Chapter 44: The Most Scary Brother
She still doubted it even now. Does Ye Lingrui know that she was Shen Wuqing... or, even a soul from another world occupying his sister’s body?
Until now, she couldn’t understand his friendliness.
As she fell into a daze, someone’s paw already made its way to her hair and ruffled it again.
She swatted his evil claw away and fixed her hair, glaring at him.
"Don’t overthink too much or you will turn into a fool again," Ye Lingrui told her.
She rolled her eyes, and they went out of the carriage to get some fresh air. She stretched her body, and could feel her mind relaxed slightly.
Inwardly she thought: unexpectedly, a short psychological counseling session with her twin brother really worked.
Commander Leng’s subordinate came to them and announced yet another delay in their journey.
"Some imperial guards are sick. We won’t depart until tomorrow," he said. There was a trace of awkwardness on his face.
They all looked at each other, and Ye Lanxi couldn’t resist telling them what had happened. Shen Jingyi was holding back a laughter while Ye Chengde and Ye Zhiqiu’s reactions were similar, they were trying to keep their face straight.
Ye Lanxi glanced at the quiet but more refreshed little sister and raised his eyebrows.
And thus... the second branch did what they could to kill the time. They went to gather some wild vegetables with the servants. Ye Lingrui was in charge of teaching them what could be picked and what poisonous things that couldn’t.
Meanwhile, Ye Lingyue had a look of resignation on her face as she stared at the characters on the ground.
Ye Zhiqiu, as a responsible elder brother, was teaching her how to write and read.
That bastard Ye Lanxi couldn’t see her happy and thus, with his poisonous heart, he had set her up!
"Eldest Brother, Lingyue had been learning writing and reading from Lingrui. But... Lingrui is so busy..." he gestured to Ye Lingrui not too far away.
Ye Lingrui was leading some servants to identify edible wild vegetables. He would occasionally give pointers to any servant who had come to him bringing the wild vegetables they had found, clearing their doubts.
"He hadn’t been able to teach Lingyue for a while." Ye Lanxi sighed in regret, his fake expression was full of exaggeration. "Poor little sister. She has just recovered and has no one to teach him."
Ye Lingyue glared at him, wishing she could burn holes on his head.
With Ye Zhiqiu’s intelligence, he shouldn’t fall for such a cheap trick, right? Alas...
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Yue’er should start learning. I will teach you," Ye Zhiqiu said, his face resembling a minister of education who had just taken office and took his job really seriously.
From then on, Ye Lingyue’s school days began.
Ye Zhiqiu began to teach her how to write and read, reciting books...
Her reading and writing skill indeed had gotten rusty. It was probably the effect of double transmigrations.
Seeing the books in his hand, Ye Lingyue’s eyes almost popped out in shock. She wondered who had packed these books for her eldest brother.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Su ordered his men to escort Qiuju to the local authorities. They also brought a letter from Commander Feng, so the probability of Qiuju escaping her punishment was low.
She should be subjected to a lifetime of penal labor.
Not long after, Ye Lingrui and the servants went back, bringing a lot of wild vegetables with them.
"Yue’er, we will cook the vegetables soon. You should eat a lot of it because they are good for your brain," Ye Lingrui told her.
Her eyelids twitched.
"Third Brother, you should be saying the last sentence to Second Brother. He needs it more than me," she sighed as she leaned on the tree, inhaling deeply.
She did feel as though her soul was leaving her body after Ye Zhiqiu’s teaching. He was indeed gentle and refined, with all the patience in the world just to teach her, but... he was so persistent.
Ye Zhiqiu wouldn’t give up unless she learned the characters correctly.
At this moment, Ye Lingyue realized that the most frightening family member wasn’t her crazy second brother or her gentle yet scheming third brother.
It was her calm and refined eldest brother!
Still, she ate her vegetable soup with relish when Ye Lingrui gave her a bowl. He made a huge cauldron of the soup, so the servants also received them.
On the other side, Yan Luo finally managed to invite a physician from the nearest city to take a look at his subordinates.
He had a dark look all day, and no one dared to approach him. However, as soon as he was gone, people would gossip about his subordinates with relish.
"I was the closest... hiss, the smell almost made me pass out," one servant sighed.
"They all look so pale, as though they had been drained dry!" Another servant chimed in. "I would have pitied them had they acted decently like Captain Lin’s men, but alas..."
The servants only had each other to keep themselves company, and their topic shifted fast.
"By the way, Xiumei, did you go back to serving Young Master and Young Miss from the third branch again?" They all turned to Xiumei with a complicated look on their faces.
After all, they were currently on the way to exile. Even if they continued to serve the Ye family, they wouldn’t get paid, right?
Just look at the previous incident. When the servants starved, the Ye family members also starved. Coincidentally, there were no edible wild vegetables back then in that area.
Xiumei smiled. "Isn’t it the Ye family who bought us and freed us from slavery, giving us food, clothing, and shelter?"
Her wish was actually quite simple. She just wanted to live peacefully with them. Even after being exiled, it wouldn’t be worse compared to being sold as a slave.
They all sighed, finding Xiumei’s words made sense and worth pondering over. Some of them whispered to her. "Don’t let that certain steward hear you saying that."
During the afternoon, Yan Luo was definitely restless. He also accused Lin Su, "Commander Leng, this subordinate requested you to investigate Lin Su! I suspect that he was the one who had poisoned my men!"