chapter 5: the beginning

Bang bang bang~

The patrolling night watchman banged his wooden clapper rhythmically, and the sound traveled to the high pillar houses.

Fang Zheng opened his dry eyelids. Even after sleeping, he still felt sleepy and exhausted. Last night, when he saw the "new Fang Yuan", and those dark, scary and cold eyes of his, he was genuinely scared—he was scared of those two dark orb.

He didn't know why, but when he confronted this fang yuan, he sensed an invincible pressure on him, almost like.....an instinct. Yes, this was his instinct to fear those eyes. Like an animal's instinct for survival, he wanted to escape; his instincts were screaming at him to do so.

He rubbed his eyes with his fingers, thinking about the sounds outside. He ″threw away″ the thin blanket and got up, somewhat sluggishly, but at least he managed to get up.

In truth, he hadn't gotten much sleep after what happened with Fang Yuan last night. He couldn't stop thinking about what he saw—the emotions he felt, those cold and emotionless eyes of ″fang yuan″. His heart raced rapidly just thinking about all that, preventing him from sleeping, and he was lost in his thoughts until, about half an hour ago that he could finally sleep. But now, this sudden noise had woken him up.

He opened the window and saw that the rain had stopped. Immediately, a mix of fragrances of dirt, trees, and wildflowers filled the air. In the next moment, his head became clearer, and the sleepiness practically vanished. After this, he looked outside with more eager eyes than before.

The sun had yet to rise, and the surrounding bamboo buildings and wooden structures contrasted beautifully with the mountains, creating a sea of pale green color that showcased a wonderful side of nature.

Knock! knock!

"Young Master Fang Zheng, are you awake? I will go and prepare warm water for you to wash up."

As Fang Zheng admired the beautiful raw nature that couldn't be easily seen in the modern world, an old voice came from behind the door.

Behind the door was an elderly woman, the same woman who had assisted Fang Zheng with his bath last time. She seemed to be his personal servant, that was provided to him by his uncle and aunt.

Fang Zheng opened the door and followed the guidance of this old servant to wash up.

Soon, the elderly woman was quite shocked by this process because she hadn't expected Fang Zheng to behave like this. It was as if he were a completely different person. He was so sloppy that she had to assist him with washing up and other tasks, like an old mother helping her little son. But she didn't dare to ask anything; she simply did her job—helping her master as much as he could.

Actually, you couldn't blame Fang Zheng for this situation; after all, this was another world, not the modern world he had lived in, and things in this world were a bit outdated. He couldn't even use this world's version of a "toothbrush" properly.

But after a lot of tries, and with the help of this old servant, he eventually managed to do everything somewhat properly.

After that, he went to change his clothes, with the assistance of the old servant, of course.

However, the robe he wore this time wasn't one of the clothes he saw in his ″closet″, but a new one that the old servant had brought for him.

"So, they actually think about their reputation too," he thought.

After seeing the new set of clothes, Fang Zheng was a little confused, but after a few moment of thinking, he realized it was all just about maintaining one's reputation.

After all, today was the day of the awakening ceremony, and the two brothers, Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng, would go to awaken their apertures.

There would be many people present, but what would happen if, between the two siblings, Fang Yuan wore new clothes while Fang Zheng wore old ones? What would people say about such a scene? Certainly nothing good, and soon rumors might begin to spread.

In this tiny Gu Yue village, many people knew that their parents were dead, and that their uncle and aunt were raising them.

However, if a scene like that were witnessed in public, people might start to talk about how ruthless and abusive their uncle and aunt might be, for treating the little brother like this simply because he didn't have the talent nor intelligence of his older brother.

This was bullying, and if this happened in a clan that valued relationships and family over anything else, what would occur?

It definitely would have quite a huge impact on Uncle and Aunt, especially on Uncle's reputation.

People love to talk about rumors.

Of course, what happened now could be a coincidence, and Fang Zheng might be overthinking it. But only someone ignorant, like the original Fang Zheng, would think it is just that.

Coincidence? In such specific time, location, and situation? No, maybe the original Fang Zheng believed this, but the new Fang Zheng did not.

After dressing up, he walked into the hallway.

He continued down the stairs and approached the doorway, with the old servant following behind him. Soon, he saw Fang Yuan again.

Fang Yuan was standing there, and a little girl was smoothing the creases on his chest.

Upon seeing this scene, Fang Zheng's eyes filled with anger, but this anger wasn't directed at Fang Yuan; it was directed toward Uncle and Aunt.

If his current thoughts were correct, he now had a better understanding of why the original Fang Zheng was the way he was in the original story.

Despite the fact that it hadn't been a long time, Fang Zheng could still partially see how the original Fang Zheng lived.

For the original Fang Zheng, Fang Yuan's life must have seemed like heaven. But what about his? Hehe, not much good.

As a young and Navie kid, he couldn't comprehend a lot of things, and as a spectator, he couldn't see what exactly was going on in Fang Yuan's situation. He must have thought how good it was to be in Fang Yuan's place.

In fact, Fang Yuan's life was also very hard, but the original Fang Zheng couldn't grasp this fact. Because of Fang Yuan's expressionless face, which didn't show his true feelings, and under Uncle and Aunt's influence, a little kid like Fang Zheng was bound to feel jealousy and develop the inferiority complex he had in the original story.

"Hmph, if all of the original Fang Zheng's life was like what I've seen these days, it would really explain why he was a piece of shit in the original story. I mean, his clothes were like that; his room was even smaller than Fang Yuan's; his servant was worse than Fang Yuan's; he even got less food than Fang Yuan, and he always had to suffer these humiliations and hear how people praised Fang Yuan... Yeah, it's very messed up. After all, he was just a little kid."

As he thought about this more, the anger in his eyes grew even stronger.

Of course, all of this couldn't be concealed from Fang Yuan's experienced eyes, but in Fang Yuan's perspective, this anger was directed at himself. After all, he could only see the anger in his little brother's eyes when he saw Shen Cui.

It was natural for Fang Yuan to think like that; after all, with just this tiny observation, he couldn't understand that this Fang Zheng wasn't the younger brother he knew, but someone like himself in his previous life—a transmigrated person.

"Alright, no need to tidy up," Fang Yuan said impatiently, brushing away Shen Cui's soft hands. His clothing had long been tidy; he could tell that this was just Shen Cui's act to seduce him.

"You can leave." Fang Yuan didn't even look at Shen Cui as he tidied up his sleeve cuffs. Shen Cui was puzzled, feeling that Fang Yuan was acting a little strange today, but she simply said "yes" and retreated obediently.

"Are you ready?" Fang Yuan asked Fang Zheng.

This sudden call halted Fang Zheng's thoughts; cold sweat appeared on his forehead, but he tried to act as "normal" as he could.

"Yes, big brother." His head lowered as he looked at his toes, responding as normally as possible, trying to avoid any eye contact with Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan nodded. He was clear about what Fang Zheng was thinking now and could understand it... at least that was what he thought. But in reality, he couldn't fully grasp it and misunderstood; it wasn't really Fang Yuan's fault. The current Fang Zheng wasn't the same as the Fang Zheng from his previous life, so Fang Yuan, who had regressed from 500 years later not long ago and relied on his memories of his past life, couldn't understand Fang Zheng correctly, because the one he understood very well was the original Fang Zheng.

"Let's go," Fang Yuan said. Then the two brothers exited the house, with Fang Zheng following closely behind Fang Yuan.