Chapter 94: Troublemakers
The twins stared at each other; the look of exhaustion on their faces was too similar on top of their identical faces.
Their mouths twitched when they saw the sight in front of them.
The other five bandits had a guarded look on their faces, and the moment the twins arrived, they looked as though they had seen their saviors.
"Young Master, Young Miss!" They all greeted the twins.
Meanwhile, the servants exchanged glances, suddenly turning a little nervous. Not far from them, there was actually another familiar figure.
Ye Shichang, their first uncle from the first branch.
"Why are you taking their ration?" Ye Lingyue stared at them with pursed lips.
"Young Miss..." the servants didn’t know what to say. They were only doing this in accordance with Steward Du’s order.
Besides the servants who were working for Steward Du, the first branch actually also managed to rope in their previous servants under them again.
Not all of them were willing to work under Steward Du’s forceful methods. He could relax at the back while they were the ones who had to go down to the well to remove the mud from there.
Ye Shichang glanced at the twins, raising his eyebrows at Ye Lingyue’s eloquent speech. He had noticed that she was gradually recovering, and now, she looked like a completely normal person.
When he heard that three of their children went to the market in the next county, he originally thought that the second branch was planning to sell their only daughter for some money.
He secretly disdained their practice.
However... two weeks later, not only did they all return safely, they even brought a lot of supplies with them. It seemed that they got extremely lucky at the market.
The most annoying thing was that they also brought a few people back and gave them supplies when they gave nothing to their first branch.
As such, he took it upon himself to grab the supplies from these people.
Facing Ye Lingyue’s questioning, Steward Du’s servants were quiet. On the other hand, Ye Shichang felt fortunate that it was the twins who had come.
One used to be foolish and he believed that she would be easy to deceive. The other male twin was also rather unremarkable.
"Lingyue, did you give this sack of rice to them?" Ye Shichang put on a surprised look on his face.
Ye Lingrui calmly answered. "We gave it to them, please put it back down, Eldest Uncle."
Zhu Yi and his men glanced at each other when they heard this form of address. It turned out to be the twins’ eldest uncle.
"Alright, alright, put them down," Ye Shichang sighed. "I have accused them unjustly, so I will apologize."
"You can’t really blame your uncle. We have been eating less in the past few weeks. Our supplies have been emptied out just this morning..." he trailed off, inwardly frowning when he saw the expressions on the twins’ faces remained the same.
Don’t they pity their first branch at all?
"Your cousin, Mingyuan, has gotten a lot thinner and your grandmother even needed to pick up some grass so that we can eat," he continued.
Ye Lingyue could tell that he was trying to gain their sympathy.
"When I heard from the servants that these men headed to this house while carrying a sack of rice, your eldest uncle thought that they stole it from your house."
"After all, our first branch, who are still part of your family, does not even have food to eat, but they do..."
The twins exchanged glances again. Fortunately, they had thought of a countermeasure for this.
You can give someone a fish to eat and they will be dependent on you, expecting fish every day. In order to make them independent, they were going to share some seeds with others.
They glanced at Steward Du’s servants who were cowering in the corner. They didn’t dare to speak at all.
"Eldest Uncle, we will share the supplies with you, but don’t take theirs," Ye Lingrui decided.
Everyone witnessed as a glint crossed Ye Shichang’s eyes and his whole face brightened. "Then, let’s go to your house."
He signalled his servants to put the rice sack down. Finally, they really put it down for real this time. He led his servants to the door, and then looked back when he felt that the twins weren’t following him.
"Let’s go," he urged when he saw that the twins didn’t move. "Remember your promise."
As she passed Zhu Yi and others, Ye Lingyue didn’t forget to remind them. "Save the rice sack somewhere safe."
She glanced at Steward Du’s servants. "Keep your eye on it so that people don’t sneak in to steal it too."
Zhu Yi and others nodded solemnly. "Thank you, Young Miss. We will definitely keep this sack of rice safely."
Upon seeing this, her mouth twitched and she couldn’t help but let out a sigh. The look on their faces were too honest sometimes; no wonder they weren’t suitable to be bandits.
She cleared her throat. "Come to my house tomorrow."
There were still a lot of things they needed to talk about with them, including people they needed to keep a guard on, the need to fix their house, and the plan of opening a new land for farming.
"Yes, Young Miss!" They all chorused.
Ye Lingyue turned to Steward Du’s servants. "You all come too. One of you should go and call the third branch to our second branch’s house."
They all looked at each other and immediately followed after her.
Once everyone was gone, Zhu Yi and others heaved a sigh of relief.
"I thought us bandits didn’t only fail at robbing things from others, but were also going to be robbed..."
Upon arriving at the house, unexpectedly, Zheng Huizhen was also already there with Ye Mingyuan.
"How about my eldest son’s portion?!" She snapped, her finger harshly pointing to Ye Lanxi.