Chapter 70: Punishment
"What did you bring home, Yue’er?" Ye Zhiqiu suddenly appeared by their side, his face full of curiosity.
Ye Lingyue turned to him, full of smiles. "I brought some berries back. Do you want to try it? Second Brother picked some of them..."
The moment Ye Lanxi heard that, he turned to them, his eyes widening in shock. Before he knew it, Ye Lingyue was already offering the berries to Ye Zhiqiu, who took it and tried it for the taste.
On the other side, Ye Lingrui already spat out the sour thing from his mouth, regretting a little for going against his intuition.
When Ye Zhiqiu saw his third brother’s reaction, it was already too late. He hurriedly spat it out, but the sour taste remained...
A few minutes later.
"Eldest Brother, I was wrong!" Ye Lingyue had admitted her wrongdoing, even dragging Ye Lanxi along with her, but Ye Zhiqiu was not moved in the slightest.
With a neutral face, he told his younger siblings. "Yue’er, Lan’er, read the first sentence."
Ye Lanxi was also feeling indignant, believing himself had been unjustly dragged into this by his mischievous younger sister. Only Ye Lingrui escaped unscathed.
"Eldest Brother, we are now commoners. What’s the use of learning books anymore?" He protested.
As a result, Ye Zhiqiu hit him lightly with a stick. "Lan’er, focus on the book. We have to always be learning; it doesn’t matter whether one is a noble or a commoner."
***
The pair of siblings only escaped from the teaching of their elder brother an hour later, looking like they had just escaped a great disaster.
Ye Lingyue had an awkward look on her face. "Second Brother, my chicken legs will be for you..."
Ye Lanxi snorted and looked away, still a little annoyed that she had successfully set him up.
The second branch went to rebuild the house again after that, and at night after they had dinner, the pair of siblings went to sneak into the servants’ house.
"Steward Du, quick! It’s our turn now! Don’t take too long!"
"Hiss, how did we suffer from stomach problems at the same time?"
"Is it because of what we ate?"
The discussion was still going around them. These were the voices of the servants who had followed Steward Du to live in the houses he was currently fixing.
Most of them were female servants, so the process had taken longer than expected considering that they needed to have more rooms.
In total, they had taken three houses.
For other servants who didn’t want to follow him, they simply picked some decent small houses, cleaned them, and used them for shelter.
Xiumei and Xiulan for example; they took a house not far from the second branch’s house.
"It must have been that foolish girl!" One servant raged, forgetting her status and where she was. "She must have been the one putting something in our food."
A few other servants subconsciously took a few steps away from her, still not used to how she could easily curse one of their masters.
The servant girl realized what she had said and panicked for a moment. She had accidentally let her thoughts be said out loud. Still, she didn’t think she was wrong.
"What? Are you all still denying it? We ate the rice just like the last time too, but we were fine. It was only after we ate the roasted meat that we suffered from this!"
The more she talked the more confident she became.
Some servants glanced at each other. They shared the same thoughts but they weren’t as blunt as her.
"Be careful of what you are saying!" A few others still kindly reminded her.
The servant girl snorted. "You are all such a scaredy cat, no wonder you were useless and didn’t manage to snatch anything from that fool girl."
"You!" They were angry, but they couldn’t refute her because her words were true.
Some of them couldn’t cross the hurdle in their hearts at the thought of plotting against their own masters. Hence, they didn’t dare to snatch Ye Lingyue’s prey.
"I should tell Steward Du about this..." the servant girl muttered with a glint in her eyes.
After a while, they felt uncomfortable in their stomach again and when they couldn’t bear it anymore, they simply didn’t wait for Steward Du to finish using the bathroom and went out.
Anyway, they thought that no one would be able to see them in the dark.
The moment Steward Du came out of the bathroom, he had a dark expression on his face. He wasn’t stupid and could tell that Ye Lingyue or at least one of the second branch’s sons had something to do with this.
There was only the servant girl when he came out.
Her eyes lit up and she immediately told Steward Du. "Steward Du, all of this must have been that foolish girl’s doing. Should we let this go just like that?"
He furrowed his brows. "What do you want to do?"
"How about we teach her a lesson?"
Before Steward Du could open his mouth to give a response. They heard a sarcastic voice from behind them.
"Who are you going to teach a lesson?" Ye Lanxi had appeared there at some unknown point in time. His hands crossed on his chest.
They all paled, and much to the servant girl’s disbelief, Steward Du immediately chose to save himself.
He pointed at the servant girl. "Young Master, I was about to discipline this audacious servant girl for saying such an insolent thing. Please punish her!"
"Steward Du..." The girl muttered weakly, eyes filled with fear.
Ye Lanxi punished her just like he did to the previous servants when they were in the forest.
This incident would surely make them behave for some time. These servants didn’t just suffer from diarrhea, but also severe hair loss and itchy sensation all over their bodies.
They would surely have a restless night.
***
In the morning, they were awoken by a commotion from the first branch.
"What do you mean your wife is pregnant?!"