Ge Nianlan felt that Ling Tong’s words were concealing the truth. However, when he looked at her expressionless face, he couldn’t find it in himself to argue. Well, if the two of them did dislike each other, then Ge Nianlan would surely find out the true story eventually, right?
“Is there anyone else I should be…cautious around?” Ge Nianlan asked.
Ling Tong silently observed Ge Nianlan for a moment.
In her memory, the boy before her had always been naïve and foolish. It wasn’t just because his intelligence did not match the children at his age—after all, it was more akin to that of a two-year-old—but also because he was the type to blindly follow anyone who was kind to him. Little did he know that many of his father’s trusted subordinates disliked him for being the way he was. Although the Saints knew to rein in their own feelings more than the others, there were quite a few who still disliked that Ge Jinsheng treated this useless son of his so dearly, even going as far as to put his own safety after this child.
But something had clearly changed. Suddenly, the child was more astute. He was clumsy in some ways, as if he hadn’t adjusted to human society yet, but he was treading carefully. He was seeking information and he was navigating around subjects that were meant to be avoided.
“Ling Tong?” Ge Nianlan cautiously prompted.
“Lord Guan, Lord Wen, and Nie Chenhui have reservations about you, Young Lord,” Ling Tong said. “As do the heads of the Three Great Clans and the lords of the Four Cardinal Directions.”
Ge Nianlan stiffened. That was a total of ten very important people who didn’t like him!
“And why is that?”
“Because they look down on those who do not reach their expectations,” Ling Tong honestly replied. “His Excellency is a great ruler and an even greater cultivator. They had high expectations for his offspring.”
“I…see.”
But it wasn’t Ge Nianlan’s fault that he couldn’t reach their expectations. For him to have recovered from his ailment was an unbelievable miracle. If this had never happened, he would have never even had a chance to win their approval!
The thought irritated him. He found a bud of resentment slowly growing in his heart.
Ling Tong watched Ge Nianlan’s expression cloud over. She let her gaze fall to the ground. “Young Lord need not worry about them.”
“…Huh?”
“Young Lord, you have His Excellency by your side,” Ling Tong explained. “Even if you spend your life in mediocrity, no one would dare say a word.”
Ge Nianlan stared at Ling Tong for a long time as understanding gnawed at him.
In this world, only the strong thrived. And if a weak person had someone strong to back them up, they would be able to survive. But was surviving all that Ge Nianlan wanted to do?
No. That was wishful thinking. Even if he had someone strong behind him, it wasn’t enough. There might be a time when that person leaves him or, even worse, is forcibly taken from him. So, he had to be strong in his own right. That was the only way that people would not look down on him.
“You’re nicer than I thought,” Ge Nianlan said.
Ling Tong looked at him steadily. “I haven’t said anything nice.”
Ge Nianlan smiled. “Ling Tong, I think I quite like you.”
Ling Tong’s expressionless face showed a flicker of discomfort. “Young Lord, you do not need to pander to me.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?” Ge Nianlan asked. “I’m being sincere.”
Ling Tong and Ge Nianlan had a silent standoff.
At this moment, the puppet demon felt that this child, who seemed to have gone through a rebirth, was quite terrifying.
“Don’t hide when you guard me,” Ge Nianlan said. “Let’s be proper friends!”
…To be more specific, it was the enthusiastic glimmer in Ge Nianlan’s eyes that terrified Ling Tong.
“That is not allowed,” Ling Tong lied.
“Huh? Why not?” Ge Nianlan pouted. He shifted closer. “Luo-gege is allowed to be seen!”
“I just dislike humans,” Ling Tong said.
Ge Nianlan thought about it for a moment before he reached his own understanding. “Oh! So, that’s why you expressed an opinion on Lord Nie! Because he also isn’t human! So, you actually do get along with him.”
…The enthusiastic glimmer in the child’s eyes wasn’t the only thing that was terrifying. It turned out the boy’s power of association was also quite horrible.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“No.”
“Rb ktja?” Xf Rljcijc jrxfv.
“P…vbc’a…”
“Tbe vbc’a ilxf Obgv Rlf?” Xf Rljcijc jrxfv.
“Rb, P…” Olcu Kbcu’r kbgvr olhhifv bea.
Pc tfg tecvgfvr bo sfjgr ilnlcu jwbcu tewjcr, rtf tjv wfa wjcs asqfr bo qfbqif, yea rtf kjr jrtjwfv ab rjs atja atfs kfgf jii atf rbgvlv asqf. Qtfc ojmfv klat atlr xlcv bo qegf mtliv, rtf mbeivc’a olcv jcs bo atf mbggfma kbgvr. Lbkfnfg, joafg byrfgnlcu tlw mibrfis obg jcbatfg ofk rfmbcvr, Olcu Kbcu olcjiis rlutfv.
“Young Lord, you are teasing me,” Ling Tong said.
Ge Nianlan grinned. “I’m being sincere.”
“If the Young Lord has no more questions, then Ling Tong shall take her leave.”
Ge Nianlan didn’t try to keep her. He hummed casually and watched her leave.
When the doors closed, his smile faded slightly. He rested his head against the bedpost beside him. His fingers pinched at the sheets in front of him and his mind raced a mile a minute. He needed to learn more about how this world worked and fast. He had clearly been living in a greenhouse for a long time, carefully coddled and protected by Ge Jinsheng. But now, things were different. Even if it weren’t for the future that he saw, he shouldn’t spend the rest of his life this ignorant.
“Eight Saints, Three Great Clans, Lords of the Four Cardinal Directions,” Ge Nianlan murmured.
He had vague memories about the Saints, but only because they would sarcastically refer to each other by their titles when they were displeased with one another. The Three Great Clans were people he knew nothing about. As for the Lords of the Four Cardinal Directions, Ge Nianlan had never even heard of them.
If he wanted to do more than survive, then he had to stay informed.
A soft yawn left his lips. He rubbed his eyes and settled back down into his bed. He was still ill, so it would be better for him if he rested for now.
Although he had yet to experience the horrific future he saw, Ge Nianlan couldn’t help but think about how long it had been since he had gotten to lay in a nice soft bed. It had to have been about three to four years, right?
He took a deep breath under the sheets and squeezed his eyes shut. The loneliness and hurt that he was forced to experience in a flash of only a few seconds burrowed itself deeply in his memories, creating new fear and doubt. He had to try hard to keep a grasp on his sense of self. Otherwise, he might let the useless thoughts of a future that had yet to take place, ruin his mind.
As he clung to these conflicting anxieties and false relief, Ge Nianlan slowly drifted off to sleep.
And after a week of mandated bedrest, Ge Nianlan was fully recovered.
The moment his eyes opened, the day after this mandate was lifted, Ge Nianlan hopped from his bed and got washed up all by himself. By the time the maids came in to help him bathe and wash his face, Ge Nianlan had already put his hair up into a ponytail. He glanced at the shocked maids who came in and smiled brightly.
“Big sisters! Good morning!”
The maids looked like they had seen a ghost. One by one, they dropped to the ground and pressed their heads to the floor.
“Young Lord, it was our negligence! We came too late and were unable to he—”
Ge Nianlan jogged over and looked at them curiously. “What are you all doing?”
The maids fell silent, but they glanced at each other as they quivered in fear.
Ge Nianlan squatted down in front of them. “Do you think I’m angry?”
When he did not receive a response, he rested his cheek against his hand. “I’m not angry. Why would I be?”
“B-because we failed to do our duties to serve you, Young Lord,” the maid at the front said.
The innocent look in Ge Nianlan’s gaze faded slightly, but his tone of voice remained just as naïve. “Failed to serve me? But I just wanted to get ready on my own. Did I…do a bad job?”
“No! Not at all, Young Lord!” the maid quickly replied.
Ge Nianlan giggled. “That’s good! Um, I think you should all get up. It’s not good to stay on the floor.”
Saying that, Ge Nianlan stood as well. He looked at the maids curiously as they all stood one by one. He grinned. “I think I can dress myself in the mornings from now on.”
The maids glanced at each other in shock.
“B-but Young Lord, you are a person of high status. It is only fitting if we serve—”
“But I’m really okay,” Ge Nianlan said. He held out his arms. “See? I’m dressed!”
With the artificial memories he obtained from the cursed artifact, Ge Nianlan had learned a lot of things. In those recesses of knowledge, he had also learned simple life skills.
He looked up at the maids with a shining smile. “Didn’t I do well?”
Seeing such an adorable smile on an equally as adorable child, the maids could feel their own fear draining away. The maids giggled and nodded in unison.
“Yes, Young Lord. You did very well!”
Ge Nianlan giggled again and shyly lowered his head. His smile faded and he glanced at the maids cautiously. “Oh, but if I start dressing myself and getting ready by myself, will the big sisters get in trouble?”
The maids shook their heads. The one who had been doing most of the talking spoke up again.
“His Excellency will understand if we explain the situation to him,” the maid said gently. “We’ll be okay, Young Lord.”
Ge Nianlan’s eyes widened in excitement. “Alright! Th-then, from now I want…I want to take care of myself.”
“Of course, Young Lord,” the maids agreed.
“However, Young Lord, we still have to serve you food,” one of the maids anxiously said. “The kitchen is no place for someone of your status.”
Ge Nianlan nodded in understanding. He shifted from foot to foot. “Um, I think something happened to my memory while I was sick, but I…don’t remember any of your names.”
A soft gasp left one of the maids. The three women looked at the lowered head with pity and quickly informed Ge Nianlan of their names.
“My name is Fu Qing!”
“My name is Wen Liu.”
“I’m Zhang Yao.”
Ge Nianlan carefully memorized their names and faces. Fu Qing was the youngest of the three. Wen Liu was quiet, but she was the calmest, while Zhang Yao had been the one who did most of the talking. After he had made sure he memorized their faces, he smiled again and gave them a big thank you.
“Then, Young Lord, we will return momentarily with your breakfast,” Zhang Yao said.
Ge Nianlan nodded enthusiastically. “Oh! Um! After breakfast, can we go to the library?”
Zhang Yao and the two other maids looked at him in surprise.
“The…library?”
“Mn! I wanna read,” Ge Nianlan said with a naïve grin.
“O-oh, okay,” Zhang Yao agreed. She glanced at her two companions.
Despite already being ten, Ge Nianlan had never truly been taught how to read. When he voiced a desire to “read” he often meant looking at collections of paintings that had been transferred into books. He would look at the difficult poems that the artists put in and would often stare at them in awe.
The three maids were already used to this, but hearing Ge Nianlan express his desire in such a clear voice made them feel pity for the young lord. Perhaps, now that he was brighter, His Excellency will finally hire a tutor for him.
After the maids left, Ge Nianlan’s smile fell from his face. He sat down at the tea table and rested his chin against the palm of his hand.
He will slowly reduce his need to have so much staff around him. If he did so, even if Huai Zhen came to Black Mane Palace, it wouldn’t be so easy for him to plant a spy at his side. He would keep only Ling Tong, Luo Qianwu, and those three maids. With only five people, it’d be much easier to see who was betraying him.
Ge Nianlan glanced at himself in the mirror nearby and smiled. He touched his cheeks slightly and gave them a light tug.
Now that he knew his own future, he could see that there was very little resemblance between himself and Ge Jinsheng or his wife, Qiao Lanying. However, the young man he had seen in his visions was nearly the spitting image of both parents. It was a harmonious combination of their futures to create one of the most beautiful people that Ge Nianlan had ever met.
Ge Nianlan lowered his gaze and only returned to his senses when breakfast arrived before him.
He ate rather quickly and insisted on going to the library immediately after.
As the other two maids had other duties to attend to, only Fu Qing was left to take care of Ge Nianlan.
The other maids were most likely in their mid to late twenties, but Fu Qing was clearly still a teenager. She spoke to Ge Nianlan gently and told him stories about her mundane life, outside of the sect, as they made their way to the library. The entire time, Ge Nianlan watched her silently and only responded when appropriate.
He learned that she still had parents, which was rare in the Yinxue Region (she noted) and she had only a little brother and a baby sister, which is also apparently rare, as it was common to abandon most of your children once they reached a certain age. All in all, Ge Nianlan could tell that Fu Qing was raised in what people her would say is an “abnormal” household. However, because it was abnormal, Ge Jinsheng probably felt that this kind of energetic presence would suit Ge Nianlan the most.
“What about Zhang Yao-jiejie and Wen Liu-jiejie?” Ge Nianlan asked curiously.
“Mm Zhang Yao is actually married! She has one daughter. I heard she was raised in an orphanage, sponsored by His Excellency. As for Wen Liu, I hear that she has an older brother who is a guard at the palace,” Fu Qing said.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t have parents or only have one around here, huh?” Ge Nianlan noted.
Fu Qing was surprised by the boy’s observation. When she thought about it, she realized that few people would have talked to him about this sort of thing. The people around him from when he was a child until now were all adults or peers who were four years older, assigned to take care of them. It was probably safe to assume that Ge Nianlan’s view on the world was very narrow. As for what was “normal” and “abnormal”, it would probably be different from anyone’s view—righteous faction or otherwise.
“Mm, usually! It’s because of the culture in the Yinxue Region,” Fu Qing said. “I hear that in the Yunheng Region, if you are an orphan, people pity you more or you are treated as a nuisance. And if you have both parents, you are considered the normal one. If you only have one, then…well, people find it odd, but they won’t scorn you.”
Fu Qing frowned. “I hear they don’t even have orphanages there! Kind of ridiculous if you ask me.”
“What’s the Yunheng Region?” Ge Nianlan asked.
Fu Qing was quick to hide her shock this time.
They arrived in front of the library and Fu Qing pushed the door open with a smile. “Let’s find a history book! I can explain it easier if there is a map to point to.”
Noticing Ge Nianlan’s subtle confusion, Fu Qing explained: “A map is a piece of paper that shows you where places are located! They’re created by people called cartographers.”
“Cartographers,” Ge Nianlan echoed.
“Yup!” Fu Qing grinned. She set Ge Nianlan down on a chair. “Stay right here, Young Lord. I will find the book!”
Ge Nianlan nodded and watched Fu Qing skip away.
The library was large, in comparison to Ge Nianlan’s own room and even the dining room. It had five floors, stretching high with bookshelves that nearly scraped the ceiling. All around were windows, reaching from floor to ceiling. At the upper levels, there were even balconies that overlooked the remainder of the sect. Most of the windows were covered with curtains, so as not to bring sun damage to the books.
Fu Qing returned with a bright smile on her face. She sat down with a large, dusty book and carefully placed it down.
“This is it! It is the history between the Yinxue Region and the Yunheng Region. About…five thousand years’ worth of it?” Fu Qing pondered. She flipped to a spot closer to the back and found a recent map of the way the territory was split.
Ge Nianlan watched her in fascination. “Jiejie, can you read?”
“I was taught the basics! I can’t understand anything too poetic, but I can read it,” Fu Qing said. She turned her attention back to the map. “Let’s see…Here!” She placed her finger below each character and slowly skimmed her finger beneath it as she read it out loud, “The Yun…Heng…Region!”
She glanced up at Ge Nianlan, whose full attention was on the book. “This entire mass of land is the Yunheng Region. It stretches from this part,” she tapped a long, thick line that drew the river, “the River of the Forgotten, over to down here,” she tapped the bottom of the page, “Over to the Southern Ocean.”
“The Yunheng Region is where those with spiritual cultivation reside,” Fu Qing said.
“Spiritual cultivation,” Ge Nianlan echoed. He frowned and looked up at Fu Qing. “What’s the difference between spiritual cultivation that they use and the devil cultivation that we use?”
Fu Qing thought about it. “Mm…well, I’m not a cultivator but…hang on, I think I saw a book about this!”
Fu Qing jumped up and ran to the bookshelves again.
She returned not too long with a much thinner, but more worn-out book. She held it up and grinned. “This is a tiny handbook for children!”
She placed the book down in front of Ge Nianlan and opened to the first page. With a flourish of her finger, she pointed.
“According to this manual, this is the difference between spiritual cultivation and devil cultivation!” Fu Qing said. She craned her neck slightly in order to read the description to Ge Nianlan. “‘Spiritual Cultivation follows nature’s laws, always borrowing but never stealing. The way of the Dao is to cleanse one’s mind of impurities, to achieve the ultimate knowledge, and to reach a state of enlightenment. Devil Cultivation leans into one’s desires, drawing power from obsession. Devil Cultivation steals from nature, from Heaven, and from the living surrounding them.”
Fu Qing read it all out, as if it were a matter of fact. Ge Nianlan skimmed the unrecognizable words a few times before he remembered a few from his minimal education in those false memories of his. He thought about it for a moment before turning to Fu Qing again.
“Devil cultivation sounds scary,” Ge Nianlan said.
“Does it?” Fu Qing frowned and turned the book back towards her. “Well, it isn’t…really.”
She glanced at Ge Nianlan, who sat like a patient pupil, waiting for their mentor to enlighten him. She couldn’t help but grin as she leaned against the table and read over the passage again.
“How should I put this?” Fu Qing hummed. She glanced at Ge Nianlan. “Well, I don’t really have a talent for either cultivation, so I didn’t make it too far, but this is just my personal opinion, okay?”
Ge Nianlan nodded in understanding.
“Well…both cultivation methods are scary,” Fu Qing said.
Ge Nianlan twisted them onto his finger so fast, wow;;
THAT LIBRARY SEEMS SO COOL!! and im excited to see where Fu Qing is going with this 👀
hehe thanks for reading!!!!!!!
So basically Ge nianlan is a childish adult? He’s interesting because he didn’t transmigrate and even if he did see the future, he still doesn’t know every single detail and isn’t like- crazy smart, he needs to learn things!
I wish there was more haha I’m in the mood for binging ᕙ( ~ . ~ )ᕗ
YES exactly hehe i was worried i didn’t convey it well enough, but I’m glad you picked up on it!! :’D thanks for reading and commenting!