"Young master, Mr. Bennett has come to visit," the guard came in to report.

Over the past half day, Ethan Brooks had come to realize something: his own General's Manor was truly a peculiar place.

In the entire large courtyard, there wasn't a single woman to be seen—not even a maid, servant girl, or old housekeeper. Everyone coming and going was a burly man.

And quite a few of them, though fierce in appearance, were also disabled in some way.

It seemed that this General Brooks had arranged for many wounded and disabled soldiers to live in his own residence.

Truly a general who loves his soldiers as his own sons!

This was Ethan Brooks's first impression of his cheap old man!

"Mr. Bennett?" Ethan Brooks was momentarily stunned before he remembered. This Mr. Bennett, Logan Bennett, was the son of another great general of the current dynasty—General Bennett. General Bennett and his own father, General Brooks, were both commanding generals, but while his father guarded the north, General Bennett was stationed in the south; they were as different as night and day, standing as equals.

These two were both sons of generals, and since both their fathers were away from home for years on end, they naturally banded together out of "shared misery" and became the best of friends—a textbook example of "sworn brothers." However, Logan Bennett still had his mother and several concubines at home to keep him in check. Though he was also a good-for-nothing playboy, his behavior wasn't quite as outrageous. Overall, compared to the former "Ethan Brooks", he was a bit better, but only just.

And then there was the matter of Logan Bennett's name, which had quite a story behind it.

It was said that General Bennett had a stutter since childhood. On the day Logan Bennett was born, General Bennett returned home, exhausted from travel, and slept all the way.

He dreamed of sailing on the sea, with wild waves surging to the sky. When he got home, his family said, "It's a young master, please give him a name, General."

At that moment, General Bennett was recounting his dream from the previous night, and upon suddenly hearing of his son's birth, he got excited and his stutter kicked in. He opened his mouth and said, "...Wa—waves... waves... waves waves..."

So the steward turned and reported, "The General says... the young master shall be called 'Waves Waves'..."

And thus Logan Bennett got his name, and became known by it.

After all, the difference between "浪" and "浪浪" is as vast as the distance between north and south, as different as heaven and earth!

"Little Ethan, I heard you got knocked out last night?" Before Logan Bennett even entered, his strange, raspy voice was already echoing from afar: "Hahaha... Good thing I left early last night... Otherwise, I would've been led astray by you bunch of wastrels..."

Ethan Brooks's face instantly darkened, and he blurted out, "Bastard, Logan Bennett, if you call me Little Ethan again, I'll beat you to death!"

Logan Bennett shrank his neck at the words, but stepped through the door anyway, still grinning cheekily: "I heard you were quite the hero last night? Drinking at the brothel, and actually drank yourself unconscious... Impressive, impressive!"

Ethan Brooks snorted and rolled his eyes. "How the hell do you get your news so fast? Got a spy planted in my house?"

Logan Bennett burst out laughing: "With your dump of a place, who needs a spy..."

After a few exchanges, Ethan Brooks finally took a good look at his best friend. Despite being born into a powerful family, Logan Bennett was as skinny as a rail. The already tight robe hung loosely on him, rustling as he walked; he probably didn't have even a couple of ounces of flesh on his whole body. His eyebrows slanted upward, his nose was a bit flat, his lips curled up, and his two eyes squeezed together so much that he was naturally cross-eyed.

In the sweltering heat, he was even wearing a big hat.

From his memories, Ethan Brooks knew there was a reason for this guy's appearance. Earlier in the year, he'd gotten ringworm, and most of his sparse yellow hair had fallen out, leaving him with a strikingly bald head. Wearing a hat was a last resort...

Ethan Brooks sighed. Damn, the previous owner of this body was a real oddball, and as luck would have it, his friends were just as weird!

Truly, this was enough to make one drunk...

Chapter 3: Celestial Crystal Essence

The original owner of this body was a real oddball, and his friend... just look at this guy, unloved by his grandmother or uncle, wearing a hat in the blazing heat, looking like some performance artist, yet still wearing a smug, self-satisfied expression as if he were God's gift to women...

"Come on, come on, before I left last night, I slipped William Foster a little something. No matter what, we have to go check it out today!" Logan Bennett waggled his eyebrows and laughed. "That bastard has always been against us, truly annoying. But ever since he lost his father's Jade Scepter in a bet, he's been grounded until now. Now that he's finally out, how could I let such a golden opportunity slip by..."

"Not going... Huh? Actually, that might be worth it..." Ethan Brooks had been preoccupied with the trouble of the poison in his body and had no interest in going out carousing with this guy. But hearing this, his spirits lifted. In his memories, William Foster had been among the group of wastrels drinking last night; maybe he was the one who poisoned him.

This William Foster, as far as he remembered, was quite a character too. Though he, Ethan Brooks, and Logan Bennett were known as the "Three Young Masters of the Capital," he never got along with the other two—whenever they met, they clashed, rarely getting along.

The so-called "Three Young Masters of the Capital" was, of course, a derogatory term.