Chapter 79

79 LIE, SHAME, FEAR

It was a surprise as well as a disappointing answer from Zhu Ge, and Bai Chen widened his blue eyes when he heard the answer.

Zhu Ge had agreed to be his servant, and he had also agreed to help him prepare for the Beast Hunting Event. Moreover, the man in red also asked him to be his friend, and even if Bai Chen didn’t say yes to the request, he still had positive thoughts that the man would return to him soon after the barrier between the two empires was lifted.

He didn’t expect the man to say that, and that was why he was disappointed in the man’s answer.

Bai Chen didn’t even notice that he was frowning until a hard flick greeted his forehead. The culprit was, of course, Zhu Ge.

“I really don’t like seeing you frown. You look like an old man with wrinkles on your forehead,” the culprit casually spoke, and even if Bai Chen felt a sting in his forehead, his frown only deepened upon hearing the man’s careless words.

It wasn’t the first time Zhu Ge had dared to flick his forehead so forcefully, but it was the first time the man had done that to him after he had officially hired the man as his servant.

A servant should respect his master, but Zhu Ge didn’t seem to have the word ‘respect’ in his dictionary.

The man even rarely used formality to talk to him, and he even dared to ‘hurt’ his innocent forehead.

“Yes! I’m an old man, and I’m your father!” Bai Chen replied angrily. “And where’s your manner? You’re my servant and yet you act like you’re my friend or something. Don’t you know that I could fire you at any moment if you continue to act so impudently?” He rebuked the man without thinking too much, but he immediately covered his mouth in regret for what he just said.

.....

Yesterday, Zhu Ge said that he wanted to be his friend, but Bai Chen gave no response to the request. Now when he carelessly mentioned the word ‘friend’ in front of that man, Bai Chen knew that he was very careless.

“I’m indeed your friend,” Zhu Ge replied calmly. “Like it or not, I’m your friend.”

Once again, Zhu Ge gave him an unexpected response, and Bai Chen’s mouth fell open. He had expected that Zhu Ge would show him a hurt expression, but who would have thought the man would be so arrogant?

Oh, Bai Chen should have thought so since Zhu Ge was indeed a presumptuous person, so thinking like that was nothing new to him. And Bai Chen didn’t feel like correcting the man’s damaged brain as he turned to look up at the sky again.

Now, he regretted the regret in his heart when he mentioned the word ‘friend’ earlier. Zhu Ge didn’t have the word ‘sensitive’ in his dictionary.

“Tell me the reason why you won’t come back to my palace even after two weeks,” ignoring Zhu Ge’s confident statement, Bai Chen went back to business.

He didn’t care if Zhu Ge would misinterpret his attitude as acceptance, and he assumed that making new friends in this world wasn’t bad. Even if the two of them had different statuses, as long as the friendship was only known to them, it wouldn’t be a problem for him.

“Ah, that,” replied Zhu Ge. “I have some problems to solve in the human empire, so I can’t return in time when you will enter the forest for the event.”

Once again, Zhu Ge gave him a calm answer, and Bai Chen turned to the man again. “What problem do you want to deal with in the human empire? You work as my servant, and you must obey me if you don’t want me to fire you. Not to mention that you only started working for me a few days ago, but you already have the audacity to ask for a few days off. Two weeks is not enough for you?”

In his heart, Bai Chen felt proud of himself. Even in his previous life, he never dreamed that he would become a boss or a master, but in this world, he could act like a domineering CEO or something.

He could only see how cool the CEOs were in the drama, and now he was also trying to act cool when dealing with his lazy servant.

“This is a family matter,” Zhu Ge replied as he looked away from the Prince. “I don’t have a good relationship with my father, but when I returned to the human empire a few days ago, he suddenly came to me and said that I should return home in two weeks. I don’t know why he suddenly called me to go home, but I think the reason is quite serious.”

There were three reasons why people suddenly took their eyes off the person they were talking to. The first reason was that the person was lying, the second reason was that the person was ashamed of himself, and the third reason was that the person was in fear.

That was a theory that Bai Chen had in his head, and he went straight to the first reason when he thought that Zhu Ge was lying to him now.

Zhu Ge did say that his family condition was not good, and even forced him to become a prostitute in the Red Pavilion. However, Zhu Ge had never told him about his relationship with his parents, so Bai Chen couldn’t immediately believe what the man said about his father just now.

Bai Chen thought that Zhu Ge was lying, and that was why he kept staring at the man as he tried to find out what caused the man to lie to him.

There were two reasons for someone to lie. The first was because the person had ulterior motives, and the second was because the person was trying to hide something.

For some reason, Bai Chen chose to believe in the second reason. Zhu Ge lied, but it wasn’t because he had ulterior motives. Instead, the man didn’t tell the truth because he was trying to hide something.

Bai Chen finished his analysis, and he sighed as he turned his gaze to the dark pond in front of him. “It’s fine. You don’t have to return to my palace if you have to meet your parents in two weeks,” he replied.

Bai Chen was not a soft person, but he just wanted to see what Zhu Ge would say to him after he gave the man the green light.

And the green light caused Zhu Ge to widen his brown eyes. “You... you let me go home, Your Highness? You’re not going to fire me, are you? I still want to work for you, so please don’t fire me.”

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It was the reaction of the black-haired man, and Bai Chen sighed without turning to the man. “Your family matters are none of my business, but you should return to the palace after you finish your business at your home. And if you wish...” He paused for a moment when he finally turned to Zhu Ge again. “You can tell me more about your family if you really think of yourself as my friend.”

Not only could Zhu Ge say something full of surprises, but Bai Chen could also do it. The words he just said weren’t very direct, but he knew that Zhu Ge would understand what he meant.

“You... you agree to be my friend?” The man in red asked the question in disbelief.

In fact, it was Bai Chen who had an ulterior motive behind his decision to agree to Zhu Ge’s request. Hiding behind the ‘friend’ label, he would be able to find out more information about Zhu Ge, and he would also be able to discover the reason behind the man’s lies.

If one were to ask whether Bai Chen had completely trusted Zhu Ge or not, then the answer would be “no.”

Bai Chen didn’t believe Zhu Ge yet, but he just wanted to test the man. He wanted to know if the man was sincere with him or not.

“I...” Zhu Ge spoke again, but this time, he sounded a bit hesitant. “I will tell you more about me little by little. I will try to be a good friend to you like Pengyou.”

Bai Chen didn’t know why the man seemed to be hesitating, but the way the man suddenly brought up Pengyou caused Bai Chen to burst out laughing. Did the man want to be like a horse? It was extremely ridiculous to Bai Chen.

“Alright,” Bai Chen spoke again as he rose from his position. “You will return to the human empire tomorrow, so you better rest now as your journey will be tiring.”

Bai Chen was about to leave the garden pavilion, but his movement was stopped by Zhu Ge’s question.

“Your Highness... can I call you Bai Chen from now on?”