Chapter 343 - 100%

The Boss and his men got to Pilgrim's Hollow half a day after the Qing's left. "Flip this place upside down. There has to be something here."

He also didn't want to waste people's time, but it looked like the Qing's had been unsuccessful with their search here. He hadn't been here but it didn't look like a thing was out of its place. The bolt on the front door of the building was broken and inside there were footprints on the layer of thick dust on the floor.

The Boss grinned. He was going to find something and then all his years of self-torment would finally be over.

**

It had been an hour since they had landed back in Chengshi and it was like everyone had a silent agreement that when they get back to the house, they would already catch some rest.

Most already slept on the plane but it still didn't feel enough. Feng Xuan dropped on the bed, n.a.k.e.d. She knew she still had to shower but she was afraid it would wake her body so she snuggled on the cold covers instead.

"Are you going to sleep?" she asked her husband. She knew that Qing Chen hadn't caught a single wink of sleep yet.

"Hmmm," Qing Chen answered, thinking while he was getting undressed. He knew that he was tired but it was like there was some deeply buried energy inside his body that would not let him close his eyes for a few hours. "Let's see."

Feng Xuan turned to look at him. With all the craziness that was happening around their family, it had been a while since she got to spend some alone time with her husband.

She reached for him when he was finally inside the covers. "Do you feel sleepy?" he asked her.

"A bit," she admitted. "But do you want to do something fun? Eat? Watch something?"

Qing Chen shook his head. "I just want some quiet time."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," he said, caressing her cheek. "I'll watch you sleep."

"Wouldn't that be boring?" she laughed.

"Not really, I like watching you sleep."

"Okay, creep," she joked.

"You just look so peaceful. Sometimes my mind just go blank when I see how calm you are."

She close the distance between them and pressed a kiss on his neck, her fingers trailing in the middle of his chest down to his lined stomach. "Do you want to fall asleep?"

Qing Chen already knew what idea was in her mind. "I'm not sure that it would help."

"Well," she said, pulling herself on top of him. "There's nothing wrong if we try."

**

Qing Chen and Feng Xuan woke up around dinner. It had taken a lot more time than Feng Xuan thought to get Qing Chen tired and finally on the way to dreamland.

The rest of the family were already in the dining room, Wuming was yawning and Addison still had her eyes closed as they waited for the food to be served. Liu Meilien was leaning on her hand, but Qing Lok had a strange pulse of energy that was radiating off him. His eyes looked tired but they were bright.

"How's your search going?" Qing Chen asked as he took his seat.

"I transferred the pages to the computer. I think they were just finishing up. There were hundreds on that notebook. Some of the poems only took half a page. Some were only lines. We'll figure something out later. Surely, the computer would find some code in there."

Wuming was the one who asked the question that kept hanging on the air. "What if we don't find anything in the notebook?"

"Then… nice try," Qing Lok shrugged. "At least we can put this all behind us."

But it was not something that they could put behind. There was only one way that the notebook was taking them. And that direction was forward.

**

After dinner, the gang went to the living room that they had been working on. "What's the status?" Qing Lok asked, taking a sip of his iced coffee.

"94% ready," a person answered him. 

"Good," he said and sat on his chair. The rest of the family went to the back, watching everything in motion. Copies were made of the already printed poems and were compiled. Each of them got a folder and they silently flipped through the pages.

For a few minutes, the occasional rustle of paper was the only thing that you would be able to hear.

Reading the poems, Wuming only had one thing in his mind. When was his mother a poet? He was not a reader himself so he did not know what were the grounds into judging a poem. But one thing was definitely for sure, it didn't make him feel like anything.

Most of the poems talked about the sun, the sand, and the sea, and the opposite of it, the night, the cold, and the shadows. As if she hadn't made it obvious enough already that she didn't want to be in this house any longer.

Qing Chen also flipped the poems inside his mind. There was too much comparison to the past and the present, but it was hard to determine which was the bright side of things. What he noticed was, the longing. It was like his mother was in the dark and was longing for the light.

Was that why she burned the house? To bring warmth and light? But that was just too much reading into the lines.

Qing Lok was only swiveling his chair. He had already read the poems, twice. It did not stir inside him. The poems were dated. This family already existed when she was writing and yet there were no mentions on lovers. Not even a mention of children.

"100%," he informed everybody. "Are you ready?"

Qing Chen sighed loudly. "Go."

As soon as he pressed entered, the answers came right out.