How long?
Baili Xiaosheng stopped abruptly, turning back sharply to look at him. This was the first time she’d ever seen Guxi wear such a serious, earnest expression—so serious it felt unfamiliar, even giving her a strange, inexplicable sense of unease.
Forgive me, this fellow apparently has an intimidating side too.
But she wasn’t afraid. If he was asking how long, that proved her threat had worked.
“I’m not sure, but it won’t take too long. With your help, it’ll definitely go quickly!” Baili Xiaosheng answered promptly.
“How do you define ‘rebuilt’?” Guxi asked further.
This was something Baili Xiaosheng hadn’t even considered—she hadn’t expected him to be this rigorous about it.
“Restored to about half its former scale would be enough,” Baili Xiaosheng offered, somewhat arbitrarily. In the past, most of the Poison Den’s resources had been shared with the Medicine Clan, and many of the Medicine Clan’s talented specialists had been recruited into the Poison Den. But now the Medicine Clan had fractured into pieces, no longer functioning as a proper clan at all. If the Poison Den could return to even half its former scale, she’d be more than satisfied.
“I’ll need to go back and seek my mistress’s approval. She may not agree,” Guxi said again—sure enough, a cautious, careful sort of person.
Baili Xiaosheng nodded quickly. “Fine, I’ll wait for your good news.”
Guxi said nothing more, mounting his horse and riding off, while Baili Xiaosheng climbed back into the carriage, grinning from ear to ear, and told the driver to wait right where they were.
She was fully confident that, given the matter of Shiliang, both Aunt Qing and Jun Buli would let Guxi go.
Seeing Baili Xiaosheng’s secretly delighted expression, the driver couldn’t resist teasing her. “Miss Baili, you should go into business—look at you, luring away our princess consort’s most trusted subordinate.”
“You know he’s capable too?” Baili Xiaosheng asked curiously. In truth, her own understanding of Guxi was probably less than that of a coachman at Prince Yao’s manor!
“Of course I know!” the driver said proudly. Back when Prince Yao and the princess consort had suddenly gone missing, throwing the entire manor into chaos, it had been Guxi who’d steadied everyone and given the young master guidance.
There’d even been a saying circulating around the capital in recent years, claiming that it was Guxi who’d advised Jun Buli to implement harsh policies.
“Miss Baili, Guxi has served as a lowly guard in the manor all this time, purely out of gratitude toward the princess consort. What method did you use to get him to agree to your terms?” the driver asked, revealing he didn’t actually know that much after all.
Baili Xiaosheng smiled mysteriously, thought for a moment, then asked, “Old sir, a fine man like that—why is he still unmarried, even now?”
“Who knows? I’ve heard from Miss Hongyi that plenty of well-bred young ladies in the capital have their eye on him. But no one’s ever dared come to Prince Yao’s manor to arrange a match, let alone go to His Majesty about it,” the driver said, then added teasingly, “Miss Baili, maybe you should find a good girl for Master Guxi back in Nanzhao. He suffered a lot as a child and carries plenty of old injuries too—he really could use someone to take care of him.”
“I heard he was a mercenary, then got sent to some island, and only came back once he’d grown up,” Baili Xiaosheng said, puzzled.
The old driver, though a longtime servant of Prince Yao’s manor, didn’t actually know the details either, and could only shake his head. The two of them chatted on and on, and time passed without either of them noticing.
When the sound of hoofbeats finally came from behind, Baili Xiaosheng sat in the carriage, slowly breaking into a grin, not even realizing just how happy she was.
Once Guxi dismounted, he exchanged a few brief words with the old driver, who then headed back, leaving Guxi to climb into the carriage himself.
Only then did Baili Xiaosheng peek out slyly, her smile radiant. “Aunt Qing agreed, didn’t she?”
“Mm,” Guxi said, quite calm.
“Did Aunt Qing say anything else?” Baili Xiaosheng asked again.
Guxi hesitated, about to speak, then held back. In his mind, he recalled what his mistress had told him just before he left: “Her master isn’t around, so I trust you with her more than anyone. This girl is cold on the outside but warm at heart—she can be quite temperamental sometimes, so please be patient with her.”
Looking at Baili Xiaosheng’s mischievous, radiant smile, Guxi couldn’t reconcile it at all with “cold on the outside, warm at heart.” He simply said flatly, “Nothing much. Let’s go. We can reach the nearest inn before dawn.”
“How do you know that?” Baili Xiaosheng asked, curious.
“I’ve traveled this road twice before,” Guxi answered.
“Why stop at an inn once it’s already dawn? Shouldn’t we keep traveling?” Baili Xiaosheng pressed further.
“Don’t you need to eat?” Guxi countered.
“I have dry rations, I brought plenty,” Baili Xiaosheng said earnestly.
Guxi found himself utterly defeated by her. “You’d rather eat dry rations than a hot meal? Your body’s only just recovered—you shouldn’t eat too many dry rations.”
“Oh!” Baili Xiaosheng nodded then, thinking to herself that this fellow was actually quite thoughtful.
But very soon, Baili Xiaosheng discovered that Guxi’s thoughtfulness went well beyond just that.
Over the following five days of travel, Guxi managed to arrange everything perfectly—traveling by day, and somehow always finding an inn to stay at by night, even managing on three separate occasions to arrange in advance for the inn’s kitchen to prepare a nourishing stew for her.
Along the way, Baili Xiaosheng had changed back into women’s clothing, and without quite noticing it, found herself talking more and more, while Guxi, she noticed, spoke less and less.
One day, they arrived at a bustling prefecture city, right at dusk.
Guxi settled Baili Xiaosheng into an inn and told her, “This city is quite lively, with plenty of night markets. If you’re bored after dinner, you’re welcome to go out and take a look around.”
“Where are you going?” Baili Xiaosheng asked, sensing he had something on his mind.
“Some business matters. I happened to be passing through, so I’ll stop and discuss them,” Guxi said flatly.
Baili Xiaosheng was utterly stunned. “You… you… you do business too?”
Guxi remained perfectly calm. “I have two money-exchange houses here. Something’s come up, so I might be back a bit late tomorrow morning. Feel free to sleep in—I’ll wake you when I return.”
“Money-exchange houses…” Baili Xiaosheng murmured to herself, about to ask more, but Guxi had already disappeared.
Hadn’t this fellow always just been a guard? Where on earth had he gotten money-exchange houses from? She’d only ever heard of masters bestowing gold and silver treasures as rewards—she’d never heard of anyone being handed entire money-exchange houses before!
In truth, even Ziqing herself didn’t know much about Guxi—the person who knew him best was probably Jun Buli.
Over these past ten years, though Guxi had served as a guard, he’d still been paid mercenary wages, and combined with his shrewd business sense, his shops now spanned the length and breadth of Da Zhou, with several money-exchange houses to his name besides.
Guxi had always kept a low profile, but few officials in the imperial court could rival his actual wealth. Over the years, he’d also earned quite a reputation in the martial world—he moved comfortably through both the righteous and underworld factions, at ease in official circles as much as in business.
In truth, any servant close to the emperor—even a lowly eunuch—could easily leverage that connection to thrive. But Guxi rarely relied on the imperial family’s influence, building his path step by step, accumulating his success bit by bit through his own effort.
If Jun Buli had been born with everything already his, something one might call fate, then Guxi—born an orphan with nothing at all, who’d grown into the calm, composed man he was today—represented something that could only be called sheer force of will.
Baili Xiaosheng mulled this over for a good while, then secretly followed him out. Staying cooped up in the inn was so boring, and wandering the night market wasn’t really her thing either—she was far more curious about what Guxi looked like when doing business.