Chapter 68: Hunting (Part 2)
She narrowed her eyes, unhappy. If it were someone else’s prey, she wouldn’t have cared, but it was hers!
The bird was something she had personally stalked while patiently waiting for the right moment to shoot it. It had even flown away the first time she attempted to shoot it.
She had to chase after it, which in the process also left Ye Lanxi behind.
He hadn’t caught up yet, probably distracted by a prey somewhere.
[Shooting a bird: 2 system points.]
Her mouth twitched, and she ignored the system notification.
Lately, these system notifications keep popping up that she grew more numb of them. She had to admit that the system’s missions were actually quite simple.
She just needed to do daily activities like getting water from the well, picking up firewood. Anything would give her points.
At some point, she wondered whether the system she was currently bound to was such a silly one, worrying for nothing. With such quests, she had to do them even if she didn’t want to.
[Host, you were a fool before. I thought that you would continue your old ways as a salted fish...] The silly system tried to defend its dignity in front of its host.
Ye Lingyue ignored it.
"Steward Du, return the bird to me," she demanded.
Steward Du raised his eyebrows, his gaze scanning her from head to toe. His tone was absolutely annoying. "Young Miss, you don’t seem to be a fool. Aren’t you afraid you will expose your pretense?"
Her tone was light and full of indifference. "Go tell them then, announce it to the whole world."
He twitched his mouth, and then cleared his throat. "Young Miss, look at this bird, all bloody red. I am afraid that the blood will soil your clothes. Let me keep this for you..."
"There’s no need." She held out her hand, waiting for him to hand it over.
Steward Du was obviously unwilling. He had been eating plain rice for almost a week, and now there was meat in front of him. How could he not covet it?
Anyway, he thought that there should no longer be the difference between masters and servants since they all had become criminals. If anything, the Ye family had also implicated him.
So, it would be fine if he took this bird as their way of making it up to him, right?
"Young Miss, this bird is mine now," he said smugly, starting to act like a bandit. "I am not giving it to you. This bird had just laid there on the ground and I happened to find it."
"How can you prove that it’s yours?" His lips curled up smugly, changing his strategy. "Carrying an a bow and arrow doesn’t guarantee that you were one the who had shot it, Young Miss."
He was determined to keep the bird.
There was a reason why he and the few other servants followed the Ye siblings into the forest. They couldn’t believe they couldn’t take advantage of Ye Lingyue’s luck.
Besides him, Ye Shichang and Ye Yaoting actually also teamed up to hunt games in the forest.
Steward Du still thought he was the smartest one among them. He had told the servants to keep an eye on Ye Lingyue. The moment she shot the birds, a few people were ready to snatch them.
Ye Lingyue’s fists hardened. "You don’t want to return it to me?"
After a moment, they loosened again.
"It’s not yours to begin with." Steward Du raised his eyebrows.
He thought that this fool of a young miss had recovered and became smarter. When he and the other servants saw Ye Lingyue’s excellent marksmanship, they were stunned and questioned their own eyes.
Once they realized they weren’t hallucinating, one thought popped up in their minds: is this really their foolish young miss?
They already saw the signs that she didn’t act like she used to be, but because of the suffering and exhaustion from the exile journey, they instinctively ignored them.
Now, they were certain that Ye Lingyue had recovered. The second branch of the Ye family was also hiding it, deliberately not announcing the news to others.
"Fine." Ye Lingyue snorted, turned around, and walked away.
Steward Du sneered. He didn’t think much. After all, this young girl had been foolish all her life and had only recovered recently. How much strength could she have?
She definitely wouldn’t win against an adult man like him.
He glanced around, making sure that there was no Ye Lanxi nearby. The story would have been different if it were the second son; he was also wary of him.
Ye Lanxi would directly attack him without bothering to argue.
Steward Du glanced at the bird, wrapped it in a cloth, and walked away from the scene. Fortunately, other servants were also ready to snatch the games from Ye Lingyue.
At first, they were still hesitant to go against their own masters, but after some persuasion and guidance from Steward Du, these servants were now mostly under his control.
Ye Lingyue stomped her feet in anger. "Don’t run away, return the bird eggs to me!"
The servants scattered everywhere, trying to evade Ye Lingyue’s hands reaching to grab them.
She had seen some bird nests by the bushes. Just as she was about to grab the eggs there, a few figures beat it to her, rummaging through the bushes first and took eggs.
They were already running away before she could catch them.
Such things happened repeatedly until Ye Lanxi returned to her side. His fierce appearance made them not dare to make trouble again, and they also stayed far away from the siblings.
Ye Lanxi had a look of annoyance in his face, hating iron for not becoming steel. "Why didn’t you fight back?"
After a while, he sighed. Ye Lingyue had such thin arms and feet, and her strength was probably not that good either. She was only good at agility...
"Let’s find them one by one!" He decided angrily.
The servants who heard his words immediately trembled and ran further away.
Ye Lingyue tugged on his sleeve. "Second Brother, don’t do it."