Zhao Si beat up Gostoc and all his cronies, bursting every last one of their eyeballs.
Why? Because they just couldn't keep their hands to themselves.
These local thugs were used to throwing their weight around. There was never any logic to what they did.
They could start a fight over a single "What are you looking at?" To normal people, they were incomprehensible.
No educated human being with a sense of morality and respect for the law would hit someone just for looking at him.
Normally, people weren't that vicious, unless it was premeditated or there was some deeper reason behind it.
So these thugs were loathed by everyone. Yet they reveled in the pleasure of bullying the weak, which made them feel powerful, as though they could do anything.
In truth, they were plagued by inferiority, cowardice, and other negative emotions. They felt life had turned its back on them. Unfortunately, life didn't even know who they were.
They were the ones who had turned their backs on a normal life.
Instead of feeling ashamed, they took pride in it.
Only by putting on a big show could they gain that tiny scrap of significance. Only by attaching themselves to Gostoc could they obtain the resources to survive.
As for Gostoc, despite his decent background and his status as a noble, however minor, he was a thug at heart. He looked down on Godrick above him because he felt there was little difference between the two of them.
He even thought Godrick was inferior to him.
Below him, he looked down on the common people because his noble birth placed him far above them.
He had never held any real power, but he wanted to flaunt his noble status. So he bullied men and oppressed women to make