Gu Feng's quarters were located in the innermost courtyard of the West Courtyard. After leaving Fifth Uncle's place, it didn't take long for him to reach his own yard.
"Young Master, you're back."
In the courtyard, a sixteen-year-old maiden holding a watering can was busy watering the plants and flowers.
Seeing Gu Feng return, a charming smile blossomed on her face.
The young girl had fair skin, a pair of dark, clear eyes, and her hair simply styled into double buns, tied with pale turquoise ribbons.
Hearing the voice, Gu Feng looked over and, recognizing his personal maid Bailian, asked:
"Xiaolan, why are you still out here watering alone so late?"
"Young Master, these flowers are very delicate. Watering them during the day makes them prone to withering; only watering at night is best," Xiaolan explained as she continued her work.
"Young Master, it's getting late. Shall I go and prepare your bath and bed?"
"Mhm, go ahead and get the hot water ready."
"How about this maid serves you in the bath tonight?"
Xiaolan lowered her head slightly, speaking with a shy flush.
Wisps of soft moonlight fell upon her white gauze dress, casting a gentle sheen and making her look exceptionally serene and tender.
After a long moment, Gu Feng finally snapped out of it.
"Ahem!"
Gu Feng gave a couple of fake coughs to break the awkwardness, then waved his hand and said:
"No need. You know my habits."
Ever since regaining his memories, Gu Feng had struggled immensely to adapt to the lifestyle of this world.
Not to mention the absence of cell phones and the internet, even minor daily tasks like bathing felt completely alien to him.
In this household, everyone had their personal maids wait on them during baths.
Yet Gu Feng found it thoroughly uncomfortable. The mere thought of someone else washing him stripped away all privacy and left him feeling ill at ease all over.
Bailian's lowered head suddenly lifted slightly. Clenching her hands tightly against the corners of her clothes, her face flushed red as she mustered up her courage and said:
"Young Master, this maid knows you feel pity for us servants and prefer to spare us from hard work.
"But if we do nothing at all, we lose our reason for existing."
Bailian had always regarded Young Master Gu Feng as a remarkably kind and good-natured person, one who treated even lowly servants with great generosity and consideration.
He never casually beat or scolded them, and sometimes even lent a hand with their chores.
Yet doing so wasn't necessarily a good thing for them.
A person must never lose their sense of self-worth!
And right now, Bailian's greatest value lay in being Gu Feng's personal maid.
If she didn't even perform the basic duties of a maid, how could she continue to stay in the Gu Estate?
How could she possibly have the face to collect a monthly stipend that was dozens of times higher than that of ordinary maids?
Gu Feng understood Xiaolan's meaning, but instead of elaborating, he gave a wave of his hand:
"You are my personal maid. When I tell you to work, you work; when I tell you to rest, you rest. It's not up to anyone else to make a fuss about it."
If Gu Feng lacked the memories of another world,
he might have behaved like any other arrogant young master, wantonly humiliating servants and treating them as less than human.
However, having witnessed another colorful world and absorbed its egalitarian ideals,
he simply could not do it!
This was not a failing of Gu Feng, but rather a clash of ideologies between two civilizations.
Had the people of this world the chance to visit that other world, they too would experience all sorts of maladjustment.
The social structure of this world bore some similarity to the ancient dynasties of Gu Feng's past life,
yet it was far more savage, for this was a world where martial prowess reigned supreme, and the strong truly could do as they pleased.
Within a major clan, killing a servant without the slightest reason would bring no repercussions whatsoever.
Furthermore, the vast majority of servants in great households signed lifelong contracts the day they entered the estate.
From that moment on, they ceased to be "people" and became mere property of the master's family.
Bailian was one such person. She had been sold to the Gu Family by her parents at the age of five.
Afterwards, she was placed in the Ningyi Courtyard to live and "learn."
The learning mentioned here had nothing to do with literacy; it was brainwashing.
That was right—in Gu Feng's view, this was pure brainwashing.
Children merely five or six years old were daily instilled with notions of absolute loyalty to the master's family by older matrons and tutors.
Day in and day out, until they reached around twelve years of age.
Then, depending on their specific appearance and capabilities, they were assigned to various tasks.
The lucky ones, like Bailian, were assigned to serve as personal maids beside direct descendants of the family.
The unlucky ones could only be assigned to the outer courtyards to perform heavy, grueling labor for the rest of their lives.
After a few years of miscellaneous chores, when they reached the appropriate age, their masters would marry them off to male servants within the family.
Within a couple of years, their children would be born—such offspring were known as hereditary servants.
From the very moment of birth, hereditary servants were destined to serve the master's family as slaves for the rest of their lives.
Not only would they be slaves themselves, but generation after generation, their descendants would also be slaves to the masters.
When these hereditary servants grew a little older, they too would have to undergo the family's brainwashing education.
For someone born a servant, rising above one's station was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
Brainwashed from childhood to place the master's family above all else, they considered dying in battle for the masters to be the highest honor.
Even if by chance they stumbled upon some fortuitous opportunity, they would immediately contribute it to the master's family in exchange for a reward.
Sounds idiotic, doesn't it?
Exactly. Can you expect normal thinking from someone brainwashed since childhood?
Of course, this did not mean that servants in major clans never betrayed their masters.
After all, brainwashing was merely a tool, and any tool could potentially fail.
It was simply that having undergone brainwashing from an early age, the probability of betrayal was vastly reduced.
Moreover, the art of ruling subordinates in great families relied on more than just brainwashing; tactics like mixing benevolence with severity, clear rewards and punishments, and maintaining a balance of power were applied effortlessly and mastered with ease.
Servants by the side of a great family's direct descendants were generally cultivated from childhood.
Only in this way could they be trusted completely, without the constant fear of casual betrayal.
Great families generally did not take in children over ten years of age; they were too old to be easily molded into loyal followers.
Even if such children were accepted, they were only relegated to the outer courtyards for coarse labor and kept away from the family's core affairs.
Only minor families or wealthy landlords were willing to purchase older servants,
as they lacked the wealth and patience required for slow cultivation. Wasn't buying a ready-made one much better?
Great families, conversely, possessed formidable financial resources and practiced batch education, naturally driving down costs considerably.
***
Gu Feng lay in bed, completely devoid of sleep, and his thoughts inevitably drifted back to the fact that he had been reborn into this world for fifteen years now.
For some unknown reason, from birth until his twelfth year, Gu Feng's consciousness had remained in a hazy, muddled state.
Consequently, prior to age twelve, Gu Feng learned things at a snail's pace and was prone to constant absent-mindedness. To outsiders, he appeared congenitally deficient.
He only learned to speak at six, and began learning characters at eight.
As the legitimate son of a martial arts lineage, he had barely reached the first stage of martial arts—the Skin Tempering Realm—by age twelve.
And that was only because his parents had spent a massive fortune purchasing rare medicinal herbs to force him into the Skin Tempering Realm.
Perhaps the only role Gu Feng himself played in the process was digesting those precious ingredients!
Then, one day when he was twelve years old, Gu Feng suddenly shattered the barrier of prenatal slumber and awakened the memories of his past life.
Having just regained his memories, before he even had time to process everything, Gu Feng abruptly realized he was facing a daunting problem.
How was he to explain how he had suddenly transformed from a foolish youth into a normal person?
Should he simply confess that he was no longer slow-witted?
After all, Gu Feng was truly Gu Feng himself; there was no soul possession or anything of the sort, so his conscience was clear and he had nothing to fear from examination.
Yet, upon second thought, Gu Feng felt that approach was somewhat unwise.
After all, according to the memories of this current life, legends in this world spoke of powerful beings capable of moving mountains, draining seas, plucking stars, and seizing the moon.
Just as Gu Feng was wondering what to do, his parents happened to return from a journey elsewhere.
Word had it they had even invited a divine physician back with them from a neighboring prefecture.
Gu Feng was overjoyed at the time and decided to continue playing the fool, cooperating with the divine physician's treatment.
Upon meeting Gu Feng, the divine physician first took his pulse and then channeled his internal energy to examine the youth's body.
Fiddling this way and that, the physician broke out in a cold sweat yet could not detect the slightest trace of illness.
Gu Feng cooperated outwardly while laughing to himself inwardly: *My illness is already gone; if you manage to find any disease, it'll be a miracle.*
After much tossing about, the physician finally prepared to give up, but as he turned around, he caught sight of the expectant gazes fixed upon him by Gu Feng's parents.
"This old man is helpless; you would do better to seek a more skilled practitioner."
The words stalled on his tongue, ultimately transforming into a long sigh:
"I am willing to try my sect's supreme technique, the Rejuvenation Art, but... do not hold out too much hope."
Seeing the physician speak of meager hope while wearing a thoroughly hopeless expression,
Gu Feng's heart skipped a beat, realizing he could no longer drag this out.
"Many thanks, Divine Physician Chen. Please proceed with the treatment. No matter the outcome, our Gu Family will remember this favor."
Seeing the physician's expression, Gu Feng's father, Gu Hou, felt a wave of despair wash over him.
Yet he still forced himself to speak; even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, he was unwilling to give up.
Hearing this, Divine Physician Chen silently nodded, then circulated his cultivation technique and pressed his hand against Gu Feng's body.
In an instant, Gu Feng felt a warm current flow into his frame, rapidly spreading outward to every part of his body. It felt as refreshing all over as stepping out of a sauna.
"Ah~~"
Unable to control himself against such sudden, ultimate comfort, Gu Feng let out a moan.
A moment later—
"Mhm~~, Hm? Continue, don't stop!"
As Gu Feng was basking in the sensation, a sudden realization hit him, and he hurriedly swallowed back the words that were about to slip out.
Fortunately, Gu Feng's parents had their attention focused entirely on Divine Physician Chen as he withdrew his hand, and thus missed Gu Feng's minor slip-up.
Nor did Divine Physician Chen notice this subtle detail,
for he was busy racking his brains over how to tactfully inform Gu Feng's parents that he truly was completely out of options.
To state it bluntly felt inappropriate.
For one, the Gu Family possessed formidable strength. For another, they had brought him all this way at great expense; if he couldn't cure the illness and now admitted he hadn't even discerned a single useful thing, how was he any different from a common quack?
"Sigh, apologies for troubling Divine Physician Chen. The reward I promised earlier will be sent to your residence by a servant later."
Seeing the physician's expression of wanting to speak yet holding back, starting and stopping until he forgot what to say, Gu Hou knew the result already.
"I am truly sorry; my abilities are limited." Flushing with embarrassment, Divine Physician Chen cupped his fists and said:
"Since I haven't been of the slightest help, how could I possibly accept a reward? I shall take my leave now."
Although Divine Physician Chen had traveled a great distance to treat Gu Feng partly due to the extremely generous remuneration, his primary goal had been to curry favor with the Gu Family.
Now that this objective had failed, he naturally had no face to claim the payment.
At that very moment, panic seized Gu Feng.
His original plan had been to fake signs of successful treatment halfway through the physician's procedure,
prompting Divine Physician Chen to naturally stay and continue the therapy.
After faking a few more sessions of treatment, he could then openly and righteously recover his wits.
Never had he imagined that because he lingered just a little too long in the comfort, Divine Physician Chen would decide to pack up and leave.
Once missed, who knew when such an opportunity might arise again?
Discarding all hesitation, Gu Feng suddenly let out a loud cry, clutched his head, and began rolling around on the floor.
"Ah... It hurts, it hurts so much!!!"
Seeing her child suddenly rolling on the ground in agony, Gu Feng's mother, Lin Huiyun, panicked and rushed forward to embrace him, asking frantically:
"Feng'er, what's wrong? Don't scare your mother!"
"Divine Physician Chen, please come take a look! What on earth is happening here?!"
Gu Hou hurriedly grabbed the physician, who was just about to leave.
By now, Divine Physician Chen's face had turned green. What kind of freakish illness was this, dammit?
Although his previous examinations had revealed nothing, he had been certain the boy's bodily functions were completely healthy.
Why did a splitting headache start the moment he finished channeling his energy?
Was this extortion?!
"Help him up, let me examine him."
Though a stampede of imaginary beasts galloped through his mind, Divine Physician Chen's hands moved with lightning speed.
With a whoosh, he darted to Gu Feng's side and began checking him over.
Seeing this, Gu Feng stopped faking pain. Adopting a dazed, innocent expression, he mumbled:
"Father, Mother, my head hurt so much just a moment ago, but now not only does it not hurt, my brain feels wonderful! It feels just as comfortable as when this doctor touched me earlier, and..."
"And what?"
Seeing her son trail off halfway, Lin Huiyun asked anxiously.
"And now my mind feels clear and lucid. A lot of math problems I couldn't understand before suddenly make sense. Have I... become smarter?" Gu Feng said, feigning uncertainty.
"What?! My dear son, is what you're saying true?"
Though Lin Huiyun addressed the question to Gu Feng, her eyes remained fixed intently on the bewildered divine physician.
Clearly, she wanted an authoritative answer from him.
"This... must be the sect's supreme Rejuvenation Art taking effect upon the hidden ailment in the young master's brain."
Having completed yet another examination, Divine Physician Chen met Lin Huiyun's gaze and spoke with a calm demeanor.
Inwardly, however, he was utterly baffled: *Does our sect's supreme technique really have such an effect?*
*Yet if it isn't the merit of the technique, could this boy have recovered all on his own for no reason?*
*That's even more impossible!*
*Ah, it must be the efficacy of our sect's technique.*
*I never imagined it possessed such capabilities; as expected of a supreme art!*