Chapter 91: Common People’s Fate
The six bandits had an unkempt appearance; they looked as though they had just survived a tornado. Their faces were all filled with dust and dirt.
"I saw them being chased by the bear before. They climbed up a tree, but the bear still didn’t want to let go of them." Ye Lanxi snorted. "It only left them after it saw me."
After he said that, he glared at the bandits.
The six men shivered when they felt Ye Lanxi’s malicious gaze, but they still didn’t move from their current position.
"Let go of me!" Ye Lingyue scolded, shaking her feet.
She was quite speechless at their shameless action. Seeing that they had divided themselves evenly into three for each of them, she was sure they had planned this beforehand.
Two bandits clung to her, each grabbed her foot. They did the same to her two elder brothers.
"What are you all doing?" Ye Lanxi’s temper was more explosive. However, they were like sticky glue. No matter how he tried to shake them off his feet, they still clung to him like an octopus.
Ye Lingyue was also helpless. One could imagine her shock when a pair of grown ups suddenly grabbed her feet like perverts. Fortunately, her feet were covered by boots and they didn’t seem to have such intentions.
Contrary to his two siblings’ grumpy reaction, Ye Lingrui was much more calm even though these people were clinging to him like a dear life.
"Do you want something from us?" He asked.
Ye Lanxi and Ye Lingyue also suddenly became quiet, waiting for them to speak. The bandits glanced at each other, hesitation shining through their eyes.
Until one of them gritted his teeth and finally opened his mouth. "Young masters, young miss, please take us with you!"
Once one opened his mouth, others also joined in an instant. "We can do anything. Light up the fire, gather firewood, wash the dishes..."
"I can beat up people!"
"If you need someone to cook, my skills aren’t that bad, Young Masters, Young Miss."
They were quite anxious to prove to themselves that their words gradually became incoherent, mixing with their other five companions.
Ye Lingyue’s head throbbed, but Ye Lanxi was faster than her in expressing his dissatisfaction. "Be quiet all of you!"
They all immediately shut their mouths, as quiet as quail.
The trio still didn’t quite get the change in attitude from the bandits. It was just one week ago when they tried to rob them, and then today, they want to follow them?
After they all quieted down, Ye Lanxi twitched his mouth. "Our family already has so many mouths to feed. What do you think we want to take in more people?"
They weren’t doing charity after all.
"Young Master, my name is Zhu Yi." One person clinging to Ye Lingrui began. "I happened to overhear your conversation about having rebellious servants."
"Please, take us in. We will absolutely not be rebellious. We are also easy to feed. Two bowls of rice are enough for each meal..."
Seeing that their frown didn’t lessen in the slightest, Zhu Yi immediately added. "If that’s also too much, you can simply give us some plant leaves for us to eat."
He stared at Ye Lingrui when he saw this. They all had heard that this young man was the one who could recognize and gather wild vegetables for their group.
"As long as the leaves aren’t poisonous or are just slightly poisonous, we can still eat them as long as they don’t make us die."
His voice was laced with desperation.
"There are so many green leaves here, why do you need us to pick them for you?" Ye Lanxi snorted. "You should be able to pick them yourself."
The bandits went silent, causing the atmosphere to turn slightly somber.
Even Ye Lanxi could feel that there was something wrong with the atmosphere. He coughed. "You can tell us and we will consider it."
As the eldest in this trio, of course he got to be the one making the decision.
"Really?" One bandit asked hopefully.
They immediately told the Ye siblings. "We are not good at recognizing normal plants and poisonous ones..."
"Sometimes, we pick the wrong ones and our stomachs would suffer."
"Yes, our stomach will be painful, but that’s not the main problem as long as we get to fill our stomachs. We are just scared that these plants will be deathly poisonous."
There was a slight pause.
"We used to be seven people before, but one of us died because he took the wrong plant. The edible plants we recognize are too few and they are also rare."
The Ye siblings were taken aback when they heard that. They momentarily fell silent.
They realized that for common people, their life was indeed too hard. In the Capital, they could easily get any food they wanted with their status, but the common people had to resort to eating poisonous leaves.
The three glanced at each other as though they were communicating silently through their eyes.
"Have you successfully robbed anyone before?" Ye Lingyue couldn’t help but ask when she remembered their poor performance.
The atmosphere became a little subtle, and there were embarrassment on their faces. "We only tried to rob the three of you..."
On top of that, they also failed miserably.
However, it was actually a plus point for them in the eyes of the Ye siblings. It meant that these people weren’t inherently bad and greedy like most of the previous bandits they had met.
They just wanted to survive.
Ye Lingyue blinked. She thought about the unoccupied houses in their village, and if there were more people other than the other branches of the Ye family and the rebellious servants from Steward Du’s faction, it would be more lively.
It just happened that they would need more people to take care of a lot of things.
"Can you all farm?" She suddenly asked them.