Chapter 17 Your Family is Really Interesting

"Your brother? From the same tribe as that Meng Bai?" Ye Wenxuan asked.

"Yes… me too. But Uncle Meng Su'er doesn't let me say that," Yisha said.

"Can I go see your brother too?" Ye Wenxuan asked again.

Before Ye Wenxuan could finish speaking, the tent flap was thrown open. Ye Wenji, dragging Ye Wenjun along, rushed in and said to Ye Wenxuan, "Get up quickly, we're going to see Yilan and Meng Bai. They said they're taking us to their tribe's banquet tonight, there'll be lots of good food."

Ye Wenxuan asked, "Meng Bai and Yilan are outside? Let them in…" Ye Wenxuan grabbed the neatly folded coat from the side and quickly put it on. The Ye family was not in the habit of having their clothes handed to them and their food served. But Yisha was at ease on the side, not even trying to come up and help pull at the hem of his clothes, which still made Ye Wenxuan feel a little depressed.

Meng Su'er's camp held a banquet to which many people were invited. Ye Tao, Ge Lan, and people from various tribes were all welcome to attend. Meng Su'er had come to give gifts and spend money anyway. What he didn't expect was that even in a competition to see whose son's hunting team performed better, Ye Tao would actually cheat. Although it was obvious that Ye Wenxuan's men were more powerful, and the number of wolves they killed and their role in the battle formation surpassed Meng Bai's hunting team, Ye Tao insisted that it was because Tan Weiran and Ge Lan had helped, which was unsportsmanlike and violated the rules… Meng Su'er couldn't think of anything to argue with Ye Tao, so he had to accept a large amount of supplies that his tribe really needed, including salt, tea, cloth, wool rolls, and many Yunzhou specialty medicines that were almost never sold to outsiders.

Having received this favor, Meng Su'er felt that he had to show some gratitude, so he organized this banquet. He had originally come with a rather spectacular flock of sheep and herd of horses. He had already heard a little about why Ye Wenxuan and the others had run out of Ye Family Fort and caused so much trouble, and had even turned Ye Tao, who hadn't planned to participate in the hunt, into the backer of the most powerful hunting team. He selected a number of beautiful and strong young horses with excellent potential from the horses he brought, and instructed Meng Bai and Yilan to give them to Ye Wenxuan, Ye Wenji, and Ye Wenjun. Gifts between children, Ye Tao could only accept with a pinched nose, right? But when Meng Su'er was considering this matter, he couldn't help but sigh a little. They were not yet citizens of Yunzhou, not yet people Ye Tao needed to take care of, but because they firmly stood on the side of Yunzhou, the concern Ye Tao expressed made several of the tribal leaders feel very warm inside. Ye Tao frankly said that it would still take time to advance into the northern grasslands, and if they encountered threats and troubles they couldn't resist, they could take reasonable action… Ye Tao only said lightly that in the end, we would all be able to see who was a friend and who was an enemy, and the process in between was not important. Ye Tao's words gave the tribes standing on the edge of the knife some confidence, and Ye Tao's timely blood transfusion, the Frost Wolf Army risking the pressure of the northern tribes to enter the grasslands to patrol… these were all favors, these were all attitudes. And Meng Su'er found it incredible that he was now starting to match wits with Ye Tao, trying to figure out how to get him to take a little more.

He casually took the three Ye family children around the herd of horses. Ye Wenjun happily acquired several beautiful little horses. Ye Wenxuan didn't say anything, but Ye Wenji's quiet tug on his brother's sleeve fully showed that he also felt that it seemed a little bad to take other people's gifts like this. Ye Wenxuan, with his strong sense of numbers, couldn't possibly not know that this was a bit strange? But at the moment, Ye Wenxuan wouldn't say anything. Just as an older brother, Ye Wenxuan politely thanked them on behalf of his little sister.

Perhaps sensing that Yilan seemed to have something to say to Ye Wenxuan, Meng Bai led Ye Wenji and Ye Wenjun ahead.

"You… and your family, are really interesting," Yilan said with a smile.

"Interesting?" Ye Wenxuan frowned, not quite understanding what Yilan meant.

"Never mind… my sister will be following you from now on, I hope you take good care of her," Yilan said seriously, with a natural hint of an older brother's tone.

Ye Wenxuan sighed and said, "Of course I'll take care of her, could it be… she can really take care of me?"

Yilan smiled and said, "Although she's said to be given to you as a maid, Yisha, and I, after all, are descendants of a noble family on the grassland, and grew up with jewels in Uncle Meng Su'er's tent. Yisha herself still has two maids, who should still be in your camp, right? Besides, you shouldn't lack people to serve you, right?"

Ye Wenxuan said proudly, "Actually, I don't need anyone to serve me, even Jun'er knows how to dress and eat by herself."

Yilan smiled and said, "Then I'm relieved. In the future… can I come and see my sister?"

"Anytime, or… I'll have Father talk to Chieftain Meng Su'er and you can come over too. Then you won't have to be separated from your sister. The guy Father brought back from Nanyang a few years ago is working happily in the workshop now, isn't he?" Ye Wenxuan said enthusiastically.

Yilan shook his head and said, "A grassland man is better off on the grassland. And… Uncle Meng Su'er still needs my help."

Ye Wenxuan had already learned from Jin Ze and others' simple introductions that Yilan and Yisha both had extraordinary identities. Although he was still young and didn't understand these things very well, he had heard a lot about them and knew that it was unlikely that the northern grasslands would have a chance for Yilan to jump out and gather popularity. Perhaps, in the future, the tribes on the northern grasslands would be transformed by Yunzhou's complex and precise economic and political means into an integrated whole that was so close and intimate that even if there were disagreements, they would be resolved on a very peaceful level. Ye Wenxuan's small head couldn't figure out why Yilan still wanted to stay on the grassland. He didn't understand Yilan's feelings as a grassland child that were blended in his blood.

Ye Wenxuan tilted his head and said, "Then it's up to you. Anyway, don't say whether you can come or not, is my Ye family's door so high?"

Yilan smiled again. The Ye family's children were all too much fun. It was fine that Ye Wenxuan looked like a little old man. He had chatted with Ye Wenji a few words earlier, and Ye Wenji was actually an extremely clever child, able to infer three things from one, and his thinking was extremely open. And Ye Wenjun, that little girl, although she was well taken care of by her brothers and those around her, was polite and courteous, and even thanked the maid who handed her a towel to wipe her hands… Just from what these three Ye family children were showing now, Yilan felt that the Ye family was not simple. The Ye family was not an ordinary official family or a wealthy family, nor was it just a family that was the richest in the world. Ye Tao had wrapped up the two daughters of the Tan family and married Dai Yun, the former patriarch of the Dai family in Yunzhou, who was admired and loved by the entire grassland. Starting from a carpenter, he had become the undisputed master of the entire north. Ye Tao and the entire Ye family did not have any arrogance, and this was not just a matter of family education. It could only be said that Ye Tao and those around him were probably like this at heart, and under their influence, the Ye family could have this kind of atmosphere and be able to teach such children.

Whether as a member of a northern tribe, a grassland child who was both looking forward to and nervous about cooperating with Yunzhou, or as an older brother who had to put his sister next to someone else and rely on them to take care of her, Yilan felt that he could relax a little.

"Actually… if Yisha were five or six years older, if she were twelve or thirteen years old or older now, Uncle Meng Su'er and I would both think it would be better to give Yisha to your father," Yilan said after a moment of silence, blurting out something that made Ye Wenxuan's eyes widen and look incredible. "Don't find it strange… Ye Jinglue is only in his twenties now, unbelievably young. Actually, the entire grassland is saying that Ye Jinglue is a god sent by heaven to the grassland, otherwise, any minister, who has worked his way up to this position, would not even think about it without being fifty or sixty years old. A difference of ten years is a bit of a grievance, but for Yisha, it may not be too much of a grievance. After all, everyone knows that Ye Jinglue is a good person, but in this generation of the Ye family, a large family that has emerged in just a short decade, the second generation rarely has good people."

Ye Wenxuan calmed down when he heard this. He knew that Yilan was obviously not saying this to make himself look bad. He asked seriously, "Now that Yisha has been given to me, you must not have any other ideas. Father has never had any plans in that regard."

Yilan laughed heartily and said, "Now I am entrusting Yisha to you very seriously. The grassland is about to start bleeding, and I, as her brother, don't know if I will be alive then. I think you are a good person, so I can rest assured. In a few days, you will return to Yunzhou, and I will return to the grassland. When things settle down, it will be next year or the year after at the earliest, right? At that time, if I am still alive, I will go to Ye Family Fort to see my sister. It will also be a good time to come and play with you."

Ye Wenxuan grabbed Yilan and said, "Then it's settled… don't worry. When Yisha arrives at Ye Family Fort, I guess she will be even more popular than me… In Ye Family Fort, beautiful girls are always the most popular. Of course, your sister can't be a maid. Since she can't do anything, then let her continue to be a young lady, a princess… You are also a very good person, I consider you a friend. Your sister is my sister… No, Yisha is older than me… But don't worry, no one dares to provoke me."