05 Villain

Gu Jiao found herself quite surprised by her dream – she had actually dreamt, and dreamt of a man at that.

"Do I really have him on my mind that much?" Gu Jiao rubbed her chin in a peculiar manner.

However, it was merely a dream after all, so Gu Jiao didn't pay too much attention to it.

At that moment, dawn was breaking and a few stars were still visible on the horizon - it looked like it was going to be a sunny day.

Gu Jiao couldn't remember the last time she got up this early. In her past life, she did indeed work at the Research Institute, but those who were familiar with her knew that she was a total night owl, with most of her research and surgeries scheduled for the afternoon. As for the tasks entrusted to her by the organization, rare were those that required her to start at sunrise and end at sunset.

Today, Gu Jiao was wearing her own clothes.

Last night, after bringing the brazier into Xiao Liulang's room, Gu Jiao warmed her clothes by the fire for a bit. However, she moved very lightly, so as not to wake Xiao Liulang.

Gu Jiao went to the backyard to fetch water for washing.

Xiao Liulang's door was open, but he was no longer in the room.

Having thought herself to have risen early, she was surprised to find that someone else had woken even earlier.

Gu Jiao looked all over the house, but she couldn't find Xiao Liulang. However, she did notice that a bucket was missing near the water barrel.

Looking at the half-full barrel of water and rubbing her chin, Gu Jiao didn't say a word.

The bolt of the front door was still in place, indicating that Xiao Liulang had left through the kitchen's backdoor and locked it from the outside. This ensured that no one from the outside could enter freely, but if Gu Jiao wanted to go out, she could always use the front door.

After washing, Gu Jiao returned to the house, applied some ointment and ingested anti-inflammatory medicine.

By this time, Xiao Liulang was still out, so Gu Jiao went ahead and started to prepare the cornmeal she had left over. That was the last bit of their food stock.

Gu Jiao thought about selling the wild chicken she had brought back to town to replenish their food supply, but since the original host had never left the village before, Gu Jiao had no idea which way led to town.

While waiting for the dough to rise, she started to clean the backyard, the main hall, and her own room. Xiao Liulang was not there, so she didn't venture into his room.

She had only washed half of her clothes yesterday, so she took out the remaining ones and placed them in the big wooden basin in the backyard.

This era did have soap pellets, which the original owner had once seen on a merchant's pallet. However, most of the villagers were poor and couldn't afford to buy them, so they instead used soap beans picked from trees.

Gu Jiao smashed the soap beans and spread them evenly on the clothes, constantly using a stick to bash them until a fresh, fragrant foam released. Only then did she begin to scrub vigorously.

The cleaning power of the soap beans was not as strong as she had anticipated, but Gu Jiao was firm with her intent on cleaning the clothes properly.

Eventually, a small hole had been scrubbed into the belly wrap.

Gu Jiao: "…"

By the time Gu Jiao had finished cleaning the clothes, most of the water in the barrel had been used up.

At this point, the dough had also risen enough to be ready for baking. She made cornmeal steamed buns and placed them in the pot to steam.

Xiao Liulang was still not back.

The village had two wells in total. The old well was nearer but almost depleted, so Gu Jiao deduced that Xiao Liulang would have gone to the new well at the village entrance to fetch water.

The new well was just several steps away from the place where Gu Jiao had fallen into the water the day before, so an average person would need less than a quarter of an hour for a round trip. Even considering Xiao Liulang's disability and the added burden of carrying a bucket of water, two quarters of an hour should have been more than enough for him to return.

Standing at the kitchen counter, Gu Jiao peered in the direction of the front door and eventually decided to go out.

She found Xiao Liulang near an ancient well, sheltered by a big locust tree.

A group of menacing thugs had surrounded Xiao Liulang. His bucket was on its side, with water splashed all over the place.

Each thug had two chicken feathers pierced into their hair.

Ancient version of punks?

Gu Jiao recognized that the thugs were not just from her own village but also from the neighboring one. They spent their days causing trouble and while they didn't resort to murder and arson, they did cause abundant hardship and trouble for their fellow villagers.

One of the younger thugs had snatched Xiao Liulang's crutch. The thug was not very old, but he looked incredibly brazen. Judging from his profile, he seemed to be around thirteen or fourteen years old.

The boy pushed Xiao Liulang to the ground and pointed at Xiao Liulang's face with the crutch. "How many times have I warned you? Don't dare show your face in front of me again! Are you damn deaf or what? Now scram out of Qingquan Village!"

The voice of the young thug was somewhat familiar as it seemed to be in the midst of changing.

The young thug made a swing towards Xiao Liulang with the crutch, but before she could think more about it, Gu Jiao stepped forward in two or three strides to block the strike, and then kicked the young thug's butt.

"Ouch! Who the hell dares to kick me—" The young thug was kicked over like a dog eating shit. He turned around to swear, but suddenly choked.

Gu Jiao didn't pay his shock any mind. She took the crutch from him, grabbed his hand, and put the crutch against his neck.

The young thug, feeling deeply uncomfortable from this position, began to scream hysterically, "Sis! Sis! What are you doing?!"

Gu Jiao paused in surprise.

The other thugs who witnessed their leader being bullied were all about to rush at Gu Jiao oh so ferociously.

The young thug roared angrily: "All of you, hold your horses! She's my sister!"

The thugs froze in place.

Gu Jiao... Gu Jiao suddenly remembered who this little thug was – Gu Xiaoshun, the youngest son of the second family in the Gu clan.

Gu Xiaoshun was thirteen this year and was the youngest of the grandchildren in the Gu family. He was also the only one who genuinely cared for the original host. He didn't mind that she was thought to be stupid nor that she was unattractive.

Perhaps this was due to Gu Xiaoshun being such a troublemaker himself. He was not studious at all and liked to hang out with shady characters all the time. His older siblings would often scold him and his parents would punish him. Only the original host would hold his hand with a silly smile and coax him with candy saved from her own modest share. Xiaoshun could fight, Xiaoshun was so cool.

Gu Xiaoshun knew Gu Jiao acted this way because the original host was foolish, but he wasn't particularly clever himself.

He simply felt that he should return kindness to those who were kind to him.

"Sis! Sis! It hurts!" Gu Xiaoshun moaned pitifully.

Gu Jiao let go of him, placed her right hand behind her back, used her left hand to pull him up, and asked calmly: "Why are you bullying your brother-in-law?"

"Brother-in-law?" Gu Xiaoshun was sceptical, "But didn't you tell me to beat him up?"

"Me?" Gu Jiao was confused.

"Yes!" Gu Xiaoshun lowered his voice and directed a quick glance at Xiao Liulang before continuing, "You told me that you didn't want this cripple anymore and told me to chase him away so that you could be with Young Master Xiaoqin!"

He had tried to speak softly, but everyone present heard him clearly.

Xiao Liulang looked cold and distant.

The thugs couldn't bear to watch.

Gu Xiaoshun said: "Sis, you didn't forget, did you? You told me this yourself!"

Gu Xiaoshun was not lying, so it seemed that the original host had indeed said something like that. The original host herself had forgotten, but this little brother of hers didn't forget a single word!

"So... you took my casual words seriously?"

Gu Jiao felt a sharp pain in her teeth.

"So, what now?" Gu Xiaoshun realized that he might have done something wrong. He hunkered there with his head drooping, looking like a hapless quail.