Ye Tiancheng and the little fox originally planned to leave the room and let Fatty calm down for a while. However, before the little fox could follow Ye Tiancheng out, Fatty suddenly called out to the little fox.
"Little fox, I'm sorry."
Hearing Fatty's words, both Ye Tiancheng and the little fox turned back instantly.
The little fox looked at Fatty with some confusion, clearly not understanding why Fatty would suddenly say that.
Fatty said to the little fox, "I'm sorry, I really couldn't accept the facts at first, and I made malicious speculations about you, wanting to push the blame onto you."
Hearing Fatty's words, the little fox understood immediately.
He shook his head, actually not taking the matter to heart. Otherwise, he wouldn't have reacted that way at the time.
The little fox said to Fatty, "It's okay. Besides, given my identity, your suspicion was actually reasonable, not malicious speculation. As long as the matter is clarified and you're willing to believe me, that's all that matters."
Fatty knew in his heart that it was one thing for the little fox not to hold a grudge, and another thing whether he had done wrong. He still had to apologize, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to get along as brothers.
"In short, I'm very sorry. If I do something wrong, I should apologize. I've wronged you, and this apology is what I should say."
The little fox was slightly stunned, not knowing how to react. He subconsciously glanced at Ye Tiancheng. Ye Tiancheng quietly said to the little fox, "This is what Fatty should do. Just respond according to your own feelings."
With that, the little fox understood. He nodded and said to Fatty, "Okay, I accept. But I really don't blame you, Fatty. We are good brothers today, and we will always be good brothers."
Hearing the little fox's words, Fatty felt a slight relief. "Yes, good brothers!"
Only then did Ye Tiancheng and the little fox truly leave the room, truly leaving the space to Fatty.
How to deal with Shao Ying was now up to Fatty to decide. In this matter, Ye Tiancheng decided to give Fatty face, as it was closely related to Fatty, and Fatty was the one more qualified to make the decision.
The only remaining issue now was the troublesome matter concerning the Helian family.
Since they had given the room to Fatty, the little fox had to go outside with Ye Tiancheng. The two stood in the courtyard together.
The little fox spoke with Ye Tiancheng, asking him, "Big Brother, have you figured out the matter with the Helian family? What are your plans?"
Ye Tiancheng shrugged slightly upon hearing the little fox's question.
"They haven't officially started talking to us yet, so what can I know? We just have to wait. Anyway, we're not the ones who can't afford to wait. Since they've brought us all this way, the people who need to show up will show up when the time comes."
The little fox nodded. "That's true. If you ask me, we shouldn't have bothered with these people from the Helian family. What kind of things are they doing?"
Ye Tiancheng sighed. "If it were possible, who would want to bother with them?"
"When it involves the entanglements between these renowned families, things become much more complicated. Even if there's dissatisfaction, under the influence of various vested interests, one absolutely cannot act recklessly."
"I also have to consider Mingzhu, and if we don't cooperate this time, who knows what other thoughtless things they might do next time."
"So, it's better to cause less trouble. Mingzhu and Qingcheng must not have any more accidents."
The little fox understood Ye Tiancheng's concerns. Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng were ordinary people, and due to their status and position, they couldn't act as freely as they wished. Ye Tiancheng had to consider them more carefully.
"Then we can only wait and see. I hope it's not too troublesome," the little fox said.
Ye Tiancheng also wished for that, but rational analysis told him it was absolutely impossible. If it weren't a troublesome matter, why would the Helian family seek him out, and even kidnap Ye Qingcheng to get him to agree? Just thinking about it made him guess that there must be many troublesome aspects involved.
Fatty locked himself in the room and didn't come out until it was dark. On the surface, there weren't many emotions visible, just a look of exhaustion.
Seeing this, Hou Mingzhu asked Fatty with concern what was wrong.
Fatty just said he was a bit tired and hadn't rested well, and hadn't recovered yet. Hou Mingzhu didn't suspect anything and told Fatty to rest more when he had the chance, as it had been hard for him to accompany them on this trip.
Ye Tiancheng watched from the side without saying anything.
The Helian family had already conveyed that they would meet him the next morning to discuss matters. Ye Tiancheng agreed. Since everyone had traveled a long way today, the Helian family setting the time for the next day was also to give Ye Tiancheng and the others some time to rest, not to deny them even a chance to rest.
Ye Tiancheng didn't stand on ceremony. After a night's rest, he directly took Hou Mingzhu and his brothers to meet Helian Yi.
Upon meeting Helian Yi, Ye Tiancheng's attitude was not exactly polite.
He spoke frankly to Helian Yi, "Patriarch Helian, thank you for your hospitality. Now, can we get down to business? However, let me make it clear beforehand, if I think the matter can be handled, there is room for negotiation. If it's an unreasonable demand, I can't guarantee what the outcome will be."
"To be frank, I don't believe that a prominent family like the Helian family would have anything that requires the help of someone like me, who doesn't have much ability. It's hard to believe."
"I also hope that this discussion, regardless of whether it is smooth or not, will not involve incidents like the previous kidnapping of my daughter. What do you think?"
Due to his dissatisfaction, Ye Tiancheng did not hold back at all, and he did not use any honorifics when speaking to Helian Yi.
On one hand, he simply didn't want to respect the people of the Helian family. It was already considerate of Ye Tiancheng not to cause trouble. On the other hand, if the Helian family truly had something they needed Ye Tiancheng's help with, and were asking for a favor, then given the relationship between Ye Tiancheng and the Helian family, Ye Tiancheng had no reason to use honorifics for Helian Yi.
In fact, even if the roles were completely reversed and Helian Yi used honorifics for Ye Tiancheng, it would not be considered excessive.
Helian Yi frowned upon hearing this, but Ye Tiancheng's conditions were not unreasonable, and he had no reason to refuse, so he could only nod and agree. Only then did Ye Tiancheng have the opportunity to find out what the Helian family was doing to invite him.
What Helian Yi wanted to do was to take Ye Tiancheng to meet the elder who was mentioned earlier and who had asked for the clan members to bring Ye Tiancheng back to the family.
Originally, Helian Yi only wanted to take Ye Tiancheng alone. However, Ye Tiancheng, Hou Mingzhu, Fatty, and the little fox were all unwilling to let Ye Tiancheng go alone.
Hou Mingzhu, Fatty, and the little fox expressed that they were worried about Ye Tiancheng going alone with them, while Ye Tiancheng stated that he was worried about Hou Mingzhu and the others staying in a place he couldn't see.
In summary, the overall sentiment of their group was distrust of the Helian family.
Helian Yi felt he was in the wrong and could do nothing about it. In the end, he could only agree to let everyone go to meet the elder of the family.
He only hoped that the elder would not mind too much and could understand. Otherwise, Helian Yi would have no recourse.
Helian Yi led Ye Tiancheng and his group up the mountain. The main residence of the Helian family was located within the area of several mountains. Of course, these mountains were also considered their family's territory.
Fatty followed along, looking around. "Wow! Why do we have to go further up the mountain?"
Helian Yi explained to Fatty, "The elder in our family lives in seclusion on the mountain and does not live with other clan members. We cannot easily disturb him, unless the elder gives an order. Only a very few people are qualified to see the elder."
"In total, there are only a handful of people qualified to see the elder."
Fatty said thoughtfully, "That's quite mysterious."
Living on the mountain must be too inconvenient. Which modern person could tolerate living in the deep mountains? Water and electricity might be able to be brought up, and network coverage could extend to the mountains with enough money, but life in the mountains was still too lacking. A lack of entertainment activities was actually very boring.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox before his amnesia would understand this feeling better, because according to their original plan, they intended to live in seclusion after resolving everything. That lifestyle was not much different from living in seclusion on a mountain.
The environment on the mountain here was very primitive. Walking on the mountain path, one could even hear the roars of wild beasts, making people worry if wild beasts would suddenly pounce out while they were walking.
However, Helian Yi asked everyone not to worry, stating that there were family members accompanying them nearby, who would be responsible for protecting everyone's safety and eliminating dangers. Wild beasts might appear, but they would never have the chance to get in front of them and pose a threat.
Considering that the main residence of the Helian family was here, and they had been living here for so many years, they likely had a good understanding of the situation. The possibility of being tricked was small, so they could still be trusted to some extent.
It was just that hiking up the mountain was too strenuous. They couldn't understand what the people of the Helian family were thinking. Didn't they find it troublesome to go up and down the mountain themselves? Why didn't they repair the mountain paths properly?
The mountain paths they walked were not built paths, but paths naturally formed by people walking on them frequently.
This was very absurd. They didn't know what the elder of the Helian family was thinking to choose to live in seclusion in such a place.
And for the sake of safety, Ye Tiancheng and the others even brought Ye Qingcheng with them.
Children definitely couldn't walk such strenuous mountain paths and had to be carried by adults. Helian Yi initially didn't quite understand why Ye Tiancheng and the others insisted on bringing the child along. Later, he could only attribute it to the fact that Ye Tiancheng and the others, having experienced the previous kidnapping incident, might no longer trust the Helian family.
This was unavoidable. Helian Yi couldn't say anything more. Ye Tiancheng and the others had made their own decisions, and there was no point in them, who were in the wrong, saying anything.
Helian Yi had actually noticed that Ye Tiancheng and his group all wanted to go up the mountain together to see their elder, but one person was left behind. He found it a bit strange at the time.
However, he later heard Helian Yue secretly tell him that it was Ye Tiancheng's side who wanted to send someone to keep an eye on Shao Ying, who was left behind. Only then did he realize that there might be some unknown inside story. Helian Yi didn't want to meddle in Ye Tiancheng's personal affairs, so he simply arranged for people to follow the instructions and didn't interfere further.
Ye Tiancheng was quite satisfied with Helian Yi's attitude in handling matters, so his attitude towards Helian Yi became more amiable.