Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Can you go check on him for me? I'm really scared right now, afraid... afraid he might have killed himself falling? If so... would that count as me having killed someone?"

Gu Zhangyuan asked Xie Licheng to go check, partly to see if Xie Licheng would obey him. Thinking of Xie Licheng's wolf-like eyes, he felt that someone like him wouldn't be very obedient.

If the other party didn't obey, having witnessed something like this today, whether that person was alive or dead, he would have to find a way to send him far away.

Secondly, he really didn't dare to go look himself. No matter how strong his will was, he was, after all, just a young master from a good family.

He was terrified that the man might be dead. Even if he hadn't killed him directly, he had indirectly caused his death.

It was normal for him to feel scared and guilty.

Since Xie Licheng happened to be there, he asked him to go check.

If the man was still alive, of course he should be saved.

Although he understood that saving him would bring a lot of trouble, it was still better than being burdened with a life for no reason.

Xie Licheng walked forward, speaking to Gu Zhangyuan as he went, "He had ill intentions toward you, Young Master. Even if you accidentally killed him, this cannot be blamed on you. Moreover, you didn't actually kill him—you merely pricked him with your hairpin to protect yourself. If he truly fell and killed himself by accident, that's just his comeuppance for all the bad things he's done. You have no reason to feel guilty about him."

Even in modern times, Gu Zhangyuan wouldn't be blamed for this.

Let alone in this ancient era, where class outweighed everything else.

The Gu family was one of those ancient aristocratic clans. A mere guest staying with them temporarily, who brought death upon himself while at the Gu residence—how could Gu Zhangyuan possibly be blamed for this?

He was just trash—dead is dead.

He probably hadn't expected a mere horse slave to be so eloquent.

Gu Zhangyuan, after hearing this, really did feel less panicked than before.

Gu Zhangyuan asked in a low voice, "How is he? Can he be saved?"

Xie Licheng crouched in front of the man and said with cold indifference, "He's dead. He landed on the back of his head, and with all this blood, he's definitely dead."

Xie Licheng had lived through the apocalypse and had killed many zombies, and many people too.

Given the amount of blood and that gaping hole in the back of his skull, even if he wasn't dead, he was as good as dead.

With the medical capabilities available in this ancient era, there was no way he could be saved.

Hearing that the man was dead, Gu Zhangyuan's legs gave out and he nearly collapsed.

Luckily, Xie Licheng was quick to react and immediately caught him, preventing him from actually falling.

Gu Zhangyuan said, "I really didn't kill him. You have to believe me."

Xie Licheng replied, "I know. He injured himself falling—it has nothing to do with you."

Gu Zhangyuan said anxiously, "But will others believe that?"

He was an unmarried young master, showing up here in the middle of the night, alone with a corpse.

When others found out, their first thought would definitely be that he did it.

They'd also talk behind his back, assuming he had some shady relationship with that man.

"Also, I came here with Concubine Xu and my sister. Concubine Xu is definitely working with this man—I bet she'll be here with people any minute now."

Hearing this, Xie Licheng's eye twitched. He reached out and started pushing Gu Zhangyuan toward the door.

"Then you really can't be here right now, Young Master. You should get out of here first."

"But, what about this place?"

If Concubine Xu found out her nephew was dead, she'd definitely swear up and down that Gu Zhangyuan killed him.

Even with all the Gu family's money, getting tangled up in a murder case would make it hard to protect Gu Zhangyuan.

"Leave it to me. Don't worry—no one will ever find him."

"But..."

"No buts—Young Master, go now!"

Saying this, Xie Licheng gave him another push.

Gu Zhangyuan had no idea how Xie Licheng planned to deal with it, but he also knew that staying wouldn't do any good.

He couldn't let Concubine Xu catch him red-handed. As long as he wasn't caught in the act, he remained the Gu family's esteemed eldest young master, and he'd have plenty of time and silver to sort this out.

If that horse slave did end up getting caught, he'd do everything he could to get him out.

With that in mind, Gu Zhangyuan planned to slip back through the small gate. But to his surprise, he ran right into Concubine Xu and her people on the way.

They came sweeping in with a whole entourage, and Gu Zhangyuan had no choice but to turn and bolt toward the outer courtyard.

At the same time, on the other side, Xie Licheng had already stashed the corpse in his pocket dimension.

In his past life during the apocalypse, Xie Licheng had been a loner.

He'd only ever shoved livestock and such into his pocket dimension—this was the first time he'd shoved a person in there, and a freshly dead one at that.

And just like that, the storage actually yielded something unexpected.

But thinking about the urgent situation, Xie Licheng had no time to pay attention to that.

After sending the body in, he began frantically cleaning up the blood on the ground.

This was truly hard to clean. Xie Licheng scrubbed for a long time, and there was still a strong smell of blood on the ground.

And just then, a commotion of voices came from outside.

A woman said, "It's around here. I saw it with my own eyes—that person must be a thief. You must search thoroughly and absolutely not let him escape."

Hearing this, Xie Licheng rolled his eyes dramatically. He didn't continue foolishly cleaning the bloodstains but instead extinguished the candle inside the rockery and slipped out into the darkness.

He could have left silently, but to keep them from continuing to search the rockery, he deliberately made a bit of noise.

The people drawn by Concubine Xu immediately chased toward the sound.

Seeing this, Concubine Xu quickly called out, "Hey, it should be near the rockery—where are you all going?"

A house guard shouted, "There really is a thief! He ran that way—everyone, follow me!"

Concubine Xu couldn't shake the feeling that something was off when she heard this.

Weren't they supposed to lure people over to catch him red-handed and blow the whole thing way out of proportion?

So why the hell did that idiot take off?

Wait... could it be that the one who ran was Gu Zhangyuan?

The moment it hit her that Gu Zhangyuan might have been the one to bolt, Concubine Xu took off after them too.

Gu Zhangyuan, who'd been hiding nearby and hadn't gotten far, slipped back into the inner courtyard through that same little gate as before.

He figured the body would be a pain to deal with, and that the horse slave had probably lured those people away on purpose to help cover for him.

He needed to round up a few people he could trust to take care of it before Concubine Xu and the others caught on.

Gu Zhangyuan sprinted all the way back—he knew the inner courtyard way better than the outer one.

The main branch's area was full of his own people, so he didn't have to worry about running into trouble.

He made it back to his own courtyard in no time and immediately called for his wet nurse and Xuan Cui.

Gu Zhangyuan gave them the short version of what had just gone down.

Having someone to talk it over with calmed him down, and his shaking hands slowly steadied.

"Xuan Cui, take some people to help Concubine Xu catch the thief. Best if you can catch him before they do. If you're not confident about catching him, then at least make sure they don't get him either."

Xuan Cui acknowledged the order without a second thought and hurried out, not daring to waste a single moment.

She was in such a hurry that she nearly slammed right into Gu Yangxue, who was on her way to see Gu Zhangyuan.

Seeing Xuan Cui tearing off like that, Gu Yangxue blinked in confusion and asked, "Xuan Cui, where are you rushing off to?"

Xuan Cui didn't bother answering. In her mind, the young master's close call today was all Gu Yangxue's fault.

If it weren't for that concubine mother of hers always stirring up trouble, their young master wouldn't have to put up with all this crap.

When Gu Yangxue realized Xuan Cui was blowing her off, she felt a little hurt herself.

Her concubine mother had been acting super weird today, dragging her out for a walk in the outer garden.

She'd felt uneasy the whole way back, and after mulling it over, she decided to go find her brother.

She and her brother were super close. Ever since they were kids, she'd often crash at his courtyard, and even though they had different mothers, he absolutely spoiled her.

Whenever anything was wrong, her first instinct was always to run to her brother.

Gu Yangxue brushed off Xuan Cui's attitude and kept walking into the courtyard.

Usually, she could see her brother whenever she felt like it.

But today she'd picked a bad time—her brother was in the bath, and his attendant blocked her way.

The attendant, Yuan Qiao, smiled at Gu Yangxue and said, "Miss Xue, you've picked an unlucky moment. Our young master is bathing and should be done in about fifteen minutes. How about I take you to the side hall for now, and then bring you to see him after?"

Gu Yangxue couldn't exactly say no, so she followed Yuan Qiao into the side hall.

While she was being led to the side hall, Gu Zhangyuan's wet nurse rounded up two martial arts matrons, and without lighting a single lantern, they all hurried through the dark toward the outer courtyard.

They moved fast, tense and grim-faced.

They'd expected to find a gruesome corpse waiting for them.

But when they got there, all they found was a few bloodstains on the ground—not a single trace of a body.

The wet nurse didn't have time to overthink it and immediately ordered them to clean the place up.

No matter where the body had gone, they had to get this area cleaned up first.

Meanwhile, over on the other side, Xie Licheng was using his cheat ability to lead everyone on a wild goose chase.

His original plan was dead simple: lure them away.

Make them think a real thief had broken in, and draw them over to the outer courtyard's side rooms or somewhere else.

Then he'd sneak back to clean up the bloodstains. But to his surprise, while he was leading them around, he ran straight into Xuan Cui.

He recognized her—she was the Eldest Young Master's most trusted personal maid, someone he favored and relied on completely.

Her showing up here could only mean one thing: Gu Zhangyuan was already safe.

As long as Concubine Xu and the others hadn't caught Gu Zhangyuan red-handed with the dead guy,

Even if they found the bloodstains later, there was no way they could pin this on Gu Zhangyuan.

So at this point, Xie Licheng just wanted to duck into his pocket dimension.

If he could hide out and then find a way back to the stables, none of this would come back on him either.

Even if Concubine Xu later realized her nephew was missing and found that pool of blood in the rockery, at worst... it would just be tied to the "thief" she kept talking about.

But before he could make his move, Xuan Cui waved him over, clearly telling him to follow.

Xie Licheng glanced down at the blood on his hands, hesitated for a beat, then followed her.