By the time Ge Dongchen came to his senses, he had already stolen a kiss while Gu Xiaodeng was drunk. He was already part of this restless collective.
He and Guan Yunji could easily incite everyone to ostracize Gu Xiaodeng, but it was difficult to completely suppress their collective restlessness.
Because the two of them couldn’t even suppress their own.
Gu Xiaodeng looked at him, bewildered. Stroking his chin, he leaned in curiously. “Brother Dongchen, you’re not asking at all. You’re saying it with such certainty. Then let me follow your line of thought. What if so many noble young masters in the academy have an abnormal side… ah, except Young Master Su.”
Ge Dongchen: “…”
“What if those two perverts tonight really were people from the academy? What do you think I should do?” Gu Xiaodeng raised his fist. “Drag them out, write a letter of accusation and send it to their high-ranking parents, let their own families discipline them?”
Ge Dongchen burst out laughing, covering his eyes, unable to stop.
Helpless, Gu Xiaodeng laughed along with him, poking the large hand covering his eyes. “Would that not work?”
“Maybe for you.” Ge Dongchen laughed until his shoulders trembled slightly. “You don’t need to think about dealing with other young masters first. First, think about who would back you up. If you report the matter of being molested to the Gu family, do you think Prince Gu and the Princess Consort would make a huge fuss for your sake, reorganize the academy, and make all the noble sons lose face, or would they single you out and reprimand you?”
Gu Xiaodeng froze.
“You sit in the very last row, a little fool with no parents, living under someone else’s roof. When people give you face, they call you Cousin Young Master. When they don’t, what do they call you?”
“‘Little Bastard,’ ‘Farmhand Slave.'”
And the privately jokingly used “Little Rabbit Boy,” a term from the Pleasure Quarter.
“You can continue to stubbornly resist others, but someone as weak as you will eventually reach a day when you can’t withstand the crowd’s malice.” Ge Dongchen was not joking. “Either you go beg Prince Gu and the Princess Consort to leave Vast Marsh Academy as soon as possible, or you find someone within the academy who can give you shelter.”
Dazedly, Gu Xiaodeng reached to cover the teeth marks on the back of his neck. He remembered when the second dead pervert had grabbed him tonight, the hand he felt on his nape was unmistakably a young man’s hand.
If, as Ge Dongchen said, those who bullied him so tonight were his peers around him…
“Eee eee eee!” Gu Xiaodeng’s face twisted, losing all control of his expression… well, he never had control of his expression anyway.
Ge Dongchen remained half-crouched before him, not minding at all that Gu Xiaodeng, sitting in the chair, was higher than him. Seeing Gu Xiaodeng’s animated expression—like a good kitten spotting a bad dog breed—he only found it amusing.
His little face scrunched up, Gu Xiaodeng waved his hands in the air as if swatting at some invisible filth. “Brother Dongchen, thank you for telling me this. I grew up in a different place from all of you. Perhaps you are right. Thank you for warning me.”
Ge Dongchen smiled. Without further ado, he stood up and turned to leave. “Then have your servants tend to you. Rest well. I’m off.”
“Brother Dongchen!”
Ge Dongchen turned sideways, a faint expectation rising in his heart. If Gu Xiaodeng now pleaded with him, or pleaded to ask Guan Yunji to be his shelter, he would agree without hesitation.
Apart from them, only Su Mingya was left.
But Su Mingya would only watch the show with amusement; he wouldn’t care about him.
“Can you not tell anyone about tonight’s incident?” Gu Xiaodeng rubbed the back of his head. “I trust your character, Brother Dongchen, that you won’t spread my embarrassing story around. But I said a foolish thing in the carriage without thinking, that thing about me and Jinyu… please keep it secret, keep it secret!”
Gu Xiaodeng clasped his hands together and bowed wildly towards Ge Dongchen as if worshipping Buddha.
Ge Dongchen: “…”
So it was a specific reminder not to tell anyone about his and Gu Jinyu’s first kiss.
First kiss.
First kiss.
Ge Dongchen took a deep breath and said with a beaming smile, “That’s only natural.”
After agreeing, he turned his head and left, gloomy.
Gu Xiaodeng watched him leave. Soon, Feng’en arrived, examined his ankle injury, and prepared to help him wash up.
“No rush, no rush.” Gu Xiaodeng waved his hand and stretched his foot. “My foot actually isn’t a big deal. I’ll just rub it myself before bed. No need to apply medicine.”
After all, he was a medicine person. Ordinary medicine had no effect on him. Why waste it?
“Feng’en, I want to ask you something first.” Gu Xiaodeng hammered his own thigh, a serious look of scholarly inquiry on his face. “Excluding special rescue situations, tell me, what does it mean when a strange guy kisses another guy on the mouth?”
Feng’en remained gentle as ever. “If not affection, then desire. Judging by the baser nature of men, mostly desire.”
Gu Xiaodeng’s little face scrunched up again, letting out “Eee”s and “Uhh”s.
Feng’en asked nothing more, but simply took the opportunity to say, “Would the Young Master like to learn about it?”
“Learn about what?”
“The matters of pleasure between men.”
Gu Xiaodeng’s head exploded with a boom. Shocked, he pointed at himself. “Feng’en… I am a man. Although since Emperor Xuguang established a Male Empress a hundred years ago, double dragons and double phoenixes are no longer isolated cases, most people still unite yin and yang. Husband and wife make a family, children surround one’s knees. How… how can you suddenly tell me this?”
One must know that Feng’en was sent by An Ruoyi. Moreover, An Ruoyi had specifically instructed him to accept Feng’en’s guidance in the future.
He had even wondered why Feng’en rarely took the initiative to teach him anything. The most he’d done was that lesson on hierarchy and rules half a month ago.
“I originally intended to wait until the Young Master had come of age before discussing it. But if the Young Master wishes to learn now, I will also teach you the way of pleasure between man and woman.” Feng’en looked at him gently and calmly. “It’s all Arts of the Bedchamber. You will need it eventually, to prepare for unforeseen needs.”
Gu Xiaodeng opened his mouth, but in the end, just closed it and stared blankly.
Those few words from Feng’en stung his heart far more than anything Ge Dongchen had said.
~
May flipped past in a blink, and June arrived hot on its heels.
Gu Xiaodeng limped on his crooked ankle back to class, his collar pulled up to his Adam’s apple to hide the yet-to-fade teeth marks. Because of the Candle Dream Pavilion incident, he harbored some extra wariness. When he went to the academy, he meticulously observed everyone. If the dead pervert who bullied him was really among them, then his Iron Head Skill should have left a bump on the person, right?
Unfortunately, after studying for a whole morning, no one in the academy had a swollen head. Not only were they more powerful and influential than him, but even their heads were harder than his.
Gu Xiaodeng then tried to identify people by build and voice. The dead pervert was much taller than him, with a low, hoarse voice. He simply couldn’t find anyone who met both conditions at the same time.
Gu Xiaodeng started to harbor a fluke mentality, thinking surely there couldn’t truly be such villains in the academy. Who knew, that very afternoon, he received a shock.
He had decided not to attend martial arts class due to his sprained ankle. After morning classes ended, he limped his way back to the student courtyard. As he reached the corner of a long corridor, a sack was suddenly thrown over his head by someone approaching from the front. His page boy let out a short cry of alarm but was quickly muffled.
Stumbling, Gu Xiaodeng struggled, thinking it would be like the beating at the rockery. But this time, he was subjected to a bout of groping and a chorus of ambiguous, low laughter rising and falling. No matter how naive, he couldn’t ignore the wrongness in this touching.
This time, there was no Ge Dongchen passing by to fish him out. Gu Xiaodeng trembled for a long while before he shakily pulled the sack off his head, straightened his clothes, and called for his page boy for ages. The unlucky page boy finally scrambled over from the grass outside the corridor, his clothes bearing the clear imprint of a kick.
Gritting his teeth, Gu Xiaodeng braced himself against the wall and stood up. “Who kicked you? Were there three people or four?”
The page boy first helped him up, then fell to his knees with a thud. “Young Master Gu, if I don’t tell you, you won’t take my life. But if I do tell, those young masters will likely ensure I don’t live to see tomorrow’s sun.”
Saying this, he kowtowed forcefully. Gu Xiaodeng could only tell him to get up.
Furious, his gums itching with anger, he had the page boy take him to find Zhu Mi. On the way, he pondered over and over, not even knowing how to lodge this complaint.
Zhu Mi ultimately answered to Gu Yan and An Ruoyi. Gu Yan might really throw him into the confinement room again. And An Ruoyi, would she stand up for him?
Just the night before, Feng’en wanted to teach him those bedroom arts.
Gu Xiaodeng was scratching the back of his head when he found Zhu Mi. Before Zhu Mi could even speak, he preemptively laughed dryly and waved, spouting nonsense. “Academy Head Zhu, are you busy? It’s mealtime. Have you had lunch?”
Zhu Mi acknowledged him and led him to sit. “How did the Young Master injure his foot?”
“It’s nothing, just a careless sprain.” Gu Xiaodeng racked his brains for how to phrase it. “Jinyu… has the Fourth Young Master been busy lately? Did he go back to the Imperial Palace to be a study companion?”
