Maple Leaf City belonged to the Ye Family and was under its direct jurisdiction. It did not even have to remit taxes to the Imperial Capital. This was a privilege of the great clans; apparently, the Bai Family and Jun Family had cities of their own as well. Still, these clans hardly cared about such paltry income. To them, a city was merely a large venue that made it convenient to conduct their affairs and interact with the outside world.
The Ye Family had very few members in its direct bloodline. Only in Ye Qinglan's generation had there been two more children, Ye Chuqi and Ye Shiyi. For hundreds of years before that, the family had almost always had only one descendant per generation. No matter how large an estate was, it needed people to make it lively, and the Ye Family had not been lively for many years.
Ye Qinglan took Ye Chuqi straight from Maple Leaf City to the gates of the Ye Family Ancestral Residence. With Xiao Bu there, it seemed to take no more than the blink of an eye. Even Xiaojiu had been left behind in Maple Leaf City for the time being.
Ye Chuqi had just climbed down from Xiao Bu's neck when a little cannonball shot out through the gates, plunged into the thick fur on Xiao Bu's foreleg, and hung on tight. Once again, poor Xiao Bu dared not put that foot down and gazed pitifully at Ye Qinglan beside him.
Two people stood at the gates, one tall and straight-backed, the other slender and graceful. They were Ye Huarui, the current head of the Ye Family, and his wife, Bai Quanxin.
In other words, Ye Chuqi's father and mother.
Ye Chuqi could not put the feeling into words. Although she had