The Noble Woman's Guide On How to Tease One's Husband

11-15

Chapter 11 – Brother

There had been endless banging coming from King Lan manor recently where the perimeter walls were heightened on this side while on the other side, doors and windows were sealed that even Ye manor was shrouded with these deafening noises. The servants were badly disturbed and they successively complained to Yue'ya. When Yue'ya inadvertently told Ye Huaiyang, she merely smiled.

Who was to be blamed? It was all because she had trespassed into King Lan mansion!

The servants certainly didn't know that this was all stirred up by their master as no one dared to bother her and could only endured it silently. Ye Huaixin however was different as he was the twin younger brother of Ye Huaiyang, who was also half master of this Ye manor. He would occasionally make a trip over and once he entered the manor today, his eyebrows knitted.

He familiarly found his way to the study and as expected, he saw Ye Huaiyang dealing with some affairs when he opened the door. He casually walked in and opened his mouth to ask, "Elder sister, what the hell is next door doing? Kicking up such disturbance early in the morning that my ears are bursting soon."

Ye Huaiyang looked up at the face that was extremely resemblance to hers. She didn't reply, instead asked, "You didn't attend the Imperial College's classes today?"

"I did and came back again." Ye Huaixin grabbed a handful of almonds from the fruit tray beside him and chewed loudly, "Those old men are really strictly pedantic as they don't know to discuss others but repeatedly lecturing about the Four Books and Five Classics that I can already recite by heart."

Ye Huaiyang indifferently said, "Just beware that Elder Brother will personally find a teacher to watch over your studies everyday if you go on to be this way. What will you do then."

"No way. I just have to pretend now until Elder Brother leaves. By then it will be beyond his reach, so how can he catch me?" Ye Huaixin spoke with confidence and suddenly revealed a sly smile, "Well, just like you who said you are going back to the clan family, but it has already been a week and you still haven't finished packing yet. Aren't you using the same delaying tactics?"

"You are the only smart one." Ye Huaiyang glared at him and gradually raised her lips into a smile.

Ye Huaixin smiled too as he broke and tossed a piece of the peanut candy into his mouth.

Not to mention whether they had a fixed routine of dealing with Ye Huaili. Both of them were fraternal twin siblings and their minds were in sync in certain matters that they could naturally discern what the others think from their body language.

When Ye Zhen and his wife retired to live in seclusion two years ago, he wanted to hand over the head of family to Ye Huaili. He was the oldest among the juniors in the clan who was also the most sedate and restrained, thus the most suitable to shoulder the responsibilities of the family. However, he was already honored with the rank of Major General and was devoted to defend the country at the Jiang border. He then wanted to boost Ye Huaixin to uphold the position as he was in fact unable to attend the family matters but Ye Huaixin made a great effort to promote Ye Huaiyang instead.

Ye Huaiyang was sixteen at that time. She was quiet and didn't particularly like to talk. Though she had never told anyone what she had in mind, Ye Huaixin just knew her desire for the head of the family position thus after a discussion with Ye Huaili, both brothers joined efforts to push Ye Huaiyang for the position.

Now their minds were more in sync than before.

"If you are free recently, take a trip to Lingnan for me."

Ye Huaixin was admiring the antiques in the study to overcome his boredom when he heard her words. He frowned as he placed down the Tang Dynasty glazed pottery in his hands before he turned and asked, "Why, is it for that fellow next door?"

Ye Huaiyang didn't respond. She raised her fair slender hand and handed him a newly arranged binded dossier.

He reached over to take it before habitually weighed the lightness with his hand and opened to take a look. As expected, there were only several pages of papers. Except for the first page which was densely filled with words, the other three pages were map and chart. He roughly swept over it then raised his head and said, "Bai's ancestral home is in Lingnan and Bai Xingzhi is the Governor of Fengjiang. It's not surprising for him to tyrannically abuse his power there."

"Do look closely again."

Ye Huaiyang took a sip of the tea where the hot steams spiralling floated across the eyes like a layer of hazy misty fine gauze yet it couldn't hide the distinct dark color of her eyebrows. Ye Huaixin felt torn and couldn't help but lowered his eyes to look when his expression gradually turned grave with the flipping pages.

"The placement of troops in Lingnan is rather strange, as if......."

"As if for the sake of enabling the Yi clan's advancement with this placement."