Before dawn the next day, noise erupted outside.
Xie Licheng heard the commotion but didn't get up. Instead, he pulled the blanket over his head and continued sleeping.
Steward Xu had said he didn't need to work for now, so there was no way he was going to get up like a fool.
Xie Licheng rested for another two hours, but the pain from his wounds kept bothering him. Frowning, he got up and entered the Portable World.
No more. If he didn't take medicine and just endured the pain like this, who knew how long it would take for his wounds to heal.
When Xie Licheng came in, he brought the new blanket with him.
His blanket was too new—a bright blue down comforter.
If any of the Gu family's servants saw it, it might cause trouble.
Xie Licheng entered the Portable World and appeared directly in his farm.
His player character had changed, but the original farm hadn't changed or disappeared. It was still the same as before.
He didn't wander around the farm but went straight into an ancient-style residence behind him.
From the outside, the house didn't look big, but once inside, one would discover the space was enormous.
Through the main entrance, there was a living room on the right, and further right was a bedroom.
On normal days, Xie Licheng rested in this bedroom.
Above the bedroom, toward the north, there was a walk-in closet.
Since Xie Licheng was the only one here, he hadn't installed a door for the closet.
Xie Licheng went in and found a set of clean undergarments, putting them on beneath his dirty clothes.
Then he went to the living room to find the medical kit and pulled out a box of painkillers.
This Portable World was also an ancient world.
There was no medical kit here—it was something Xie Licheng had collected while gathering supplies during the apocalypse.
After taking his medicine, drinking some water, and eating a bit of food, he prepared to leave.
He couldn't stay inside too long, worried that someone might come looking for him outside.
When he went out, he brought an apple, a few red dates, and a multi-functional military knife.
The dagger he'd taken out earlier had been put back here.
The dagger wasn't convenient to carry—it wasn't as useful as this multi-functional military knife.
When he came back out, he sat on the dusty bed and ate the red dates.
Many people said red dates replenish blood—who knew if that was true?
But whether it was true or not, the original owner's body was lacking everything, so eating more food couldn't be wrong.
Perhaps because this room was relatively secluded, and few people knew he was here, the entire day passed without anyone coming to find him.
Actually, Xie Licheng should have gone to the dining hall for meals during the day, but considering that the food for lower servants like the original owner was poor, Xie Licheng simply didn't go on his first day.
Anyway, his Portable World had everything, so he wouldn't starve for now.
Late at night, Xie Licheng entered the Portable World again.
After a day of rest, his Health Points had recovered to thirty.
He prepared some nutritious food for himself and, taking advantage of the night, went fishing in the farm's pond.
Fishing also granted experience points, and each level-up added one attribute point.
For player character leveling, the first twenty levels were easy to gain.
Almost no need to go into the mountains—just fishing, chopping trees, and farming could get you to level twenty.
Xie Licheng's current condition wasn't suitable for hunting in the mountains, and among fishing, woodcutting, farming, gathering, and cooking, fishing was the fastest way to level up.
He'd lain around all day, so he wanted to come in and fish during the night.
Fishing didn't require much movement—it was a relatively time-saving and effortless way to level up.
Xie Licheng stewed a pot of pork rib soup for himself. After drinking the soup, he found the fishing tools in the warehouse and headed to the pond to start fishing.
Because he'd often fished in the Portable World before, he knew the fishing method here by heart, so it wasn't long before a fish took the bait.
Level one—he only needed to catch one fish to level up.
Seeing this, Xie Licheng didn't rush to allocate his attribute points. Instead, he patiently caught six more fish.
By then he was level three, with three extra attribute points to distribute.
Xie Licheng casually set the fishing rod aside and carried the bucket full of fish back.
He was still injured, so staying up late wasn't ideal.
After carrying the bucket into the kitchen, he went straight to the bedroom to rest.
This sleep was much better than yesterday's.
Because he was on his own turf, sleeping on a comfortable double bed, he slept almost straight through until dawn.
When he woke up, he didn't dare linger inside. After taking his medicine, he immediately went out.
He returned to that shabby, dusty room.
Xie Licheng frowned, then got up and slowly began cleaning.
He would probably be staying here for a while. Even if he sometimes rested in the Portable World, he couldn't just watch this place stay so dirty.
Xie Licheng cleaned up the room. It was very small and run-down, containing only a small bed, and the room didn't even have a window.
He cleaned up the room, opened the door to let in some fresh air, and seeing that it was almost noon, limped his way to the dining hall in the outer courtyard for a meal.
Because the original owner had bad luck, Xie Licheng had only just arrived at the dining hall when he ran into the male slaves who lived with the original owner.
As soon as that square-faced man saw him, he strode over toward him, and the other male slaves quickly followed.
Seeing that there were many people around, Xie Licheng knew they wouldn't dare do anything to him, so he didn't reach for the military knife hidden on him.
He asked the woman in charge of the dining hall for two coarse grain corn buns and also wanted to get a bowl to ladle himself some thin porridge.
The square-faced man sidled up to him and asked, "Where did you run off to yesterday? Do you know the young master has been looking everywhere for you?"
Xie Licheng ignored him, quickly wolfed down the two corn buns in his hands, and then took his bowl to the woman to get some porridge.
Seeing that he still had the nerve to eat, the square-faced man couldn't help but reach out to stop him.
"You still have the face to eat? Because of you, we all incurred the young master's wrath. Look at the wound on my face—the young master hit me."
Hearing this, Xie Licheng actually became somewhat interested.
He raised his eyes to look at the other man's face, and upon seeing the vicious whip mark on it, couldn't help but flash him a slightly mocking smile.
The square-faced man never expected that he would still dare to smile at a time like this.
In a fit of rage, he couldn't hold back and shoved Xie Licheng hard, causing the bowl in his hand to shatter on the ground.
Xie Licheng's luck was very low, but his appearance was very high. Even after deducting twenty from his charm, it was still much higher than an ordinary person's.
With these two attributes working together, others easily developed a fondness for him.
This fondness wasn't the romantic kind.
It was just that he gave people the impression of being kind-faced and likable.
Seeing him being bullied, the woman in charge of the dining hall couldn't help but scold, "What's all this ruckus? A few lowly slaves making a racket in the dining hall—who's in charge of you lot? I'll have him punish you properly!"
Hearing her words, Xie Licheng turned back and gave her a grateful look.
He had injuries on his body and thick eyebrows with big eyes, and the more the old woman looked at him, the more pitiful she found him.
Seeing that the troublemakers still hadn't left, she tossed the ladle into the pot and walked over to them.
The square-faced man didn't dare argue with her either, worried that if things escalated, Steward Xu would get angry.
He shot Xie Licheng a vicious glare and led the others to the other end of the dining hall to get their food.
Watching them leave, Xie Licheng immediately thanked the woman.
"Thank you, Auntie. If you hadn't spoken up to help, I would have been in trouble today."
The woman knew Xie Licheng's situation. She didn't dare do much more for him—at most, she could say a few words when he was being bullied by the other slaves.
If it had been that little ancestor bullying him today, she, a mere servant in charge of meals, wouldn't have dared to make a sound either.
"It's nothing, nothing. Go eat your meal quickly. With all these injuries on you, I don't know… when they'll heal."
Xie Licheng pointed at the shattered bowl on the ground. "What about this? Do I need to pay for it?"
The woman waved her hand. "You didn't break it on purpose. If anyone has to pay, it's that male slave. This won't be blamed on you."
Xie Licheng thanked her again, then ladled himself a bowl of thin porridge, drank it, and left.
His luck was too low—staying in a crowded place like this really wasn't good.
His luck had been above forty before, and he'd never experienced what low luck felt like, so he'd assumed it wasn't all that important.
Now that he'd personally experienced it, he decided to raise his luck points first, otherwise he'd definitely keep running into misfortune.
Last night, Xie Licheng had gained three attribute points.
As soon as he returned to the stable, he put all three points into luck.
The original owner's initial luck was 3, and adding 3 points brought it to only 6.
If the stable was empty in the afternoon, he planned to continue entering the Portable World to level up.
If he could raise his luck above ten sooner, he probably wouldn't be as unlucky as he was now.
But unexpectedly, the stable was busy all afternoon—it seemed one of the horses had some kind of problem, and things never really quieted down outside, so Xie Licheng didn't dare enter the Portable World.
He had to wait until dark before he finally found a chance to enter the Portable World.
It was also at this moment that he vaguely recalled a plot point.
The main branch had not only three young masters, but also an unmarried young lady.
This young lady was young, the only daughter of the main branch's elder master, and fairly favored at home.
One rainy night, she would be tricked by her own concubine mother into going to the outer courtyard garden, where she would be defiled by a male guest.
The one who tricked her was her own birth mother, and that male guest was her mother's distant nephew.
Her mother had lost her youth and beauty, and had no son to rely on.
She felt her daughter couldn't be counted on, so she wanted her daughter to marry this nephew, which would be like having a son of her own.
Even in her old age, she could rely on her nephew to support her and see her through her final years.
Because it was a scandal, the Gu family hurried the marriage along.
The male guest was a live-in son-in-law, and the two never moved out of the Gu household.
The male guest treated Miss Gu very poorly. When Lingzhou had just begun to descend into chaos, he even tried to take advantage of the situation to bully Gu Changyuan.
This plot point shouldn't be far off now. Xie Licheng couldn't quite remember the details himself, so he returned to the bedroom and found that book.
The book—he hadn't finished reading it long ago, and it was still placed in his bedroom. He quickly located it and found the plot point as well.
The ninth day of the second lunar month—that seemed to be tomorrow.
With that thought, Xie Licheng carefully read through the original text once more.
Having confirmed the time and place, he planned to go stir up trouble tomorrow.
Gu Changyuan had saved him twice. Even if he hadn't actually been taken advantage of by that male guest, someone like that shouldn't be allowed to easily enter the Gu family.
Xie Licheng's intention to cause a scene wasn't entirely for Gu Changyuan's sake.
He wasn't a good person. There was another reason he wanted to disrupt things—he wanted to save Gu Changyuan's younger sister.
In the book, Gu Changyuan treated this sister fairly well. If Xie Licheng could save her tomorrow, his own standing in the Gu household would improve considerably.
With his situation improved, he wouldn't have to worry about being targeted by others every day, and he'd have the leeway to prepare for the coming chaos.