“Brother.”

Ye Ning sounded pitiful as she looked at her brother with her large eyes. Whenever the men came, she always hid in the outhouse in fear that they would barge into the house to find her.

Seeing his little sister, Ye Lei smiled bitterly. “It’s okay. They won’t come again and harm you.”

“En.”

Ye Ning walked into the house slowly. Once she opened the door, she was surprised to see Xiao Ren leaning on the wall near the door. Her face flushed as she realized that Xiao Ren must have seen the men came just now.

His eyes looked cold.

“Ah, um, what are you doing here? You should rest and recuperate!”

Xiao Ren pointed to the direction where the men had left. Right now, he wanted to curse his inability to speak. If only he could speak, he wanted to ask them why the men were bothering them.

Ye Lei frowned when he saw the two of them near the door. He put down the empty basket on the side and walked closer to Xiao Ren. Seeing how Xiao Ren was unable to keep himself standing straight, he sighed.

“Don’t wander around when you’re wounded. Sick people should rest and recuperate.”

‘I’m fine.’

Trying to speak, Xiao Ren was dejected when he realized that no sound came out from his mouth. He could only let Ye Lei helped him to get back into the room and let him rest on the bed once more.

“Tsk, you’re clearly an adult but you still walk around when you’re sick. What a hassle.”

“Brother, I think he’s worried about us.”

Thinking of the commotion that the men created when they were outside, Ye Lei only frowned. He knew that those men always made ruckus because they always felt that the fishes Ye Lei gave to them each week was not enough even though it was already half of what he gathered each week.

He felt frustrated.

“There’s nothing you can do to help us. Rather than worrying about us, you should just sleep and rest.”

Xiao Ren nodded.

Ye Ning pulled the blanket over before she brought her brother out of the room once more. They still needed to cook for dinner.

Inside the room, Xiao Ren was thinking about those men who came here today. They were complaining that the fishes Ye Lei caught was not enough. Was it had anything to do with him here?

After all, Ye Lei must have brought him back to his home when he was supposed to be working. Then again, Xiao Ren was a bit confused as to why those people would want to collect tax every week.

Tax should be each month, right?

Ugh, he was not good at this too. He had joined military when he was still a slave, so he had never experienced the time when one needed to pay tax. As for after he had already joined military, the tax was taken before his pay.

Because of that, Xiao Ren was a complete idiot when it came to tax and so on. He only knew that he received his pay each month that he didn’t usually used much because he didn’t have any interest. He would rather spend his time training and kept the money in his home because there was not much he could use it for.

Xiao Ren pushed the thought back to his mind when Ye Ning came inside with another porridge.

Well, he better ate first.

“Ning’er, if you’re going to feed him, let me be the one to do it.” Ye Lei’s face darkened when he saw how close they were with one another. Damn it, he definitely couldn’t let his little sister got close with any random bystander just like that!

Ye Ning pursed her lips. “You’re bad at taking care of other people, Brother.”

“But…”

“Let me do it.”

“Ugh.”

Ye Lei felt that his little sister was too stubborn for her own good. However, he definitely couldn’t say it upfront. In the end, he just watched as Ye Ning finished feeding Xiao Ren the porridge while the young man was eating calmly.

‘Good, he didn’t try to take advantage of her.’

If Xiao Ren knew what Ye Lei was thinking, he would have an urge to smack his head. He might be a man, but he still has his principle and would not approach random woman just like that.

Did he think he was a thug?

“Alright, go to sleep. Brother will help you to change your bandage tomorrow.”

Xiao Ren nodded and Ye Ning walked out. On the other hand, Ye Lei walked to the cupboard and took out new clothes. He changed on the spot and then walked to the bed.

“This is my bed, so move to the side a bit.”

Xiao Ren: “…” do you really expect me to move around?

It took Ye Lei some time to push Xiao Ren to the side before he lied down to sleep. The size of the bed was small, but there was enough space for the two of them to lie down with their back facing each other.

This made Xiao Ren recalled the time when he was nothing more than new recruit. At that time, he and his comrades had to share their mattress because there was simply not enough for all soldiers to have their own. Each of them would sleep with their back facing each other.

After he had become commander, of course, he had his own tent.

Xiao Ren thought of what he had to do once more as he fell into deep slumber once more.

…

“Wake up, sleepyhead.”

‘Mhm?’

Xiao Ren rolled his body and saw Ye Lei already stood up and changed his clothes. He was holding long cloth, which could be used to bandage wounds. His eyes were looking at Xiao Ren with impatience.

“There’s not much herbs and I don’t have many knowledge, so it might take some time for you to recover.”

‘It’s fine.’

Once more, Xiao Ren was reminded of the fact that he was unable to speak. His eyes darkened slightly as he forced himself to sit while Ye Lei helped him to take off his shirt. The bandages were intact, but there were traces of blood in some of them.

“There are a lot of blades wound aside from bruises. Are you facing bandits before you get into the river?”

Xiao Ren didn’t reply and merely tried to move his hand to help putting the bandage. However, Ye Lei was faster as he bundled up the wounds on Xiao Ren’s body as fast as possible. From his proficiency, it was clear that he must have already did this over and over again.

“Still can’t speak?”

Xiao Ren shook his head.

Ye Lei furrowed his brows. It wouldn’t be good if Xiao Ren was unable to regain his voice back soon. He straightened his body and walked out of the room. “Wait a moment.”