Go Play with Your Own Eggs

Bang, bang-bang, bang, bang-bang.

The patrolling night watchman struck his rhythmic clappers.

The sound drifted into the stilted bamboo house. Fang Yuan opened his dry eyelids and thought to himself, It is the fifth watch.

He had lain in bed pondering for a long time last night, making a whole heap of plans and arrangements. All told, he had slept only a little over an hour.

This body had not yet begun cultivating, and its energy was not abundant. Waves of exhaustion and drowsiness still enveloped both body and mind.

But more than five hundred years of experience had long since forged Fang Yuan's will into something deep and hard as steel. This little urge to sleep was nothing at all.

He immediately pushed aside the thin silk quilt covering him and rose cleanly and decisively.

He pushed open the window. The spring rain had already stopped.

Fresh, damp air, carrying the scents of earth, trees, and wildflowers, rushed straight at him. Fang Yuan instantly felt his mind clear, and the murky drowsiness was swept away completely.

The sun had not yet risen. The sky was a deep blue, seeming both dark and bright.

Looking out, the stilted bamboo houses built from green bamboo and timber stood against the mountains, forming a tranquil expanse of dark green.

The stilted bamboo houses had at least two floors, a distinctive structure of mountain dwellings. Since the mountainsides were uneven and rugged, the first floor consisted of enormous wooden pillars, while the second floor was where people lived.

Fang Yuan and his younger brother, Fang Zheng, lived on the second floor.

"Young Master Fang Yuan, you are awake. This servant will come upstairs at once to help you wash." At that moment, a young girl's voice came from downstairs.

Fang Yuan lowered his head and saw that it was his personal maid, Shen Cui.

Her looks could only be considered above average, but she dressed well. Clad in a green shirt with long sleeves and trousers, embroidered shoes on her feet, and a pearl hairpin in her black hair, she radiated youthful vitality from head to toe.

She glanced happily at Fang Yuan, then carried up a basin of water with a rapid thump-thump-thump.

The water had been mixed to a pleasant warmth for washing his face. For rinsing his mouth, she used a willow twig dipped in snow salt, which cleansed the teeth and whitened them.

Shen Cui attended him gently, a smile on her face and spring hidden in her eyes. She then helped Fang Yuan dress and fasten his clothes, occasionally brushing her full breasts against his arm or back in the process.

Fang Yuan's face remained expressionless, his heart as still as water.

This maid was not only his uncle and aunt's spy, but also vain and cold-hearted. In his previous life, she had deceived him. After the Aperture Opening Ceremony, when his status plummeted, she immediately turned her face and gave him plenty of disdainful looks.

When Fang Zheng arrived, he happened to see Shen Cui smoothing the wrinkles on Fang Yuan's chest. A trace of envy and jealousy flashed through his eyes.

Having lived with his older brother all these years and received Fang Yuan's care, he too had a servant to wait upon him. But it was not a young maid like Shen Cui; it was a fat, bloated old mama.

What would it feel like if Shen Cui served me like this someday? Fang Zheng thought, yet he did not quite dare to think it.

Uncle and Aunt favored Fang Yuan. This was well-known to all members of the household.

Originally, Fang Zheng had not even had a servant to attend him. Fang Yuan had been the one to request one for him.

Though there was the distinction between master and servant, Fang Zheng ordinarily did not dare look down on Shen Cui. This was because Shen Cui's mother was Mama Shen, Aunt's attendant and the steward of the entire household. She was deeply trusted by Aunt and wielded no small amount of authority.

"Enough. No need to tidy any further." Fang Yuan impatiently brushed aside Shen Cui's soft hand. His clothes had long since been smooth; Shen Cui was merely trying to seduce him.

To her, his future was bright, and the possibility that he possessed A-grade Aptitude was extremely high. If she could become Fang Yuan's concubine, she could rise from servant to master in one step, soaring to the heavens.

Fang Yuan had been deceived in his previous life and had even fallen for this maid. After being reborn, however, he saw everything as clearly as fire, his heart cold as frost.

"You may leave." Without even looking at Shen Cui, Fang Yuan adjusted his cuffs.

Shen Cui pouted slightly, feeling puzzled and aggrieved by Fang Yuan's lack of appreciation today. She wanted to say something coquettish, but the vague and indescribable aura around Fang Yuan intimidated her. She opened her mouth several times, but ultimately only said, "Yes," and obediently withdrew.

"Are you ready?" Fang Yuan looked towards Fang Zheng.

His younger brother stood blankly at the door, lowered his head to stare at his toes, and gave a soft "Mm."

He had actually awakened at the fourth watch. Too nervous to sleep, he had secretly risen and prepared himself early. Both his eye sockets were dark.

Fang Yuan nodded. In his previous life, he had not understood what was in his younger brother's heart, but how could he fail to understand in this life?

But there was no point in exposing it now. He merely said calmly, "Then let us go."

Thus, the two brothers left their residence. Along the way, they encountered quite a few peers walking in twos and threes, clearly headed for the same destination.

"Look, those are the two Fang brothers." Careful whispers came from beside them.

"The one walking ahead is Fang Yuan, the Fang Yuan who wrote those poems," someone emphasized.

"So that is him. Expressionless and acting as if no one else exists—just as arrogant as the rumors say." Someone spoke sourly, carrying both jealousy and envy.

"Hmph, if you could be like him, you could act that arrogantly too!" someone replied with a cold snort, concealing a trace of dissatisfaction.

Fang Zheng listened without expression. He had long grown accustomed to such discussions.

He kept his head lowered, silently following behind his older brother.

Morning light had already appeared at the edge of the sky, and Fang Yuan's shadow fell across his face.

The rising sun was gradually climbing, yet Fang Zheng suddenly felt that he was walking toward darkness.

That darkness came from his older brother. Perhaps for his entire life, he would never be able to break free from the enormous shadow his brother cast over him.

He felt waves of oppression in his chest, even finding it hard to breathe. The damned sensation made him think of the word "suffocation"!

Hmph, these discussions truly show that when a tree rises above the forest, the wind is sure to destroy it. Hearing the talk around him, Fang Yuan sneered inwardly.

No wonder that after his C-grade Aptitude had been tested, he had found enemies on all sides and suffered harsh treatment, contemptuous looks, and cold neglect for a long time.

The increasingly heavy breathing of his younger brother behind him did not escape his ears either.

What he had failed to notice in his previous life, he now perceived in the minutest detail.

This was the sharp insight brought by five hundred years of life experience.

He suddenly thought of Uncle and Aunt. They truly had some methods. They had assigned Shen Cui to keep a close watch over him and an old mama to his younger brother. There were also differences in treatment in other details of daily life.

All of it had been deliberate, meant to stir up resentment in his younger brother's heart and sow discord in the brotherly bond between them.

People do not suffer from having too little; they suffer from having too little compared to others.

In his previous life, he had experienced too little, while his younger brother had been too foolish and too naive. His uncle and aunt had successfully driven a wedge between them.

Since his rebirth, the Aperture Opening Ceremony was fast approaching. The situation seemed so deeply entrenched that it could scarcely be reversed, but with the methods and wisdom of Fang Yuan, a great figure of the demonic path, it was not impossible to change.

This younger brother could be suppressed and brought to heel entirely. Shen Cui was merely a little maid; he could take her into his harem early enough. As for Uncle and Aunt, the clan leader, and the clan elders, he had at least several hundred ways to put them in their place.

But I do not want to do that... Fang Yuan sighed leisurely in his heart.

So what if he was his biological younger brother? There was no familial affection between them; he was merely an outsider. Letting him go was no great loss.

So what if Shen Cui was beautiful? Without love or loyalty, she was nothing more than a body. Take her into his harem? She was not worthy.

So what if they were Uncle and Aunt, the clan leader, or the clan elders? They were all passersby in his life. Why exhaust his wits and scatter his energy to put these passersby in their place?

Heh heh.

As long as they did not obstruct my path, they could go play with their own eggs off to the side. I would not even deign to step on them.