When Liu Jinbao saw Yun Ye’s cold gaze, he immediately knelt down. The family head had never looked at anyone with such eyes before. Could there be something happening that he didn’t know about?

Yun Ye lifted the last bunch of bananas from under the steps, peeled the skin, and continued slicing. The small knife moved extremely fast, and soon that bunch of bananas was divided into uniform thin slices. The two children collected them on a bamboo screen and carried them out to dry.

“Is Rong’er’s health robust?”

Earlier, Yun Ye had indeed felt a trace of resentment toward the Chang’an people in Lingnan. He didn’t know where this resentment came from—in any case, a nameless fire was burning fiercely. In a flash, he realized that acting this way was truly unreasonable. The task he had given Liu Jinbao was to protect his son well; everything else was unrelated to him. So he borrowed the act of slicing bananas to calm his emotions.

“Reporting to Your Lordship, the young master is lively and lovable, without illness or disaster. His appetite is very large. The Princess alone couldn’t feed him, so she hired another wet nurse, which barely satisfies the young master’s hunger. If he grows a few more days, even one wet nurse probably won’t be able to keep up.” Liu Jinbao knew the Marquis’s temperament—when he was gloomy, as long as he thought things through, everything would be fine. So he brought up the young master’s nursing to cheer Yun Ye up.

Sure enough, a trace of a smile appeared on Yun Ye’s face. He put down the knife in his hand, scooped out some water from the water jar, handed it to Liu Jinbao, and had him help wash his hands.

“Your Lordship, you’ve arrived in Lingnan—why didn’t you bring guards? Have Old Zhuang and the others all died or something?”

“Nonsense! Do you think I wanted to come to Lingnan? I was kidnapped to Nanzhao, then made my way to Lingnan on my own, enduring countless hardships. My anger just now had nowhere to vent. If you hadn’t amused me with talk about the child, you wouldn’t have escaped a beating today.”

All the muscles in Liu Jinbao’s body tensed up, his eyes darting around, trying to find the culprits who had kidnapped the Marquis.

Yun Ye kicked him and said, “Just pour the water properly. If I had waited for you people to rescue me, I’d have been dead without a complete corpse long ago. What’s with the act now? All those who kidnapped me are dead—not one survived.”

“The Marquis is mighty!…”

Liu Jinbao’s admiration for his own Marquis instantly transformed into a torrent of flattery like rolling river water.

He hadn’t heard anyone flatter him in quite some days. Hearing it suddenly felt both familiar and intimate. The gloom brought by the kidnapping immediately dissipated—his own people were still the best.

The elder stood outside the courtyard. He had clearly witnessed everything that happened inside. Master Bao, who strutted around Yongzhou with great prestige, was as obedient as a small dog in front of his guest.

From this alone, one could see that his guest must be quite extraordinary. If he could develop his relationship with the guest further, perhaps the village would be worry-free from now on. Then, happily looking back at the empty space behind him, beyond the mountains, the grain rewarded by the Princess should be on its way, right?

“Elder, I wonder how your treasure presentation went this time?” Yun Ye asked with a smile across the fence, chatting with the elder. He liked talking with this old man—neither refined nor elegant, it was quite interesting.

“Guest, thanks to your good fortune, the Princess was very pleased with that piece of gold and rewarded us with much grain. Now we’ll have enough food to eat, and this old man can brew several more jars of wine. Tonight, I’ll invite you to drink to your heart’s content.”

“That’s wonderful! I won’t be polite then. Remember to call Menglu—we had a very pleasant conversation.”

“You and Menglu?”

“When did Menglu learn to speak the Central Plains language?”

“Elder, you are a wise man. Don’t you know that conversation doesn’t necessarily require talking—there are other ways?” Regarding his creative picture-story communication, Yun Ye was quite proud. From now on, this is how he would speak with barbarians.

The elder scratched the back of his head and went to ask his tribespeople where all these bananas came from. They were all good food! Dried and added to porridge, not only sweet but filling—that’s what mattered. Where did they find them?

Yun Ye entered the bamboo building, with Liu Jinbao following. Those who came with him were all Yun Family guards who consciously spread out to stand guard around the bamboo building.

“You didn’t tell anyone about coming out this time, did you?” Yun Ye asked Liu Jinbao with furrowed brows. He was worried that Li Anlan might know he had already arrived in Lingnan, which would be disadvantageous for seeing the true state of affairs.

“Your Lordship didn’t instruct me to tell anyone, only saying to come to Meng Village. Naturally, no one would be told, not even the family brothers downstairs—they just found out.”

“Not bad. Old Zhuang really did train you well—you have a bit of independence now. No one knows I’ve come to Lingnan—not the family, not the court. Perhaps His Majesty knows I was kidnapped by Dou Yanshan, but he’d never dream I would cross the hundred thousand great mountains to reach Lingnan.”

“Dou Yanshan?” Liu Jinbao’s nerves tensed up again. This was an absolute villain—burning Chang’an, ambushing the Emperor, poisoning the Emperor. His vicious reputation was widespread, making people inevitably nervous.

“Didn’t I tell you? That fellow is dead. Otherwise, would your Marquis have the mood to vacation in this small village?”

“You killed him?”

As soon as these words left his mouth, Liu Jinbao knew it was bad. He had just been eloquently saying the Marquis was invincible, that killing a few bandits was like crushing ants. This question showed that everything he’d just said was nonsense.

After receiving a kick, Liu Jinbao felt relieved. If the Marquis was willing to kick people, it meant everything was fine.

“Your Lordship, that ox-head gold is a rare treasure in the world. Why didn’t you keep it to add some fortune for the young masters? Why present it to the Princess? Good things should all belong to our family. Even if the Princess is the young master’s mother, it’s still different.”

“Different how?” Yun Ye asked knowingly.

“The young master is our family’s person; the Princess is not. Whatever you give the young master is proper, but the Princess is different. She’s devoted herself entirely to her territory. Besides nursing the young master, she never cares about the Yun Family. Our family’s trading houses in Lingnan also have to pay taxes, and more than others. Manager Liu has told me several times to persuade the Princess—even if she won’t give the Yun Family preferential treatment, at least she should be fair. Don’t you think she’s being disloyal?”

“You’re such a blabbermouth. The gold wasn’t for the Princess—it was to show those people. Without bait, how would they go into the deep mountains? If they don’t go into the mountains, how can I eliminate them all? If I don’t eliminate them, how will Feng Ang abandon his thoughts of monopolizing Lingnan? As for the Princess collecting more taxes from the Yun Family, that’s proper. The Lingnan shops were originally given as her stipend—she can use them however she wants. Arguing over such small money is truly pathetic.”

Hearing the Marquis’s plan, Liu Jinbao became so excited that even the red pockmarks on his face glowed. Slapping his chest, he said, “Your Lordship, whatever you want me to do, just order it. I’ll definitely kill them all, not leaving even a trace of residue.”

Liu Jinbao was so excited he was nearly crying. His family’s Marquis had finally learned to kill! In his view, a marquis who had never killed anyone wasn’t a qualified marquis. His own precious blade that had never seen blood had no use, wasting all his fine skills. Uncle Jiang had said he was a natural-born killer, that one day he would surely die by the sword. It didn’t matter—as long as he could kill to his heart’s content before dying, death would be acceptable.

Yun Ye was startled by the killing intent this fellow displayed. This damn thing had nothing but thoughts of killing in his head. Looking at his state, he seemed to want to find someone to kill right now. How did the spiritually refined land of Guanzhong produce such idiots?

“Tell me honestly, how many people have you killed since arriving in Lingnan?” He didn’t ask “how many”—from the fellow’s thick killing aura that couldn’t be washed away, those who died at his hands probably couldn’t be counted on two hands.

“Your Lordship, I just went across the sea with the army once. There was a small country whose people wouldn’t let our trading caravan exchange spoons for gemstones and spices in their territory, so Manager Liu got angry. Our family and the Princess’s family mobilized three hundred people and destroyed that small country. Your Lordship, the wind isn’t right now, so the ships haven’t returned yet. Otherwise, you’d see a shipload of treasures—fist-sized gemstones, gleaming green, and cat’s eye stones. Manager Liu specially hid away some top-grade gemstones, planning to present them to Old Madam when he returns home. He also said it would be a waste to give our family’s things to the Princess.”

Yun Ye smiled knowingly. Xinyue’s shadow was everywhere! The fact that shopkeepers resisted even the Princess collecting a bit more tax—one could imagine that the dignified Princess definitely hadn’t received her proper stipend, faring even worse than Na Rimu.

“I suppose Rong’er’s stipend hasn’t been given either?”

“Your Lordship, how could the young master lack anything? Three rooms full of treasures are piled to the ceiling. Madam He holds the keys. The Princess has asked for them several times but wasn’t given them. Every month she reconciles accounts with Manager Liu, with me as witness—every item clear and transparent. On the young master’s one-hundredth day, Manager Liu and Madam He arranged a flowing banquet in Yongzhou City for three days. Anyone could come—as long as they blessed the young master and offered auspicious words, they could eat freely. All the sheep within three li were slaughtered. Manager Liu still said the dishes were simple and there weren’t enough people, that he’d wronged the young master.”

Yun Ye’s mouth gaped wide. This was still simple? But it was true—Lingnan really didn’t have much good food now. People from Guanzhong couldn’t get used to seafood treasures, and there wasn’t a clear appreciation for mountain delicacies yet. Tang people didn’t love eating game—after all, wild things were terribly lean with no fat, still not as rich as the dishes from Yun Family Manor. Yongzhou City’s permanent population was at most just over two thousand—it couldn’t even compare to a small Guanzhong town. It was indeed rather shabby.

“You people left the Princess out—wasn’t she angry? Didn’t they say many suitors have come to the city?” Yun Ye didn’t understand what Li Anlan was thinking. If it were Xinyue, if he couldn’t make decisions about his own child’s one-hundredth day celebration, she would burn down the house. The formidable women of Shu—a weak princess couldn’t compare.

“Why would the Princess have objections? Our family’s young master—the servants wanted to make it grand, and it didn’t cost her any money. Besides, we’re all the young master’s servants, not the Princess’s. Manager Liu and Madam He made this crystal clear. If the young master didn’t need his mother, we would have wanted to build another grand house for the young master. Living in the small Princess’s mansion now wrongs the young master. Thinking about our house in the capital, then looking at where the young master lives—Madam He cries every time she mentions it.”