a living hunting in the mountains.

The big mountain next to Taohua Village wasn't just full of wild animals—it also had plenty of herbs, wild veggies, and stuff like that.

Relying on his skills, Chen Yaosan went up the mountain and bagged a sika deer.

He butchered the deer and traded the meat with the villagers for grain. He also traded the deerskin to the Gu family for a couple of pieces of furniture.

The houses in Taohua Village were free—as long as he didn't mind how poor it was, he could live there forever.

The peace here made him feel like he was back in his childhood.

No suffocating taxes crushing him, no uneasy chaos, and no bandits causing trouble everywhere.

He could go hunting, pick wild veggies and fruit, or rig up a fishing rod and sit under a tree fishing whenever he felt like it.

Later, when Xie Licheng went up the mountain to clear out the animals, he just brought Chen Yaosan along.

Both of them were tough fighters, so when they went up together, they weren't afraid to head into the deep woods.

After going up together four or five times, the two got to know each other, and Xie Licheng got a good read on the guy's character.

Chen Yaosan wasn't a good guy.

But he didn't want much, and he was easy to please.

Someone like that was actually easy to handle—not as complicated or dangerous as he'd thought.

Xie Licheng had planned to use drugs to control him, but he soon realized he didn't need to go through all that trouble.

Also, as more and more people came into the portable world, he couldn't guarantee that everyone who came in would be good.

People were complicated creatures who changed with time and circumstances.

People's hearts were the same—they could change.

Maybe someone came in as a good person, but because of certain things, they could turn bad.

Since he couldn't guarantee it, it was bound to happen that bad people would eventually show up among those who came in.

Xie Licheng felt he couldn't protect them too much, or else they'd have no sense of danger at all.

In the future, when he started bringing in a lot of people, he'd need to teach them to protect themselves and tell good people from bad.

Xie Licheng planned to talk this over with Gu Zhangyuan, who spent a lot of time living in the portable world. Gu Zhangyuan had a lot to manage day to day, so he'd naturally run into more people there.

He asked Gu Zhangyuan to hold meetings with everyone whenever he had time, so they'd be mentally ready and not trust just anyone they met.

So one morning, Xie Licheng teleported over to Taohua Town. When he got there, he brought some fruit for Gu Zhangyuan.

Gu Zhangyuan was busy doing his accounts in his little place when Yuan Qiao came in smiling and said, "Master Xie is here."

Since moving to town, Gu Zhangyuan had moved out and lived on his own.

His little place was pretty small—he only had Xuan Cui, Yuan Qiao, and his wet nurse living with him.

For meals, he'd sometimes go back next door to eat.

When he heard Xie Licheng had come to see him, Gu Zhangyuan muttered under his breath.

"It's been days... he finally remembered me?"

Yuan Qiao heard his muttering and couldn't help but smile, saying, "Master Xie's probably been swamped lately. Otherwise, he wouldn't have stayed away this long."

"Alright, you should head out now."

Yuan Qiao hurried out at that, and soon Xie Licheng came in from outside.

He handed the fruit he brought to the nanny and Xuan Cui, who were out in the courtyard washing them by the well.

Xie Licheng walked over to him and asked, "Wanna head up the mountain for some fun?"

Gu Zhangyuan wanted to go, but he had a ton of work to do, so he asked in return, "What's there to do up there that's fun?"

Xie Licheng: "I can take you fishing, go hunt for bird eggs, catch rabbits, pick mushrooms, and teach you some archery."

Earlier, Xie Licheng had wanted to teach him how to shoot a gun, but once he saw Gu Zhangyuan's aim was off, he'd settled on teaching him the crossbow instead.

Gu Zhangyuan pressed his lips together and scribbled out the last few characters, then tossed his pencil onto the table like it was nothing and said, "Alright then, I'll stay at your place tonight."

Hearing that, Xie Licheng got up to pack his clothes for him. Just then, Xuan Cui came in with a fruit platter.

Xuan Cui said, "Young Master, the gentleman sent all these over. Have a bite before you go."

Gu Zhangyuan nodded, since he was getting a little hungry.

He went to the table, grabbed a wooden skewer, and popped an apple slice into his mouth, when he heard Xuan Cui ask, "Young Master's staying over tonight—should I come along?"

Gu Zhangyuan was about to nod when Xie Licheng said no, "No need, I'll look after him tonight."

Xuan Cui blinked at that, then quickly bowed out.

Gu Zhangyuan watched her leave, then turned and shot Xie Licheng a dirty look.

"What are you even saying?"

Since when did he take care of anyone? He was more likely to bully someone.

Xie Licheng didn't bother arguing about that, and just got up and headed into the bedroom.

Gu Zhangyuan stopped eating and trailed after him, saying, "What's the hurry? Xuan Cui and the others can pack the clothes later."

Xie Licheng: "Same thing either way—I used to be a servant in your house too."

With that, he reached over and lifted up Gu Zhangyuan's bedding, about to ask if he wanted to bring it along.

Some people are picky about their beds and blankets, and since Gu Zhangyuan's bedding looked so fancy, he figured he'd probably want his own.

The second he lifted the bedding, Gu Zhangyuan dove for the bed.

Seeing him get so worked up, Xie Licheng knew something was hidden in that bed.

What could make Gu Zhangyuan this flustered? Xie Licheng was genuinely curious.

So Xie Licheng scooped him up, holding him completely in his arms.

Gu Zhangyuan thrashed around, still huffing in anger, "Don't look! Don't you dare look!"

Xie Licheng held him with one arm and felt around under him with the other, and soon his hand hit a book under the blanket.

He pulled the book out and asked, looking curious, "What book is this?"

The second Xie Licheng opened it to the first page, Gu Zhangyuan smacked it out of his hand.

Gu Zhangyuan: "How dare you! I told you not to look, and you went and looked anyway!"

Seeing his face all red, whether from anger or embarrassment, Xie Licheng glanced at the book that had been knocked away—he didn't need to open it to know what it was.

Xie Licheng sat on the bed, still holding him tight, and said, "Is that a pillow book? What's there to be embarrassed about?"

Gu Zhangyuan, seeing he'd guessed right, couldn't help but punch him in anger, but instead of hurting Xie Licheng, he only hurt his own hand.

Gu Zhangyuan: "You can be such a pain sometimes."

He said he was a servant, but he acted like a total tyrant.

Xie Licheng was a little dense when it came to romance, and now that he realized Gu Zhangyuan was actually upset, he grabbed Gu Zhangyuan's hand and patted his own face with it.

Xie Licheng: "That one's on me. Go ahead, hit me to blow off some steam."

Gu Zhangyuan raised his hand, but didn't actually slap Xie Licheng's face.

You can hit a man or yell at him, but you shouldn't slap his face. When he's sweet on you, he won't care, but if he ever stops caring or loving you, he'll remember it and hold a grudge.

His nanny had taught him that, and he figured there was some truth to it.

So he raised his hand and thought about it seriously, but in the end, he didn't go for the face—he just slapped Xie Licheng on the chest.

The slap landed, and his hand hurt again.

Gu Zhangyuan said, "Why's your body so hard? Did you lose weight again?"

Hearing that, Xie Licheng instinctively pulled up his status panel to check. He hadn't gone out in a few days, so he figured he should've gained weight, not lost it.

Now that the Gu family had moved to town, Xie Licheng was a bachelor again. He didn't feel like cooking at the farm, so the villagers kept bringing him food.

The village had plenty of young men and women, and they all cooked better than Xie Licheng, so he'd been eating pretty well lately.

Xie Licheng checked his stats—he was 76 now, which was 152 jin. That wasn't skinny at all.

Xie Licheng: "I didn't lose weight—I actually gained seven or eight jin."

"Oh yeah?"

"Don't believe me? I'll let you see for yourself."

Gu Zhangyuan's face flushed, but then he thought, this guy's his husband—if he doesn't look now, is he saving it for someone else?

He climbed out of Xie Licheng's arms and started unbuttoning his clothes himself.

He wanted to check him out—if he wasn't satisfied, he wasn't sleeping with him!

But as he unbuttoned, he suddenly got shy, feeling like he looked like some pervert.

And he also wanted to explain the pillow book to Xie Licheng.

So he stopped unbuttoning, looked up at Xie Licheng, and said, "That... that book isn't mine. The nanny got it for me a while back. Remember how I wanted to make you my chamber attendant? Well, I didn't know a thing about that kind of stuff, and the nanny was scared I'd get taken advantage of since I was so clueless, so she went out and found me a book. I never got the chance to read it before the Gu family ran into trouble. The book came in when you helped pack up our stuff, and Xuan Cui found it yesterday when she was sorting through my things."

Xie Licheng got it, and he didn't care at all.

In his view, men could be horny, and so could women and young men—there was nothing to be ashamed of.

Everyone appreciates a pleasing appearance, and he himself was such a person, so he naturally understood where Gu Changyuan was coming from.

Seeing that Gu Changyuan was too shy to take off his own clothes, Xie Licheng simply went ahead and took off his own shirt without a fuss.

Xie Licheng said, "I'm your man. If you want to look, go ahead and look your fill—no need to be shy. And in the future, if there's anything you don't understand about sex, you can come and ask me directly."

Even though he'd never actually done it himself, he'd watched a few movies and read some comics on the subject, so he was still more knowledgeable about it than Gu Changyuan.

Hearing this, Gu Changyuan asked, sounding a bit annoyed, "Have you slept with someone else?"

"Of course not."

"Then how do you know?"

"Same as you—I've read books about it."

"You get to read them, so why can't I?"

Xie Licheng blinked. "You can read them, of course. I never said you couldn't—you're the one who overreacted just now."

Hearing this, Gu Changyuan wanted to go pick up the book, since he hadn't gotten a good look at it yet.

But before he could go fetch it, Xie Licheng reached around from behind and wrapped an arm around his waist.

Xie Licheng pulled him onto his lap.

Xie Licheng: "Weren't you gonna check me out? Why'd you stop all of a sudden?"

Hearing this, Gu Changyuan raised both hands and pressed them against his warm, flushed cheeks.

He glanced back at Xie Licheng, then turned around and gave him a quick feel.

Xie Licheng asked, "Well? Have I gained much weight?"

Gu Changyuan muttered softly with rosy cheeks, "You have indeed put on some flesh."

But Xie Licheng didn't look fat at all, and there wasn't an ounce of flab on his body. He had no idea what this guy did every day to have trained his body so firm and solid.