Silence is tonight's Cambridge Bridge... So, what did you go off to do

Night.

At the villa where Xia Tongxin lived, inside the Nobles’ Academy of Da Hai City.

Second floor.

“Mm… pee-pee, pee-pee… bathroom, bathroom…”

Half-asleep, Xia Tongxin crawled out of bed. Her tiny brows furrowed, and a bashful look flashed across her face. After wriggling around under the covers for quite a while, she finally opened her eyes, thoroughly unwilling to do so.

She poked her way out of the covers and flopped over like a salted fish. Most of her body was still on the bed, while her two little feet dangled in midair, swinging back and forth.

Smack, smack, smack…

After patting the floor several times with her bare feet, she finally locked onto her target: a pair of pink bunny slippers.

Connection successful. Startup authorized.

Still bleary-eyed, Xia Tongxin bounced down from the bed and felt her way toward the door…

Whoosh!

A hurried stream of water came from the bathroom. Xia Tongxin emerged from inside, fully revived and shining brightly.

“That feels much better. Back to sleep, back to sleep… Hmm?”

As she was about to retrace her steps, Xia Tongxin suddenly noticed that the lights in the first-floor hall were still on. They shone brightly, yet she couldn’t hear the playful commotion of the little maids in the house.

It was completely silent.

A little too eerily silent.

Xia Tongxin was used to the lively atmosphere around her. The sudden quiet immediately alerted her to something being wrong. She became cautious, then quietly crept over to the railing and poked half her head out to inspect the hall below.

“Xiaxia, Dairy Cow Demon…” Xia Tongxin blinked, her pale-blue eyes filled with crystal-clear stupidity.

“They’re talking behind my back again. Wah…” Her cheeks visibly puffed up, swelling like baked rice cakes.

How infuriating.

Everyone around her was like this. They always treated her as a child, even though she was already in her twenties, okay? She wasn’t a little kid anymore!

She wanted to listen too!

However… she had her own method.

After suffering at their hands so many times, she wasn’t stupid. If she suddenly jumped out and asked the two of them what they had been talking about, they definitely wouldn’t tell her the truth. They would just fool her again.

It was better to secretly listen from here…

Xia Tongxin lay on the railing, eavesdropping with an air of utter secrecy. She put on a serious, contemplative expression, seemingly imitating the detectives in movies whenever they were deep in thought.

But… while they were pondering things in order to solve problems, Xia Tongxin’s contemplation merely made her brain feel slippery.

“Darn it! That’s not how it works on TV! I can’t hear anything at all!”

Embarrassed and enraged, Xia Tongxin clenched her little fists and hammered the railing in front of her twice. Then…

“Waaah… it hurts! Waaah…” With absolutely no dignity whatsoever, she knelt on the floor, clutching both hands and shedding pitiful tears.

Useless Golden.

Downstairs.

“Xiaoyu, you… really don’t know either?” the madam asked in a somewhat subdued voice.

The head maid sighed and nodded. “Madam, I really don’t know. I can’t get in touch with him either. He’s incredibly clever—more clever than I am. Any method of contacting him that an ordinary person could think of has definitely been cut off…”

The madam had already asked this question more than ten times. Yet every time she finished asking, she would ask again not long afterward, as if she refused to give up.

The head maid, for her part, answered her madam’s question over and over again.

She wasn’t deliberately hiding anything. Setting aside what her madam meant to her, there was one simple fact: her madam had never lied to her.

She had absolute trust in her madam!

Since her madam had promised not to tell anyone else about what had happened today or about their conversation, she would definitely keep her word. She wouldn’t tell anyone—not even Du Wanyi!

With her madam’s assurance, and with Ye Cheng never having left any instructions forbidding her from telling anyone…

The head maid had no reason to keep silent. She truly didn’t know. She also wanted to know where Ye Cheng had gone, and she had guessed at several possibilities, but each one had quickly been ruled out.

If Ye Cheng’s thoughts were really that easy to guess, he wouldn’t be Ye Cheng.

Unless there was another person in the world with a mind as outrageously unconventional as Ye Cheng’s, she genuinely couldn’t think of any way to find him…

Which raised the question: where could they find someone like that?

Wait…

Someone with a mind as outrageously unconventional as Ye Cheng’s… “Outrageously unconventional” was the nicer way of putting it. In more colloquial terms, it meant someone who didn’t seem human.

Right. So where exactly were they supposed to find someone else who wasn’t human, just like Ye Cheng?

A certain unreliable madam entered the head maid’s mind in the most unreasonable way possible. A flash of inspiration appeared, accompanied by a familiar demonic whisper.

“Xiaxia, let’s compare!”

The head maid: “…”

“What are we going to do… Huh…” For once, a look of worry appeared on the madam’s face.

She had laid all this groundwork not only to persuade the head maid to take the “happy family” route, but also for another, even more important reason: to find out where Ye Cheng was for Du Wanyi.

This was no joke.

She felt that if they couldn’t find Ye Cheng soon, her good friend would go completely mad. Before leaving, her mental state had already been looking rather… beautiful. She seemed to have lost her mind.

Everyone said that Shen Qinghan was a problem child, but was it possible that the biggest problem child wasn’t the young lady at all, but a certain madam?

Otherwise, with my Doudou-ge’s constitution as a killer of married women, he really didn’t seem like the sort of person who would somehow raise the young lady’s “problem child” stat to begin with.

The problem must have originated at the source. As for what exactly had gone wrong… that was very difficult to guess.

The madam: “…”

Silently, the madam put on a pained expression. She didn’t even dare call her good friend to ask how things were going. If she did, Du Wanyi might tear up all the real estate in Da Hai City.

What were they supposed to do then?

“Brrr-brrr…”

Just as the situation had reached an impasse, an especially conspicuous ringtone suddenly rang out in the hall.

The madam’s phone was ringing.

Caller ID: Ming-ge (Doudou).

It was an extremely thoughtful contact name. “Ming-ge” was the name the madam had saved for her good friend’s husband. As for the part in parentheses… the madam’s good friend had snatched the phone and added it herself.

A term of endearment.

“Hm?” The madam raised an eyebrow. If she remembered correctly, Ming-ge was supposed to be taking refuge in F-country. Why was he calling her?

Had something happened over there that required her connections?

The thought flashed through her mind. The madam answered the call, and Shen Ming’s slightly anxious voice came from the other end.

“Xiaxia, is our Wanyi with you? I can’t get through to her phone, and the people under her say they don’t know where she went either. Is she with you?”

Just from the tone of his voice, the madam automatically imagined him in a frantic state, his face covered in cold sweat.

The madam: “…”

For some reason, she suddenly felt much more balanced inside. Seeing that even the usually composed Shen Ming was in the same state, she felt reassured…

Wait…

Wanyi was missing???

Noble lady: "???"

"What! It's gone!" The noble lady took two seconds to react and then suddenly flew into a rage. The high - pitched sound pierced one's ears painfully.

Upstairs.

This time, Xia Tongxin finally heard clearly!

Well... she heard a bit too clearly, and her ears ached.

"Ouch..." Xia Tongxin looked pained, squatted on the ground, covering her ears. Her head was buzzing. Her previously smooth brain seemed to have wrinkles at this moment, a middle - part "combed" out by the high - pitched sound forcefully.

Downstairs.

"How could it be gone? It was still at home before I left. Ming, check the home surveillance again. Did you miss something?"

The noble lady's tone was anxious.

Shen Ming: "..."

It's over.

Hearing what the noble lady said, half of Shen Ming's heart went cold. Who was supposed to be the one asking questions here? Why... were you more panicked than him?

"Xia, don't be in a hurry. I've already asked the people below to check the surveillance. There should be news soon. Wait a bit. I'll go check other places. I'll call you when I have news."

The two chatted briefly and then hung up the phone.

The hall fell into silence again, a deathly silence. Oh no... upstairs there was still the shrill scream of the Useless Golden, sounding like a cockroach sprayed with insecticide.

"Waaah, it's so unfair. My ears can't hear. I'm deaf, waaah..."

Noble lady: "..."

Maid - in - chief: "..."

A moment later, Xia Tongxin lay on the noble lady's lap, receiving a top - notch ear - cleaning service and also having her ears checked to see if she was really deaf.

"Well, it should be okay. Tongtong, does it still hurt now?" The noble lady gently pinched her daughter's soft earlobe. Hmm... the feel was super nice, so soft.

It was still the familiar little - cake recipe.

"Yes, it hurts so much!" Xia Tongxin bared her teeth, looking fierce, and stared at the evil Dairy Cow Demon in front of her with "ferocious" eyes.

She looked down... and got even angrier!

Take this punch!

Ora ora ora!

The noble lady's health bar dropped by 1, 1, 1...

After a while, as if having calmed down, Xia Tongxin started to question them as a supervisor.

"What were you two talking about behind my back just now! I'm really angry. I'm boiling with rage!" Xia Tongxin crossed her arms and stood on the sofa, half a head taller than the noble lady and the maid - in - chief sitting on the sofa.

Well... the momentum was there all of a sudden. This feeling was so great. Was this the world of tall people? How wonderful!

After Xia Tongxin finished speaking, before the maid - in - chief and the noble lady could say anything, she was already enjoying the feeling herself. It seemed... there was something wrong here.

It was just short of an emoji of a finger poking hard into the head...

The noble lady and the maid - in - chief glanced at each other. In less than three seconds, they reached a consensus and made up an excuse.

"Miss, this secret was supposed to be told to you later, but... well, since you've overheard it, maybe it's fate."

Xia Tongxin got excited. Yes, yes, although she didn't know how it happened, it was just as Xiaxia said. She was amazing and smart!

Through her own efforts, she had overheard the secret conversation!

So... what was the secret?

A question mark floated above Xia Tongxin's head, and she blinked her eyes.

"Miss, actually, there has always been a hidden power in your body that hasn't been unlocked. Now I'm going to tell you how to unlock the secret... 'One day the roc rises with the wind and soars up ninety thousand li!'"

"Miss, I'm sorry. I didn't tell the truth before. In fact, I was as talent - less as you when I was a child. It was only after unlocking the hidden power that I became what I am now!"

As she said this, the maid - in - chief puffed out her chest.

Xia Tongxin: "!!!"

Xia Tongxin "shook mightily," her eyes popping wide open.

Right, right. This was exactly what she wanted. She always knew she was a dark horse. Waaah... Xiaxia, do you know how long I've been waiting for this day? I was almost on the verge of giving up. Finally, you've said it.

Waaah...

First of all, this was absurd. Secondly, it was absurd. Finally, it was still absurd...

So, Xia Tongxin believed it.

Maid - in - chief: "..."

Noble lady: "..."

The two decided to keep a closer eye on her in the future. It seemed... she was getting dumber. Maybe one day she would really be lured away by a lollipop, and then they'd have nowhere to cry.

...

At the Shen family's place.

Shen Ming stood in the surveillance room, looking at the screen where his wife was holding a dog, running from the downtown area of Dahai City to the suburbs and finally disappearing into a corner without surveillance. He fell into silence.

What on earth was she doing?

Shen Ming: "..."