Chapter 178
Chapter 178
Nanshu stared blankly for a moment, then unleashed a shrill scream.
“Jiang Yunsui! Zuozuo, Youyou, you… you…”
It was over. The job of washing those two dogs would fall to him.
Nanshu’s vision went dark again and again.
How long would it take to wash two dogs that enormous?
And they were so filthy…
Jiang Yunsui’s huge eyes were filled with innocence.
“Ji Yan’an, let me explain!”
Ji Yan’an closed his eyes. Looking at that dark, filthy mud figure truly hurt them.
“Throw her away.”
They could not keep her anymore.
Jiang Yunsui stared in horror.
“No, no, no! You can still keep me! I’ll be clean after a wash.”
She ran over to hug Ji Yan’an’s leg.
Ji Yan’an was so frightened that he practically launched himself out of his wheelchair to dodge her.
“Stay away from me.”
She was far too dirty. Muddy footprints marked the entire path behind her.
Jiang Yunsui looked at him with wounded eyes.
“I even brought back such a huge softshell turtle to nourish your body!”
Little Mushroom pointed accusingly at the enormous creature Youyou had carried back, her voice full of indignation.
“Oh, this is excellent,” Fat Chef exclaimed. “It really is very nourishing!”
Jiang Yunsui immediately raised her little chin until her nostrils pointed toward the sky.
“And these big frogs, Fat Grandpa. Can we eat them?”
Fat Chef took one look and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Of course. They’re bullfrogs, and they’re delicious.”
Jiang Yunsui continued listing her achievements. “I brought back all those lotus leaves and flowers too. I didn’t get like this on purpose. I accidentally fell into the pond.”
Then her huge eyes fixed on Ji Yan’an again.
He took a deep breath. “You still cannot come near me right now.”
The fastidious young man simply could not endure it.
Jiang Yunsui had forced him to lower his standards of cleanliness time and again, but this time there was absolutely no room left to retreat.
“Nanmo, Nanshu, take some people and wash all of them clean!”
Nanmo promptly picked Jiang Yunsui up as though she were a chick.
Zuozuo and Youyou obediently followed.
The filthy girl, two dogs, and two unfortunate roosters caught in the mess were all dumped into the river.
The instant they splashed down, the clear water turned muddy.
Jiang Yunsui paddled around.
Hmph. She was a Little Mushroom who knew how to swim.
The two dogs dog-paddled beside her.
Nanshu rolled up his sleeves and took out his dog-washing tools.
“Zuozuo, Youyou, come here!”
He complained as he scrubbed them. “Look how filthy you are! Don’t you know how large you are? Washing you nearly kills me every time, and you still go rolling in mud!”
“You too, Jiang Yunsui. Hurry and go bathe with the maids.”
“I was born to toil and suffer!”
Jiang Yunsui huffed twice, climbed out of the river, and let the maids take her away to wash her body and hair.
The ordeal lasted a long time. By the time she was once again a plump, fair, and pretty Little Mushroom, Fat Chef had finished lunch.
He had not yet dealt with the softshell turtle, but he had roasted the beggar’s chicken the little girl had been craving.
Several wild rabbits from the hunt had been prepared the same way and tasted wonderful too.
The dogs received one chicken apiece.
Whatever else could be said of the party, if wild chickens or rabbits lived nearby, their martial skills guaranteed meat for the pot.
“One for Ji Yan’an and one for me.”
After dividing the drumsticks, Jiang Yunsui hugged hers and began gnawing happily.
Ji Yan’an lowered his eyes to his own.
He had a Young Master’s dignity to maintain. Except in unusual circumstances, he always ate elegantly, so he would never attack a drumstick the way Jiang Yunsui did.
But watching the little girl eat was a pleasure in itself.
Her already beautiful eyes shone brightly, and her baby-fat cheeks bulged. Her mouth grew a little messy, but the table before her remained perfectly clean.
In short, the sight gave everyone an appetite.
“Ji Yan’an, eat faster. You need to eat more.”
Even while eating, Little Mushroom did not forget to urge him on.
Whenever she found something she liked, she asked whether he wanted some. If he nodded, she piled more into his bowl.
Ji Yan’an looked at the food heaped almost above its rim.
“That’s enough. I cannot finish it all.”
Jiang Yunsui’s little face immediately turned solemn.
“No. You have to eat lots and lots.”
“Are you fattening a pig?” Ji Yan’an asked.
“A pig would eat way more than this. A piggy that eats so little isn’t a good piggy!”
In the end, Ji Yan’an successfully ate until he was stuffed.
No one knew what had gotten into the little girl recently. She was constantly feeding him.
Besides regular meals, she plied him with all sorts of snacks.
He might be speaking with someone in the carriage when a milk tablet or cookie would suddenly be pushed into his mouth. Sometimes, even as he rested with his eyes closed, he could feel Jiang Yunsui feeding him.
At first he had grown angry and punished her by making her hold a horse stance, but she stubbornly refused to change.
Eventually, he became helplessly accustomed to it.
Nanshu was happiest about the situation. Thanks to Jiang Yunsui’s unreasonable campaign of feeding, the Young Master’s appetite had genuinely improved, and a little flesh was visibly returning to his face.
After lunch, it was time to deal with the bandits.
They had remained so unhurried because the interrogation revealed that this was merely a small bandit group formed not long ago.
“Let’s go.”
Song Jin led roughly thirty men away.
Jiang Yunsui scampered after them, only to be pulled back.
“What are you going to do?”
“Rob them,” Jiang Yunsui answered.
Ji Yan’an could not resist rapping her forehead.
“We are a proper army. Stop talking about robbery all day!”
Her childish voice asked in confusion, “But aren’t we rebels? Can rebels be a proper army too?”
Ji Yan’an, Shen Qingzhu, and Nanshu all fell silent.
Two sentences from Little Mushroom had rendered everyone speechless.
What decent person went around announcing that they were rebels?
“In any case, don’t say it again. People will scold you.”
Jiang Yunsui obediently said, “Okay.”
Then she had better stop. Little Mushroom did not want to be scolded.
They did not wait long before Song Jin returned with a group of bound bandits.
Most had originally been ordinary commoners, even farmers. Their weapons were hoes, kitchen cleavers, and the like.
Only a handful were true bandits who had killed people. Once the facts were established, those men were executed.
The rest had never killed anyone. At the sight, they dropped to their knees, sobbing and begging for mercy.
“We had no choice! We fled here as refugees, and those men forced us to become bandits. Otherwise… otherwise they would have killed our families.”
Ji Yan’an studied them for a few seconds. As they trembled in terror, he slowly asked, “You fled from Anyang County?”
Everyone nodded repeatedly.
“Anyang County is Prince of Nanyang’s fief. He… he raised an army in rebellion. His men are conscripting every able-bodied young man and seizing grain. We had no choice but to flee north. Along the road, several armed men took us hostage and forced us to join them and rob travelers in this area.”
“But we never killed anyone. We did not dare. They did all the killing.”
Song Jin brought over the dead bandits’ weapons.
“Young Master, these weapons and the men’s fighting techniques do not belong to ordinary people. They resemble military forms. I fear they were deserters turned marauders.”