Curse Love Game

"If you shut up, no one will think you're dumb!"

Xu Qiubai made a zippering motion to his mouth, and then, as Zhong Xiaomian instructed, he stood up instead of sitting down and went to ventilate the room.

Zhong Xiaomian bit her lower lip, looking like she wanted to laugh but felt embarrassed.

But the next second, she noticed Xu Qiubai's action, and then became angry:

"what are you doing?!!"

Xu Qiubai put down the corner of the quilt he was smelling and shook his head.

"say something!"

Xu Qiubai pointed to his mouth, indicating that there was a "zipper" there.

Zhong Xiaomian's teeth were almost broken. She rushed to Xu Qiubai and pinched his face with both hands.

"Tell me everything you are thinking about!"

"You're finally willing to come within one meter of me."

Zhong Xiaomian lost her mind when Xu Qiubai said the first sentence. After a brief daze, she felt sad when she returned to reality.

"fraud……"

"I just want to smell it to see if it's too steamy. I might need to take it out to dry in the sun..."

"So when exactly is it..."

Zhong Xiaomian interrupted Xu Qiubai and raised this question seriously for the first time.

"Last week? Before the show?"

"yesterday."

Xu Qiubai gave the answer calmly.

Zhong Xiaomian lost consciousness briefly again, showing an incredible expression, and pushed Xu Qiubai away with force.

"You are even more hateful..."

After leaving these words, Zhong Xiaomian did not stop Xu Qiubai from helping her clean up the house.

"Xiao Mian, let's talk business."

Xu Qiubai suggested gently as he folded her quilt and clothes.

"Ah."

Zhong Xiaomian picked up a handful of clothes from the chair, hesitated for a moment, and finally threw it on Xu Qiubai.

Xu Qiubai caught it steadily and once again had the urge to put his nose close to it.

Because the top layer is just a vest-style bra.

"If you smell it again I promise to kill you!"

"what."

Xu Qiubai smiled, didn't smell it, but just thought about the size of the underwear.

"You should have noticed that there are many misspelled letters in the Latin text in this illustration."

"Have it?"

Zhong Xiaomian took out the electronic version to check.

"It turns out you haven't studied it at all."

"I……"

Zhong Xiaomian was left speechless by Xu Qiubai.

"It's good news. Tell your mother about this discovery. It can at least distract her for a few days."

“What’s wrong with misspelled letters?”

"Well, there should be some kind of pattern. As for what the specific pattern is, we need to study it for a while longer."

Xu Qiubai conveyed Yingqi's words verbatim.

"Have you been helping me with my research?"

Xu Qiubai stared into her eyes for two seconds.

"Yes, I take your matter very seriously."

Xu Qiubai cheated a little and misappropriated Yingqi's research results.

"cut..."

Seeing Xu Qiubai deliberately showing off his hard work in front of her, Zhong Xiaomian curled her lips.

"It's like a spy operation. Maybe it's just some extra academic content..."

"Yeah, I don't think it's going to be anything serious."

But Yingqi was unexpectedly very interested in this matter.

Seeing that Xu Qiubai did not take any credit for it, Zhong Xiaomian's eyes flashed with something different.

"Have you seen your father lately?"

"Yeah, I saw it once, because my mom pushed me really hard."

"What was the meeting about?"

"It wasn't much. It was the same as last time. We had a meal and then took a walk. He didn't mention the illustrated book or the postcard. I told him about my mother's condition, but he was indifferent. He just asked me to persuade her not to do something meaningless. But how could I persuade her? She scolded me when I mentioned this..."

As Zhong Xiaomian spoke, she began to feel aggrieved again.

"How about you give me your mother's contact information and I'll tell her that I'm... a classmate who studies cryptography and is interested in the illustrated book. I've been invited to help you."

"Are...are you sure?"

Zhong Xiaomian felt both incredible and as if she had grabbed a life-saving straw.

"When does she usually call to urge you?"

"generally……"

Zhong Xiaomian looked at the clock on the wall.

"Uh... at this point..."

"When was the last time you called?"

"It was... the day before yesterday."

"Call her now."

"What did you say?!"

"Calling her now will relieve a lot of her anxiety."

"..."

Two minutes later, Zhong Xiaomian dialed her mother's number on speakerphone.

"Xiaomi? Is there any progress? Tell me now!!"

Her mother Ge Zhi was just as impatient as described.

"Mom, listen to me..."

"I really can't get any useful information from my father. Just like you said... He may have been monitored all the time. There are many things I can't say. I can only think of other ideas..."

Zhong Xiaomian chatted with her mother according to the words Xu Qiubai told her.

"So, what ideas did you come up with?"

Ge Zhi seemed to have accepted her previous explanation, but judging from her tone, if Zhong Xiaomian couldn't come up with any definite ideas at this moment, she would be scolded again.

"Mom... my idea is to find clues from that illustrated book..."

"I've looked at the illustrations. What did you see?"

Every word Ge Zhi said was pressing, not giving Zhong Xiaomian any chance to fish in troubled waters.

"I found that many of those Latin words were just misspelled..."

"That's it?"

Ge Zhi's harsh questioning made Zhong Xiaomian tremble.

Xu Qiubai put his hand on her shoulder, giving her encouragement and comfort.

"No... Then I asked a classmate who is proficient in cryptography to help me look at it..."

"Ok?"

Hearing the word "cryptography", Ge Zhi paused her aggressive way of speaking.

"Mom, you should still remember him. He is the one who sent you the copy last time..."

"That person, um, I remember it."

Ge Zhi's condition further improved.

Zhong Xiaomian looked at Xu Qiubai in disbelief.

"He's right next to us?"

Xu Qiubai made some gestures to Zhong Xiaomian, pointed at the door, and then pointed at himself.

"He... I had dinner with him today and talked a lot about the illustrated book. I'm calling you from outside the door now..."

"Ah That's good……"

"If possible, I can ask him to explain it to you. I can't explain it as clearly as he does..."

“Is he someone you can trust completely?”

"he..."

Zhong Xiaomian looked at Xu Qiubai for help. She had no idea how to answer this question.

Xu Qiubai spread her hands, indicating that she had to answer this question herself.