Chapter 51: A Familiar Voice
They were so shocked that their hearts nearly jumped out of their throats. With so many of them gathering at once, indeed, how could it not catch the attention of the patrolling guards.
A few pairs of eyes stiffly turned their heads toward the source of the voice.
Song Yulan grabbed her husband’s arm nervously, and she subconsciously touched her stomach.
It was Lin Su. He wore a stern expression as he glared at them.
"Speak! Where have you three people been?!" He scolded them.
Three people? They subconsciously looked around and realized that it was only Ye Lanxi, Ye Jincheng, and Song Yulan who were there.
Ye Lanxi’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. These traitors! Why didn’t they warn him first that there was Lin Su nearby?
At this moment, Ye Lingyue was covering her mouth to stop herself from giggling in amusement. Ye Lingrui had told her that he had a bad feeling.
His bad feeling was proven right when they saw Lin Su approaching from behind them, the blind spot for them if they hadn’t turned their faces around.
Without hesitation, Ye Lingyue immediately dragged her twin brother away, ducking into the bushes while the other three were still unaware of Lin Su’s presence.
But... can it really be blamed on them? They were also startled and didn’t have the time to notify the other three! It all happened so quickly.
"Captain Lin, my stomach suddenly felt uncomfortable, so I went to... to relieve myself," Ye Lanxi muttered. "You won’t mind, right?"
Lin Su was almost dumbstruck by his last sentence. What does he mean by that?!
"I... I also went to relieve myself." Song Yulan explained, her face blushing madly.
Ye Jincheng nodded. "I couldn’t let Ah Yu go into the dark area alone, so I accompanied her. Did we do something against the rules, Captain Lin?"
Isn’t that just indirectly accusing him of not allowing them to respond to ’the call of nature’? After all, everyone would experience it, including himself!
They had found a perfect excuse he couldn’t really argue about. However, still...
"If I don’t know better, with the three of you having the same urgent needs, I would have thought you are in some sort of competition about it!" Lin Su snorted, still feeling suspicious but also not having the proof.
Fortunately, Ye Lingyue had told Ye Lanxi to hide the rice sack on their first return. Otherwise, such a huge item would have been an ironclad evidence they had sneaked away if Lin Su really searched them.
They were getting better at getting rid of such obvious proof such as oil paper packaging, now everyone was already an expert at it.
"We just ate too much. Lingyue found too much delicious food," Ye Lanxi bragged.
Lin Su’s mouth twitched. After he tasted that roasted quail, even if it was only seasoned with simple salt, he had been craving it.
The imperial guards, even including Commander Leng, also ate the same coarse steamed bun as the Ye family members. Well, except for the Ye family’s second branch who often had meat to eat.
His mood suddenly turned for the worse. He waved his hand. "Just go, go away!"
Ye Lanxi cracked a smile and headed to his family’s carriage. Ye Jincheng also led his wife away, who were surprised they could get away so easily.
They thought that they would lose a layer of skin at least.
When Ye Lanxi arrived at the carriage, he was gloating at his twin siblings. Lin Su’s senses were much sharper compared to normal imperial guards, and they probably would stay outside–
His smile froze when he opened the door and saw Ye Lingyue and Ye Lingrui inside, enjoying some pastries with the small twins and Shen Jingyi.
"Lan’er..." Shen Jingyi shook her head helplessly at her second son.
Ye Lanxi glared at the twins, wondering what kind of slanderous words they were feeding to their mother.
He was about to open his mouth to explain, but his mother beat it to him first.
"This time, you did a great job." Shen Jingyi praised.
Her words made him become stunned and awkward in an instant. "Mother, I always did a great job."
Their mouths twitched when they heard that. Even the small twins looked at him with surprise.
Ye Lanxi scratched the back of his head and couldn’t help but asked, "Mother, what did I do?"
"You persuaded the married couple from the first branch." Shen Jingyi sighed. "Otherwise, they would have made a mistake."
Another week passed quickly, and unknowingly, they had gotten closer to the place where they were going to be exiled.
After they found another night market and sneaked away, Ye Lingyue gave the jewellry box back to Ye Lanxi.
They had found a good corner to munch on a few snacks. The three siblings always visited the night market whenever there was one nearby.
Alas, in a week, it was only the second one they had found.
Their rice supplies also had dwindled down. They always cooked rice at night somewhere far from the camping site before bringing it back to the carriage.
Gradually, they also noticed the barren lands, more sparse people, and more sightings of bandits or people committing crimes.
"Second Brother, I am returning it to you. Keep it safe." She told Ye Lanxi as she handed over the box of jewellry. "It’s only half for now. I am not sure if you can keep it..."
"For the other half, I will hand it over to you later once we arrive at the destination," she added.
Ye Lanxi stopped munching on his scallion pancake, and he fell silent before awkwardly shoving the jewellry box back to her. "Take it back."
"Huh?" She blinked in confusion.
He caught the sight of Ye Lingrui’s gentle smile and was annoyed, coughing. "It’s yours..."
At this moment, Ye Lingyue suddenly also heard a notification.
[Initializing...]
[System Complete.]
[The process of host binding begins.]
[Binding Process: 1%...]