If even low-grade fields were this productive, wouldn’t medium-grade fields be even easier to manage?
Duoduo also wanted the manor with the mountain.
Xu Jinxin’s iced-drink shop had a huge demand for fruit. If they had a mountain, they could plant all kinds of fruit trees and eventually grow and sell their own produce.
Fruit trees were also very easy to manage—much easier than tending farmland. And they wouldn’t require many people.
Thinking this far, Duoduo made up her mind.
“Go negotiate for both the manor outside the city and the one with the mountain.”
“I want both of them.”
“But try to bargain the price down.”
“As for how much you can lower it, that will depend on your and Liqing’s abilities.”
“My only requirement is that I want both manors!”
Yunxiao, crouching on the roof, couldn’t help clicking his tongue.
The Princess had a presence no less imposing than The Prince’s!
No wonder people said that a tiger father could never have a dog for a son.
Duoduo heard a strange noise from the roof and glanced at Shitou.
Shitou understood at once.
“Shitou, wait here. I’m going to change clothes.”
With that, Duoduo walked out and entered the side room.
Yunxiao sat down and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
He looked up at the sky and secretly grumbled.
Damn heavens, when are you finally going to rain?
Suddenly, Yunxiao sensed something unusual beside him. He was just about to strike when he saw Duoduo looking at him with a half-smile.
Yunxiao awkwardly withdrew his hand and bowed to her.
“Greetings, Princess!”
Duoduo tilted her head.
“Yunxiao, what are you doing on this roof?”
Yunxiao smiled bitterly to himself. How had he been so careless as to let the Princess discover him?
If The Prince found out, he would definitely be punished!
“Princess, I was observing the sky.”
“The weather is terribly hot, so I wanted to see when it might rain!”
Yunxiao improvised smoothly.
Duoduo looked at the sky, where the sun blazed in a cloudless white expanse.
“So, did you figure it out?”
Yunxiao shook his head. “I only figured out that the sun is too strong. It’ll be difficult for it to rain.”
Duoduo understood perfectly well.
Her father must have been worried about her, which was why he had sent Yunxiao to eavesdrop.
Even so, she was still very uncomfortable.
“Yunxiao, if you want to observe the sky, go to the outer courtyard.”
“If I see you on the roof of my room again…”
Duoduo paused before continuing, “I’ll go to my father and demand an explanation!”
The moment Yunxiao heard that, he hurriedly lowered his head.
“Princess, I was wrong!”
“I’ll leave right away! I’m going now!”
With that, Yunxiao bowed to Duoduo, leaped swiftly from the roof, and vanished without a trace.
Duoduo watched his departing back, her brows tightly knitted.
Lüdou and Qingliu heard Duoduo’s voice from below and ran over.
“Princess, it’s all our fault for being careless!”
Lüdou was filled with remorse. She and Qingliu had focused only on guarding the main entrance and had never thought to watch the roof.
Duoduo jumped down from the roof.
“Learn from this mistake and be more vigilant next time,” she instructed indifferently.
Even she hadn’t expected Yunxiao to eavesdrop on their conversation, let alone Lüdou and Qingliu.
This was The Prince’s residence. Who would have thought they needed to guard against someone there?
Still, the incident had given Duoduo something to think about.
Perhaps her father also knew where she and Shitou exchanged messages.
He might even have read the contents of her letters.
Duoduo puffed out her cheeks.
If her father wanted to know something, he could simply ask her!
But what he was doing now had seriously wounded her feelings.
Hmph!
She had to think of a way to resolve this problem.
“Lüdou, Qingliu, keep watch.”
Duoduo turned and went inside. Shitou hurried over to greet her.
“Princess?”
Duoduo quickly returned to the table.
“Shitou, how is the training of your carrier pigeons going?”
Shitou nodded.
“Liqing said they’re ready for their first test flight.”
Duoduo spread out a sheet of paper and picked up her brush.
“Good. I’m going to teach you a method now. Pay close attention and remember it clearly!”
The moment Shitou heard this, he immediately moved to the side of the table.
Duoduo began to write. As she did, she explained how he should decipher the message.
It was an extremely secretive method of communication, one Li Jin had taught Duoduo.
The message written on the surface and the message actually being conveyed were worlds apart.
Unless the recipient also knew how to extract the key characters, there was no way to decipher it.
After Duoduo finished writing, she set down her brush and thought for a moment.
No, this wouldn’t do!
Li Jin was now her father’s adviser. Her father was very clever. If he discovered that the letter contained another meaning, he would naturally think of asking Li Jin for help.
And Li Jin would certainly tell her father everything!
Duoduo clasped her hands behind her back and paced back and forth across the room.
She had to come up with a method of communication of her own—one that even if her father asked Li Jin about it, they still wouldn’t be able to decipher it!
Whenever Duoduo encountered something particularly challenging, she focused with extraordinary intensity.
Shitou committed everything Duoduo had taught him to memory. Seeing her frowning in thought, he didn’t dare interrupt.
Duoduo suddenly remembered a game Yingniang had once played with her.
They would open a book at random, then call out a random number and find the corresponding character. In the end, those characters would form a sentence.
What if she converted the message she wanted to convey into a series of numbers, with each number corresponding to a character in a particular book?
Then even if someone saw the message, they would have no idea what she was trying to say—because only she and the person she was communicating with would know which book to use.
Duoduo happily slapped her palm.
“That’s it! We’ll do exactly that!”
She called toward the door, “Lüdou!”
Lüdou pushed open the door and bowed. “Princess.”
“Go and bring me the Three Character Classic.” Duoduo lowered her voice as she spoke.
Lüdou nodded and quickly left.
While Lüdou was fetching the book, Duoduo explained the method to Shitou as concisely as possible.
To keep anyone from guessing the system, she planned to change the book after some time.
“We’ll use the Four Books and Five Classics, starting with the Three Character Classic. We’ll change books every month.”
“I’ll hide the message I want to send inside a slip of paper.”
“Then you’ll find the numbers written on it and use them to locate the corresponding characters in the designated book.”
“All the characters together will form the sentence telling you what I want you to do.”
Shitou secretly stuck out his tongue.
That complicated?
“I’ll give you a hint with the first character, telling you which book to use.”
Duoduo was worried that using the wrong book would change the meaning and create even more trouble.
“The method I just taught you—you must commit it to memory and never make a mistake.”
“I’ll write another message now. Give it a try.”
Once she had decided, Duoduo immediately picked up her brush and began writing.
Just then, Lüdou returned with the book.
Duoduo placed the note she had finished writing in front of Shitou.
“Now, figure out what I want you to do.”
Shitou was somewhat nervous. He began searching for the numbers on the note, then used them to locate the corresponding characters in the book.
It took him the better part of an incense stick before he finally raised his sweat-covered head.
“Princess, I’ve figured it out.”
Shitou handed the note he had written to Duoduo.
Duoduo glanced at it and nodded. “Mm, not bad.”
“I’ll write another one.”
At that moment, Yunxiao was kneeling on the floor of the study.
