Starting from July 16th, Gu Xiaodeng had to wake up at Mao Hour, Third Quarter every single day. His exclusive “Young Master Reformation Plan” had no deadline. From Zhu Mi’s perspective, the plan began today and would end only with death.
Zhu Mi himself rose at Mao Hour, First Quarter. His expectations for Gu Xiaodeng were exceedingly low. When he entered the inner chamber, ready to wake the boy, he found him already up, dressed, and washed. To say he wasn’t surprised would be a lie.
Gu Xiaodeng was full of energy. Waking up early was no challenge for him; he simply went to bed early. He was very good at coaxing himself to sleep. He watched Zhu Mi enter with eager anticipation, craning his neck impatiently. “Where’s my Brother Dengqing? Brother Zhu, you told me yesterday I could see him today.”
Zhu Mi exhaled a breath of stale air. “You must not address me that way. Calling me by my name directly will suffice.”
“Then call you Iron Door God?” Gu Xiaodeng spread his hands out wide, gesturing. “Calling you by name feels wrong. After all, you’re an adult, this~ much older than me.”
Zhu Mi inhaled another breath of stale air. He decided not to debate him further and simply accepted it, switching instead to sternly correcting the boy’s tone. “You must completely change this manner of speaking. You should follow the precepts of the Book of Rites: ‘Allow no disrespect, be dignified as if in thought, speak with calm assurance.’ Conduct yourself with reverence, maintain a steady exterior, and speak with reason—not with the frivolity you display now.”
Gu Xiaodeng nodded with genuine conviction, but he also had his own peculiar logic. “Is that what I’m doing, being frivolous? If I can’t change, will I become one of those dandies everyone talks about? ‘Light’ is close to wind, and ‘floating’ is drifting close to currents. Then I’d probably get a reputation for being a romantic, right? The romantic dandy, Gu Xiaodeng?”
Zhu Mi was momentarily speechless. He could only stiffly tell him to go eat breakfast.
Gu Xiaodeng tried to adjust his lilting, fluctuating tone, putting on an adult’s manner but speaking childish words. “Alrighty, after I eat, you’ll take me to see Brother Dengqing, okay? I miss him so much.”
He wasn’t peaceful even during the meal. Zhu Mi stood by, correcting his posture from head to toe with relentless criticism. The boy didn’t see it as nitpicking at all; he earnestly and awkwardly sipped his congee, not wasting a single grain of rice.
Zhu Mi asked if he was a picky eater. “Is there any food you truly dislike?”
“Nope, I can eat anything.” Gu Xiaodeng grinned, thinking to himself that even consuming poison did nothing to him. He was a Medicine Person; his medicine blood cured all poisons, which also meant his body was immune to them all. Absolutely no problem there.
Zhu Mi still wasn’t quite convinced. “Truly, no food whatsoever that you detest?”
“Yep!” Gu Xiaodeng counted on his fingers, his nimble tongue rattling off with excellent elocution. “Salty or bland, sour or spicy, bitter or spoiled, raw or half-raw—I’ve eaten it all, all fine. Unless it’s burnt or rotten, but this is a prince’s residence; there wouldn’t be any badly ruined food, right? At worst, the flavors might be unique and novel. My tongue is very tolerant. If you’re asking if I have any special favorites, I don’t think I care much about that either. Eating balanced and healthy is what matters. Maybe I just haven’t eaten anything yet that greatly boosts my taste buds’ happiness!”
Zhu Mi fell silent for a moment.
Most people have taste preferences. He recalled that Gu Jinyu, as a child, had them too. Later, he was slowly “adjusted” by the Prince Zhenbei and his wife, until his desire for flavor was completely severed. As for the other four Gu children, they had either already gone through it or were currently undergoing it.
Gu Xiaodeng, remarkably, needed none of this “correction.”
Zhu Mi couldn’t decide whether to feel regret or relief. For now, he considered it a bullet dodged.
But judging by Gu Xiaodeng’s docile nature, correcting his physical habits seemed like it wouldn’t be difficult. Reforming his mindset, however, would be the true challenge.
So he focused on what currently occupied Gu Xiaodeng’s mind: his feelings for Zhang Dengqing.
Here, not just in the Gu family but in the entire Western District of Changluo, the distinctions of sovereign and subject, father and son, colleague and brother, noble and commoner, lineage and birth were rigidly defined.
“You are now the Gu family’s Cousin Young Master. Zhang Dengqing has no relation whatsoever to the Gu family. You can no longer treat him with the propriety of a servant-brother.”
Sure enough, the smile on Gu Xiaodeng’s face vanished. He sat there in a daze, lost in thought.
Zhu Mi gave him no buffer. “Naturally, he can no longer treat you as a younger brother either.”
With that, he turned aside and barked an order outside. “Bring him in!”
A column of footsteps marched in. Amid the uniform, heavy footfalls was one slightly unsteady, irregular sound.
Gu Xiaodeng turned his head to look. At the head of the line of servants filing in was none other than Zhang Dengqing, dressed in the attire of a household servant.
Zhang Dengqing knelt down alongside the servants behind him and paid his respects. “Please be at peace, Cousin Young Master.”
It was like a bolt from the blue. Gu Xiaodeng shot up from his chair like a spring, only to be firmly and accurately pressed back down by Zhu Mi.
Zhu Mi bent down to instruct him on the proper response, and then he saw a tear streak down Gu Xiaodeng’s cheek.
Only then did Zhu Mi feel that the flavor was right.
Gu Xiaodeng spent the entire morning completely deflated, like a tiny bean sprout swaying in the wind. This gave Zhu Mi ample reason to correct all his habits. Fortunately, Zhu Mi was not truly a block of cold iron; he went back to rest briefly during the noon break.
Zhang Dengqing, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately dismissed the other servants. Before Gu Xiaodeng could burst into full-blown tears, he reached out and ruffled his hair. “A day without seeing me—did you miss me or not?”
“Missed you so, so much.” Tears streamed down Gu Xiaodeng’s face as he lunged into a fierce hug. “Brother, let’s just leave!”
Zhang Dengqing had expected this, but his heart still ached. He chuckled wryly, holding him and smoothing his hair. “I knew the first thing out of your mouth would be that, silly! Before, when we learned opera and played at being kings and generals from the plays, wasn’t it just like playing house, like we are now? It’s all a stage; just think of it as acting. What we get in return is fine clothes and good food. Why leave? If we go back to the wandering life, how could I protect you?”
“They’re bullying you!”
“That’s not the right way to put it. They took me in first. I have no kin or connections here. If I want to stay and earn my keep, I should do some work. Besides, this uniform is the highest-grade outfit for a first-rank servant. Even among the servant ranks, I’ve come in through the most exclusive back door.” Zhang Dengqing laughed self-deprecatingly twice, skillfully coaxing Gu Xiaodeng. “I’m just hanging a name tag here attached to the Gu family. Really, it’s the same as before. I look after you, you worry about me. We brothers still rely on each other, just like always.”
Gu Xiaodeng was half-doubtful, half-believing. Zhang Dengqing had to comfort him repeatedly, even bringing up yesterday’s events. “Xiaodeng, yesterday, the Gu family steward took me to learn the rules. Learning them is fine, but guess what happened? Halfway through, I saw that Elder Brother Heir of yours come by! Gu Pinghan, the one you met once.”
Gu Xiaodeng’s curiosity was piqued. His tear-streaked face went blank. “Huh?”
“I did some discreet asking around. The main members of the Gu family definitely all know about the switch between you and Gu Jinyu. Gu Pinghan and the others will definitely come see you personally before long.”
Zhang Dengqing smiled as he wiped Gu Xiaodeng’s tears, then snorted through his nostrils. “But before this Heir came to see you, he probably wanted to get a look at the ‘hillbilly’ through me first. So yesterday, he suddenly sought me out and interrogated me for ages, just like the Prince Zhenbei did when he tested me before. Both of them, big and small, hate speaking plainly. Who knows how many hidden agendas their words carry? So damn awkward.”
He patted Gu Xiaodeng’s head, and Gu Xiaodeng nudged it forward for more pats, wrinkling his nose. “What did that Elder Brother Heir ask you?”
“Mostly just meaningless drivel and useless questions. For someone like that, his insight isn’t all that great, really.” Zhang Dengqing’s tone was light and playful. Out of Gu Xiaodeng’s sight, he bared his teeth. Gu Pinghan had mainly questioned him about their life among common folk, maintaining a condescending air of superiority the entire time. It filled Zhang Dengqing with a bellyful of resentment. In the end, Gu Pinghan’s disdain wasn’t really for him—it was clearly aimed at Gu Xiaodeng.
He picked out the amusing bits to tell Gu Xiaodeng, helping him get familiar with the other Gu family members too.
Gu Pinghan had shown only a sliver of emotion yesterday, and it was over Zhang Dengqing’s name.
He had asked him, “Your name is Dengqing—waiting for clear skies. Why did your parents choose this? Was it because you were born on an overcast day, and thus they longed for a sunny one?”
That he could connect “Dengqing” to “disliking cloudy days” was one of the rare moments Zhang Dengqing found Gu Pinghan’s thought process childishly amusing. So, at that time, he had explained earnestly.
“It’s the opposite of what you think. In my hometown dialect, ‘Da’ and ‘Deng’ sound very similar. I was born on a fine, sunny day. My mother liked to call me Xiao Qing, and my father called me Da Qing. Later, they decided to replace ‘Da’ with ‘Deng’; it sounds more pleasant in the official tongue.”
Gu Pinghan had listened intently, so Zhang Dengqing elaborated on his own thoughts.
“Besides, sunny days don’t need waiting for, right? There are more sunny days than anything in a year. Every season has fine weather. It’s the bad weather that’s scarce.”
Gu Pinghan had even replied to him then. “Is that so? I’ve never paid it any mind.”
Thus, Zhang Dengqing now summed it up. “That Elder Brother Heir of yours is like a fool who can’t manage daily life.”
Gu Xiaodeng thought for a moment, recalling Gu Jinyu jumping into the pool yesterday. He agreed. “Gu Jinyu seems like one too!”
