Long hair was too much trouble. Qin Chu searched around but couldn't find scissors, daggers, or anything like that, so he just tied it up with a rope.
Noah spoke up to remind them, "Currency! Don't forget to bring the currency of this world. You can't exactly rob people to spend your money!"
That's what they said, but Qin Chu searched the entire house thoroughly and couldn't find a single thing of value.
Just as he was fretting, Qin Chu's eyes lit up as he looked at the magnificent phoenix crown he had thrown on the bed: "Is this thing made of precious metal?"
Noah: "...You're being a bit mean, this belongs to the groom."
Qin Chu didn't care about that; he simply wrapped it in a piece of cloth and stuffed it into his bundle.
After tidying everything up, Qin Chu arrived at the door.
Without making any rash moves, he reached out and pressed the latch, immediately realizing something was wrong—the door was locked from the outside.
Moreover, his excellent hearing allowed him to sense that there were people guarding outside the door.
This situation made Qin Chu ponder: was this normal? The door was locked, and the room was empty, with no money, daggers, scissors, or other sharp weapons.
It was called a wedding, but it felt more like house arrest.
Suddenly, the sounds of music and celebration outside arose, followed by a slightly shrill cheer: "The groom has arrived!"
Taking advantage of that moment, Qin Chu kicked the door open and, before the person outside could utter a sound, knocked them unconscious with two quick movements.
After resolving these issues, Qin Chu thought he was about to pass this hurdle, but when he looked up, he saw that the courtyard was packed with more than a dozen people.
These dozen or so people and the two he knocked unconscious were dressed in the same clothes, quite different from the other servants scattered around the courtyard.
Qin Chu was stunned for a moment, not expecting that the people who had placed him under house arrest had gone to such great lengths.
But the dozen or so men in the courtyard were even more stunned than him. They looked at Qin Chu, who had kicked the door open, and then at the two brothers he had quickly knocked to the ground. Their eyes were filled with surprise and confusion, as if they were dreaming.
It wasn't until Qin Chu turned to climb onto the roof that one of them suddenly snapped out of his daze and shouted, "Quick! Stop him! Don't let the lady escape!"
As they spoke, the group swarmed towards Qin Chu.
Qin Chu was so angry at being addressed as "Madam" that his face darkened. He kicked one of them over and stepped on their heads to get onto the roof.
The courtyard immediately descended into chaos, but Qin Chu ignored it and the two disappeared in an instant.
After changing his outer robe in a secluded spot, Qin Chu carefully climbed over the layers of courtyard walls and looked at the panicked servants inside.
"Oh no, oh no, has the young master really run away? Lord Lin is already outside the door, what are we going to do?"
"How could he have escaped? What kind of ability does a mere boy like him have?"
"Brother" was a new term that Qin Chu had heard.
He asked Noah curiously, "What is a 'ge'?"
Noah: "Someone like you."
Qin Chu: "..."
Noah spoke politely: "In this world, besides men and women, there is another gender called 'ge' (哥儿)."
Qin Chu had a bad feeling, and sure enough, the next second he heard Noah say, "A man like you who can have children is called a 'brother'."
"Bullshit, I can't give birth."
This sentence contained so much information that Qin Chu slipped and almost fell off the wall.
He hid behind the canopy of a large jujube tree, and through the dense branches, he could just see the wedding procession outside the gate.
With his view obstructed, Qin Chu couldn't see the whole picture, only a figure on horseback. This person was clearly extremely perceptive; he immediately turned around and looked this way at the slightest sway of the jujube tree canopy.
Qin Chu didn't delay any longer and nimbly jumped off the courtyard wall.
After walking around several streets until the music could no longer be heard, Qin Chu finally relaxed a little.
But his expression remained unchanged, as Noah was explaining various aspects of "ge'er" to him: "You've probably noticed that you have a birthmark on the back of your neck near your shoulder; that's the mark of being a ge'er. There should be an endocrine organ under the birthmark..."
Qin Chu interrupted him coldly: "Don't tell me the child was born from the shoulder."
Noah sighed softly: "I don't know the secrets of this life either, but it shouldn't be the shoulder."
Qin Chu couldn't understand it at all. Even in the real world, there was still no clue about the technology for men to reproduce, yet in this world that was so far behind, the problem was solved so perfectly.
Noah exclaimed in agreement, "That's the charm of all kinds of literary works!"
Charm my foot.
Qin Chu walked coldly toward a pawnshop, and when he came out again, the heavy phoenix crown in his backpack was gone.
Noah reminded him, "Sir, in this world, the status of a young man is extremely precious, as rare as a national treasure."
"Oh, so what?"
"This means that if your identity is revealed... any man would want to have a child with you."
This was undoubtedly an exaggeration. Noah was eager to see how their superior would react to this, but after waiting for a long time, he found that Qin Chu remained indifferent and showed no reaction whatsoever.
Noah asked in confusion, "You don't...feel disgusted?"
Qin Chu thought about her situation on the StarNet and coldly replied, "In the real world, the entire empire wants to have my child."
Noah: ...
How can these be the same?!
In the real world, people are clamoring to have your babies; now, people are asking you to have their babies!
As if knowing what Noah was thinking, Qin Chu calmly added, "If someone has this idea, you should worry about their personal safety."
Noah: ...
It seems that's really the case.
But soon, Qin Chu realized the preciousness of the young master's status.
Within just a few hours, Qin Chu discovered that his portrait was plastered all over the streets and alleys. A little while later, by nightfall, the whole city would probably know that a young man had been wandering the streets.
Qin Chu had to pull his collar tighter, making sure the birthmark wasn't showing.
He wasn't afraid of trouble, but his current situation made it difficult for him to find a place to stay. If he hadn't pawned his phoenix crown beforehand, he probably wouldn't have anything to offer now.
Instead of looking for an inn in the bustling city center, Qin Chu climbed over the city wall and walked in the dark towards the outskirts of the city for a long time until he saw spacious farmland, at which point he stopped.
After looking around again, Qin Chu knocked on the door of a farmer's house.
An elderly woman opened the door; her eyesight was clearly poor, and she almost mistook Qin Chu for someone from the neighborhood.
Qin Chu gave the old man a piece of silver and asked to stay the night.
The old man hesitated, but since the data body Qin Chu was currently in actually looked rather frail, he couldn't bear to let him in.
After settling in, Qin Chu finally had time to discuss the problems of this world with Noah.
"What is the identity of that Lord Lin?" Qin Chu asked.
"It's equivalent to the regent of this country. The emperor of the country you are in now is in a coma, and the government is controlled by a few ministers."
No wonder the wanted posters were plastered all over the city in just a few hours.
After tying his hair up, Qin Chu lay down on the simple bed, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
It wasn't that he wasn't used to the living environment, but rather that there seemed to be fewer obstacles after arriving in this world. Although he was given a strange identity and was constantly on the run, Qin Chu didn't actually find it too troublesome.
He thought for a while and found the reason.
As for his character design, Noah didn't mention it to him this time.
Under normal circumstances, Noah might adopt a "bro" persona and then impose a restriction, such as requiring him to have children in order to maintain that persona.
Qin Chu's face turned somewhat green at the thought.
Sensing his thoughts, Noah, who was focused on downloading data, sighed regretfully: "Actually, I really want to too, but this world is a bit special, and there aren't many restrictions on character settings."
What's so special about it?
“This world is actually a fusion of two worlds. You can think of the space you are in now as a virtual game,” Noah explained.
Qin Chu immediately understood: "I'm a player?"
"No, you are an NPC in the game world." This time, Noah was well-prepared and directly showed Qin Chu a miniature map. "There will be some players in this world. They are also equipped with systems and have the same mission objective."
"What is the goal?"
Hearing Qin Chu ask this, Noah was a little embarrassed: "In another world, this game mission has not yet been released, so it cannot be confirmed at the moment."
To prevent Qin Chu from calling him trash, Noah immediately defended himself: "It's because you refused to rest that we traveled to this timeline too early."
Qin Chu: "...And now?"
"The mission for this virtual game hasn't been officially released yet, so you still need to solve your own problems first."
Qin Chu understood; this was to ensure his freedom and await the release of subsequent tasks.
Noah nodded: "In short, you absolutely cannot be captured to give birth, otherwise you won't be able to complete the later missions!"
Qin Chu sneered: "You're worrying too much."
Looking at the data, Noah couldn't help but boast: "Actually, to avoid the outcome of the last world, I developed two mission lines this time, and completing either one will be beneficial."
Qin Chu: "Oh, which of the two have you calculated so far?"
Noah: "...Okay, I'm trash."
Just as they were discussing things with Noah, there was a sudden, loud knocking on the door of the farmhouse.
The person knocking on the door was extremely rude, yelling at the top of their lungs in the middle of the night, "Open the door! Hurry up!"
Qin Chu immediately sat up in bed, grabbed the package he had placed on the bedside table, and quietly stood by the window to look outside.
The people outside persisted, banging on the old courtyard gate until it shook. After a while, dragging footsteps came from the main house, and the old man, wearing a coat, hurried over to open the door.
Two soldiers stood outside the door, which made Qin Chu frown slightly.
The farmhouse was inhabited only by an elderly woman and her grandson, who looked to be about ten years old. They didn't seem like the type to attract soldiers. Qin Chu was worried that people from the city had come to investigate.
But after listening for a while, he relaxed his brow and said, "It's conscription."
"Oh right, the Donghu are invading, and war is about to break out," Noah said.
The old man cried and pleaded with the soldiers for a while. The soldiers then said something that seemed to be about enlisting their ten-year-old grandson in the army. They then left Zhang Wenshu behind and hurriedly departed.
Judging from their posture, they're going to knock on the neighbor's gate.