Chapter 58: Magistrate He
Ye Lingyue widened her eyes, yelling at Ye Lanxi. "Release them back!"
She jumped, hiding behind her twin brother while pointing to Ye Lanxi angrily. "Why did you bring such things back?"
Ye Lanxi had a nonchalant smile on his head. "Oh, so you are afraid of these."
"Who is afraid?!" She hissed at him like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "They are... just, just disgusting!"
She tugged on her twin brother’s sleeve. "Third Brother, make him throw these things away, please!"
Ye Lingrui coughed. "Yue’er, how can you be so inconsiderate? Second Brother is just rescuing his fellow kind..."
Right after he said these words, Ye Lanxi threw one rat at him. Ye Lingyue yelped and quickly jumped away, avoiding the disgusting rat.
The place became chaotic all of sudden. One was chasing angrily while the other was running for his life.
Ye Lingyue jumped at the rat which almost touched her feet. The little boys were also hugging each other in fright.
She became truly enraged.
"Second Brother, Third Brother, stop it!" She yelled, putting her hands on her hips while glaring at them. "We need to go back soon. Our parents are still waiting for us!"
"Can you be as good as these little boys?! They don’t even make a scene!"
The two of them suddenly stopped, staring at each other before turning their heads away.
Ye Lingyue suddenly remembered she didn’t know about these boys’ names yet. "What are your names?"
The older one said, "My name is Chen Guozi, and this is Wu Houzi!" He pointed at the younger one.
She remembered their names before turning to Ye Lanxi. Annoyance was plastered on her face. "Second Brother, what’s the deal with these rats? They are dirty, you know? Housing so many diseases..."
Ye Lanxi’s eyes swept over the two little boys, who instantly hugged each other in fear. They were afraid Ye Lanxi would suddenly go crazy and throw the huge rat at them.
The rat’s size was around an adult’s palm. It was truly terrifying, making one wonder where he had gotten them from.
These rats also seemed to be a little lethargic.
"What are they doing here?" Ye Lanxi asked.
Ye Lingyue rolled her eyes at his attempt to switch the topic of the conversation. "I let them stay here."
However, she was actually also wondering how these two could follow them so far to their current location. It had been almost a week.
"Did you follow our convoy here?" Ye Lingrui grabbed a fistful of soil from the ground and began to use it to rub his hands together.
The two little boys nodded, and they didn’t explain more.
"Throw them away, Second Brother!" Ye Lingyue was helpless when she saw Ye Lanxi picking up the rats from the ground.
Ye Lanxi shook his head, tying the rats together. "Lingyue, you need to learn from me how to be creative."
Her mouth twitched. Wasn’t that just catching rats? She wasn’t interested!
Then, she witnessed Ye Lanxi’s expression morphed into one of these villains, turning sinister. He chuckled darkly. "This is for Magistrate He."
Currently, their exile party was staying near the magistrate’s residence. Commander Leng was trying to find help from the magistrate to get some supplies.
Compared to the previous barren, famine-stricken county they had just passed before, the area Magistrate He governed was faring much better. Hence, Commander Leng took that initiative.
Two days ago, Magistrate He already promised he would give some supplies to Commander Leng. However, until now, they hadn’t given them any.
They kept on making excuses. The steward would say that their magistrate was busy or that the supplies were still on their way, but it had been so many days.
"That Magistrate He is definitely making a false promise. I want to give them a little present..." Ye Lanxi muttered.
The older one Chen Gouzi was surprised when he heard them mentioning the magistrate.
"Sister, you are talking about Magistrate He..." he trailed off.
Ye Lanxi’s attention turned to him. "Do you know about him? Come on, tell us what he is like."
He blinked and then started telling the truth. "I heard from the people who passed by and were caught by the bandits that Magistrate He isn’t a good person."
"He charged three times the normal tax the moments’ people began to suffer from famine, so most people fled from his county."
The Ye siblings were stunned when they heard that, surprised someone could be so greedy and vicious.
"He really isn’t afraid of the imperial family at all..." Ye Lanxi muttered.
Ye Lingrui shook his head. "He wouldn’t have let his deeds be known to people." He turned to the little boys. "Did anyone ever escape to another county besides the ones they ran to?"
Chen Guozi and Wu Houzi widened their eyes when they heard that. They glanced at each other in shock. Then, they shook their heads.
"These people are caught by the bandits. We don’t know what happened to them," Chen Guozi explained.
Ye Lingrui nodded and added. "They also recently blocked the access so that the people won’t escape from their county."
"He is so greedy, no wonder that he makes us wait for so long," Ye Lanxi sneered. "Is he not afraid that his deeds might get exposed if he let Commander Leng stay here for so long?"
"After he hasn’t gotten exposed for so long, it must have made him feel that he is safe," Ye Lingyue commented.
Ye Lanxi turned to her with a flash of surprise. "Lingyue, you have gotten smarter."
She huffed and rolled her eyes at him. How can he say that? She had always been smart! The System had praised her a lot of times when she successfully completed a mission.
After a while, she and her brothers cooked the wild vegetables then returned to the camping site. She didn’t forget her promise to Chen Guozi and Wu Huozi, giving them one bowl of rice each.
Ye Lanxi dragged her to the Magistrate’s mansion that very night too...