Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 543: Suicide by Poison (4)

Feng Xuxu’s spirits plummeted in an instant. She had thought there was a cipher book, but it seemed she was overthinking things.

"My lady, what’s wrong?" Dugu Chen, seeing the fleeting disappointment on his wife’s face, asked.

Feng Xuxu simply shook her head at him: "It’s nothing, I guess I was just overthinking."

A moment later, Huang Yi handed over a piece of paper. It indeed contained a series of numbers, but everyone who saw it was at a loss, unable to translate.

Not giving up, Feng Xuxu sat up straight again: "Is everything still in the study?"

"We pulled everything back after the raid. The study’s contents are all in a wooden chest, placed in the storeroom in the backyard," Xuan Yue reported, although not understanding why her mistress wanted to know.

"Bring it here now."

"... Yes, my lady." The two exchanged glances and quickened their pace as they left.

Ever since Xuan Yue came in, Qiqi had been silent, just quietly listening to the conversation between his father and mother, etching the events into his memory. Seeing the letter, Qiqi grew even more curious about the meaning behind that sequence of numbers.

They left quickly and returned just as fast, placing the chest on the ground. Xuan Yue and Huang Yi opened the wooden lid on top, revealing the contents.

"Pick out all the books inside."

After some time, and with sweat beading on their foreheads, Xuan Yue and Huang Yi finally managed to sort out the books. Several stacks lay on the ground, and Baihe copied the numbers yet again, distributing a copy to everyone.

Feng Xuxu picked up a piece of paper and a book: "Let’s experiment. Do you see the groups of numbers? Four seven six, nine two eight, seven seven five, three zero four. We’ll take the first number of the first set as a book’s page, then the second number as the line on that page, and the last number as the word in that line. These three numbers thus form a word. Do you understand?"

"Understood," nodded everyone in the room.

"One book per person, start searching."

Dugu Chen picked up a book, his brow furrowing slightly: "Can this be right?"

"I don’t know. But how can we know if we don’t try?"

"Yes, there will always be hope," he replied, feeling enlightened by his wife’s words.

Afterward, the two of them stopped talking and began flipping through their respective books.

Qiqi went over to the pile of books, crouching down, and began browsing each one in turn. He noticed that most were very new, the collection complete, with even some miscellaneous histories and unofficial records. It seemed the County Magistrate did not like reading; otherwise, these books would not have been so pristine.

Stepping back unwittingly, Qiqi found his foot on a very old book, its cover missing, showing only the content inside. His curiosity piqued, he flipped it open for a while to find it was an unofficial history. Taking the piece of paper and following his mother’s instructions, he began matching group after group of numbers. When he finished, his young face bore a disapproving expression.

"Father, look." Qiqi handed the paper over to his father.

Dugu Chen’s face turned ashen as he read the paper his son gave him. Feng Xuxu took it from him and, upon seeing it, her face grew even grimmer—if that was possible.

"They really worm their way into everything, playing a good game," Feng Xuxu scoffed disdainfully.

"I will have them torn to pieces," he declared, and the paper in his hand disappeared into nothingness.

The others didn’t understand what was going on with their master and mistress and glanced at the Crown Prince, whose face was also very grim. Silently, they all proceeded to flip through their own books.

"Clean this up; there’s no need to look any further," Feng Xuxu said, not wanting to see the books on the ground anymore, as she got up and left.

After washing up, with only the two of them left in the bedroom, she looked at the person opposite her and spoke tersely, "What are you going to do?"

"Torn to pieces."

"You’ve said that already, but I want to kill him with my own hands." Just thinking about those sentences made her feel disgusted - ’to have me is to have a mountain of gold’ and to ’keep a close eye on me’. Ugh, utterly shameless.

Seeing that she was truly angry, Dugu Chen replied, going along with her mood: "It shall be as my lady wishes."

"That’s more like it." Just as she was about to bury her head and sleep, she was suddenly pulled up.

Feng Xuxu, yanked up by someone, looked at his sullen face and asked irritably, "What are you doing?"

"My lady, wedding night and nuptial candles," he reminded her.

"... Are you sure tonight is your wedding night?" she asked, drawing back the corners of her mouth, addressing the person on the bed.

"Yes, I want to be the groom every day, with meat to eat."

Before Feng Xuxu could respond, she was already tackled down: "Damn it, always on the bottom—tonight, I’m on top."

The person below her, seeing those dewy and fair shoulders and looking at his lady’s flushed face, Dugu Chen couldn’t help but smile broadly, spreading himself out on the bed: "Come on."

Feng Xuxu saw his suggestive smile, and her heart fluttered somewhat.