Lu Wan no longer remembered how he ended up finishing the training the day before. He thought that it was already bad enough that he was losing against his junior sister, but it turned out that he also got beaten up. Thankfully, the bruises were all parts that were covered with his clothes.
It didn't mean the pain too, though.
"Are you still angry, Senior Brother Lu?" Ye Jiao truly had fun beating her senior brother up yesterday. Well, she might get slightly overboard, but it was rare for her to be able to beat up her senior brother like that. After all, it used to be the opposite because Lu Wan was stronger and more experienced than her.
Lu Wan rolled his eyes. "I think that anyone will be angry. But still, thanks to you I'm getting better at handling swords."
"There's still around a week until they start coming, right?"
"Yep, it's already far warmer, but even if they depart early, they wouldn't come here that quick," Lu Wan replied. The distance between the capital kingdom to other kingdoms was pretty far from one another.
"Are we going to train the same thing over and over?"
"…" you're just having fun, right?
Ye Jiao smiled. "I'm sure that you're going to get used to the sword soon after, Senior Brother Lu."
"Yeah, yeah," Lu Wan said halfheartedly. "Let's go to the market a bit. There's still some time before I need to meet that annoying man."
Ye Jiao arched her eyebrows. "Why do you want to go to the market, Young Master?"
Lu Wan showed a list of herbs he had complied. "I need to make some preparation for the hunt. And that obviously included increasing my poison resistance because we're not allowed to bring our storage bracelet to store many things."
Hearing that, Ye Jiao's lips twitched. Did her senior brother just say that he wanted to increase his poison resistance again? Come on! What he needed the most was to train his physical body and not more poison resistance.
However, Lu Wan didn't bother to talk with Ye Jiao as he strolled to visit his brother. He wanted to get permission to buy some herbs with the excuses of making medicine, which was a total lie.
Even though Lu Su didn't really want to, he gave the permission as long as Lu Wan visited Wei Cheng afterwards.
"Come on, let's go."
"Ok."
Lu Wan didn't bother asking the servants to prepare the carriage as he stormed out of the residence. Some servants looked in his direction, but not even one of them tried to speak out. They didn't want to dig their early grave by offending Lu Wan.
"Is it fine for us to let Second Young Master Lu left?" one of the newer servants asked.
Her friend nodded. "Yes. Whatever Second Young Master Lu wants to do, he's allowed to do so unless there's a direct order from Master."
"How nice."
"Nah, it's not that nice."
"Why?" The new servant tilted her head, not understanding why it was not nice. Having the opportunity to do whatever one wanted should be something enjoyable, right?
The servant shrugged. "He can only act willfully as long as he fulfills his responsibility. If he fails even once, Master will put him in his place."
The new servant blinked. What kind of family relationship was it? She could not believe that there was a father who would force his son to make a deal with him. It didn't even look like something weird based on the way her friend spoke.
Another servant walked to the two of them. "Stop chatting. It's normal for noble families to have complicated personal lives. Don't ask anything unnecessary. You just have to make sure that you do your job properly."
"Yes!"
"I'm sorry!"
The servants scurried to do their task while Lu Wan and Ye Jiao walked out to the market. Ye Jiao's eyes scanned the stalls curiously, but Lu Wan didn't even stop. He walked directly to the square where there were several intersections.
"What's that, Young Master?"
"That's the notice board. They usually put on some kind of wanted poster there or mission. The one behind it is a small organization. You haven't gone to this part of the city before?"
"Not yet," Ye Jiao replied.
Lu Wan thought for a moment. "Want to take a look? You might see something interesting."
"Like?"
"Come here."
Jogging to the location, Lu Wan browsed the paper placed there. He recognized some of the news, which was common. When his eyes landed on the wanted section, his eyebrows arched.
"Damn it, I didn't expect them to put children too."
"Eh?"
Ye Jiao felt her heart turned cold. She walked to Lu Wan's side and peered. There were two picture and description of children there. One was a young boy at the age of 10, which was unfamiliar to her. The other one was her picture back when she was eight years old. The name 'Ye Jiao' was written in bold, telling everyone there that she was nothing more than a criminal at a young age. It also gave description of her eyes and hair, which was uncommon.
'Green eyes are rare in Chen Kingdom.'
At this time, Ye Jiao felt pain from the bottom of her heart. She understood that her eyes, which she inherited from her parents, had become something that they would use to try finding her. It was good that her bangs were quite long, hiding her eyes when she looked down.
But how long would it last?
She didn't know until when she could hide before someone could recognize her. Dreadful feelings began to swell up in her heart.
"You'll be fine." Lu Wan patted Ye Jiao's back. "Let's go. I need to buy the necessary herbs. You should avoid looking up."
"Yes," Ye Jiao replied through gritted teeth. Her eyes landed on the huge sum of money that was stated as the prize for whoever could find her.
Internally, Ye Jiao laughed coldly. There was no such thing as mercy in this world. Only the strong reign. Whether it was women or children, everyone has to be strong if they wanted to survive.
It was the law in this world with no exception.