Ward off evil spirits
Zhou Lexing originally wanted Gu Jiansheng to go back to his room and rest, but his eyes showed resistance, and when he lowered his eyes, it was as if he was jumping on someone's conscience, which made Zhou Lexing soften immediately.
He didn't intentionally want to hide it from Gu Jiansheng, but for some reason he didn't want Gu Jiansheng to see his violent and irritable side. Maybe, like Shusheng, he just didn't want them to be exposed to bad things.
Zhou Lexing hadn't told Gu Jiansheng about Zhou Dongqiang's last time he climbed over the wall, and was unaware that his own slip of the tongue had already told Gu Jiansheng everything.
Zhou Lexing thought for a moment and decided to release the person first.
Zhou Bobo: "Brother Le, when we found this guy, he was squatting in the corner peeking around! He was obviously up to no good. Shouldn't we teach him a lesson?"
As soon as Zhou Bobo finished speaking, his younger brother Zhou Xiaoxiao stepped on his foot.
He gasped in pain and glared angrily at the brat beside him, only to see his brother's eyes filled with resentment and pity, as if he were looking at a fool.
Zhou Bobo was taken aback before realizing that these words seemed to be digging a pit for him to fall into.
Weren't they also squatting in the corner with ill intentions today?
He was startled and turned to look at the others, and sure enough, he saw that they were all looking at him with the same expression.
silence.
Endless silence.
Zhou Lexing touched his nose: "...It's late, everyone go home."
When his underlings saw this action, they were first taken aback, then their eyes lit up, and they immediately became excited, their previous unease gone.
Zhou Bobo: "Don't worry, Brother Le! We'll do it!"
Li Cheng elbowed him: "Brother Le, let's go back now. Hurry up!"
The underlings pushed and shoved each other, grabbing Zhou Dongqiang and pulling him out, completely ignoring the commotion he was making while cursing.
Seeing that he was stuck to the ground like a leech and refused to leave, Li Cheng grabbed his hair and pulled him away, while Zhou Xiaoxiao kicked his butt from behind.
His excited appearance caught Gu Jiansheng's attention.
"Aren't you going to do anything about them?"
Gu Jiansheng wasn't worried about Zhou Dongqiang's safety; he just didn't want Zhou Lexing to come into contact with the people who had led him astray. So, he subconsciously tried to probe, but then he heard another scream from Zhou Dongqiang outside, which quickly faded into the distance.
"It's nothing. They were just joking around." Zhou Lexing certainly didn't care about Zhou Dongqiang's life or death. Besides, he was going to teach this guy a lesson again later. He hadn't changed his lustful ways and even dared to team up with He Huaizhi to stake out the Gu family. It seemed that the last trip to the cesspool hadn't satisfied Zhou Dongqiang, and he had stopped himself last time.
Moved by his own kindness, Zhou Lexing pulled Gu Jiansheng to his feet.
"Shall I stay here tonight? I'll raise the wall around your yard a bit higher tomorrow night..." Zhou Lexing raised an eyebrow when he saw the empty water vat, but didn't continue. Instead, he started fetching water for Gu Jiansheng to wash up.
"You take a shower. I'll go back and tell my mom, so they don't have to wait at home."
Seeing that Gu Jiansheng did not object, Zhou Lexing knew that this meant he had tacitly agreed.
"Close the door. I'll be right back."
Zhou Lexing filled the water vat and said something to Gu Jiansheng, who was searching for clothes by candlelight inside the room.
Gu Jiansheng turned his head, and the contours of his face appeared even more delicate. The youthful delicacy combined with the handsome features made people forget his gender and only feel the impact of the purest, most intimate beauty.
Why.
Zhou Lexing sighed inwardly again.
My premonition came true.
This beauty, which is on a completely different level, was indeed not his illusion.
Zhou Lexing dragged his feet out the door, circled around the Gu family's house to make sure no one was there, and then turned around and went home.
Zhou Yuanxiang didn't comment when she heard that he wanted to stay at the Gu family's house, but she did talk to him about something else: "You often go to the Gu family's house, have you seen your Aunt Lan?"
Zhou Lexing shook his head: "What's wrong?"
Zhou Yuanxiang frowned: "Your Aunt Lihua also said that she hasn't seen your Aunt Lan lately. Although she doesn't like to go out, she still asks us old sisters to help her bring some things from time to time. A few days ago when you came up the mountain, she made some pancakes and thought of delivering some to your Aunt Lan's house so she could chat with her. But she didn't expect that there was no one at her house at all."
Zhou Lexing vaguely grasped a clue, but replied, "Jian Sheng said his mother went to the city."
"She went to the city? When did she go? How did she get there? They don't even have bicycles. How come no one saw your Aunt Lan walk there on her own? Besides, if she didn't have a bicycle, she should have at least taken a tractor, right? How could she walk there on her own? I didn't hear Old Yang mention this. I've been so busy lately that I didn't even think to go and check on things..."
Zhou Yuanxiang pondered to herself, muttering to herself. Finally, she looked up and saw Zhou Lexing still standing in front of her. She waved her hand impatiently and said, "Alright, alright, you can go now. It's nothing serious. Remember not to sleep in tomorrow morning."
Zhou Lexing quickly stopped her: "What about the village chief's family? And Uncle Yang also told me something."
Zhou Lexing told him about how Lao Yang had helped his family collect money.
Zhou Yuanxiang hadn't expected this turn of events: "Old Yang is a good person, but I don't think this matter is going to work. Old Zhuang is a notorious skinflint. Trying to squeeze money out of him is like taking his life, no, it's worse than taking his life. I don't think he'll get the money back even if he agrees in front of the village chief."
After Zhou Yuanxiang finished speaking, she changed her mind and said, "Forget it, you can't hear a bad word about Old Yang's work. Besides, he probably wants to repay your favor so that he can do things with you in the future. This tractor thing is not something that can be resolved overnight. There will be troubles in the future. If you lend him a hand, he will definitely be happy to do so."
"But Old Yang is a decent guy. We'll just treat it as a commotion. It's not bad if it can cause trouble for the Zhuang family."
"As for the village chief's son..."
Zhou Yuanxiang suddenly stopped talking and looked at Zhou Lexing with a strange expression.
Zhou Lexing was completely bewildered by his mother's gaze: "What?"
Zhou Yuanxiang: "It's alright, you don't need to worry about this, and don't try anything funny. As long as you stay put, he won't be able to touch our family."
Zhou Lexing understood the unspoken meaning in his mother's words.
He's probably a talisman for protecting the house.
However, the wicked are most afraid of being tormented by the wicked. The original owner had a remarkable record, and the village chief's family would probably be afraid that this reckless person would turn around and cause trouble.
His family wasn't considered well-off by outsiders, but the village chief's family was different. The more they had to consider, the less likely they were to go all out and harm Zhou Lexing's family.
After Zhou Yuanxiang finished talking to her son, she waved for him to leave. When she turned to go back into the house, her brow was still furrowed, probably still thinking about Aunt Lan.
Zhou Shusheng was sitting on a small stool in the room doing his summer homework, so sleepy he was pecking at rice like a chicken.
Zhou Lexing chuckled and carried the man directly onto the bed.
Zhou Shusheng didn't wake up either; he just turned over and fell fast asleep.
He turned off the light, took his pillow, and went out.
The door of the Gu family's house soon came into Zhou Lexing's view.
Aunt Lan, who hasn't appeared in a long time; the sensitive Gu Jiansheng; the pretentious He Huaizhi; the shifty-eyed Zhou Dongqiang; the slick-haired Li Jianshan...
Faces flashed through Zhou Lexing's mind, and he sighed silently, feeling a rare sense of disorientation.
Sigh, he should have written down the plot outline while his memory was still clear.
In that novel, although Gu Jiansheng is one of the main characters and his life trajectory is closely intertwined with He Huaizhi's, their living standards are worlds apart.
One suffered countless hardships and ultimately only received a worthless so-called title of love, while the other had a smooth life, tormenting Gu Jiansheng in the name of love, thoroughly grinding him down from the inside out and in the end achieving success in both love and career.
When Zhou Lexing first read this novel, he was so angry he wanted to skip straight to the ending to see He Huaizhi get his comeuppance. But instead of seeing He Huaizhi go to jail, he saw him chatting and arguing with his half-dead lover, spouting high-sounding sweet nothings. At the time, he found it cringeworthy, and now, thinking about it makes him even angrier. He wanted nothing more than to get rid of He Huaizhi right now. But he understood the protagonist's immortality and didn't know how this world actually worked.
Although Zhou Lexing felt both love and hate during this period, it was real and clear, but when he calmed down, he still had a sense of illusion, like the dream of Zhou Gong dreaming of butterflies.
but……
Damn it, no wonder there are always perverts around Jian Sheng!
Since he had acknowledged Gu Jiansheng as his brother, he couldn't just watch Gu Jiansheng jump into a fire pit; he had to strengthen Gu Jiansheng's concept of love.
People are conservative these days, so Aunt Lan probably never mentioned this kind of issue to her son. Gu Jiansheng also doesn't have many friends, so he probably hasn't experienced any genuine emotions, which is why he was so easily fooled by He Huaizhi later on.
The more Zhou Lexing thought about it, the more he realized it made sense. Before he could find a way to deal with He Huaizhi, he needed to strengthen Gu Jiansheng's views on love as soon as possible, lest Gu Jiansheng really follow the old path in the book.
Although it's not appropriate to directly interfere in the relationship between brothers, surely giving advice doesn't count as interfering?
As Zhou Lexing pondered, a surge of excitement rose within him. Just then, the door creaked open, revealing Gu Jiansheng standing inside. Gu Jiansheng saw Zhou Lexing standing outside, one hand clenched into a fist, making a gesture of encouragement. Coupled with his other hand clutching a pillow and his baggy shorts and flip-flops, the scene was utterly incongruous. Not to mention it was the middle of the night; even the chickens were asleep. Standing at someone's door posing like that was hardly the behavior of a normal person.
Gu Jiansheng remained silent for a brief moment.
He had been waiting for Zhou Lexing for a long time and was afraid something had happened, so he thought of opening the door to go outside and see what was going on. He never expected to see this scene.
Zhou Lexing: "...Ahem, you've finished showering?"
Zhou Lexing raised his fist to encourage himself and coughed dramatically.
Gu Jiansheng: "Mm."
Those tear-filled eyes held no emotion, yet they made Zhou Lexing feel very uncomfortable.
"Well, let's go inside. It's late, let's get some sleep, we have to get up early tomorrow," Zhou Lexing said, putting his arm around Gu Jiansheng's shoulder and leading him into the house.
Gu Jiansheng did not resist.
There were no lights on in the room, and naturally no 'high-end appliances' like fans. Zhou Lexing didn't say anything, squeezed onto the bed with Gu Jiansheng, and fanned them with a palm leaf fan, but his mind was racing.
No wonder, no wonder.
Jian Sheng's life is really tough. To put it bluntly, he doesn't seem to have any intention of continuing to live like this. Even rats probably wouldn't want to visit his house. No wonder he was fooled by that lunatic He Huaizhi.
"Why."
Indeed, children need to be carefully raised, otherwise they'll just end up being taken advantage of by some other kid.
Gu Jiansheng opened his eyes in the darkness, looked at Zhou Lexing's silhouette in the shadows, and silently curled the corners of his mouth as he thought of Zhou's strange appearance at the door.
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