Before the old man left Bai Gujing, he had mentioned he was going to go talk with Bai Gujing's grandmother. He said she was worried about him and wanted to hear about how he was doing. She was probably asking the old man instead of Bai Gujing because she was being cautious of his possible spy identity. He didn't know yet if she cared for Xiao Bai or not. He had a severe lack of information. He grabbed onto the chance to learn such precious information and created an invisible listening creature. He made it cling to the old man. When it reached Grandma, it would split off to cling to her. Then he made a connector to his ear.
'System, can you create a program to copy the conversations it hears and store them?'
[System as Notes function. Would Host like to use 100 points to acquire the function from Shop?]
'How many points do I have?'
The system then chanted a very long string of numbers.
'Xiao Bai is impressive.' He hesitated, 'What did he want all these points for?'
[Previously, the Host desired to use the points to achieve his goals.]
The goals of getting his family back and getting rid of the system. Bai Gujing frowned. 'Use.'
[Notes function purchased. Creating a Notebook for copying conversations. 'Bug's Eavesdropping' Notebook Created. First note 'Con 284 Month 3 Day 11 Time 9:34 AM - Du Dong and Bai Shufen in Bai Shufen's home office']
Bai Gujing waited a little while longer until the old man knocked and was allowed inside. The mansion was huge. It took the old man almost 10 minutes to get to the office on the third floor.
"How is he? Any changes?"
"Fourth young master didn't eat much of his food again today. I think if you, Madam, were to eat with him his appetite would increase. I even got him his favorite muffin today." The old man sighed. He continued chattering. He talked about the outfit he'd picked out and how handsome Bai Gujing looked in it. He talked about how Bai Gujing's cousin had scared him as she passed by. Apparently, it wasn't unusual for him to have such a reaction, but Xiao Bai's family still did not know who caused it. They only took it as an odd quirk of Bai Gujing's who was mentally unfit.
The old lady was surprisingly patient. It sounded like she was listening carefully to every word.
After the old man was done talking, he continued for a while more before stopping. There was an unusual silence from the old man. Gu Baijing thought he could hear his footsteps. Then he felt the notebook bug creature split into two. One of them moved to cling to someone else. They must be standing next to one another now.
"He still looks the same."
The old man sighed, "The fourth young master is so lonely. He still does not know how to play with his cousins. He must have a whole world going on inside his brain. He can sit like that for hours. It's not healthy. He needs more stimulation. Madam, I still think it would be a good idea to enroll him in school and let him interact with others his age-" The old man continued rambling again.
A cold shiver ran down Bai Gujing's spine. Were they looking at him? How come he couldn't feel it? He remembered how much work he'd put into training his perception with his Energy. Now that it was gone, his training had all gone down the drain.
Maybe it was little Xiao Bai's influence that had made him forget and overlook this until now. Now that he realized it, he felt exposed. If an assassin came up from behind him right now, he may not even notice until it was too late.
He looked at the mansion, but couldn't see the window the two were looking through. His vision had gotten poorer as well. He glanced around the garden. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Hugging his knees, his mind seemed to settle a bit. Bai Gujing had never hugged his knees before, so it was probably a human comforting gesture. He focused on calming his mind by pointing out all the reasons they wouldn't let an assassin attack him. They would stop that person.
They still needed him. If he was a spy, maybe they could get information out of him. If he wasn't a spy, maybe he had strong power from the crossing. If that wasn't true, then he was at least still the fourth young master of the Bai Jia.
He ran this around in his head a few times.
"Ge!"
Bai Gujing jumped out of his skin when a loud sound went off in front of him. He panted and looked around.
Climbing up the gazebo steps was the toddler that had been eating dirt. His dirty hands were holding a leaf that'd broken from his poor handling. He struggled up the steps and smiled at Bai Gujing. He held up the leaf and offered it to him.
Bai Gujing looked at the young man behind the human cub. He was smirking.
"Ge!" The boy ran over and held the leaf to Bai Gujing. His huge smile contorted his face into squished steam bun rolls. It looked very ugly, so why did Bai Gujing want to squish his steam bun cheeks?
"It's no use, Xiao Zhi, this brother doesn't want your leaf. He thinks you are dirty and your leaf is useless. He doesn't want to play with you. He doesn't like you!" The young man smiled and smirked.
Bai Gujing had not said or thought of any of this. He saw the child's face distort and heard the young man laugh. He understood the young man was trying to make trouble.
"He doesn't like you. He doesn't like anyone in the family. He is horrified by how disgusting he thinks we are. See his eyes? He hates us. Xiao Zhi, don't go near this person in the future." He looked so proud of himself when the young child looked like he was about to cry, "You should tell grandma he bullied you." He was trying to get Bai Gujing in trouble.
Bai Gujing stared at the boy's hand. His smile was gone now, but he still held out his hand as high as it could go. The steamed buns didn't look so good anymore.
The leaf was promptly plucked from the boy's fist and a small ball was put in its place. Bai Gujing naturally knew taking without giving was a taboo to humans. So he gave the boy a trade. In place of the boy's work for getting a leaf and delivering it to him--which was very difficult for the clumsy child--he gave the boy a candy from his inventory. It was a rock candy. Bai Gujing thought a small nature item for a small nature item was a good trade. Although, the system said that the sticks and stones Bai Gujing was looking at at first may be dangerous. They ultimately decided on rock candy.
The trade was done in a flash. The half a leaf was clasped in Bai Gujing's hand just as the boy had clasped it earlier. The boy stared at the rock candy and looked back and forth a few times before understanding what had happened. His steamed bun cheeks squished together again. He quickly and carefully climbed down the gazebo steps and left.
The young man glared at Bai Gujing. Bai Gujing noticed the glare, but sat staring straight ahead as if he had never seen him. He didn't like the young man. As Xiao Bai didn't acknowledge most people, he thought it would be fine to ignore him. He didn't want to bother with people who would use cubs to do their dirty work. Not getting along with the young man suited him just fine.