There weren't a lot of things that could have fazed someone like him. But then again, he had been with Chang'e and that Wu guy he sometimes saw chopping down the laurel tree for a long amount of time to experience a lot of things.

Chan Lee was insistent on him sleeping on the bed despite his rather embarrassing suggestion. It was enough to keep him lying in the bed in the morning and even until she left for her classes.

"Xue?" She had prodded before muttering about sticky notes and asking a favor from Han Jing. She then left the flat without much of a fuss, so when he finally got up from bed—he was left alone once again.

Left on the table was a bowl with a lid, which he could guess was either congee or oatmeal left for him. A fruit basket still held some fresh fruits beside the leftover peaches. She really tried her best to take care of him, his heart twinged slightly.

Last night, she had been so focused on her smartphone that she didn't even notice when he peeked at what she was looking at. Work.

She really didn't have to do that.

It made him feel like it had been a wrong choice to stay here if he was burdening her despite trying not to.

"Oi!" Knocking came from the door, incessantly at that. It didn't leave much imagination who it was.

"Please wait a moment, Han Jing." Xue trudged to the door to open it and let the young man inside the house. For some reason, the guy preferred staying here than his own household. He wondered if the Han household was really as nice as Miss Chan Lee had told him.

"Morning dude, I guess Chan Lee already left?" Han Jing was quick to plop down in the corner of the room, already pulling out his own smartphone.

If there was one thing that Xue could comment on, they seemed to be quite attached to their devices. "Yes, she already left—did you need to say something to her?"

"Oh, nothing in particular." Han Jing shrugged, "She told my mother to 'take care of something for her', which of course meant you. She must have rushed to her classes."

Xue absorbed the information and held back a sigh. "I see… she really didn't need to do that, I could have taken care of myself."

"She sees you as her responsibility or something." Han Jing lowered the phone from his face for a moment, eyeing him with a scrunched up expression. "I'd call you a freeloader."

He raised a brow and simply returned to Chan Lee's bed, "Really?" He fixed up the bed covers and sheets. "I don't really recall doing what you meant as 'freeloading'...you're really the one who's been eating the food she prepared and not me. Though, I am living here for free… but you almost stay over as much as me."

"It's called an experiment, and so far—I don't really see anything bad happening to you for not consuming anything." Han Jing shrugged without a hint of remorse. "You don't even need to go to the bathroom, unless you go at odd times that I don't know of."

"Hey, Han Jing?" Xue smoothed over the blanket and fluffed the pillows, and then took a seat. "How important is it for one to work in this age? I think Chan Lee is looking for work… but she's studying right?"

"Maybe she needs to take care of a certain someone to need it."

The implication was easy enough to guess, he sighed and glanced over to the young man. "What about you, Han Jing? Don't you have some sort of work?"

"Woah! Hold up, I did not ask to be put into the spotlight." Han Jing eyed him with furrowed brows. "If you want to be of help, maybe you can help out more in her chores."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I am keeping it as clean as it can be." Xue sighed. "Should I also do her laundry?"

Han Jing mulled over it for a moment before shaking his head furiously. "No, I don't think it's right for you to touch her undergarments. I mean, maybe her shirts… argh!" The young man rubbed his forehead. "Why did you have to bring that up?"

"Because you said I could help her by taking care of household duties?"

"You're sounding like a house husband or something."

"It's not like I can do anything else… I wish I had available medicinal herbs here, maybe I could create pills to sell or something." Xue frowned to himself, all the knowledge he had and he couldn't even put it to use—not even to help her by just a bit. He couldn't repay her enough just by cleaning the house a bit.

"You don't even have a birth certificate," Han Jing sighed at him. "Much less a pharmaceutical company, you'd be seen as an impostor or something. I imagine the costs of procuring such materials to be expensive too."

Xue looked over to his bracelet, fiddling over the turquoise beads. "Perhaps we could ask assistance from Hua Zhao?"

"Geez, that sounds like a recipe for disaster." Han Jing rolled his eyes. "Did you get that? Recipe? You making herbs and—" The young man stopped and scratched his head. "I mean yeah, we could ask the guy… but what would be the price in exchange for that? You can't ask it for free."

"I could give some of what I made for him."

"I really think it's a bad idea." Han Jing muttered. "I mean, I haven't even ask you guys what happened yesterday. But Chan Lee thought she lost you because of that guy. What if they wanted that extra special recipe?"

Xue pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't think he'll be asking for that concoction, he was against me making it."

"Wait, you were planning on producing it?!"

It was one of the few occasions that Xue regretted being quite open with the younger man. "It's not like I can actually make it without the ingredients..." Maybe he should have come with Kit to at least gather them, that old fox probably knew where the rare ingredients could be found. It was a little stupid of him to have rejected the offer or come to a fair negotiation.

"Okay, I mean I'd probably be interested in something like that—but it's not like I can drink that in one go? I need to cleanse my body and temper my qi or something like that eh?" Han Jing rubbed his face. "It sucks that the only guy we know that has access to martial arts and cultivation methods is someone I'd rather not trust."

"You really don't like Hua Zhao, do you?"

"What about you, Xue? Do you really think he'd be a good ally or something?" Han Jing returned the question to him.

Xue paused for a moment. "I think he's the type of person who'd prefer to not interact with folks like me or Kit. He may have good intentions but I don't think that means he'd be willing to help me in particular." This was the guy who had gifted Chan Lee with a pendant to ward him off. "I don't think I like him either."

"Well, there you go. We don't trust that bastard, but are you willing to make a deal with that devil if you could manage to convince him?" Han Jing prodded.

"There's certainly people who'd be interested in what I can make." Xue sighed to himself. "It just happens that he's the gatekeeper… or is he?"

"Is he?"

He had let that event drift away, but now it seemed relevant. "Yesterday, I encountered another young man that he seemed to be at odds with. The animosity between them is enough to make you wonder if there's history between them. Hua Zhao said they had differing opinions."

"Really? What's his name?"

"Liu Guiren, he reminds me a bit of a Young Master." Xue added thoughtfully, the young man was accompanied with what appeared to be intimidating lackeys. It really wasn't a nice memory to recall.

"Well that's because he is a young master," Han Jing was now missing his phone, his fingers steepled together, leaning forward with renewed interest. "Or rather an equivalent in our current age."

"You know him as well?" Xue raised a brow, it was another one of Han Jing's moments.

"I don't recognize him personally, but the Liu family name itself is one of the wealthy families in the entire country." The young man shrugged, resting his face on his hands. "Geez, I didn't know—if your assumptions are right—that the richest people are cultivators or something. I guess they've been keeping this information to themselves."

"Am I to assume that this Liu Guiren is not a good candidate either?"

"Well, unless you want to be fed to the dragons and tigers. No. He seems even worse than Hua Zhao, heck we can even call him a sympathetic character now." Han Jing grimaced. "I can't believe I just said that. Bleurgh. But that's my assessment from what you said."

"Han Jing, I appreciate your ability to make assumptions on little information, but at the moment this doesn't really seem useful though." Xue scratched his head.

"Why thank you, Xue. I feel appreciated."

"All I really want is to be able to help Miss Chan Lee, and I really think that I'd be able to help her by making pills and elixirs."

"Er, do you want a succulent plant?" Han Jing chuckled. "That's the best I can do right now."