Chapter One: Perplexity

  Although these bad boys are always messing around in Shaoxing City, after all, they are still young. After being beaten up, several of them cried until their faces were covered with tears.

  A guy who was watching got up and wanted to escape. Gao Huaiyuan saw it and shouted loudly: "Stop!"

  The little guy was so scared that he quickly sat back down on the ground, afraid that Gao Huaiyuan would come over and beat him up again. Only now did Gao Huaiyuan feel aching all over his body, with a somewhat panting feeling. Although this surge of strength had come from nowhere, after going through a fierce battle, he also felt a bit tired.

  He turned his head and looked around, saw a big stone on the side of the street, so he walked over and sat down on it, wiping his face with his sleeve. As a result, he felt a sharp pain in his cheek, and his eye sockets were also very uncomfortable. It turned out that unknowingly, his face had also been hit several times. This time, without looking in the mirror, he knew his face must not look good either, it must be bruised and swollen all over.

  There's a slightly bloody taste in my mouth, and after rinsing with some saliva, I realized that my mouth was also cut by my teeth. The joy of victory just now was immediately swept away, and my mood suddenly became very bad. Damn it, I've only been here for a few days and have already gotten into two fights, and today I even got injured. No wonder people say that killing one thousand enemies means harming eight hundred of your own men - if I go back home like this, I'm afraid others will notice.

  "Thanks a lot, brother! My family has some medicine at home. Why don't you come over and get cleaned up?" A voice came from in front of Gao Huaiyuan.

  Gao Huaiyuan, who was rubbing the pain under his ribs, looked up to see that it was the young man who had been bullied earlier, and he hadn't run away yet. He walked over, looking at him with concern.

  Seeing this thin and weak young man, Gao Huaiyuan felt a little better. At least this young man didn't run away when he fought for him. This was quite good. So he smiled at him with a toothache and said: "Why didn't you run away?"

  The young man puffed out his chest and said, "Big brother stood up for me and fought with them, how can I turn around and run away? Although I'm not much help, but if I ran away, wouldn't that be too inhuman?"

  After talking with this young man, Gao Huaiyuan's mood improved a lot, and he smiled: "Hmmm! You're not bad, I didn't fight for you in vain! What's your name? I didn't hear it clearly just now!"

  "This young man hastily replied: "Big brother! My name is Zhao Yuju, I live on the street next door, you'd better come with me, my mother will apply medicine for big brother, and it's also good for my mother to thank you properly!"

  "No need, it's just a small effort, nothing serious!"

  Two people were talking, and the little rascals on the ground scrambled to get up, wanting to slip away. Gao Huaiyuan suddenly let out a loud hum: "Hmph! All of you come here! I'll see who dares to run!"

  It's possible that they were really scared by Gao Huaiyuan, this group of young men were startled by his roar and hastily stopped in their tracks, hesitantly gathering around.

  Zhao and Ju were so scared that they quickly hid behind Gao Huaiyuan's back, looking at the few bad boys in front of them. Gao Huaiyuan sat on a stone with his legs crossed, staring at the sturdy boy who was leading them: "Tell me your names, why do you want to bully people here? Don't your parents teach you anything? You dare to commit violence on the street and turn against us! Hmph!" Gao Huaiyuan unknowingly brought out that set from his previous life, scolding them.

  The leading young man was a bit afraid, but still plucked up the courage to glance at Gao Huaiyuan and replied: "My name is Huang Yan, my father is a rice merchant in the city. Today we were no match for you and got beaten, it's our own fault. In the future, if we see you, we'll just take a detour and avoid you. Our dads are too lazy to bother with us anyway! What business is it of yours?"

  At this time, several other young men also reported their names, but with a slightly better attitude than the one called Huang Yan, it seems that Huang Yan's courage is bigger than theirs.

  Gao Huaiyuan listened and found out that they were all from relatively well-off families, it seemed that their dads were busy making money and neglected to discipline them, which led these kids to get together, cause trouble on the streets, not really bullies, just a bunch of spoiled brats.

  After listening, Gao Weiyan also lost interest in managing them. He lowered his head to look at himself and only then remembered that he was still just a young kid himself. It wasn't up to him to take charge of teaching them a lesson. So he waved his hand and said: "All of you scram! You bunch of guys, all you know how to do is bully people smaller than you, what kind of skill is that? In the future, when you have nothing better to do, learn something instead. That way, you'll be useful in the future too. If you keep messing around like this, it won't do you any good! I'm too lazy to manage you guys anyway. In the future, if I see you bullying people smaller than you on the streets again, watch me not beat you up once!"

  Huang Yan looked at Gao Huaiyuan and let them go, slightly unexpected. After hesitating for a moment, he asked Gao Huaiyuan: "Today you beat us all up, you should at least leave us with a name! Let us know who beat us, so we don't suffer in vain!"

  Gao Huaiyuan gave Huang Yan a cold glance and sneered, "What? You still want to take revenge on me? Alright, I'll tell you then. My name is Gao Huaiyuan, the third young master of the Gao family in the south of the city. If you have the guts, come find me to settle the score! I'm not afraid of you!"

  Huang Yan was stunned, frightened, they all knew the High family in the south of the city, and they also knew that Gao Jian was the vice president of Shaoxing Prefecture. Now he was a bit dazed, they were also quite sensible, knowing that the Gao family was not someone their own family could afford to offend. It seemed that today's beating would indeed be in vain, so he felt very disheartened!

  However, they also felt a bit puzzled. They had only heard that the Gao family had two sons before, and both of them were older than them. They hadn't heard that there was another third young master!

  But after Huang Yan's eyes rolled around, his attitude immediately became much more respectful. He learned from the adults and bowed to Gao Huaiyuan, saying: "Nice to meet you! So you're High Commissioner Gao! We've lost this time, but I've never heard of you before?"

  Gao Huaiyuan felt a shiver run down his spine when he heard Huang Yan call him "Gao Nei", it sounded like an insult, and he immediately sensed that there was more to Huang's words than met the eye. He thought to himself, "This guy is still a sly one, it seems he didn't know about my existence before, and now he's trying to test whether what I said is true or false." So he glared at him and said, "Don't try to get chummy with me, and don't call me 'Nei', I'm just the third young master of the Gao family, if you want to address me, just call me Gao Huaiyuan! If you don't believe me, go ask around yourself! A real man doesn't change his name or surname, why would I deceive you?"

  Actually, what Gao Huaiyuan said is a bit biased. In this era, the two words "Yanei" are just neutral and refer to the children of official families as a respectful title. The reason why Gao Huaiyuan didn't like it was mainly because of the son of Gao Qiu in Water Margin who caused trouble, so that later generations regarded the two words "Yanei" as derogatory terms, referring to those who used their parents' power to do evil and bully the common people. However, this meaning did not exist in this era.

  At this time, one of Huang Yan's subordinates quietly pulled Huang Yan away, and they retreated to the side. Gao Huaiyuan didn't know what they whispered about, so he comforted Zhao Yu a few words, letting him feel at ease, and told him that these guys wouldn't dare bully him again in the future.

  Just as they were talking, Huang Yan ran back and said to Gao Huaiyuan: "It turns out that you are indeed High Commissioner Gao. Today's beating is not unjust, what you said is right, today's matter is our fault, we should apologize to this young man! Since High Commissioner Gao is also a straightforward person, let's be friends from now on. If you need anything in the future, just say so, and we'll take care of it. Today we hurt you, please don't hold it against us, we've collected some money as compensation for your medical expenses. In the future, if you have any business, just come to West Street to find me!"

  Huang Yan pulled out a large handful of copper coins and placed them in front of Gao Huaiyuan, then turned around and left. Before Gao Huaiyuan could even call out to them, the group of young men had already run off without a trace.

  Gao Huairen looked at the copper coins on the ground and couldn't help but laugh. He thought to himself, "How did I end up becoming a street bully after being played by them? I robbed their money, but thinking carefully, these kids aren't really evil, they're just bored and looking for something to do." Shaking his head with a smile, he picked up the copper coins from the ground. This was actually the first time he had gotten so much money in this era!

  I took a look at it in my hand, and there were more than 200 of them. It seems that these little guys have quite a bit of pocket money to spend on trivial things! Compared to this young master from a wealthy family, I don't even have a single coin in my own pocket, it's really depressing!

  However, Gao Huaiyuan didn't think much of the money either, so he handed it over to Zhao Yujue beside him and said: "I don't want this money, you can have it all, consider it compensation for them beating you up today!"

  Zhao and Ju held the money, feeling a bit at a loss, and hastily wanted to hand it over to Gao Huaiyuan, saying: "This won't do, this money is their compensation to you, Big Brother, how can I take it? Besides, just now Big Brother you stopped them in time, and I didn't get beaten up much, it's nothing! You'd better put it away!"

  Looking at Zhao Yu, who was wearing very ordinary clothes, Gao Huaiyuan could also tell that his family was not wealthy and might even be struggling to make ends meet. So Gao Huaiyuan forcibly stuffed the money into his hands and smiled: "Don't say anything else, just take it! I don't have many friends, so consider us friends from now on. If you need anything in the future, come find me! It's getting late now, I should head home too. You should hurry back as well! We'll catch up again another day!"

  Zhao and Ju were holding onto the money, almost in tears. Suddenly, Zhao threw it all to Gao Hua Yuan and said: "Little brother has seen big brother, thank you big brother! From now on, you are my big brother!"