Chapter 63

Chapter 63

“It’s Heiwa.”

Jiang Yunsui spotted the black dog leading the pack.

Ji Yan’an nodded, then grabbed the person who had half her body hanging out the window and hauled her back in.

“Sit properly.”

“Oh.”

Jiang Yunsui watched the commotion below with shining eyes.

Heiwa led a pack of dogs in circling Eunuch Yu and his men. They didn’t bite anyone. They just… suddenly lifted their hind legs and peed in their direction.

The other dogs immediately followed suit.

Everyone: “…”

Eunuch Yu’s face twitched as the smell hit him. The next instant, he let out a shrill, explosive screech.

“Kill them! Kill them all for me!”

He was furious. Wasn’t this a blatant humiliation?

Just then, a few men hurried over.

“Oh dear, Eunuch Yu, our apologies. We have no idea how the Young Master’s dogs all ended up here.”

Then they turned and scolded Heiwa and the other dogs. “What are you all doing here? Hurry back to training! In a while, you’ll be going to the grasslands to help track down the barbarians.”

Heiwa barked once, then led the pack away.

Eunuch Yu’s face was livid. “You… you people…”

The man only kept apologizing, until Eunuch Yu finally drove him off.

What else could he do? Actually lay hands on those dogs? Ji Yan’an would skin him alive.

No. No, this place couldn’t be stayed in for even another moment. He had to leave at once.

Eunuch Yu and his entourage fled in a sorry state, while the people on the street immediately began buzzing with discussion.

“Let’s go. Time to head back.”

Jiang Yunsui gave an obedient “oh,” then quickly grabbed the pastries on the table and stuffed them into her little snack pouch before trotting after Ji Yan’an.

When they returned home, she was surprised to find that the grassland slaves they had seen earlier had also been brought here.

She looked at them curiously and, without warning, bumped right into Ji Yan’an, who had stopped in front of her.

Ji Yan’an staggered slightly before steadying himself, inwardly rolling his eyes.

“Next time you walk, can you stop looking all over the place?”

How many times had this happened already?

Little Mushroom rubbed her nose and didn’t dare make a sound.

At that moment, the grassland slaves were all watching Ji Yan’an and his group with wary, tense eyes.

Nanshu brought over a stool for Ji Yan’an. He slowly sat down. Sunlight fell over him, making his already sickly pale face look even more translucent.

“Is there anyone who can speak the language of the Central Plains?”

He leaned back against the chair, like a languid White Cat.

Jiang Yunsui looked at him, then at the group of slaves, and simply sat down cross-legged on the spot. She took out a pastry and began nibbling at it.

But after only two bites, she felt several burning gazes land on her.

To be precise, they had landed on the pastry in her hand.

She followed those gazes and saw several children.

Those children were surrounded in the middle of the grassland slaves. They must have been starving, because as they stared at the pastry in Jiang Yunsui’s hand, their eyes practically glowed green.

Jiang Yunsui hesitated, then patted her own belly.

She had just eaten her fill.

Eating now was purely because her mouth was greedy.

She secretly glanced at Ji Yan’an. A Yue tribesman who could speak the Central Plains language was talking to him, but the man’s speech was rather poor and came out haltingly.

Jiang Yunsui, looking extremely guilty and sneaky, tiptoed her way over and successfully slipped into the middle of the Yue tribesmen.

Then she divided several pastries among the seven children.

“Here. Eat.”

The adults’ attention was all on Ji Yan’an and the armed guards in the courtyard.

They didn’t even notice when someone had slipped in.

Not until a sweet fragrance drifted into their noses.

Several Yue Tribe adults standing near the children lowered their heads and saw the little ones clutching pastries and wolfing them down.

One of them ate too quickly and choked.

Jiang Yunsui was so anxious she spun in circles beside him, then raised her voice and shouted.
“Ji Yan’an! Ji Yan’an, water! Hurry, water!”

Ji Yan’an jerked his head up and saw Little Mushroom right in the middle of the ring of slaves.

Ji Yan’an: “…”

He raised a hand to cover his face. He truly did not want to admit he knew this person.

Here he was, negotiating terms with the Yue tribesman and trying to get them to submit to him, while that little girl had gone and slipped straight into the heart of the Yue Tribe. Wasn’t she afraid of being taken hostage?!

“Go get some water!”

Sooner or later, that wretched girl was going to make his poison flare up from sheer anger!

After helping the choking child swallow the food down, Nanmo picked up a certain little child and tossed her back in front of Ji Yan’an.

Jiang Yunsui looked up at him obediently.

Ji Yan’an stared back at her expressionlessly.

“We agree to your terms.”

Just then, the Yue Tribe man who could speak the Central Plains language cut in.

“But we have one demand.”

Ji Yan’an pressed a hand down on a certain child’s head to stop her from wandering off again without anyone noticing.

“Oh? Let’s hear it.”

The Yue Tribe man said, “We want full stomachs. Every day.”

Ji Yan’an, who had already prepared himself for an outrageous demand, thought: That’s it?

“Since you’ve submitted to me, making sure you have enough to eat is naturally my responsibility.”

“We have a common enemy. Trust me, you will not regret this choice.”

“Good!”

The Yue Tribe man nodded heavily, then clenched his right hand into a fist, placed it over his heart, and knelt on one knee.

“From this day onward, you are the master of me, Yue Dalu. I, Yue Dalu, swear here before the Moon God that I will never betray you!”

The Yue Tribe worshipped the Moon God, so once they swore an oath to the Moon God, they would absolutely keep it.

That man clearly held considerable influence among these slaves.

After he swore his oath, the other Yue tribesman did the same.

Ji Yan’an was very satisfied with this result. The negotiation had gone far more smoothly than he had imagined.

He was curious. This man had clearly been stubborn to the point of death before, so why had he suddenly agreed and even sworn to the Moon God?

Since the thought occurred to him, he asked.

Who would have expected the man to glance at Jiang Yunsui beside him?

Ji Yan’an: ???

No way. It couldn’t be that ridiculous, could it?

As it turned out, it really was that ridiculous.

The man said, “Because your younger sister was willing to share precious food with our children. That proves you are kind people.”

Ji Yan’an: “…”

Heh… With that level of scheming, the fact that your tribe has survived until now is what I find truly miraculous.

The Yue Tribe’s only intelligent priest: I’ve worked myself to death worrying over my people!

Especially after Ji Yan’an learned that the Yue Tribe had only ended up in this state because they had taken in the remnants of another defeated grassland tribe, treated them as their own people, and were ultimately betrayed by them.

And the reason they had been brought here by slave traders was, in fact, because they had sold themselves-for the sake of a mouthful of food.

Out on the grasslands, they had been hunted by the Barbarians until their entire tribe was reduced to just over thirty people, including a few children.

The other tribes did not dare take them in at all.

So they thought they might head to the Central Plains to find a way to survive.

But they had no means of entering the Central Plains. By chance, they ran into a Central Plains merchant caravan that bought and sold slaves.

At that point, they were so hungry they had already started gnawing on grass roots. Then, in a flash of inspiration, the whole group sold themselves to the slave traders.

After Ji Yan’an finished listening, he was speechless for a long while.

Then, with a hint of severity in his voice, Ji Yan’an said, “From now on, you are only to obey my orders. You are not allowed to make decisions on your own!”

Otherwise, he was genuinely afraid this group of fools would have another flash of inspiration and play themselves to death.

All brawn and no brains-the phrase had truly come to life in this group of Yue tribesman.

However, for the current Ji Yan’an, having fewer schemes was actually the best possible thing.

This way, he would not have to worry about these people harboring ulterior motives.