Chapter 72 - Mountain Foot

The servant laughed. "It's not, Young Master. We only need to clean up the meat before cooking. Also, we can't drink the blood and have to dispose it far away because it can attract other beasts such as wolves."

"Ah."

Even though some people hunted wolves, many chose not to. After all, wolves usually stayed in a pack, so it would be hard for them to fend the wolves if they have to face against so many wolves at once. No one wanted to die so quickly.

Wei Liuying and Wei Yijun returned back when the servants had finished cooking. By this time, Wei Xiao Hua and Concubine Chou had already calmed down. By the side, Wei Zilin's face was dark as she knew her mother was always targeted, yet she couldn't help in the slightest bit.

"Let's eat," Wei Hong said with a tired face.

"Yes, Father."

Wei Xiao Hua was in good mood because Wei Hong acknowledged her request. On the other hand, Concubine Chou looked like she was constipated as her face was pale. Despite her tries to attract Wei Hong's attention, she failed miserably.

"It's just a few weeks, but her complexion is no longer the same as before," Wei Liuying commented.

Wei Yijun nodded. He was sitting not far from Wei Liuying since the two young masters were arranged to stay close with each other. "First Sister often nitpick Madam Chou. It seems that Madam Chou had entered First Sister's bad book and couldn't get along with each other at all."

"I see."

Wei Liuying was not too interested with that. She knew that the reason why Wei Xiao Hua targeted Concubine Chou first was because Wei Hong was very fond of Concubine Chou. It was to the point that he spent most of the nights with her and neglected some concubines.

But now that Wei Hong listened more of Wei Xiao Hua's demand, it was clear that Concubine Chou would fall out of her grace soon. Just because of their clashes, Wei Liuying could see that the trace of aging had appeared on Concubine Chou's face. She was still wearing makeup, but it had grown even thicker to make sure that it could hide everything that made her look older.

"That's just how women are," Wei Yijun said with distaste. "Father is having too much women."

"He needs them to expand his influence. After all, having connection here and there is important for Father," Wei Liuying said.

"Yes. The easiest would be to have ties through marriage, but it just ended up with chaos in the household. With more than 10 women to take care of, the expenditure is just simply too large."

"You're right, First Brother."

Wei Yijun scoffed lightly, still feeling annoyed. However, he knew better than anyone that the reason why this method exist was in order for some men to have better influence than others. The more powerful one person was; the more women would they have in their residence.

Though, Wei Yijun himself didn't like it that much because he only saw them as troubles. Just by looking at how his father was getting headache every day because of them was already more than enough as evidence.

The two sibling no longer talked and enjoyed the food. Wei Liuying felt satisfied when she tasted the rabbit meat that she ate. It tasted much better than any other food that she had ever eat. Probably, it was because there was a sense of achievement.

"Young Master," Huo called out when Wei Liuying headed back to her horse.

"Yes?"

"Please pay more attention to your conduct. You're not that close with First Young Master."

Wei Liuying was silent for a while. She knew that the two brothers were not close when they were in front of the others. But what about when they were just alone? From the way Wei Yijun acted, she knew that he was merely having fun and asked Wei Hong Zheng out of politeness most of the time.

"Should I reject his invitation?"

"Most of the time."

"Alright. I understand."

It seemed that Wei Hong Zheng was much more prideful than what Wei Liuying thought. She was actually having fun with being near Wei Yijun who was a bit easier to read. He might be a bit submissive in front of others, but when he was alone, he would be doing whatever he wanted to his heart content.

Of course, his priority was still his study.

The group no longer stopped and the angle of the road turned steeper. As they entered the mountain area, the sun was setting down. Soon, they have to walk with only the lantern's help as the group proceeded to climb higher.

Wei Liuying was learning how to control her horse when he was climbing up. It was a bit hard, but she managed to do it after a while. The shift in the balance made it a bit more difficult, but she was still fine.

"Young Master, we'll arrive in a while."

"Really?" Wei Liuying asked in surprise. Looking up, she could see the light from lanterns not far from them. There were also several servants who were standing there as different carriages were going inside too.

She was still sitting on the horse back as she watched Wei Hong took out his token to identify themselves. There were several servants in the area who blocked the way and only when the servant had confirmed who they were would they move away.

"Let's get in."

Wei Liuying looked at the buildings in front of her with astonishment. It was built very high up on the ground with beautiful scenery. She genuinely wondered how Prime Minister Xie managed to do something like that.