Yi rolled her eyes at him. How come this guy can always think of the wrong thing no matter what time it is?

"No, I don't know what the scent is, but it feels familiar. But it's definitely not floral, and it's definitely not body odor. Oh right!"

Yi Yi suddenly remembered something, "I also smelled this scent when I was at Maple Riverside. Hmm, it's the perfume Wenya wears. No, no, Wenya isn't here, so how could it be her scent? Besides, Wenya said she never uses perfume."

My brain isn't quite up to the task.

"You mean... the scent you said you smelled that morning is the same one you're smelling now?"

Mu Nanxun became serious. A glint flashed in his eyes, as if he had discovered something.

"Yes, I'm sure it's the same smell. It's a very unique smell; I've never smelled anything like it before. But if it's not perfume or floral, what else could it be? It's really strange."

"..."

It wasn't perfume, it wasn't floral, it was the first time I'd ever smelled it... and what a coincidence, Xia Bingqing was missing.

A slight smile curved Mu Nanxun's lips, a barely perceptible sneer flashing across his face.

"Never mind, I need to hurry up and find the second volume of that book. Mumu, come help me."

As Yi Yi spoke, she began rummaging through the study. Mu Nanxun remained silent for a moment, then took out his phone and sent a message.

*

"Ah, I found it! I found it! Mumu, come and see, isn't this it!"

Yi Yi suddenly shouted excitedly, her face flushed with excitement, and her forehead covered in a layer of sweat.

Mu Nanxun put down the book in his hand and walked over. Yi Yi held up the thick book as if she wanted to take credit.

Comparing it to the previous book, the cover design and text are almost identical, so this must be the one.

"Yes. Now that we've found it, we should be at ease."

Mu Nanxun took the book from Yi Yi's hand, opened it, and his brows, which had just relaxed, furrowed again.

"What's wrong?"

Yi Yi, still caught up in her excitement, tiptoed and leaned against Mu Nanxun's shoulder. But when her gaze fell on the open pages of the book, her bright eyes immediately dimmed.

"How could this happen? I can't see anything at all."

Perhaps due to its age, the printing of this book was not as advanced as it is today, resulting in many of the characters being somewhat blurred. If that were all, they could still be barely discerned, but the problem is that the book was stained with blue paint at some point, making the text even more blurred, almost to the point of being indistinguishable.

"Actually, it's not like there's no way out entirely." Mu Nanxun carefully examined the stains on the page.

"The marks on these pages should be able to be removed technically, but it won't be very fast. Plus, this book is so thick, it will take even longer; it certainly can't be done overnight."

Upon hearing this, Yi Yi's hope was rekindled, and she replied, "It's okay, I have time to wait."

"Okay, I'll get to work on it when I get back, don't worry." Mu Nanxun then flipped through a few more pages, and almost every page had the same problem. Only the last page was relatively clean, without any stains.

"Wait, let me take a picture of this page and look at it later."

Yi took a picture of the only page that was still somewhat clear.