No longer worried, everyone dispersed and continued with their work.
Chopping wood, fetching water, helping with cooking—it's almost night, and we still need to arrange patrols.
Jiayin sniffed around in front of Young Master Ye like a puppy.
Grandma Li thought she was being naughty and was about to pick her up.
Unexpectedly, Jiayin's expression changed, "Uncle Ye is injured!"
The Li family members were all nearby, and upon hearing this, they immediately gathered around.
"Young Master Ye, you're injured? Why didn't you say anything? Did you rush here in a hurry?"
Young Master Ye quickly shook his head, "Yesterday I encountered a group of barbarians and got a cut on my back. I've already applied medicine, and it probably opened up again today while riding a horse. It's nothing serious."
The Li family refused, and Li Laosan and Jia Huan immediately dragged him into the shack.
Sure enough, the wound on Young Master Ye's back was a full half-foot long; it was no small wound at all.
A soldier brought over medicine for the wound, and everyone helped to reapply the medicine and bandage it. They then told Young Master Ye to rest in the shack, and then went to prepare some good food for him.
After thinking for a moment, Young Master Ye sent two of his personal guards to the other side of the hill to summon the hundred guards who were temporarily staying there for the night.
The villagers were both surprised and heartbroken to see that all one hundred guards had some blood on them.
While complaining that Young Master Ye was being too distant, they mobilized all their forces to boil hot water for the guards to wash away the bloodstains, wash their faces and soak their feet—doing whatever was clean and warm for them.
The women were extremely busy, preparing meals for an additional hundred people.
Even setting aside the fact that Young Master Ye is the great benefactor of the entire village, the fact that these guards are heroes who killed barbarians is enough to make them treat him with utmost respect.
The soldiers didn't stand on ceremony. They had been eyeing the hot spring for a long time and now wanted to jump in and take a bath to wash away the dust and blood.
So I asked if I could get a proper wash.
The villagers were stunned, and in the end, they wished they could slap themselves on the head twice.
Why are they still busy boiling water? There's a hot spring right here.
It's pitiful that they'd never seen one before; they always thought of boiling water whenever they needed it, completely forgetting about hot springs...
Soon, the pool below the small waterfall was simply fenced off, and the soldiers jumped in like dumplings being dropped into a pot, bathing, laughing, and making such a racket that it nearly shook the valley.
The villagers listened from afar, busy with their tasks, and grinned as they joined in.
Inside the Li family's shack, Young Master Ye held Jiayin in his arms and spoke softly.
Seeing that no one was around, Jiayin carefully took out a pill and gestured for Young Master Ye to take it.
Young Master Ye smiled and, without hesitation, threw it directly into his mouth.
When he left the Li family, the bottle of pills that Jiayin had secretly given him was gone.
When his personal guards were seriously injured or had a high fever, he would secretly feed them a pill.
Only a few pills were left, and they were all used up the night the villagers were rescued at the dock.
Jiayin quickly poured him more water. She didn't dare use any mugs or glass cups from her space, so she just used a porcelain bowl, which wasn't too conspicuous.
Finally, after thinking for a moment, she picked a fruit and gave it to Young Master Ye to cleanse his mouth of the bitterness.
As expected, Young Master Ye didn't ask a single question. He shared half of the food with Jiayin. The two of them, one big and one small, hid in their hut like hamsters, stealing food. I found it inexplicably funny and extremely joyful.
Jiayin pointed outside; in the darkness, the two mountain peaks were bare and dark.
She whispered in Young Master Ye's ear, "Uncle Ye, I want to plant fruit trees on the mountain."
Planting fruit?
Young Master Ye chewed up the fruit pits in his hand and swallowed them, thinking it was a good idea.
If we planted this fruit that we just ate, we would definitely have no trouble selling it.
"Sure, do you need my help?"
Jiayin immediately put on a smile and hugged his neck, "I'll find the fruit trees, Uncle, and bring them back."
Young Master Ye understood and chuckled as he tapped her little nose. “You little devil, I get it. Tomorrow I’ll have Ye Shan and Dongmei come over. Even if I’m not here, you can still ask them to help. Outsiders will naturally assume it was my arrangement.”
Jiayin was overjoyed and immediately hugged and kissed him repeatedly, saying, "Uncle is the best! This is our secret, you must not tell anyone, okay?"
"Don't worry," Young Master Ye said softly, holding the chubby little girl in his arms. "You saved my life, so you can trust me."
Jiayin didn't say anything, but suddenly felt a lump in her throat and a sense of grievance.
The little girl was carrying a huge baby, and her family was just an ordinary farming household. She had to be careful and weigh everything she did, for fear of causing trouble for herself and her family.
But she also possesses a modern soul, having been instilled with the values of equality for all, the preciousness of life, and kindness for so many years—these values are practically ingrained in her very being.
Every time she saw her family and villagers suffering from hunger, she felt incredibly guilty for not being able to take out all the food and supplies she had stored in her storage space.
The conflict between the two sides often left her in a dilemma, and no one knew how much torment she had endured.
Young Master Ye sensed the faint sadness surrounding her. He didn't speak, but gently patted her, again and again...
Soon, dinner was ready, and the soldiers, all clean and happy, sat around the campfire, holding large bowls of dumpling soup.
It's called dumpling soup, but the bowl is mostly filled with cabbage and radish, with not many dumplings, but it tastes very good.
Drinking a bowl of this hot soup, and then toasting and eating the flatbread they brought, made my stomach feel so comfortable.
Inside the Li family's shack, the old lady and Li Laosan were also having dinner with Young Master Ye.
Young Master Ye scooped all the small pieces of dough from his bowl to Jiayin, and then looked up and said to Old Lady Li.
"Auntie, I heard that building a hot spring resort costs a thousand taels of silver?"
Grandma Li nodded, "Yes, Mr. Wen had a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Works come and take a look. He said it would cost at least a thousand taels of silver. The villagers could pool together a little over two hundred taels, and our family had a hundred taels, but it still wasn't enough."
Young Master Ye said, "Auntie, I'll pay the rest of the money. But this money is a loan to our family, not to the village. When we make money in the future, our family can pay me back, but the profits from the estate will still belong to our family. That way, we can say it's my property to outsiders, and no one will try to take it from us."
After saying that, perhaps worried that the old lady and Li Laosan wouldn't believe he could protect the manor, he added in a low voice, "The current emperor is my cousin."
Old Mrs. Li and Li Laosan were both shocked and gasped. They had guessed that Young Master Ye's identity was unusual, but they never expected that he would be related to the Emperor!
Jiayin, on the other hand, was so happy she could practically dance with joy. She was incredibly lucky to have snagged such a powerful patron!
It took Old Lady Li a long time to calm down. "No, Young Master Ye, you've taken the capital, so you'll definitely get a share of the profits later. If it's inconvenient for you, our family can help you manage it. You just need to collect the money."
Young Master Ye shook his head and smiled, "Auntie, I don't need this small bonus. If your family doesn't want to accept it, just save the money for Fu Niu's dowry. I feel a connection with this child; I treat her like my own daughter."
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