Chapter One: Perplexity

  Gao Huaiyuan stood in front of the old house, stopping to look around. People passing by nearby looked at this team with a strange composition with great curiosity, wondering what they were doing, and pointed and discussed from a distance.

  Gao Huaiyuan didn't want to be looked at like a monkey, so he immediately let Li Tong go knock on the door. Li Tong didn't say a word and went forward, grabbing the somewhat rusty door ring on the large gate and banging it forcefully.

  "Is anyone there? Open the door quickly!" Li Tong pounded on the door knocker.

  After shouting for half a day, someone inside finally responded lazily, "Who's knocking on the door? Don't you know where this is?" Then came the sound of someone dragging their shoes towards the gate.

  Li Tong no longer felt embarrassed to follow Gao Huaiyuan, and with renewed confidence, he shouted: "We are from Shaoxing, we have been ordered by the old master, and Third Young Master has personally returned to take charge of the old mansion's affairs! Open the door quickly!"

  The footsteps inside stopped suddenly, and after a moment of silence, Li Tong became impatient and shouted: "Are the people inside deaf? Didn't you hear me say that Third Master has returned in person? Open the door quickly! Do you want to keep Third Master locked outside?"

  It wasn't until then that someone else quickened their pace, arrived at the door, muttered to themselves as they removed the door bolt, and opened the large door from the inside. Behind the door, a small servant wearing a hat and livery appeared, his expression tense as he stuck his head out to look around outside.

  Li Tong pushed open the door and ignored the little servant, quickly turning around to bow to Gao Huaiyuan standing at the entrance: "Young Master, please come in! This is our old Gao family mansion!"

  Gao Huaiyuan raised his head and took a look at the old mansion's gate, then stepped forward and walked towards it.

  The little fellow looked a bit flustered, hastily stretched out his hand to stop them, and shouted: "Slow down! Slow down! You say you're from Shaoxing, are you really from Shaoxing? I don't know you, what evidence do you have? Bring it here for me to see first!"

  Gao Huaiyuan listened to this and thought it seemed reasonable, the people here were quite vigilant, if they were deceived, it wouldn't be good! So he didn't make things difficult for the little gatekeeper, waved his hand at Li Tong, then stood with his hands behind his back, looking around in all directions.

  Li Tong snorted and muttered, "You're too rude! This is the Third Young Master of the Gao family. How dare you block my way? Look at this, it's a letter written by the old master himself, and here's the token from the Gao Manor! Is this fake?"

  That little fellow couldn't read, and the letter wasn't written to him either. One was that he had looked at it in vain, and two was that he didn't dare look at it. However, this high-ranking official's token, every member of the aristocratic family had one, he naturally recognized it. After taking a look, it turned out to be true. He then took over the letter and said to Li Tong: "You all wait for a while, I'll first deliver the letter to the second official's residence and ask him to come and receive you!"

  "What a scoundrel you are! Can't you even do things properly? Who's the master here, anyway? You're actually making us wait out here? You should have invited Third Young Master inside to sit down and have some tea first, then go call the person in charge over to pay their respects to Third Young Master! Don't you understand etiquette?" Li Tong scowled as soon as he heard this, pushed open the large gate with his hand, and turned around to invite Gao Huairen into the courtyard.

  The little gatekeeper was somewhat nervous, but he didn't dare to continue blocking the way. He stood at the door in a daze, and Li Tong pushed him away, saying: "What are you still standing there for? Quickly go open the side door and let me drive the car in! You really don't have any rules! Go, go, go..."

  Gao Huaiyuan took a look at the expression of this little fellow and also felt that this guy was really a bit ignorant, but he thought he was an old housekeeper who had never seen the world, so he didn't take it to heart and stepped into the courtyard.

  Xue Yan and Liu Er followed Gao Huaiyuan, walking towards the courtyard together. Huang Yan and Zhou Huan stood outside the door, shouting at the two teams of boys standing in a neat and tidy manner: "Attention! Left (right) turn, quick march! One-two... one-two..."

  "Hey, hey, hey... stop it! Who are these people? How can there be so many of them?" The little fellow saw a surge of people rushing in and hurriedly stretched out his hand to block them.

  "These are all my attendants and friends, let them come in and talk! You quickly go call the person in charge here to see me! I'll wait for him in the front hall!" Gao Huaiyuan immediately spoke to the little servant.

  "How can this be? This is the manager's domain, you've all come at once, if the manager blames me, I'll have a hard time explaining! No way..." The young servant again reached out to block them.

  Gao Huaiyuan was displeased, thinking to himself: "How can this young fellow be so ignorant of the rules? I've already revealed my identity, and from now on, this should be my domain. How come he doesn't understand that?" He opened his mouth to mention a trivial matter, and closed it with another trivial matter, as if only the affairs of the Gao family were important in this old mansion. His face immediately darkened.

  "Are you out of your mind? This is our Third Young Master, and from now on, whatever he says goes. You're blocking his way, don't you want to live? Get out of here! Don't be a fool, go call the manager over to answer for this! If you're late, watch me not kick your butt!" Li Tong saw Gao Huaiyuan's face and immediately jumped over, scolding this guy with a somewhat arrogant tone.

  Huang Yan and Zhou Hao turned their backs, ignoring the guy, leading ten young men into the courtyard in an orderly manner, then shouted: "Attention! Right face!"

  Ten young men quickly stood up in two rows, this set they followed Gao Huaiyuan to learn, equivalent to a military training on the road for several days, and all of them had already learned it with style.

  That little fellow saw that he couldn't stop them, so he could only sigh and stomp his feet, running into the backyard. As a result, Gao Huaiyuan and his group were left stranded in the front yard, without even a single person to bid farewell.

  "Ah……you scoundrel……you actually……damn it, the letter……Master's letter……damn it! You can run pretty fast, though! Young Master, don't bother with him, these people haven't seen the world and don't even know basic etiquette. Why don't you go inside and sit down first? I'll go bring the carriage in! Xue Yan, stop being like a wooden block and hurry up to help!" Li Tong shouted, but failed to catch the servant's attention, so he started arranging things himself, indeed acting a bit too self-important, even ordering Xue Yan around.

  Xue Yan glanced at Gao Huaiyuan, who nodded slightly. Xue Yan then followed Li Tong to open the side door and hurry out to catch a ride.

  After entering the yard, Gao Huaiyuan's eyebrows did not relax, looking at the fallen leaves all over the ground and the weeds growing wildly in the flower pool, he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.

  He had already considered this place his new home in his heart, but after entering, he received a cold reception. Although the old mansion was left with someone to take care of it, it had become dilapidated. Without asking, it was clear that the person in charge had not taken good care of the place. Otherwise, as for the Gao family, the old mansion would not have been in such a state. Therefore, he began to feel dissatisfied with the person in charge, Gao Lao Gen.

  That high-ranking official, Gao Lao Gen, is now snuggled up with a woman in the house, sleeping soundly. He's living a comfortable life, especially since the previous master of the house passed away and this place became his domain. After the Gao family moved to Shaoxing Prefecture following Gao Jian's official appointment, there were no longer any direct relatives left here, only an old steward who stayed behind to manage the old mansion and its properties.

  Gao Lao Gen is a distant relative of the Gao family, and his family was relatively poor. Later, he managed to get a job at the old Gao residence, relying on his connection with the Gao family. The old steward didn't dare neglect him, so he let him become the second-in-command here, letting him assist him in daily tasks. As it happened, Gao Lao Gen had attended private school for a few days and knew how to write and do arithmetic, so the old steward handed over the task of managing the accounts to him.

  After the old steward died, this old house was basically his say, although nominally he was also a servant of the Gao family. However, during this time, he had been very comfortable and almost regarded himself as the master here. In his opinion, the Gao family didn't care about these small properties either, and they hadn't paid much attention to them all along. It used to be the old steward who was in charge of everything here, now it's obvious that he would take over the management from now on. Moreover, although there aren't many people here, the income isn't too little, at least enough to support his family for a year, and he even spent money to get a mistress in another village, what a happy life!

  Suddenly a rapid knocking at the door woke Gao Lao Gen from his afternoon nap, he casually reached out to touch the plump chest of the woman lying beside him, yawning and shouting: "What's all the knocking for? Has your old lady died or something? Such urgent knocking, don't you know I'm sleeping?! Dammit! Can't it wait till I wake up?! Scram! If it's nothing important, watch me deduct this month's allowance from you!"

  "It's terrible! Someone has come from Shaoxing! They say the Third Young Master is here to take over the old mansion. You'd better get up and go see him quickly! That young master is so arrogant, he brought many people with him! They've already arrived at the front courtyard, I couldn't stop them!" The little gatekeeper outside shouted urgently.

  Gao Lao Gen almost fell off the bed after hearing his words, feeling as if he had misheard. He thought he was still dreaming, so he pinched his thigh hard, and it hurt so much that he gritted his teeth. Only then did he realize he wasn't dreaming. Suddenly panicked, he grabbed the woman beside him.

  "What the hell are you doing, you damned ghost? I'm so tired from being messed around by you! I was sleeping so soundly!" The old man's concubine opened her sleepy eyes and shook her two white breasts in front of her chest, grumbling to express her dissatisfaction.