The Villain Loaded My System

Chapter 69

Gu Xiyu decided not to ignore the fortress master’s comment.

“Thank you. Just leave the medicine there, I’ll just do it myself.”

The man asked him, “What? You have eyes and hands behind your back too?”

His attitude was arrogant: “Don’t worry, you’re a mess at the moment; I can’t take any interest in you. If I wasn’t afraid that it would be bad luck to boil you to death before the big day, I wouldn’t have made this trip.”

Gu Xiyu felt choked with anger for the first time in a long time, only this time the person who had angered him was not the Great Demon. He was in a really bad state, having hurriedly escaped from the Tianyun Zhai bandits, being shot by an arrow, falling over and scrambling, and bumping into the group with the bearded man.

He was torn for a while, but he still sat down on a bed covered with a simple mat, and after a pause, he reached out to untie his clothes.

The pain from the back injury brought him to his senses.

He and the fortress master were both men, so there was nothing to hide. It was the Great Demon who made him start thinking differently.

Gu Xiyu didn’t take off all the clothes on his body, but only exposed his back to the tall man, who was impatiently waiting to treat his injury.

On the contrary, he was royalty and should be used to being served.

Because it had been a while, the bleeding had reduced, and some places were starting to scab. The bandits were often injured when they went out and about, so the other party was quite skilled at applying medicine to him, cleaning up the wound in a few strokes before starting to apply the medicine.

The medicine was so irritating that Gu Xiyu’s face turned white with pain, but he didn’t even let out a muffled grunt. The person behind him watched his hand squeeze his clothes until it turned white, then slowly withdrew his gaze, his attention gradually drawn to the soft touch at his fingertips.

As expected of a noble son of a royal family, he was obviously a man, but his body was even more delicate than a girl’s.

The room was very quiet, no one spoke. Gu Xiyu’s eyes were slightly closed, his consciousness sinking a little under a mixture of exhaustion and weakness.

Then a voice came from behind him, “I’m done.”

It was only when he returned to his senses that he realized that he had let his guard down in the “familiar” atmosphere. It was familiar, much like he had felt in previous worlds when he had been alone with the Great Demon. He almost even thought that the man standing behind him was the mission target.

Was it because the man was also handsome and his aura gave off a similar feeling to his target?

He had just tapped on the panel when an automatic notification suddenly popped up from the system.

[[Target risk value is +5; the current risk value is 65.]]

“?” Gu Xiyu was slightly stunned.

This increase in risk value was sudden. He closed his eyes, and after the man finished bandaging his wound, he put his clothes back on, asking, “I wonder what is the name of the… fortress master?”

As he asked, he looked back at the other man carefully and finally met his gaze.

The other party’s emotions were hidden too deeply for him to detect anything.

The man tilted his head slightly, his long ponytail making an eye-catching movement. He answered a moment later, “They all call me fortress master or Lord, but for you—you can be more intimate and call me Ah Wen.”

Gu Xiyu chose to ignore some of the words in that sentence, took a deep breath, and said expressionlessly, “Okay, Brother Wen.”

After saying that, he still asked again, undeterred, “Are you really not letting me go?”

The other party ignored the question: “The wedding is in five days, so stay in your room and get well in these few days.”

Before he left, the man also asked someone to prepare hot water for bathing and a change of clothes. Gu Xiyu watched as the things were set up and the attendants left the room, then he got up again and locked the door. Only to find that the clothes this fortress master had sent for were women’s clothes.

He touched the fabric of the clothes; it was of a good texture, like something only a rich lady would be entitled to wear.

On the other hand, the fortress master made sure that his men had arranged all of Gu Xiyu’s things before walking out of the room, locking the door himself before handing the key to the man on guard outside.

On the way out, he walked alone. It was late in the evening, and except for the torches and lanterns that were lit around the watchmen, the rest of the rooms were dark. The noise of the day faded, and silence returned to the fortress hidden within the mountain and its forest.

With a thought, he watched as a strange panel hovered in the air before him, moving with him without his having to do anything.

This thing was strange. He hadn’t even fully understood how it worked until now. The only familiar thing was the two words in the corner below ‘mission target’.

Wei Chiyan.

He was not called Ah Wen, Wei Chiyan was his real name, and he was the third prince of the Yao Kingdom.

An identity and name he has hated since birth.

He had heard of the strife between the imperial palace and the Dayan Kingdom not long ago, and it was his good brother, Yuchi Sheng, who had caused the big trouble. To put it nicely, he gave up the marriage because he “cared” for his elder brother and hoped that he would soon have a family and enjoy the blessings of children and grandchildren. In reality, it was just a plan with his mother consort to eliminate the possibility of him marrying the daughter of a powerful family in the city, to weaken his chances of claiming the throne.

The first few marriages were all women they thrust into his life, all with ill intent. He had no interest in whether the future marriage partner was a man or a ghost, but that didn’t mean he was willing to let those around him use the so-called ‘family affection’ to set him up. This time, he wanted to go back to the palace and dispose of the princess sent by the Dayan Kingdom, but unexpectedly, the ‘princess’ was accidentally snatched back to his fortress.

It was only thanks to this strange, glowing object that he perceived the identity of the other party. It was not that he was really interested in men or the Dayan Kingdom; he was just curious about the mission mentioned on the glowing panel and the reason for its appearance.

Once he had clarified this matter, the man who was also trying to stop him could be eliminated at any time.

On his way back to his room, he met the bearded man who had brought Gu Xiyu back. He was the original master of the fortress, called Liu Ping, and had been in charge of the place before he took over; he was now very loyal to him because he had kept the fortress safe.

“Lord, I have already ordered them to start preparing for the wedding feast tomorrow.” Rather than a chance encounter, Liu Ping had come to find him on purpose.

The expression on Liu Ping’s face seemed to be one of concern. “However, I just heard that girl say that she is the princess of the Dayan Kingdom. If what she said is true, won’t they send troops to investigate when they don’t see her arrival? We are not as strong as the Tianyun Zhai nowadays; is it appropriate to… openly provoke the imperial court?”

“There’s no hurry.” Wei Chiyan didn’t care at all, “Didn’t you guys say that you detected people from Tianyun Zhai walking around Ningan Town before you came back?”

“If she didn’t stay in the wedding carriage and rode into the wilderness alone, then something must have happened to the bridal party, and I’m afraid it’s also related to the people from the Tianyun Zhai Fortress.” Throughout the Yao Kingdom, the only people who dared to blatantly oppose the court’s soldiers and generals were indeed those from Tianyun Zhai.

“If the palace really investigates, it will be them that will bear the brunt. As long as we keep an eye on the princess and don’t let her escape, we won’t be discovered.”

Liu Ping listened to what Wei Chiyan was saying and felt that he was determined to keep the princess. Their lord was a man in his twenties, and many of his brothers had already married and had children, but he was still alone. They had offered him several beautiful girls, even those from foreign lands, with beautiful bodies and a great sense of style, but none of them caught his eye.

This princess was indeed a good-looking girl, but the important thing was that she had moved their Lord’s ‘mortal heart’. Liu Ping thought helplessly; even though there was a slight risk of offending the court by keeping her, he had no choice but to do so for the sake of their Lord’s happiness.

“Okay, since the Lord has said do, we will definitely try our best to cover for you!”

Wei Chiyan nodded his head and casually explained a few more things to Liu Ping before parting ways.

As the Third Prince, he certainly wouldn’t be worried about antagonizing the palace. But it was a coincidence that this person who was supposed to have consummated his marriage at the palace had suddenly come to his fortress, and when the time came, if he had to explain, it was quite manageable.

Back in his room, he pondered for a moment before slowly walking to the mirror and removing the small silver mask from his face.

The man in the mirror had a face so delicate that if the girls of the aristocratic families were to see it, they would be clamoring to marry him—providing, of course, that his right eye was intact.

The only flaw on Yuch Yan’s body was his right eye, which has been blind since birth. Unlike the bright brown pupil of his left eye, this one on the right had a white membrane that covered the pupil of his eye, causing his entire pupil to be a lifeless white.

Because his eye was injured as a young child, he wore a mask year-round, and no one, including blood relatives, ever paid much attention to his appearance as an adult. He was able to come out as fortress master unnoticed because there was another ‘Wei Chiyan’ in the palace who was carrying his identity for him. He used this to his advantage several years ago, traveling back and forth between the palace and the outside, and after several attempts to make sure that no one would see through his disguise, he spent more time outside the palace.

By coincidence, he took over the fortress, which had almost been razed, and his identity as a fortress master made it convenient for him to obtain information about the outside world. This helped him take over the place and gradually build up his power. He left the palace not only to take over the Tianyun Zhai fortress, which had been a headache for the imperial court for a long time, but also to find out what Yuchi Sheng was up to. In the past few years, Yuchi Sheng had been making a lot of trouble on the outside for the succession to the throne, but with the help of their mother, everything was smooth sailing for him.

They would never share these things with him or let him know about their involvement.

Wei Chiyan had never understood why his mother preferred his brother, who was a few years younger than him, even though he was her own son, but as he grew older, he stopped bothering himself with it.

He gazed at the man in the mirror and raised a hand to its right eye, then tightened his fingers.

Perhaps it was because of this.

The fact that the prince was born with a disability was an ominous sign any way you looked at it, and perhaps it was the greatest mercy that his mother hadn’t just strangled him in his swaddling clothes. Even his father had been reluctant to deal with him since he was a child. It was the ability he had shown in recent years that caught his father’s attention, and although he was not as affectionate as he was to his other brothers, his attitude was much more relaxed than when he was a child.

It was a pity that he was past the age of needing affection.

He was now sober and clear about what he wanted and what his goals were.

Wei Chiyan gradually pulled his thoughts back, his eyes focusing once more on the lifeless, dull right eye in the mirror. The tightly clenched fist that had become white due to force slowly unclenched again.

He felt like he should be disgusted with this eye; if it hadn’t been for it, he wouldn’t have been treated so unfairly growing up, deprived of the warmth and opportunities he too could have had.

But no matter how many times he tried, he was unable to feel disgust and resentment towards his right eye. Even after gazing at it for a long time, he would inexplicably feel a soreness from deep within his heart.

It was as if he had voluntarily given it to another person in a previous life, vowing to live forever without regret.

But did such things as past lives and present lives really exist?

Wei Chiyan sneered.

It was just an excuse for him, who was too weak to hate himself.

—–

Gu Xiyu lived like a prisoner for the next five days. Apart from the regular meals brought to him every day, there was also the fortress master called Ah Wen, who would come over to administer medicine to him. He wouldn’t say much to him either, answering one out of ten questions.

He was too weak to kick down the door of his room and escape with the force of one against ten, so he had to wait until his wedding day.

The wedding dress was the same one he had on initially. Ah Wen had it cleaned by the people of the fortress. Only when he had changed did he let someone in to help him with the grooming.

Several girls who were somewhat unassuming entered the room. Probably because they had rarely had such a big festival, Gu Xiyu could hear the excitement and thrill in the tone of the conversation.

“Madam is so fair, and her skin is so delicate that it looks like porcelain. Putting all this powder on your face feels like I’m spoiling your looks.” The girl in charge of his make-up had a worried look on her face. She held the rouge box in her hand, not knowing how to start.

Gu Xiyu didn’t want to put too much makeup on his face either: “Just add a little bit of color; you don’t have to put too much makeup.”

Another girl at the side heard this and covered her mouth and laughed: “Madam is naturally beautiful, the powder is indeed superfluous, light make-up is better to show beauty and temperament!”

“The Lord has a good eye.”

Gu Xiyu heard them talking excitedly, so he took the opportunity to ask them about Ah Wen: “What kind of person is your fortress master?”

Only then did the girls remember that he was not from the fortress and had been captured as a bride, so they held back their smiles, and one of them said cautiously, “The fortress master… actually we don’t know much about him, most of his movements are erratic. Moreover, he is very fierce, so people don’t dare go near him.”

“Yes, but in our hearts, he is the hero of this fortress, our anchor!”

“As long as the fortress master is around, it seems like there is nothing to fear.”

“Yes, madam, don’t worry, although the fortress master is very fierce, he is probably nice in private. Many girls in the fortress want to marry him, but they don’t have this opportunity. Since he chose you, he will definitely treat you well.”

Gu Xiyu lowered his eyes, but his heart was only thinking of the Great Demon, and his tone was a little despondent and bland: “But I’m still forced to do it after all.”

The girls who were preparing him were instantly mute, not daring to say anything else.

In the end, only a young girl who was doing the finishing touches was left in the room. Gu Xiyu at the dressing table looked back at the girl in purple who was arranging the red veil at the table. He held his breath and came up behind her. Before she noticed his movement, he raised his hand and hit the back of her head.

As the girl fell, the painful numbness in his palm spread up his arm.

It had taken so much energy just to knock out a little girl, almost breaking the bones of this fragile hand in the process.

Gu Xiyu felt that Ah Wen had underestimated him. He was physically weak, but with his years of experience in combat, he knew how to use the least amount of force to make the most effective attack. It was surprising that only a young girl was left to watch him. Most of the people around had already gathered in the lobby, waiting for the wedding banquet to start.

It was simply the best time to escape.

Gu Xiyu picked a hidden and deserted route, dragging his sickly body as far away from the building as he could before the others realized he was missing. He couldn’t walk through the gate, and he had no choice but to cross the small river on the back mountain. Fortunately, the river was not too wide, and the deepest part was only up to his calves, so even though it was a little hard to walk through, it was no problem for him.

The escape was smooth, so smooth that he began to doubt it. His whole body was so tense that he didn’t know if it was an illusion brought on by his nervousness, but he felt like there was a gaze watching him from the shadows. That gaze was like a beast in a deep forest, lurking in the shadows and staring at its target, but not rushing out to capture it, just leisurely following its prey that was running away helplessly.

Gu Xiyu didn’t like this feeling, and he turned back to try to find the figure hiding in the shadows, but there was no one there. He couldn’t remember exactly how long he had been running until he came to a large boulder, and only when he raised his hand to brace himself against it to catch his breath did he see two words carved into the moss-covered boulder.

Luohe.

The word seemed somewhat familiar.

It was very quiet all around, with only the occasional chirping of birds and the howling of some beasts in the distance.

Suddenly there was a subtle movement by his legs.

He looked down and saw a grayish-black stone the size of a glass marble slowly rolling to the side of his shoe and stopping when it hit the toe.

At that moment, Gu Xiyu didn’t even want to breathe, exhaustion hit him instantly, as if he had done something useless.

He pressed his fingers hard on the stone a few times, trying to maintain his composure, and then he turned around. Sure enough, the tall man, also wearing red wedding attire, was leaning against a large tree a few feet away, gazing at him with a smirk and his arms crossed over his chest.

He stared at Gu Xiyu and asked with a smile, “Have you had enough air and are now comfortable, madam?”

Judging from Gu Xiyu’s gloomy eyes, it was obvious that he was not comfortable.

As if he didn’t see his gloom, Wei Chiyan added, “I was afraid that keeping you locked up for too long would make you depressed, so I purposely let you out for a walk alone.”

Gu Xiyu replied expressionlessly, “You are the source of my depression; if you want to get rid of it, then don’t appear in my sight.”

“That won’t work, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

Gu Xiyu saw the one eye that Wei Chiyan showed curving into a crescent moon, and he was so angry that he was clogged up inside and did not hold back from asking, “Are you sick?”

How could Gu Xiyu not understand that he deliberately set up all this to trouble him? He had deliberately left a flaw in his defense, deliberately left him a route to escape, and deliberately wanted to see him in such a mess, and in the end he was easily caught.

He had gone to all this trouble just to mess with him, so it would have been better to have someone on guard from the start and save the effort of tracking him down.

Wei Chiyan walked up to him and said with a low laugh, “I thought you were aware of that the first day you met me.”

With that, he put Gu Xiyu over his shoulders with one hand and brought him back in the direction of the fortress at a steady pace.

Gu Xiyu had already exhausted his energy after walking for so long, so he simply did not struggle and let Wei Chiyan take him away. He could not escape even if he struggled anyway, so he might as well save some energy.

The fortress master’s wedding was so exciting that the entire fortress came out to participate in it, and the scene was lively, with people talking and arguing everywhere. Gu Xiyu could not see anything, as Wei Chiyan had put a veil over him before he left the room, saying that he did not want others to see how he looked and get jealous.

Gu Xiyu did not believe his lies.

The wedding went off without a hitch. He didn’t want to cooperate, but the fortress master’s martial arts were so strong that he could make him kneel with a flick of a small stone.

So in the end, he completed those worship ceremonies with him. This time, he was sent to Ah Wen’s room, and there was a familiar sound of chains ringing outside the door once it was closed.

There were no more chances for escape.

Gu Xiyu was in no mood to drink any nuptial wine or play “lift the veil” games. He simply took off the red veil from his head and circled the room in an attempt to find a way out.

He had to admit that this fortress owner did a very good job preventing him from escaping.

He could only sit at the table in depression, repeatedly clicking on the panel to check his stats. His eyes finally rested on Wei Chiyan’s name for a long time, and his heart flushed with a bit of grievance.

‘The soul fragment of this world was really incompetent,’ he silently thought.

He had been in this world for so long, and for the first time, he hadn’t even been able to see the mission target. The matter of the bridal party would soon make its way to the palace; would the Great Demon come after him when he finds out ……?

Commander Gu had never thought that he would one day wish for the mission target to come looking for him.

He was truly desperate.

He glanced around the room a few times, finally stopping on the red wedding quilt and the bed.

He suddenly remembered that there was an important hurdle to be reached after the wedding ceremony.

The wedding night in the bridal chamber.