Opening his eyes, he saw that the little maid Emily's hair was also soaked with sweat, her face flushed red from the heat, and her small hands were holding a soft cloth, panting as she washed his body. Her tiny lips were pressed tightly together, her face full of an embarrassed, about-to-cry expression. Her pretty eyes deliberately looked up at the ceiling, only glancing down when she needed to wipe a different spot, and then quickly looking away again...

"What an adorable shy expression this little girl has!" Thinking this, Ethan Brooks's mind suddenly returned to the present, and only then did he realize that he was completely naked. Feeling a bit embarrassed, he coughed twice and said, "Let me do it myself." As he spoke, he reached out to take the towel from Emily's hand.

With a startled cry, Emily clutched the towel and backed far away, trembling as she looked at Ethan Brooks, her eyes full of panic: "Y-y-y... Young master, y-y-you... you're awake?"

With a helpless sigh, Ethan Brooks said, "If I wasn't awake, would a ghost be talking to you?"

"Ghost?! Ah!" Emily screamed again. Ethan Brooks suddenly noticed that he could clearly see the fine hairs on the little girl's face standing on end, her face pale as if she really had seen a ghost. Ethan Brooks couldn't help but sigh: "Stop screaming. Even if you really saw a ghost, your face would look just like it does now. Your acting is truly on point."

"Bang!" Suddenly, the door was slammed open, and a burly figure strode in: "Morris, you're awake? What happened?" It was William BrooksMr. Brooks, followed by several guards.

Mr. Brooks's voice was full of anger. He had just finished furiously scolding all thirty-six guards assigned to protect Ethan Brooks. Yesterday's incident could be called an accident, but who would have thought it would happen again today! The Old Man was fuming, about to explode: Does my The Brooks Family really look so easy to bully? Looks like I really have to show my power! If everyone keeps targeting my grandson, how are we supposed to live?

The Old Man assumed Ethan Brooks's fainting was due to an enemy assassination attempt...

Chapter 10 The Old Man Loses His Temper

Mr. Brooks naturally had no idea that tonight's strange events were actually because his grandson had received a tremendous benefit, and there was no assassin at all! Yet he kept thinking in other directions. He had heard that Ethan Brooks had gone to bathe in Luoyue Lake in the middle of the night, and went to bed angrily. Who would have thought that just as he was sleeping soundly, he was startled awake by chaos, only to find out that something had happened to Ethan Brooks again, and immediately flew into a rage.

"I'm fine, really, I'm perfectly fine." Ethan Brooks instinctively grabbed the towel and covered his crotch, his face full of embarrassment. Naked in the water, suddenly barged in on by more than a dozen grown men, all looking down at him from above—no matter how thick-skinned and calm Ethan Brooks was, he still couldn't quite handle it.

"What's there to cover? With what little you've got, what's there to be shy about in front of your grandpa? I remember when you were little, I used to hold you in one hand and play with you with the other every day." William Brooks's words nearly made Ethan Brooks faint from holding his breath.

Behind him, the burly guards' shoulders shook, their big, hairy faces flushed red, all breathing heavily. Several of them snuck glances at the spot The Young Master was covering, winking and making faces at each other, as if eager to compare...

"Who did this?" William Brooks's face darkened, cold as ice, a murderous aura appearing.

"Uh?" Ethan Brooks was a bit confused, but quickly understood and lowered his head in a guilty manner: "I didn't see clearly, I just fainted."

"Useless!" Mr. Brooks cursed angrily, his tone full of disappointment. After carefully checking his grandson and confirming he was fine, he lost interest in looking at his naked grandson. With that scrawny body, he didn't look like a soldier's descendant at all—even a young lady wasn't this pale! Hmph! Truly... He shook his head helplessly: "Rest well." He turned and left, followed by the guards. Only then did Ethan Brooks let out a long sigh, removed the towel from his crotch, and broke out in a cold sweat.

The next day, Duke William Brooks lost his temper in the emperor's Golden Throne Hall, pointing at several imperial relatives, grand preceptors, and chief ministers, cursing them out furiously. He was extremely agitated and threatened that if anyone tried to assassinate his only grandson again, every family involved would have to pay with a life before anything else could be discussed!

The old marshal, silent for ten years, erupted, and the entire court of civil and military officials was struck dumb with fear—even the emperor himself could only gently and repeatedly try to calm him down.

But there were still some who didn't know their place. The eldest prince's father-in-law, the current Censor-in-Chief John Carter, was a newly risen noble who had climbed to his current position by relying on the eldest prince. Not knowing much about the old duke, and feeling confident with the prince's backing, he talked back to William Brooks a couple of times and even submitted a memorial to the emperor. As a result, he was immediately beaten by William Brooks until his face was swollen like a pig's head, losing two teeth in the process.